OPO: Raspberries

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"I Don't Know What I Want" is indeed amazing; it even quotes "I'm A Boy"!

Apparently, Eric Carmen was a stone Who fanatic -- he called that song his "love letter to the Who" -- and his pre-Raspberries band Cyrus Erie once opened for the Who in Cleveland in 1968.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 13 May 2019 19:26 (four years ago) link

Yeah, he talks about how term Power Pop was originally used by Pete Townshend to describe what The Who was doing but the term ending up really sticking to The Raspberries, which was fine with him.

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 May 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link

Also, this is interesting:
http://www.ericcarmen.com/eric-interview-03.html

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 May 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link

Forgot that Wally Bryson was in Fotomaker, which band I can’t recall ever having listened to.

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 01:29 (four years ago) link

Probably did hear a radio promo for them and definitely saw the album in ye olde brick and mortar record stores.

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 01:33 (four years ago) link

Surely Pete Frame did a Family Tree for this stuff.

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 01:37 (four years ago) link

* checks book * dang, no

WmC, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link

Also, from that interview I posted yesterday:

I was a little bit in the dark initially about how this was all going to work and at one point Ringo I think could see that I was stressed. Simon and I were going to accompany him to a show while we were in Atlantic City that he was supposed to go to, and I arrived at his room first and he said something like, "I sense a bit of the perfectionist in you." *Laughs* "Not unlike Mark Hudson."

Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 10:23 (four years ago) link

two weeks pass...

*Bump*... two, three, four!

TS The Students vs. The Regents (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 31 May 2019 13:30 (four years ago) link

two months pass...

/Maybe they were too formulaic! "I Wanna Be with You" does that same thing, too, with a 6-bar verse and 16-bar chorus! To me, they are formulaic in an awesome way.


Great song but these lyrics have always been a bit 👀:

Hold me tight
Our love could live forever after tonight
If you believe in what we're doin' is right
Close your eyes and be still

Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 22 August 2019 04:36 (four years ago) link

five months pass...

Was just listening to a Stories song on a Left Banke playlist and kept thinking it was the Raspberries.

TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 31 January 2020 19:54 (four years ago) link

Similar vibe. Not as good though.

(includes digression on farting) (Tom D.), Friday, 31 January 2020 20:04 (four years ago) link

Ian Lloyd is a great (rock) singer though.

(includes digression on farting) (Tom D.), Friday, 31 January 2020 20:06 (four years ago) link

“Love Is In Motion.”

TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 31 January 2020 20:08 (four years ago) link

That's their best song but it's nothing like anything else they did.

(includes digression on farting) (Tom D.), Friday, 31 January 2020 20:17 (four years ago) link

Not being a Raspberries trivia geek, I didn't know until today they changed drummers between albums 3 and 4. Such great drumming on their stuff.

A perfect transcript of a routine post (Dan Peterson), Friday, 31 January 2020 20:43 (four years ago) link

Rhythm section changed between 3 & 4. It kind of weakens the band because the new guys didn't write as well.

a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 31 January 2020 21:28 (four years ago) link

Timely revive, as I went through my Raspberries vinyl in order this week. Think Side 3 is the best LP this go round (followed by Fresh).

a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 31 January 2020 21:31 (four years ago) link

for pure powerpop rush it's always "Tonight", for me

I wanna publish memes and rage against machimes (rip van wanko), Friday, 31 January 2020 22:08 (four years ago) link

six months pass...

'Come Around And See Me' keeps popping into my head, particularly the delightfully vari-speed 'Don't ever think I'll be cruel to you / I'm a fool for you / Come a-round, and, seee mmeeeeee' part

doorstep jetski (dog latin), Thursday, 6 August 2020 09:48 (three years ago) link

one year passes...

Posting here as well as Rolling Music Theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqYft12nV4

No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 August 2021 16:18 (two years ago) link

three months pass...

Reposting here so I don’t forget:
https://observer.com/2017/08/eric-carmen-raspberries-pop-art-live-interview/

“Whose songs are the hardest?” and the entire band swirled around and pointed at me and said, “Eric’s!”

People thought the Raspberry stuff was real simple. I remember I was trying to teach the band Go All The Way and Dave Edmunds looked at me at some point and he said, “For God’s sake there is a fucking chord for every word! I’ve never seen anything like this

Raw Like Siouxsie (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 December 2021 01:12 (two years ago) link

three months pass...

^I've never seen this before, unless of course it's upthread and I forgot.

Mardi Gras Mambo Sun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 March 2022 14:48 (two years ago) link

one year passes...

RIP Eric Carmen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqdiSN8aVIg

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 01:17 (one month ago) link

kind of insane how many great songs this dude wrote, absolute genius

just the other day I heard Hey Deanie and thought "dang this is really good who wrote this"

my opo is probably I Saw the Light

Florin Cuchares, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 01:28 (one month ago) link

I wouldn't call him a genius, but he reminds me of Tom Petty in that he was a master of his genre and no more but unlike Petty was prone to distraction. As a teen I was shocked that the guy responsible for "Make Me Lose Control" and "Hungry Eyes" wrote "Go All the Way."

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 01:37 (one month ago) link

aw man RIP! amazing artist — my discovery of the raspberries is probably upthread. shame he didn’t live to see america great once again

brony james (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 01:50 (one month ago) link

"Overnight Sensation" has more hooks than many bands manage in one song.

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 01:51 (one month ago) link

xp blech didn't realize that. His Twitter account no longer exists, but someone blogged in 2019 that "most of his feed is right wing nut jobbery now."

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 02:17 (one month ago) link

You’re right, I didn’t realize that!

The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 03:10 (one month ago) link

74-year-old white guy from Cleveland, checks out.

Ah. RIP Eric. V. talented dude.

man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 07:10 (one month ago) link

recently picked up the first raspberries record at a thrift store, really great RIP

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 13:11 (one month ago) link

i mentioned it upthread and it's atypical for carmen/the raspberries but "i don't know what i want" rules so hard

na (NA), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 13:24 (one month ago) link

^^ that one's a pretty successful Who rip

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 13:32 (one month ago) link

Had no idea Hungry Eyes was this dude.

(ㅇㅇ) (+ +), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 13:50 (one month ago) link

the followup "Make Me Lose Control" is a shameless late '80s yuppie-smarm move that works imo

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 14:11 (one month ago) link

xp I can't stand the film enough to sit through it, but one of the most horrid conceits about Dirty Dancing is how they anachronistically shove mucusy '80s shlock into a story that plays out in the summer of 1963. Anachronisms can be brilliant, but not in the service of horrendous taste.

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:40 (one month ago) link

yeah, you are way wrong. The movie's rather good, especially since it foregrounds the young heroine's sexuality: she wants this dancer and she gets him. And there's an abortion in this movie! And no one apologizes for it.

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:42 (one month ago) link

If you don't think "I've Had the Time of My Life" works in context as beautifully as Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" does in the seduction scene, then *throws hands up*

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:43 (one month ago) link

Movie not bad, but some people complain that for authenticity the music really should have been Latin, had the Latin Tinge.

There Will Come Claude Rains (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:59 (one month ago) link

The abortion was probably done well. It's not likely I've seen the whole movie - I've seen large chunks at different times - but the earliest bit of plot I can remember from the film was Orbach's father character finding out because they need his help and he gets really angry about it. But it sounds like I missed some crucial context and that would mean a lot in 1987.

Hate to say it, but I didn't enjoy the ending...again, given the way I probably saw it, maybe it needed some context or some kind of build because as-is it just seemed formulaic and corny.

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:05 (one month ago) link

(re: mean a lot in 1987, the idea that abortion is okay even if the elders don't think so )

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:06 (one month ago) link

Yeah sorry forgot about that mambo. I think some people wanted even more of that.

There Will Come Claude Rains (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:07 (one month ago) link

Formulaic and corny are the point of a musical!

Sorry. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze have genuine chemistry, and it was and remains fascinating that the liberal Jewish gamine seduces the Irish blockhead while an abortion happens around her.

And, to put a period on this discussion, for millions of us '80s kids we learned about "Be My Baby," "Stay," Otis Redding's great obscurity "Love Man," "Do You Love Me?" and Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" thanks to how forward this film was about sex.

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:08 (one month ago) link

I mean, I'm younger and gayer than you guys, so this film codes differently.

And ask the millions of young women who made it a staple of their coming-of-age.

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:08 (one month ago) link

the liberal Jewish gamine seduces the Irish blockhead while an abortion happens around her

To be fair, this does indeed sound interesting. Was Swayze's character Catholic?

birdistheword, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:10 (one month ago) link


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