the red hook
DANTE ON THE NEW MATRIX - PAGE 10
STAR REVUE
JANUARY 2022
FREE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Van Brunt Goes Mossy Turn to page 7
For the Kids
When Carpenters were king
T
by Michael Quinn
wo journalists approached musician Richard Carpenter to get his blessing on a book they were developing on the band that he’d he fronted in the 1970s and ’80s with his sister Karen (now deceased). Richard offered more than his approval. He gave his time, access to his archive, and answers to countless questions. He also took charge of the project. “Hello, and welcome to our book,” he writes on page one of Carpenters: The Musical Legacy. On the margins of every page, you can practically feel co-authors Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May fretting, fawning, and finally ceding control. So much for hard-hitting journalism: This is the world according to Richard.
Use those paper towel holders to make cool things! LIKE MAGIC WANDS, FLUTES, FAIRY WANDS AND LIGHT SABRES
Knowing it’s a vanity project doesn’t make it any less impressive. Gorgeously packaged, this whopper of a superfan scrapbook contains family photos, trivia, ephemera, tour schedules, interviews, and an exhaustive list of the Carpenters’ discography. It goes through their career song by song, year by year, including release dates, chart entry dates, peak positions, and the amount of time each spent on a chart.
The level of detail is fascinating and the commitment to getting it right, admirable. What the book doesn’t capture are the two things that the Carpenters are known for: Karen’s haunting voice and that incredibly distinctive sound. Those layered harmonies, arrangements, and production are all Richard’s work. As he sagely points out, “an arrangement can make or break a record.” The problem is, he never lets you forget it. Richard’s relentless bid for recognition is understandable. History has not been kind to him. Previously, by his own admission, he had been burned by authorizing a biography he later dismissed as “the anorexia book,” as it
(see Books, page 15)
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