Episode Ep 511 March 5, 2023 29 min 12s

Is Karen Carpenter pop music’s saddest story?

From Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Karen Carpenter died 40 years ago at the age of 32, a life mapped out in a new biography by Lucy O’Brien called Lead Sister. It’s a chilling, cautionary tale of how she and her brother became international stars and the devastating personal repercussions that were the consequence. Our conversation with Lucy covers the waterfront and includes …

… the perils of “helicopter parents”.

… why Richard was “The Chosen One”.

… a disastrous association with Nixon.

… destabilising press comments about weight issues and her “milksop presence”.

… what Hal Blaine said about her mother.

... the night she met Elvis.

… what singers need to survive.

… the private bebop language she invented.

… “Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from another drummer.”

… the howling disaster of her solo album.

… and what she discovered about her husband three days before she was due to marry him.

Lead Sister by Lucy O’Brien …