|
|
Post by Rick Henry on Oct 29, 2004 3:21:54 GMT -5
Hi all, I'm still waiting for more response from the people who worked on this album. So far I've only heard back from the guys in Billy Joel's band - these guys are great. I'm waiting on Rob Mounsey right now. He's said he's very busy but will take the time to write down some good stuff for me. But like everyone else Phil Ramone has not written back to me.
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Oct 29, 2004 14:47:14 GMT -5
Hi Jim, Rick and all: There are more tunes on this CD that I'm not sure I can understand all the words to....but man I do love this cd! Yes, I've told Rick, but will share with you, Jim, that I got Ray Coleman's book for Christmas the year it was put out. I was so taken over the story where Karen "Itchy" Ramone befriended Karen when she came to NYC for treatment and to do the album. So, as I usually do when I think someone needs to hear something good about themselves, I wrote her a letter. I told her that both Karen and Billy Joel were favorites of mine, and that I thought it was just criminal of Richard C. not to have let this album be released - that I would LOVE to hear it. Of course, I never heard back from her - WELL, I didn't hear back from her for two years,. anyway - and then, just prior to the solo album being released, I got this package in the mail. I couldn't figure out what TEXT was getting from Phil Ramone - and then, inside I found the CD with a card that was written "With our Compliments, Phil and Itchy Ramone." I was just taken aback, and wondered what the heck I'd done to deserve this - I didn't even know the CD had finally been released, but then to get it this way - wow, I was just overwhelmed. I finally figured it out - it was because of the letter I'd written to Itchy at least two years prior - and she remembered it!!! So - I'll have to take a picture of the shadowbox frame I had done - I'm pretty proud of that, and share it with the group. Looking forward to hearing more on this topic.  |
|
|
|
Post by karen69roland on Oct 29, 2004 15:50:42 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Rob813 on Oct 29, 2004 18:26:31 GMT -5
Wow YOM what a great story about Karen Ramone and her remembering you and sending you Karen's solo CD. I too think it wonderful of her to have befiended Karen during her stay in New York for the solo sessions. She even lived with them in their upstate home during this time. I know Karen's disease really disturbed "Itchy" (Karen Ramone). I understand she even confronted our Karen during her return in 1981 for treatment. She showed our Karen the receipt for lunches that she put on her credit card and screamed at what a waste of money (because Karen continued to lose weight and use self descructive behavior.
There were so many people who knew Karen on a personal basis and were dumbfounded over her lack of confidence and self nurturing. This subject really tears at my heart. I just wish that there had been a happy ending to all of this. The actual ending will forever remain grim and depressing.
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Oct 29, 2004 19:01:02 GMT -5
Thanks, Roland - happy to share my story. And Rob, thanks for your post, too. I do remember that Itchy had our Karen live with her and Phil, I think at the time KC was finally seeing the good doctor and trying to conquer the annorexia. And, of course, I, like you, wish for a much different ending than the one we got. Cam's stories are neat to read though - gives you an idea of a happier life that KC might have gotten to lead.....
I digress....Rick - I think it's just awesome that you are taking the time to do this essay. I'm curious to know which of Billy's band members responded to your request for information - Russell and Lib, I assume - any others? I don't remember, did David Brown play on this? How about Richie Canata? And....Doug Stegmeyer or Tommy Byrnes? Just curious.
I'm anxious to know who it was that "fell in love" with our Ms. Karen, though I would think anyone could - that would have been an easy thing to do. But - I'm really anxious to read your research on this topic.
Cool forum everyone. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.
Tim
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Nov 8, 2004 22:05:16 GMT -5
Does anyone know just how many "layers" of harmony there are on If I had you? It sounds to me, considering the chord structure (major 7ths, 9ths, etc.), that there could be up to 8=9 different parts that Karen is singing with herself. Anyone have that answer? Rick - is this something you'll be able to discover? I'm speaking specifically of the end where she sings "If I had you, again....and then goes into all those lyrics I don't understand."""" on the word "you, again" there just are STACKS of voices....curious to know how many stacks there are. Thanks. Tim  |
|
|
|
Post by Rick Henry on Nov 8, 2004 22:17:33 GMT -5
Does anyone know just how many "layers" of harmony there are on If I had you? It sounds to me, considering the chord structure (major 7ths, 9ths, etc.), that there could be up to 8=9 different parts that Karen is singing with herself. Anyone have that answer? Rick - is this something you'll be able to discover? I'm speaking specifically of the end where she sings "If I had you, again....and then goes into all those lyrics I don't understand."""" on the word "you, again" there just are STACKS of voices....curious to know how many stacks there are. Thanks. Tim @@ Hi Tim, the two people who would be able to best answer this question would be Phil Ramone or Rod Temperton. Though neither of them have answered my request for an interview. Today I did finally hear from Rob Mounsey (he wrote and arranged "Guess I Just Lost My Head"). He's pretty busy these days so he didn't give me quite as much information as some of the others have, but he did reveal a few new facts I've never read before about Karen and the making of her solo album. I'm in the process of updating the website. There will be a new FAVORITES LIST provided by a regular on this forum. I've decided to wait for more interviews to come in from more of the players on Karen's solo before writing my essay on the making of KC solo, so in the meantime I plan on publising the actual interviews for all to read on the next website update. I'll include two of the interviews this month and more the following month. |
|
|
|
Post by Sammy on Nov 9, 2004 18:53:43 GMT -5
This is great I really look forward to reading the interviews.  |
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Nov 9, 2004 19:15:10 GMT -5
^^ Rick, excellent. I will look forward to those posts. As I listen to the recording, it becomes clear that Karen must have worked tirelessly on this CD. I will attempt to write to Itchy, and just ask her if she will contact you, or if she will give me the answer to this question. I have the fax number, and it couldn't hurt to ask the question, especially since Phil has not returned your call, etc. I don't know that she will be any help, but she came through like a champ once before, so.....I will give it a try.  Tim |
|
|
|
Post by Rick Henry on Nov 9, 2004 20:38:27 GMT -5
 Rick, excellent. I will look forward to those posts. As I listen to the recording, it becomes clear that Karen must have worked tirelessly on this CD. I will attempt to write to Itchy, and just ask her if she will contact you, or if she will give me the answer to this question. I have the fax number, and it couldn't hurt to ask the question, especially since Phil has not returned your call, etc. I don't know that she will be any help, but she came through like a champ once before, so.....I will give it a try. Tim  Excellent Tim, thank you hope to hear more from you on this. Please email me on this one. |
|
|
|
Post by smoothie2 on Nov 14, 2004 22:13:37 GMT -5
hi everybody...Tim, Sure glad to have you clocked in to our forum...your input and experiences are just incredible! Rick, I look forward also to your interviews input.s smoothie
|
|
|
|
Post by Boat2Sail on Nov 18, 2004 0:43:14 GMT -5
Very good job Rick. The interviews are great. Stuff I've never read before. Thank you.
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Nov 18, 2004 9:32:51 GMT -5
^^
Smoothie, thanks - and Tom, you're absolutely right - the job Rick did with the interviews and all of that information is just incredible. Thanks, Rick. Lots of hard work, and we appreciate having this knowledge.
Tim
|
|
|
|
Post by beaner on Nov 18, 2004 9:59:31 GMT -5
Yes, Tim. Very happy to have you here with us. I love those pictures you've posted also. They are fantastic. Thanks for sharing with us all.
Mary Ann aka Beaner
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Nov 18, 2004 10:12:58 GMT -5
^^ Mary Ann, thank you, too. It's wonderful being here. I just stumbled onto something while "google-ing" for something much different.....it's about this project, so I wanted to share it here. The following is an excerpt from someone's review of this album - and talks about the OTHER tracks that are still out there...it's exciting. Here we go......  ******************************* ". . .Karen's solo project doesn't end with the album. Legend always told us that she recorded work leads for 23 songs, and though not all 23 of those songs were completed, the recordings do exist. We have 12 tracks accounted for on the album (11 completed songs and one work lead added as a "bonus" track on the CD). That leaves us with another 11 songs still in the vaults at A&M. The "bonus" track on the CD is "Last One Singin' the Blues." This was included, presumably, to show the audience that the remaining unreleased tracks were in a very rough form, not at all completed and ready to go. "Last One Singin' the Blues" is indeed rough; Karen gives instructions to the band twice during the song, and it is sparsely instrumented. I have had the amazing privilege of hearing nine of the unreleased tracks from this album, and I was very surprised at what I heard! Two of the tracks, "Love Making Love to You" and "Don't Try to Win Me Back" are completed tracks, with backing vocals and full instrumentation. These were ready to go, and at some point the decision must have been made not to include them on the album. The other seven tracks that I heard are indeed work tracks, similar to "Last One Singin' the Blues," but actually less rough-sounding. These songs are: "Something's Missing," "Keep My Love Light Burning," "Midnight," "Jimmy Mack," "I Do It For Your Love," "Truly You" and "It's Really You." Some of these are good songs, some are just OK. However, there is potential to turn these work tracks into completed songs, like was done with "Now" or "Tryin' To Get the Feeling Again." Richard could strip away everything but the lead vocals, lay in new keyboards, percussion, guitar, backing vocals, etc., and actually have "new" Carpenters' songs. At the very least, there is the possibility of having a second solo album from Karen. Only two songs remain unaccounted for: "Basket Case" and "Church Choir (Wild)." I don't know anything about them, but I would certainly be interested in hearing them. . ." ************************* Perhaps all of you were aware of this except me. But, if you were like me and totally unaware of it - it's fascinating information. Tim |
|
|
|
Post by Rick Henry on Nov 18, 2004 10:37:12 GMT -5
@@
Hi Tim, thanks for posting the short review of Karen's unreleased material. I am aware of the unreleased solo songs - as a matter of fact we've had maybe about a dozen different topics on the forum about these songs. Several of us have the unreleased songs - found them on the internet - they're fairly easy to find.
One of the next interviews that I will post on the solo album will get briefly into the unreleased solo songs. I did ask Liberty DeVitto about the unreleased songs - but he didn't know about them.
I actually think some of the unreleased are as good - even better than the released solo songs. "Don't Try To Win Me Back Again" is an outstanding heavy beat disco song - the instrumentation is as full as Michael Jackson's "Thriller". "Something's Missing" tops any ballad on Karen's solo album. And "Love Making Love To You" has even more potential at hit single status than "Making Love In The Afternoon".
|
|
|
|
Post by YesterdayOnceMore on Nov 18, 2004 12:02:10 GMT -5
^^ Okay, Rick - where do I go to find these? ? I've gotta have them.....anything new, I'd love to hear. Thank you my friend. Tim |
|
|
|
Post by Rick Henry on Nov 20, 2004 0:13:20 GMT -5
Hi tim - there are several music download sites which you can find these songs on. I'll email you on this one.
|
|
