Starting Over

After the mediocre reception to Side 3, founding members Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley split the band, leaving remaining members Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson to carry on. Replacing Bonfanti on drums was fellow Clevelander Michael McBride. On bass, Carmen tabbed a fan named Scott McCarl who had written the band previously, sending some demos and saying “if you ever need a new bassist, call me!” As Carmen himself would add, “he plays left-handed like Paul McCartney and looks like Todd Rundgren!”

As it is, McCarl would add a piece many of the band’s critics had thought long missing. “ Scott McCarl is the big bad John they’ve always needed to complement Eric Carmen’s supersweet Paul,” wrote critic Robert Christgau while giving the record the reconstituted group put out, Starting Over, an A-. And he wasn’t wrong–McCarl’s Lennon-esque snarl on “Play On” and “Cry” did provide some welcome grit.

But Carmen and Bryson also stepped up with some of their best songs in years. Wally’s “Party’s Over” caps off the three-song mini-suite that starts the album, summarizing the life cycle of your average band. Carmen, meanwhile, imitates The Faces on “All Through The Night,” once again out-Beach Boys the Beach Boys on “Cruisin' Music,” and provides the two epic ballads that bookend the album.

While the band’s crowning triumph, it was not enough–the group broke up after tour to support the album, with Carmen going on to considerable solo success, Bryson joining some former members of The Choir in Tattoo before forming Fotomaker with two former members of The Rascals. McBride returned to playing drums in Scottish pipe bands, while the remarkably talented McCarl pretty much quit the business entirely.