Brian Mac

Craig, If iTunes has the 21 song version, then it just happened as I have been checking all day. Maybe it probably happened in response to all the bitching on this board. Thanks for the heads up. Congratulations on the sell out at Amazon. You can't do better than selling EVERY AVAILABLE COPY!!!

All I can say is that when I bought my Deluxe Copy this afternoon, they had plenty of the deluxe and five left of the regular. It appears people are opting for the full show. I'd like to send a printout from Amazon to Best Buy and Circuit City. Imagine what their support could have done to raise awareness and boost impulse sales. The record company is supposed to do more then just manufacture the thing. For all the help they're getting, the boys could have released it themselves and kept ALL the royalties. Sorry, but I'm still livid that I couldn't buy the damn thing in any store in NJ today. Un-freakin-believable.

Only two of the regular versions left at Amazon and ONE of the Deluxe. Going like hotcakes there. It's going to be a sellout tonight.

Yes he's busy on the phone screaming at the A&R man from Ryko.

This is just a Total Disgrace. At least back in the 70's you could buy the damn records. Ryko should die. Do you realize you can't even go to I-Tunes and download the whole show? They are only carrying the short set. I can buy the latest import from the Spongetones there (and did), but I can't get the new album from one of the most influential groups in the history of Pop music?!? This was supposed to be a glorious day. I just gave in and purchased on Amazon. But I may still drive into the city tonight to the Virgin store. I really want to hear those surround mixes on the DVD to see if I should take the plunge for the limitd edition version at raspberries.net Sigh...

On a happier note, Amazon is reporting only 5 copies of the standard version left. They probably didn't realize they were getting an exclusive...

Just got back from a wild goose chase of 3 FYE stores and a Compact Disc World in NJ. Question? How are Raspberries supposed to sell a lot of CD's, if all of the major chains are not even carrying it? I blame Ryko for the anti-promotion. I spent 10 years in the record business, and I know that a label actually PUSHING a record can get all the stores to take at least a few copies of any record they "are behind." Looks like the boys are getting the shaft again. Same crap, different year.

Cool. FYE would have never occured to me. You guys are the best.

Help me out here. I ain't waiting for Amazon and snail mail, but I want the two disc version. Record Stores are getting kind of scarce these days. Anybody know where I can pick it up? I have Best Buy and Barnes & Noble near me. There'a a Compact Disc World, but it's a ride. Any brick and mortar stores carrying this thing?

Well that would explain it!

Here's something interesting I noticed about the new live album. Eric avoids the highest notes of Tonight (You look too young) and yet goes for and hits the ridiculously high points of I Wanna Be With You (So Bad....) Ecstacy (tonight....) and I Don't Know What I Want (Someone Give me a clue..) Whatever, he still sounds great but it's a puzzle.

I think I just heard a pin drop...

Dar, And the Toothe was no slouch either. I don't think Eric ever found better. But yeah, Tonight Your Mine was a rockin record. Harry Maslin, got that thunderous drum sound Eric is known for, and the guitars sounded great too and Eric never sang better. Then again, for all I know Harry could have just sat there with his feet propped up on the board, and let Eric do all the work. Some producers just take the $$$ and do nothing. Only E would know.

Space Oddity/Ashes To Ashes St Pepper/Return To Pepperland

Couldn't he just come to WAB 5 and audition for us? I saw a piano there...

You seemed to have worked very well with Harry Maslin. The Tonight You're Mine album is very well produced and still sounds great today.

Bernie, are you getting this all down? We need the 30th Anniversary re-release of Boats to be re-sequenced in the proper order. We also need you to fly out to Cleveland and find the best take of Temporary Hero, so you can remix it and put it in it's proper place:) And don't even try to say it hasn't crossed your mind!!!

There was a band from the 70's called Edward Bear that had a huge hit with "Last Song." you know... "this is the last song, I'll ever write for you." They followed it up with a sequel on their next album called "Close Your Eyes" which finishes the love story. Harry Chapin had a big hit with his follow up to Taxi. Musical sequels are cool. We should start a thread on this. I bet there are a lot of them. I put Go All The Way and YTMATW on a mix tape back to back. Sequels are rarely as good as the originals (except for Superman 2 and Spiderman 2) but it's great fun none the less. No cringing please. Sometimes it's fun to listen to a crafted work. You have no idea the smiles you put on all of our faces the first time that one came spilling out of the speakers. IRFTL makes my Best Of Eric Carmen CD easily, and that's with only 80 minutes of recording time. We all love that song! If you want a stinker, there are none on Raspberries albums (EC compositions), but my life would not suffer greatly if I never heard "Come Back To Your Love" again.

I find it staggering that you never used a click track. That's the first thing the engineer demands, get it in tune and in time. I guess Jeff was just feeling you brother. In a way he drummed it the way you performed it. On raw emotion. I think the bridge in "Nowhere To Hide" is one of your strongest ever. It's like a musical painting, and it always takes me straight back to my senior prom when I hear it... Half-forgotten fragments Of a high school dance In the dead white hours of winter When we loved so hard That we thought it would never end Tryin' to remember How it used to feel When a kiss was something special And I wonder now Will it ever be again Maybe you should sit down at that piano again sometime soon. The world needs more songs like these. MAC

My first choice would be "I Can Remember" since there was no sheet music and it took me about three months to figure it all out. All the while repeatng to myself over and over "this man is insane..." Lotta chords and notes in that one. 2nd Choice would be Sunrise. Love the weird intro (also fun to sound out) and the Elton John Powerchord fade with the two drummers and the false ending. Pure heaven.

A kid from the suburbs of Cleveland trying to incorporate every musical influence he ever loved, from Rachmaninoff to the Beatles to the Who to the Beach Boys to the Byrds to the Ronettes to the Small Faces, crammed into three and a half minute, teenage symphonies to lust, love and God. Love that. LOVE IT. The only thing I would consider adding to the BIO is that you followed up "Hungry Eyes" with an even bigger smash (much to everyone's astonishment) "Make Me Lose Control." I think that song defines and represents your music very well and deserves to be mentioned. Just my two cents...

P, Interested in your opinion of Gene's reality TV Show "Family Jewels?"

I read an interview with the producer of American Idol recently. British Invasion Week was supposed to be Beatles Week, but George Martin could not make space in his schedule to do the show. They would love to have Paul but Macca has a big problem with the way his fellow Brit Simon slags the talent. He is embarrassed by the borderline nasty things Cowell sometimes says to the contestants. Bottom line, we probably will see a Beatles week next year, but the mentor will be George Martin and not Paul.

Very enlightening post by E regarding what it takes to be a true rock icon. The same can be said of certain actors. George Clooney comes to mind. He makes it look so effortless. I read an interview with Matt Damon where he tells of being George's roomamate while filming. He says he woke up at four in the morning one day and found Clooney sweating up a storm in his workout room. And he said to himself...Ah, so maybe it isn't so easy...

I think Eric is suffering his way through this 10 days. The horrible mix on the LA shows, the unfortunate hair on American Bandstand and now a demo he probably thought was long dead and buried. It's OK man, we love you warts and all. Just makes you more human that you can laugh at yourself a little. And you still sound great most of the time. Even with no reverb, EQ and all that compression.