Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter
A Times Book of the Year
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When the Carpenters first toured Japan, a journalist mistakenly referred to Karen as the 'lead sister' of the band. This designation stuck and Karen liked it so much that she had a T-shirt custom-made with the slogan, which she wore while drumming on the band's 1976 world tour. The term also sums up the approach of this biography: a celebratory re-evaluation of a pioneering woman.
As one of the biggest-selling acts of the 1970s, sibling duo Richard and Karen Carpenter created lush soundscapes of melodic pop, producing global hits like 'We've Only Just Begun', 'Top of the World' and 'Close to You'. However, though Karen is rightly recognised as one of the greatest singers in popular music, the tragedy of her early death in 1983, at the age of just thirty-two, often overshadows all that she achieved. She has long been portrayed as a victim, controlled by her family and exploited by the music industry.
This book now seeks to reframe her life and legacy.
Through fresh interviews with friends, musicians and co-workers, bestselling author Lucy O'Brien's fascinating profile explores Karen's contributions in the studio as a singer, drummer, arranger and producer, as well as tracing the roots of the Carpenters' sound and of Karen's distinctive vocals. Forty years after her death, it also honours the lead sister's achievements in the face of her struggle with anorexia, as viewed through the lens of new perspectives on eating disorders and mental health.
Yet, despite the chronic nature of her illness, Karen Carpenter was, above all, a creative, dedicated and assured artist whose music delivers an emotional resonance that has transcended generations - and that is how she should be remembered.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music journalist O'Brien (She Bop) reconstructs the life of 1970s and early '80s pop star Carpenter, from the "intense musical creativity" and sonorous voice that propelled her to fame to the industry and cultural pressures she battled and the anorexia that eventually contributed to her death in 1983. Raised in New Haven, Conn., Carpenter was "driven by an instinctive rhythm and musical passion" that ignited when she started playing the drums in her high school marching band. In 1969, at age 19, she teamed up with her pianist brother Richard to form a musical duo that wove "lush soundscapes of melodic pop" and grew into "one of the biggest-selling acts of the 1970s and early 1980s," though becoming the duo's vocalist left her less opportunity to drum onstage—a serious blow, according to O'Brien, because Carpenter had used the instrument to express herself. Diet struggles had plagued her since childhood, and as the stressors of fame intensified, so did her determination to control her body through laxatives and food restriction, causing heart problems that led to her death. Mining Carpenter's music, as well as original interviews with those who knew her, O'Brien paints a nuanced portrait of both an inimitable, culture-defining artist and a highly visible casualty of the music industry's "relentless promotion" of women as uniformly thin, "saleable commodities." Carpenter's fans will be rapt.
