The Carpenters - Close to You
RATING: * (of four)
I had no idea this was a Carpenters song until "Super '70s" on VH1 Classic clued me in. Trust me, whether you know the song by the title alone, you know the song. That famous opening piano-ballad riff and the sounds of 89-pound singing sensation Karen Carpenter's opening line, "Why do birds suddenly appear / Every time you are near," it's all buried in your subconscious somewhere.
I've had this song so ingrained in my head, thanks to years of overhead supermarket Muzak and oldies radio, that I always pictured it being as old as time itself. Perhaps older. It doesn't sound cool enough to have been in the '70s music lexicon, a lexicon including far superior performers such as both the Captain and Tennille. Or, if you'd prefer a little soul, both Peaches and Herb.
If Karen's so curious why birds suddenly appear when her man is near, I'd say it's probably because when she wrote the lyrics she'd only eaten a grape that day and was so weak from hunger that birds were actually appearing by the dozens. This is no mere metaphorical pop lyric. This is literal, motherfucker.
The video for "Close to You," by nature, is just as cheesy and out of touch as the song itself. It takes place on a brightly lit yellow-orange soundstage adorned by giant serif-type "Y," "O" and "U" letters. The late Karen is sitting in the crook of the enormous "U," lip synching off into space while wearing a beyond-bad pink bell bottom and matching criss-cross-shaped triangle vest. Under that? A nice ruffled-sleeve white blouse with an odd origami collar.
Oh, but there's more. A video cannot live on soundstage lip-synch footage alone, giant yellow, orange and pink letters or no. The uncredited director also intersperses still-photo montage shots of friends and family of The Carpenters. I think by the second repetition of the chorus, I'd spotted all of the Carpenters' parents and celebrity pals John Denver, Elton John, Peter, Paul and Mary, Miss Piggy, Spiro Agnew and two-thirds of the horn section from Tower of Power. Also, birds were suddenly appearing everywhere. Don't quote me on this. I did a lot of acid just out of college. And I've only had one grape to eat today.
BEST SHOT: The entire band, at a distance, with the giant "Y" in the foreground and the pink "O" topped by the other female singer and the bass player, both in matching blue Oxford and off-white bell bottoms. The trumpet player is positioned in between the "Y" and "O," decked out in a rainbow button-up frock. The guy singer, sporting a white leisure suit with a wide-collared pink dress shirt beneath it, wrings his hand earnestly as he belts out the background vocals. And in between the "O" and "U," with combination Peter Frampton-Farrah Fawcett blonde locks, the guitar player does his thing. In the dead back is Karen, and from where she's sitting the "O" looks just like a monstrous cake donut smothered in pink icing. The whole mise en scene is enough to make Ingmar Bergman's corpse spit-take earthworms.
I had no idea this was a Carpenters song until "Super '70s" on VH1 Classic clued me in. Trust me, whether you know the song by the title alone, you know the song. That famous opening piano-ballad riff and the sounds of 89-pound singing sensation Karen Carpenter's opening line, "Why do birds suddenly appear / Every time you are near," it's all buried in your subconscious somewhere.
I've had this song so ingrained in my head, thanks to years of overhead supermarket Muzak and oldies radio, that I always pictured it being as old as time itself. Perhaps older. It doesn't sound cool enough to have been in the '70s music lexicon, a lexicon including far superior performers such as both the Captain and Tennille. Or, if you'd prefer a little soul, both Peaches and Herb.
If Karen's so curious why birds suddenly appear when her man is near, I'd say it's probably because when she wrote the lyrics she'd only eaten a grape that day and was so weak from hunger that birds were actually appearing by the dozens. This is no mere metaphorical pop lyric. This is literal, motherfucker.
The video for "Close to You," by nature, is just as cheesy and out of touch as the song itself. It takes place on a brightly lit yellow-orange soundstage adorned by giant serif-type "Y," "O" and "U" letters. The late Karen is sitting in the crook of the enormous "U," lip synching off into space while wearing a beyond-bad pink bell bottom and matching criss-cross-shaped triangle vest. Under that? A nice ruffled-sleeve white blouse with an odd origami collar.
Oh, but there's more. A video cannot live on soundstage lip-synch footage alone, giant yellow, orange and pink letters or no. The uncredited director also intersperses still-photo montage shots of friends and family of The Carpenters. I think by the second repetition of the chorus, I'd spotted all of the Carpenters' parents and celebrity pals John Denver, Elton John, Peter, Paul and Mary, Miss Piggy, Spiro Agnew and two-thirds of the horn section from Tower of Power. Also, birds were suddenly appearing everywhere. Don't quote me on this. I did a lot of acid just out of college. And I've only had one grape to eat today.
BEST SHOT: The entire band, at a distance, with the giant "Y" in the foreground and the pink "O" topped by the other female singer and the bass player, both in matching blue Oxford and off-white bell bottoms. The trumpet player is positioned in between the "Y" and "O," decked out in a rainbow button-up frock. The guy singer, sporting a white leisure suit with a wide-collared pink dress shirt beneath it, wrings his hand earnestly as he belts out the background vocals. And in between the "O" and "U," with combination Peter Frampton-Farrah Fawcett blonde locks, the guitar player does his thing. In the dead back is Karen, and from where she's sitting the "O" looks just like a monstrous cake donut smothered in pink icing. The whole mise en scene is enough to make Ingmar Bergman's corpse spit-take earthworms.
posted by daytime at 1:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home