PaulMaul

Exactly James. I have all the PF albums, and I would say the first two have a lot to love on them. Cassidy’s voice was sped up slightly on the first two albums to make him sound younger, but the overall result is still very good. After Sound Magazine, I would say the albums have a little more filler. There are still excellent songs on all of them, but also several that are not as memorable. As Matthew says, Bulletin Board is a very unique album as it came out just when the pop sound was changing toward R&B/dance music. So there are songs on there from many different genres. That album also contains one of my all time Partridge faves:

I love Bee Gees Main Course! One of the most eclectic albums out there. Great songs from so many genres. And anyone who hasn’t seen this video of Wally Farkas doing Nights on Broadway should watch it! 😁

Honestly, I like only about half of this album. Desperate Fools, Someday, Deanie...love those. Change of Heart I like. The rest really doesn’t do it for me. The first solo album is the only one I love 100%.

This is kind of a controversial issue, but I very much agree. One of the few bad things the Beatles brought us was everyone in every band wanting to be a song writer. Three members of the Beatles happened to be very good at it. But that, like almost everything with the Beatles, is not typical of other bands. Picture a Who album on which only four of the nine tracks are written by Pete Townshend. It would not be better than a Who album with every track by Pete. I enjoy some of the Dave and Wally songs, but the unavoidable truth is that every Raspberries album was weakened by including too many songs not written by Eric Carmen.

I am a big fan of Lindsey but am remiss in that I haven’t listened to any of his solo material, only the FM albums I own. I think he’s so great because everything he does is in service to making the song better. It’s not ostentatious or self-aggrandizing. ”You Make Loving Fun” is a good example. All those little fills are ingenious and really make the song better.

@James Hope you enjoy the Partridge Family album ol’ pal! The PF LPs have much richer arrangements than the versions shown on the TV show. Like the Monkees they are a combination of songwriting pros, great studio musicians and vocalists, and David Cassidy’s inimitable singing. But Sound Magazine is by far their best in my opinion.

@LC Bee Gees 1st is a great Beatlesque psychedelic pop album. Other than the several big hits that are on it there are lots of succulent nuggets like this....

I’ll be there in LI....

Limiting it to one Beatles album... 1. Beatles - Revolver 2. The Who Sell Out 3. Partridge Family - Sound Magazine 4. Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties 5. Todd Rundgren - S/A Honorable Mention.... Bee Gees First Eric Carmen 1975

I recently discovered this incredible album, though of course I was already familiar with "Time of the Season." Truly a masterpiece all the way through, and definitely appealing to the EC fan!

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I much prefer the Stones during the Jones period. Their best albums are Flowers, Satanic, Between the Buttons and Let it Bleed.

Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is a brilliant lyric. Pete Townshend is a great lyricist. Examples include "Run, Run, Run", "Tattoo", "I Can't Reach You", and a ton of others.

Note also the discussion in the article above about the extensive use of limiters in the recording of Something/Anything. It's of course well known how that device "saved" "Go All the Way." Any connection there??

I always found the Todd Rundgren story interesting. There is no musical similarity whatsoever between the two "I Saw The Light"s, just the common title, which several other songs also share. On the other hand, the beginning of "It Wouldn't Have Made any Difference" is certainly similar to "I Can Remember." On the other hand, "Starting Over" is even more similar to both "Tiny Dancer" and "Jungleland", one of which came before and one after. There are only so many guitar and piano riffs under the sun. What makes me doubt that any real thievery took place is that by all accounts, the Todd album was mostly recorded and written in LA, with only the final vocals being done at the Record Plant. So it's kind of hard to see how fundamental features of any of the Todd songs could have still been unfinished in NY. Here's an interesting read about the recording of Something/Anything: http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/Tips_from_the_Top_The_Making_of_Todd_Rundgrens_SomethingAnything It's interesting how Todd and Eric were in such a similar musical place in 1972, and how they went in such completely different directions by only a few years later. I love both of them.

Thanks Kirk. Where is the demo available?

Every lyric site (including here) has the lyric as: "Crusin' music, sure good music" I was always sure it was "Crusin' music, sure could use it" I could be wrong, but "sure good music" is a non-rhyme that doesn't seem quite worthy of EC's wordsmanship, and "sure could use it" seems to fit the theme of the song better. Any definitive answer?

My favorite of the 4 'berries releases: Let's Pretend If You Change Your Mind I Wanna Be With You Nobody Knows I Reach For The Light Might As Well Drivin'Around It Seemed So Easy Goin Nowhere Tonight Every Way I Can I'm a big "If You Change Your Mind" guy. I don't think anything underscores the writing talent of Eric and the playing talent of Wally like the guitar parts on this song. Genius!

Marvin, Can you expand upon your take on "I Can Remember?" I'm interested.

I listened to the album in its entirety this morning. I'll give my rankings, and then I have some general comments which are sure to be controversial 1. Waiting -- this really is one of my favorite Eric songs, beautiful melody, beautiful vocal performance....an underappreciated gem! 2. Go All the Way 3. I Saw the Light -- the first album is not my favorite of the 'berries works, but my favorite aspect of it is the prominence of Eric/Wally vocal interplay. 4. I Can Remember -- I've said enough about this one! 5. Don't Want to Say Goodbye -- I know it's a fan favorite, and I like it OK, but it just seems a bit plodding at times -- more great Eric/Wally harmonies though 6. Come Around and See Me -- Not in love with the song, but I do love Wally's voice 7, 8, 9 I really don't like any of the other three all that much. Which leads me to my main point: To me the biggest hindrance to greater Raspberries success was the band's lack of a well-defined identity. It seems like the band tried to pattern itself after the Beatles with the rotating songwriters concept. But the problem is, Wally and Dave are just not standouts in that area IMHO. For the Fab 4, John and Paul are 1A and 1B, and George (once he found himself anyway) is a close 2. On the other hand, I see Eric as 1 and Dave and Wally as several orders of magnitude below that. As a result, the inclusion of so many non-Eric songs really dilutes the albums. The juxtaposition of Rock n Roll Mama and Waiting is very stark and to me not pleasant. I am a huge fan of Wally's voice and guitar prowess. I feel he's really a great talent. I just don't think he's a great songwriter. I do like "Might as Well", but that's about it. It's clear to me that if a 10-song album had been 8 or 9 Eric songs and one or two others, the band's identity would have been clearer and might have caught on better with the public. Yet I know many longtime fans enjoy the non-Eric songs, and I accept that. I just wonder what might have been if things had been handled differently.

OK, here's a list that's sure to be different from everyone else's: 1. Marathon Man 2. She Did It 3. Nowhere To Hide 4. Love Is All That Matters 5. Boats Against the Current 6. I Think I Found Myself 7. Run Away 8. Take It Or Leave It I won't give ratings. I love Marathon and She Did It, and really don't love anything else on the album. I recognize so many love a lot of these songs, but they just aren't my thing, and don't represent much of what I love in Eric's songwriting.

Love this thread! I don't have time to expound at the moment but here's my ranking of the fantastic songs on what I feel is one of the best albums of all time: 1. Sunrise 2. My Girl I personally feel these two should be ranked through the stratosphere....two of my favorite songs of all time for sure 3. All By Myself 4. That's Rock n Roll 5. Last Night 6. Everything -- I really love this, but it's more of a snippet than a song so I can't rank it higher Those four are the second tier for me 7. NGFILA 8. Great Expectations 9. No Hard Feelings 10. On Broadway I seem to like NGFILA less than most EC fans, but then I feel that same way about most of Boats...it's just not my favorite musical style I suppose.... I like Great Expectations more than I used to, but it's more of a novelty. The lowest ranked songs on this album I still listen to frequently and enjoy. A true masterpiece! Can't wait to read the threads about the other albums. This kind of thread is what I used to enjoy about EC.com!

Fantastic! My 6 year old son likes the show too. He enjoys acting out the episodes after we watch them.