One by one they go marching off stage but never to be forgotten.
I remember the day I got the call from Clive.
He said I have this album I can't seem to get finished. The producer quit and I think it's a really great record. Would you come in and finish it?
Eric Carmen - Boats Against The Current.
That voice and persona will be missed for sure.
Val Garay
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Damn!
I promoted "She Did It" when I worked for Arista in Detroit.
Rosalie played it for me at CKLW in Detroit.
He used to call me from Ohio when he'd hear it on "The Big 8."
Nice guy.
Hugh Surratt
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the coolest bands in cleveland were james gang and cyrus erie. that was eric and wally's pre raspberries band. they had a single out (maybe on epic). saw them open for the Who at a small place (400 attendance maybe pre monterey) my dad took me when i was maybe in 6th grade. song is Get the Message -it's on spotify - you can hear the raspberries were not a big step - just better craftsmanship
Bob Pfeiffer
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For a musician, playing music with your heroes is probably the most exhilarating experience you can have. Imagine a bunch of 20 year olds in a local band getting asked to be the back-up band for one of those on his first solo album. Eric took a giant leap of faith on us when Jimmy Ienner wanted NY studio musicians. It changed all our lives and I think provided a partial band cocoon for him as he transitioned to a serious solo artist. There are great stories from that first tour. Getting the telegram from Elton John saying Eric was robbed of a #1 with "All By Myself" was just one.
I will always be a fan. It's very sad he's gone as I know there was a lot more music in him if he had wanted to let it out
Best…
Stephen Knill
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In high school in Cleveland, the first artist I ever managed was Eric Carmen & his band, 'The Sounds of Silence'. During the Summer break after my Freshman year at Ithaca College, I booked Eric's newly-signed band, Cyrus Erie (Epic Records) to play at the Chagrin Falls National Guard Armory; it sold out & I bought my first tech gear, a Wollensak 1/4" reel-to-reel tape deck. I then followed his Raspberries period from a distance.
We reconnected when he opened for the Beach Boys in support of his Arista debut, we traded current contact info. He invited me to the Raspberries reunion show at the Hollywood House of Blues, the set exceeded my expectations.
The last time I saw him in person, we had lunch in Cleveland in November 2015, he was in good spirits.
Ted Cohen
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Those three big hits from Raspberries ("Go All the Way," "Let's Pretend" and "I Wanna Be With You") STILL sound fantastic!
Mark B. Spiegel
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Even if he hadn't done anything else Eric Carmen coined the greatest catch all phrase that exemplifies the spirit and frustration of the music industry: That's Rock 'n Roll!!
Grant Futtock
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Thank you for the very thoughtful and touching piece about Eric and Karl, and the follow-up responses.
I am a big fan of both men. As well as a long-time close friend of Kevin Sutter's. Jeff Laufer was gracious in commenting about Kevin's contributions. Kevin loved Karl's music and we talked about it often
Thanks again for all you do.
Yours,
Joe Moss
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i'm not sure which piano ballad is more touching and powerful, "All By Myself" or "She's The One"...but man, to lose those two icons on the same day makes this music fan's heart ache. RIP Eric and Karl.....I am going to put a playlist together today which I will share with you. thanks Bob
Mike Farley
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For Eric Carmen, my number one has always been LETS PRETEND- sexy, romantic, touching all at once -
On the Waterboys second album 'A Pagan Place' (with Karl Wallinger) it's always been CHURCH NOT MADE WITH HANDS and ALL THE THINGS SHE GAVE ME -
All of these are terrific,
Best to you, Phil Klausner
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Re: World Party/Karl
Tell me this isn't the saddest breakup song ever…
"And I Fell Back Alone": open.spotify.com/track/3iLd1w35nTO6aWSsNMsroB?si=1bb1ce93d5d046dc
Jim Guerinot
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When I heard that Karl Wallinger passed away at 66 and my local station in NY , WFUV played his song She's the One, it made me cry.
Besides wishing I had someone who felt that way about me( haha) I was thinking how we can all die at any time, like you say Bob. I'm 70 and if I had died when I was 66 I wouldn't even have known my youngest four-year-old grandchild. That's the sad part of dying. Missing everything!!
We need to enjoy every minute while we are still here!!
Joanne Schenendorf
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Eric Carmen was a big talent and an extraordinary musician.
I will always remember that he borrowed themes for a couple of songs from Rachmaninoff. "All By Myself" was based on the 2nd movement of the 2nd piano concerto. "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" came from the 3rd movement of the 2nd symphony. Might as well borrow from the best. I believe he got caught up in some copyright complications with the composer's estate.
I saw Seatrain live at when I was in college in the early 70s. They were outstanding. "13 Questions" was their encore.
Richard Franklin
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SEATRAIN!
Thanks for remembering the band!!!
I might have been 1 of the 19 German youngsters who bought their amazing debut LP at the time — and played it incessantly!
I was astonished to notice someone (at Capitol?) sent the band to London where they were "Produced by George Martin"!
Sure you can find out more about these mysteries and let us know.
Thanks
Werner Balzert
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Don't forget Mojo Nixon
He was a one of a kind soul.
Tom Overby
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I'm a little late to this party, but Eric's All By My Self was a huge hit in Canada in the mid 70s. It was beautiful, dark, and eerie, and also had the best pregnant (important) drum fill ever right before the last chorus. Three toms,boom.. boom….boom…….smash…all by my self…
Life changing for a passionate musician like myself:)
Love you Bob!!
John Ellis, Vancouver
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I enjoyed your post about Eric that was shared by another friend from our junior high days. After moving to Texas, I lost track of Eric until the Dirty Dancing tour came to Dallas. My kids knew Eric's music and wanted to see that show. We were able to get backstage and have a quick mini-reunion. Fast forward to 1997 and we connected again at a high school reunion. I remember Susan being very pregnant at the time.
Since then, it's been social media posts and listening to the music and retrieving some memories. Tuesday morning, I was bummed. Another of us bites the dust. By the end of the day, the remembrances on social media, then listening again to his music, had lifted my spirits.
I shared some of my stories with co-workers today. They're mostly Gen X like my kids. Some of them love Eric Carmen. Everyone knew his songs. Maybe we won't be the last ones.
My Best Always,
Phil Daneman
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So Saturday night, around 11:00, I'm watching TV with my wife here in NJ, and out of nowhere a song pops into my head. It's a World Party song--Sweet Soul Dream. The only World Party stuff that I really know is the album Goodbye Jumbo, which I bought when it was new and that I think is a great album, but I haven't listened to it in maybe 5 years. Anyway, Sweet Soul Dream comes into my head and I feel compelled to learn it on guitar and vocals (I am an amateur, and like to learn songs--I like to get them to the point where I have them memorized and can perform them competently, which I sometimes do at open mikes, etc., but mostly just to amuse myself). But it's not something I do all the time and it's not usually a song that just pops into my head out of nowhere and I don't usually feel I have to learn the song immediately when I think of it. So after my wife goes to bed I pick up the guitar and, into the early hours of Sunday, work out Sweet Soul Dream and get it down to my satisfaction. Maybe I'll post a FB or YT video. Imagine my amazement when I learn, from you, that Karl (who is right around my age) died on the same day (and who knows, maybe the same time) that all of the above happened! I am not into the occult or anything like that, but man, that is some weird coincidence, is it not?
Rich Cohn
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To me, The Raspberries and Eric Carmen always seem evergreen…something that is always fresh, exciting and will somehow never die, even though they were from a certain time, and obviously everything and everyone has an expiration date.
I remember seeing them perform "Go All The Way", on "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" many, many years after it originally aired. Eric was in a white, bell-bottomed stage suit, shirtless with that full head of hair, looking the part of the heartthrob, but was absolutely SLASHING at that guitar with all the stage moves.
I wondered "where has this band been all my life?!?!" What a talented group and one that changed my music listening forever, as I never knew true "power-pop" before that! They had it all, yet so few seemed to know about them. Solo Eric had the biggest hits.
Thanks again for never missing, Bob.
Brian Friel
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.....when i first heard the opening salvo of "go all the way" in the summer of 1972, it was as if someone had flipped the "on" switch on ME.......it is impossible for me to overstate the profound influence the raspberries had on my life....i saw them in syracuse after the release of their second album and was hypnotized........from then on my efforts to convert the masses were in full swing......my entire family would take turns calling the local radio stations requesting airplay, my high school desks were festooned with etched raspberries logos, each record was meticulously inspected with forensic interest.....it's fair to say i was obsessed.........i first "met" eric when i crashed a soundcheck in 1976 and asked him if i could take a picture....he said, "yeah, if you can take it from there", (he was at the piano, i was standing below the rim of the stage).....ten years later i was living in nyc and joined a band with a songwriter named john denicola who had written a pair of songs for the movie "dirty dancing", one of which was "hungry eyes".....it was around then when i met eric briefly for a second time at the hard rock cafe in nyc.....a great thrill for me at the time.......in 1991 as a recent resident of california, temporarily housed in the pacific palisades rented home of a jingle producer, i was learning how to program a new drum machine that was in the home studio, using "all by myself" as the learning template, when the phone rang, my then girlfriend was in the studio singing on a coca-cola jungle and said, "you'll never guess who i'm standing next to"......it was eric, and naturally she told him of my fan-boy status.....she handed the phone to him and from that moment on a relationship was cultivated......now, i'm not unaware that in the early stages of what was a decades long friendship it was more an artist/fan dynamic, but over the next months and years he let me in, in ways only a friend would allow.......there are countless things over the years that led to him trusting me with some of his music and as an occasional collaborator, and every moment for me was an experience of great magnitude......when i was mixing the raspberries first reunion show that would become "pop art live" it was quite literally a dream come true........i am bereft right now, but his music that has meant so much to me will continue to inspire and fascinate me for the rest of my days...........he was a friend, a very good friend.....a mentor, a very good mentor........and i will miss him...........meeting your heroes might not always be what you expect, but i can say with certainty that this hero was everything and more................tommy allen/nyc
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Loved your homage to Eric Carmen.
I was 12 when Overnight Sensation came out. I'm pretty sure I first heard it on Casey Kasem's American Top 40, which I religiously listened to every Saturday.
I went out and bought the 45, so played It many times even 'tho it never got much radio airplay. It is one of the top 10 songs of my youth. My favorite part is at the end where you actually hear (what at least sounds like) Overnight Sensation being played on the radio.
I respected Eric's solo work, but can't say I was a fan. I'd moved on to Rock, Punk, and early New Wave by then.
Karl Wallinger, on the other hand, was someone whose music I listened to and loved during my 20s. Both his work with the Waterboys and his own band, World Party. Ship of Fools is seared into my brain. I hadn't known about Karl's struggles with ill health until reading the obits.
As Warren Zevon famously said, enjoy every sandwich.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3EX1jYBG0
Rob Glaser
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