Don_Krider's Full Review: Greatest by The Raspberries
"There were a handful of bands that I liked that my friends didn't particularly like ---Bowie, The Raspberries, The New York Dolls," drummer Clem Burke of Blondie told Modern Drummer magazine a few years back.
That's the way I felt at 15 when I first heard Raspberries on AM radio in late 1972. Nobody in high school liked them, but I did. While my buddies were digging ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers Band and Grand Funk, I was listening to Raspberries (along with The New York Dolls, Badfinger, Slade, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Sweet and others).
They had already scored a million-seller with "Go All The Way" that summer, but it was their second Top 20 hit, "I Wanna Be With You," which punched me in the face when it jumped out of my radio's speakers that December.
By the time I turned 16 on January 16, 1973, I was a Raspberrymaniac needing counseling ("...well, doctor, I scratched this sticker on a Raspberries album cover and it smelled of Raspberries and soon my hair length started to grow, I started dressing mod and..."). That month Raspberries were everywhere, it seemed.
I walked into an Ayr-Way store (now Target) and Raspberries' second album "Fresh," with four smiling guys in matching white suits on the cover, was the subject of an entire endcap display in the store's music department. A group of teen-aged girls were fondling the album's cover and it struck me that I had better get to know this band.
Then the Louisville Courier-Journal profiled the band in a January, 1973, article headlined "These Are The Raspberries - They Wanna Be Just Like The Beatles" and I was hooked. When their third Top 40 single, the ultimate teen romance song "Let's Pretend," came out that spring, I adored them.
I was probably feeling like Raspberries singer Eric Carmen did when he recalled seeing The Beatles in the 1964 film "A Hard Day's Night" for Rolling Stone magazine in 1988. He said, "I wanted to be on that train."
Raspberries were all over TV ("The Coliseum Concert" (a syndicated special with Raspberries, The Four Seasons, The Bee Gees and Sha Na Na, hosted by Keith Moon), "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," "The Midnight Special," "American Bandstand," "Flipside," "Mike Douglas," "The Bill Bixby Thanksgiving Special," "Go!") in 1973.
I saw them in Louisville on November 17, 1973, and fell in love with their third album, the cooly titled "Side 3," die-cut into a basket of Raspberries by the record company.
The band at the time was keyboardist/rhythm guitarist Eric Carmen, lead guitarist Wally Bryson, bassist Dave Smalley and drummer Jim Bonfanti. Nine days after I saw them, Dave and Jim left the group (I had nothing to do with it, I swear). The band continued on with Carmen, Bryson and two replacements (left-handed bassist Scott McCarl and drummer Michael McBride), produced a Rolling Stone magazine Album Of The Year with "Starting Over" in 1974 and then broke up for good in 1975.
You can see that final lineup of Raspberries singing "Go All The Way" live on "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" in 1974 by going cutting and pasting this URL into your browser:
After that, Carmen had a sometimes successful solo career (six studio albums and eight Top 40 hits, including "All By Myself," "Make Me Lose Control" and "Hungry Eyes"). Bryson formed a number of bands, most notably Fotomaker (scoring two Billboard Hot 100 hits with "Where Have You Been All My LIfe?" and "Miles Away") and The Bryson Group. Smalley and Bonfanti formed Dynamite who recorded an unreleased album, then parted ways, recently releasing albums of their own (Smalley solo and Bonfanti with the band Boxer).
But their solo efforts never were as much fun as Raspberries' music was and is.
Band members had told me the band would never reunite --- too much bad blood between them. But the guys have grown to understand that the past is best left alone and to concentrate on the future.
So, on November 26, 2004, Eric, Wally, Dave and Jim reunited for a sell-out concert for the grand opening of the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio. The two-and-a-half hour gig had sold out in four minutes on Ticketmaster, blowing everyone away. A New Year's Eve gig at the same venue and another show in Chicago in January of 2005 were equally successful --- fans from around the U. S. and from as far away as England, Japan and Europe flew in for the shows.
So, after 30 years apart, the original lineup intact, Raspberries are back. Their tour for 2005 has included gigs in Denver (with Alex Chilton rejoining the original members of The Box Tops), New York City (two sell-outs attended by Jon Bon Jovi, Little Steven and members of The Rascals), Cleveland (with The Knack opening), Atlantic City and Los Angeles (a gig attended by Rick Springfield, Paul Stanley of Kiss, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go's and members of The Romantics).
Elsewhere, Bruce Springsteen has introduced "All That Heaven Allows" on stage with a dedication to Raspberries.
The band is also receiving glowing reviews in Blender, The Big Takeover, Rolling Stone, USA Today, MOJO, Billboard, Guitar Digest and other publications.
Now, Capitol Records has unleashed the first U. S. CD since 1995's "Greatest Hits." This one's called "Greatest" (their was a redone version of "Greatest Hits" with bonus tracks in 2000, but it was pulled from circulation after some copies got out on the BMG Music Service --- it remains an "unofficial" release).
Raspberries CDs have been popular in Japan and England for years, but having a new U. S. release in record store bins is something to celebrate (unless you like buying expensive imports).
The band's fans have included Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, John Lennon, Blink 182, Hanson, Kurt Cobain, Axl Rose, Elton John (who put Raspberries singles in his jukebox on his 1974 tour), The Sex Pistols, Cheap Trick, The Ramones, Kiss (Paul Stanley saw the band at Carnegie Hall in 1973, as did Todd Rundgren), Courtney Love, The Runaways, Enuff Z'Nuff, Poison, Tom Petty, Motley Crue (who covered the band's "Tonight"), The Bay City Rollers (who covered the band's "Let's Pretend"), Shaun Cassidy (who scored hits with Carmen's post-Raspberries' penned "Hey Deanie" and "That's Rock 'n' Roll") and others.
This CD shows why the songwriting of Raspberries, all original material written by the band's members, is so well-respected. As Bruce Springsteen said of Raspberries music in an interview with USA Today, "They were great little pop records. I loved the production, and when I went into the studio a lot of things we did were like that."
This CD:
"Greatest" was released in May of 2005 in the USA and Europe by Capitol/EMI. While all the tracks have been previously released and the CD doesn't include the legendary demos from that pulled from circulation collection, it does feature 20 tracks with a generous running time of 78:53 minutes.
Each of those 78:53 minutes has been 24-bit digitally remastered from the original master tapes --- the sound is clearer than anything else by the band that's on the market as a result (the vocals are clear and the instrumentation sounds better than ever).
The CD liner notes are by Ken Sharp, a contributing editor of the Kiss fanzine and co-author with Bernie Hogya ("The Milk Mustache Book") of the 2004 biography, "Eric Carmen: Marathon Man." Sharp gives a brief history of the band and the reunion in his CD notes.
The CD booklet, 10-pages in length, is of the fold-out variety. Each track includes commentary by the band's members taken from interviews done by Sharp.
The emphasis is on tunes from the original lineup, but a few tracks by the final version of the band (with bassist Scott McCarl and drummer Michael McBride on the final album) are included. Strangely absent are Dave Smalley's "Should I Wait" and "Hard To Get Over A Heartbreak," Bryson's George Harrison-ish "Might As Well," Carmen's "On The Beach" and Carmen-McCarl's "Play On."
Still, no complaints about what is here. There are 20 of the band's 39 recorded tracks (1972-74) on this release and, believe it or not, they are all great (how many albums can you say that about?).
Included are all seven of Raspberries' Hot 100 singles.
You can view the cover at: http://raspberries.net/images/001_album_000.jpg
You can listen to clips of all 20 tracks at Rolling Stone magazine's Raspberries page: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/7299159/theraspberries?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1
You can read the Capitol/EMI press release at: http://epk.radioandrecords.com/raspberries/press.asp
The 20 tracks:
"Go All The Way" (# 5 in 1972), "Come Around And See Me," "Don't Want To Say Goodbye" (# 86, 1972, their first single features a beautiful duet by Carmen and Bryson), "I Saw The Light," "I Can Remember," "I Wanna Be With You" (# 16, 1972-73), "Drivin' Around," "Let's Pretend" (# 35, 1973), "I Reach For The LIght" and "Nobody Knows."
Also, "If You Change Your Mind," "Tonight" (# 69, 1973), "I'm A Rocker" (#94, 1973), "Ecstasy" and "Last Dance."
Also, "I Don't Know What I Want," "Cruisin' Music" (later covered by The Rubinoos), "Starting Over," "Party's Over" and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" (# 18, 1974).
Recommendation:
Raspberries' desire was to bring the sound of the heroes of the 1960's into the 1970's and to update that sound. The sound was a unique blending of The Who, The Small Faces, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Free and The Everly Brothers --- rich in harmony and dynamite in instrumentation.
The band could produce an explosive rocker ("I Don't Know What I Want," "Tonight," "Ecstacy"), offer power pop anthems ("Go All The Way," "I Wanna Be With You") or deliver a wet kiss with their tear-jerking ballads ("Let's Pretend," "Starting Over," "Don't Want To Say Goodbye").
They also produced "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)," named Rolling Stone magazine's # 1 single of 1974 (it peaked at # 18 on the Billboard charts). The magazine chose the song in 1988 as one of their "100 Greatest Singles Of The Rock Era" (Spin magazine chose "Go All The Way" for a similar list).
In the year 2000, Britain's MOJO magazine named Raspberries as one of its "100 Essential Cult Bands."
I highly recommend "Greatest" by Raspberries --- and thanks to the band for reuniting and giving me a chance to be 16 again!
Standout tracks:
"Ecstasy":
Easily my favorite Raspberries' track --- great guitar-driven rocker, a bit Small Faces, a lot like The Who and all Raspberries when you put it together. Released as a single in February of 1974, the single bombed, but it remains a great track from their "Side 3" album. This is the Eric Carmen I like best: full of youthful excitement and singing an energetic rocker.
"When I think of all your lovin' / it makes me shiver / 'cause when I get you home / just wait 'til I get you alone / ecstasy, when you touch me I'm in ecsatsy..."
"Go All The Way":
From Wally Bryson's memorable guitar intro through Eric Carmen's ultra-sweet lead vocal, "Go All The Way" is one of those songs that is great to wake up to in the morning or to hear three decades after its release on a classic rock radio station while driving the car --- the kind of tune that makes you roll down the windows, crank up the volume so everyone can hear, put on some sunglasses and drive around believing you look cooler than you really are.
The Carmen-penned song was Raspberries' second single and rose to # 5 on the Billboard pop charts, eventually selling 1.3 million copies and earning a Gold Record Award. If you saw the Cameron Crowe film "Almost Famous," you've heard the song (Crowe, by the way, wrote the introduction to the recent biography, "Eric Carmen: Marathon Man" by Bernie Hogya and Ken Sharp, and is a huge Raspberries' fan).
"...before her love I was cruel and mean / I had a hole in the place where my heart should have been / but now I've changed / and it feels so strange / I come alive when she does all those things to me / and she says / ... / please, go all the way..."
"I Wanna Be With You":
Released in 1972, "I Wanna Be With You" was the band's second of three Top 20 hits and peaked at # 16 in early 1973. Another Carmen-penned classic, Jim Bonfanti's opening drum roll and Wally Bryson's energetic 12-string guitar intro kick the song immediately into high gear.
Eric Carmen, quite simply, has one of the most unique and best-sounding voices as a lead singer --- capable of great range, the guy is like Paul McCartney and capable of singing gently on a ballad or screaming like a madman on a rocker, but he always keeps the vocal listenable no matter what he is singing.
On "I Wanna Be With You," Carmen casts himself as the lustful youth in his lyrics as the band sings behind his lead vocal as if to encourage his lust: "If we were older / we wouldn't have to be worried tonight / baby oh (oh!) I wanna be with you / So bad (yeah, I wanna be with you)..."
"Let's Pretend":
Raspberries hit # 35 in the sping of 1973 with "Let's Pretend," which charted in the Billboard Hot 100 for 16 weeks. It might have charted higher, but radio deejays hate a song that has no instrumental intro that they can talk over (the song kicks off with Eric singing "I can't sleep nights...").
The song is a ballad, but with a Byrds-sounding bounce to its melody. I love this song as much now as I did then --- I was 16 after all and "falling in love" (not with much success, I'll admit) with every pretty girl I saw when this came out, so it has a lot of memories for me.
With Bryson singing underneath Eric's lead vocal, and the band's harmonies sounding better than ever, Eric is Brian Wilson here, echoing the sentiment of The Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice," as he sings to the girl of his dreams:
"...baby let's pretend / we could always live together / but for now just let me / spend the night with you..."
The song was later covered by The Bay City Rollers, who, like Raspberries, were produced by Jimmy Ienner (Grand Funk, Blood Sweat & Tears, Lighthouse, "Dirty Dancing").
"I Reach For The Light":
Raspberries became The Beatles for this track, complete with "Penny Lane" sounding Bach trumpet and a Tony Camillo string/horn arrangement (Tony had a hit of his own in 1975 with Tony Camillo's Bazuka called "Dynomite - Part 1" that hit # 10).
You'd swear George Martin was producing, but producer Jimmy Ienner was a genius at recreating sounds in the studio with engineer Shelly Yakus (U2, Tom Petty, Cutting Crew) and assistant engineer Dennis Ferrante (Linda Ronstadt).
It's 1967 on Carnaby Street in London's west end and Raspberries are The Beatles on "I Reach For The Light." As Eric plays a bright piano melody and strings swell around him, Eric laments about a lover:
"...I reach for the light / it shines above my head / reveals the bed that you're not in / I reach for the light / it shines across the room / and brings to mind what might have been..."
"Nobody Knows":
Eric Carmen tried to be Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Steve Marriott (Small Faces) and Rod Stewart at times in his career, but he said in a 1973 interview that "Paul McCartney was my biggest influence and my own style developed out of that."
On no song is that McCartney-influence more apparent than it is in Eric's "Nobody Knows," with its "Beatles '65" swagger and uptempo acoustic guitar melody as Eric sings of a lost love.
"...now those smiles and looks upon her face / are meant for someone else whose in my place / and he's her lover the way I used to be / nobody knows / what it does to me..."
"Tonight":
A song that truly kicks some butt, "Tonight" sounds like Raspberries do in concert: energetic, gutsy, cocky.
Sizzling guitar from Bryson, throbbing bass from Smalley and maniac drumming from Bonfanti underscore Eric's husky voice on this Small Faces ("Tin Soldier") meet The Move ("Do Ya") classic.
This song is about sex, pure and simple. The track is soaked in the band's lust-inspired sweat (no wonder Motley Crue covered the tune). That it peaked at # 69 in Billboard is ironic. It should have been Top 40 (but why did Eric sing "bop-om-doo-don o-mop shoop" in the chorus? Seriously, that's in the songbook for the "Side 3" album the tune comes from!).
"...I'll be with you tonight / tonight, you'll love me too, tonight..."
"Last Dance":
Wally Bryson (who was in The Choir in 1967 with Smalley and Bonfanti when they scored a # 68 hit with "It's Cold Outside") wrote "Last Dance," one of my personal favorites.
It's a Byrds-inspired (think "Turn! Turn! Turn!") country-rock number that showed a more playful side of the band. Wally (part Cherokee and son of a Corregidor veteran) is just the coolest guy on stage, and when he plays this live the stage shakes as he stomps to the beat. Some brightly played guitar and some great fiddle playing accent the tune.
"...if I had the chance with you / I'd ask for the last dance with you / we'd dance away into the night..."
The tune has since been covered by Swinger (and has nothing at all to do with Donna Summers' song of the same name)
"I Don't Know What I Want":
What Rolling Stone magazine called "the ultimate Who tribute," "I Don't Know What I Want" should have been a single. In one song, Carmen molds melodies from several Who songs into one terrific mold. The result is stunning.
Perhaps inspired by having The Who's Keith Moon play drums for them live at The Whiskey in Los Angeles in April of 1974, Carmen wrote this tune for the band's final album. Carmen is Roger Daltrey here on lead vocals. The windmilling guitar-style of Wally Bryson is Pete Townshend reborn.
The song is one of teenage frustration and at 17 I loved it --- I was pretty rebellious at the time and this was the perfect venting of my situation at the time. This one rocks from the opening firebell (stolen from a Holiday Inn, legend has it) through the final guitar slashing.
"My old man says success is the measure / may be so but I don't need the pressure / not right now 'cause I got enough / teachers tell me I don't lack the brains / ask if I'm under some kind of strain / well that's too much and I really can't take it / ... / I don't know what I want / but I want it now..."
Well-said Mr. Carmen, well-said.
"Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)":
Beating the hell out of the old "please Mr. Deejay play my record" tunes, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" hit # 18 in 1974 and was the band's last Top 40 hit.
Carmen's crowning achievement, the song began life as "Hit Record" (Eric just liked the idea of deejays having to say "here's that new hit record, 'Hit Record,' by Raspberries") but the record company didn't like the title so the title was changed by Capitol Records before release to its final form.
It's a tune full of music industry references like "bullet" (a Billboard magazine term for songs with the greatest chart movement), "demo" (a demonstration recording of a song before its final mixing) and "A slot" (in the glory days of Top 40 AM radio, this was the time slot right after the news played at the top of the hour when the largest number of radio listeners were available to hear a song).
"...I've been trying to write the lyric / not offensive but satiric, too / if you can get it in the 'A' slot / it's just gotta make a mint for you / and I want a hit record / want to hear it on the radio / want a big hit record / one that everybody's got to own / overnight sensation..."
Trivia note:
Jimmy Iovine (who later engineered or produced U2, The Pretenders, Patti Smith, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks, and who later founded Interscope Records) was assistant engineer on Raspberries' final studio album, "Starting Over," in 1974.
Tracks on this CD with Iovine's hands in the mix are "I Don't Know What I Want," "Cruisin' Music," "Starting Over," "Party's Over" and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)."
JUST RELEASED
Live On Sunset Strip (Deluxe Edition of 2 CDs and a DVD recorded during the 2005 reunion tour) By Raspberries, a 2007 Rykodisc release with liner notes byBruce Springsteen and a photo of John Lennon in a Raspberries sweatshirt in the CD booklet, produced by Mark Linett and Eric Carmen: http://www.epinions.com/content_393207123588
"Raspberries TONIGHT!" by Bernie Hogya and Ken Sharp with photography by Gene Taylor --- a full-color, 100-page paperback book about the 2004-2005 Raspberries reunion tour: http://www.epinions.com/content_217001201284
News from the tour
Rocky Mountain News, June 30, 2005, interview with Eric Carmen and Jim Bonfanti: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_3892245,00.html
On the web
That Modern Drummer magazine interview with Blondie's Clem Burke praising Raspberries: http://www1.minn.net/~egusto/a83.htm
Official Raspberries site: http://www.raspberriesonline.com
View Raspberries videos for free online at: http://www.raspberriesonline.com/video.html
Related CD reviews
"Reflections: Side 3 - Songs From The Raspberries Fan Community" by various artists is a tribute album that benefits the VH-1 Save The Music Foundation: http://www.epinions.com/content_271718911620
The Sittin' Ducks featuring Wally Bryson of Raspberries with Dan Klawon and Kenny Margolis, Wally's bandmates in The Choir (see their "Choir Practice" CD): http://www.epinions.com/content_239152434820
"Starting Over" by Raspberries (one of seven albums named Album Of The Year in 1974 by Rolling Stone magazine): http://www.epinions.com/content_152728538756 (hit # 143 in 1974)
"Choir Practice" by The Choir CD (featuring Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti): http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-49D-59376F6-385D8FD9-prod3 (available in either CD or vinyl from Sundazed Records, the manufacturer, at http://www.sundazed.com).
"Refreshed" by "The Raspberries" ("reunion" album from 2000 with Raspberries' veterans Bryson, Smalley and McCarl and using "The" in front of Raspberries' name for the first time --- the band never called themselves "The Raspberries" during their original existance, 1970-75)): http://www.epinions.com/content_20892847748
Erc Carmen produced a brilliant solo album in 1977, "Boats Against The Current," which features guests including Burton Cummings of The Guess Who, Andrew Gold, Nigel Olsson of The Elton John Band, Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys, Jeff Porcaro of Toto and the hit single "She Did It": http://www.epinions.com/content_113921527428
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