Drupelet

I assume some of you must have seen the brilliant Puddles Pity Party singing All By Myself on America's Got Talent this week? In case you missed it, here 'tis:

Ah. Thanks for the clarification, Kirk. I'd be severely dumbfounded, not only as a fan, but from an entrepreneurial sense, to discover that EC was performing and not making the shows available commercially. Phew!

Eric, I don't visit this site very often, so I just read this thread for the first time. I think it's one of my top-ten favorite posts of yours! All bands are eventually killed by conflicts of commitment and priorities. It's one of the most frustrating things to be on a team, to be putting in the most effort, to be generating a significant aspect of the success and being resented for it. Been there. The phony PR image of happy, democratic bands, along with my own tendency towards generosity definitely cost me big-time in group-based creative endeavors. Seems like you chose the right time to get out. I'm not trying to besmirch the other Raspberries, but I honestly can't imagine them ever making it out of Ohio without you. I guess that has been proven by their collective post-berries anonymity. In assessing any situation, reality always wins.

In the past, I recall Eric recommending books by Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. I don't remember if he included Christopher Hitchens, but it would make sense.

I'm not clear about this. Are these live performances in Japan by Eric? or are they tribute shows by other artists?

The song was published in 1975 on the LP "Eric Carmen". The publishing date on the single does not denote the date of the single's release. Does that make sense? ...or did I completely miss the point of your question?

I had heard he owned or built amusement parks, too. Smart guy.

Thanks, Matt. I usually don't grab all the Greatest Hits releases. I'll have to find this one.

On the original vinyl release of the Starting Over album, the song "Overnight Sensation (Hit record)" ended with a faint little snippet of "Go All The Way". None of the CD versions that I own of this album have that coda. They all fade out. Does anyone know if that original version was ever released on CD? Thanks!

...singing ABM on the Daily Show? Ha!

Just reporting: I saw The Beach Boys at the Santa Barbara Bowl last night and during the set break they played Let's Pretend over the house system. BTW, if you haven't yet, get Beach Boys tickets RIGHT NOW. You won't be sorry!

Sounds like C#7sus-F#7-Bm7 to me.

With no knowledge of this tour at the time, I spoke to Carmine about working with Eric. This was in 2008. It was just the two of us speaking casually—there was nobody else around and we were just hanging out. Anyway he smiled to himself for a moment and said how much he "really liked working with him." I don't remember much else in the way of details, unfortunately. Like I said, I didn't know about this tour at all back then. I thought we were only talking about "Tonight You're Mine." I got no sense of bitterness from him about it and I didn't get the impression he was just being careful in his speaking. Carmine's cool—the man, the mustache, the legend!

It could be done. It might be unrealistic to expect to recover the entirety of those expenses from ticket sales alone. It would simply require the full cooperation of the orchestra. They have funding—they'd just have to be willing to take it on as a project. The arrangements are something else altogether. Who would write them? EC? I don't know. Would he want to use his existing arrangements as a springboard or start from scratch? My guess is that he would want just a piano and orchestra situation and forego any electric instruments. Orchestra w/ rock combo has been done to death and I would bet that EC would want to take full advantage of the opportunity to highlight his melodies with orchestral support rather than smother them in electric guitars, etc. On the other hand, he may want to produce a 'product' with mass appeal... Of course, I have NO IDEA what he wants! Didn't I see him do this in Japan or somewhere? Fun, but, as I vaguely recall, not a very interesting use of an orchestra because of simplistic arrangements. If you've got 30-40 trained musicians up there, put 'em to work! Like, Led Zeppelin's Kashmir with a Mellotron? Quirky and powerful. With an large string section playing unison lines? Meh. They got my hopes up with that one and I was a bit disappointed. (Note that Plant & Page did manage to make a little money with that project in spite of my mild disappointment!)

The question really is: How many tickets would you have to sell and at what price to cover the cost of the orchestration of 90-120 minutes of your music plus union fees for the musicians and attendant crew for the performance AND union fees for enough rehearsal time for the orchestra so that they can play your music the way you want them to? I'd love to hear it, but it's a pricey project.

I was just in Tehachapi last month! I think it's the largest windmill array in the world? Is that right? Anyway, simply amazing to look out over the rolling hills and see thousands of windmills of all different sizes spinning away. They looked like some kind of giant sunflowers in the breeze. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I77IrHEV2vk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu3EyzOYpGY

If a small group of people like the registered users of this site choose to regularly generate conversation about it, you can bet that there are similar conversations going on at every other eligible band's website. The ego-based experience of having 'my team win' will keep it going. Lot's of people love it. Whatever. Here's a thought: When a painter creates a 'masterpiece' she or he sells it to someone and maybe makes it available to a museum for display (via the owner.) If they're popular their prices go up. Their fame may endure the test of time... or not. Painters don't get awards. __________ The R&RHOF is all hype. Love the artists you want to. Tell your friends. Tell the artists. Go to a museum if you want or need to, but don't think that induction into the HOF is important to the music. I hope, for their own emotional health, that more artists see it this way and that they don't hang they're sense of artistic worth on the whims of Jann Wenner.

I'm surprised that anybody really takes the R&RHOF that seriously. This organization does not represent the music industry (however that would be defined), the artists or the fans. It's a handful of critics who decide on whose inclusion will fill banquet seats and generate PR for the museum. Who cares what they think, like or want? It's nice, but does it really matter? Not a bit. The only reason it gets attention is because it's the only game in town. That doesn't make it a good or fair game. Many of the artists state openly that they don't care about it at all.

Just from what I remember—and I admit that I haven't kept up on my Knack trivia—I thought the big complaint the music press had was that The Knack's management simply bought them the Carnegie Hall gig as an extreme promotional move to connect the band with Beatles-size success. That is, they were not yet such a popular band that it "justified" the prestige of a Carnegie Hall performance. (And, of course, when many folks think of rock music in Carnegie Hall they naturally think of the Beatles.) If that is how it all went down, I can see how the rock press might perceive it as presumptuous & crassly ambitious. That type of thing never went over well with writers who "believe in the 'true spirit of Rock and Roll.'" Whatever they thought that meant...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ERIC-CARMEN-QUADRAPH...12#ht_711wt_941 I just found this. I never knew that this album had been mixed in quad! I never owned a quad system, but I've been fascinated with surround sound. Considering the lush arrangements, it would be amazing to hear in 5.1 Surround DVD audio. The chances of that happening are pretty slim... Does anyone here own this? Please tell us about it! PS: Eric, were you in on the quad mix?

Yeah, I won't buy a charity single for Haitian relief until they come up with something better than the spectacular, genius, zeitgeist of "We Are The World." Is that why people bought it 25 years ago? Because it was such a great tune? I don't think that was the point.

Back before Cheap Trick was born, Rick Nielsen was, himself, the first and sole Mellotron dealer/lessor in the entire USA. I'm not sure what years he had the exclusive contract, but it's very probable that the Raspberries had to rent their Mellotron directly from Rick. Just a fun fact.

On the other hand, the 'berries don't have a pitbull like Gene Simmons calling Jan at home and at the office every day...

They all kind of run together in my memory, but he did continue the role of Judge Clark Brown through to the last season. Judge Brown sort of came out of the closet when he sued the Faith-based organization he had hired to cure him of his homosexuality for failing to rid him of "aberrant sexual thoughts." "Outrageous!" PS: The "very interesting" guy was good ol' Artie Johnson.

For the past couple of years he had a recurring role on Boston Legal. I was amazed and delighted that he was still working! He was a very funny man.