It was raining this morning on Monday, July 13, 2020. This suddenly reminded me of a very beautiful and yet melancholy song “Rainy Days And Mondays” sung by Carpenters released in 1971 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFoQxjgbrs ).
Karen Carpenter is my all-time most favorite English song singer and I have listened to almost all her songs. She had indeed “a voice of an angel on Earth”. Her songs always bring back fond memories of my younger days as high school / university boy.
The story of Carpenters can be found in the Wikipedia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFoQxjgbrs
今天星期一(Monday, July 13)，一早外面就下着雨，令我突然想起Carpenters(木匠兄妹合唱团)的一首情歌“Rainy Days And Mondays”(“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down…”)
Karen Carpenter是我平生最欣赏的英文歌曲歌手，几乎听过和喜欢她唱的每一首歌！
在这兄妹合唱团里，哥哥Richard是键盘手, 妹妹Karen是主唱。这个组合在1970年代和1980年代初期风靡一时。Karen的歌声被喻为“ voice of an angel on Earth"，不啻是天籁之音！
Karen在1980年8月31日与房地产开发商Thomas James Burris结婚，后者比Karen大9岁，离过婚且有一名18岁大的男孩。
这段对Karen绝对是灾难性的婚姻原本是可以被阻止的，因为Karen在婚礼前夕发现Thomas在遇见她以前做了输精管结紮术，Karen难过不已，並且告诉她的母亲，但是被母亲拒绝，认为一切都已安排好了，而且媒体也都知道这项消息了，如果取消婚约对于Carpenter家族是不利的。
另一方面，Thomas不是什么地产大亨，却是一个不折不扣的穷光蛋，是一个连“结婚戒指”都无法支付的人。1980-1981年间他们结婚之际，他甚至无法支付房子与车子的钱。據Karen友人指出，他只要沒钱都会跟Karen拿50,000美元，直到Karen什么都沒有，甚至还要跟她离婚。
Karen也曾想要和Thomas生孩子，但Thomas不肯，还尖酸刻薄说自己不会和她有孩子，並且说Karen是“一袋死人骨头”（因为Karen的厌食症让她形销骨立）。
两人最终在1981年11月离婚。Karen在1983年2月4日因长期严重神经性厌食症而突然去世，终年33岁。
Some of the Best of The Carpenters' Songs that I like:
1. Close to You
2. We’ve Only Just Begun
3. Sing
4. Knowing When To Leave
5. Bless the Beasts and Children
6. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
7. For All We Know
8. Hurting Each Other
9. I Won't Last a Day Without You
10.It's Going to Take Some Time
11.Mr. Guder
12.End Of The World
13.Only Yesterday
14.Our Day Will Come
15.Please Mr. Postman
16.Rainy Days and Mondays
17.Reason to Believe
18.Solitaire
19.Superstar
20.A Kind Of Hush
21.Ticket To Ride
22.Top of the World
23.Touch Me When We're Dancing
24.Yesterday Once More
Carpenters - Hits Medley 76
1980 Medley (Sing/Knowing When To Leave/Make It Easy On Yourself/Someday/We've Only Just Begun)
