RASPBERRIES on AFN, Frankfurt Germany - Jan 1973

This video is really The Holy Grail for me. I've been looking for this recording for many years. This is the very first rock show I ever worked.
I was a huge fan of Raspberries and had seen them live a couple of times at Disneyland in 1972. I was in the Army and was assigned to Frankfurt, Germany on January 1, 1973. A couple of weeks after my arrival, I read on the bulletin board that Raspberries were playing a live show in Frankfurt that evening for the Armed Forces Radio Network.
Well, I had to be at that show but I was working that night. I asked my boss for the night off and told him I needed to be there, didn't know why but needed to be there. He laughed and made a phone call. He then told me to get my butt over to AFN as I was gonna be stage security for the show. Yeah, nice guy!
It was an awesome show, got to hangout with the band a bit and chat...but I really spent the evening mostly scoping out the theater, the audience, the stage. It was a large production studio with cameras, lights, everything to make TV or in this case radio. I had an epiphany that evening.
I had done TV and radio in high school. I produced a TV series that included a lot of live music on the local PBS station. But as I looked at this gig I could see clearly that this is what I wanted to do with my life. This was 1973, there was no music video yet. When I began to produce TV for AFN a couple of years later I did gigs with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ike & Tina and Buck Owens for broadcast and my boss, the Colonel, took me aside and told me, "Son, television and rock n roll music just don't work together, we wont be doing this anymore.". After that I was videotaping Tulips and windmills in Holland.
After I got home I went back to college and then started my own video production business and have been putting music to video for over thirty years as you can see in my many other videos here.
This is really the night when it all came together for me. Raspberries have always had a special spot in my heart cause they gave me the vision.
That's the story of why this recording is extra special to me. I finally found it last month. It is a remastered soundboard recording of the entire show that night. The video is from home movies the band shot of the trip to Germany. I think Capital Records or Raspberries put this together as a promotional video sometime back.
I hold no rights to this video and music except in my heart. If it pisses someone off that I put it up just let me know. It's a remarkable document of rock n roll history that I wanted to share with the world.
Hey folks, if you dig it, buy some of their stuff!

[@6000cs]

I've got this set, too. Great buy! Dang these boys were good. Wish they'd been able to hang in there longer.

[@genevievemcculloch1868]

Eric. Wallly, Dave and Jim - thank you for supporting our troops!

[@67Stu]

Loved this! When I was a kid in New York in the '70s, The Raspberries were enormously popular. You couldn't turn on the radio and not hear Eric Carmen's voice blaring out at you! Great stuff The Raspberries! Still a very overlooked and underrated band.

[@user-jk8lz1zy7t]

А ВОТ ПО ТОМУ, ЧТО НЕЛЬЗЯ ИГНОРИРОВАТЬ РУСОВ И ДУМАТЬ ЧТО АМЕРИКА ЭТО ГОСУДАРСТВО!!!!🛰

[@saguaroboy]

The Raspberries have been the soundtrack to my every love affair :)

[@gregmartin414]

great sound old school rock music love it sounds like beatles,bryds,and the who. really good too hear some real rock music, thanks for posting it

[@surferbri5346]

This is an incredible piece of awesome ness!!! Im from Cleveland and grew up with this.

[@disco4ever]

awesome post - love the raspberries forever!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@earthlove6908]

Thank you so much for this!!! Really special, and such a treat!!!

[@rothr]

Busting through the sequins with the power of rock music! What a great time capsule, thanks so much, I wanna live in it. Loved Eric's shoutout to Badfinger and all their goofing around :)

[@wimklerprins58]

Thanks for sharing, I saw the Raspberries live in Chicago (2005) and New York City in 2007

[@tombiddle1185]

Wow, I happened to be sitting in my Company Orderly Room at Graves Kaserne, in Aschaffenburg on CQ listening to this very program the night that it aired. I can remember it like it were yesterday because I was a huge Raspberry fan, and this was the first time I got to hear them liven (sort've), and was thinking, had I not have been on duty that night, I probably would have missed it. That was my first trip to Germany (10/71 to 12/73) and loved AFN and all of the great programming. I went back 2 more times over the course of my 21 year Army career, and each time I got to hear and see the changes not only in the number of programs we got from the States, but the great locally produced stuff that showcased the surrounding military communities. Thanks very much for sharing this little piece of history and letting me be 19 years old again.

[@triarii11]

Small world. Speaking as another longtime Raspberries fan, wow that's Fortune!

[@michaeldigby5311]

and I was at Jaeger Kaserne doing the exact same thing. small world

[@applesAndCamelCasing]

Thank you so much for the holy grail! :)

[@prezakid9]

Man, this is a rare treasure. Thank you for sharing this with all of us Rasberries fans!

[@Joel-ls6fn]

This is just absolutely outstanding.

[@anthonydibello5854]

Wow! How wonderful it is to hear the voice of Dick Clark aka American Band Stand's host. It is very cool of Dick Clark to interview The Rasberries during their rare Germany concert appearance. I miss seeing him on the New's Year Eve broadcasts of recent. May DClark RIPeace. Long live the great Rock band sound of the 1970s music era.

[@tonyhepner6788]

outstanding! thanks for this "Holy Grail" from a dedicated fan of music and this band. And a veteran!

[@dalewarke7763]

I was working at the IG Farben building at Frankfurt Germany for the US Army,102nd signal Bat installing telephones. The office I was in had an admin girl that was hot, playing this program on her desk radio. I never forgot that evening!!!

[@gmichalosky]

This video predates my time being stationed in Germany by 15 years, none the less with my being born and raised in Cleveland, this was really cool! Thanks for the time spent finding this. I know how challenging such finds can be from that time! Stay sick and turn blue!

[@CCOREY5]

My dad was chief engineer in AFN Frankfurt and later AFN Ramstein/Kaiserslautern, in the 70s. Before that in AFN Nürnberg and Munich. I was there too as a teenager and hung around the studio in Frankfurt a lot. He may have even worked on recording this show, they recorded a lot of them.

[@AfterFab]

Fantastic to see and hear this. Thanks.

[@chefmjb21]

Thank you for posting! It brought back some awesome memories for my dad!

[@MusicTennis]

Awesome my favorite group live. Thanks for posting.

[@iSNARK]

They are my all-time favorite band. I was eight years old when I heard "Go All the Way" and that was it! I wish they would hang in there too, but "shit happens", I guess. BMP

[@iSNARK]

I love Jim Bonfanti's line when asked what was going to be on the next album: "Ten songs". (Actually landed up being nine songs, but close enough!) ;-) BMP

[@ramonascott-kemp207]

I remember AFN in 1979! Yes it was my saving grace especially during the times my husband would be out on long maneuvers weekly like 6 to 8 weeks at the time! Back then when he would ask me or tell me indeed! tell me "not to mess around with the stereo". Lol! I didn't, so course I listened to the radio & AFN was it. Sometimes it wouldn't come in and the alternative was the local German radio stations, but then it was disco and now and again an American song would make their chart of course Michael Jackson songs from Thriller;-)

[@johnedwards484]

I love this I was adisc jockey commercially and at afkn Korea that's when radio was fun to listen to with breast music and great air talent but things change.

[@rickykay9516]

I saw the RASPBERRIES live at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago right after "Go All the Way" came out on vinyl records.

[@jaymuise6924]

1972 Syracuse NY..shore line restaurant.. what a show...me and my group saw the sound check....that was cool

[@dalenmcmichael331]

I was in the audience this evening. I was walking by AFN studios with my WAC girlfriend. A guy came out and said get in here free concert. We were told to clap loud.

[@austinpickers]

I was one of the MP's there for security.

[@luf2u250]

Song at very end 'Be with you' was the best! Glad a watched it all.

[@karenberry543]

Thank God for video. I can watch this stuff all day. wish there was time travel

[@cookmoore3736]

Very good story. And interesting to see what other footage and recordings you have :)

[@surferbri5346]

This is amazing . Im in cleveland and this is until u nowunheard of.thank you

[@plofus]

It's 6:30 in Central Europe! That always cracked me up....loved Germany...'88-'90

[@yerboyfloyd]

Love it!! Nice and sloppy LIVE!!

[@danko80jd]

This is music history.

[@60s70sVintageRock]

Great find... hope no one 'lays claim' and it can remain here! The Rasberries were one of THE great 'party' bands of the early 70's. Never saw them live, but did see Eric Carmen perform some of their hits as a solo artist, a couple years after this :)

[@rebeccarosehirschfield7386]

Seems like Raspberry Jim Bonfanti authorized the use of his own 8 millimeter footage (or what have you); did he also get official rights to use of the AFN broadcast? I suspect so. Thing to do is study the credits again. A Young American Grand Tour indeed!

[@nohaboy100]

This is gold. Used to listen to AFN in early 80's. Don't remember live, or recorded acts in the UK.

[@karensing8663]

Awesome video!

[@unlikleythisnthat273]

thanx for the tour jim

[@lcurtis5945]

Thank you!

[@imaginepeace46]

Yeah!

[@happymoogman]

Save it quick, before it gets pulled....

[@genevievemcculloch1868]

awesome!\

[@iSNARK]

Ah yes, fresh from the limited edition "Raspberries Live at Sunset Strip" set. Excellent stuff! BMP

[@reconnsupernaturalsyndicat1493]

Amazing

[@keithleeuwen877]

Kool !

[@mc2mc277]

Always thought they were the American Badfinger!

[@unlikleythisnthat273]

I used to live in belfontaine

[@j1thom]

9:19 Very Lennon.

[@MsFreckles1234]

NEW song by Eric Carmen...Brand New Year... available to listen and download here: soundcloud.com/legacyrecordings/eric-carmen-brand-new-year/s-bUov9

[@DesertDog2]

22:37 how’s the king 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

[@user-jk8lz1zy7t]

НИЧЕГО НЕ ПОНИМАЮ.......🥀 ГДЕ РУСКИЙ ПЕРЕВОД????🛰 •УТВЕРЖДАЮ ПОРЯДОК БОЖИЙ НА ЗЕМЛЕ, НО НЕ ГОСПОДИНА!!!!⚡⚡🔔🔔 ☝️👩‍🦳👁🌌👁-ВЕРА!❤

[@j1thom]

Thank you!