"Offering" by Carpenters was released on A&M Records on October 9, 1969. This was the beginning of a new era of sophisticated pop music. With their debut album Carpenters did not leave much of a mark as the album failed to chart anywhere in the world, initially that is. “Offering” was a gem
of innovation, which was largely overlooked by the music buying public. The album was, however, repackaged and rereleased as "Ticket To Ride" in 1971 after the huge successes of the singles "Close To You" and "We've Only Just Begun." Jim McCrary did the fantastic photography work for this album also. This time around Karen and Richard looked more confident as the rising stars they had become. The new album cover was shot in Lake Tahoe.
-->
However the album "Offering" showcased a variety of styles and genres that Carpenters had honed over the past three or four years including jazz riffs, folk rock tunes, bubblegum pop and of course the almighty ballad. Some of the songs such as "Your Wonderful Parade" and "All I Can Do" dated all the way back to their days as the band Spectrum in 1967.
-->
The album’s standout track
is Carpenters’ retooling of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride.”The song helped to create a buzz in the
entertainment industry.Industry
insiders began to take note of the female drummer who sang like an angel.
The photography for the album was done by A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary. McCrary also shot the photos for the repackaged "Ticket To Ride" album as well as the photos included in the album "A Song For You" and he did the famed "Now & Then" album cover. McCrary is best known for his photography work on Carole King's "Tapestry" album. He also shot album covers and photos for Michael Jackson, Cat Stevens, Flying Burrito Brothers, Peaches and Herb, Billy Preston, Cheech & Chong and others.
Sadly Jim McCrary passed away on April 29, 2012 at the age of 72.
The following photos were contributed by Irene Economou a longtime fan of Carpenters and member of the facebook group Karen Carpenter Avenue!
Thank you for the photos Irene!
Compiled by Rick Henry this book is an extensive look at every album and every song recorded and released by
Karen Carpenter and Richard Carpenter as a duo and as solo artists. It covers each songs giving historical data and personal
viewpoints along with comments from fans and Rick Henry. This is the most extensive
book you will find covering Carpenters' music.
It began with the release of the e-book on Kindle...
I recently did an interview with Jimmy Michaels which I want to share with you here at Karen Carpenter Avenue.
Jimmy is a professional musician with an impressive portfolio and has enjoyed a fair amount of success. Beyond his professionally released works in his earlier years Jimmy experimented with creating his own mixes and remixes of Karen Carpenter's solo works including the released and unreleased tracks. In the following interview you will learn more about Jimmy and his interest in Karen Carpenter.
RH: Welcome to Karen Carpenter Avenue Jimmy, it is a pleasure to have you here for a visit. Tell us your background in music. Do you have any degrees or special training in music? Do you play any instruments?
JM: I
guess I could be called a sort of born natural when it comes to music.
Started out in the very early 90s in a small garage hard rock duo, then
in more recent years have expanded my horizons producing and writing all
different genres of music. One minute I could be producing or writing
Hard Rock like when I was young, the next I could be doing beautiful
Easy Listening, i'm all over the map LOL. Instruments I play are drums,
various percussion instruments and piano/keyboards.
Never went
to school for it, never had any training or earned any degrees. Back
when I was a boy in the early 1980s when I was in elementary school, we
had a very hip sort of teacher who did all kinds of different things in
his classroom. He happened to have an orchestral snare and bass drum in
there. One day at lunch, I hopped on it and started jamming away...long
story short, they thought it was an adult professional playing, and when
they seen it was a kid, the local newspaper was called and I had my pic
taken at the drums with a small write up done, and this was sort of the
beginning of what was to come later in life for me (see attached pic
for the newspaper photo and header from the article)
Jimmy Michaels Newspaper Clipping from the Early 80's
RH: Tell us about JMP Music
JM: JMP
Music is an independent music label I started in 2007 when I decided to
return to writing and producing music after a roughly 5 year hiatus. It
began mostly carrying underground indie rock acts and some of my own
work, and today, it's a little more diverse than it was in the
beginning. Two of the most recent editions to the JMP family are 80s
dance music legend Ernest Kohl and Austrian film music composer Gerhard
Heinz, to give you an idea of how open the label's become since it's
start 7 years ago.
RH: How many of your songs have been recorded? Have any of your songs made it onto the charts?
JM: Too
many to mention between the mid 90s - present, none ever made any major
big time charts.
Really though at the end of the day, it's the interest and sales that
keep us indie artists going..as long as they're still there, we'll keep
making music.
RH:Who are some of the artists that have recorded your
songs and which songs are they? Maybe some of the highlights.
JM:D.C. LaRue "More Things Change", Type C "The
Darkness", Genise G "Sexcapade" to name a few. One song I am especially proud of is "Dark Lady" by my old rock duo
called Waco (and was also the very first song I ever wrote).RH: How about your early days as a DJ?
JM: I wouldn't call it my early days, more like my in
between/not knowing what I was doing next hiatus days. My small rock duo
(which we called ourselves Waco) came to an end in late 1996. Following
that I had some personal stuff to deal with and handle in life. Then
once that was sorted out, had decided to get married, try to do the
family thing and leave music behind. Well, the marriage didn't work out
and towards the end of it, something I had done for years as a hobby for
fun and enjoyment I decided to pursue as a possible career.
I
ended up making a part time living off it through a lot of mobile "for
hire" gigs and even had a short resident DJ stint during this time at a
now de-funked nightclub in Phoenix Az spinning classic underground disco
(with records - yes! vinyl! in the early 2000's at that!). By the end
of 2002 my short lived DJ days were done..at least in terms of doing it
for a job.
With the internet fresh and new and all this
technology, I ended up creating an online weekly (which eventually went
to monthly) downloadable radio program called "Disco Extravaganza", in
which of course I played nothing but 70s disco (am a HUGE fan of that
period of dance music if ya couldn't tell LOL).
I penned the
name "DJ Jimmy M" for it by taking my music alias, throwing "DJ" in
front of it, and abbreviating "M" from the "Michaels" and created this
on air persona. And this is the first time i'm ever admiting this, but
when I was mobile DJ-ing and had that residency, I had another alias
(that I will never tell what it was...hehe)
Hence, that's how
that name ended up on those Karen Carpenter remixes...when in fact it
was Jimmy Michaels doing those, not my on air DJ persona (as for a
handful of em, DJ Jimmy M didn't even exist yet). The show was a pretty
big hit and caught on amazingly well, which I never expected - had
thousands of devoted listeners the first few years. Then towards the
final few years, the listener rate was dropping and was only in the mid
hundreds to the low hundreds.
In it's final year, it ended up
being picked up by an online radio station out of NYC called Disco 935.
In late 2007 when I made the decision to come back to producing music on
a regular basis and decided to cut a solo album, it was becoming
tougher and tougher to keep up with doing this radio show between trying
to produce and write for myself and other indie rock acts...so I called
it quits after nearly 6 years of doing this show on a weekly or monthly
basis.
I did end up becoming very close friends with the owner
of Disco 935, and because of that, I will at least once a year still
make a guest appearance over there, usually around the Christmas
holidays to help him out when he wants a break for a week or to fill in
for another show that's off for that week. So, that's the DJ story.
RH: You released an album called "More Things Change," it seems it's somewhat an underground disco classic.
JM: Ahh
yes, my venture into classic disco and funk sounds (with a little bit
of new wave added on the re-issue that's currently still available). I
would not call it an underground disco classic though as it was produced
and recorded between 2009 and 2011 (authentic to the disco era though).
But it did gain a little bit of attention from those that are into the
classic disco stuff. There's 2 main highlights of the album that gave it
the attention. The first was the title cut, which is performed by
Casablanca Records legend D.C. LaRue.
That tune itself is
probably the most personal and special to me song I ever worked on. The
reason why, is that it was a childhood dream come true. Being a die hard
fan of D.C. growing up, I always said that if I ever was to become a
musician, that one of my ultimate dreams would be to work with D.C. in
making a new song for him. And it turned out EXACTLY in the fashion I
always wanted...which was I wrote and produced the music, and D.C. wrote
and sang the lyrics. The man is a lyrical genius and has a lot of
statements to make in his music. If anyone out there isn't familiar with
his work, I highly recommend checking it out. It's pure musical art all
the way around.
The 2nd highlight of the album that gained the
attention was a bit of an experiment I did in what I would call
theatrical audio or, a mini movie for the mind. Take a combo of
inspiration from concept disco albums by Alec R. Costandinos, rock
concept albums such as Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Who's Tommy. Mix it
with my love of 70s cop/action shows, sprinkle a little bit of The
Twilight Zone in, and you get the continuous play second half of the
album.
It's a bizarre twisted tale in both song and dialog of an
obsessed fan of a fashion model who goes berzerk and kills her (played
by me), the cops are on his trail, but during all this, what appears to
be the ghost of the model (played by voice actress and make up artist
Michelle Lea) is speaking to him and haunting him...but is it a ghost,
or is it all in his deranged mind? What happens next? Tune in to the
second half of the album and find out LOL The main song and single that
came out of this epic was called "Crime Of Obsession", and is the tune
that made folks curious to hear the whole concept piece after hearing
either the single version as a solo (and slightly censored) tune or from
hearing one of the remixes that were released.
One other
highlight of the album I will mention that was added later to the
re-issue is a re-recording/new production of 70s east cost pop legend
Peter Lemongello's "Can't Get Enough Of You Girl", with vocal performed
by Peter himself (this actually directly follows the close of the
concept piece).
D.C. LaRue - Crash and Burn
RH: Do you have any current projects in the works?
JM: Yes, a few
actually. One of which is a brand new song I wrote and produced for
Austrian singer Ines Reiger. The song itself is kind of a milestone for
me as it's a love song, and is the first time i've ever written
something of this nature (with not being in any romantic relationship at
the moment as well may I add). Style wise it's very late 70s/early 80s
sounding, and come to think of it, quite similar to some of the lighter
material on the KC solo album. It's planned to be released very soon as a
maxi-single that will contain the original mix and a small handful of
remixes, as well as the original mix appearing on a various artists
compilation album coming out that contains assorted productions of mine
in all genres.
RH: Before we move on to Karen Carpenter
please let us know your music tastes. Who do you listen to? What was the
first album you bought? What’s your favorite song?]
JM: Much like
the music I write, I'm all over the map. Generally, when it comes to
music, any genre from the 30s up through the early 90s I could be into. I
have my favorite artists, composers and bands in all different genres. I
could go from Glenn Miller Orchestra to Megadeath to Bee Gees all in
one day to give you an example.
Really dig anything with
beautiful lush melodies, a great rhythm or a hard beat - either slow or
fast. Two of my main musical influences though were Freddie Mercury and
Phil Collins. As for a favorite song, don't have one because it would be
impossible to chose with as much music as I'm into. The first album I
ever bought was "Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!" by Devo.
RH: Are you a longtime Karen Carpenter fan? When did you first hear her voice and what was your impression?
JM: I've
always loved Karen's voice and a handful of the Carpenters tunes.
"Close To You" was the first song I ever heard and first time I heard
her voice. I was a very young kid, and my impression was from what I
remember, just a warm happy feeling.
JM: It was when I first heard
tracks off this lost 1979/1980 solo album many years later that I can
say I became a true fan. I mean, who knew Karen could have been the next
amazing queen of blue eyed soul? It's a real shame that wonderful album
didn't see the light of day when it should have...who knows what could
have been.
RH: What was your impression when you first heard Karen’s solo album?
JM: I
was totally floored! Couldn't believe what I was hearing and how
soulful she was - a total different side of Karen not heard very much on
Carpenters material. Not to mention the great grooves backing her by
The Brothers Johnson band and the brilliant production work of Phil
Ramone. It just all came together like a perfect musical marriage.
(Note from Rick Henry: Jimmy mentions the Brothers Johnson band. There were six musicians who worked on Borthers Johnson's Quincy Jones produced albums that also worked on Karen's solo album including Rod Temperton, Louis Johnson, Ralph MacDonald, Jerry Hey, Michael Brecker and Greg Phillinganes)
Karen Carpenter - Guess I Just Lost My Head (Jimmy Michaels Mix)
RH: How did you find out about the nine unreleased solo songs?
JM: There
was a record store in Ardmore PA (right outside of Philadelphia) called
Plastic Fantastic that I used to go to in the 80s and 90s, and they had
all kinds of rare to find stuff and was THE bootleg headquarters in the
Philly area, and one time shopping in there around the time the solo
album seen the light of day, I found a bootleg tape of the 9 cuts. I
remember paying 40 something dollars for it, which at the time, was a
lot of money for a bootleg. But on the upside, being pre-internet, I had
to be one of the very few who had or knew about these. Lord knows where
they got em?
RH: Which of the unreleased songs are you especially fond of? How about favorites from the album that was finally released?
JM: For
the unreleased ones... "Midnight", "Don't Try To Win Me Back" and her
cover of Paul Jabara's "Something's Missing In My Life". For the
released stuff...would have to say the original 1979 mix of "Lovelines",
"My Body Keeps Changing My Mind" and "Guess I Just Lost My Head".
Karen Carpenter - Don't Try To Win Me Back Again (Jimmy Michaels Mix)
RH: What fueled your interest in mixing/remixing the KC solo tracks?
JM: Honestly?
Just having fun and jamming with em originally. "Lovelines" kind of
started the whole handful off, because my mind pondered of what would
have been had it got released in 1980, and what would the 12'' disco
remix that would have came out with it sound like. So, wanted to try to
bring my vision to life the best I could without a multi-track master
(which pre-internet times these were, no chance something like that
could even be leaked as so many multi-tracks do now days, you needed the
original tape in hand - which naturally, would never happen).
RH: You mixed only some from the album and a few from the unreleased tracks, why didn’t you mix all 21 of KC’s solo songs?
JM: The
whole thing was a very random and sporatic kinda situation over a long
period. Some were done in the 90s and some in the early 2000's. All done
for fun and personal enjoyment. Never imagined the whole world would
some day know of these when I did em.
RH: How did you go about mixing them? What sort of equipment did you use?
JM: Well,
depending on which tune, it all varies. The early ones from the 90s
were re-edited on reel to reel and then overdubbed rhythms live on
cassette while doing the playback of the edits off the reel. Like for
instance, "Lovelines" is nothing more than the regular song played
straight through with just the bridge repeated an extra time. The actual
"remix" portion of that is simply me playing a steady 4/4 kick and
snare disco rhythm live on the drums to the playback (and carefully
leveled in so it blended just right).
Then if you take one from
the early 2000's like "Guess I Just Lost My Head", we have a bit of
early digital technology entering into that one, in which what I did was
made 2 WAV file copies of the song direct off the CD, one of them was
recorded into the computer with the channels stripped, and the other
normal. Dropped em both into digital multi-tracking at the same time and
took the stripped channel one, put a little reverb on it, and leveled
it into the normal one. Hence, bringing out hidden instrumentation and
making it appear similar to a real multi-track master tape remix.
RH: How did your mixes get leaked to the internet?
JM: In
the early days of the net here, I had originally made mediocre/soso mp3
copies at a 192 bitrate of everything I had for a buddy of mine, as
well as sharing them with an underground yahoo group (anyone remember
those?) I hung around in at that time. The actual "leak" came about as a
result of the buddy (who was non-related to this yahoo group), when he
asked me if he could give copies to this person and that person...and I
was like, "yea sure, knock yourself out, have fun"..not having any idea
of just how wide spread these were going to be. And I have to say, i'm
very pleased and honored that millions of people know about these and
are still discovering them today!
If I could have seen the
future, I would have copied them in much better quality for my buddy
back then. Unfortunately, a lot of the master sources for these (most
were tapes) are long lost and only a few still sit in my closet
somewhere deep in random boxes of tapes and so far, have only recovered 1
of them.
RH: Do you plan on doing anymore KC mixes? How about
Carpenters mixes? I’d love to hear a Jimmy Michaels mix of “B’wana She
No Home.”
JM: That's a tough question. A lot has changed since when I
did these for sheer fun and enjoyment years ago. Being back in the
indie music biz, now running a label and doing other things, I really
don't do home made remixes like that anymore. However, if by some
ungodly miracle, I could gain access to the original multi-track masters
for any of the KC solo material or Carpenters, you can bet I'd be on it
in a heartbeat!
