Free-esque means it sounds like that one song by Free

I don't think the Raspberries ever achieved major critical success back in the 70's, I had never heard of them until i was introduced to this song. For the most part, they aren't heralded as power-pop OG's like contemporaries, Big Star. But I have a theory. If they could have just spread out all the fucking awesome parts of this one song into an album instead of packing them into this one track, they might have hit the big time. That being said, I hope they can look back fondly on this classic rock power-pop Frankenstein they have created. The song unfolds like an abridged history of teenage rebellious rock- the opening Slade riff and the Who part and the Free-esque clap-along guitar solo at the 3 minute mark - all sutured together by lead singer Eric Carmens' enthusiastic Paul McCartney impression and enough gut-driven "UH's" and "OOH's" to make you wish it was still OK to do that shit.

The Raspberries "Ecstasy"


A much newer band, Baby Teeth, has employed a similar trick with "The Simp" having created a song that consists exclusively of best parts of any given anthem from the late 60's and 70's. These guys just pile on the build ups and breakdowns and top it all off with nonsensical but totally appropriate lyrics - something about phones ringing, kids singing, and some sort of rock & roll-induced suicide. Of course I also just like any band that sounds sort of like Queen.

Baby Teeth "The Simp"

*Side Note
Lead singer, Eric Carmen DID go on to achieve commercial success as a solo artist, unfortunately by selling his soul to the AOR satan and recording gross hits like Hungry Eyes and All By Myself. And while I'm the last person to give 70s and 80s soft rock a hard time (All By Myself is actually a great song), it just seems kinda sad in this case that such a energetic and rebellious songwriter moved on to such bogus pastures.