Fun for me, torture for you -

[kyburg]

Go here and get this. Yes, it's a mashup. Yes, it's the Carpenters and Oasis. It's waaaay better than it deserves to be and it's pure unadulterated crack.

(I'm noting the difference in sound quality these two groups worked towards in recording. When The Carpenters were recording, sounding good meant staying in the mid-range and creating that whole wall of sound thing. That's what sounding good in the car was, when most people only had AM radio and one 4" speaker in the dashboard. Adding something recorded within the past ten years? HUGE difference - people have personal systems that can catch every possible frequency with exact precision, *excellent* headphones standard. You work to capture the full spectrum possible, peaks and valleys. Get nasal - it still works. So this is a bit jarring, but wow.)

You know the Carpenters grew up in the same neighborhood that spawned Nadya Suleman, right? Richard Carpenter still is one of the most dead-nuts-on piano players on the block (but why isn't he working more), and losing Karen Carpenter to stress and starvation is still one of the worst things I remember from the eighties. Barry Manilow should have kidnapped her and taken her with him to tour in Japan when her folks wouldn't let him date her. (Yup. In her twenties wouldn't let her date on her own. He was from a bad part of Brooklyn, you know.)

But I'm not bitter. ;)

And I gotta go check out this other group - I kinda like what I'm hearing.

...

You know, having this kind of memory approaching fifty is NOT what I was expecting when I tried to imagine it at fourteen. Just saying.

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

But I always thought Barry was gay! *glyph of surprise*

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect he's bi - which might be even worse in the circles he was already in. But nobody will discuss the matter at all, don't ask. About the only clue I've ever gotten in clear was that there was always a line...and how it never ended was somewhat puzzling to him. But after ending a marriage to begin the career, he's never made a public commitment again. The career has always demolished anything and everything in its path - for good or ill. It just does. That's the public line.

Lots of friends with benefits, methinks - *shrug*

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

*thoughtful* You're probably right. (warning - I actually like his stuff and went to one of his concerts when I was in college - my girlfriend took me to it.)

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

More likely it's because he's Jewish - or was that what was meant by "a bad part of Brooklyn"?

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Also probably right.