Musings on EC music

[James]

I was listening to "Essential"...last week while driving & some stuff came to mind:

1. The bridge and the bridge-chorus climax of "My Girl" is the greatest in the history of the world. Hard to beat that minute or so if you are judging a song on how much pure joy it brings when listening to it. Similar to "Love Grows…" in that respect.

2. "Runaway" to me is a masterpiece. Very underrated even among us here and elsewhere who opine on Eric Carmen music.

3. Re: the internal band problems, my sense (educated guess) is the fundamental problem was that Eric Carmen wasn´t recognized as the genius he was. I love all the members, don´t know of a guitar player who produces a better sound on guitar than Wally, at least for my taste. But there´s no shame in admitting that one member is superior in talent, and celebrating that. Instead it seems some of the others, instead of celebrating it, and appreciating what Eric´s genius did for them (a lot), they fought against that truth.

4. An incredible fact: for me there was no Eric Carmen penned tune on his first 7 albums (4 Raz, 3 thru COH solo), that wasn´t at least good. Zero duds, on the contrary most were very good-great. The first 2 songs I didn´t like were both from TYM (which is a fantastic album overall)…."You need some loving" and the song "Tonight You´re Mine". 7 albums without a dud, that´s quite a testimonial and a testament to Eric Carmen´s genius.

5. "Starting Over" and "That´s rock & roll" were to me great songs on the studio albums. But live, both songs are twice as good, especially TR&R.

I´m forgetting some stuff, but for now that´s it.

Please carry-on..

:-)

 

 

[Kirk]

I think the only released Eric penned song that really didn't rock my boat was "Lost in the Shuffle".  I've come to appreciate it for what it is in later years.

Of his unreleased songs, there are a few that would have me agreeing with Eric- if they weren't good enough in their day, they probably aren't good enough now.

One demo song that generally gets rave reviews, but I find rather predictable, is "Cindy in the Wind".  It's a nice enough Left- Bank inspired number, but it simply does not have the incredible chord changes, the soaring middle eight, or anything else I can find to elevate it to Eric's best works.  

[susie b]

Meet My Girl's parent piece as played by the incomparable A. Rubenstein with the fabulous CSO under the direction of Fritz Reiner.

Circa 1956, I believe.

 

[Raspbernie]

2:12

Bernie

[susie b]

4 hours ago, Raspbernie said:

2:12

Bernie

Yup!

[Kirk]

As Eric would say (paraphrased)- as close to heaven on earth as you can get...

[susie b]

Mr. Rubenstein playing Rachmaninoff is a heavenly experience, especially when accompanied by the CSO.

[PaulMaul]

On 7/29/2019 at 9:47 PM, James said:

 

3. Re: the internal band problems, my sense (educated guess) is the fundamental problem was that Eric Carmen wasn´t recognized as the genius he was. I love all the members, don´t know of a guitar player who produces a better sound on guitar than Wally, at least for my taste. But there´s no shame in admitting that one member is superior in talent, and celebrating that. Instead it seems some of the others, instead of celebrating it, and appreciating what Eric´s genius did for them (a lot), they fought against that truth.

 

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.