The Cars: Classic or Dud?

you only need 5 reggae albums it all sounds the same blah blah blah...

i'm gonna let it go for now in honor of te cars debut.

i gave it a good shot at first though. and posted a mento clip. there's no talking to some people.

yeah well YOU all sound the same

how does he feel about the incessant cymbal tapping in jazz

ha

how does he feel about Ric Ocasek not letting him write songs

well really you only need one Cars song

Take sides:

http://www.soundstagedirect.com/media/bob_marley_legend.jpg

versus

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1267009074/079/3371079.jpg

I've heard "Tonight She Comes" more often than any Marley song recently tbh

Hmm, they're not totally analogous, since the Marley has a bunch of remixes. It's as much a supplement as simply a hits collection. The Cars, as a more mundane collection, is pretty much unimpeachable, plus it has "Tonight She Comes," one of the greatest of new songs presumptively dropped onto a hits collection.

Oh, wait, it turns out the remixes were only on the first US release, which is what I grew up with! Never mind.

New Elliot Easton signature Firebird is rad:

http://images.gibson.com/Lifestyle/2013/elliot-easton_DSFEGPCB1-Finish-Shot.jpg

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Firebird/Gibson-USA/Elliot-Easton-Firebird.aspx

Love Panorama so so much

HBD Greg Hawks 63 yrs old!

I'm no guitar wiz, but was working through "Best Friend's Girl" today and noticed that the recorded version is in the key of F, but live it's in E (which I only knew because searching for tabs of that solo I kept coming up with weirdly diverse results). So I figured, hey, I have Twitter (which I almost never use), I'll shoot Elliot Easton a line and see what's up. So I did ... and an hour later he got back to me! So cool.

The answer, btw, is that it was always played in E, in the studio and on stage, but that Roy Thomas Baker for some reason decided to speed it up after it was recorded. Doesn't make much of a difference to me, but then, I'm not Roy Thomas Baker.

So do vocals get cut to the sped up track or. . . I wonder how that works

I think that's how it works, yeah. Iirc, almost the entirety of Highway to Hell (for example) was slowed down by Mutt Lange, or pitched one way or another for tempo/feel, and then Bon sang over it

i've never listened to Door to Door. i kinda forget it exists. but i got a nice copy in at the store and there it is. i don't think i know a single song on it. curious. but not incredibly curious. is it a millennial favorite yet?

It's interesting how Ocasek took full production credit.

Was hoping your post would be a link to a best-of write-up.

ha I never knew about the sped-up "Best Friend's Girl"

spun side 1 of Candy-O a day ago, totally classic

I am a millennial and I like Door to Door. I don't know how millennials in general feel about the Cars, but there's a lot of Ben Orr fangirling on tumblr

I am a millennial and the Cars are unimpeachably great imo

Candy O only clicked for me recently. It's side two which I think is the better side. Shoo Be Doo onvwards is just such a great run of songs

Any love for Ric's Beatitude album? Currently playing it more than any actual Cars

"Jimmy Jimmy" is as good if not better than many Cars songs.

I think Jimmy Jimmy might be my favourite Cars related track, especially this 12" version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010iE30pjB8

HOLY SHIT

the "We're all in this together" section is so uncharacteristic of Ocasek, who likes to play Mr. Cynic behind the shades.

ooh gotta check out that Ocasek 12"

while we're touching on solo stuff, this is also totally great, whole LP is worth finding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC-0B2KSacc

I like Niagara Falls too, in terms of solo albums I can't think of another one that sounds so much like the band that person was in with all the other members contributions muted, like Shake It Up-era Cars tracks that haven't had the vocal or guitar part added yet.

Elliot Easton's Change No Change album is great as well, sounds a little less like the Cars than the others solo records, less new wave and more power-pop

Ocasek's Fireball Zone, co-produced by Nile Rodgers, has a handful of interestingly arranged tunes: keyboard textures, dance grooves.

Listening to 'Candy O' for the first time in years, it really hit me how much the track "Shoo Be Doo" was Ric Ocasek doing a studio track having fun doing Alan Vega with the delay on the voice. It's definitely got that Suicide choogle going on.

Here's where I stand.