"Living Famously - Karen Carpenter" BBC Documentary (Pt 6)

[tidbittoo]

Is it just me, but in these live performances Richards voice sucks and he's screwing up the whole song? I caught myself cringing every time he sang live.

[thejohnsmithyetagain]

Got to ask, where did they dig up that therapist? She's terrible.

[Timberextra]

i hit post early...anyway, i enjoyed the music, footage of concerts, but i did NOT like this punk and the others who are riding on the tails of the carpenters all for money. as one person posted, the LOYAL people close to her remain loyal to her memory and music. where were they in the making of this? one more thing. what rock did the national enquirer guy crawl out from?

[Timberextra]

i must be new to this, but who the hell is this randy??? i have been a carpenters fan since i can remember. this is the first i have heard of him and some of the others in this program. who close enough to richard, parents and very close people in their lives would talk to these fools

[rockinrex]

Karen, just like me, they long to be, close to you. I miss you.

[jrat92]

I think there's something inside us singers that we never really share with anyone. I think its a loneliness so deep that it hurts to just mention it. I'm not sure where this loneliness comes from but its always there.

[kkaychoco]

Thanks for posting this. Is it available on DVD anywhere? Please let us know if you get a chance. Really enjoyed it. Although, got incrediblly sad toward the end. So sad she is not here to supply us with more fantastic singing and talent.

[sheepbedamned]

Amazing Karen's resemblance to Mary Louise Parker. She would have been great portraying her at an earlier age.

[gopconservative78]

The voice of an angel.........

[No1KCfan6]

the thought of karen taking all those laxatives and the ipecac makes me feel heartsick.

[TheBeee31]

32 is not so young you have to be really old to say this .

[LittleLJ22]

@TheBeee31 Are you kidding? In the grand scheme of life 32 is young and way too early to go.

[vmuto1]

You have to remember folks Karen Carpenter is old enough to be Randy Schmidt's mom, However, Karen would not give a guy like Randy the time of day, trust me. FYI The main players within The Carpenters DECLINED to be interviewed for Randy's book Little Girl Blue- theres a reason for this it's called RESPECT for the Carpenter name-He wrote it anyway,smuck hope you enjoy & feel good about yourself making money off of someone who is no longer here. Randy you didn't fool us!!!

[lamaga2007]

So breakin' heart... beeing all the time in the focus of attention, everybody interested in what you do, but nobody realy cares about you...

[anitabreakone]

Yes, feeling the connection with the artist is what is important to me. There are few other artists who have a way of doing just that. Alicia Keys is definitely another artist who makes that connection seem one on one and who sings from the heart as Karen did. No ones voice can compare to Karen's.

[GloriaD5767]

I can't tell today's female singers apart, but Karen had a voice you knew INSTANTLY. She was the voice of my childhood, an era that looks better and better...

[TheArek76]

I love you Karen)

[louisa1832]

That voice got me through some hard times when I was growing up. I wish I could have helped her in some way.

[rmsparklechick]

out of everyone they interviewed, Burt Bacharach seemed the most sincere and sympathetic over the loss of Karen.

[cattyomuppet]

poor karen :'( i know what its like to know someone who felt the way she did about her weight..my brother had eating disorders and it got so bad he became suicidal...thats just how horrible it can affect people

[uncoverbrother]

goes to show that being happy is truly a choice we must make every day.

[ThePolkadotbikini]

that lady hit it on the head...its the melody thats missing today. her voice was so melodic you dont hear that anymore. ive always been a fan of melody and harmony and i feel sorry for the kids coming up today because they are missing that.

[HoshiChun]

@ThePolkadotbikini I don't feel they are missing out on the music of Karen, the Internet is the best way these days to keep her memory alive and strong. You-tube or any other site for that matter can do their little parts to always pass on the music of the carpenters. Their music will never die or fade away. To many people out there still love them for what they did. Karen will live forever threw their music.

[ThePolkadotbikini]

of course all of this is speculation. we dont know if she couldnt stand the light or if she was truely committed to recovery. we just dont know. its sad that she wasnt under the care of a medical doctor, because this disease is not just emotional but physical as well. they just didnt have the knowledge then that we have now.

[brutbear]

she died the day after my birthday,i was 8or9yrs old

[punedav007]

As a music lover, this thing about Stardom, realy does not go well, with artists time and again. Look at MJ! artist like Randy Travis, actresses like Marlin Monroe, Drew Barrymore. I strongly believe that one I only hope people understand the rise of stardom, and indeed the end of it as well. One must know, how to cope with it. WE WILL MISS YOU KAREN! MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PEACE, AMEN!

[norcalman415]

I bet she would have gotten better and better with age. Such a tragic loss.

[sloppyjakekisses]

So sad.

[TashaRichardsonFan]

RIP Sweet Karen:(

[tmc359]

well, what a tragedy, but she experienced a life and achieved the greatest heights of their profession that only the tiniest percentage of people ever hope to grasp. Also, in her untimely death, she raised awareness that may have saved many, many lives afterwards.

[Starlifter88]

I saw the Carpenters in concert at Norfolk Scope, in November 1972. Karen looked then as she did in the "Superstar" clip shown. Beautiful beyond description. Not sure whether to celebrate the time we had her among us, or mourn the loss of what never was after her death.

[no1zgrl4eva]

I've used ipecac - to this day just the smell of it makes my stomach heave. It makes you violently, horrendously sick with vomiting. It should only be used if someone is going to be poisoned by what is in their stomach, it is very effective but it's extremely violent impact is devestating both physically (it hurts) and mentally.

[aldrinadams]

I truly wish that Karen was around today. Her voice and musically were gifts from God which will remain gifts to the world! She is greatly missed!!!

[crazycatlady68]

@aldrinadams What?? Her voice was pure genetics moron,and yes it was beautiful.If your "God" decided to give her this gift why then would he let her suffer so much?? And dont give me this free will shit.If your "God" gave her this gift then he so would have enabled her to carry on.

[EyeHaveClass]

Hats off...

[virginQ]

please youtube Roxana Ortega "on top of the world", she's an "actress" making fun of eating disorders using Carpenters music, very disrespectful, please let your comments be heard.

[karencarpenterfan1]

I hate that video, i hope she takes the video off.

[abbakc]

Thanks for posting! Karen Carpenter is the best! Now and forever!

[xhappyrainbow]

so tragic :(

[213rich]

I just sat here and watched the entire thing. Loved it! Thanks for taking the time to post it. A very in depth glimpse in to a life we think we already know all about.

[shoegalsho]

Thanks for putting this on! Really good R.I.P Karen

[lynx410]

Karen needed her own solo career to get away from her sick family and grown into her own talent-Richard's rejection of her solo album was jealousy and the kind of shame based sickness that is classic in families with anorexia.

[worcesterwombat]

wasn't it A&M that rejected her solo album?

[hardcandy900]

How could you say it? Richard loved his sister more than anything in the world, and I'm sure he had always wished her the best. And he obviously has nothing to do with the fact that her solo album was a failure!

[mainers04083]

The therapist in this video states her opinions as facts. Saying that Phil Ramone and Steven Levenkron were the 2 people who could have freed her from her problems is rubbish. Karen Carpenter should have never made the solo album, she should have been getting treatment on an in-patient basis. The album wasn't very good and its rejection by A&M was devastating to her. But the point is she should have taken Richard's advice and never made the album!!

[kboyzrock]

If more than anything else, Karen's passing has brought forth public awareness about this terrible disease,the treatments now readily available for this condition than back when Karen had it. Her ex boyfriend commented that even when she had this condition, her voice remained unchanged, just as sweet and mellow as ever, which it was. Her spirit lives on in her voice and her music.

[77Walker77]

The documentary, about her or the band all over the country is enjoyable to watch. It tells you the talent, and the downfalls. It gives you info to remember how talented Karen was, and fans all over will always remember her. They dreamt that, she would be their mother, sister, girlfriend, or daughter.

[ahoystella]

OK, am I blind or something? I know nothing about the Carpenters, and don't particularly care for their music. I'm watching out of interest in who they were and why they were popular. But Karen looks really skinny in every picture in this documentary. She never looks like someone who is lethally thin, just naturally thin. Am I missing it? She doesn't look ill or covered with hair or with a bad color. Am I missing it?

[no1cfielder]

There's a lot of footage here on YouTube in which you can see Karen when she was very much underweight, but none of it is in this documentary.

[iluvjensen]

The Lanugo (hair covering the body) is like peach fuzz and hard to see unless you are up close

[no1cfielder]

Karen's family has maintained that she did not abuse emetics (Ipecac), believing it would harm her voice. She told Cherry Boone O'Neill, Pat Boone's daughter and a recovered anorexic, that she "couldn't do that."

[iluvjensen]

her autopsy reveals emetine toxicity, which is only caused the overdose of a few substances, one of them being ipecac

[no1cfielder]

Documentaries should be more factual than this one is. In the fall of 1981 Karen was hospitalized in NYC in critical condition, weighing 77 pounds. At that time she was fed intravenously, raising her weight over 8 weeks to 108. As she maintained that weight for 3 months till her death, I've seen no evidence that she resumed the worst of her anorexic behaviors; she certainly didn't go "back on the treadmill." Unlike many anorexics, she was pleased with her new look and showed it off.

[no1cfielder]

I made a mistake: it was Sept. 1982.

[shoponline831]

You're right, she was recovered. But she died because she recovered too quickly.

[77Walker77]

It had put too much strain, to her heart. It's a shame though to lose a sweet person, and performer. She could've been your wife, girlfriend, or daughter to have a talented voice.

[no1cfielder]

Documentaries should be more factual than this one is. In the fall of 1981 Karen was hospitalized in NYC in critical condition, weighing 77 pounds. At that time she was fed intravenously, raising her weight over 8 weeks to 108. As she maintained that weight over 3 months till her death, I've seen no evidence that she resumed the worst of her anorexic behaviors; she certainly didn't go "back on the treadmill." Unlike many anorexics she was pleased to look more healthy and showed off her new look.

[sisterlead02]

I'll stick to The Carpenters FOREVER!

[sneyder69]

why is t that everytime we talk about the carpenters, we only talk about karens anorxia ? wel she had a singing talend whee she was famous for, and thats more positif

[RxTechRN2b]

Karen Carpenter was the greatest female vocalist of all time. But you really can't separate her from the anorexia from which she suffered for nearly 10 years and from which she died. Her death put eating disorders on the map and saved many, many lives (mine included).

[bsbncandey]

I agree, when I talk about the Carpenters, I always talk about "the voice" and "the musical genius" of Richard Carpenter, I hardly ever talk about her disease, I always talk about the great music they created. It just sucks that her disease overshadows the beautiful masterpiece of the Carpenters.

[babsaloops]

yes thats true but it was mainly the years and years of starvation that killed her.Today they wouldn't allow that much weight to be pumped into someone in such short a space of time..the body cant take it

[sweetgirl4JC]

Yes but didn't she also die because of not only what she did to herself but because of the hyperalimentation putting weight on her too fast and it put a strain on her heart?

That's what I heard reading about what Richard said.

[RxTechRN2b]

She actually died as a result of the drugs she ingested --- synthroid when she was euthyroid, 90 laxatives at a time, and Ipecac syrup to induce vomiting. There is a document that shows emetine in Karen's liver, and that is the substance that destoyed her heart.

[no1cfielder]

Deaths caused by Ipecac abuse are due to heart tissue damage. In Ray Coleman's book, "The Carpenters", he deals extensively with this question on pages 21-24. He took Karen's postmortem and analytical papers to Dr. Allister Vale, an eminent British toxicologist and head of the Poisons Information Service in Birmingham, who said there was none of the heart tissue damage which Ipecac would cause. Dr. Vale concluded that "There is no evidence at all that emetine was involved in her death."

[iluvjensen]

thank you for pointing out the synthroid abuse, put her in a hypermetabolic state that her heart couldn't handle

[no1cfielder]

Karen's synthroid abuse stopped in early 1981.

[no1cfielder]

I should have said early 1982.