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Late Night Videos: Remembering the unforgettable Karen Carpenter who died 31 years ago today
I was a closeted teenager back in 1983 when I found out Karen Carpenter had died.
It was a really big deal.
That night I taped the audio of the newscasts with my tape recorder and listened to them over and over – for a long time. Bought all the newspapers and magazines and kept them for years.
Looking back, I realize now that this was my most traumatic celebrity death – ever.
Karen was just 32 and looking at photos now, it’s clear she was being ravaged by Anorexia Nervosa. But back then, her death was just a gigantic shock.
I had numerous Carpenters albums and listened to them all the time in high school – all the time. I’d lay on our living room floor after everyone had gone to sleep and lay in the dark with gigantic headphones on taking in Karen’s voice.
It was the ballads that spoke to me, the pain in her voice. I even performed Goodbye to Love at a choir recital and got an A.
All these years later, on the 31st anniversary of her death, I find myself a little sad all over again.
She really is so unforgettable.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Ron says:
I, too, loved Karen and the music of The Carpenters. For me her voice was one of the most perfect, one of the greatest, in music history. So pure and beautiful. Growing up as a gay kid and thinking you were alone, the only one, her music was a friend.
My favorites are Rainy Days and Mondays, Bless The Beast & The Children and A Song for You.
Just in the last couple of weeks I purchased a couple of their CDs and spent last week listening to them.
I remember where I was 31 years ago at the moment I heard she had died. I also collected at the magazines and after the TV movie was on purchased several tour books etc from their fan club before it went away. As a kid I was a member of their fan club, but don’t have any of that stuff any longer.
Karen was one of the rare gifts that got away, When I hear some of the “singers” of today I realize they are not singers just manufactured celebrities who don’t know how to sing. They are just a cash cow.
Karen and Richard had to put up with alot of name calling and jokes about their music, but they were a class act and extremely talent musicians and Karen a great singer. Their music is as beautiful today as it was when I was 10 yrs old.
Thank you Greg for remembering Karen!!!
Nick says:
I absolutely adore her voice. She could just evoke so much emotion 🙁
At least I still have my greatest hits album to enjoy 🙂
Bonnisu says:
I still listen to the “Carpenter’s” music. Karen will always be my favorite female vocalist,(Baby Boomer). I will never understand why or how she left us at a young age, when she only “Just Begun”. She was so talented and still had so much to give us. Will there ever be a voice like hers again with the angelic range that she had? My heart still goes out to Richard and the family. We have so suffered a great loss.