We Can't Work It Out: Famous Feuds & Fallouts in Rock Music
Sep 23, 2026 · 31 min · 9 segments
By 1975, Karen Carpenter’s weight loss had become impossible to ignore. But her struggle did not begin with a dramatic collapse or a single cruel comment. It developed gradually through dieting…
She rode bicycles, delivered newspapers, played baseball, and threw herself into physical activity, but others occasionally teased her for being heavier than some of the other girls.
Ray Coleman reports that when children called her chubby around age ten, Karen defended herself by pointing out that all that activity had given her stronger muscles than theirs.
By seventeen, Karen was five feet four inches tall and weighed around one hundred forty-five pounds.
Richard sometimes teased his younger sister by calling her Fatso, and Karen shot back by calling him Four Eyes, apparently the sort of sibling needling neither of them regarded as ominous at the time.
Frankie Chavez, who knew Karen well during those years, remembered her as slightly overweight but confident and said he saw no indication that her size seriously troubled her.
In a 1973 interview, she described her younger self as much heavier and joked that an old high school sweater looked so large she could hardly believe she had once worn it.
Even in telling the story humorously, Karen was revealing how dramatically her perception of that earlier body had changed.
During the summer of 1967, Agnes took Karen to the family doctor for advice about losing weight.
He recommended the Stillman diet, a popular low-carbohydrate regimen that emphasized protein, avoided fatty foods, and required large amounts of water.
Karen hated drinking water, but she followed the plan rigidly and lost roughly twenty-five pounds.
The difficult part came after late-night rehearsals with Spectrum, the jazz group Richard and Karen joined while in high school.
The guys in the band would head to Coco’s and order burgers, milkshakes, and desserts while Karen remembered sitting there with a hamburger patty and cottage cheese.
It was frustrating, but she brought her weight down to around one hundred fifteen to one hundred twenty pounds and stayed there for years.
For roughly the next five years, people around her described someone who watched what she ate but didn’t starve herself, and Maria Galeazzi remembered Karen doing things as ordinary as choosing two strips of bacon instead of four or one egg instead of two.
Karen was especially self-conscious about her hips and wished for a straighter, less curvy silhouette.
During an early Japanese trip, she even brought along a bizarre inflatable device that wrapped around the hips and was supposed to help sweat away inches, the kind of fad weight loss contraption that seemed more ridiculous than dangerous at the time.
Millions of people diet, buy foolish exercise gadgets, and decide they want to lose five more pounds without developing an eating disorder.
For years, much of Karen’s behavior could still be interpreted as ordinary vanity or the familiar pressure placed on a young woman entering show business.
She rode bicycles, delivered newspapers, played baseball, and threw herself into physical activity, but others occasionally teased her for being heavier than some of the other girls.
Ray Coleman reports that when children called her chubby around age ten, Karen defended herself by pointing out that all that activity had given her stronger muscles than theirs.
By seventeen, Karen was five feet four inches tall and weighed around one hundred forty-five pounds.
Richard sometimes teased his younger sister by calling her Fatso, and Karen shot back by calling him Four Eyes, apparently the sort of sibling needling neither of them regarded as ominous at the time.
Frankie Chavez, who knew Karen well during those years, remembered her as slightly overweight but confident and said he saw no indication that her size seriously troubled her.
In a 1973 interview, she described her younger self as much heavier and joked that an old high school sweater looked so large she could hardly believe she had once worn it.
Even in telling the story humorously, Karen was revealing how dramatically her perception of that earlier body had changed.
During the summer of 1967, Agnes took Karen to the family doctor for advice about losing weight.
He recommended the Stillman diet, a popular low-carbohydrate regimen that emphasized protein, avoided fatty foods, and required large amounts of water.
Karen hated drinking water, but she followed the plan rigidly and lost roughly twenty-five pounds.
The difficult part came after late-night rehearsals with Spectrum, the jazz group Richard and Karen joined while in high school.
The guys in the band would head to Coco’s and order burgers, milkshakes, and desserts while Karen remembered sitting there with a hamburger patty and cottage cheese.
It was frustrating, but she brought her weight down to around one hundred fifteen to one hundred twenty pounds and stayed there for years.
For roughly the next five years, people around her described someone who watched what she ate but didn’t starve herself, and Maria Galeazzi remembered Karen doing things as ordinary as choosing two strips of bacon instead of four or one egg instead of two.
Karen was especially self-conscious about her hips and wished for a straighter, less curvy silhouette.
During an early Japanese trip, she even brought along a bizarre inflatable device that wrapped around the hips and was supposed to help sweat away inches, the kind of fad weight loss contraption that seemed more ridiculous than dangerous at the time.
Millions of people diet, buy foolish exercise gadgets, and decide they want to lose five more pounds without developing an eating disorder.
For years, much of Karen’s behavior could still be interpreted as ordinary vanity or the familiar pressure placed on a young woman entering show business.
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