Duane

WOW!!!

Lew...while I can agree with your examples, I can't get those two lines out of my head!

It's great reading these old threads. Hard to believe this was 8 years ago. I still agree with every word I wrote then. Eric's talent still amazes me. "I don't know how you turn off a talent like that, but if he never writes another line, he has given me (and others) a lifetime of great music".

We'll see in a few years!

I guess in 1980, a manly man couldn't say, "I felt like cryin'" I agree with you 100% that "sometimes the rhyming words feel too forced". I just don't feel it very often with EC's songs.

LC...thanks! I guess Andy is still in Canada. I hope he finds his way back here!

Kirk...thanks for digging up that thread. I had forgotten about that. I enjoyed reading it again. Funny that I started that one almost 8 years ago exactly. Must be something about April! That was definitely what I was fishing for when I wrote it. I was hoping it would start a conversation that would allow me to bring up She Remembered and Runaway. I agree with you on Tonight You're Mine, also. I still think that "put my hand in her pants" line was intentionally crude...just don't know why. I wished EC would have jumped deep into that thread. There were several great questions and comments that I would have loved to heard his opinions on.

Lew...I see your point(s) and somewhat agree with your examples. I know we're all different, but...lyrics mean so much to me. My buddy David has told me many times that he doesn't care if a song has lyrics or not. It's always been hard for me to understand that mindset.

First of all, let me say that I LOVE "She Remembered" and "Runaway". They are two of my favorite Eric Carmen songs. But...they both have one lyric that has driven me crazy for years. I never had the nerve to write this before, especially when EC was active here. It always felt sacrilegious to question the song writing of Eric Carmen. Who am I to do that? The man is a genius. Things are different now (although he's still a genius). While the message boards were shut down, I regretted never getting it off my chest. I thought that I had lost my chance forever. Now that I've been given another chance, I'm not going to pass it up. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject, just go easy on me. I'll post the lyrics below, but here is the gist of "She Remembered". A guy is going to his high school reunion. He's anxious to see a girl that he had feelings for back then...and apparently still does. He wonders if she will even remember him...that maybe what they had didn't mean the same to her. Was it love or just another high school fling? It turns out that she was worried about the same thing...that he wouldn't remember her. It's a sweet, beautiful song with a story of young love that we can all relate to. We either lived it or wished that we had lived it. There is such an innocence to this high school love affair. Therein lies the rub...to me, anyway. The line "makin love 'neath the stars" bothers me for so many reasons. By making the relationship sexual, the song loses its innocence. I'm not a prude, but it just doesn't feel right. I would hate to think that anybody...male or female...would not remember somebody that they made love with in high school. Both people in this song wonder if the other one will remember them. How much sex did those two people have in high school??!! It would feel different if this was about a relationship in their 20's or 30's, but it's high school. I also know that, with Eric being a musician, his high school experience was different from mine. But this is not a song about a relationship with a band groupie or a one night stand. If I recall correctly, it wasn't even about a real relationship. The girl that inspired this song was a girl that EC once had a crush on, but never dated. He was just anxious to see her at a reunion. Therefore, the line in the song is just words and maybe I shouldn't take it so literal. Then again, that's why most of us are here. We pay too much attention to lyrics and that's why we appreciate Eric's songwriting talents. In "Nowhere to Hide" he wrote about a "high school dance"..."when a kiss was something special". That's how I always wanted this song to go. In my mind, I think the line should be something like "holding hands 'neath the stars". That would lead perfectly into..."oh, the world was so much younger then...when we kissed and my heart stood still...I said, I loved her and I always will". The song would retain it's innocence and it would be perfectly understandable for both of them to wonder if it meant as much to the other one as it did to them. Would he/she remember me? Every time I listen to this song, I plug in "holding hands" in my mind. Maybe I'm being silly, but I remember when holding hands "was something special". It changes the whole song for me. When Andy used to post his great covers of EC songs, I wanted to ask him for a private cover of "She Remembered" for me...with the edited line. Not to be posted on here or youtube. I just wanted to hear it sung that way one time (well, probably hundreds of times!). I could never bring myself to write this back then, so I never asked him. BTW...I miss Andy! Feels good to finally get it off my chest. Even if you don't agree with me, I hope I haven't offended anyone. I know this song is pretty special to a lot of people, including myself. Darlene's favorite song lyric ever was "dreams are forever and some things you never forget". BTW...I miss Darlene!...and etc., etc., etc. SHE REMEMBERED I went back to my class reunionI was wondering how my friends have changedI was thinking bout a certain girlI was hoping to find thereI walked in and she caught my eyeThough she was standing with another guyAll the years seemed to fade awayCould it be she still rememberedShe remembered, it was so long agoCould we ever feel that way againShe remembered, making love 'neath the starsOh, the world was so much younger thenWhen we kissed and my heart stood stillI said, I loved her and I always will'Cause dreams are foreverAnd some things you never forget"She introduced me to the guy she was withThen I asked her if she'd like to danceWe hit the floor as the band beganOur favorite old slow songI pulled her close and to my surpriseI heard her whisper as she closed her eyes"God it's just like it used to beI wasn't sure if you'd remember" I remember, it was so long agoCould we ever feel that way againI remember, making love 'neath the starsOh, the world was so much younger thenWhen we kissed and my heart stood stillI said, I loved her and I always will'Cause dreams are foreverAnd some things you never forgetOh darlin', please don't try and understand itLet's be fools for one moment in timeAfter all, this is not as if we planned itJust hold me close and remember when you used to be mineI remember when she remembered, it was so long agoCould we ever feel that way againShe remembered making love 'neath the starsOh, the world was so much younger thenWhen we kissed and my heart stood stillI said, I loved her and I always will'Cause dreams are foreverAnd some things you never forgetWell, dreams are foreverAnd some things you never forget

I always loved this album. I usually skipped a couple of the songs, so I'm not going to rank them. I will say that "Foolin' Myself" is my favorite song on the album...and one of my all time favorite EC songs. "All For Love" is number 2 for me, and 3 through 6 change all the time. Since "It Hurts Too Much" wasn't the hit for EC that it should have been, I always thought it would have been perfect for Bruce Springsteen to cover during his big Born in the USA run of the mid 80's. His voice would have done the song justice and I think it would have been a big hit for him, considering his popularity at that time (Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark, Glory Days, I'm on Fire, etc.). It just seemed, to me, to be a perfect match for his voice and his style at that time.

I remember some of the promotions for The Essential Eric Carmen back in March of 2014 were posted here. Some were audio interviews where they would talk to Eric about the remastering of the songs, the history of the songs, etc. Eric used to enjoy talking and writing about music...his own and other's. (The most life this site ever had was when Eric was participating. We loved it when he weighed in on any subject). He also talked about a possible tour, but....he mentioned the costs of doing a concert to his standards might prevent a tour from happening. That's when I thought about this. I knew how much we loved to hear him talk about his music, and we had so many questions. I didn't care if the music was live, maybe nobody else would either. I thought a Q and A would be right up Eric's alley. This format seemed perfect to me. He could talk all he wanted, play a song, and talk some more. We would eat it up. A Meet and Greet would be icing on the cake! I was going to wait to see if any concerts actually happened before I suggested it, then my life changed. My wife, who had health issues anyway, had a blood clot that caused emergency surgery on May 20, 2014. She survived the surgery but spent the next two weeks in ICU, mostly sedated. Just when we thought she was recovering, she coded and passed away on June 4th, 2014. I didn't listen to any music for quite a while. I didn't even have the radio on in my car. I lost all interest in this site and everything else. By the time I came back, this site was pretty dead. Eric had left the site and a lot of the regulars had moved on to facebook and/or twitter. Bernie finally pulled the plug on the place. I thought everything was gone forever. I was very excited to get a message from Elle saying that Bernie was firing the message boards back up! Thanks, Bernie!!! It's been nice to see some of my favorite people back on the boards, along with some new ones. I've also enjoyed reading a lot of the old threads. It felt good to finally get this off my chest, even though I know the odds of Eric ever doing anything now are slim. I just wish he would visit the site from time to time. Thanks for listening to me. I've got a couple more topics that I've got to get out at some point soon! P.S. - I'm doing fine now. After 4 years of telling people that I would never date or marry again, I crossed paths with a girl I went to high school with. She's a very popular retired middle school teacher and had never married. She was just waiting for me. We met at a weekly trivia game after being invited by a mutual friend. After months of talking and texting, we decided to try dating. It was both the scariest thing and the easiest thing that I'd ever done. Everything just clicked and fell into place. I had to deal with some guilt, but I knew I had my late wife's blessing. She knew she didn't have a lot of years left and talked about it from time to time. I told her that I would never remarry and she told me that she didn't want me to be alone. I just had to give myself permission. The guy that was never going to remarry celebrated his 2nd anniversary on February 9th. My second life is going well. Didn't mean to get into all this...it just happens when I get on a keyboard! You people will never know what you've meant to me over the years. I'm glad we're back.

When The Essential Eric Carmen was released in March of 2014, there was talk that it might lead to a tour. There was a lot of excitement here on the boards about that possibility. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and most of us have resigned ourselves to the almost certain possibility that EC will never do another concert. In interviews promoting the album, EC talked about the high cost and the difficulties of doing a concert and/or tour that would meet his standards. He wasn't going to do anything substandard just to make a buck. He wasn't going to embarrass himself. I fully understand that and appreciate his devotion and high standards. We were hoping the album would finally get EC the credit and acclaim that he deserved. Even if we didn't get a tour, I was hoping he would at least have a concert or two in Cleveland. Sadly, it didn't happen. No matter how great we fans think EC is, he just doesn't have enough fans to support the cost of a concert/tour that would meet his standards. Also, at his age, he has to decide if he can perform a concert that would meet his standards. We would be more than satisfied with a "less than perfect" Eric Carmen concert...he would not. Like he wrote...perfection is consuming. This is a problem for all older artists with a smaller following, no matter how devout their fans are. I think this format would work for them, too. Hear me out before you dismiss my "concert" suggestion. I will say that this format is not totally original. In fact, it has worked to promote new albums for decades. It was even used to promote The Essential Eric Carmen...it just wasn't used as a concert format. This is what I would do: I would put EC in a small venue with great acoustics and a great sound system. I would put him on stage with the piano of his choice and a few guitars of his choice, but I would not have him sing. That's right, I would not have him sing. I would have somebody on stage with him interviewing him, preferably Bernie but it could be a DJ type. Like the album promotions that have been on the radio for decades, they could talk about a song and then play it. They would play the remastered versions that meet EC's standards. While each song played, there could be a large screen behind/above EC showing slideshows and/or videos related to the song being played. Lyrics could be added, but we all know the lyrics! We know Eric loves to talk about the history of his songs. He would have the freedom to talk as much as he wants between/about each song. We would eat it up. He could play the "concert" in a scripted, predetermined order, or...my choice would be to ad lib each show. Field questions from the audience, questions submitted on this website, etc. While talking about the songs, Eric could play intros or parts of songs on the piano or guitar. He could explain and/or demonstrate why he wrote a song the way that he did. Let each "concert" be unique. If each concert was unique, his devoted fans would want to go to each one, knowing it would never be the same show twice. I think this could play as often as Eric wanted to do it, once a month, a few times a year, or just once a year. Heck, we'd settle for just one concert. If EC didn't want to travel, he could just perform in Cleveland and we'd come to him. I could also see this as a show that could travel at an affordable cost. I think each show should be filmed and the DVD's could be sold. I would buy the DVD even if I went to the concert. If each show was unique, each DVD would be collectable. The "concerts" could be marketed as an intimate evening with Eric Carmen...a meet and greet event featuring the music and thoughts of Eric Carmen. (Did I mention that each concert ticket sold would include a meet and great?) The DVD's would be available to fans that couldn't make it to the concerts. The fans that can make it to the concerts would pay a crazy price for that show. The advantages to Eric for this type of concert are many. The saving of time, expense, and trouble to put together a band and crew that could put on a show that would meet Eric's standards. The saving of time, expense, and trouble to rehearse such a show. The saving of the cost to promote a concert in a venue big enough to be profitable. The saving of the risks and costs involved if enough tickets weren't sold for a bigger venue. I'm sure there are many more. I can't help but believe that Eric would enjoy this type of show. It would also allow his kids and his wife to see Eric where he belongs...on a stage in front of his adoring fans. They could see, firsthand, what his music means to so many of us. Anyway, that's my thoughts. Probably not much chance of it actually happening, but it's a "concert" that could happen...and one that I would pay dearly to attend!

We have a local station...B101.5 (hits of the 70's, 80's and today) that plays Hungry Eyes pretty often. They also play the Reno/Wilson version of Almost Paradise.

Hey, LC. Elle sent me a message saying Bernie had reopened the place! Glad to see so many back. Like they say, you don't know how much you miss something until it's gone!

Even though it didn't happen, we all know it's true. Great review! Thanks for posting it, Lew!