Raspberries, recorded at The Agora Theatre in Cleveland on July 10, 1974 and broadcast by WMMS-FM.
Diving into the era of swagger, power-pop and wide-lapels for this Friday Lunch compliments of Raspberries.
When Eric Carmen died in 2024, many obits concentrated on his solo career while giving a few scant sentences to his previous incarnation as lead singer/co-founder of Raspberries, the band that pretty much put Carmen on the map for his future solo career. The early 70s were a time of Polyester shirts, platform shoes, big-hair, wide-lapels, cocaine and raging hormones. Their innuendo-laced mega-hit “Go All The Way” was looked at as something of an anthem to the era of anonymous sex, wretched excess, edible panties and desperate promises.
When you run the bodice bursting proclamations of Raspberries with the steam-drenched coaxings of Barry White – you summed up the early 70s to a T.
One of the most memorable aspects of the Raspberries phenomenon was when Capitol Records shipped promo copies of their debut album, plastering stickers soaked in Raspberry scent on the covers – it turned entire record stores (and record collections) into the world’s Greatest Boudoir. I swear, some 50 years later, an unopened copy of that album still reeks of the unmistakeable, somewhat sickly-sweet scent, which I suspect has a half-life of 10,000 years.
The phenomenon however, wasn’t destined to last – Punk was two years away – the heady aroma of Raspberry was traded in for the pungent aroma of stale beer. Sex was still anonymous until the 80s rolled around and AIDs ushered in the Dark Ages.
Still, there were glimmers. Eric Carmen pursued a solo career and the meditations on poignant lost love by way of “All By Myself” went along with a goodly amount of nostalgia for a time destined never to come back. We were caught in that balancing act between nostalgia and The Modern World.
But during their tenure, Raspberries rode the crest of a very popular wave whose clarion call was “If it feels good, do it!” while millions grabbed their coke spoons and ran.
As a reminder of what that particular brand of fuss was all about – here they are, on home turf at The Agora Theatre in Cleveland just as they sounded on July 10, 1974 – smack in the middle of a sticky summer in Ohio.
Just imagine . . .
