Rebuilding the 70's

Rounding out my collection of music from (mostly) the 1970's, I was very happy to find several CDs in 2nd and Charles. Who can't get a smile on their face by listening to the 5th Dimension and the incredible voice of Marilyn McCoo? The only other female voiced disc I bought was Roberta Flack, and that was a greatest hits package that included all her smashes with Donny Hathaway- including one of my all time favorite records, Where Is The Love?

Barry Manilow was an artist I didn't expect to purchase, but the deal was too good to pass up, and it was nice to have so many hits on one disc. Same with Lionel Richie and his hit album Can't Slow Down. It holds up pretty well after all these years. Not great, but well.

The last find of the day was Paul Simon's greatest hits collection. After a good listen, I came to an interesting conclusion: Yes, he's a great songwriter, but as a performer, he is better on the upbeat numbers where his voice doesn't matter so much. On the slower songs- like Still Crazy After All These Years, Something So Right, and I Do It For Your Love, the weakness of it becomes evident. He needs someone else to interpret for maximum effectiveness. 

Bonus point- these discs were very inexpensive. I walked out with the whole lot for less than $25. Guess it's time to keep rebuilding my collection!

Karen Carpenter Solo Album in Living Color

Like a lot of us that frequent the site, A&M Corner's gifted artist Chris Tassin had been following the discussions on Karen Carpenter's solo album for a few years now. As most Carpenters fans know, the final artwork on her album was not the one originally planned. This concept above is much closer to the final but discarded version I saw back in 1989. When the executives at A&M Records decided to halt the release of the disc, it wasn't until after Karen's death that the public got to hear- or see- it. This image is as close as it gets. Too bad the artists putting together their image had little idea how to visually market she and Richard Carpenter. Opportunity wasted- and now Karen only looks like this in our memory. To quote Paul Simon and one of the songs Karen recorded for the venture- "Still Crazy After All These Years"!

(Photograph copyright A&M Records. Artistic colorizing by Chris Tassin.)