Ever heard the song "Goodnight" by The Beatles?
It's kind of a sweet lullaby.
Karen Carpenter sang a gorgeous version of the same song in 1969, accompanied by the choir at California State University at Long Beach and her brother, Richard.
I love the way Karen sings this song, but I also love the addition of the choir, which gives the song depth and texture. It's beautiful. I remember when I bought The Carpenters' box set From The Top and heard that deep cut for the first time. It was stunning.
Years later, I bought a CD of lullabies put out by... Martha Stewart! The funny thing is, the liner notes had little to do with the music. They were all about decorating the nursery and breast milk. I have a hard time believing Martha breastfed her daughter, but I digress.
Linda Ronstadt's cover of "Goodnight" was on that collection by Martha Stewart. It was breathy and kind of ethereal and I liked it less than Karen's take, even though I generally like Linda Ronstadt's music.
It would be interesting what Karen Carpenter would have done if she hadn't died so young. I would have been interested to hear her voice change as she aged.
It's kind of a sweet lullaby.
Karen Carpenter sang a gorgeous version of the same song in 1969, accompanied by the choir at California State University at Long Beach and her brother, Richard.
I love the way Karen sings this song, but I also love the addition of the choir, which gives the song depth and texture. It's beautiful. I remember when I bought The Carpenters' box set From The Top and heard that deep cut for the first time. It was stunning.
Years later, I bought a CD of lullabies put out by... Martha Stewart! The funny thing is, the liner notes had little to do with the music. They were all about decorating the nursery and breast milk. I have a hard time believing Martha breastfed her daughter, but I digress.
Linda Ronstadt's cover of "Goodnight" was on that collection by Martha Stewart. It was breathy and kind of ethereal and I liked it less than Karen's take, even though I generally like Linda Ronstadt's music.
It would be interesting what Karen Carpenter would have done if she hadn't died so young. I would have been interested to hear her voice change as she aged.
I had to delete because there were too many typos I saw after posting. I still have this gel in my eyes, and I don't really type without looking at the keyboard. It's odd, because I canplay piano blindfolded, but I on't have thatsame proprioceptive sense when typing.
ReplyDeleteI like Karne's verson of the lullaby best, too. It's a nice song. Had she lived, I suspect her voice would have aged well had she not done too much damage to her throat with various emetic-inducing activities. The deeper voices seem to weather better. Its the highest sopranos who seem to get a bit tinny and develop vibrato that is excessive and over which they have little control.
Regarding Martha Stewwart and breastfeeding . . . iF she breastfed herchidl, and that is on humomgous if, I suspect she expressed the milk with an extremely high-tech breast pump while dictating orders to her underlings, then made the hired help feed the expressed milk to the baby from a bottle. She probably didn't even want the hired help to hold the baby while it was fed. i woldn't even be surprised if she directed the hired help to prop the bottles.
ReplyDeleteGiven that her daughter is older than I am, I doubt there were any high tech breast pumps around. I also doubt Martha was all that rich back then. I think she really started to become wealthy in the mid to late 70s and then really got rich in the 80s and 90s. But I will grant that if she were in the position then that she is now, she probably would have done just what you suggest!
DeleteI'm surprised Karen's voice wasn't ruined when she was still alive. But from what I read, she was extremely gifted to the point at which you could rouse her from a deep sleep and get her to sing and she'd be able to do it. There may have been some hyperbole in that claim, but I agree that she was more gifted than most. From what I read, her anorexia was mostly based on restricting food and exercise, as well as extreme laxative abuse. I don't think she vomited as much, though she did reportedly abuse ipecac and that supposedly had a lot to do with her death because it damaged her heart.