10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1225. This show is available as a podcast.
RASPBERRIES: I Wanna Be With You
Prior to the recent passing of Eric Carmen, I was already working on a near-future piece about the albums that defined me. The piece itself is still a work in progress, but it was always, always going to include Raspberries' Best Featuring Eric Carmen, a 1976 collection of tracks by Carmen's former group Raspberries.
(Or the Raspberries. My radio said the band's name came equipped with a definite article. The band said otherwise. Agree to disagree.)
I think I've always acknowledged the importance of those Raspberries records upon impressionable teen me, and on the history of my beloved power pop. In my lengthy power pop chronicle "The Kids Are Alright!," I wrote:
"The crucial role of the Raspberries in the power pop story cannot be overstated. Where several other acts played in a pop style, the Raspberries consciously set out to recreate the frenzied rock ‘n’ roll excitement of Beatlemania. They didn’t want to be a revival act; they wanted to bring the pop of the ‘60s up-to-date with the power of the ‘70s.
"The Raspberries made incredible records, often combining the leering salaciousness of the Rolling Stones with a facade of choirboy (or Beach Boys) innocence that enabled them to get away with blunt sexual solicitations like 'Go All The Way,' a # 5 hit in 1972. 'Go All The Way' was followed later that year by the similarly-themed 'I Wanna Be With You,' perhaps the definitive power pop single...
"...Alas, the party would soon be over. From the beginning, the Raspberries were dogged by meatheaded criticism that they were light-weight, teenybop, even bubblegum. And, like Badfinger before them, the Raspberries were also consistently derided as Beatles clones, a specious charge that ignored the group’s equally-evident roots in dynamic acts like the Who, the Small Faces, the Dave Clark Five, the Hollies, and the Beach Boys. It also ignored the Raspberries’ own contribution in remaking those influences into a thoroughly contemporary sound, and in making that sound their own."
For all that, I still don't think I've properly expressed my debt to these records and how much they have meant to me. Alongside the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" (the record that changed my life) and Badfinger's "Baby Blue" (my all-time favorite track), Raspberries' "I Wanna Be With You" stands as one of THE most immediately impactful singles ever to reach my eager ears.
I've never been shy about proclaiming the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes as my three favorite groups, with the Monkees and the Kinks also serving as parts of my pantheon. I've been too slow to realize and admit that Raspberries have always been right up there with them, too.
With Carmen's death, it seemed imperative for TIRnRR to attempt some sort of tribute to his legacy. And that tribute absolutely had to open with "I Wanna Be With You." It was the second Raspberries hit, but it was the one that started it all for me. It kicks off TIRnRR's salute to Eric Carmen.
ERIC CARMEN: You Took Me All The Way
Self-referential, sure, but I'll allow it. In 1984, Eric Carmen looked back at Raspberries' first hit "Go All The Way" for this nominal follow-up. We considered programming a number of other Carmen tracks in this spot (including "She Did It," "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again," and "Make Me Lose Control"), but I couldn't resist this track's titular and thematic reprise of Raspberries. We will get to one of those other three Carmen tracks on our next show.
RINGO STARR AND HIS ALL-STARR BAND: Hungry Eyes
Eric Carmen toured as a member of Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band in 2000, singing Raspberries' "Go All The Way" and two of his solo hits, "All By Myself" and "Hungry Eyes." We can only imagine how jazzed a Beatles fan like Eric must have been to be playing in a band with our Ringo. A splendid time was guaranteed for all!
The tour came to Syracuse's Landmark Theatre, and TIRnRR's own inimitable Dana Bonn was working there as house manager. Some time before the show, Dana received a call about a problem backstage. Intrepid investigator Dana discovered that Eric Carmen had been drying his air, and his blow dryer blew the fuse. Dana located the fuse box, restored power, and Eric was able to complete his pre-show coiffure prep. Our hero Dana!
RASPBERRIES: I'm A Rocker
In 2017, when I did the second of two all-vinyl solo editions of TIRnRR, I made sure to program Raspberries' "I'm A Rocker" single. I had played the first four tracks from Raspberries' Best--"Go All The Way," "I Wanna Be With You," "Tonight," and "Ecstasy," in sequence--on the previous all-vinyl show earlier that year, and for the second go-round I wanted to include this additional slice of my own essential '70s Raspberries experience.
"I'm A Rocker" was not a hit, though its # 94 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 bested the group's classic "Ecstasy," which did not chart at all. "Ecstasy" was (deservedly!) part of Raspberries' Best, but "I'm A Rocker" was an inexplicable omission from that best-of LP. I bought the 45 as a closeout some time after receiving Raspberries' Best as a Christmas gift in '76. To me, it has always been among Raspberries' best.
The single version of "I'm A Rocker"--shorter than the version on Raspberries' Side 3 album--has never been reissued. It's overdue. Let's ROCK!
ERIC CARMEN: That's Rock 'n' Roll
By the time I was in college from 1977 to 1980, what Mason Reese woulda called the borgasmord of my primary rockin' pop influences--British Invasion, AM Top 40, bubblegum, loud rock 'n' roll, and punk--had gelled within the general parameters of what I considered power pop. Teen pop star Shaun Cassidy's hit versions of Eric Carmen's "Hey Deanie" and "That's Rock 'n' Roll" fit within those parameters; the balladry of much of Carmen's post-Raspberries work did not.
(Actually, the balladry of some of his work with Raspberries also fell outside my power pop expectations. But I digress.)
We dig what we dig. And even within this minefield of genre and style demarcation, I wanted to dig Carmen, especially given the continuing relevance of Raspberries in my POV. I remember sampling Eric's "Hey Deanie" on a jukebox at (of all places) a Pizza Hut, and finding it even more disappointing than the pizza.
I'm a lot more open to the Carmen "Hey Deanie" now, and we've occasionally played it on TIRnRR. Prepping this week's show, I was surprised that our stats say we had never played Eric's version of "That's Rock 'n' Roll." So! Knowing that we wanted to play one of Shaun Cassidy's Carmen covers, we played Shaun's "Hey Deanie" and Eric's "That's Rock 'n' Roll." We got the guitars. We got the feeling. That's rock 'n' roll.
Dig it.
RASPBERRIES: Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
CYRUS ERIE: Get The Message
Our regular listeners are well familiar with the Flashcubes' cover of the Eric Carmen composition "Get The Message" (from the 2023 'Cubes album Pop Masters). The song first appeared in 1969, as a B-side by Carmen's then-group Cyrus Erie. It's a fantastic pop tune in either interpretation.
And Cyrus Erie was the first band to contain both Eric Carmen and his future Raspberries partner Wally Bryson. Within just a few years, Eric, Wally, and two members from rival Cleveland group the Choir (Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti) would start fresh as Raspberries. And I got that message from my radio in 1972.
RASPBERRIES: Go All The Way
Federal regulations governing internet radio limited the number of Raspberries and Eric Carmen solo tracks we could play in this week's tribute to Eric. We threw in some covers of Carmen songs to supplement the tribute: The Flashcubes' "Don't Want To Say Goodbye;" Shaun Cassidy's "Hey Deanie;" Bill Lloyd's "Goin' Nowhere Tonight;" the Rubinoos' "Crusin' Music." I really wanted to play Raspberries' "Tonight" and "Ecstasy," but settled this week for Off Broadway's capable cover of the former and deferred the latter to next week. We also considered the Bay City Rollers' cover of "Let's Pretend" and Ken Sharp's version of "Waiting."
And we strongly considered using Lisa Mychols' dreamy acoustic reworking of "Go All The Way" in place of the Raspberries original. That would have left us room to squeeze in either "Tonight" or "Ecstasy" as our fourth Raspberries track.
And it would have bordered on heresy.
Now, we're okay with heresy when it suits us. But (come on!) come on (come on!) come on (come on!) come on (come on!): How could we do a proper tribute to Eric Carmen's rockin' pop brilliance without playing Raspberries' landmark first hit? Unthinkable. And not gonna happen on our watch. Not even if I had a hole in the place where my heart should have been.
With "Go All The Way" and "I Wanna Be With You," Raspberries accomplished two--TWO!--of power pop's shining 'n' defining tracks. I don't think anyone else has ever matched them. As I wrote in "The Kids Are Alright!:"
"The Raspberries may have left the scene prematurely, but their legacy continues to thrive. Rock history may remember them as mere footnotes, but the pop faithful know better: No group ever embodied the power pop ideal more fully than did the Raspberries."
ERIC CARMEN [with TOMMY ALLEN and BERNIE HOGYA]: Never Say Die
An eleventh song this week. In 2012, several years before Tommy Allen's renovation of "I Could Really Love You" and "Top Down Summer," he had a sort of practice run with "Never Say Die." "Never Say Die" was an unreleased demo Eric did in the early '90s. Tommy recruited Bernie Hogya--who rivals Ken Sharp and Tommy Allen as the world's biggest Eric Carmen fan--to punch the track up into something special. The stirring result got significant airtime on TIRnRR at the time, and it serves as our coda this week.
Godspeed, Eric. Never say die. Love can live forever after tonight. I do believe that what we're doing is right.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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