Late Bloomers...

[Rick Henry]

What are some Carpenters songs you never really cared for but now like quite a bit...

"Those Good Old Dreams" when the song was first released I really did not care for it. Could be during this time period I was much more into Blondie and Pat Benatar and next to Blondie's "Call Me" and Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Those Good Old Dreams" seemed a bit too light weight and sentimental for my liking. As the years have progressed I have come to like the song... it's still not a huge favorite... but I still like it and listen to it periodically.

[enigma]

Interesting comment Rick I often find myself in the same boat for most Carpenters music not just GOD there is always heavy competition from many other album releases in the same year the Carpenters were releasing their records for my listening year and I often had the same dilemma of the Carpenters soft sound working against them but as you did with GOD I always find lasting appeal in all Carpenters songs in the end more so than alot of their competition.

As for specific songs one song that comes to mind was off of the Now and Then release called I Can't Make Music its not that I did not care for the song but more of the fact that I overlooked it. Because of my young age I was attracted to the medley side of N&T and did not really pay much attention to the Now side of the record and when I did I Can't Make Music was always skipped or overlooked. I now can't see why I ever overlooked this song because I love it now I just needed to give it a chanced that was a significant turn around for that song.

Two others I never cared for but kind of like now are Please Mr Postman and A Kind Of Hush note they both are very similarly arranged songs the only things that got me liking these songs was Tony Pelusos guitar work on the songs which was really good.

I must mention two albums that went from ones I didn't care for to ones I liked and that was the Passage and VOTH records the latter just grew on me and the former with its experimental nature garnered alot of attention from me and I ended up liking it more for that reason neither album will ever make the top portion of my list but I did end up liking them better later that when I first heard them

[Rick Henry]

Interesting to note... I also caught on to "I Can't Make Music" several years after "Now and Then" had been released. Like you E, I was also more attracted to the Oldies Medley side. I had that entire Oldies Medley memorized word for word. "Our Day Will Come" was my favorite song to sing along with.

I remember one time I decided to flip the album over and listen to side one. I skipped over "Sing" because I had already heard the song thousands of times by then. Next came "This masquerade" after about 30 seconds I skipped over that one (at this point early 1975) "This Masquerade" had not really caught my interest, in my mind was the b-side to "Please Mr. Postman". Then came "Heather" and I just did not care for that one so I skipped over that. "Jambalaya" really caught my interest and I listened to that one all the way through and next was "I Can't Make Music", it sounded nice but I didn't get through the whole song, I ended up going back to "Jambalaya" and played that one two or three more times.

Needless to say I really didn't bother with the Side One of "Now and Then" for another three years.

It must have been some time in late 1978 that I ventured again with Side One of N&T. Again I skipped over the first three songs and came to "Jambalaya" and just loved it as I knew I would. But this time "I Can't Make Music" stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't understand why I didn't catch on to the soul, the yearning and the darkness in this song the first time around.

In 1973 I was a rambunctious 13 year old kid and by '78 I was a young adult developing my sense of emotions and understanding of different feelings. "I Can't Make Music" became my favorite Carpenters song for the next few years. I played that song like crazy. Shortly after that I also caught on to "This Masquerade" and although I do love "Masquerade", it's "I Can't Make Music" which is my favorite from "Now and Then".

[wisejester7]

The only song that I can think of that took me a little while to warm up to is "Touch Me When We're Dancing".
A couple of things bother me ... (1) the chorus & (2) when I hear the song now I 'see' the video of Karen standing by the piano singing and she is not looking her healthiest.

Melody wise, I like the song. One of my favorite lines ... "you've got me up so high I could fly coast to coast".

[Rick Henry]

"Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing"... I had always somewhat liked this song, but it wasn't until about ten years ago that it came to be one of my favorites. Like everyone else initially my favorite songs from "Offering" / "Ticket To Ride" were the obvious ones "All Of My Life" and "Eve". But as time went on and my knowledge of music grew I came to recognize the excellence of musicianship and originality in "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing". This is atypical for the Carpenters and that one of the songs qualities I like. I came to realize that for me to like a Carpenters song it does not always have to have that so called Carpenters "trademark" sound. As a matter of fact many times I shy away from that trademark sound in favor of the obscure and unique and "Clancy" is every bit obscure and unique... I now consider "Clancy" to be my favorite song from the "Ticket To Ride" / "Offering" album.

And sticking with TTR / "Offering" I also came to fall in love with "All I Can Do" sometime in the late '90's. At this point in time I was beginning to develop a passion for jazz music... and not your typical smooth jazz (such as Kenny G - just not my liking) but more of your experimental sounds (such as Ornette Coleman). And low and behold Carpenters have definitely dabbled in the more experimental/avant garde side of jazz with "All I Can Do" from the tempo to the stacked vocal harmonies this song has a real zeal for artistry and originality and I love it... after "Clancy" this is my next favorite from the album.

[ps11932]

I think we have discussed this before but the first few times I heard it, "Another Song" just seemed really strange- but I have grown to appreciate and love it.

[Rick Henry]

May 2, 2009 14:10:41 GMT -5 ps11932 said:

I think we have discussed this before but the first few times I heard it, "Another Song" just seemed really strange- but I have grown to appreciate and love it.

"Another Song" is another "late bloomer" classic for me. It's not because I thought it was a bad song or because it seemed strange but more so because I just didn't understand the musicality of it. Finally around 1984 (after having been introduced to more abstract forms of music) I came around to recognizing the artistry and musical depth of the song.

In the mid 80's I played "Another Song" tons of times and introduced the song to many of my friends. After hearing this song one of my friends said she had never cared for Carpenters, she always found them to be too top 40, but she thought "Another Song" was an utterly fantastic piece of music. This prompted her to give a listen to more Carpenters music. Needless to say she did not become a Carpenters fan... she just couldn't handle songs like "Sing", "Yesterday Once More", "Top Of The World" or "We've Only Just Begun"... but she did end up liking "B'wana She No Home" and "Road Doe" quite a bit.

About 5 - 6 years ago I had another resurgence with "Another Song" as I gained a further understanding of jazz music, primarily jazz-fusion. This time around I realized that "Another Song" is one of my ultimate favorite Carpenters songs and is my favorite from the "Close To You" album... yep I do happen to like "Another Song" over "We've Only Just Begun. But how can that be that a Carpenters fan likes a song like "Another Song" over the classic "We've Only Just Begun"? I guess that's just me...