Raspberries tribute band The Razzz will play a show April 19 at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland. Pictured are Dave Urick, left, Ed Brown, Steve Jocum, Bill March and Chris DeHaas. Urick is not currently with the act, while George Sipl is. (Courtesy of Ed Brown)
Bill March says he was stunned by the news last month that his old friend Eric Carmen had died.
The guy was a brilliant, brilliant songwriter,” said March, a longtime Northeast Ohio musician who lives in Lyndhurst. “He meant a lot to me in terms of the music he made. He probably meant a lot to the world at large.
March knew Carmen—known both for fronting the Cleveland-based power-pop band the Raspberries, which achieved national success in the 1970s, and as the solo artist responsible for hits including “All By Myself” and “Hungry Eyes” – when March was a member of another notable Northeast Ohio rock band, Beau Coup, for the next decade. He says Carmen encouraged them to bring vocalists Frank and Tommy Amato into the band.
“He helped us a lot with advice and stuff,” says March, “and played on stage a few times.”
Over the past few years, March and other veterans of the Northeast Ohio music community have been spending time here and there playing in the Raspberries tribute band, The Razzz, who will next play at April 19 at the Music Box Supper Club on the West Bank of Cleveland’s Flats.
“Let’s face it: the intro to ‘Go All the Way’ — if that doesn’t grab you by the lapels or the shirt collar and pull you in, I don’t know what does,” March says of the Raspberries’ 1972 guitar-driven hit, highly charged first few seconds.
Both bassist/vocalist March and drummer Ed Brown—another of those longtime Northeast Ohio musicians in The Razzz, who resides in Mentor—have spent some time over the years sharing the stage with the man on that guitar, Wally Bryson, in performances like the Wally Bryson Band.
“Bill is a longtime Raspberries fan and Eric Carmen fan, and I wasn’t to the extent that Bill was,” Brown says in a recent joint phone interview with March. “But … I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Wally for probably 20 or 25 years since the late ’80s.
“I knew the Raspberries and I knew ‘Go All the Way’ and a few other songs, but I was more into heavy metal,” admits March, whose time playing with Bryson included the band Sittin’ Ducks.
March and Brown played together in The Wally Bryson Group, the latter suggesting to Bryson that they bring the former into the band when they were looking for a bassist.
That band broke up a few years ago when Bryson decided to retire from the scene after developing a condition called Dupuytren’s contracture that affected his ability to play guitar, and The Razzz more or less took up the mantle performing Wally Bryson Group date at the Music Box at the venue’s request, Brown says.
“We thought, ‘Well, I don’t know. I guess we could try,” he recalls. “And it went really well, so then it became The Razzz.”
The band now also consists of Steve Jochum, from Parma, lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Chirs DeHaas, of Madison, on guitar, keyboards and vocals; and George Siple of Middleburg Heights, keyboards and vocals.
Razzz’s repertoire goes beyond well-known Raspberries songs like “Go All the Way” — featured prominently on the 2014 Marvel Studios hit “Guardians of the Galaxy” — “I Wanna Be With You,” “Don’t Want to Say Goodbye’ and ‘Let’s Pretend’ to include songs from the British Invasion and more.
“We’re doing the things they were influenced by,” says March. “We try to do things like Small Faces and The Left Banke and of course The Beatles, The Beach Boys. We’re doing some of Eric’s solo stuff.”
He adds that he’s always a little confused that Carmen seems to be most often associated with “Hungry Eyes,” the hit from the 1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing.
“He didn’t write that song, but he obviously made it his own,” says March. “So many great songs he really wrote — I think ‘All by Myself,’ that’s the franchise.
“He (co-author Mike Reno and Anne Wilson) ‘Almost Paradise.’ He wrote (solo hit) “Make Me Lose Control.”
Brown says the band really enjoys the material they play when they hit the road several times a year, with another show scheduled for early August.
“We try to make it as close as possible to the original way it was recorded,” he says. “It’s never going to be 100 percent, but we spend a lot of time studying the parts as best we can because we really want to do it justice.”
Sounds like it was appreciated.
“There’s definitely a core Raspberries fanatic who will come to see us,” says March. “We’re definitely giving them more of the hits.
“We do a fair bit of their stuff.”
Brown says he was surprised to find that music isn’t just for those looking for nostalgia, at least if his grandchildren are any indication.
“They’re in high school and they’ve never heard me play because I don’t play that often. I always wanted them to come out, but I had no idea if they would appreciate the music because, you know, they’re teenagers.
“And they really love music,” he continues. “I think every age group would enjoy it. We certainly have a core of people who come out who love raspberries and grew up with them, but I haven’t found anyone—and I don’t think they’re telling me this to make us feel good—who has come out who hasn’t he enjoyed the music.
Now we come to the obligatory question, at least from a Northeast Ohio perspective: Are the Raspberries getting the credit they deserve?
“I think they do now,” says March, noting that recognition grew for the 1974 album “Starting Over.” “When they were together, they had nothing – to the point where (it) caused them to split up.
“They are not seen as, if not the creators, then one of the creators of the power pop genre.”
Disp
Where: Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland.
When: 20:00 on April 19.
Tickets: $18 in advance, $25 day of show.
Info: MusicBoxCle.com or 216-242-1250.
