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31-Day Blog Challenge - Day 10: My First Celebrity Crush

12/11/2016

2 Comments

 
This one is simple and powerful. It was 1970 and I was nearly six. We were watching TV, and the above came on:

This began a one-sided love affair that spanned decades. That voice, that beautiful, resonant, otherworldly voice. The woman attached to it became a fixation for me that persists to a certain extent to this day. Her untimely and unbelievably premature death in 1983 from a heart attack and dehydration stemming from years of suffering from anorexia nervosa was a total shock to me. Back then, anorexia was even more misunderstood than it is now. I wish I’d known her. I wish I could have shown her the truth. I wish I could have helped her.

But yeah, I had it BAD for Karen Carpenter. She was the first. The beauty she brought into the world with her singing (and her formidable drumming skill) can never be replaced. 

I've moved on to many other celebrity crushes over the years, but there is and was only one Karen... 
2 Comments
Rob Kosinski link
12/11/2016 01:36:38 pm

I hadn't heard this song in a number of years. What I find most poignant about this piece is how the meaning completely changes depending on your stage in life. For the young person just starting out it's wide-eyed and hopeful. While for the old it seems downright depressing or at least melancholy at best… not that I would know anything about that of course.

Truly the mark of genius song crafting.

Reply
Phil
12/11/2016 10:08:46 pm

Yup. Paul Williams is a master song crafter. You know this song started out as a bank jingle, right?

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