STARTING OVER
A Raspberries Revival

By Mark Brown

Usually the KOOL Koncert is a perfectly fine trip through nostalgia.

The oldies station at 105-FM books acts that are often decades past any relevance. No offense intended; it's an afternoon of nice tunes and musical history, but it stays very firmly in its oldies niche. That's what it's all about.

But when word got out about this year's lineup, hard-core music fans gasped. Not only would the show feature a re-formed Box Tops (with the brilliant but reclusive Alex Chilton fronting the band that changed rock history), but power-pop fans around the nation were thrilled to see the name the Raspberries on the bill.

Yes, it's really them, in the original lineup. After more than three decades, the Raspberries—Eric Carmen, Jim Bonfanti, Wally Bryson and Dave Smalley—are back together, and Saturday's show is by far their highest-profile date after a test-run through a smattering of small-club shows near their Cleveland home.

"It's the original four, not some guy who was the drummer who put three new guys in the band," Carmen says.

"It has to be the original four or it can never be. It can't be any one of us or any three of us. I think that's paid off now," Bonfanti says. Despite an attempted album that Bryson and Smalley put out under the Raspberries name a few years back (which sunk like a stone), "we protected the name and that's really a cool thing. Very few groups get together today that have the original members."

We're getting Saturday's show only because House of Blues has developed a relationship with the band (whose first reunion show was at a HOB club) and Denver vice-president Jason Miller talked them into it. "We initially shied away from doing any concerts like this…we'd rather play for 700 manic fans who know our stuff than 7,000 that don't. House of Blues prevailed upon us and we said. 'OK,' " Carmen explains.

To fans, the Raspberries are the greatest missed opportunity in music. After four brilliant and solid albums from 1972 to 1974—with huge pop radio hits such as "Go All the Way," "Let's Pretend," "Overnight Sensation" and "I Wanna Be With You"—the band split because of internal tensions after the release of its most critically acclaimed album, 1974's Starting Over. After making the album that should have launched a stunning career into orbit, the Raspberries instead broke up.

"We've had 31 years now to sit back and look at it…and also learn about the business. What really happened was the people who controlled the band at that time were a bit greedy," Carmen says. "We never had a good manager. The people who controlled us didn't want a good manager who would question their contracts. They liked the status quo and didn't want us to ever get smart."

The Raspberries were marketed as a teen act, even as Rolling Stone and other publications were declaring their albums works of art.

"Rolling Stone in 1974 picked 'Overnight Sensation' as best single of the year and the Starting Over album as one of the seven best of the year. It sold the least of all four albums. The frustration level was unbelievable," Carmen recalls. "We weren't making any money. We were on the road constantly. Management would put us anywhere there was a microphone."

So who did the band members blame for their plight? Each other.

"Of course!" Bonfanti says with a laugh. "At the time we didn't know any better. Now we know these things. That's what helps us get past that ugly stuff—we realized it really wasn't us. It was the frustration that broke us apart."

You have to understand the time. In the early '70s, the Beatles had broken up. FM radio was rising, and tight, bright singles gave way to free-form programming.

"We were the antithesis—on purpose—of everything else that was going on," Carmen says. "When 1970 hit and FM became the format of choice, it became about albums. It was suddenly Traffic and Yes and Jethro Tull. Extended guitar solos and extended drum solos. Personally, I found that stuff pretty boring. If you've heard Jeff Beck play a solo and if you've heard Jimi Hendrix play a solo, if you've heard Jimmy Page play a solo, how many guys lesser than that do you really need to hear play an eight-minute solo?"

Songs such as "Go All the Way" and "I Wanna Be With You" are propelled by jangling, ringing guitars as well as Bonfanti's explosive drumming.

"It seemed to me the thing you need to do as an act in any day is try to figure out what you do that's different and better than the other people out there. I thought what we should do was make great 3 1/2-minute pop songs, because nobody was doing it."

The Raspberries did just that, fusing hard-rock guitar with pop-perfect vocals and harmonies, but few could see the band beyond the hits—even the record companies. "There was definitely a backlash. There were certain people in the beginning who did not get it at all," Carmen says.

Bonfanti predicted that "there'll be no middle ground with us. They'll love us or hate us. And that was pretty much the way it played out."

The band found itself with radio airplay, chart position, critical acclaim and album sales that most acts would kill for today. The "Go All the Way" single itself sold more than a million copies. But it all went sour.

In the early days, "we were put on tour by managers who would have us play at a barn dance. We'd walk into situations where there's a lousy PA system or the stage was terrible. No one in the audience cares about the technical stuff. They just walk out and say 'Aw, the Raspberries were awful,' " Carmen says. They don't want that to happen again.

"When the Raspberries broke up in the '70s, I felt it was just another band. I'd been in bands. Bands broke up. Yet we're mentioned over and over. I started to realize many years later that, wow, we actually kinda had something—which then would frustrate me," Bonfanti says.

"We could have been a contender!" Carmen jokes.

"The artists that have mentioned us, I'm still amazed," Bonfanti says.

The Raspberries' former roadie, Kevin Dugan, went to work for Van Halen and other bands two decades ago. He'd call Carmen and say "These metal guys I'm working with, they're just saying 'Tell me Raspberries stories!' " Carmen says. "Poison, Van Halen. Axl Rose is a huge fan."

KOOL Koncert schedule

Kool Kats: 1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
Gary Lewis and the Playboys: 2:30 p.m.- 3:15 p.m.
The Box Tops: 3:35 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.
BJ Thomas: 4:40 p.m. - 5:25 p.m.
The Spinners: 5:45 p.m. - 6:35 p.m.
Paul Revere and the Raiders: 6:55 p.m. - 7:55 p.m.
The Raspberries: 8:15 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
Little Richard: 9:35 p.m.- 10:35 p.m.
Fireworks: 10:40 p.m. - 10:55 p.m.

Rocky Mountain News / June 30, 2005