ABOUT THIS EPISODE
For nearly a decade, Karen Carpenter recorded almost exclusively under her brother's direction. Then Richard stepped away from the Carpenters to recover from addiction, and Karen was suddenly given a chance to find out what kind of artist she could be on her own.
In this episode, we follow Karen to New York as she begins work on her first solo album with producer Phil Ramone. Surrounded by Billy Joel’s band and a completely different studio culture, Karen experiments with funk, soul, disco, more adult lyrics, and a harder rhythmic sound. She begins choosing songs, shaping vocal arrangements, changing lyrics, and discovering that she can walk into a studio without Richard and still know exactly what she wants.
By the time the album is finished, she has answered one of the biggest questions of her career: she can make music without Richard.
The next question is whether anyone will let her release it.
Sources include:
Ray Coleman, The Carpenters: The Untold Story
Randy L. Schmidt, Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter
Lucy O’Brien, Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter
Randy L. Schmidt, ed., Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters Reader
