Image was a big bugbear for the Carps ... hence being seen as the antithesis of cool at the time. Their packaging and handling by the studio/management (and their parents0 ended up with tragic consequences with Karen's health problems and early death.
You may be interested in a transcript of a 1993 interview Richard did on BBC Radio.
Richard Carpenter: 'Well, when it comes to image and album sleeves and what we were wearing then, I think...of course, what we were wearing then, the kids are wearing now. But the average person, again getting back to this famous 'average person', looks at a picture in their yearbook and looks at their hair and their dress and thinks 'oy oy oy!'. The difference is, a yearbook's one thing, and an album cover that's sold something like 8 million and is still in release...that's another.
But there's only so much you can do. You look back at any time period, let's take the seventies. Oy oy oy! It's not only what we were wearing, it's what a whole number of us were wearing! All the different acts. Haha, man you look at some of the R&B acts and some of those album covers, and just any number of different acts. And that's what I mean, you would think that when it comes to...(pauses)...bell bottoms...they weren't new in the late 60s and into the 70s...everything old is new again! But some of the stuff, like the polyester...you really think we would have learned about polyester. And it's back.
So you know, maybe I shouldn't be quite as critical as I am. The image...that was a problem because the record label and everyone around us did not know how to market us. And in a way, you could say you can't quite blame them because the last really successful brother-and-sister act was Fred and Adele Astaire. And of course [back then] it wasn't records, there were no album covers, it was a whole different thing. And then...well there were the two of us. And they just didn't know what to do. And I was...at least I had an inkling and I was fighting with the label.
The thing is, any disharmony with the record label was over the album covers and the PR shots! We were young, trying to make everybody happy, you know, we didn't grow up on the streets of New York or play coffee houses...we weren't seasoned, we were a couple of young kids from the 'burbs. And it's pretty much 'yes and no sir' and you do what people tell you to do, especially if they're in a position where you pretty much report to them or they're your seniors. And we let a lot of things get by.
They always say 'smile for the camera!' and as soon as you don't smile it's 'what's wrong?!'. You know, 'you look angry' (which at times I do when I'm not smiling) so please smile!. And then keep smiling. And it's supposed to an 8 by 10 so put your damn cheeks together!. Well I said 'guys, you know, we're brother and sister, it's not good'. And...I lost.
I remember fighting over the Close To You album. They repackaged Offering. Offering had a dismal cover, but at least it was a period piece! There was a sunflower growing on the lot and the photographer picked it up, yanked it out, gave it to Karen. It was very 'sixties'. And of course, I saw a thing just the other day that said I think 'now let's scowl for the camera!'. It was talking about how all these new groups go out of their way, and so did some of the rock groups back in the sixties and early seventies, to scowl at the camera. And it showed different examples of these big acts and they're all scowling at the camera.
But I say, it was '69 and we weren't about to smile...and we scowled at the camera. So in a way, even though it was shot up, and it was called by one DJ the 'nasal shot' (the Offering cover, which I know most people haven't seen)...at least we weren't smiling. And it's very sixties, Karen's holding that sunflower...but it didn't look like the two of us. There was something about the picture! I look Asian, Karen looks like she has an allergy..it's not good.
www.grantguerrero.com/carpenters/offering.jpg So when Close To You takes off in July and August of '70, the record company comes and asks if they could repackage and retitle Offering as Ticket To Ride, since Ticket To Ride had enjoyed a modicum of success. And we were working up at Tahoe at the time. They rented a sailboat, beautiful thing, we went out to Tahoe...we just had on t-shirts and jeans, we weren't close to each other, they took the shot and it was terrific! That should have been the Close To You cover. [Exasperated] They put it on Ticket To Ride!
www.grantguerrero.com/carpenters/tickettoride.jpg When Close To You comes out, it's time for the [photo] session. This Vice President [A&M VP Gil Friesen] I was telling you about, who talked us out of Top Of The World, said 'we're going to dress you properly this time'. So he takes me to Mr Guy, which is this fashionable boutique in Beverly Hills. I don't know where on earth he took Karen. He got her a gown, he got me a very nice (I mean I'm sure of course our royalties took care of it)...he selected a Cashmere blazer, very nice, and this very nice shirt. And it was all very dressy. And Karen's in a gown [chuckles] and out we go with the photographer the next day or so to Palace Verdis, which is this beach community...'the city by the beach'.
It was overcast, the photographer puts us out on a rock. The waves were crashing over the rocks, Karen's hair was damp, frizzing...and I saw a couple of amateur photographers..I remember this very well. And they were taking the very same picture like, 50 feet away from us. But they were amateurs! And I was bitching at the photographer, and I said 'what the hell are you doing?!'. First off, there's nothing original about this whatsoever. Nothing! And secondly it doesn't even make any sense.Why would you put on a Cashmere jacket and a gown, and leather boots and dress slacks...and sit on a rock by the beach? Why would you do this?
www.grantguerrero.com/carpenters/closetoyou.jpg And I remember thinking 'it can't be good, it can't be good'. It wasn't good. We were in working, again trying to get this album done a few days later, working on one of the album cuts. And in comes the Vice President with the picture. And after being so unhappy with the Offering shot, where of course we didn't say anything, we told ourselves especially now that we had a hit, we're gonna say something if we don't like this. And he says 'how do you like it?'. And of course we didn't like it at all...'we don't like it'. And he said 'learn to live with it!' That was it!
Management wasn't there. That's what I mean, we're paying all this dough to management...it shouldn't even have been brought to us. It should have gone to management who immediately, if it had been Brian Epstein would have said 'this sucks guys! Let's start over'. Management wasn't even there. We were really, in that way, not handled well at all. And out it came, and it's dreadful and of course that's what kicked off that whole image thing right there. It's dreadful!
And album after album...I remember A Song For You. It's a very attractive album cover, but it has a heart on it! Like this rock heart. And again we're in with this guy and I'm saying 'Gil, it looks like a Valentine's card! This isn't good!'. But you know, it wasn't in our contract then, so all you could do was pregnant dog.'
Richard Carpenter: '[We were] their biggest act, who sells all these albums worldwide. They hadn't even thought about it. It's like 'oh yeah, they're making an album that we've been pestering them for, we'd better put a cover on it!' They said, stand out at your front door and we'll shoot your picture. I kid you not! I said 'you mean like OUR MOTHER would do?!!! You mean like a snapshot to go in the book?! We're supposed to stand out here?' And I said 'we're not doing it. We're NOT doing it!'....And so after all the bitching and griping and all...we got in the Ferrari. And if you look at that, you can tell I am pissed off. If you look at the cover of that album, I am pissed off. I mean, I am not smiling on that album cover. All they did was get us coming down the street, and shot us with me driving the car. That was it.
i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/newvillefan/now_and_then.jpg THEN to make it worse, they said '[this cover] is going to be more of an artistic statement, we're going to have the picture painted'. Cos if you look at that album, it folds out three ways , that was a lot of money to make it. But it's a painting of a picture. By then of course it's one of these things, we're in the mix room and then out on the road. So we couldn't even look at what they came up with til we're out on the road. And they sent it. And it was wrong. There's this one thing, if you look at the cover, the Ferrari Daytona has a vent window. And it so happens that the way they took it, it cuts Karen's face in half. Again, if management had anything to say, they should have said 'what the hell are you taking a picture of Karen for [forget painting it!], and cutting our star's face in half?' Then when they went to paint it, they just couldn't get this part [of her face] matched with the other part. And we'd send it back, and they'd send another one, we'd send it back, they'd send another, and it's not right to this day. They finally got that part right, but they THEN took and painted 8x10s of us from a previous photo session and...Karen never had an overbite but you look at this thing, it looks like she's a chipmunk! It's DREADFUL!
i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/newvillefan/yesterday.jpgAnd that's my biggest...regret, is that I didn't finally just say, 'if this doesn't stop, we're just not going to cut any more records for you guys.' It was absolutely disgusting, the way they treated us. And that we didn't stand up to management and say 'you get the hell out of here'....They should have been there to look after us, not just book us. That's my biggest complaint. So all of this really plays into the image.
As I said in this PBS documentary that we did, I couldn't actually blame some of what the critics said, when you look at...not the music necessarily, but these album covers and publicity stills. It was horrible. Horrible! So if you look at Horizon, I finally did put my foot down. So we BOTH look pissed off on that one!!! But at least our cheeks aren't together and we're not smiling!'
Given recent discussions re treatment of certain artists by record labels, thought you might find it a tad interesting.