Kapurasama

Ironically, I don't have that song on my version of "Main Course". My mother bought the album for my birthday, and used a Sharpie to censor the cover art. I then was given the album, converted to CD (sans that one song). I really like "Edge of the Universe. That's a fun song.

I've checked for 'em used, but don't want to get them all too quickly. The Amazon.com order will be coming quickly; "Cartoon World" looks like too much fun to pass up. -- "I hope you got the Bee Gees Main Course 1975, Mr Natural 1974, ESP 1986, One 1989, High Civilization 1991, Size Isn't Everything 1993. They are some of the best Bee Gees CD's unless you like their chipmunk disco phase." -- I personally basically like sticking with the "Greatest Hits" from the Disco era. "Children of the World", "Spirits Having Flown", and "You Stepped Into My Life" are the only Disco hits of theirs I really like. Alas, "Children of the World" never makes it on to any of the greatest hits compilations, save the 1979 "Bee Gees Greatest Hits", available on LP, 8-track, and cassette. I've got the 8-track. "Main Course" truly was a great album. "Nights on Broadway", "Fanny", "Wind of Change", "Edge of the Universe", and a naked woman on the cover. Everything you could possibly want. A lot of my Bee Gees collection consists of their early stuff, including a couple LPs of their Australian sessions from '64. There's very few of their albums that I listen straight through. "Here At Last" was very good. One of the best Live albums I've heard in a while (certainly better than their 1997 "One Night Only"). "Nights on Braodway" seems designed to be played live. Interestingly enough, "ESP" is on my turntable right now. "One", "High Civilization", and "Size Isn't Everything" are all on my "Next Bee Gees to Buy" list. Their latest, "This Is Where I Came In" isn't half bad, in my opinion.

Why don't I have Eric's other albums yet? Several reasons: Affordable for a person with a real job and afforble for someone with a thirty-dollar-a-month allowance and a small lawnmowing business on the side are two very different things. EC isn't exactly the most widely-distributed musician; he's not sold at Wal Mart, the only major store I'm in each week. My next Amazon.com order isn't for several more weeks. I prefer to ration out any new musician: I took a year to collect all my Manilow stuff, I took six months to gather my Bee Gees collection (which is only about half their stuff), and I took three months to gather my very small Al Stewart collection. I like taking time to gather any musician's works. Besides, I've been burned too many times by buying a CD for twenty bucks, only to find the unopened vinyl at a thrift store for a fraction of the price. I live in rural Texas; my occassional trips to Houston's used record shops have been the only source for my current EC collection (and Manilow, and Bee Gees, et cetera). There. That enough explanation yet?

Reminds me of a story told by songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The released a song called "Words" in 1968, to mediocre success. They heard a few years later that Elvis's latest album had the song "Words" on it. They rushed out, bought the album, and were treated to the sounds of: "It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away". It was the Bee Gees song "Words", not their version.

I was listening through "Boats Against The Current" again yesterday afternoon. For some reason, the lyrics of "Run Away" just clicked inside my head. I've listened to it a lot over the past month, but I actually really listened to the lyrics this time. It's such an amazing song; almost the antithesis of the average blue-eyed golden love song. The cynicism I detect in this song toward teenage love is so refreshing. I'm in the middle of "Romeo and Juliet" in school, and this song is such a breath of fresh air. The cautionary tale of a man who was burned by adolescent 'love'. I like this song. Of the two albums I own ("Eric Carmen" and "Boats"), this song reigns supreme over all others. Anyone else have any opinions? Love? Hate? Indifferent? Discuss.

Thanks a lot, Bernie. Now my 56K bandwidth, which was happily downloading Warcraft III patches, is bogged down by another file. Seriously, thanks a lot, Webmaster Extraordinaire.

Ah... the joys of music conversion. I too was driven to this after I found that you can't get an 8-track player for a '94 Taurus. One major question first: Do you have any form of music recording software; i.e. Magix MusicEditor, Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum, et cetera? Windows Sound Recorder won't work very well for most songs over a minute, from my experience. I can provide further info once I know what program you're using.

I'll agree with that entirely. Having had Boats for a full three weeks, I'm still amazed at how good an album it is. It joined me on a recent ten-hour-drive to Oklahoma, and never got old, even when looped many, many times. Great album, just great. And to think, if Barry Manilow hadn't ripped off Eric's music without crediting him, I'd have never discovered the wonders of EC....

It might be a little premature, but having listened through it six or seven times since purchasing it yesterday, I must say it is incredible. This is one of the few albums that I would give a 10/10. Every song is wonderful! Eric has an intensity to his music that I have not heard since Barry Manilow's first two albums, before he went completely commercial. Anyway, this is probably one of the finest albums I've ever heard. Eric, thank you.

I've already dubbed the album on to CD using a spare LP player and my computer's microphone port. I've already listened through the album 6 times since I got home yesterday. It's amazing. Going back through my music collection, I've noticed a few EC songs written for other artists; Samantha Sang's "Emotion" has one on there by him. Thanks for the advice; I'll be spending my next few paychecks at CD Universe.

EC fans everywhere! I finally got around to shelling out five bucks to buy an EC album; "Boats Against The Current", to be precise. I got it on vinyl; I prefer the feel of vinyl (and have a better stereo for LPs than CDs). The album was still in its original shrink wrap; never been opened. Me, being the book-value-spurner I am, ripped open the packaging as soon as I got home. While I'm reminded slightly of a few bits and pieces of late 1977-early 1981 Manilow songs (written AFTER "Boats Against The Current" was released), the album is still perfect. I've got this thing for singer-songwriters; I consider them a more evolved breed of musician, and find that their music (in most cases) has a lot more depth to it. Anyway, I absolutely love the album. I've been home since 7:00 PM (central time), and have already listened through side one three times. I've just begun my venture on to side two, and am enjoying every second of it. The lyrics are skillfully written, the music is beautifully played, and the songs segue into each other wonderfully. The album is absolutely beyond description, at least for a 16-year-old like me. Anyway, my main point of the topic (besides ranting about what an awesome album it is), is this: What EC albums should I look for next? I'm familiar with "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again"; what album was that from? Thanks in advance, Kapurasama

Well, Bruce Johnston originally wrote "I Write The Songs", and it was released (to little or no success) by both David Cassidy and The Captain and Tenille. I like Manilow's stuff, though this incident does change my view of him a bit. At least there's still Al Stewart, who's nobody's studio musician. And, of course, EC.

Yeah, but the song, taken on the whole, seems rather similar. The plots differ in that EC's tune says he'll never find another love, while Manilow says he'll find one but won't love her.

Hello all, I'm new to Eric's music. A question that's been bugging me since yesterday afternoon: The EC song "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again", copyright 1975 Arista, sounds EXTREMELY similar to Barry Manilow's 1981 song "If I Should Love Again". The tune, the lyrics, they're both very close. I'm curious exactly how this happened. Eric's song was obviously there first, but Manilow doesn't strike me as a lyric thief. Both songs are copyright Arista ñ did they ask for a re-issue? Just curious. As I said, it's been bugging me.