Re-Eric Carmen/Karl Wallinger

From: Eric Greenspan

I sent Amy Carmen your article and here was her response.

Thanks for sharing … to brighten the mood here’s a great EC memory:

Eric and I were in the car maybe 10-14 days ago when Casey Kasem’s  American Top 40 was replaying the October 1972 broadcast” & Overnight Sensation”  came in on the top 40 chart at # 26 .

Eric was so pissed that Casey cut the end of the song off .  But the great memory I have of him is watching him air drum -the drum fills!

Bob’s right I only heard Overnight Sensation one other time on the radio and I think it was Little Steven’s Underground Garage

Love,

Amy

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Let the truth be told, Kevin Sutter broke World Party. It was a labor of love… I’ve never worked with a person with such strong conviction to this artist.

From the onset we at Chrysalis Records realized that Karl Wallinger was a brilliant talent.

KROQ was not easy to convince to play the record as some people might think. It was not your typical Rick Carrol choice.. It took a lot of convincing, massaging and dinners..it eventually went on the radio. Jed the Fish was championing this record from day one.

Rock radio was not easy to garner… in the era of “more Zep you f*ckers”…World Party was no walk in the park. Program Directors said no… no and more no…

Sutter persevered and “Ship of Fools” became a radio hit….

What a mega hit!

The greatness of World Party was in their live performance…

Your jaw would drop….

Jeff Laufer

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I can’t tell you how saddened I am about Karl Wallinger’s passing.

Not only because his songs were the soundtrack of my twenties, but because he recently became a friend.

When my latest album ‘Satisfied Mind’ came out this past July, Karl was cheering me on, with Facebook messages and texts saying how much he loved the music.

“Good to see you getting good recognition,” he wrote me.

I was floored. Here was one of the greatest songwriters affirming that I had something to say too.

In fact, it was only a few weeks ago when he texted me that he and his wife were digging the vinyl version of the album.

It felt like winning the lottery.

That nod of acceptance affected me deeply. We even talked about writing a song together.

Sadly, that wasn’t to be. But I wanted to write to say that Karl’s generosity and kindness were as strong as the songs he left us with.

And trust me, they’ve been on repeat over here.

Thanks for remembering him.

Jon Regen

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It is a sad revelation that we are rapidly losing our idols who are just a few years older than we are. Eric’s death makes the second personal loss for me in the past week and the fourth in the past few months .

I was a fan of Raspberries from the first time I heard “Go All the Way” and I got their Starting Over album when it came out and thought it should have been a hit on FM Radio.

So in 2007 when I heard that ( the) Raspberries had reunited and were going to play the House Of Blues in LA,  I contacted them and recorded the show in hopes of getting a live album released . There was no deal, no label it just seemed like a worthwhile thing to do. (I did that a lot in those days)

I worked with Eric long distance on the mixes after the band did some overdubs in Cleveland , and we eventually made a deal with Ryco to release a deluxe CD and DVD with both the 2007 live show and other recordings going back to the 70’s.

When they came back to play the HOB later that year I had them come to my studio where we recorded two tracks which turned out to be the last recordings by the band.

Time marches on with the same eventual outcome for everyone including our idols. As the song says “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive”

Mark Linett

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Hi Bob,

Seatrain!  Love you mentioned them!  Many, sadly,  never heard Seatrain/Marblehead Messenger!  Shanda!  Barry Goldberg turned me on to them when I was working with Albert Grossman!  The office was casual, and artists often would just hang…this office,  oy, I got stories, but I digress…

Thank you Bob for sharing Eric Carmen, an early Arista signing…

Respectfully,

Rose Gross-Marino

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Bob:  I am so sad that there will never be another Raspberries reunion.

I bought the single Go All the Way in sixth grade and their second album (with ‘I Wanna Be With You’) through the Record Club of America.  Remember ordering records through the mail and waiting eagerly for weeks for them to show up?  I did, finally, see the Raspberries during the same reunion tour you did and they were great!!!

I always thought ‘Go All The Way’ was one of the greatest guitar songs EVER.  Maybe the first true ‘power pop’ song.

Safe travels Eric Carmen, you (and the band) deserved more than you got.

Marty Hecker

Denver, CO

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It was sad to hear of Eric’s passing.. I feel that his hit “Hungry Eyes” was one of the sexiest songs I remember hearing from that era.. It was one of those songs you hear on the radio and you just have to stop what you’re doing and listen.. I found it to be a powerful statement.

Randy Dawson

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Well said Bob,
I remember one of my buddies like thirty years ago saying his Mom loved the Raspberries, “go all the way” I didn’t get it but now I do
Another 67 year old guy remembering
Gerry Lauderdale
Boston MA

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Hey Bob

Eric Carmen’s passing really hit a nerve (as does the theme of your article).

We were label mates of sorts: he (and The Raspberries) and my band were both groomed at the same Jimmy Ienner-run production company long, long ago

(although he/they were a few years ahead of me/us).

I was always a big fan, and I always thought he was underrated as a songwriter and a recording artist –

and I agree “Boats Against The Current” was a musical masterpiece of sorts.

Wallace Collins

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I can’t say I was a big Eric Carmen fan, but Karl Wallinger led one of my favorite, “Kiss of Death” bands, World Party. They seem to come out of nowhere, I know he was in the Waterboys, but in America that was out of nowhere. He played all his own instruments like Emmett Rhoads, wrote great tunes and everything sounded great. I never got to see him live but I’ve got four really good records from him and that’s hard to do.
RIP Karl.

Gary Jackson

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Watching these artists slip away is painful. Right now, we still have Paul & Ringo, Mick & Keith and that is a good thing, but so many have moved over the musical rainbow bridge in the past few years, it is a sad thing to absorb. I appreciate what you wrote here about YOUR personal memories. I have my Eric Carmen 45rpm of “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again” that showed just how immense his talent was in the mid-1970’s after Raspberries.

It is Karl Wallinger’s passing that hit me so hard. His undying love for all things Beatles permeated his music and he was out in the open about those influences. He was fantastic and will be missed.

Marc Platt

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There were no better songs for high school love then Go All The Way and I Wanna Be With You. And Karl Wallinger’s World Party’s GoodBye Jumbo is a non skip masterpiece. Both Eric Carmen and Karl Wallinger were superstars in their own right.

jeffsackstennis

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Seatrain!

Caught them live in my hometown (Princeton).

For the record (pun intended) they were also on Capitol, and I think the label did a good job with the texture of the album cover.

Thanks for the very fond walk down memory lane.

Scott Kauffman

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The reason The Silencers got to open for U2 at Cardiff Arms Park, on the Joshua Tree tour, Karl Wallinger was sick that day.

I saw World Party play live in London a few months earlier and was blown away. An amazing writer and performer.

The World Party albums were for me a sanctuary when things got a little tough, always an uplifting melancholic cuddle.

Thanks for writing about Karl.

Martin Stuart Hanlin

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SEATRAIN— fabulous, almost too-hip, reference

Fred Ansis

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“If you’re afraid of being injured, you’re afraid of living”

That is so perfect in all the factors of life. An extraordinary songwriter, arranger, and vocalist. Eric Carmen has left us with a treasure load of greatness.

I of course will live forever!

Thank you once again Bob for hitting that nail on the head..

Michael Des Barres

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I felt bad when I heard Eric died. Not sure why, I didn’t know him. Other artists, other people die and I chalk it up to Nobody gets out alive stuff. But I loved the Raspberries. I owned an indie record store in the 70s “Something Else Records” named after the Eddie Cochran hit, when I was in my 20 s. I’m a Rocker was on heavy rotation in the store. I was working for BMG when Dirty Dancing came out. Not only did it help pay the rent, but loved the soundtrack, and Hungry Eyes. And I’m a sucker for lush ballads which he made cool. Later I found the Live Raspberries album at a used record shop and loved it. He made an impact on me, that few have. May he RIP.

Bob Morelli

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My uncle was a classmate of Eric Carmen’s at Brush High School in Lyndhurst.

Back in the 60’s my uncle’s band The Cellmates played the same circuit as Eric’s band The Sounds of Silence.

They would all get together and jam at the Brush High School reunions:

https://www.buckeyebeat.com/cellmates.html

Vince Welsh

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I turned my daughter onto ‘the choir’ last year “baby it’s cold outside” and whenever she comes to visit me in London Ontario from her home just outside of Ottawa chilling at some point, she’ll put that song on the Bluetooth player at least once during her long weekend visits.
She gets it she knows who Eric Carmen is and how he hooked up with the choir to form the Raspberries (did I spell it right? And I get it’s more complicated than I’ve just spelled out), I’m glad I was able to share that with her last night that EC had died – because the kid gets it 25yrs old.

And also last night , before I was made aware, I listened to my two favourite live albums of all time: Deep Purple Made in  Japan -,the second LP I ever bought,  and  Emerson, Lake & Palmer “welcome back my friends to the show that never ends’ with new Apple earbuds,,, kind of neat that you mentioned Keith Emerson. Great article you wrote – I love Eric Carmen: may he rest in peace. You? stay safe stay sane.

Andrew Parr

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“I don’t need anybody else to agree with me.” (Bob Lefsetz)

Well, Bob…

Allow me to do so.

“Boats Against the Current” is exceptional.

It’s simple.

It soars.

And with every bad review it got…

It got better and better with every listen.

Marty Bender

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Also two days ago— March 10

T. M. Stevens

Bassist supreme…. Amazing vocalist…. One of those cats who is on A MILLION albums, is on the radio every day on hits.. but not a household name outside certain musician circles

Albums and shows with Cissy Houston ….and was there for Whitney Houston’s beginning, and played live w her. Lots of sessions on Narada Michael Walden productions…

… played bass & sang backups on the biggest charting and airplay James Brown hit … Living in America, co-written by Dan Hartman & Charlie Midnight.

Dan as you well know had massive hits instant Replay, I can Dream About You, and T.M. recorded and  toured for years in Dan’s projects & bands.

He had the usual dizzying resume of the journeyman bassist…..from Miles Davis and John McLaughlin to Tina Turner, Steve Vai, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Nona Hendryx, Little Steven, Stacy Lattisaw …was in the Pretenders for attending Get Close album, with Bernie Worrell, whose band he was also in….. Billy Joel , River Of Dreams album…… it’s endless.

Any Electric bass player knows him from countless magazine ads since the 80s for strings, bass guitars and pedals…. unmistakable with his multicolor, African themed outfits and crazy dreadlocks

A brilliant Zelig of the funk-rock bass world, and a dear friend, has fallen. A fireball of energy and meticulous session musician with a distinct sound.  He will be majorly missed. As you say…. This is talkin’ bout our generation starting to die.

André Cholmondeley

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We as music obsessives will realize we didn’t pay enough attention to Eric Carmen while he was here.

I’ll miss him not just for the ballads but for the razor sharp power pop.  Hell, he may have invented that particular subgenre.

We didn’t pay enough attention to Karl Wallinger either.

Or Wayne Kramer.

Spot on as always Bob, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

As a grizzled Minnesota poet once said, “if you’re not busy being born, your busy dying”

John Tierney

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My close friend and band partner from days gone by, Phil Sullivan, recommended I subscribe to your daily thoughts a few months back.  I am so glad he did.  I greatly enjoy reading your in sights … however, this one on Eric Carmen hit home with me like no other before.

Eric was brilliant and I loved his songs … “All by Myself”  “Hungry Eyes” and The Raspberries “Go All The Way” and “I Saw the Light” are some of the “tunes of my life.”  He captured our inner thoughts with his lyrics and sang them as if there would not be a tomorrow… quite the passion.

I agree with you, the internet has killed the music artist and the (important) messages we need to hear from them; now maybe more than ever.  On the other hand, you have er keep the fire burning  … when you get off the next ski lift, make a run like there will never be another one, because maybe (at our age) …

As Christopher Cross sings “Ride Like The Wind.”

My best,

Gene Ellison

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Most excellent of you to mention the passing of Karl Wallinger. He was an excellent songwriter and all-around musician who beyond that initial “hit” phase, continued to make some really fine, well crafted albums.

I once called him the poor man’s Warren Zevon but meant it as a compliment of the highest order. He will be missed.

– J. Pothier/Fairfield CT

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I got to see the Raspberries during the reunion in NYC on the second night. They were fantastic.

I am a fan of ALL of their music as well as Eric’s solo stuff. You’re right, they should’ve been bigger. “Let’s pretend”could have gotten them bonafides as a serious act.

I was told the night before a cavalcade of famous people who they influenced came to see them. I know Bruce mentioned them, Paul Stanley, Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick have mentioned them too. It’s kinda like that Velvet underground quote that said something like the album itself didn’t do so well but it spawned 1000 bands.

He will be missed

Sincerely,
Robert Garcia

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My favorite Eric Carmen record (he’s the remixer!)

Steve Popovich released this on his Cleveland International label.

Jim Charne

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Damn, Bob. That was a bummer of a post. Sometimes I really hate it when you push so hard on the truth. Re: Eric Carmen – I loved his BATC album too. Those songs have been inside me since the day it was released in 1977 – the same day I turned 21 and bought that record in Austin. But now for Eric, there’s no more beating on against the current. Dear God, that’s so so sad. 🙁

Roy Nelson Duffle

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“Peace comes after the laughter. I started to cry. And now I find I’m blind.”

I might have been about 11 when I first heard this. It was the saddest song I’d ever heard and kind of scary. But I kept listening.

He wrote good hooks.

Best,
Velina Brown

Stories: :”What Comes After”: https://shorturl.at/jnrt0

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Please don’t forget Eric Carmen’s wonderful 1975 “All by Myself” – (albeit courtesy of Rachmaninov) (almost 50 years old!)

ELLIS S RICH OBE HON DMus CEO
Supreme Songs Limited

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For my money the best World Party song is All Come True. Can listen to that groove over and over.

John Hughes

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I grew up in Youngstown Ohio. I saw Hard Days Night there. I would drive with my buddies to Cleveland to see The Raspberries play. Eric Carmen burned it down doing The Beatles version of Twist And Shout.

The James Gang played Thursday nights in Youngstown at this weird club called The Freakout.

Joe Walsh and Phil Keagy killed it playing Jeff’s Boogie there.

Bob Seger played there as well. Ramblin Gamblin Man at Maximum volume.

Eric Carmen and The Raspberries finally played there but only once.

I’ve lived in Nashville for the past forty years, writing songs. Lots of songs.

Country music has been very, very good to me.

But long ago and far away, I lived in Rock n Roll heaven. Where Eric is now.

 

Bob DiPiero

Nashville

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Karl Wallinger was born less than 2 weeks before me in 57, gives one pause. I was aware of World Party but never got into them. But I love The Waterboys and saw them a few years ago here in Halifax. Not sure if Wallinger was with them I just know it was an amazing show in a small venue.

Makes one ponder when we see our musical heroes fall by the wayside, Bowie was a tough one as was Cohen.

But for me Dylan will be the biggest. I’ve been a Dylan addict for a long time and this world will be a much sadder place without Bob. The fact he could pen Murder Most Fowl in his waning years is stunning.

Your right Bob, we oldsters don’t have much time left, so we may, as much as possible enjoy it.

Doug Gillis

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Boy, are you right, Bob.  I was living my best life when I found out I have terminal cancer on 12-26-23. Since then, friends who I thought were my best friends have faded away claiming they can’t handle what’s happening to me and don’t know what to say.  People I barely know on facebook offer me places to stay in Maryland when I go for a huge operation at Johns Hopkins in May.

 

My world has turned upside down.  I had two music cruises planned, and decided I needed to not go and sell my room.  StarVista (Flower Power cruise) said I couldn’t sell the room to a person I found to buy it because I missed the deadline by ONE DAY.  They would have made an extra $500 just by changing the name on the reservation.  They said, “No, you can turn it in and we’ll resell it.”  “What do I get?”  “Nothing.”  It seems like each day a new insult happens.

We are all old cars heading for the junk heap.  But when you have zero symptoms and a doctor looks you in the eye and says, “You have 9 to 18 months to live,” it is shocking to your mind, heart and soul.

Katie Bradford

Portland, OR

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So I’m sitting in a waiting room at Gare du Nord station where I’ve spent the day in a studio in Paris working with a young 20 yr old singer on one of my songs for a movie ….….I had a few big hits as an artist in the Seventies ….produced ‘Boogie Nights’ and most of the Heatwave hits…. and carried on writing and producing through the 80’s to now when I’m in my early Seventies….I’m reading you post and watching all my contemporaries fading away …….why am I still doing this ???

Barry Blue

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You speak the truth in your assement . At 70 we sold everything. I sold all my instruments except a few and my music computer. We then moved to Portugal because life is about experiences and that’s what we want at this point. I want to remember everything that happened to me in 50 + years in the music world. We are experiencing new adventures here in Europe and we realize we are not going to be here forever but living here gives us a shot at extending the adventure.

People need to step back and then take the next step if you want the most out of this life
Greetings from Lisbon

Peace,Jason Miles

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Very well put, I just turned 79 and have wonderful memories having worked for Mercury, Capitol, ABC/Dunhill, MCA and Capricorn. All during what I consider the cream of the crop days of music. Radio was king in making the hits ! I still believe in the music and I feel it in my heart and soul, long live music!

Barry Pollack

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Great letter! I’m turning 80 next month, healthy, active , still working but I know it’s only a matter of time.

Jan Burden

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My apologies for the golf analogy.  As you may know, I LOVE golf.  Millions of golfers dream of shooting a score of 72 when they’re age is 72.  In fact, it’s called “shooting your age”.  I want to shoot 95 when I’m 95!!  That will require me remaining to be younger than my years.  That is also my motivation. If you’re going to go, go all the way.  Dream on, right?

 

Warm Regards,

Garland

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Sha La La  Let’s Live for Today

Warren Entner

Eric Carmen (& Karl Wallinger)

Now our generation is starting to die.

The first to go were born in the forties. Now, just like in that Police song, those born in the fifties are dropping dead.

That was the first thought that occurred to me when I heard that Eric Carmen had died. Sure, he was a few years older than me, but he was my contemporary.

The Beatles were not my contemporaries. Nor the Dave Cark Five.

We can argue whether rock and roll started with Ike Turner or Bill Haley. We can talk about the impact of Elvis Presley. But the true dividing line, the moment when rock truly blew up, when it became not only America’s, but the world’s sound, was the advent of the Beatles… First in the U.K. in ’62, and then in the U.S. in ’64. Hell, let’s stick with ’64, that’s when “A Hard Day’s Night” hit the theatres.

Sure, the Beatles were only in their early twenties, but that seemed ages from most of their fans. The Beatles were older, wiser and more experienced. Believe me, we knew exactly how old each Beatle was. All were born in the early forties.

And the San Francisco groups had a different upbringing and inspiration, folk and blues, and they were parallel to the Beatles, and also born in the forties.

And by time we hit the seventies, our generation took over, those born in the fifties. Not exclusively, we had Keith Emerson and James Taylor born in the forties, but the base age ticked up, our brethren were making the hit music.

And there was a victory lap in the eighties with MTV. Boomers were flush.

Then the internet came along and took the focus off of music, and it has never fully returned. Elon Musk is more of a rock star than anybody making music today, and this didn’t used to be the case. If you wanted to know which way the wind blew, you listened to a record, not anymore.

This bothers me, how the MTV paradigm of a worldwide hit single now dominates. That there’s no parallel alternative music and culture, of any significance, but they call it the music “business,” and everybody follows the money. Starving artists don’t pay fealty to the work, they just complain that they don’t get paid.

The Raspberries were on a terrible label. Capitol might have had the Beach Boys and the Beatles and eventually the Band, but it was the last choice. You could tell by the album covers if nothing else. They were cheap in an era where the acts on Warner Brothers’ were extensive gatefold manifestations.

And the Raspberries were an anomaly. Breaking on AM radio when all the action was on FM. Capitol didn’t bother positioning the act as credible. The album covers made the band look like sixties boy band relics.

But the single hits were undeniable.

And then came “Overnight Sensation”…

“Well I know it sounds funny

But I’m not in it for the money”

I read about it in “Rolling Stone.” Other music magazines. I couldn’t hear it, because it was a complete stiff. To this day I’ve never heard “Overnight Sensation” on the radio.

But I took a risk, I dove in and bought it, at Sam Goody in Westport.

And I was positively stunned.

That would happen in the old days. You’d buy a record you’d read about, that had no hits, and you’d drop the needle and be positively overwhelmed. Like with Stories’ “About Us.” Sure, they ultimately tacked on the cover of “Brother Louie,” but that was an anomaly, the rest of the album was Left Banke modernized for the seventies and I still sing the songs to myself regularly. “What comes after, the laughter…”

So I bought every Eric Carmen album thereafter.

My favorite is “Boats Against the Current.” The final track, which Eric just wrote me should have been the opener, “Run Away,” is majestic in a way today’s records are not. Back then it was all about the record, the penumbra was secondary. Forget endorsements, personal hype, the music was a statement of your identity, it revealed your interior, not your exterior.

And then Eric faded from the scene but he returned with “Hungry Eyes” from the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack.

Talk about a phenomenon. “Dirty Dancing” was seen as a B-movie. Not to be taken seriously. And over time it built and built to the point it became a cultural icon. Everybody saw it, more than once. And sure, it was about Baby and Johnny, but also about having the time of your life… It just made you feel good. Fully alive.

Two days ago I was riding the lift with this bearded guy who started a conversation because the four who were supposed to make six couldn’t sidle up in time to make it, or chose not to.

This guy told me he was from Michigan. But he used to live in Vail in the winter. And I asked him about what he did for a living and he said he was retired. That he’d planned to spend the winter in Vail but he’d had a heart incident over the summer, he needed a valve replacement.

He was only 71.

If you can find a boomer sans health problems… I don’t believe it. Everybody’s got something. It’s like we’re automobiles, and not Toyotas or Hondas. We’re Chevrolets, Fords, GM machines. All shiny and new but not made to last. Eventually we fall apart. We don’t stop running completely, but pieces start to fail. And unlike with cars you can’t cashier them and get a new one, your body is the only one you get.

And in fact, I never spoke with Eric Carmen, but we e-mailed plenty. I went to see the Raspberries reunion twenty years ago at the House of Blues. It was fantastic.

And now the House of Blues is gone too. 

And he e-mailed me… I’m checking, the last e-mail I got from Eric was on January 7th. Two months ago. Fully alive, and now he’s dead.

As for the Raspberries reunion…

Most people don’t understand how the road works. You get offers, or you don’t. And if you get offered enough cash you go on the road, assuming you want to, and if you don’t, you don’t. In other words, many of your old time favorites would love to tour, but no promoter will put up the money.

And if they didn’t have that name, and if they were properly marketed by Capitol, the Raspberries would have been able to tour every year, like Styx and the rest, they had hits and they were that good, but the band ended up living in no-man’s land.

But once they went all the way.

Very few records are perfect, but Eric Carmen made a few of them.

And I can’t feel nostalgic about them, because they’re in my head constantly. Really, the “Boats Against the Current” LP… It plays more in my brain than it does in Spotify, and I listen in Spotify on a regular basis.

Do I think others have the same experience?

No. Because I’m more passionate than most.

But I’m not the only one. Music was the most important thing to us. Which is why we knew the Beatles’ ages. Quick, how old is Ariana Grande? Or the Weeknd? Or Drake?

That’s not what they’re selling. It’s not about their true identities, it’s about the exterior, the flash. Whereas on “Boats Against the Current”…

I relate to it because it speaks to my insides. I don’t need anybody else to agree with me. It’s just one on one with the record.

Will Eric Carmen’s music have legs, past the death of the baby boomers?

I don’t think so. Almost none of our music, other than the Beatles, will sustain, will travel. The Beatles, yes. The Stones, no. Never mind Seatrain and a bunch of albums I played incessantly in the seventies.

Hell, most of it is already gone.

And Glenn Frey too.

And David Bowie.

But now it’s our contemporaries. Hell, Karl Wallinger was only 66. Even younger than me. Come on, you remember hearing “Ship of Fools” on KROQ, right?

That kind of music has been excised from today’s hit parade. We don’t want people who think, we don’t want you to make a statement, we want you to be shiny and new…it’s all about image, and your personal life lives online, not in your music.

In other words, the landscape has changed. And after all these decades, I don’t expect it to change back. Today it’s all about the hit. We live in a narrow Top 40 world, although we now call it the Spotify Top 50.

And sure, those records evidence success. And I know people love them. But they just don’t represent what used to be. And if you dig beneath the surface, go deep into the catalogs of these acts, oftentimes you find nothing at all, only dreck.

So what I’m saying is it’s your time. Time to focus on yourself. To be the hero of your own movie. You’re not going to be here for long, but if you still see these aged musicians, alive or dead, as heroes, you’re missing the point. Enjoy their music, but focus on yourself, because odds are you’re not going to be here for that long.

I know you don’t believe it. But soon it won’t only be Eric Carmen and Karl Wallinger, but your high school and college buddies. You’ll chalk it up to luck, they got the Big C and you didn’t. But then something will happen to you.

Maybe you’ll just fall. Happens all the time. Your balance fades as you age. You may think you’re twenty one, but you’re not.

And it’s hard to ignore politics, but it’s even harder not to become somnambulant, to say yes instead of no.

It’s never too late to try new things. If you’re afraid of being injured, you’re afraid of living.

New friends are around the corner. But you have to make an effort. And at our age, everybody has the same status. If you’re a boomer and you’re bragging about your house or your car you haven’t grown up and are missing the point. You’re just a person. Part of society. In an overwhelming world that will move on without you.

So it is about experiences and people and…

No one is keeping a record. He with the most toys when they die does not win.

And I’ve met a lot of these hitmakers, my heroes of yore. And I’m not saying their work is not worthy of adulation, but in truth they are people, just like you and me.

You are not going to live forever, no one ever has. Biohack all you want but you’d be better off just living in the now.

This is it, this is your life.

Eric Carmen and Karl Wallinger may have enriched it, but they had their lives and you need to have yours.

Because the Grim Reaper is just around the corner. Believe me.

Trump Self-Immolates?

You don’t make fun of someone’s height, name or physical disability.

I went to high school. You probably did too. There were bullies. Who seemed to pick on you for no reason. And they had a coterie of cronies who if they didn’t cheer them on, stayed silent in mute acknowledgement of their behavior. But as the years passed and students aged the bullies receded into the background, they were ostracized, seen as brutes.

And this was back in the sixties, never mind today, with all the heightened consciousness over the issue.

I didn’t watch the Oscars. My streak ended about a decade ago, when I was traveling and couldn’t. And I’ve never resumed the habit.

Thinking about it, I wondered what the ratings for the younger demographics were. Because the show touches none of their buttons. It’s too long about movies they haven’t seen with variety elements that haven’t worked on television since the seventies, if not the sixties.

But I did read about the show.

That’s how you keep up today. You’re on your own personal hejira. There used to be FOMO. That’s gone, despite all the social media posters trying to tell us their lives are better than ours, despite the fact that beneath the skin they’re insecure, otherwise why would they be posting this stuff?

So you choose how to spend your time, and you graze and catch up on the activities you’re interested in in the news thereafter.

Like Mikaela Shiffrin coming back from injury and immediately winning. Used to be I’d tape the races. The results weren’t available otherwise. But now, unless you stay up/wake up in the middle of the night to watch the runs you find out the results immediately upon waking, and I don’t bother to watch the telecast. I might go on YouTube and see the winning run, but otherwise it’s a bad use of my time.

But I do read the results.

And I do read who won Oscars and some reviews, to get a feel for the show.

And the snubs and surprises… They don’t matter much to me, especially after seemingly every outlet did a feature on who should have won in the past and didn’t.

But Jimmy Kimmel responding to Trump’s comment on Truth Social…

You don’t mess with someone who has a big audience. Despite shrinking, the audience is far greater for the Oscars and its fallout than Trump’s comments on the rinky-dink Truth Social.

So Trump didn’t like Kimmel and the show. But talking about George Stephanopolous’s height? George had no control over that. Just like Trump had no control over the fact that he lost his hair. Then again, unlike Robert Reich, who owns his short stature, Trump tries to cover up his baldness. Just like a high school bully, who can show no vulnerability, their whole demeanor is one of impenetrability, until they find that everybody has abandoned them, because what we end up being attracted to most is vulnerability.

And in a speech before that, Trump made fun of Biden’s stutter.

Now this is not about pronouns. This is not about politically correct leftism. This is about a modern society where we accept each other and treat each other as equal.

Trump seems categorically unable to do this.

Now in 2016, I must admit, I found Trump calling Warren, who I supported, “Pocahontas.” He was poking fun, breaking taboos, and pointing up an issue that deserved study, i.e. Warren’s Native American roots, or lack thereof.

I’ve got to admit, in 2016, Trump was a breath of fresh air. In that hoity-toity Washington was finally brought into the modern era, where people swore, where we had a much more fluid society.

But that was then and this is now.

Trump was a two-dimensional TV star. A revelation to many, especially compared to Hillary Clinton.

But that was eight years ago.

Who is Trump appealing to by these endless diminishments? It’s one thing to hate the libs, its quite another to denigrate their physical characteristics.

We’re all flawed. And some are unnaturally tall and others unnaturally short. We have physical disabilities, sometimes minor, but sometimes evident. And we have imperfect family members who we will not let anybody make fun of. And then this tyrant comes along and excoriates people willy-nilly?

I mean how many people qualify as good under Trump’s rules? It looks like it’s only him. Go against him and you’re toast. Whether it be Nikki Haley or Liz Cheney. He demands total fealty.

But everybody knows, or should know, that the only way you neutralize a bully is by standing up to them. But everybody in the Trump, er, Republican, Party is afraid of him. Where does this work?

Well, in authoritarian societies.

But we’re not there yet.

No one has the balls to blow the whistle on this guy. I mean in high school at least you have the administration as a last resort. But in this case, Trump lords his b.s. over us with impunity.

Sure, there are ignorant acolytes who will accept everything Trump does and defend him. Just like the circle of friends surrounding the bully.

But come on, if you were bullied you know it was only a matter of time before someone broke ranks, came up to you and if they didn’t exactly apologize, they acknowledged that the bully was out of line.

Trump is on a scorched-earth mission. Who is this appealing to other than the diehards, who are not enough in number to gain victory?

This is the way it always happens. The bully drives themself into a corner, where they end up being defensive after realizing they’ve lost support.

I mean if you’re one of the few undecided who will decide this election… Trump is making it very hard to vote for him. Sure, people tend to vote their pocketbook, there are certain issues that appeal to them, but most people have a problem holding their nose and voting for someone who is a pariah, which is what Trump is, and it’s getting worse every day.

Trump can’t read the room. Well, maybe the room of his speech attendees, but the public at large, which he needs to get elected? His ugly statements are amplified, and the rest of us are horrified.

Because we were brought up in a society where we knew this was taboo.

It makes Trump appear even more isolated. I mean where did you grow up, under what circumstances, that you could get away with this? It makes Trump look like the isolated elite his followers rail against. Someone who believes they’re above the law, can act with impunity.

I don’t buy that people love Trump more because he’s been indicted, because of his legal problems. Like a mother standing up for her son, many will defend Trump no matter what. But not most.

And if this guy can’t read the populace, how can he navigate the world? How can he deal with China, Russia, any complex situation where nuance is key in negotiation.

Eventually bullies are isolated and diminished.

But Trump believes he can use the bully pulpit and the legal system to stand up to anyone.

Kind of like the tax cheats who are stunned when they poke their head into public affairs and are revealed to be such, like Trump himself.

Trump may defeat himself.

It certainly looks like that.

He’s self-immolating. One winces constantly at his behavior.

This is not a winning strategy.

History Of Peter Frampton Playlist

First, two notes re the Caitlin Clark article:

1. Unfortunately, part of one of the last paragraphs was cut out, here is that paragraph in full:

It takes a lot of perseverance, belief in yourself, to build your act this way. Sans instant gratification, slogging along. But just like doctors go to college and medical school and then do internships and residencies…that’s what the greats who change the landscape do. Before they emerge fully-formed.

2. I’m getting some feedback about my mention of Taylor Swift, why bring her up? If you’re a voracious reader of the news you know that writers are comparing Caitlin Clark to Taylor Swift, and I thought that was inaccurate, because Clark is new and Swift has been in the business in excess of fifteen years. Having said that, the first two Swift albums, with songs co-written with Liz Rose, were equivalent to teenage Joni Mitchell. And as a result, they resonated with millions of now fans. This was not a teen fad, those two albums were real. And Swift’s career became a juggernaut as a result.

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Spotify playlist: https://shorturl.at/htuWY

THE HERD

“From the Underworld” – 1967

HUMBLE PIE – 1970

“Earth and Water Song”

“One Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba”

SHINE ON (Humble Pie) – 1971

“Shine On”

PERFORMANCE: ROCKIN’ THE FILLMORE (Humble Pie) – 1971

“Four Day Creep”

“I Don’t Need No Doctor”

WIND OF CHANGE – 1972

“Fig Tree Bay”

“All I Wanna Be (Is By Your Side)”

FRAMPTON’S CAMEL – 1973

“Lines on My Face”

“I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)”

“Do You feel Like We Do”

SOMETHIN’S HAPPENING – 1974

“Baby (Somethin’s Happening)”

“I Wanna Go to the Sun”

FRAMPTON – 1975

“Nowhere’s Too Far (For My Baby)”

“(I’ll Give You) Money”

FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE – 1976

“Show Me the Way”

“Baby I Love Your Way”

“Do You Feel Like We Do”

I’M IN YOU – 1977

“I’m in You”

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)”

WHERE I SHOULD BE – 1979

“I Can’t Stand It No More”

NOW – 2003

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

FINGERPRINTS – 2006

“Black Hole Sun”

THANK YOU MR. CHURCHILL – 2010

“Thank You Mr. Churchill”

FRAMPTON FORGETS THE WORDS – 2021

“I Don’t Know Why”

ALBERT HALL-2023

“Georgia On My Mind”

“(I’ll Give You) Money”

“Do You Feel Like We Do”

“All I Want to Be (Is By Your Side)”

“Somethin’s Happenin'”