How is it that a girl who had never sung
a note through high school, but played the
drums as well, or better, than the best drummers
in the world, started singing, and almost
instantly became what Paul McCartney called
the most beautiful voice on Earth? It is a
miracle and a mystery.
Karen Carpenter was this girl. A drummer,
and one of the best drummers in the world?
And then, seemingly when she opened her
mouth, instantly to have the most beautiful
voice on Earth? But it's all true. Ask Paul
McCartney if you don't believe me.
And anorexia nervosa, which killed her
when she was barely in her early 30s?
When I think of Karen and her early death,
I see a meteor in the night sky flying by
for just a few seconds, wondrous, breath-
taking, then gone. But I have this glorious
streak on videos and watch and listen to
them over and over and over again.
Where did she come from and where did
she go, so fleetingly, so dazzlingly? I shall
never know the answers to these questions,
nor, I'm afraid, will anyone else.
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and human-rights advocate his entire adult life. He recently finished his first novel, A CHILD FOR AMARANTH.
