In You Mind You Have Capacities You Know
April 11, 2018 9:18 PM   Subscribe

 
Richard Carpenter is an extraordinary music arranger, and this album is all over an example of that, but especially his arrangement of Don't Cry For Me Argentina.

Also, We've Been Observing Your Earth.
posted by hippybear at 9:19 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


"Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" was originally recorded by a group appropriately named Klaatu. I played the original version on my college radio station and a year later when the Carpenters version came out I was assisting/sidekicking a morning DJ at a longtime Carpenters-friendly station. I played it once and the DJ yelled off-mic "Never again! It's too fucking long!!!"

correction: the subtitle is (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:51 PM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


Why yes, yes it is!
posted by hippybear at 10:00 PM on April 11, 2018


Mod note: Fixed!
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 10:02 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


I thought "it's too fucking long" was code for "the college DJ was going to take a major shit".
posted by hippybear at 10:10 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


Fun fact: Klaatu was suspected of being the stealth-reunited Beatles when they released their first record, which had no photos or individual musician credits accompanying it, because it was so Beatlesesque.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:47 PM on April 11, 2018 [4 favorites]


My sister was nine years older than I, and had to do a lot of driving my preteen ass around. This was one of the tapes in her deck that got a lot of play. As a budding sci-fi fantasy nerd, Calling Occupants was the only track I dug.

As I recall, the months after one of her break-ups was an excruciating time for both of us. Her, the heartbreak. Me, The Carpenters non-stop in the car. I’m sure I’d like them more now if it weren’t for that period of time.
posted by greermahoney at 11:00 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


I had this tape as a kid in the 1980s. I remember getting in trouble for dubbing it for my cousin, because her religious fundamentalist parents thought "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft" was anti-biblical. My mum got in an argument with her brother about whether the bible not mentioning aliens meant that Christians shouldn't listen to songs about aliens. It caused a family rift for quite some time. It was my first inkling that my extended family wasn't quite normal when it came to religion.
posted by lollusc at 2:52 AM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]


I remember Klaatu - they were Canadian, so they got lots of airplay on Canadian radio stations.

I find it very difficult to listen to the Carpenters and to Karen Carpenter singing, given that I know what eventually happened to her. In particular, Superstar is almost unbearably sad.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 6:03 AM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


Some info on the Klaatu/Beatles thing.
posted by parki at 6:13 AM on April 12, 2018


"Calling Occupants" is such a hopeful song. I love it.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:57 AM on April 12, 2018


Fun fact: Klaatu was suspected of being the stealth-reunited Beatles when they released their first record, which had no photos or individual musician credits accompanying it, because it was so Beatlesesque.

And also because the design and marketing of Ringo's 1974 album, Goodnight Vienna, relied so strongly on The Day The Earth Stood Still-style imagery. In this 1974 advertisement, Ringo even lands his flying saucer on the top of the Capitol Records building!

"Calling Occupants" is a great song. Klaatu's version is more psychedelic; Carpenter's more poignant. Hard to say which one I like better. It was also one of the songs performed by the Langley Schools Music Project.

Also, Orbital sampled the Carpenter's version of "Calling Occupants" at their live shows in 2012.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:36 AM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


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