Building a Better Boats

So it’s too late, here in fall 2007, for a celebratory 30th-anniversary Boats Against the Current boxed set. Besides, the recent “two-fer” issue of Boats paired with Change of Heart at least gets this Eric Carmen classic on an American CD release. Even so, Boats deserves a full-scale production as a multi-disc boxed set — and soon, before the CD-buying public goes away, converting full-time to MP3s, iPods, and downloaded music.

So if I were the All-Powerful Caretaker of Boats Against the Current, here’s how I’d put it together.

DISC 1: Boats Against the Current as we know it, but remastered to be the best-sounding version available.

DISC 2: Boats in its original order — which was in reverse of the sequence as we know it. In an EricCarmen.com thread called “Desperate Fools," Eric casually revealed that his original vision had the album starting with "Run Away" and progressing backwards all the way to his original closer, the song "Boats Against the Current." The lost gem "Temporary Hero" was to fit between "Nowhere to Hide" and "Marathon Man."

Eric's “oh, by-the-way...” comment might have seemed innocuous to him, but it sent Boats-ologists (if I may coin a term) scurrying back to the album to re-consider its message and theme and atmosphere.

DISC 3: Outtakes, demos, and covers. Which ones? Well, let’s see. At EricCarmen.com, we've have heard beautiful demos of “She Did It,” “Run Away,” and “Temporary Hero.” These would all be musts for Disc 3. And there must be more where those came from: I’m certain the 46 boxes of Boats session tapes that Eric has mentioned would yield all kinds of gems. Imagine piano-only versions of “Boats” and “Nowhere to Hide” and “Love Is All That Matters.” And perhaps a demo of “Someday” is available, since Eric wrote that song during the Boats period. And how about procuring a few covers for Disc 3: Yvonne Elliman’s “Nowhere to Hide” and Frankie Valli’s and Olivia Newton-John’s versions of “Boats Against the Current” come to mind. And how about Eric’s performance of “Boats” at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago, and/or Eric’s version of “Boats” from the Ringo Starr tour from 2001? A more contemporary reading of the title song by the songwriter would make the package complete….

(If we’re really doing some blue-sky thinking, we might ask for a fourth disc that would contain, say, a new live performance by Eric, with band, playing the whole album.)

I’d have the Boats box issued in an LP-sized package with a lithograph of that original piece of interior artwork and a thick, handsome booklet of text.

The handsome booklet I'm envisioning would include an Eric Carmen essay on the album's creation, commentary from the musicians who played on it, and, of course, the lyrics and music. Most important, I'd complement these elements with essays by fans who truly connected with this album so many years ago. It would be enlightening to hear others put into words what Boats Against the Current means to them, and why.

What do you think?