Starting Over

Side 3 Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.	Fresh Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.	Raspberries (Japanese Mini-Vinyl CD) Limited Edition Japanese "Mini Vinyl" CD, faithfully reproduced using original LP artwork including the inner sleeve. Features most recently mastered audio including bonus tracks where applicable.	Live on Sunset Strip (Deluxe Version) When a long-disbanded group of aging rockers reunites for a note-perfect set of their 30-year-old catalog, the casual observer might think "I wonder which one needs to pay off some back taxes?" However, when the band in question is the Raspberries, it's cause for celebration. Lit...	Power Pop, Vol. 1 1996 release on R.P.M. featuring the first two albums by Eric Carmen's early '70s power pop group together on one CD,the 1972 Capitol LPs 'Raspberries' and 'Fresh Raspberries'. 19 tracks total, including the top five smash 'Go All The Way', the top 20 'I Wanna Be With You' and th...
Pacific Ocean Blue - Legacy Edition Apart from the non-release of Smile, the biggest lament of hardcore Beach Boys fans is that Bruce Johnston aside, none of the non-Brian Wilson solo albums are available on CD. But now, for fans of late drummer Dennis Wilson, there's reason to celebrate as his only-released solo a...	Jesus of Cool 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Nick Lowe's seminal 1978 album Jesus of Cool. The album, released in the U.S. as Pure Pop for Now People, marks the beginning of one of the most storied and influential solo careers in pop music and marks the true emergence of a songwriting mono...	Eric Carmen 2007 K2 24bit digitally remastered Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork. Includes 2 bonus tracks: the single edit and an alternate version of the hit "All By Myself".	Power Pop, Vol. 2 1996 release on R.P.M. featuring the third & fourth album byEric Carmen's early '70s power pop group together on one CD,1973's 'Side 3' and 1974's 'Starting Over'. Each was originally released on Capitol. 20 tracks total, including the top 20 hit 'Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)...	Straight Up

I like it
While not a big fan of the Raspberries, I like the songs on this album. It is for sure the best of their CD's without a doubt. It's light but really good songs. If you like this band this is a must.

The 'Berries play on
The Raspberries' swan song is better than it has any right to be. Swathed as it is in 70s cock-rock cliches, plodding guitar riffs, "professional" but unspectacular musicianship, and lyrics about crying and the joys of groupie-abuse, you'd expect Starting Over to be the stuff of discount bins and "Where Are They Now" TV specials. And yet... ... and yet somehow, Starting Over is actually a fine album in and of itself. The 'Berries were, after all, decidedly not a 70s hard rock band. They were a power pop band who happened to rock. Hard. In the 70s. As such, what really defines Starting Over is its unimpeachable sense of melody. Few albums are this hook-heavy, and few hooks are as good as the ones found here: "I Don't Know What I Want" and "Cruisin' Music" threaten to beat the Who and the Beach Boys at their respective games, and "Rose Coloured Glasses" is inescapably lovely. "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" is a rollicking, joyously melodramatic mock-epic that successfully transforms vanity into glory. "All Through The Night" is so gleefully misogynistic it makes gangsta rap sound like the soundtrack to the Seneca Falls convention. A lot of the album is a bit tossed-off, but even the weaker tracks have something going for them. "Play On" and "Party's Over" may recycle lame whitewashed rock (no 'n' roll) conventions, but at least they're fun. "Hands On You" is moronic, but in an endearing, goofy sort of way. I wouldn't call this the pinnacle of power pop, but it certainly deserves a larger following than it currently has.

If you absolutely HAVE to get Raspberries' "product," get THIS
No...there is absolutely no justification anywhere WHATSOEVER for "Go All The Way." Eric Carmen was one of those..."musicians" who should've followed Keith Moon, Mama Cass, Brian Jones, Hendrix - you know the riff. But honesty is honesty, and , like I said, if you HAVE to purchase Raspberries' "product," this one is most assuredly THE ONE TO GET. The opener on side 2, "All Thru The Night" sounds EXACTLY like what Rod Stewart mutated into during HIS "pop" days, and,oh yeah, the 'berries had a new rhythm section on ths thing, too. Sadly, I can't remember the drummer's name (*It was Mike McBride), but bassist Scott McCarl was every bit the "Keith" necessary to nulify Carmen's "Mick-esque" tendencies. And his song, "Hands On You" almost will have you forgive Wally Bryson for pulling all those "tough-guy" faces he did. Yes, to reiterate, if you play the 'berries "All Thru The Nite" next to anything Rod Stewart did during the late seventies - the "subject" of the song...the rhythm guitar propelling a necessarily brief "lead" guitar...and especially Carmen's vocals (well...on THIS song, anyway)...will have you shaking your head and saying, "Wow, what wasted talent." And as you must know, "Eric" Carmen would stink up the radio later on ("All By Myself"), and Bryson would team up with the Rascals' guitarist and drummer ("Rascals"..."Raspberries"...do ya think somebody was alphabetizing their record collection and said, "Hey...?") in a group that - really - should have had an "Amber Alert" called on them, a group called "Fotomaker," a group whose album covers portrayed VERY pre-teen little girls wearing Pat Benetar-esque makeup...Your money, buy the ticket, take the ride, and all that, but "Starting Over" is honestly a Raspberries album/cd you won't have to try to hide when your "hip" friends visit...

One of the great lost rock 'n roll albums
Maybe sensing that their days as a band were numbered, the Raspberries dropped the white-suited goody-two-shoes bubblegum act and produced their best (and final) lp, 1974's "Starting Over". This last hurrah is a vague concept album about the hopes and realities of being in a rock 'n roll band, from Eric Carmen's determination to create an immortal hit record (the hit, "Overnight Sensation"), to Wally Bryson's jaded-but-humorous "The Party's Over". The Raspberries don't try to sound like wholesome pop idols on this one: "All Through the Night" has Carmen coldly mocking and tossing aside a groupie, and the drunken Beatles' campfire of "Hands On You" is no less sexist (but no less entertaining). The finale title track bursts with melody, but Eric Carmen deliberately torpedoes any chance of commercial air-play with the opening line "I used to be so f***ing optimistic". This wasn't the same "scratch-and-sniff" album-cover Raspberries from before. The Raspberries also come up with three terrific tributes to their 60's pop idols: "I Don't Know What I Want" is a neat, very Who-like teen-angst rocker (great Keith Moon-style drumming, btw); "Rose Colored Glasses" is a beautiful, unusual psychedelic ballad, recalling the Beatles but not sounding derivative; and "Cruisin' Music" is a sensational Beach Boys' pastiche that surpasses the earlier and better-known "Drivin' Around". It's a great Beach-Boys takeoff, right up there with the Beatles' "Back In the USSR" and the Cowsill's "Indian Lake". "Starting Over" is one the "great lost rock albums" of the 1970's.