Very talented indeed! Singer,writer,composer,arranger,etc. Her and her brother Richard were some of the best at their game in the 70's. While as a young rock drummer I didn't care for everything they put out, you had to respect their accomplishments. OTOH,,,it was very sad HOW she died. I don't remember which news story I read it from years ago, nor do I have a link, but the story from former band members was that the Carpenters were perfectionists of sorts and if you missed something on stage you were grilled pretty hard about or even fired. Karen and her brother used to read all of the reviews they could find from shows the night before--at that time it was all newspaper reviews--in different towns they traveled through. One time Karen read a review the next day that mentioned "the chubby little drummer"--meaning her when she took her turn drumming during the course of the show-- and it really upset her. At the time, she was thin and looked perfectly fine but it really began the sad chain of events that began her downward spiral to her ultimate end. Sad that words can hurt people like they do.
