Scott McCarl

Scott McCarl bassists: There are a lot of similarities between Badfinger and The Raspberries. With Eric being classically trained and liking bands like The Beach Boys, Faces, and The Who, this brought a whole different avenue for his writing and performing. In Badfinger, with Pete Ham and Tom Evans, they had their John and Paul, plus you throw in Joey who looks just like Paul, they certainly pleased fans in that post-Beatles era. With us, Eric liked my John Lennon style and Eric had a Paul McCartney style when he wanted. Badfinger and The Raspberries were on a bill together, playing The Aragon Ballroom in early 1973 when I met them. I had first talked with Eric about a month prior to the show and he invited me backstage. What surprised me is that The Raspberries really didn’t fraternize at all with Badfinger. I thought they were so much alike musically that they would be hanging out with each other. When I later joined the band, “Play On” came from the first songwriting session that Eric and I had. I played him a verse and he took off from that, and we wrote it for the band, and I think it was the best one that we did.