Soothing Songs & Quiet Ones...

[Foxhound]

Chad & Jeremy recorded a few good ones. This one is among their very best:

[KissingWillie]

Maybe - Dave Mason

[Foxhound]

Petula Clark at her best!

[Buckeye Randy]

In the late '60's and early '70's I would get ready for school to the sounds of a kitchen radio. The morning radio was our family's source of news and top 40 songs that leaned to the lighter side. Being an oldest child, I didn't know what was cool and what wasn't cool. I just knew some songs seemed to get stuck in my head and for whatever reason I liked them.

The 5th Dimension, The Association and certainly The Mamas and Papas. Those weren't the only ones but you get the idea of what sort of music I was connecting with. There was also a female vocalist that I thought sounded like an angel. Her voice was pure like honey, it was unrivaled by any. The voice was that of Karen Carpenter.

Time moves on and I was soon tuned into what was 'cool' and what wasn't. The songs from that kitchen radio that filled my innocent mind were shuffled back and I started buying albums by Mott The Hoople, Queen, Sparks, David Bowie and then punk came! Oh man, I thought there was no looking back.

My teenage years passed as did my 20's and about halfway into my 30's I started getting reflective about all the music that shaped my musical DNA. Thoughts went back to that kitchen radio...and the voice of Karen Carpenter.

On my weekly visits to the CD store, something strange started happening while I was flipping through discs looking for things to buy. I started noticing the plastic placard that said, "The Carpenters". I swear to you, I would glance around to see if anybody caught me looking. It had taken me years to achieve my level of coolness and I wasn't going to have it ruined by being caught looking at discs by The Carpenters. After several weeks I actually worked up the courage to quickly flip through the different releases. It was a process of building courage and eventually I could pick up a disc and look at as if there were no repercussions.

I eventually became brazen enough to walk up to the counter and slap down a best-of CD by The Carpenters...avoiding any eye contact with the high school student running the register. I of course wasn't doing this without playing out every possible scenario in my head beforehand. If questioned or given a smirk by the person ringing me out, I would claim it was a gift for an aging Aunt.

Guilty pleasure purchased and I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my soul. My vehicle at the time only had a cassette player so I wasn't conflicted with the whole thing of 'windows up music'.

Well...that was probably 25 years ago and I still smile when I think about it. The bottom line is...whenever I want soothing songs that drip with honey, I have the perfect CD.

"(They Long to Be) Close to You", "We've Only Just Begun" and of course "Rainy Days and Mondays".

[Marshall Stack]

Decent post Buckeye... fuck the begrudgers is what I say.. the king of easy: Andy Williams, sits nicely beside my AC/DC and Anvil albums... variety is the spice, I fully agree by the way regarding Karen Carpenter... a golden voice.
This lady was a ceiling poster... back in the day when a teenage boy identified as male!!

François Hardy - Comment Té Dire Adieu.

[KissingWillie]

Hidden Treasure - Traffic

[Foxhound]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Randy

In the late '60's and early '70's I would get ready for school to the sounds of a kitchen radio. The morning radio was our family's source of news and top 40 songs that leaned to the lighter side. Being an oldest child, I didn't know what was cool and what wasn't cool. I just knew some songs seemed to get stuck in my head and for whatever reason I liked them.

The 5th Dimension, The Association and certainly The Mamas and Papas. Those weren't the only ones but you get the idea of what sort of music I was connecting with. There was also a female vocalist that I thought sounded like an angel. Her voice was pure like honey, it was unrivaled by any. The voice was that of Karen Carpenter.

Time moves on and I was soon tuned into what was 'cool' and what wasn't. The songs from that kitchen radio that filled my innocent mind were shuffled back and I started buying albums by Mott The Hoople, Queen, Sparks, David Bowie and then punk came! Oh man, I thought there was no looking back.

My teenage years passed as did my 20's and about halfway into my 30's I started getting reflective about all the music that shaped my musical DNA. Thoughts went back to that kitchen radio...and the voice of Karen Carpenter.

On my weekly visits to the CD store, something strange started happening while I was flipping through discs looking for things to buy. I started noticing the plastic placard that said, "The Carpenters". I swear to you, I would glance around to see if anybody caught me looking. It had taken me years to achieve my level of coolness and I wasn't going to have it ruined by being caught looking at discs by The Carpenters. After several weeks I actually worked up the courage to quickly flip through the different releases. It was a process of building courage and eventually I could pick up a disc and look at as if there were no repercussions.

I eventually became brazen enough to walk up to the counter and slap down a best-of CD by The Carpenters...avoiding any eye contact with the high school student running the register. I of course wasn't doing this without playing out every possible scenario in my head beforehand. If questioned or given a smirk by the person ringing me out, I would claim it was a gift for an aging Aunt.

Guilty pleasure purchased and I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my soul. My vehicle at the time only had a cassette player so I wasn't conflicted with the whole thing of 'windows up music'.

Well...that was probably 25 years ago and I still smile when I think about it. The bottom line is...whenever I want soothing songs that drip with honey, I have the perfect CD.

"(They Long to Be) Close to You", "We've Only Just Begun" and of course "Rainy Days and Mondays".

Excellent retrospective! Your experience buying a Carpenters' CD reminds me of the sheepishness I felt when I couldn't resist buying a few packs of the 1971 CFL cards at the age of nineteen to see whether they were still as magical to me as CFL cards had been twelve years previously:



The answer was "Almost"!

With respect to music, I didn't start buying records until the summer of 1967 and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was my first record purchase. As a very studious young fellow at the time, I would only buy LPs by those I regarded as serious musicians. I sneered at the cheesy pop artists such as the Monkees, Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Motown artists and soul in general. I therefore quickly embraced the flowering of progressive rock in the late sixties - everything from the Beatles' and Stones' more sophisticated offerings to the Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jefferson Airplane, Vanilla Fudge, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nice, Ten Tears After, Procol Harum, Spirit, Jethro Tull, Santana, King Crimson, etc. It was only progressive rock (now termed album oriented rock) by serious musicians for me. And to punctuate the point I took up buying classical records as well.

Within ten years though I looked back at myself and the music snob I'd once been - and laughed! I mean how incredibly uptight, even stuffy I'd been not allowing myself to like poppier top forty hits as a teen. So by 1980 I was buying up compilations by all the musicians at which I'd once sneered, everyone from the Dave Clark Five to Herman's Hermits, the Monkees, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Turtles, Grass Roots, Tommy James & the Shondells, Dixie Cups, Ronettes, Neil Diamond, Supremes, Four Tops, Otis Redding, James Brown and Solomon Burke. And if I wanted to hear Donna Summer's moaning or KC & the Sunshine Band's chanting, I didn't stop myself. With a bit of maturity had come the realization that music didn't have to be complex or sophisticated to be good. If a track made me want to turn up the volume in my 1973 Dodge Charger with the Muntz and then later Craig Powerplay cassette deck and Pioneer 6x9 speakers, it was good! Case closed.

And that's still how I define good music today.

[KissingWillie]

Sad And Deep As You - Dave Mason

[Foxhound]

A legendary recording!