Category Archives: Eric Carr
Eric Carr – Unfinished Business
Eric Carr – Unfinished Business (2011, Auto Rock Records)
1. Eric speaks to the fans
2. “Just Can’t Wait”
3. “Troubles Inside You”
4. Eric talks about his music
5. “No One’s Messin’ With You”
6. “Carr Jam 1981″
7. Eric talks about audition
8. “Shandi”
9. “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”
10. “Dial L For Love”
11. “Elephant Man”
12. Eric Talks about Mark St. John
13. “Midnite Stranger”
14. “Eyes Of Love”
15. Bill Aucoin talks about Eric
16. “Through The Years”
17. “I Cry at Night”
18. Eric kidding around at a Kiss album rehearsal
Producer: Linda Caravello & Beth Jordan
On the 20 year anniversary of Eric Carr’s death, the Caravello (Carr) family decided to honor Eric by releasing Unfinished Business, an album featuring a number of Eric’s demos that were recently fleshed out and re-recorded with the aid of a number of musicians. Also featured are voice clips of Eric Carr. A similar project called Rockology was released by the family in 1999 but that album was nothing but demos & rough mixes with the only tampering being done by former KISS band mate Bruce Kulick who tried to re-mix the tracks and improve production as best he could.
Notes about the songs:
- “Just Can’t Wait” (1987) was originally released on Rockology as an instrumental but this time around there are lyrics & vocals for it and there’s a good reason this new version comes off like Danger Danger — Ted Poley sings on it. I think it was one of the better songs from Rockology. It’s nice to hear it with a vocal track but I think it still stands as a great instrumental as well.
- “Troubles Inside You” (1987) features KISS collaborator Mitch Weissman on vocals. Sound quality isn’t that great given that it’s a demo but it’s a cool rocker.
- “No One’s Messin’ With You” (1989) is an early demo of what would morph into “Little Caesar” from Hot in the Shade.
- “Carr Jam 1981″ (which originally appeared on KISS’ Revenge album) & “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” (originally appeared on KISS’ Lick It Up album) are covers by the band ZO2.
- “Shandi” features Eric on vocals and comes from his 1980 KISS audition. These demo tapes remained lost until 2006 when they were rediscovered by Eric Carr’s family. The entire four-song audition was produced on CD in extremely limited quantities and released as The 1980 KISS Audition EP and sold through http://www.EricCarr.com. This particular version lifts Eric’s vocals from the audition tape and adds new music performances and arrangement.
- “Dial L for Love” is a near complete demo track (no vocals) from 1987. Could’ve been a really good rocker.
- “Elephant Man” never got past the lyrics stage in 1991 when Eric passed away. Music was composed for this song from scratch by Bob Gilmartin (who provides vocals & guitar) and Nick Clements. Eric’s sister and niece sing backing vocals, Twisted Sister’s A.J. Pero plays drums and Europe’s Kee Marcello provided lead guitar on the intro.
- “Midnite Stranger” comes from a demo that Eric had given ex-KISS lead guitarist Mark St. John back in 1986. Mark had contacted the Carr family in 2006 and gave them the tape and the plan was for St. John to add more guitar parts but the project was never completed due to Mark’s passing away in 2007.
- “Eyes of Love” is another song that was originally on Rockology. This version is considerably better with newly recorded music. All of Eric’s vocals remain while Seether’s John Humphrey plays the drums and Benny Doro plays everything else.
- “Through The Years” is a compilation recordings of Eric on drums from his teenage years up to live performances with KISS. Very cool thing to hear.
- “I Cry At Night” is a song from 1967. It was written by Eric and recorded by The Cellarmen, which was his very first band. Very much inspired by the Beatles and general rock/pop sound of bands at the time.
The rest of the tracks are short sound clips from interviews either with Eric or about Eric.
Overall, this is a great disc for KISS fans to add to their collection. Carr is one of the most loved members the band has ever had and this is another great trip back in time to see what a cool guy and great talent he was. Hopefully the Carr family has more demos and outtakes ready to go because I’d love for third album to come along. Hopefully we’ll get some new kick-ass versions of “Somebody’s Waiting”, “Nightmare” and “Can You Feel It” if that ever comes about!
Highlights: “Just Can’t Wait”, “Troubles Inside You”, “Shandi”, “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”, “Eyes of Love”, “Through The Years”
www.EricCarr.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Eric-Carr-Official/146128105398320
ERIC CARR – Rockology
Eric Carr – Rockology (2000, EMI/Spitfire Records – Canada Import)
Original Release: 1999, Spitfire Records
1. “Eyes of Love” … 3:29
2. “Somebody’s Waiting” … 3:48
3. “Heavy Metal Baby” … 4:34
4 .”Just Can’t Wait” … 3:56
5 .”Mad Dog” … 3:16
6. “You Make Me Crazy” … 4:04
7. “Nightmare” … 4:22
8. “Nightmare” (live demo) … 3:42
9. “Too Cool For School” … 3:59
10. “Tiara” … 4:26
11. “Can You Feel It” … 4:02
12. “Nasty Boys” … 3:27
Musicians:
Eric Carr – Lead Vocals, Drums, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Bruce Kulick – Guitar
Adam Mitchell – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Producer: Bruce Kulick, Adam Mitchell and Eric Carr
Yet another album in a long line of them that I’ve been “familiar” with for many, many years and thus I delayed ever purchasing a copy. $3 for a new, sealed copy on Amazon was too good to pass up! Turns out I got the Canadian release that came out a year after Spitfire originally released it in the United States but it’s the same exact track listing.
When I first heard this album, that’s when I started to become a huge Eric Carr fan. From everything I’ve read and have heard about him, he was a great guy and this collection of demos just proves how great of a musician and songwriter he was (to be fair, Bruce Kulick and Adam Mitchell also wrote/played on these songs). Too bad Gene and Paul didn’t allow him more of a creative hand in KISS.
Actually, a few of these songs were written with KISS in mind though “Nasty Boys” and “Too Cool For School” were intended for his animation project The Rockheads. “Eyes of Love” and “Mad Dog” definitely sound they could’ve been KISS songs. It almost sounds like Eric is trying to emulate Gene, though whether he was writing these songs for himself or Gene I don’t know. Most of the songs just seem to be songs Eric was kicking around on his own time for his own amusement or maybe even a solo disc. I believe all of these songs were recorded from 1987-1989 but in 1999 with some additional production Bruce Kulick overdubbed a few solos with the blessing of Eric Carr’s family.
For what is basically a collection of demos, many of them are in pretty good quality, especially considering that according to Bruce’s liner notes many of these songs have only survived in cassette form. A couple of songs don’t even have complete lyrics and feature Eric scat singing in order to get a feel for the song. It’s a pretty interesting listen and “Nightmare” is set up this way but you can just imagine (or I can, at least) what the lyrics might have been. “Nightmare” is a pretty epic ballad, I love it. Again, I could hear this being a KISS song, with Paul singing.
Speaking of ballads, Eric seems to excel at writing these. They aren’t the typically sappy power ballads but haunting ballads. “Nightmare”, “Somebody’s Waiting”, “Tiara” (quite a bit dated with the keyboards) and “Just Can’t Wait” (which never had vocals put down) are excellent.
“Eyes of Love” and “Mad Dog” are just a few of the great rockers found here. “Can You Feel It” is another hot rocker full of positive energy. Far from complete, “You Make Me Crazy” is really good too which Bruce notes was actually being referred to as “Van Halen” for a time because of its sound.
This is an amazing collection of demos that gives the world a glimpse of Eric Carr — beyond the make up. Maybe none of these songs are 100% complete (though some come close) but there are a number of great songs here that would have been considered classics were they ever finished. Unfortunately Eric never got the chance.
Essential album for any fans of Eric Carr’s time in KISS.
Highlights: “Eyes of Love”, “Somebody’s Waiting”, “Just Can’t Wait”, “Mad Dog”, “Nightmare”, “Tiara”, “Can You Feel It”
