Rainy Days & Mondays & Tuesdays

"Hangin’ around, nothin’ to do but frown… Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down," sang The Carpenters on one of their biggest hits.

In recent weeks, the number of Mondays in my part of the northeast has stayed relatively constant, but the amount of Rainy Days is practically unprecedented. The great singer Karen Carpenter was right on the money about "Rainy Days and Mondays" being major buzzkills. When the rainy day is a Monday, and that day stretches into Tuesday, as it did today, it can be positively dreadful.

Luckily we have the tones of Ms. Carpenter to give us shelter from the storm. Her voice is full of warmth and compassion – it’s like a musical Snuggie. Yet there is an unmistakable undertow of melancholy in her tone that gives it a depth not found in most of the era’s pop singers like, say, Helen Reddy.


My favorite line in the song, which was co-written by the elfin pop hit machine Paul Williams, is "What I've got they used to call the blues." I was only a wee tot when this song came out in 1971 or so, but I'm pretty sure being majorly bummed out was still called the blues. Nowadays, it's called Bipolar Depression.

Adding to Ms. Carpenter's air of gravitas is her tragic death from anorexia in 1983 at the age of just 32. On the plus side, it has guaranteed her immortality amongst the camp-loving factions of the gay community. Plus, as this amazing clip from a 70s variety show demonstrates, she played the drums.


My father, who passed away earlier this month, was a jazz lover to the core. But there were a few rock acts he respected. The Beatles, of course. But also The Carpenters. He loved the impeccable production values of their records and believed Karen Carpenter’s voice had a timeless quality that would have brought her renown in any musical era, and I have to agree.

Herewith, my personal favorite from Connecticut’s First Family of Easy Listening, the Leon Russell-penned “Superstar.”

According to one of the comments on YouTube, this song is about Eric Clapton from the POV of Bonnie of the group Delaney and Bonnie, who came out on the losing end of a fling with Slowhand. That is wild - I did not know that.


Buy on iTunes:
The Carpenters: The Singles 1969-81