RASPBERRIES BACK IN SEASON
'70s Pop Group Reunites

By Corey Levitan

The Raspberries' lack of superstardom is one of rock's great injustices.

Young girls and rock critics alike hailed the seminal power-pop quartet from Cleveland, which performed in matching white pre-disco suits. The annual Rolling Stone writer's poll named the band's "Overnight Sensation" as 1974's single of the year. (The following year, its choice was Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run.") Yet the group is only hazily remembered for its hit "Go All the Way," while its singer, Eric Carmen, is best known all by himself (for his 1976 solo hit, "All By Myself," and 1987's equally saccharine "Hungry Eyes").

The problem is that, while the Raspberries were together, young girls and rock critics were just about their only fans. "At the back of our concerts would be the critics, and up front would be about 300 16-year-old girls," says Carmen, 56, phoning rave! from his home in suburban Cleveland.

"And in between would be nothing. Their older brothers were out buying Jethro Tull albums.

"And FM radio didn't get what we were doing, either. They seemed to see us as a throwback, a nostalgia thing."

Carmen—a classically trained pianist who based "All By Myself" on Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto—admits the throwback tag wasn't off-base; the Raspberries were formed to pinprick the bloat of progressive rock.

"For those of us who started playing as a result of the Beatles and the Who, the thing I loved about that time was that it was all about songs," he says. "I didn't hate Traffic, but Jim Capaldi noodling around on a flute for five minutes didn't do it for me the way Pete Townshend slashing out guitar chords did. "So I felt there was a void."

The Raspberries are now touring, for the first time since their 1974 breakup, to see if they can change their historical station (and make some cash, who are we kidding?). The idea came when a House of Blues booker decided a Raspberries reunion was the perfect way to open the chain's Cleveland franchise.

At first, Carmen—who spent the past 10 years out of show business, raising two children—was hesitant.

"A certain myth has grown up around the band over 30 years," he says, "and I would rather have it stay a myth than go up there and have people walk out and say, 'Yeah, they weren't so good."'

Although John Q. Public still doesn't know who the Raspberries were, Carmen is correct about the myth; it built up among rock musicians. Axl Rose is an avowed fan. Kurt Cobain was known to have requested a "Raspberries sound" from album engineers. And check out what Bruce Springsteen told a Greensboro, N.C., concert crowd just three months ago: "In the late '70s, I used to keep 'The Raspberries Greatest Hits' on cassette in my car. They haven't gotten the respect they deserved in my opinion. With all the power pop music you hear, what about the Raspberries? The Raspberries had great stuff."

Introduced to the House of Blues' impressive sound system while on one of Ringo Starr's All-Starr band tours, Carmen had his reunion doubts further assuaged when he got together for a tentative tryout with his former band mates last year.

"It sounded pretty good," he remembers.

There were still issues for the band to plow through, however, especially being that the breakup followed a fistfight between Carmen and guitarist Wally Bryson.

"We were supposed to have a band meeting, and Wally didn't want to come," Carmen says. "I said, 'What do you mean he doesn't want to come?' And the next thing you know, we were out in the parking lot."

The tension had been building up for months, Carmen explains. "More than anything else, it was just about the intense and ever-growing level of frustration with being out on the road day after day, banging our brains out on a stage, and feeling like we were battling every possible thing—bad sound systems, bad management, no days off.

"And there had already been internal problems within the band about direction," Carmen continues, "because as soon as your singles don't start to do as well, people start to say, 'Maybe it's the concept that's wrong and maybe we should change horses."'

So far, Carmen says, fists have yet to clench during the reunion.

"It's better now because we're 30 years older, a little less impulsive and a little more diplomatic," he says. "But there are some issues that really still aren't ironed out. We're four different people with different tastes in music and different ideas about pretty much everything.

"There's plenty of bumping heads here and there."

Copley News Service / October 30, 2005