As the wind and rain approaches, I am reminded of this hit from the early 80s, "Ride Like The Wind", which boasts back up vocals from Michael McDonald. Of course, back in those days, Michael McDonald was singing backup for everybody and singing lead for The Doobie Brothers. I always liked Christopher Cross, but I think his career was adversely affected by MTV. He wasn't as telegenic as he was phonogenic. But this exciting hit always makes me think of storms and we apparently have a humdinger of one approaching...
Some people on Facebook have likened Sandy to Sandy from Grease...
And there's always the lounge lizard-esque Carpenters song, "Sandy"...
Maybe it'll be more like the Garth Brooks hit, "The Thunder Rolls"...
Batten down the hatches!
I can only admit this where my parents cannot read it because I wish not to be responsible for their untimely deaths, but I actually like av lot of Garth brooks' music.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone ever actually like The Carpenters' music?
I like many of the Carpenters' songs. I think Karen Carpenter was a wonderful singer and when Richard isn't being too schmaltzy, I enjoy his piano playing. I don't like it when he sings, though. His voice is "metallic". Granted, a lot of the Carpenters' music was very straight-laced and corny, but I find some of their songs comforting, especially the earliest stuff. And if you want to talk about weird family dynamics... that family was right up there with the Boones! Karen Carpenter's mother was infamous for being extremely overbearing.
ReplyDeleteSome of Garth Brooks' stuff is alright, but I never got into him like a lot of my peers did. He was at the height of his success when I was in college and I've heard "Friends In Low Places" way too many times. I'd rather listen to his wife sing.
I do love a lot of Mark Knopfler's music. This blog is more about the weird stuff, though. The 70s and 80s were a treasure trove of truly strange musical offerings.
I saw a made-for-TV movie about the Carpenters that my aunt had recorded on VHS back in the day. If that movie was even close to true-to-life, I would have a tough time deciding whether I would have preferred to be brought up as an Osmond, a Boone, or a Carpenter. Agnes Carpenter was a piece of work.
ReplyDeleteMy dad told me that awhile after Karen Carpenter died, a link between Ipecac and heart failure was discovered. Heart tissue from her autopsy was still available, and it was tested. The levels found in her heart tissues were consistent with heart failure due to emetine poisoning.
I only like Garth Brooks' prettier, mellower songs. I hate "I've Got Friends in Low Places."
I read a couple of books about the Carpenters. One was an authorized bio by Ray Coleman and the other was a less authorized bio published a couple of years ago that borrowed a bit from Coleman's book. Both sources indicate that the made for TV film about them was dramatized. However, that doesn't mean Agnes Carpenter wasn't a piece of work! If anything, she was even more overbearing than she was depicted in the film.
ReplyDeleteKaren Carpenter also abused thyroid medication and was taking about ten times the recommended dose even though she didn't have thyroid disease.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder her heart quit on her.
ReplyDeleteYeah... Steven Levenkron was her therapist. He wrote "The Best Little Girl In The World", which frankly is a pretty triggering novel about anorexia. He claims that Karen Carpenter was his only casualty, though he also doesn't think she "failed" in therapy. He's probably right. She had endured many years of starvation, laxative abuse, thyroid medication abuse, ipecac abuse, and exhausting schedules. And then she gained weight rather suddenly-- about 20 pounds in a matter of a couple of months. I remember the day she died. I was 10 years old and riding with my dad to see my sister at college and the radio announcer said she had perished. I asked my dad what killed her and he said, "Starvation". But when she died, she was near a normal weight.
ReplyDeleteRichard Carpenter and Steven Levenkron do not get along. I think Richard blames Karen's therapist for her death to this day.
I read "The Best Little Girl in the World." It's in my mom's library.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that Cherry Boone O' Neill was concerned at the time that Karen was released from inpatient therapy so soon. My dad said she had traces of laxatives in her blood when she died, so maybe there's something to that, although I don't know if her therapist would have been the one who decided to release her.
It sounds like maybe the worst of the damage, regardless, occurred years before. My dad mentioned that she was one of several anorexics in her era who died after returning to normal or near-normal weight. It was initially thought, he said, that the heart, after years of abuse and low weight, couldn't sustain a body at normal weight. Then the emetine poisoning angle came to light. Add to that the t4, which probably had her heart beating at 120 beats a minute at absolute minimum. What heart could possibly take all of that?
Regarding Richard blaming her therapist . . . Everyone was probably looking for someone to blame. I don't know what aspects of the made-for-TV movie were factual, and what were inserted because they created more drama, but the movie emphasized that much of the reason Agnes pushed Karen so hard was to further Richard's career. If such was indeed the case, that aspect of the family dynamic may have come out in therapy, and people tend to blame the bearer of bad news. Even though Richard himself presumably wasn't responsible for pushing Karen beyond her physical and emotional limits, it could not have been easy for him to face the thought that a lot of what went down did so because his interests were more important to his mother than Karen's were. Then again, maybe that was merely the Hollywood-ization of the story, and maybe the mother never placed Richard's best interests above those of Karen.
Perhaps Karen really did receive substandard care from the therapist. What do you think?
I have a lot to say about this, so I'm going to make my comment a new blog post.
ReplyDelete