Eric And The Critics

Raspberries worked hard to win over critics during their short time as a band, and by their fourth and final album, "Starting Over" on Capitol Records, the band was on every major critics list for "Album Of The Year" (Rolling Stone, Circus, Creem, The Village Voice, and many more).

Besides naming "Starting Over" as one of their seven albums of the year for 1974 (along with an album by a young kid named Bruce Springsteen), Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh ranked the single "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" as the #1 single released that year. Though the single made Billboard's Top 20, the album was the band's poorest seller and the group called in quits in 1975 (for a while, anyway).

There was enormous pressure on Eric to serve up a hit album as a solo artist. Sticking with Raspberries producer Jimmy Ienner and bringing along Raspberries drummer Michael McBride (who also had played with Eric in '60s Cleveland bands Cyrus Erie and The Quick), Eric was signed by Clive Davis to Arista Records in 1975.

In 1975, that debut solo album, "Eric Carmen" on Arista Records, exceeded all expectations, reaching #21 in Billboard and the Top 20 in Cashbox magazine, selling the 500,000 copies needed for a Gold Record Album award by 1977. The album produced three Top 40 singles, including "All By Myself" (#1 in both Cashbox and Record World, #2 in Billboard).

Among those celebrating that album in print were Ben Edmonds, one-time editor of Creem, who wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, "Eric Carmen has long deserved recognition as one of America's best rock minds. Now, his first solo album backs up that contention!"

Dave Marsh, in his syndicated (sold newspaper-by-newspaper) Rolling Stone column, said, "Few artists have tried harder for stardom and few deserve it more."

Success creates more pressure, not less, for an artist. Eric faced many challenges making his second album, "Boats Against The Current."

Among those challenges, Eric ended his recording partnership with producer Jimmy Ienner (after four Raspberries albums and a successful solo album) to see what he and Elton John/David Bowie producer, Gus Dudgeon could come up with in the studio. Dudgeon replaced Eric's band from the first solo album with session players and wound up running the recording studio tab past the $300,000 mark.

After a number of disagreements in the studio, Eric parted ways with Dudgeon and took over production of the album. The pressure of taking an over-budget production and making a successful album now fell on Eric.

As Eric said in a cover story in Phonograph Record Magazine in May of 1977, "You've got to have one guy in control. I'm betting I've done what it takes to get it right."

Legendary music journalist Jane Scott, in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, praised Eric's work on the album, writing, "Carmen did a great job... I'm betting 'Boats' will be a big hit."

When completed, "Boats Against The Current" featured guest artists like Burton Cummings (The Guess Who), Andrew Gold (Linda Ronstadt's guitarist), Jeff Porcaro (Toto), Nigel Olsson (Elton John), Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys), David Wintour (Neil Sedaka), Richie Zito (Neil Sedaka), and others backing Eric Carmen on eight of his best songs.

The album was Billboard" magazine's "Spotlight" album, a review category reserved only for album's that Billboard's staff believes have the greatest chance of topping the pop album charts. Billboard said the album showed Carmen's "prowess as a complete musician." Billboard also featured an advertisement for the album that spanned two full pages.

Sales were brisk --- Jane Scott reported that during the album's first month of release it had sold 343,519 copies, with record buyers in Eric's hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, buying 34,913 (10 per cent) of the copies sold. Nationally, the album rose to #45 in Billboard for two weeks and made The Cashbox Top 40 Albums list.

The single "She Did It" made Billboard's Top 30, reaching the Top 20 in Cashbox. As reported by Jane Scott, the single had sold 254,300 copies in its first month of release (22,000 sold in Cleveland alone).

Not as successful as Eric's first album, but "Boats" was a major seller just the same. It could have been a bigger hit, but as Eric notes in Bernie Hogya and Ken Sharp's book, "Eric Carmen: Marathon Man," Michael Plunker had exited Arista as head of FM promotions two weeks before "Boats Against The Current" was released, and Arista did not replace him during "the whole time 'Boats' was out. It killed the album completely." Eric was stuck with an AM hit but no FM exposure for the album at a critical moment in time.

Some critics didn't like the album, like Circus magazine writer Paul Nelson who admitted to liking Eric Carmen, but said, "Except for the title track, 'Marathon Man' and 'Take It Or Leave It,' most of the songs here are totally forgettable."

Others, including another Circus magazine writer, Sally Rayl, praised the album, "It isn't an album that is easy to digest in one listening. Unlike 'Eric Carmen,' 'Boats Against the Current' departs from the collection-of-songs format and works as a conceptual piece."

However, most critics loved the album. Not only did Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Jane Scott love the album, but she thought the title track "is one of the most perceptive you will hear."

The Pittsburgh Press sang Eric's praise, stating, "You read it here first, 'Boats Against The Current' is the album that will do it for Eric Carmen. 'All By Myself' got Carmen into the public eye last year; 'Boats Against The Current' will keep him there."

Jim Girard of Cleveland Scene, wrote, "'Boats Against The Current' stands as the finest album I have heard this year. The proof is in the grooves."

The Hartford Courant said the album made Eric "a pillar of the rock establishment" and called Eric's production "flawless." England's New Musical Express called the album "clean, sophisticated pop."

Bruno Bornino in The Cleveland Press said, "His keyboard and guitar playing—along with percussion, harpsichord and synthesizer—are sensational. And his voice never sounded better. No doubt about it, he's a superstar."

Crawdaddy magazine said of the album, "'Boats' leans towards strings, building crescendos and Spector sound-walls, yet the delivery is clean, punchy and confident. Aesthetics aside, the LP is bound to have strong AM and MOR commercial appeal. Eric Carmen's music is the sweet funk record companies drool over."

Today, most critics and fans still love the album.

Back in 1977, Eric told writer Jane Scott, "When I was graduated some of my friends had decided I would most likely be a cartoonist with Mad Magazine." For me, I'm glad the music gig worked out...