seattlesteve

Eric you played there more than once, you wrote a song about it, and you live there.. what's your take on the the "inductees". I have to admit, the inductee list since 86 is pretty deserving, with exceptions, but judging by the list that isn't in, I think the Raspberries and/or EC solo are screwed. Parliment-Funkedelik and Grand Master Flash are in. The HOF likes influntial artists and it's funy that there are artist/bands already in that cite the 'berries as an influence (you know the usual suspects). Here's some of the crime sheet I'm talking about, and by the way, I'm not a fan of all of these bands but they are either great or I admit influential. Theatre rock Didn't Alice Cooper and Kiss have a little something to do with this? Progressive rock Rush and Yes set the table Symphony/orchestra rock Weren't Moody Blues and Chicago, and even ELO kinda there in the beginning after Left Banke? Arena rock/power ballads Didn't Styx, Journey, and REO have a little something to do with that movement? Singer/songwriter? You leave Carole King and Neil Diamond without a ticket to your barbecue? Then you have people like Heart, Steve Miller, Hall and Oates, and Bon Jovi that were hit factories, what do you do with them? None of the above are in, but Grandmasterflash is. Eric should be in simply of ABM which became the new ballad standard after Yesterday. Just venting...

Jimmy should have walked into a Capitol boardroom and championed If You Change Your Mind as the third single off of Fresh.

First of all there are exceptions to everything.. however religion has been coming up in my house as I help my college sophmore daughter with her theology class, which she thinks is a snoozer but I find interesting. She was a bit confused over the difference between religions and denominations, but she asked some good questions, and no disrespect to those of you who are, but our dna is not Catholic. In my little surburban world growing up, around me, most people were simply what there folks were, as opposed to matching up their beliefs and see where they fit. My daughter wanted to know why gender has anything to do with who was allowed to deliver a church sermon. She also wondered how can a man speak about family values who has no family experience and in fact is disallowed from having one. And lastly who said God has a secretary in a white robe, if you want to speak with him, you have to go through me, I'll see if I can get you in. Again no disrespect for those that are, the beauty of this country is we're free to worship anyone, no right or wrong, but my daughter and I , don't get it, they were good questions.

Forgot about this, still quite cool Bernie.

You were in the same league man..

Eric has a ton of unreleased copywrites, that combined with maybe repulling a couple songs off of Winter Dreams (Top Down screams for Jim's drum treatment, think new single)I think his next album is already wrote.

Elton got to show up in the studio to find Bernie Taupin with a huge binder full of words, Eric had to spend months with even the lyrical syncopation of songs like "Love is All that Matters" The quadruple threat is rare.

I believe in the 70's the labels muscle had an affect to push radio airplay, and their decision to promote or not promote an artist/song affected the pull of radio airplay and the requesting public. I think the suits were always confused as to how to package the versatile Mr. Carmen. He's the next Manilow, no wait, let's make him the next Rod Stewart, no wait, we don't know, let's let him hang in the wind and promote someone else, no wait, he worked his way onto a movie soundtrack on his own, lets ride that wave, rework greatest hits, etc.

My problem with Raspberries covers is my dna association of those melodies with Eric's voice, which makes no sense since the compositions stand on their own. My favorite? Hands down Scott McCarl doing Nobody Knows. (I know, but come on, technically thats a cover).

Eric: I'm the first to back you up that an upstart band from Cleveland doesn't have any power to tell the label that signed the Beach Boys and Beatles, what the singles would be. Having said that, they did grab by far the two best choices for singles off of Fresh, but privately did it ever cross your mind at the time that If You Change Your Mind and Nobody Knows were pretty radio friendly too and they easily could have grabbed at least a third single? Just curious.

You have to remember at the time, unless you were Billy, Bruce, or Elton the label had the power. Now think if you were the label suit in charge of a band, and you got handed Nugent, Foghat, Deep Purple, or Blue Oyster Cult there is a pretty clear direction to market them. What do you do with Eric? His diverse musical talents and abilities were a handful for them, he was too good, two diverse. At least Manilow they could corner cause he wasn't going to do Mandy and Go All the Way back to back in concert.

Eric, unless you can pull off the symphony angle, that might be your solo band (ala Circus) trouble is those talents are a bad kept secret, and I suspect they are too busy on their own right to pull together for a few months. The little my wife and I have met them, (they have no clue who we are which actually makes it more significant)they were guenuine humble, nice, and engaging people on top of their obvious talents. Cool. Eric's got good musical radar.

Hileraeous. "If I ever find Jesus, I'm gonna kick his ass" Eric how on earth are you able to discover this stuff?

I'm surprised Peter Cetera didn't rewrite the title. David Foster is a musical genius, alumni with my folks at UW here in Seattle, Q went to high school here too at Garfield, my Dads high school, course so did Jimi, Heart went to my high school.. all before Seattle grunge.

Regarding Peter's influence on Chicago, Eric, I suspect you liked the change of direction with If You Leave Me Now? I do, love that song, french horn opening, could be an EC song. I think their biggest hit. (sorry memory not serving, I thought erroneously that was Pitchford, not Goldmark)

I don't know the story how that song ended up in their hands but it does work well as a duo. I DO know that their version has watered down lyrics to remove any hint of sexual innuendo, and I just assumed Cetera rewrote them as he was becoming an increasingly spirtual person. Eric did you or Pitchford rewrite the lyrics for them, or did Cetera, and if so, did he have get permission?

Wondering where Eric weighs in. I think America got it pretty right as Lee and Crystal are good. So much better since the show allowed instruments. Appears to be a bit of a dead heat, coming down to next Tuesday. Personally, if you factor in ALL the shows, I think I'd like to see Ohio's Crystal win. No one has been as consistently good. I also predict a big makeover Tuesday, to help sell her star power. She is very good, but again, Lee is peaking at the right time (ala Kris Allen)

I would have my obvious requests, but more importantly, I would like the vibe of a half dozen stools or more, and drink coasters around the grand, and the banter. EC is such a wonderful storyteller, I would like to hear the behind the music stuff, alternate lyrics he wrestled with, and melodies that are floating around his head too. Figuring that Bernie would be on one of those stools, we'd probably hear the most incredible acoustic version of Boats ever. My point is, that what does Eric noodle with on the piano today? I doubt he's playing the singles every day, what intrigues Eric? Eric...?

No glaring omissions in your list. As I slowly scrolled through I noticed many of the obligatory (and deserving) hit singles, and was quite surprised to see the top choice, IYCYM, which is well documented as my all time non-single Raspberries song, and over time I have come to remove the non-single qualifier. It's an excellent composition in and of itself, however more than any other component, Erics vocal performace simply puts this song in a league of it's own, that will never be matched. Couldn't believe he can still pull it off when I saw that first Cleveland show, even better live, today. I think the vocal bar Eric hit, out of the chute is why it's not covered. Think of the 80's, if a Richard Marx, or Olivia tried to cover it, it wouldn't even be the same song. I still think Jimmy Ienner should have went to the well one more time and convinced Capitol to pull one more single off of Fresh. Funny thing, I've never heard Eric comment on the song much, except that he likes the bridge. (hint)

The most obvious is the shortened radio version of ABM sans the piano break. On the other end of the spectrum, what single was extended? I have the vinyl 33 extended single (dance) version of I Wanna Hear It From Your Lips. BTW Eric.. Back in the day when it was common to have an extended dance mix made from a single, typically how involved was the artist on the new version? Studio magic or creative composer input?

I agree, I didn't think Beatle clone either. Part of it was Erics unique voice, and the guitars. I think the Beatle/Beach Boy thing kind of came from incorporating melodic multilayered harmonies into rock songs. It probably also was a factor that the 'berries first hit, GATW, incorporated the same alternating "come on's" as the Beatles first single, Please Please Me. No question though, biggest flaw was the packaging and marketing of Capitol.

With the release of The Runaways movie, Joan Jett has been more in the light, especially with her release of a greatest hits, and custom Melody Maker guitar (slight tweak of Eric's which she still owns). Her long time manager Kenny Laguna has a priceless quote about their experience with Clive that is sooo reminiscent with Eric's, in a link I stumbled upon. Remember when Eric would talk about how eventually Clive would advise Eric to either collaberate with another songwriter or simply to sing other peoples songs...? I've included two quotes from Kenny: You've got a new Gibson signature model guitar now? Joan Jett: I sure do. It's a Gibson Joan Jett Melody Maker. It's copied from a guitar that I've used for years and years. The Melody Maker works with me well because it's light and it's easy to handle. Kenny Laguna: It's called a California style, they only made a very few of them. The one she bought from Eric Carmen, he had played it on those Raspberries hits. Over the years she made modifications. They're very unique, it's part of what the Joan Jett sound is. This guitar is totally backordered. They're so popular we can't even get them. We're trying to get one so we can get it to Pete Townshend, we can't even get one for Pete! (Joan was turned down by over 20 labels when she submitted her 4 song debut demo tape, all became hits. She and Laguna were forced to form their own label, helped by The Who, and sell cd's out of her trunk.) Kenny Laguna: Clive Davis could have had us for nothing. We still have his letter, he said, "Joan's an interesting artist, but she would need a song search." After we had the Number One record in the world, I sent a letter to Clive saying, "If you signed Cole Porter, you'd do a song search." He never really forgave me for that, because the guy has a fragile ego. Joan Jett: They didn't miss one hit, they missed four. (the Cole Porter quote to me is as funny as one of Eric's favorite quotes, the "two many notes" in the Amadeaus movie)

It's ironic that the Raspberries were critisized at times for their influences, yet the Beatles freely admit their influences. Ironically again,the Beatles first two studio albums each had 6 cover songs, where all the Rapsberries albums were all original tracks. One last irony, the legacy has come full circle, as a band that was once dismissed as derivitive by some at the time, is now often cited as influential by many of rocks biggest stars. Go figure. The little musical secret many of us held for decades, is out.

Boats was considered a good "make out" album in my dorm when it came out, much the way "Best of Bread" was in high school. I ended up buying a couple extra albums as back up as I was amazed how such a fine album appeared discounted in the cut out bin at Peaches so fast. Clive's marketing machine at work. I think every Eric Carmen I bought in the 70's and 80's was just from me checking the record stores to see if there was something new tucked in front of "The Carpenters" and the "Cars" in the bin. Never was aware in advance of an upcoming release.

Quite a "knack" for a hook. Get the Knack jumped out of my Mustang summer of 79 just out of college. BTW, most know this, but the cover picture and album title of "Get the Knack" was a play on "Meet the Beatles" Bought the album just off of Sharona immediately, and loved at first listen, Good Girls Don't" and thought this is next,.. "Number or your Name", etc. tight debut album. I have a video of them in concert during this album, haven't seen it in years, will look for it tonight. After enduring such a dichomotmy of music during my college years, 76-79, disco-rock, Knack, Cheap Trick,etc. and Seattle favorites The Heats, and Moberlys, was a welcome listen back to power pop at the end of the decade