Tunic (Song for Karen)

and oh yeah, i thought everyone knew karen carpenter died of complications from anorexia nervosa. she'd been obsessively dieting--and abusing laxatives (in unbelievable quantity)--for years and years.

it was probably a classic case of maintaining control over the one thing you actually can control, when everything else in your life is controlled by others. the A&M label (and owner herb alpert) were notorious for not allowing them to make decisions about their career, esp. karen.

only occasionally were they allowed to choose the songs they recorded. karen loved playing the drums but their management insisted she needed to be more visible on stage (and they hardly let her play in the studio either). presumably so her cute wholesome face would help sell records (I'm sure it did), and also they probably believed the idiotic stereotype that drums aren't feminine.

i spoke with a european flautist who was stunned & appalled when i mentioned how a friend's nephew was getting beaten up for playing the flute (it's too "girly") and had to stop. there's nothing gendered about it. you don't play a musical instrument with THOSE parts of your body.

karen entered therapy and was getting better. unfortunately eating disorders were poorly understood at the time. we know how important it is to put the weight back on gradually. when karen recovered, she gained 20 pounds in a couple of weeks and her heart couldn't take it.

because of the ignorance at the time, her death was ruled to be not only from the complications of an eating disorder, but also a toxic reaction to abuse of syrup of ipecac. richard always firmly denied the latter.

he and karen lived in two apartments which they bought, and had them modified to be adjoining. he said if karen had been abusing ipecac, he'd have seen the empty bottles (he was aware of her laxative abuse; they lived too closely together for her to be able to keep too many secrets from him). also if she'd vomited repeatedly over a long period there would have been observable signs, which there weren't.

both were naive young people who overnight became among the most successful musicians ever (many of their recordings sold more than the beatles). richard had a problem with quaaludes, although in the '70s that wasn't too unusual.

i would sonic youth genuinely appreciate Carpenters songs on a musical level, simultaneous with the endless possibilities for ironic humor and social commentary of an odd pop cultural phenomenon.