So Eric Carmen’s sitting as his keyboard.\u00c2\u00a0 And he starts telling this story.\u00c2\u00a0 Of lying in bed every night with his transistor glued to his ear.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to the Beatles, the Stones, everybody on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And then his fingers start waltzing over the keys.<\/p>\n
Well I know it sounds funny "Rolling Stone" was my bible.\u00c2\u00a0 I read every issue.\u00c2\u00a0 It took HOURS!\u00c2\u00a0 I MEMORIZED IT!\u00c2\u00a0 And I TRUSTED IT!\u00c2\u00a0 When Lester Bangs said "Killer" was the record of the year, I purchased it and when the first notes of "Under My Wheels" emanated from my stereo, I was instantly converted.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m STILL an Alice Cooper fan.\u00c2\u00a0 And when, in the spring of ’74, the same magazine said that "Overnight Sensation" was one of the best records of the year, I took another risk.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought the Raspberries were AM fodder.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I put this record on my Dual turntable and I heard that piano part Eric played last night, my ticket was taken, I was cashiered, I was IN!<\/p>\n They say the biggest non-hit of all time is "River Deep, Mountain High".\u00c2\u00a0 I had to track that Phil Spector record down, and when I heard it I said HUH?\u00c2\u00a0 My life wasn’t changed, this didn’t DESERVE to be a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to discover a record radio missed, a true classic, one that will change your life just as much as any of the hits of yore embedded in your brain, THEN you’ve got to hear "Overnight Sensation".<\/p>\n It’s a secret club.\u00c2\u00a0 Of people who know the track, and those who don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 No handshake is involved, you just look at each other and thinly smile, like you just fucked the girl of your dreams.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you ALL did.\u00c2\u00a0 Your life is complete.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody else is still searching.<\/p>\n But I didn’t expect the rendition last night to be "Bohemian Rhapsody", to lift me out of my seat and float me high above the band, doing cartwheels in the sky, mesmerized and elated by this SOUND!<\/p>\n They get no respect, these Raspberries.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, at least they didn’t USED to.\u00c2\u00a0 You see they just weren’t hip.\u00c2\u00a0 They made singles in an era of albums.\u00c2\u00a0 And Eric referenced this.\u00c2\u00a0 He thought it would be REVOLUTIONARY to cut three and a half minute singles in an era of extended prog rock solos.\u00c2\u00a0 But FM didn’t get the joke.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, hipsters would understand today.\u00c2\u00a0 AFTER the Ramones.\u00c2\u00a0 When everybody got a sense of humor.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, no bands with such a sense of melody, who could play hit delicious power pop, have ever walked the earth again.\u00c2\u00a0 The Raspberries were the last iteration.\u00c2\u00a0 In the early seventies.<\/p>\n But really, the Raspberries are a sixties band.\u00c2\u00a0 When you saw the Vox amps littering the stage you realized you were home.<\/p>\n You see that’s what the Beatles used.\u00c2\u00a0 We all knew.\u00c2\u00a0 We knew EVERYTHING about the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why we all picked up guitars and formed bands.\u00c2\u00a0 We wanted not only to be the Beatles, but to be INVOLVED!\u00c2\u00a0 In this music REVOLUTION!<\/p>\n As they’re running through their hits, and there are quite a few, everything from "Tonight" to "Let’s Pretend" to "I Wanna Be With You", I felt like I was at a high school sock hop.\u00c2\u00a0 My life was flashing before my eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow I was visualizing all the ski areas in Western Massachusetts.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of which don’t exist anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Jug End Barn.\u00c2\u00a0 You see I was a believer back then, in music, skiing and LIFE!\u00c2\u00a0 There was endless opportunity, and the tunes provided the grease, as we tried to discover and become who we wanted to be.<\/p>\n And back then there were no tapes.\u00c2\u00a0 You slung your guitar around your neck and wailed.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all about technique.\u00c2\u00a0 And this guitar player in the Raspberries, this Wally Bryson, he didn’t miss a note.\u00c2\u00a0 He had the EXACT SOUND OF THE RECORDS!<\/p>\n And Dave Smalley still has his pure voice.<\/p>\n Actually, all three of them sang.\u00c2\u00a0 And played.\u00c2\u00a0 You see in the sixties it was about your talent, not your looks.<\/p>\n And then, we hit the piece de resistance.<\/p>\n "Overnight Sensation" starts with Eric’s paean, sung to simple notes.\u00c2\u00a0 But then the band comes in…\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Phil Spector’s wall of sound, but a decade later.\u00c2\u00a0 And, now it’s being re-created LIVE!<\/p>\n What can I compare it to…\u00c2\u00a0 The Tubes performing "White Punks On Dope"?\u00c2\u00a0 When they’d troop fifteen people on stage to be the choir?<\/p>\n But that was comedy rock.\u00c2\u00a0 That was about intellect more than sound.\u00c2\u00a0 This was about sound.\u00c2\u00a0 The guitars were wailing, the drums were pounding, and sitting on top of it all was the pure angelic voice of Eric Carmen.<\/p>\n They trucked all the equipment from Cleveland.\u00c2\u00a0 Where they still live.\u00c2\u00a0 They rehearsed at SIR.\u00c2\u00a0 All to deliver, to show us, those who still believe, that it wasn’t a mirage, that they could rock with the best of them.<\/p>\n You can go see Paul McCartney.\u00c2\u00a0 You can see him mug as he plugs Fidelity Investments and Lexus.\u00c2\u00a0 You can try to party like it’s 1969.<\/p>\n But it won’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll only be reminded of how old you really are.\u00c2\u00a0 As a sexagenarian clinging to his fame tries to re-convince you, when you’re already convinced.<\/p>\n Rock wasn’t made for the arena.\u00c2\u00a0 It only went there when the bands got greedy, when they wanted more money.<\/p>\n And rock wasn’t hyped on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t covered endlessly in the press.<\/p>\n Rock was something that happened in your bedroom.\u00c2\u00a0 Or between you and a girl.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you saw it live, it was a sacred ritual, including only members of the tribe.<\/p>\n Last night was a religious experience.\u00c2\u00a0 A forgotten band from a derided era went all the way, and we were along for the ride.<\/p>\n Just imagine it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were alive back then you know the riff.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re only a few feet away.\u00c2\u00a0 And Wally slaps that sound out of his axe and it’s like you’re back in your car in 1972.\u00c2\u00a0 Feeling that you’ve got this life thing nailed, that you’re gonna make it work, that just like the song says, you’re ready to GO ALL THE WAY!<\/p>\n Maybe you got sidetracked.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe life’s just too unwieldy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But for two hours last night, the flame was rekindled.\u00c2\u00a0 The assembled multitude not only had hope, they had faith.\u00c2\u00a0 But really, it was the precious moment of being there.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to guys from our era, who we never got to see, knocking us dead.<\/p>\n Finally, I’ve got to tell you, "Overnight Sensation" was the best live performance I’ve heard all year.\u00c2\u00a0 It was SENSATIONAL!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So Eric Carmen’s sitting as his keyboard.\u00c2\u00a0 And he starts telling this story.\u00c2\u00a0 Of lying in 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But I’m not in it for the money, no<\/em><\/p>\n