Only Yesterday: The Carpenters' Story Page #4

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whom he'd not seen since the Spectrum days.

I knew I'd see them again, you know what I mean?

I was very proud of and for them and I just had this instinct

that we would do lots of stuff together.

The first single and a hit that he and I put together was Goodbye To love.

# When you hear a real hepcat... #

Late at night, we were home from the studio and they were running an old Bing Crosby film

and Bing played a ghostwriter to the successful Basil Rathbone, who was going through a dry spell.

Nothing will ever quite come up to Goodbye To Love.

Ah, I wrote that myself...

I mean, er... That really came from my heart.

Rathbone's most famous song is called Goodbye To Love.

You never hear it, they just refer to it. "Oh, he wrote Goodbye To Love."

It's no use, Willy. I haven't been able to write a good song on my own since Goodbye To Love.

And I heard that title and pictured...

..the opening, "I'll say goodbye to love, no-one should ever care if I live or die."

That's all the lyrics I came up with but I like the...

# And all I know of love is how to live without it

# I just can't seem to find it

# So I've made my mind up I must live my life alone... #

Constructing the arrangement to Goodbye To Love,

I, er, pictured something that was a little off the beaten path,

two things that ordinarily don't go together, which would be a melodic fuzz guitar solo.

I didn't think it was a good idea but what do I know?

It's a soft ballad

and nobody had ever put rock'n'roll guitars on a ballad.

We heard it on the radio and we were all up in Richard's room listening

and then the DJ said, "And there's The Carpenters doing a Jimi Hendrix song."

They just had to make cracks about it.

The DJs couldn't help themselves cos it was so odd.

Richard actually got hate mail

based on the fact that he'd sullied The Carpenters by using a fuzz tone electric guitar.

We actually wrote Goodbye To Love on one day and Top Of The World on the other.

It was a good two-day period!

# On top of the world looking down... #

It was 1973 and The Carpenters were "on top of the world"

while America was in turmoil, with troops being pulled out of Vietnam

and President Nixon was on the road to impeachment.

# Your love's put me at the top of the world... #

Being asked to perform at the White House is not only a thrill but indeed an honour.

Their success was not only domestic.

They were now truly international superstars.

To come to a foreign country,

it's really hard for you to think

that somebody who's never seen you ever

can automatically spot you, you know?

But with the strain of being in the spotlight and a relentless schedule,

the cracks were beginning to show.

She definitely, as she was a little older,

began to worry about the weight thing.

I can remember Karen reading and being hurt by quotes.

I don't know if they said "Cherubic", "plump". I said, "Why does that bother you?"

And she said, "But it never leaves me."

And it became a real monument for her.

Karen stayed so basic.

She wanted the white picket fence.

She just wanted to get married, have children, be cooking Thanksgiving dinners

and that was her real goal in life.

But then she got into this early success

and then you're driven and you want more success

and you have to perform and you have to keep on the merry-go-round

and I think that took its toll on her eventually.

You're on the road a lot. You work, what, six out of seven days most of the time?

- Just about, yeah.

- When we go out on tour, it's seven days a week.

JAPANESE NEWSREADER SPEAKS

The amount of touring in '74 was nuts.

It wasn't only all of Vegas and Tahoe,

it was also the UK and it was Japan and it was nutty.

When the hell you gonna make an album?

Richard, I think to this day, feels like he toured too much.

Test one, two, test. Richard Carpenter.

Somebody listen to me.

I think it was partly their own desire

to realise upon this great opportunity that they had.

They'd been working towards this for so many years.

We had been so laser-focused on success

and once it came, we knew that you could not let it go.

And, er, our personal lives were kinda over there

and that left a huge hole.

They had a manager and an agent who frankly profited greatly from booking them.

It wasn't very smart.

All of our success sprang from the records

so you don't forget the records and go touring around the world.

I don't think he was ever truly happy on the road

because once there was an audience,

the audience obviously loved and adored Karen.

There was tremendous love and respect between the two of them,

but I think Richard was jealous.

DRUM ROLL:

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Richard Carpenter.

APPLAUSE:

'You couldn't go and explain to the thousands of people every night'

who were sitting out in the audience, "I wrote this. I produced it."

What they came and they saw is, "She's singing it."

He looks like a piano player back there,

even though we had lights on him and all of that.

# Learning all the latest records From the radio by ear

# And I was dreaming I'd be famous when the big surprise appeared

# She was a five foot four tornado

# A pair of drumsticks in her hand... #

I think it bothered Richard that his contribution wasn't recognised

as much as it should have been.

Because he really was the force.

They did go around the roses at times but I think the relationship was really sweet. It was tender.

I think they admired each other.

You never saw such support in your life between artist and producer

back and forth as you did with those two. And it paid off.

# Stop! Oh, yes Wait a minute, Mr Postman

- # Wait

- Wait a minute, Mr Postman

# Please, Mr Postman Look and see... #

Where earlier I said I was tripping over the songs,

I wasn't tripping over them so much any more.

It was getting harder and harder to find really good ones.

# There must be some word today

# From my boyfriend so far away... #

To be honest, Richard procrastinated writing.

He'd have ideas but wouldn't force himself to sit down and flesh them out.

I didn't feel comfortable saying, "We've gotta write a song!"

# If there's a letter in your bag for me... #

And of course we were human and the bloom was off the rose.

It wasn't as exciting as it was when it all first happened.

It wouldn't be for anybody.

By 1975, the constant touring and studio work

had taken their toll on Karen's health with visible effect.

I hadn't seen them in a while. I was away for the summer

and when I got back to the States, I went to Las Vegas to go see them

and I was quite appalled at what her appearance was.

She had lost considerable weight.

She was normally loaded with energy

and in Vegas, she was having to have a lie down between shows, which is not like her,

and of course she was too thin

and she'd come out in what she thought she looked great in

and the audience would gasp.

- It's The Carpenters!

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