More Mellow Yacht Moods By The Smooth Operators

In the beginning of the 1970s a remarkable duo popped up in the charts: easy listening duo The Carpenters. They seemed completely out of place in a pop world that was dominated by rock stars who looked bigger than life. Mastermind Richard and his sister Karen dressed if they'd go to church after each show, but they had a weapon that swept everyone away: the wonderful voice of Karen. However, she turned out to be a very insecure woman, who struggled with both her personal and professional life. Things went seriously wrong when the only solo album Karen made was not released, because Richard disapproved the way she used her voice in the songs (“too high”). Around the same time she got married, but the marriage only lasted a few months. She seemed not to be able to stand on her own feet.

In the 1980s, when the commercial success of the Carpenters faded, Karen could not recover from a very serious eating disorder and it would eventually lead to her death on this day in 1983. Alice Cooper once said in an interview that he in time discovered where the stage stopped and real life began, in stead of people like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. They thought that the party would last all day. One could say that the Carpenters didn’t know where real life ended and the stage began. They were always together, which became too big a problem in the end.

Last week I watched an interesting documentary about Chicago on Netflix. For years Peter Cetera was more or less an anonymous bass player in the band, but when singer Terry Kath incidentally shot himself and Cetera became the only frontman, the other members were jalous and started to hate him, which eventually lead to his departure in 1985. 'Life is what it is' is a track from the album 'Chicago 13'. On the 1st of February, Chicago existed exactly 51 years....

Listen to this new episode of Mellow Moods by The Smooth Operators!

Tracklist:

Greg Guidry – (That’s) How Long (1982)
Honeycraft ‎– Shelter (2017)
Galdston & Thom – Savannah Sunny Sunday (1977)
Alessi – Love To Have Your Love (1977)
Al Matthews ‎– Fool (1975)
Roy And Roe – Just Don’t Come Back (1979)
Violetta Zironi – Toast (2017)
American Gypsy – Gypsy Music (1974)
Calvin Johnson – Dance Of Love (1979)
1973 – Bye Bye Cellphone [Dimitri From Paris Sentossa Beach Remix] (2010)
Brothers Johnson – Strawberry Letter 23 (1977)
Karen Carpenter – Guess I Just Lost My Head (1980)
Phyllis Hyman – If You Ever Change Your Mind (1981)
Robert Cotter – Everything I’m Living For (1980)
Al Sunny – Time To Decide (2017)
Cats On Trees – Keep On Dancing (2018)
Mayer Hawthorne – Kaila (2013)
Sons Of Champlin – You (1976)
Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (1982)
George Duke – Morning Sun (1978)
Michael Franks – Baseball (1980)
Randy Crawford – Look Who’s Lonely Now (1982)
Chicago – Life Is What It Is (1979)
Bobby Caldwell – Coming Down From Love (1980)
Patti Austin – Little Baby (1977)
Ambrosia – You’re The Only Woman (1975)
Booker T. Jones – Ain’t That Peculiar (1978)
Mamas Gun – I Need A Win (2018)
Nicolette Larson – Lotta Love (1978)
Pages – Let It Go (1978)
Sneaker – Don’t Let Me In (1981)