Post by Henny Macc on Jul 8, 2020 22:57:06 GMT
Paul Charles Caravello (July 12, 1950 - November 24, 1991)
Years active: 1965-1991
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: G2-E5 - 2¾ octaves
Band history:
- 1965-1966 - The Cellarmen (drums, vocals)
- 1966-1967 - Things That Go Bump in the Night (drums)
- 1967-1968 - Smack (drums)
- 1970-1973 - Salt & Pepper (drums, backing vocals)
- 1973-1979 - Creation (drums)
- 1979 - Bionic Boogie (drums)
- 1979-1980 - Flasher (drums, backing vocals)
- 1980-1991 - Kiss (drums, vocals)
- 1981-1991 - Eric Carr (lead vocals, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards)
- 1987 - Hari Kari (drums)
Recorded high notes:
E5: "Black Diamond" live Sydney 1980
D♯5/E♭5: "Nightmare"
D5: "Eyes of Love" Unfinished Business version, "Lick It Up" live at Budokan 1988, "Little Caesar", "Somebody's Waiting", "Too Cool for School", "Under the Gun", "Young and Wasted" live at Cobo Hall 1984
C♯5/D♭5: "Can You Feel It", "Crazy Crazy Nights" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Eyes of Love", "Nasty Boys", "Nightmare", "When Your Walls Come Down"
C5: "Any Way You Slice It", "Black Diamond" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Eyes of Love", "Heaven's on Fire" live Monsters of Rock 1988, "Lick It Up" live at Donington 1988, "Nasty Boys", "Somebody's Waiting", "Tears Are Falling"
B4: "Black Diamond" live Sydney 1980, "Can You Feel It", "Eyes of Love", "Fits Like a Glove" live at Cobo Hall 1984, "Heavy Metal Baby", "I Love It Loud" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Little Caesar", "Mad Dog", "Nasty Boys", "Nightmare", "No One's Messing with You", "No No No" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Shandi", "Shout It Out Loud" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Somebody's Waiting", "Tears Are Falling" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Thief in the Night", "Too Cool for School", "Uh! All Night", "When Your Walls Come Down", "While the City Sleeps", "You Make Me Crazy", "Young and Wasted" live at Cobo Hall 1984
A♯4/B♭4: "Eyes of Love", "Heaven's on Fire" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "I Was Made for Lovin' You" live at The Palace 1990, "Rise to It"
A4: "Black Diamond" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Calling Dr. Love" live at Donington 1988, "Can You Feel It", "Down on Your Knees", "Little Caesar", "Mad Dog", "Nasty Boys", "No One's Messing with You", "The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away", "Too Cool for School", "Under the Gun"
G♯4/A♭4: "Black Diamond" live Sydney 1980, "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II", "Heavy Metal Baby", "Little Caesar", "Love's a Slap in the Face", "No One's Messing with You", "Shandi", "Tears Are Falling"
Recorded low notes:
E3: "Heavy Metal Baby", "I Cry at Night", "Little Caesar", "Prisoner of Love", "Shandi", "Somebody's Waiting", "Tears Are Falling" live at Monsters of Rock 1988, "Thief in the Night"
D♯3/E♭3: "Bad to the Bone" acoustic rehearsal 1990, "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II", "I Will Follow Him" acoustic rehearsal 1990, "Rain" acoustic rehearsal 1990, "Tiara")
D3: "I Found You (The One I Adore)", "Rain" acoustic rehearsal 1990, "Somebody's Waiting", "Your Turn to Cry"
C♯3/D♭3: "Little Caesar"
B2: "Little Caesar", "Shandi", "Tiara"
A♯2/B♭2: "I Will Follow Him" acoustic rehearsal 1990
G2: "I Will Follow Him" acoustic rehearsal 1990
.......................................................
*Blue marks soft falsetto notes.
*Underlines mark notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.
{Detailed bio}
Best known as the drummer for Kiss for most of the 80s and early 90s, Eric Carr had a quite a strong voice and some very impressive vocal abilities in addition to his acclaimed drumming skills. Prior to joining Kiss, he had been an active musician in the local Brooklyn music scene for about a decade and a half (starting to perform and record with bands as early as his mid teenage years), but had never been a part of anything successful enough to be a full time musician, and had been working as a stove repairman up through when he first auditioned for Kiss. One of these first few bands was the 1960s group The Cellarmen, of whom there are a few limited recordings of Carr playing drums and singing with in the 1960s.
Carr originally went by his birth name, Paul Caravallo, and was known by such for all of his musical endeavors up until 1980 when he joined Kiss, at which point he was asked to come up with a stage name. Since Paul Stanley was already using the first name Paul (in addition to Ace Frehley's birth name being Paul, to make matters more confusing), Caravello settled on the first name "Eric" and shortened his last name from "Caravello" to "Carr". He was also asked to come up with his own makeup design to wear as part of the band, for which he picked "The Fox", and wore makeup with black and orange stripes during public appearances with this band. A few years later, he would be part of the Kiss' "unmasking" in 1983, when they posed without makeup for the first time on the Lick It Up album cover. This would mark the beginning of their "non-makeup era", which would continue until the band's reunion with their original lineup in 1996.
Another requirement for Carr joining Kiss was that he must be able to sing as well as play drums, as they were looking for someone to replace Peter Criss as both a drummer and a vocalist. Thus he also recorded a vocal audition for the band, singing along to the track "Shandi" to demonstrate his vocal abilities, which impressed the band, as they noticed he had some of the same raspy qualities to his voice that Criss did. When he officially started playing with Kiss, he was regularly given lead vocal duties during concerts for the song "Black Diamond" (one of Criss' best-known vocal performances), but for a while did not contribute more than backing vocals in the studio. Instead, vocals were split between Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Frehley, which was quickly reduced to just Stanley and Simmons upon Frehley's departure in 1982. However, Carr's role as a backing vocalist became increasingly important over the course of the 80s, especially during live concerts, where Simmons began to frequently struggle with recreating some of his more demanding songs vocally. Carr was so reliable in being able to back up any parts that Simmons or Stanley needed additional vocals for, that from 1984 onward, Simmons let Carr take over lead vocals entirely on live versions of the song "Young and Wasted", which he proved himself capable of singing much more consistently than Simmons.
Despite this, Carr was not given any lead vocal spots in the studio with Kiss until 1988, when the band released a re-recorded version of "Beth" with him on vocals, as part of the compilation album Thrashes, Smashes & Hits. On their next studio album, 1989's Hot in the Shade, Carr was given another lead vocal spot on the song "Little Caesar", which he had co-written with Simmons, and actually demonstrated some very impressive gritty belting into the lower fifth octave on it. Perhaps his role as a third vocalist in the band would have continued to grow with time, but unfortunately, following this album and its subsequent tour, Carr became very sick in early 1991. The cause of the illness was soon revealed to be heart cancer, and concerns over Carr's health led his bandmates to encourage him to temporarily step away from drumming and other band commitments, and instead just focus on his health and recovery. In his stead, drummer Eric Singer was called in to record drums for their next album, Revenge, though Carr still sang a small vocal portion of the song "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II" and appeared in the music video for it. Later that year, Carr suffered an aneurysm, and died in the hospital from a brain hemorrhage on November 24, 1991. Kiss released the finished album Revenge in May 1992, which included a drum solo track featuring Carr on drums, entitled "Carr Jam 1981", in memory of him. Eric Singer then became his permanent replacement in the band.
Prior to his death, however, Carr had been working on a solo album over the course of the 1980s, entitled Rockology, for which he had been handling the majority of the songwriting and all of the lead vocals, in addition to playing bass and some keyboards and acoustic guitar on it. His Kiss bandmate Bruce Kulick had recorded electric guitar parts for this album, and chose to continue recording for it after Carr's death, eventually completing it and releasing it posthumously in 1999. Some of the songs on it are audibly unfinished (such as the track "Heavy Metal Baby", which features Carr scat-singing the entire vocal melody as he did not yet have lyrics for it), but I must say the vocals displayed on it are quite impressive, and really show just how much singing and songwriting talent Carr was holding back during his time in Kiss. In 2011, another posthumous Eric Carr solo album was released, entitled Unfinished Business. This one also featured a few other unreleased tracks that he had been working on before his death, but many of them are instrumentals or feature guest vocalists instead of his voice.
Best known as the drummer for Kiss for most of the 80s and early 90s, Eric Carr had a quite a strong voice and some very impressive vocal abilities in addition to his acclaimed drumming skills. Prior to joining Kiss, he had been an active musician in the local Brooklyn music scene for about a decade and a half (starting to perform and record with bands as early as his mid teenage years), but had never been a part of anything successful enough to be a full time musician, and had been working as a stove repairman up through when he first auditioned for Kiss. One of these first few bands was the 1960s group The Cellarmen, of whom there are a few limited recordings of Carr playing drums and singing with in the 1960s.
Carr originally went by his birth name, Paul Caravallo, and was known by such for all of his musical endeavors up until 1980 when he joined Kiss, at which point he was asked to come up with a stage name. Since Paul Stanley was already using the first name Paul (in addition to Ace Frehley's birth name being Paul, to make matters more confusing), Caravello settled on the first name "Eric" and shortened his last name from "Caravello" to "Carr". He was also asked to come up with his own makeup design to wear as part of the band, for which he picked "The Fox", and wore makeup with black and orange stripes during public appearances with this band. A few years later, he would be part of the Kiss' "unmasking" in 1983, when they posed without makeup for the first time on the Lick It Up album cover. This would mark the beginning of their "non-makeup era", which would continue until the band's reunion with their original lineup in 1996.
Another requirement for Carr joining Kiss was that he must be able to sing as well as play drums, as they were looking for someone to replace Peter Criss as both a drummer and a vocalist. Thus he also recorded a vocal audition for the band, singing along to the track "Shandi" to demonstrate his vocal abilities, which impressed the band, as they noticed he had some of the same raspy qualities to his voice that Criss did. When he officially started playing with Kiss, he was regularly given lead vocal duties during concerts for the song "Black Diamond" (one of Criss' best-known vocal performances), but for a while did not contribute more than backing vocals in the studio. Instead, vocals were split between Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Frehley, which was quickly reduced to just Stanley and Simmons upon Frehley's departure in 1982. However, Carr's role as a backing vocalist became increasingly important over the course of the 80s, especially during live concerts, where Simmons began to frequently struggle with recreating some of his more demanding songs vocally. Carr was so reliable in being able to back up any parts that Simmons or Stanley needed additional vocals for, that from 1984 onward, Simmons let Carr take over lead vocals entirely on live versions of the song "Young and Wasted", which he proved himself capable of singing much more consistently than Simmons.
Despite this, Carr was not given any lead vocal spots in the studio with Kiss until 1988, when the band released a re-recorded version of "Beth" with him on vocals, as part of the compilation album Thrashes, Smashes & Hits. On their next studio album, 1989's Hot in the Shade, Carr was given another lead vocal spot on the song "Little Caesar", which he had co-written with Simmons, and actually demonstrated some very impressive gritty belting into the lower fifth octave on it. Perhaps his role as a third vocalist in the band would have continued to grow with time, but unfortunately, following this album and its subsequent tour, Carr became very sick in early 1991. The cause of the illness was soon revealed to be heart cancer, and concerns over Carr's health led his bandmates to encourage him to temporarily step away from drumming and other band commitments, and instead just focus on his health and recovery. In his stead, drummer Eric Singer was called in to record drums for their next album, Revenge, though Carr still sang a small vocal portion of the song "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II" and appeared in the music video for it. Later that year, Carr suffered an aneurysm, and died in the hospital from a brain hemorrhage on November 24, 1991. Kiss released the finished album Revenge in May 1992, which included a drum solo track featuring Carr on drums, entitled "Carr Jam 1981", in memory of him. Eric Singer then became his permanent replacement in the band.
Prior to his death, however, Carr had been working on a solo album over the course of the 1980s, entitled Rockology, for which he had been handling the majority of the songwriting and all of the lead vocals, in addition to playing bass and some keyboards and acoustic guitar on it. His Kiss bandmate Bruce Kulick had recorded electric guitar parts for this album, and chose to continue recording for it after Carr's death, eventually completing it and releasing it posthumously in 1999. Some of the songs on it are audibly unfinished (such as the track "Heavy Metal Baby", which features Carr scat-singing the entire vocal melody as he did not yet have lyrics for it), but I must say the vocals displayed on it are quite impressive, and really show just how much singing and songwriting talent Carr was holding back during his time in Kiss. In 2011, another posthumous Eric Carr solo album was released, entitled Unfinished Business. This one also featured a few other unreleased tracks that he had been working on before his death, but many of them are instrumentals or feature guest vocalists instead of his voice.
{Album ranges}
Kiss:
Eric Carr:
Kiss:
- Animalize Live Uncensored (1985) - B3-D5
- Hot in the Shade (1989) - B2-D5
Eric Carr:
- Rockology (recorded throughout the 1980s; released 1999) - B2-E♭5
- Unfinished Business (recorded throughout the 1980s; released 2011) - B2-D5
{Best displays of vocal range}
"Little Caesar" (B2-D5)
"Somebody's Waiting" (D3-D5)
"Shandi" (B2-B4)
"Heavy Metal Baby" (E3-B4)
"Little Caesar" (B2-D5)
"Somebody's Waiting" (D3-D5)
"Shandi" (B2-B4)
"Heavy Metal Baby" (E3-B4)
Original version of this thread by Timi on TRP2.