After I assembled the Straight Outta Cleveland collection in '95, we tried to put together a concert to celebrate, but a Raspberries reunion was held to be essential to making the thing really go. I talked with Eric Carmen's brother, who was managing him at the time, and we went back and forth at some length, at one point even having a tentative go-ahead. But in the end we weren't able to put it together, much to my personal sorrow.
Nine years later, it appears that either Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson have let bygones be bygones in the interest of reigniting the artistic spark that once burned so synergistically between them; or they were both at total career dead-ends, had nothing to lose and perhaps something to gain after a 30-year hiatus from each other.
I will choose the former view because I love the Raspberries, one of the greatest power-pop bands of all time. As the Proprietor mentioned yesterday, the Raspberries are playing at the Cleveland House of Blues on November 26. I assume the lineup will be Carmen, Bryson, Dave Smalley, and Scott McCarl - the latter three reunited under the Raspberries name in '99 and put out an EP, Refreshed, but obviously it wasn't the same without Eric.
Why should anyone care? The Raspberries materialized like aliens on the landscape in 1972, recorded six certifiably great songs — "G oAll the Way," "Tonight," "I Wanna Be With You," "Overnight Sensation," "Let's Pretend," "Starting Over") in the course of three years and four albums, then dematerialized leaving only a vague sense impression behind of who or what they were.
The band was a victim of bad timing, musically recaptulating the '60s just a few years after the fact. Also, the Raspberries were a singles group at a time when albums had become the coin of the rock realm. Lastly, the group unabashedly sang about the joys and pains of youth with passion and emotional candor at time when cynicism and world-weariness were the dominant themes in rock 'n' roll (the breakup of the Beatles, Altamont, glitter rock, the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison) and in the news (Vietnam, Watergate, Kent State), leaving themselves in cultural limbo.
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Article comments
1 - Matt Wardlaw
Eric,
I am not from Cleveland originally, but I am definitely curious to check this out - this will be a great excuse to go to the House Of Blues - one of several shows I see on their calendar that interests me.
from what I understand from having gone to the website, and then also in the comments from one of the other postings, McCarl will not be a part of it. Jim Bonfanti will, however.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/05/music.raspberries.reut/index.html
2 - Eric Olsen
ah, thanks for the info and the link Matt!
3 - Tom
I and many others are in a near hysterical state over this news.
Already have tickets purchased...it's gonna be an incredible night.
4 - David P.
Hi Eric,
It's nice to get the scoop laid-out proper like you've done here!!
From a young consumers prospective, at the time, I didn't have anything else to go on, in regards to media truths, other than what was being put out over the airwaves. So,..my comment reads to you like this. I am not a professional music critic, ...but, ..I do know what I like in the music sphere. This band came out ( The Raspberries ) when I was a young teen. And; it was, in my opinion, "the America's Answer to the British Invasion," ..that I saw. I remember the big-band-sounds playing in my house, then Mr. Elvis Presley, then The Beatles, then The Raspberries. I've always loved quality sounds because my Dad and I built these little speakers, and this little light box, to go with my little stereo record player. (I even had a 45 dropdown-thing that let's stacks of 45's play without having to load each one of them, separately). "A TON of time was spent listening to that thing." Then, the "One-hit-Wonders" came out. The One-hit-Wonders kept going and going. Each week was another top-ten smash. "And they sounded great." Time was spent making each signature song unique. "And it showed!" And-all-the-while the Raspberries had their signature hits playing, too. A Long-story-short, I have heard quality recordings throughout the years, and this album Refreshed ranks amounst the best top ten renderings ever to come out of the Los Angeles area. It, to me, is a fifth wonderful job-well-done CD and needs to be/get reconized for it. It feels like you're sitting right there. It's a fun album (CD) to listen to, -being it's only 6 original songs long. But, the bench marks are there to show the world that, Eric Carmen is backed up by very talented Artists. "It is a Must-Have-CD, period!!" And...I'd like to personally thank Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley, Scott McCarl, and Eric Carmen....Along with Brian Barham, Jesse Benenati, ..and others, for their immense efforts in the business of -great song making- over their expansive careers. -David Petri (Independent)