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A NEW Eric Carmen Song!


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The story so farÖ

About six months ago, I received an unsolicited e-mail from someone who said that they had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage locker in Los Angeles containing a tape with Eric Carmen's name on it. I was told that I could have it and a few days later a very large and HEAVY box arrived. Inside was a 2" MASTER TAPE with Eric's name on it and the title: "NEVER SAY DIE."

I called Tommy Allen, a friend of mine who has connections in the music biz. Tommy is also a long-time friend of Eric's and plays drums for the Flashcubes. When told about my "find," Tommy said that he was in the studio when Eric cut the demo. From what he remembered, it was a "pretty good song."

Tommy enlisted Dennis Ferrante, who was assistant engineer on the first three Raspberries LPs. Dennis (who later won a Grammy Award because he's so darned good) scheduled a session at a New York recording studio that had equipment capable of transferring the old analog tape to digital.

The tape was loaded onto the machine as Tommy, Dennis and I looked on with excitement. It played for about two seconds and then ground to a rather unceremonious halt. Dennis said, "Looks like we have to bake this tape." Everything was put on hold for another week as the old tape was put through a process that would allow it to be played and we gathered once again at the New York studio.

This time the tape played, and Tommy was right. The song was GOOD! Eric's vocals were right on the money, but because it was a demo, it lacked the dynamics of a finished song. That's when I said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get Jim, Dave and Wally to play on it?" After kicking that thought around for three seconds and realizing it would NEVER happen, Tommy said, "Why don't we finish it?"

Intoxicated with the excitement of having the multi-track MASTER of an UNRELEASED Eric Carmen demo in our possession we decided that we could add the other instruments, including real drums to Eric's vocal and keyboards (what a concept!)

Earlier this week, we got a copy to Eric who called it "absolutely GREAT!!!"

To be continuedÖ

Bernie

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WOW.....this is fantastic !! How exciting for you...for all of us. I can't wait to hear more....Bernie, you ARE a tease..but I'm sure this will be worth waiting for. Thank you.

Marlene

I'm curious to know what Eric's memory of this song is......

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That is absolutley GREAT news. I have my list of songs that Eric wrote that I got from the BMI site. There are a total of 13 songs that are lsited that I don't have or haven't heard. "Never Say Die" was one of them. So...in the BE CONTINUED PART, to we get to find out how we are going to hear this gem?

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What a great story Bernie!

I think it's strange you hadn't heard about this song, as I think you know Eric very well.

And strange to find it in an abandoned storage locker. Aren't all recordings kept in Arista's or Geffen's archives?

Eric has tons of unreleased good songs. He could make a new CD without writing new stuff.

By the way, you seem to have a CD with all those unreleased songs, with at least 16 tracks as "It should have been me" is Track16. Could there be a new CD with all those great songs soon?....

Anyway, I'm waiting forward to hear this song.

Thanks once again, Bernie!

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It is 10: 10am here, I see everyone here for the excitement of this new song, I am gladly happy to join in on this, I have never ever been on here to see almost, everyone at once, WoW!

That song, what your waiting fer, by all means, let's here it, soon, ay guys,

Eric, do something about this song so we can hear it , ok

This news almost is like, "GIVE MY REGARDS TO

BROAD STREET", where's Ringo?

Now, it's up to Bernie and Eric.

so, let's cross our fingers.

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I thought I was going to have a nice little surprise for everyone here on the message board. A couple of days ago I got wind that

"Never Say Die" was going to be played this Sunday night on WWXE radio on their evening rock and roll show. I guess I should have known that Bernie would top that news big time! Besides, Bernie's story- with the unsolicited email, the storage locker, the mystery tape, the waiting and reformatting; that is way more exciting than me saying "don't forget to turn your radio dial to WWXE Sunday night!" O.k., enough of this, I've got to get back to the mainpage and wait for the big news! Kirk.

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Now if only Bernie can parlay this whole story into something like an article in "People Magazine" about how the tape came to him from a storage locker - unheard and forgotten for years. There was a similar story about a guy who bought the contents of a storage locker and got all of Michael Jackson's old stuff. This could really increase interest in Eric's work again - making a new album something a ton of people will be asking for.

Hey, do you see the marketing genius in this? Bernie is just about to release his book on Eric, at the same time that this big news comes out about the lost song? Can you say "increase in sales"? Wow Bernie, you never fail to amaze me with your talent for spreading the story of Eric as far and wide as possible. And to top it all off, you're a great guy with a genuine love for the music who's unselfish enough to share it all with us fans. You're one in a million!

Now get that song posted so I can stop going nuts sitting here waiting!

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Way to go Bernie!! Mighty fine guitar pickin' there. It's great to hear real instruments again. By chance did he write this for the James Bond movie? Thank you Eric & Bernie. This is turning out to be a GREAT Thursday!

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