For starters this “little man with the big hair” was an extremely well-versed musician in the iconic rock group, Kiss. From his very start when Eric Carr (a.k.a. Paul Charles Caravello) played his first show at the Palladium in New York in 1980, until his untimely death due to cancer on November 24, 1991, little was known about Eric’s true talents aside from him being automatically accepted as one of Kiss, a genuine warm, down to earth guy, and being a very good drummer I always felt because my feelings are based “pre-internet”, so there wasn’t much I could have known about this exceptional musician other than he played for just one of my many favorite rock groups at the time.
This new album shows how much of a stupendous musician Eric was, and how soulful of a voice he had as well. Prior to the release of his album, Rockology all I heard of Eric Carr is whatever song he sang on any given Kiss album. Drumming was questionable on a few records as Kiss were notorious for using session drummers, especially on the Hot In The Shade album, which had been my all-time favorite album back in 1989 when I was an impressionable twelve year old girl. Yes, that makes me so old nowadays to a newer generation, who have yet to hear any of Eric Carr’s stuff.
I was lucky enough to have been around while Eric Carr was still alive (and God rest his soul), he was an absolute genuine warm-hearted person with a big heart that was so unlike his rock star image it was almost unfathomable. I read the music magazines of the day, devoured endless hours of video footage that I could watch at the time, and never knew of Eric Carr’s true caliber until many years down the road and I listened to Rockology on CD. It made me appreciate Eric Carr more for the person and broad musician that he was.
Rockology is a great album with a lot of late 80’s “good” vibe packed into twelve songs on a single CD. I wish I could go through and specifically call to mind why I love every song on this particular album. However, I will limit my selection to just a few songs starting with Somebody’s Waiting. This is more of a romantic, tender love ballad that should have been originally put on the Hot In The Shade album. However, the only Eric song to make that cut was Little Caesar.
Somebody’s Waiting is a powerful song at best with emotion. Eric’s vocal abilities truly shine on this ballad (as with any other song he sang on). My second favorite is Too Cool For School, which is very Bart Simpson-like to the ear. Actually, Too Cool For School was produced for Eric’s unfinished animated cartoon, The Rock Heads, where Eric does all the voices, drumming, (there’s some awesome double bass kick drum effect that was Eric’s trademark in this particular song, too).
Eyes Of Love is another good song that became an instant favorite of mine off this album. It speaks the truth about being madly in love with somebody, but I also liked it, well, for Eric’s soulful voice. He had vocal capabilities that far exceed his cover version of Beth, which prior to this Rockology album that was pretty much all the singing a Kiss fan would hear from Eric other than the aforementioned song, Little Caesar. Personally, I’d have to give Rockology a ten star rating for “total awesomeness”.