Close To You

Yesterday, I found “Close To You — Remembering The Carpenters” on YouTube.  For those of you of the younger generation who may not know, The Carpenters were a brother/sister group primarily in the 1970’s that had a unique voice and style.  They were not the normal rock band.  Rather, they sang songs that were easy to understand, easy to listen to, and resonated with multitudes of people across all boundaries of humanity.

The lead singer, Karen Carpenter, had an alto voice that is one of the most pure, melodious, and mellow of anyone I have ever in my life heard.  The song arrangements, done in large part by brother Richard, who also sang with Karen, are unique and immediately identifiable.

Listening to the songs again immediately transports me back to the 1970’s and a time long gone.  Listening to the songs again create in me a feeling of immense gratitude that I was part of their listening populace.  And listening to the songs again instills in me an almost constant sense of sadness and loss…that lump in my throat that just won’t go away because of a life and a talent taken at such an early age by such a demonic illness as anorexia.

Back in that day, we didn’t know, or want to know, much about anorexia.  The prevailing feeling was to tell them to just stop not eating.  To stop throwing up.  To be normal again.  We couldn’t understand the emotional and psychological things that were happening to create the physical manifestation of starving oneself intentionally.  We still don’t know that much about the illness, and it’s related maladies.  We’re doing better, but have a long way to go.

Karen Carpenter is one of just a chosen few who, it seemed, could sing just as easily and effortlessly as she talked.  Diana Ross was another.  Patsy Cline, Cass Elliott, and Billie Holiday were some others in that elite group.  Effortless.  Flawless.  Perfection.

There were female singers such as Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, and Kate Smith who sang wonderfully.  But listening to them, you got the feeling that they were working…they were expending effort in their songs.  That’s not a bad thing, but there’s something about listening to someone sing who appears to be doing so with the greatest of ease, breathing out melodies and harmonies as easily as one would say, “Good night,” that is just…well…different.

If you have a chance, go to YouTube and watch the video.  It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvALCAHMEVk and has no commercials attached to it.  It’s produced by PBS.