We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
For their 2nd album, “Fresh”, the Raspberries gave us even more glistening power pop than they had on their sparkling debut.
The Ohio based band could have easily been transported from Liverpool circa 1965. They had listened to their Beatles records and learned their lessons well.
The hits exploded out of your radio. “”I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend” gave us jangling guitars from Wally Bryson, tight harmonies, and a yearning high-pitched lead vocal from Eric Carmen. And the clearly salacious lyrics about young lust were tempered by their clean-cut All-American look with their feathered hair and matching suits.
The similarities to the Fab Four hit their apex with the songs “I Reach For The Light” and “It Seemed So Easy”, the latter tune sung by bassist Dave Smalley.
They even give us a country-ish tune with “Goin Nowhere Tonight” and a whiff of the Beach Boys with “Drivin Around”.
This is not heavyweight singer-songwriter stuff. There is no mystery about what they are singing about in most of the tunes. But the production is crystal clear and the playing is just what you would want in 1972, if you were yearning for a trip back to the days of Beatlemania.
Comments