OPO: Raspberries

(oops x-post sorry)

Drivin' Around

I like nearly everything I ever hear by them even though they're more Paul McCartney than he himself ever was.

Been listening through Power Pop Vols. 1 and 2 - how did I miss this stuff for so long? "I Can Remember" is epic!

this band is so criminally forgotten

Saw a great concert way back when: Eric Carmen (just post-Raspberries, but still doing all their hits with a crack new band) warming up for The Sweet circa "Desolation Boulevard."

"i wanna be with you" or "seemed so easy"

i've only heard the first one though, which is incredible

Anyone here heard Cyrus Erie's 'Get the Message'? Not Raspberries per se but that'd be my pick.

How about "On the Beach" from Side 3? Feels like it has about 7 parts -- including a great melancholy verse, a ridiculously optimistic chorus, a fast middle-8, and an excellent "I Want You/She's So Heavy" descending guitar pastiche with seagulls squawking in the background.

Will check that one out. Just heard this annoying cover of "Go All The Way" by The Killers and need to clear my ears.

man this band was really good

this song is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzX6wNjRZwI

seriously

otm

new favorite is "i saw the light"

tonight.

they have a lot of amazing songs though it's true

Usually just stick to the hits but this thread inspiring me to dig deeper. Anyway is there a thread for all-time best series of album openers because

Raspberries, "Go All The Way"
Fresh, "I Wanna Be With You"
Side 3, "Tonight"
Starting Over, "Overnight Sensation"

OK, tbh there are some boilerplate tracks buried in between the hits and the deep cuts that threaten to derail the listening experience.

their greatest hits, which is like 20 songs, is almost uniformly great

Yeah. With respect to the original albums, so far Side 3 seems to be the one for me. The big, um, wall of sound on every single track.

of their actual albums i've only heard fresh, which i thought was pretty even

Will listen again. Perhaps it will fall into place. If we close our eyes and believe it will all come true.

Love this rhythmic figure they use over and over again where the bass emphasizes the beats three four one. Kind of like a modified bolero.

Which songs have that?

"Tonight," "I Wanna Be You" right before the chorus.

Not hearing it on the last album though. Did hear a bass voice on the right channel of "Overnight Sensation" I never noticed before.

THREE FOUR ONE You looked too young to know about romance. Oh yes you did
THREE FOUR ONE But when you smiled I had to take a chance, I had to to take a chance and be with you
Tonight, I'll be with you tonight
Tonight, you'll love me too tonight

If we were older
ONE THREE FOUR ONE
We wouldn't have to be worried tonight
ONE (two) and THREE FOUR ONE
THREE FOUR ONE (= Ba-by Oh)
I wanna with you so bad
Yeah I wanna be with you

"Go All The Way" too

Please THREE FOUR ONE (=Ba-by go)

and elsewhere throughout the song

do u see?

Interesting stuff. I wonder if they got it from somewhere.

On another thread it was suggested that they borrowed heavily from The Small Faces.

I was just listening to The Beach Boys Today the other day and the chorus melody in "She Knows Me Too Well" rang the Raspberries bell. The descending part is also in the chorus of "Go All the Way."

I'm like a humungous Wally Bryson fan, btw.

OK, I did this:

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-raspberries-ecstasy-1973.html

Cool. Why does it say "tenor"? Also dominant prep chord, is that a V of V?

Ha, I have to select something for what voice it is on that notation program!

Yeah, dominant prep could be a V of V, but IV are ii are also considered to be chords that lead to the dominant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predominant_chord

B-b-but it still puts the Treble Clef!

Yeah, ended up reading that Wikipedia article. Pretty useful term actually.

What software did you use to write that btw? I started using MuseScore which is free. Didn't want to deal with obtaining a copy of the more popular alternatives.

Yeah, I used MuseScore. I don't know, maybe you can have staff lines without identifying which voice it is somehow? I haven't tried.

Now I remember and I think your are right. I chose Electric Bass for something but I was scared because the guy I was showing it to was an upright player.

By the way, I checked on that "She Knows Me Too Well"/"Go All the Way" melody and the Raspberries do it a whole step lower. I've wondered if appropriations happen close to exact pitch more often than people might realize.

can't believe I never noticed that before. maybe it's because it's a whole step lower

You have perfect pitch, Shakey?

Same chords, too - both songs are moving from vi to IV when that happens.

I have never understood what perfect pitch entails tbh

Assume it means you know the name and exact pitch of any note you hear, even out of context. Which is usually a good thing but can mess people up if others are not playing at concert pitch or something is tuned down a half-step etc.

yeah I don't "have" that. I guess my confusion about the term stems from it often being referred to as this mystical "talent" that people just innately have, whereas it seems like the kind of thing anybody should be able to learn with practice. (I have not bothered to practice).

what I was getting at about my not noticing this particular similarity is that I am usually pretty good at recalling/spotting melodies, but since I didn't notice this one maybe it was the difference in key that threw me.

There was some popular book recently by a music executive who went back school and started doing brain studies related to music and iirc he said that there was research that showed that at some low level the brain has absolute pitch but most people do not have conscious access to it.

I mean, I may not have perfect pitch but I can tell the difference between a melody played in different keys

xp

I can often correctly deduce what key a song is in, but if asked to sing a particular note I can only estimate (though I'm usually within +/- a couple of notes in either direction). From what I understand that doesn't quite qualify as perfect pitch.

My OPO is "Let's Pretend", which sometimes feels like it could be the official song of ~my life~.....

"Let's Pretend" also utilizes that Raspbolero beat.

This thread really should have been a POX.

I think the highest note in that is D an octave above middle C and it doesn't sound like he's using his falsetto. Incredible voice.

Yeah, pretty nice.

Almost think it would be interesting to do TS Raspberries vs. 10cc but I dunno.

How about "On the Beach" from Side 3? Feels like it has about 7 parts -- including a great melancholy verse, a ridiculously optimistic chorus, a fast middle-8, and an excellent "I Want You/She's So Heavy" descending guitar pastiche with seagulls squawking in the background.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, July 1, 2012 10:21 PM (11 months ago)

For a guy who doesn't like the Beatles I'm awfully fond of bands that (try to) sound like them.

On another thread it was suggested that they borrowed heavily from The Small Faces.

That was almost certainly me!

Spinning off from the Groupies/Star Mag revive...

https://www.star1973.com/rollswagen.html

Ha, wow, nice. Yeah, it seems like Star really loved this band.

Lol @ "Rollswagen"

I love that "Go All The Way" has a 4-bar verse and a 16-bar chorus

Otm

Awesome! "Ecstasy" is 8-bar verse and 16-bar chorus.

Yeah, it seems like Star really loved this band.

I imagine Capital was greasing the wheels pretty heavily, but it is interesting--if one didn't know any better, by looking at those mags, you would think the Raspberries were as big as the Stones, Bowie, Alice etc.

I don't think they really had a song that clicked after "Go All the Way," although you would think any of them - "I Wanna Be with You," "Let's Pretend," "Tonight," "Overnight Sensation" - could have. Maybe they just didn't fit in enough.

Metal Mike Saunders wrote a piece on Raspberries for a late '80s called Swellsville that I wish I still had. One of the things I remember about it was him talking about Raspberries having the courage to open for Blue Oyster Cult at some Chicago show in '73 even though it wasn't their crowd.

Off the top of my head I’d say that maybe at the time things had to signify as either more rock or more pop and they were trying to split the difference which had gone out of fashion. But this is just pure speculation on my part.
Xp

Never knew that Bruce Springsteen and Max Weinberg were pretty serious fans until I just read about it on Wikipedia.

maybe at the time things had to signify as either more rock or more pop

Yeah, you would think, but then "Go All the Way" did pretty well. Maybe signifying as pop, I don't know. In any case, they weren't able to follow it up.

Maybe they were too formulaic! "I Wanna Be with You" does that same thing, too, with a 6-bar verse and 16-bar chorus! To me, they are formulaic in an awesome way.

Yeah, to me too, but I don’t always have my finger on the pulsebeat of young America, as has been demonstrated on a few occasions.

In other news, listening to a few tracks on this Pop Art Live album and not hating it. Don’t know how many actual Raspberries are on it, but it sounds like Eric singing and the rest sends pretty faithful to the classic sound.

Apparently it’s the classic lineup. *takes a breath*

Beatles and Who covers too

https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/pop-art-live/

From 2004, released in 2017.

Another date from later in the tour had been released as Live on Sunset Strip.

maybe at the time things had to signify as either more rock or more pop

I think this is it. They remind me of Badfinger in a way because they'd do some hard rock/boogie stuff on their albums, as if to prove they weren't just a pop band, and the hard rock/boogie stuff was almost completely worthless.

Yeah, when I wrote that I was even thinking of Badfinger occupying similar territory but getting a pass for the reasons you describe.

They had enough power just doing the Carmen pop-rock tunes. "Tonight" could be the New York Dolls or Kiss.

From that reunion tour, on Sunset Strip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07lZSp9yQ-M

(xp) Absolutely, why bother trying to sound like Humble Pie or something.

Something else presumably from that reunion tour, this time with proper video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07lZSp9yQ-M

Aargh, sorry, forgot about the cut and paste problem when you try to paste a video after the original one you hit. Hang on a sec.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XUGbW9hpKk

Okay, Jim seems a wee bit uncomfortable trying to play Michael’s fills on “Overnight Sensation” but otherwise this reunion stuff sounds really good.

I like this description here:
http://ericcarmen.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7870-jim-bonfanti-or-michael-mcbride/#comment-92126
mikes "refrigerator falling down a flight of stairs" style

But maybe he got more comfortable with it later in the tour, that was from the first night. As is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhpgjGYIYjk

One more video, from later in the tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ErtYeBJS4

This starts off with some annoying stuff from the interviewer but Eric has some great stories to tell: https://observer.com/2017/08/eric-carmen-raspberries-pop-art-live-interview/

Part of me wants to go on the Burt Bacharach poll thread and stir things up by saying Eric is just as good a songwriter, better even, but that’s not quite my style right now.

I successfully chased you guys off the thread, the same way Eric chased the other guys out of the band.

We are here to support you.

Go all the way, man!

Eric is good and inventive, but he's no Bacharach.

Perhaps I would rather say I prefer the more modest but solid and consistent achievement of someone like Eric to the hits and misses of the other guy.

Perhaps if I had to watch Cilla Black sing "Let's Pretend" I would feel differently.

Okay, just looked up what Eric said Brian Wilson told him about falsetto voices and apparently it’s true. I mean not that I would doubt Eric or Brian but sometimes misunderstandings arise.

Yeah, that's news to me, too!

what'd he say what'd he say

Carmen has no falsetto and Wilson said this is true for all true tenors.

That’s what is said in the interview. Think that the more correct version of the statement is something like “baritones are more likely to be good falsetto singers than tenors,” apologies for the Internet pedantry.

So here's my little Raspberries-adjacent story from a couple of months ago:

I had been looking to buy a Strat, and saw one for sale on a local Northeast Ohio gear sell/swap/trade group on Facebook. The seller, Randy, was about 40 minutes away from me in Painesville, OH. (Just west of where I went to high school in Perry, OH.) I drove out to look at it, we agreed on a price, and I bought it. We were chatting throughout the transaction, and he mentioned that he was going to use this money for a new Gretsch to use in his band, The Choir.

"Wait," I said. "The Choir? Like, 'It's Cold Outside' The Choir?" He said it was, and it turns out he was Randy Klawon, brother of The Choir founder Danny Klawon, and that the two of them went to high school in Mentor, the next city over, with Wally Bryson, Jim Bonfanti, etc. Randy joined The Choir a little later originally but played with them on and off over their various reunions and incarnations.

I then asked if he knew a guy named Artie Peeler, another local musician who is good friends with Wally Bryson. He said yeah, he'd known Artie since high school as well. Artie used to date my aunt Debra, and when I was first learning guitar in the 80s he taught me some tricks like different chord voicings and Keith Richards's open G tuning. And to complete the small world circle, he knew Wally's son Jesse, who used to front a Cleveland band called Rosavelt back in the 90s. My band at the time played a couple of shows with them.

Here's a video of Bryson and Peeler at a local bar last Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WZaddldaaU

Cool! Thanks for the story and the video.

no votes for "i don't know what i want"? amazing song

That's such a great story, Eliza!

"I Don't Know What I Want" is indeed amazing; it even quotes "I'm A Boy"!

Apparently, Eric Carmen was a stone Who fanatic -- he called that song his "love letter to the Who" -- and his pre-Raspberries band Cyrus Erie once opened for the Who in Cleveland in 1968.

Yeah, he talks about how term Power Pop was originally used by Pete Townshend to describe what The Who was doing but the term ending up really sticking to The Raspberries, which was fine with him.

Also, this is interesting:
http://www.ericcarmen.com/eric-interview-03.html

Forgot that Wally Bryson was in Fotomaker, which band I can’t recall ever having listened to.

Probably did hear a radio promo for them and definitely saw the album in ye olde brick and mortar record stores.

Surely Pete Frame did a Family Tree for this stuff.

* checks book * dang, no

https://www.facebook.com/raspberriesrock/posts/wally-bryson-may-26-2018-if-any-guitar-players-ever-wanted-to-know-how-to-play-t/1744151732329195/

Also, from that interview I posted yesterday:

I was a little bit in the dark initially about how this was all going to work and at one point Ringo I think could see that I was stressed. Simon and I were going to accompany him to a show while we were in Atlantic City that he was supposed to go to, and I arrived at his room first and he said something like, "I sense a bit of the perfectionist in you." *Laughs* "Not unlike Mark Hudson."

*Bump*... two, three, four!

/Maybe they were too formulaic! "I Wanna Be with You" does that same thing, too, with a 6-bar verse and 16-bar chorus! To me, they are formulaic in an awesome way.

Hold me tight
Our love could live forever after tonight
If you believe in what we're doin' is right
Close your eyes and be still

Was just listening to a Stories song on a Left Banke playlist and kept thinking it was the Raspberries.

Similar vibe. Not as good though.

Ian Lloyd is a great (rock) singer though.

“Love Is In Motion.”

That's their best song but it's nothing like anything else they did.

Not being a Raspberries trivia geek, I didn't know until today they changed drummers between albums 3 and 4. Such great drumming on their stuff.

Rhythm section changed between 3 & 4. It kind of weakens the band because the new guys didn't write as well.

Timely revive, as I went through my Raspberries vinyl in order this week. Think Side 3 is the best LP this go round (followed by Fresh).

for pure powerpop rush it's always "Tonight", for me

'Come Around And See Me' keeps popping into my head, particularly the delightfully vari-speed 'Don't ever think I'll be cruel to you / I'm a fool for you / Come a-round, and, seee mmeeeeee' part

Posting here as well as Rolling Music Theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqYft12nV4

Reposting here so I don’t forget:
https://observer.com/2017/08/eric-carmen-raspberries-pop-art-live-interview/

“Whose songs are the hardest?” and the entire band swirled around and pointed at me and said, “Eric’s!”

People thought the Raspberry stuff was real simple. I remember I was trying to teach the band Go All The Way and Dave Edmunds looked at me at some point and he said, “For God’s sake there is a fucking chord for every word! I’ve never seen anything like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lHlczRwz0

^I've never seen this before, unless of course it's upthread and I forgot.

RIP Eric Carmen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqdiSN8aVIg

kind of insane how many great songs this dude wrote, absolute genius

just the other day I heard Hey Deanie and thought "dang this is really good who wrote this"

my opo is probably I Saw the Light

I wouldn't call him a genius, but he reminds me of Tom Petty in that he was a master of his genre and no more but unlike Petty was prone to distraction. As a teen I was shocked that the guy responsible for "Make Me Lose Control" and "Hungry Eyes" wrote "Go All the Way."

aw man RIP! amazing artist — my discovery of the raspberries is probably upthread. shame he didn’t live to see america great once again

"Overnight Sensation" has more hooks than many bands manage in one song.

xp blech didn't realize that. His Twitter account no longer exists, but someone blogged in 2019 that "most of his feed is right wing nut jobbery now."

You’re right, I didn’t realize that!

74-year-old white guy from Cleveland, checks out.

Ah. RIP Eric. V. talented dude.

recently picked up the first raspberries record at a thrift store, really great RIP

i mentioned it upthread and it's atypical for carmen/the raspberries but "i don't know what i want" rules so hard

^^ that one's a pretty successful Who rip

Had no idea Hungry Eyes was this dude.

the followup "Make Me Lose Control" is a shameless late '80s yuppie-smarm move that works imo

xp I can't stand the film enough to sit through it, but one of the most horrid conceits about Dirty Dancing is how they anachronistically shove mucusy '80s shlock into a story that plays out in the summer of 1963. Anachronisms can be brilliant, but not in the service of horrendous taste.

yeah, you are way wrong. The movie's rather good, especially since it foregrounds the young heroine's sexuality: she wants this dancer and she gets him. And there's an abortion in this movie! And no one apologizes for it.

If you don't think "I've Had the Time of My Life" works in context as beautifully as Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" does in the seduction scene, then *throws hands up*

Movie not bad, but some people complain that for authenticity the music really should have been Latin, had the Latin Tinge.

The abortion was probably done well. It's not likely I've seen the whole movie - I've seen large chunks at different times - but the earliest bit of plot I can remember from the film was Orbach's father character finding out because they need his help and he gets really angry about it. But it sounds like I missed some crucial context and that would mean a lot in 1987.

Hate to say it, but I didn't enjoy the ending...again, given the way I probably saw it, maybe it needed some context or some kind of build because as-is it just seemed formulaic and corny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSaC8X7oNiA

(re: mean a lot in 1987, the idea that abortion is okay even if the elders don't think so )

Yeah sorry forgot about that mambo. I think some people wanted even more of that.

Formulaic and corny are the point of a musical!

Sorry. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze have genuine chemistry, and it was and remains fascinating that the liberal Jewish gamine seduces the Irish blockhead while an abortion happens around her.

And, to put a period on this discussion, for millions of us '80s kids we learned about "Be My Baby," "Stay," Otis Redding's great obscurity "Love Man," "Do You Love Me?" and Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me" thanks to how forward this film was about sex.

I mean, I'm younger and gayer than you guys, so this film codes differently.

And ask the millions of young women who made it a staple of their coming-of-age.

the liberal Jewish gamine seduces the Irish blockhead while an abortion happens around her

To be fair, this does indeed sound interesting. Was Swayze's character Catholic?

It doesn't come up. All he wants to do is dance. And make romance. That's part of this film's queerness too: dancing is his life like it isn't for the women, in part b/c he can love'em and leave'em.

Was Swayze's character Catholic?

Is the Pope an Irish blockhead?

Does a bear eat Raspberries in the woods?

Is that what’s bothering you, Bunkie?

who’s coming in here saying anything against my beloved Dirty Dancing…
ESPECIALLY not having seen the whole thing? cmon.

Dirty Dancing
a)rules
ii)is awesome
thirdly) is unimpeachable
and 4) perfect in every way

Besmirch the excellence of Ms Grey, Mr Swayze and Cynthia Rhodes aka the former Mrs Richard Marx AT YOUR PERIL

honestly it’s very good

DD rules in every possible respect

I mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZFfEy_Eyk

pass the kleenex i’m bawling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxL84qrV_LU

ORBACH THE GOAT

“When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong”

only Gene Hackman could've said the line besides Orbach.

On my Mt Rushmore of best movie dads
along with Gregory Peck, Steve Martin & Tom Hanks

This thread has become the equivalent of all the "Dirty Dancing Singer Dies" obit leads.

However, on that tip TIL Carmen co-wrote "Almost Paradise" from Footloose.

see!

he wrote everything! so many good songs

I had forgotten about his solo song “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again,” which I kind of used to have a little bit of a sweet spot for.

yeah i like that one too!

Also forgot how much I like “Don’t Want To Say Goodbye.”

“I Don’t Know What I Want” does indeed sound a lot like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” but it also sounds a bit like “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”

... which was inspired by "Substitute", and then later covered by Roger Daltrey on an Alice Cooper tribute album!

😳

was listening to the raspberries s/t this morning love this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZJlYh8i7ZY

he could really channel mccartney like few others outside of emitt rhodes

That's a Wally Bryson song though.

ahh I didn't know that, good on Wally

And ask the millions of young women who made it a staple of their coming-of-age.

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 12, 2024 7:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

If you weren't a tween girl or gay when Dirty Dancing came out you don't get to shit all over it. It was life changing.

But on Eric C - I loved him so much when I was a kid. My mom bought me his greatest hits when I wouldn't stop talking about how "Make me Lose Control" was my favorite song lol. My mind was also blown when I figured out he was the singer from the Raspberries which didn't happen until I was in college listening to a power pop comp. Hell of a song writer.

I am starting to recall that back in the day when I was coming up you wouldn’t really hear them on the radio that much because they didn’t quite fit the formats for reasons discussed upthread.

I was pretty happy though when I called into my college radio station and they played “I Wanna Be With You” albeit after explaining “there was this group called The Raspberries.”

I know where I first heard or became aware of "Go All the Way". It's the song playing in Fast Times when J Jason Leigh and Damone do it in the dugout.

To me this stuff is the male equivalent of The Shirelles’s “Tonight’s the Night.”

Much closer to that than to Spinal Tap’s “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight.”

It's the song playing in Fast Times when J Jason Leigh and Damone do it in the dugout.

isn't that "somebody's baby" by Jackson Browne?

Is this one of this somebody didn’t buy the rights for the home video version things?

How bizarre.

I remember being particularly scandalized by that whilst watching John Sayles’s “Baby, It’s You.”

One of those…

It's the song playing in Fast Times when J Jason Leigh and Damone do it in the dugout.
isn't that "somebody's baby" by Jackson Browne?

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, March 13, 2024 2:24 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's my memory but i remember from the you must remember this podcast that there are like 4 distinct edits of Fast Times that are floating around, and that scenes I remember well weren't in the original movie

so the imdb page covers all of this in typically frustrating crowd-sources fashion. there were lots of tussles over music rights for home video, cable, etc., and eventually all the original music was restored, but:

1999 DVD version is completely restored and contains all of the music and scenes from the theatrical version. The entire soundtrack has been restored, including Timothy B. Schmidt's "So Much In Love", Tom Petty's "All Amercan Girl," and "Goodbye, Goodbye" which had been omitted in several other versions.

there is no such song as Tom Petty's "All American Girl," although the imdb entry refers to this repeatedly.

One time I saw Wim Wenders at MoMA MY

there is no such song as Tom Petty's "All American Girl,"

That was his obscure series of YA novels.

Lol

(xp)
…at MoMA introducing a then-newly restored The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick talking about saving some money by swapping out some songs on the soundtrack.

High point was then-still-tolerable Peter Handke getting more and more annoyed at moderator Ian Buruma, at one point responding to some question he didn’t like with “and Ozu drank too much sake!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJVE-VjC_ME

More importantly, that wasn’t Damone with her in the dugout.

I come to this thread for the Raspberry strudel, it’s great.

Didn’t remember that copy of Taking Liberties in the background.

a then-newly restored The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick talking about saving some money by swapping out some songs on the soundtrack.

Supposedly the impossibility of obtaining music rights is the reason why Wenders' debut, Summer in the City, has never been released.

Anyway, if for some reason I had to Only Pick One Raspberries song, it might be "Let's Pretend". But they are probably the epitome of a band that could create a great compilation with only enough good songs for a compilation.

Fair point. Or so I used to think.

Side 3 is a solid album though

^^Probably my favorite. Also has the best artwork (die-cut, baby!).

this song from his early days band Cyrus Erie rocks so hard, extremely Who-like right down to the drums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Dtg295wVk

Too bad Jonathan Richman didn’t see fit to put the Raspberries on his graph.

#onethread!

“I Don’t Know What I Want” has that beautiful melisma from “So Sad About Us,” too (“And you’d think I was committin’ some kind of criii-i-i-ime” = “You can’t switch off my lovin’ like you can’t switch off the suuu-u-u-un”).

I’m reluctant to bring up the subject of postmodernism because people seem to have different views of what it is, but I don’t how else to talk about something that I think is key to Raspberries. They’re a very early example of music where the gesture is the important thing, much more so than whatever the content would be. They’re so much more like this than Big Star. Maybe it’s partly me, but I’ve always been less invested in, you know, whether Eric gets the girl or whatnot and more invested in things like how Wally looks rocking out. Or “OMG it’s The Who.” Stuff like that.

I think that’s really why “Overnight Sensation” works so perfectly as their signature song. They were always kind of a band about a band. It makes their dissolution kind of sad and “Overnight Sensation” really works that poignancy in retrospect.

Now that Eric has died as well. Even more so.

really very otm

great post

Jesus, it wasn't! It was the nerdy guy he was like mentoring? I clearly haven't seen it in like 20 years. Also, I think it was somebody's baby. I was getting it was GATW but as soon as I read that it felt right.

I like Tim’s post and may want to add to it, but need to get some shuteye.

In love with “go all the way”