Touch Me When We're Dancing - Top Pop 1981 Clip RARE

[newvillefan]

This is the European TV appearance from October 1981 that many of us have talked about and searched for, for years and years. And it's finally surfaced! The quality is amazing.

Thanks to Paul Ashurst for this amazing find!

http://www.avro.tv/en/video/580/toppop-the-carpenters-touch-me-when-we-re-dancing

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

WOW!!!
This qualifies as the rare find of the year, maybe the decade. The naked statue video lol, I've been wanting to see this for sooo long. I'm amazed at how clean this video is, like being there. It's such a shame, Richard looks so good while Karen getting worse. If you look past the fraility and her disease, she was such a pretty woman. We have only seen photos from this event, this is so cool to finally see the video.

Stephen, please let Paul know how much we appreciate this find!!!

 

[milwaukeeburt]

Very bittersweet. I prefer to remember Karen from MMM videos in this phase of the Cs career. Her appearance here is unsettling, but I admire their commitment to "keep going" even though they should have stopped and focused on getting healthy.

 

[newvillefan]

WOW!!!
This qualifies as the rare find of the year, maybe the decade. The naked statue video lol, I've been wanting to see this for sooo long. I'm amazed at how clean this video is, like being there. It's such a shame, Richard looks so good while Karen getting worse. If you look past the fraility and her disease, she was such a pretty woman. We have only seen photos from this event, this is so cool to finally see the video.

Stephen, please let Paul know how much we appreciate this find!!!

Oh he already knows Chris, don't worry!

The loveliest thing about this video is Karen's facial expressions around the 1m44s mark, she was just gorgeous despite her being painfully thin. A few people on the Newville Avenue facebook page have commented how she looks better on this video than she did two months earlier, when they shot the interview segment for 'Good Morning America' and I have to say, I agree.

Incidentally (and Harry I hope I am ok to post this here given our recent debate), I was able to download that clip directly from the page it's on, so it's now on youtube too. It's such a monumental find, I just had to share the love

 

[Chris]

Wonderful to finally see this. Thanks Stephen and Paul!
I agree with you all that even though she was in poor shape at this point, you can still see how lovely she was. It's always so much fun to see another rare Carpenters performance. Thank you!

 

[Harry]

Incidentally (and Harry I hope I am ok to post this here given our recent debate), I was able to download that clip directly from the page it's on, so it's now on youtube too. It's such a monumental find, I just had to share the love

It's not a problem as far as we're concerned here. It's a rare clip - what YouTube was designed for from my perspective. It's not a link to the whole catalog.

Interesting clip, by the way.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Thanks Stephen for the extra info, I got it!!
This is awesome!!
It's amazing how this stuff pops up after all these years.

 

[ullalume]

Just when you think there's nothing left in the coffers, along comes a crisp little number like this.

Great stuff guys, thanks so much. This song really was one of their best.

Neil

 

[LondonRobert]

That was lovely to see, thank you very much.........

I think as I'm getting older I'm getting more sentimental and I keep thinking, what if she were still here? How utterly sad what happened, happened......

Brings it all back when I see new clips like this,but no, i must be positive and think about all the lovely music we DO have.
Think I'm gonna put a Christmas Portrait on again, that will cheer me up.

Regards
Bob

 

[newvillefan]

One thing that does cross my mind...I wonder when was the last time Richard saw this particular clip? He is reknowned for recording their performances on TV through the years but was he still doing this by 1981? This is really, really rare and for it to surface in 2012, when it was recorded in 1981? I just wonder that's all. I'd love to sit with him and go through his video catalogue and chat with him about his memories

 

[song4u]

One thing that does cross my mind...I wonder when was the last time Richard saw this particular clip? He is reknowned for recording their performances on TV through the years but was he still doing this by 1981? This is really, really rare and for it to surface in 2012, when it was recorded in 1981? I just wonder that's all. I'd love to sit with him and go through his video catalogue and chat with him about his memories

It could be that he just doesn't like pictures or video clips out there where Karen looked soooooo thin. After seeing all the nice videos and pictures that people post on the internet, something like this one - although a good performance - well, it's just painful to see how thin she must have been under the jacket she's wearing. Those must be difficult memories for Richard and others close to her.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

If only Richard was into the video as much as the audio mixing, I think we would have much more released. I just don't think he is a fan of the video performances. Remember the BBC was close to being released on DVD and I believe it was Yuko that mentioned Richard blocked it's release. In addition, if you listen to him narrate some of their videos from the bonus CD, you can hear him not happy about some of them, even mentioning that Karen looked pretty bad on Beechwood video and the plane video well he hates that one. It's too bad that video was used to promote "I Need To Be In Love" That song deserved a much better presentation.

 

[song4u]

[quote=". . . and the plane video well he hates that one. It's too bad that video was used to promote "I Need To Be In Love" That song deserved a much better presentation.[/quote]
'The Love Plane" he called it. I don't blame him about that one.

 

[Mark-T]

I noticed on this video, she is wearing her wedding rings.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Good eye Mark, I didn't notice that.

It's really amazing how close up the camera gets to Karen on some of these shots, especially the last shot.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Stephen, I know this is offtopic but on that site you posted with the video, if you do a search for Abba, it comes up with a video called ABBA - S.O.S. -Toppop was this video ever released on DVD, I'm trying to think if I have it on any of the collections I have but I don't think I have ever seen this one. Agnetha looks amazing here.

 

[LondonRobert]

I think Agnetha always looked amazing - but she looked particularly amazing when she didn't have that radioactive vast blue eyeshadow on!! Without it i think her natural beauty shone through without you being distracted by all that blue!

 

[RainyDays]

The only other time I think we saw some of this was on a BBC(?) docu about them, where we saw literally only a few seconds of this performance

 

[RainyDays]

This is cool but sad to watch. The darkness and desperation in those eyes... She should never have been allowed on camera looking that way, including the GMA broadcast. CarpenterS rare finds is like early Christmas!

 

[newvillefan]

I noticed on this video, she is wearing her wedding rings.

Remember, this was mid October so she was officially still with Tom Burris. For those of you who, like me, enjoy understanding the timeline...from Holland, they flew to London for the 'meet and greet' appearance with the public at Harrod's store and TV appearances on Swap Shop and Nationwide on 24th/25th October (the latter being the infamous interview where Sue Lawley confronted her about anorexia and her weight). They had dinner with Peter Knight and his wife the evening of 25th October and then flew back to California pretty much right after that. It wasn't until two weeks later on November 8th, after the dinner for Harold's birthday, that she and Tom officially split up. So that's the period of her life we're looking at when you watch this video, Karen around 3 weeks away from the split with Tom, hovering around her lowest weight and probably her lowest ebb. It's very sad to see when you put it all into context.

Interestingly, regarding the wedding rings, she carried on wearing them until she'd actually started therapy sessions with Steven Levekron in New York. It's only there that she took them off in his office one day during a session and told Steven she was starting divorce proceedings. Which makes me wonder whether, initially after that split back at Newville Avenue, she held out some hope of a reconciliation. That's something I don't think anyone's questioned before...

She should never have been allowed on camera looking that way, including the GMA broadcast.

It's really amazing how close up the camera gets to Karen on some of these shots, especially the last shot.

I too thought this when watching it, the camera goes in for some really close facial shots and it just emphasises her weight loss. She turns to the side at one point and you can see her jawline very clearly. If you compare this footage with the official videos for this song, Those Good Old Dreams and Beechwood, they never let the camera get anywhere as near.

 

[byline]

Interestingly, regarding the wedding rings, she carried on wearing them until she'd actually started therapy sessions with Steven Levekron in New York. It's only there that she took them off in his office one day during a session and told Steven she was starting divorce proceedings. Which makes me wonder whether, initially after that split back at Newville Avenue, she held out some hope of a reconciliation. That's something I don't think anyone's questioned before...

I recall a segment of Randy's book which talks about a period after Harold's birthday party when apparently Karen and Tom got back together. It had to do with her paying for a very expensive kitchen renovation of a house that she did not own. That's when she found out that he'd defaulted on the car he gave her, and Lord knows what else. So maybe for a brief period she did hope that he would find it in his heart to change. But leopards don't change their spots ... as she all too painfully discovered.

 

[andywithaz]

Thanks for posting this! I had never even heard of it before today.

WOW...those statues! It's kinda odd that Richard and Karen's conservative clothes clash with those golden penis statues. But hey, it's Europe. Did Karen's shoulder pads get their own billing? Hah.

Yes, Karen looks quite sick here, but the video is still beautiful, and it's in such pristine quality!

 

[BarryT60]

Interestingly, regarding the wedding rings, she carried on wearing them until she'd actually started therapy sessions with Steven Levekron in New York. It's only there that she took them off in his office one day during a session and told Steven she was starting divorce proceedings. Which makes me wonder whether, initially after that split back at Newville Avenue, she held out some hope of a reconciliation. That's something I don't think anyone's questioned before...


I think with most women, the rings are the last to go.... no matter the condition of the relationship.... I think they still hold out hope til they know it indeed is the very end....

 

[byline]

Has this video been posted here yet? It looks to be from a similar time frame ... and is similarly painful to watch:

 

[newvillefan]

This is indeed from October 1981, filmed in Paris as part of the European tour before they went to London and on home to California.