Free Little Girl Blue by Randy L. Schmidt

“Candy.” The latter would later become “OneLove” on the 1971
Carpenters
album. Positioning microphones in the studio, Glen Pace, United Audio’s owner and engineer during the Spectrum sessions, noticed a young girl unpacking a set of Ludwigs. “Gee, your boyfriend has you trained really well,” he called out to her across the room.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Karen asked.
    â€œHe has you trained really well for you to come and set up his drums for him.”
    With a sheepish grin she replied, “
I’m
the drummer.”
    â€œThis was the first girl drummer I’d ever come across,” Pace explains.
    Unable to afford more studio time, Spectrum moved their recording sessions back to the Carpenters’ living room. Using Richard’s Sony Tapecorder, the group began making recordings at home and employing the bathroom as an echo chamber. A string of live performances arranged by Ed Sulzer found Spectrum at the legendary Troubadour in West Hollywood where every Monday night was Hoot Night. Dozens of acts lined up in the alley in hopes of securing a performance time slot. “ You had to wait in this huge line to play,” Karen explained to the
Los Angeles Times
in 1972. “I often stood there talking with kids, along with people like Jackson Browne and Brewer and Shipley.”
    Richard purchased a Wurlitzer 140-B electronic piano from Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and in keeping with his fascination with automobiles personalized the instrument with a 426 HEMI engine decal. Spectrum members routinely unloaded the station wagon and lugged the new Wurlitzer, drums, and various instruments and amplifiers down the alley and through the crowds to perform for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then they turned around and hauled everything back through the crowds to the car. “You should have seen us with our crew-cuts and blue velvet jackets,” says Leslie Johnston.
    Randy Sparks, who led a group called the New Christy Minstrels, heard Spectrum at the Troubadour and offered the group a week’s engagement at Ledbetter’s, his club on Westwood Boulevard. This was one of their first major paid engagements. “They were a bit more like a lounge act than a folk group,” Sparks says, “which was my niche in the business of music. But Karen was a wonderful singer, and theyhad a pleasing—if not exciting—sound. They were much appreciated by my crowd.” Sparks believed Karen and Richard each displayed unmistakable talent, far beyond that of the group’s other members. “The other folks in their band were essentially invisible, in my estimation.” As Spectrum spent several weeks on the stage at Ledbetter’s, Sparks witnessed their growth with each successive performance. “That’s what my operation was all about. Ledbetter’s was a place to perform, to experiment, to rehearse, and to develop skills in dealing with audiences.”
    Next, Sulzer booked Spectrum at the Whisky a Go-Go, where the group opened for Evergreen Blue Shoes, a band whose bass player, Skip Battin, would later join the Byrds. The Whisky (often misspelled “Whiskey”) was a popular nightclub on the Sunset Strip and inspiration for the Loggins and Messina song “Whisky.” Its lyric instructs:
    Don’t do anything mellow at the Whisky . . .
    Don’t sing anything pretty at the Whisky . . .
    â€™Cause if you do, your musical insurance better be paid up
    For the most part Spectrum was mellow and their music indisputably pretty. They did not stand a chance. “ The customers sat and listened to us,” Karen said of the engagement. “That wasn’t what the club wanted. If you sit, you don’t dance. If you don’t dance, you don’t get thirsty. In that case you don’t spend, so we were kicked out.”
    Karen also recalled opening for Steppenwolf at the Blue Law, a large warehouse-turned-club. “