Only Yesterday: The Carpenters' Story Page #5

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- APPLAUSE

- # Stop

- Oh yes, wait a minute, Mr Postman

- # Wait

- Wai-ai-ai-ait, Mr Postman

- # Mr Postman, look and see

- Oh yeah... #

Usually it was Richard or I, Richard mostly,

who would convince her not to go out without putting on a jacket

because she had gotten so thin, there were truthfully people who came up to me

and were convinced that she had cancer.

# If there's a letter A letter for me... #

We just thought she was being compulsive in her dieting and in her exercising.

We would always encourage her to eat and if we were all out to dinner,

she would have a habit of saying, "This is delicious. Taste this."

And she'd put it on your plate. Before you knew it, she had put food on other people's plates

and she wasn't eating very much.

# Stop! #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We all knew that something was wrong,

but we just didn't know what we were dealing with.

They were supposed to then go immediately to Japan

and I really didn't see how she could even survive such a trip, you know.

Literally, it was bad. She was rather gaunt.

Our secretary of many a year, Evelyn Wallace, happened to read an article on eating disorders.

It mentioned anorexia nervosa. She brought it to our attention,

we looked at it and said, "This looks like it."

# There's a kind of hush

# All over the world tonight

# All over the world

# You can hear the sound of lovers in love

# You know what I mean

# Just the two of us... #

You had two people in The Carpenters -

Karen Carpenter, who was killing herself with anorexia

that no-one in her family would recognise or do anything about

and Richard Carpenter, falling further and further into a world of Quaaludes.

# Whisper in your ear "I love you"... #

There was a sleeping pill at the time.

Not being a party animal, I didn't know it was being used recreationally.

It was prescribed by my doctor and taken properly, it was damn good,

but it had a side effect of making you a little bit high is what it did

and I kind of enjoyed that at the end of the day

and it got out of hand after a few years,

certainly by '76/'77, I was in trouble.

# It isn't a dream

# The only sound that you will hear

# Is when I whisper in your ear

# I love you... #

It didn't help that that was going on at the same time Karen was experiencing her problems.

That meant both of them in their own way were chaotic.

Instead of getting a little bit annoyed that somebody did this thing

you'd be raging because somebody did that thing.

Things came to a head between Richard and his manager

while on tour.

# You can shout 'We're all brothers'

# And even pretend... #

They were playing in Las Vegas. Neil Sedaka was the opening act,

The Carpenters came on afterward.

And Tom Jones had come from the hotel he was working in to see the show.

# ..For love is surrender You must surrender if you care... #

When there's a big entertainer who comes to the show,

the headliner - in this case, The Carpenters -

would introduce them.

Well, stupidly, Neil Sedaka, the opening act, introduced Tom Jones.

Because of that, I'm fired, he fired Neil Sedaka that night,

and subsequently Neil Sedaka fired me for putting him together with The Carpenters!

In need of a new manager,

The Carpenters turned to impresario Jerry Weintraub.

Jerry's plan was to take the duo in a different direction, with their own television special.

People are always asking why Karen plays the drums.

I can answer that in two words -

why not?!

But Richard still wasn't happy.

Mentally, I wasn't in the mood to be doing these things once we finally got one.

# And we'll have fun, fun, fun Now that daddy took the T-Bird away... #

And, secondly, I didn't want anything with skits, I didn't want canned laughter. I hate that.

LAUGHTER:

Karen, on the other hand, just loved all of this stuff and... so she took to them.

By this point in time, when it came to the specials,

they really should have been Karen specials, because what do you do with me?

I'm a behind-the-scenes guy.

He was so nice about it, Richard was.

It didn't bother him how much screen time I gave her,

because he knew, by that time, that she was the star.

As I was walking to my car in the parking lot after the show,

Mrs Carpenter sidled up to me and said, "Bob, wasn't Richard wonderful?"

I had to stop a minute because...

for MY two cents' worth, that show would be remembered

for Karen Carpenter's vocalising.

# Are we really happy

# With this lonely game we play?

# Looking for the right words to say... #

I think Richard had been "the favourite" or the golden boy

while they were growing up

and, as a result,

she developed these feelings of low self-esteem and self-doubt.

# My funny valentine... #

Despite Karen's insecurities, the shows were a huge success.

But, for Richard, the sleeping tablets were causing serious problems.

I was getting to a point I couldn't even sign my name,

I couldn't play the piano worth a damn...

It was do something or die, is what it was.

So, with great support from family and friends,

I went off to a rehab.

January 10th 1979.

- How is he?

- Well, he's coming along. I talked to him last night.

He feels a little better. What actually happened, seriously,

two days before we were going to come over, he caught himself a real nice case of the flu...

I said to her, "Karen, I don't know why all of this has happened and it doesn't much matter.

"But I'm here taking care of my problem -

"it's time you face up to yours."

And I remember saying, "We can go into the '80s the same way we went into the '70s.

"We have our talent, our record contract...you know, we can set the world on fire again."

Ignoring Richard's pleas, Karen would not be deterred from her plan to record a solo album.

When she called, she wanted my blessing. "I can't go do this unless I know that you're behind it."

I said, "Other than the fact that I don't think you're well enough to do it...you certainly have my blessing!

"I know this is something you want. Not that it's any of my business,

"but do me one favour - do not do disco!"

Disco was hot. "You are not cut out to do disco. This is not you."

Top New York record producer Phil Ramone took on the challenge of producing Karen's solo album.

It was an interesting challenge.

I did not want to go down the road of having an outside Carpenter producer,

which would be ridiculous for her and for me,

and tackle things that she really was too comfortable in.

# My body keeps changing my mind Keeps changing my heart... #

Well, they played it for the powers that be in A&M.

Both Gerry Moss and Herb Alpert - and Richard - were in the control room.

And it was quite silent... the end of like three or four cuts,

and she's looking at me and I'm ready to bite my nails and I'm not sure what's going on...

It was rather negative, shall we say.

We didn't think it would get a really great reaction and...

we didn't want to have Karen go through that.

It's been reported through the years that I put the stake through it...

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