In Could 1967, requested by the NME’s Keith Altham to explain The Who’s sonic onslaught, Pete Townshend replied that “power-pop is what we play.” Merely a casual remark, it inadvertently spawned a nebulous musical subgenre, which grew to become synonymous not with The Who, however with Cleveland, Ohio, quartet Raspberries and their self-titled debut album from 1972.
Tough to pin down definitively, “power-pop” stays a catch-all journalistic touchstone. Because the 70s progressed, it was additionally hurled at outfits reminiscent of Low cost Trick, Large Star and The Knack: chic, guitar-toting US anglophiles whose music owed a debt of gratitude to mid-60s British Invasion stars The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and, sure, The Who.
As Raspberries’ bassist/vocalist Eric Carmen informed on-line US publication The Star in 2007: “It did stick to these groups that came out in the 70s that played kind of melodic songs with crunchy guitars and some wild drumming. It just kind of stuck to us like glue, and that was OK with us, because The Who were among our highest role models. We absolutely loved The Who.”
Forming in 1970, Raspberries initially sprang from two of essentially the most profitable native Cleveland bands of the late 60s. Drummer Jim Bonfanti and guitar-and-vocal duo Wally Bryson and Dave Smalley performed with The Choir, whose breezy, Merseybeat-styled “It’s Cold Outside” was a minor US hit and later featured on Rhino’s landmark storage rock field set Nuggets. Bryson went on to affix budding singer-songwriter Eric Carmen in a second hotly-tipped Cleveland outfit, Cyrus Erie, whose Carmen/Bryson unique “Get The Message” was launched as a single by Epic.
After The Choir and Cyrus Erie each cut up, Carmen, Bryson, and Bonfanti fashioned Raspberries, initially with guitarist John Aleksic. In 1971, nonetheless, Aleksic was changed by Dave Smalley, who had not too long ago returned from a tour of responsibility in Vietnam. With their basic line-up in place, Raspberries recorded an completed studio demo, frightening a major-label bidding conflict for the band’s signatures from which Capitol Data emerged victorious.
Future Bay Metropolis Rollers producer Jimmy Ienner had already been impressed by the band’s demo and Capitol duly paired him off with Raspberries to supervise the classes for the group’s eponymous debut at New York’s Document Plant and Abbey Highway studios in London.
Launched in April 1972, Raspberries’ sleeve confirmed off the band’s elaborate, bouffant-style hairdos – and the music inside was equally opulent. Tunes reminiscent of the fragile “Waiting” and the craving “Don’t Want To Say Goodbye” had been augmented by discreet, “Yesterday”-style strings, whereas Carmen’s show-stopping “I Can Remember” developed from fragile, melancholic ballad to barnstorming, Who-esque bombast over the course of eight exhilarating minutes.
Elsewhere, the band confirmed off their immaculate three-way harmonies on the intricate, semi-acoustic “Come Around And See Me” and the sleek “I Saw The Light,” although, crucially, Raspberries additionally remembered to rock, not least on the earthy “Rock’n’Roll Mama” and the no-nonsense “Get It Moving,” which provided Bonfanti the chance for some frenzied, Keith Moon-esque clatter.
The tune which induced mass Raspberries-mania, nonetheless, was the album’s first single, “Go All The Way,” a brilliantly quixotic energy play that vacillated seamlessly between gritty, Kinks-ish energy riffage and silky-smooth harmonies. The sexual undertones within the tune’s risqué title merited a BBC ban within the UK, however within the US “Go All The Way” offered in droves, peaking at No.5 on the Billboard singles chart and ultimately promoting round 1.3 million copies.
Urged on by the only’s success and constructive important notices reminiscent of Rolling Stone’s, which proclaimed the album to be “much more impressive than Badfinger’s debut,” Raspberries lingered on the US Billboard chart for 30 weeks and ultimately peaked at No.51. Mainstream acceptance briefly beckoned when the band’s second Capitol album, Contemporary, broached the Billboard Prime 40, however success ultimately reneged on Raspberries they usually cut up in 1975 after two underrated gems, Aspect 3 and ’74’s Beginning Over.
Purchase Raspberries right here.
