Prime Time Love

Status
Not open for further replies.

Graeme

Well-Known Member
I was listening to Prime Time Love the other day and the same thing struck me that has always struck me about this song - do the chorus lyrics as sung my Karen and Richard make sense?

The lyrics as written in the CD booklet read:

So don't hold back
Contact
Give yourself a bit of some prime time love

To my right side of 40 but wrong side of 35 ears Karen sings:

So don't hold back a contact
Give yourself a bit of some prime time love.

And then later I'm sure I hear:

Why don't you hold back a contact
Give yourself a bit of some prime time love

...which kind of contradicts the earlier message of not holding back and contacting.

Am I mishearing this? Is this another "Don't love me if/for what you intend or hope that I will be" in Love me For What I am? (I always thought it sounded like Karen sang "if" but after much debate on the Newville list a number of years ago and some ear training now hear "for"... though not always!)
 
To be honest, VOTH has always been a favorite album of mine...save one track..this one. I know its off subject but this song is WAY beneath K&R. Even when I first heard it (and this was my first CarpenterS LP) I remember thinking how this was a square peg in a round hole. I'm sure that this treatment is the best anyone could do with this song but eww. It's wrong. Just wrong.
 
I'm pretty sure they're leading up to the word "contact" with an extra syllable to make the musical phrase smoother, more musical. The lyrics don't really quite fit the musical phrase - they're rather choppy - and the extra syllables help out. It's really "uh-contact" - the first part not being the article "a", but rather an un-emphasized syllable. You can also hear some of the same lines where they do the same thing with "hold", turning it into "uh-hold". Thus, the phrase is really sung:

"So don't uh-hold back, uh-contact"

Harry
 
The thing with this track is that it's one of those finished off after Karen's passing. All Richard had to play with was a stilted work lead which he artificially 'doubles' in place for effect. Add to that his very dry, unatmospheric backing vocals and you're left with a track that jars with the rest of the album. It's just a very unattractive song which they did their best with. How it beat songs like 'Slow Dance' to be included on VOTH is a mystery to me. I remember Richard saying had Karen lived, they would have forgotten most of these outtakes and moved on. 'Prime Time Love' definitely falls into that category.

'Your Baby Doesn't Love You Any More' suffers from exactly the same thing, although it has more gravitas in the choruses and is a slightly better track all round than 'Prime Time Love'. I never play either track nor have them on my ipod or CD collections.
 
I always love hearing others' opinions. In this case, I disagree. Prime Time is not perfect, but the album needed some lift, and this provides it without overly corny lyrics. Your Baby? One of my all time favorites- almost perfect. I guess this is why the Carps appealed to so many! Differing opinions- all die hard fans! :)
 
Here's an interesting comment that was left on this youtube link, apparently by the song's co-writer:

"For all that liked the song, I would like to thank you and thank Richard for having such big ears in hearing the implied harmonies. I wrote it with my co-writer Mary Unobsky in 1978. It was first recorded by an artist named Jess Roden on Warner Bros. Records, and I imagine that's where Richard or Karen heard it first. When my co-writer Mary called me with the finished chorus "Dont hold back-Contact-Gimme just a bit of some PTL..." Richard did a wonderful job and I am forever grateful. Danny I."
 
I liked PTL and "Your Baby" mainly because together with 'Sailing...', they sounded the most 'Carpenteresque' (Sp??) in the VOTH album, having back up vocals by at least one of the Carpenter siblings. The rest had "that choir" sound which did not appeal to me much. These three songs therefore sounded closest to the Carpenters of old. Sometimes I wonder why Richard did not use a smaller back up group (like he did on All You Get..., Touch Me.., etc) for those choir enhanced songs. It would have definitely made them sound much more contemporary, I think.
 
I can maybe hear how "a contact" could be "uh-contact" (perhaps a short blast of trumpets would have worked better?) but the backing vocals of "why don't you hold back..." still appear to contradict the rest of the lyric. Apart from my issues with the lyrics though I'm a fan of the song. It's a bit different. The highlight of the VOTH album for me though is Two Lives.
 
I can maybe hear how "a contact" could be "uh-contact" (perhaps a short blast of trumpets would have worked better?) but the backing vocals of "why don't you hold back..." still appear to contradict the rest of the lyric. Apart from my issues with the lyrics though I'm a fan of the song. It's a bit different. The highlight of the VOTH album for me though is Two Lives.
Hang on, there's already a short blast of trumpets or trumpet-like instruments in those very spots!
 
Still on the subject of confusing lyrics and the like, there was one thing I never could understand (sorry if this was raised before) - it is the DJ's conversation with the 'aliens' on Calling Occupants. He tells them that the song he thought they wanted was not on his playlist, and then says to them that if they give him their request, he would be glad to play it for them...he seems to be quite confident that their new song request would this time be available. How would he know? [Frowning] :sad:
 
I always liked "Prime Time Love" because Karen is singing in her old style voice....not the whisper-like vocals she used on the other tracks recorded during the "Made In America" sessions. Her vocal is way up front on this song. Plus, the harmonies are great, and it was recorded at the same time as "MIA". See if you can think of another tune from these sessions where she sounds so upfront. There aren't any.

Just goes to show she made a concerted effort to sing quieter and sexier on that album, and it had nothing to do with her health issues.

"Prime Time Love" always reminded me of the old CERTS ad, where the two packs of CERTS would bang into each other (two mints in one). It sounds very much like an ad where she sings, "So don't you hold back a contact"....just my opinion, anyway.
I also like the bridge....'Trust is the answer, that's how it starts".
 
Still on the subject of confusing lyrics and the like, there was one thing I never could understand (sorry if this was raised before) - it is the DJ's conversation with the 'aliens' on Calling Occupants. He tells them that the song he thought they wanted was not on his playlist, and then says to them that if they give him their request, he would be glad to play it for them...he seems to be quite confident that their new song request would this time be available. How would he know? [Frowning] :sad:

It's just typical DJ patter. The idea being that this fictitious radio station has a vast library and surely another selection WOULD be on the playlist. He'd just never heard of a song called "We've Been Observing Your Earth!"

Harry
 
Here is the aforementioned Jess Roden's version of "Prime Time Love" for comparison with Karen and Richard's version. Roden's version was released in 1980.

 
Of the 17 released tracks from 1980, this is my least favourite. . . in fact only At The End of a Song does anything for me from the MIA outtakes on VOH
 
I'm a huge fan of "Your Baby".

I quite like "Your Baby..." too. I remember really liking the whole overdubbed "give it up" and drum fill into the instrumental break when I first heard this track on the "Gold: 35th Anniversary" set.
 
Absolutely. 'Your Baby...' is one of only a few post-1975 tracks that has that darkness that's more characteristic of some of their earlier singles. Some of the production flourishes on it like the use of the harp I could live without, but given that it wasn't a finished track, it sounds pretty good and is one that's grown in my estimation over the years. It really should have made the tracklist on Made in America - its more serious tone might have helped to balance out some of the airiness that was over-prevalent in the songs that made up the final cut.

Back to 'Prime Time Love' though, although it's not the most heavyweight of tracks, again it's one I quite enjoy now. It has a slightly more commercial feel than many of the other 1980/1981 tracks and again sounds better than several of those that made it onto Made in America, probably in part because Karen sounds more relaxed and 'present' on it than she did on other tracks from that era. I know some regard it as the weak link on Voice of the Heart, but it's far better to my ears than, say, 'You're Enough' or 'At the End of a Song'.

One thing that helps both 'Your Baby...' and 'Prime Time Love' though is that Richard's doing the backing vocals. I can only imagine that both wouldn't have been as effective if the Chorale had been drafted in as they were on so many of the Voice of the Heart tracks.
 
Last edited:
I wished someone who interviewed Richard during his retirement period had asked him if he regrets not using his and Karen's backing vocals instead of the OK Chorale. I'm sure he would have said no but wondered if he knew just how much the fans dislike that Chorale. It works on Christmas Portrait but should have stopped there.
 
I'm no fan of the choir either, but I cannot imagine how emotional it must have been for RC to record those backing vocals alone. Astonishing really. I suppose the other option would have been to use a KC-soundalike ...
 
The album , Voice of the Heart, was put together fairly quickly, initially set for Summer 1983 release (ref: 1983 People Magazine) .
As of the newspaper interviews of late 1983, Richard Carpenter was quite sold on the idea of utilizing the choir:
he says..." it's a beautiful combination--a great singer and a pop choir..."( ref: 1983 December 8, Lewiston Daily Sun).
After another spin of the record, I must say, most of the songs (for me)--including Prime Time Love and Your Baby--are quite good.
If not for "the Choir", I would like the album much more.
But, given his personal circumstances--at the time--Richard Carpenter probably did as well as can be done.
Can't we get an 'unplugged', acoustic version of the lead vocals ?
Is the Choir "locked" in to the Master Tape ( well, before the Big Fire) ?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom