Saying “Karen starved herself to death and died from anorexia” over-simplifies as much as saying “Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is about the hiker that cut his own arm off when he got trapped.” Though both statements are true, the complexity of both situations were infinitely greater. Until Randy Schmidt’s book, Karen’s story had been somewhat marginilized. Even though only a few tracks had that sound, Karen’s solo record became one of many casualties of the ‘disco sucks’ movement, which reminds me of today’s Tea Party movement. Sadly, the record companies listened, and the tide changed almost overnight, bring rock back into dominance. The first half of 1979 was THE time for mainstream acceptance of disco, but July 12th was the moment that disco died, killed by Disco Demolition Night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, where insecure rock fanatics demanded that their sound come back into favor again. She tried many different styles of music on the album, including disco. In 1979, while her brother Richard was side-stepping the limelight to get his act together from pills and stuff, Karen Carpenter recorded her self-titled solo album with Phil Ramone as producer. But recently I discovered the solo record from Karen Carpenter, and then read Randy Schmidt’s book ‘Little Girl Blue – The Life of Karen Carpenter.’ I love that album, and can’t believe it was never released until 1996, years after her death. Rex, Kiss, Tubes, Hawkwind, Stooges fan – not a Carpenters fan. Yes, like any other kid growing up in the 70s I knew their songs, but I was a punk, and before that, a Sparks, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Be Bop Deluxe, Blue Oyster Cult, Bowie, Mott the Hoople, T.
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