Play On Rock Roll Mama The Raspberries

Play On Album: Starting Over (1974)
Rock and Roll Mama (1972)
by The RaspberriesShow more

Eric Carmen, the frontman of the powerpop band Raspberries and singer of solo hits including All By Myself, Never Gonna Fall in Love Again and Hungry Eyes, has died aged 74.

Carmen’s wife, Amy, announced his death on his official website. No cause of death was given.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of Eric Carmen,” she wrote. “Our sweet, loving and talented Eric passed away in his sleep, over the weekend. It brought him great joy to know that, for decades, his music touched so many and will be his lasting legacy.

After discussions between Carmen and Bonfanti about forming a new group, the first lineup for the Raspberries was Eric Carmen (rhythm guitar, vocals, piano), Jim Bonfanti (drums), Wally Bryson (lead guitar, vocals) and John Aleksic (bass). Aleksic left the group at the end of 1970. In 1971, Dave Smalley (rhythm guitar, vocals), just back from Vietnam, became the fourth member of the original recording lineup with Carmen moving to bass. The Raspberries' demo tape went to the desk of producer Jimmy Ienner, for whom Carmen had previously done session work. After a major-label bidding war the band signed to Capitol Records. This 1st album featured a strong scratch and sniff raspberry scented sticker on the front cover.

The Raspberries wore matching ensembles on stage. The group was known for making its stage entrance in tuxedos and large bouffant hairdos which, according to Carmen, "complemented the style of our music".

Raspberries bass player Scott McCarl wrote "Play On" with their frontman, Eric Carmen. Most Raspberries songs have Carmen on lead vocals, but McCarl sings on this one.

McCarl joined the band for their fourth album, Starting Over, which ended up being their last. He told Songfacts the story behind "Play On."

"I'll be honest and tell you that Starting Over is not my favorite of the Raspberries albums," he said. "That would be Fresh, the second one. It kicked off with 'I Wanna Be With You,' a thrilling Raspberries/ Beatles concoction that left me breathless upon my first hearing, in an Arby's as I recall it! So, when I got to join the band a little later, I yearned to bring that same electricity to my own song for us, if I possibly could. I had that opening guitar riff, with the first verse all in place... and then nothing.

Eric and I went to McDonalds, grabbed two extra-large Cokes, and went back to his place. I can still see it like yesterday, me playing him ideas on acoustic, and him on piano, back and forth, both of us nudging it further along. The lyrics came rather easily. Not really important stuff perhaps, just the rock 'n roll life we were living.

We got to what we thought was a pretty good chorus - though not quite good enough perhaps? - and split up for the day. I lived 10 floors below him in the same building, the Watergate Apartments, of all names. Early the next morning I got a call from him, this wild voice on the other end saying 'you've got to come up - you've got to come up!' And he had tweaked our chorus, re-done as you know it now, the perfect complement to my original verse, with its Beatlesque chorus harmonies reaching higher and higher. Oh man, it was magical.

A song like that, you need to have that chorus, you just have to have it. And now we did. From there we went nonstop until we'd finished it. It was fun going from the key of E to the key of C for the bridge - beware, sharp turn ahead! And I dearly like a part I wrote that you may not have ever noticed: the turnaround near the end, A flat minor to A - I 'borrowed' it from 'Nowhere Man.' It's our favorite song that we wrote together."

After The Raspberries split, Scott McCarl left the music industry but returned in 1998 with a solo album he titled Play On, after this song. In 2022, the album was re-released with additional material.

Taken from the record RASPBERRIES recorded at record plant, new york.
Dave Smalley about the song: At that time (1972) the band was gigging around locally and we had a house where we all lived. For a period of time Wally and I and Eric occasionally would drag a bunch of girls home. A gig didn't go by where it wasn't crawling with women. "Rock and Roll Mama" was written about girls who'd come to gigs and party with the band in hopes of a possible romantic scenario. It was a different time back then, we were all single and we all loved women.