The Cars: Classic or Dud?

Amongst a vast haul of CDs I acquired at The Sound Garden in Baltimore two summers ago (you Americans just don't know how much a $12 price-tag says 'buy me' to a Brit) was, I thought, a Keith Jarrett album from the three-dollar bin. Got it home only to find a 1979 Cars CD in there instead. Tried to return the thing, only for the impossibly wearied salesgirl to shrug a gesture at the 'No Returns, No Bitching' sign above the bargain section. I snapped the Cars disc in two back in the car.

Right now, my brother is having idle fantasies of Ric Ocasek producing a Poem-Cees album. That would be so GREAT.

My take -- classic, but you really don't need more than either the greatest hits, single or double-disc set. As a singles band, though, priceless. Even "Drive."

"Who went 'what the hell?' when 'Going Underground' went to Number 1?"

Erm, people who liked Fern Kinney and Marti Webb and had a sort of unspoken assumption that the top of the charts should be reserved for such artists, maybe?

Just a thought.

I'd subscribe to the latter reading. The Jam have always felt like an imposition to me - certainly not a guilty pleasure like the Buzzcock.

I'd say The Jam is double geography to the Buzzcocks' fumble behind the bike sheds and The Cars - I don't know what the fuck they are, which maybe means Tom's right and we never got them here.

Dud, dud, dud. Awful. They have one good song. I won't give you a name because it's the ONLY SONG THEY DO. Every one of their songs sound exactly like it. The song so nice the Cars did it twice. And then a million more times.

I'm giving the singer a classic, though, for the fact that he looks suspiciously like Skeletor without the buff bod, yet someone still bangs Paulina Poriskova. What is THAT about?

The sound of "Going Underground" was hardly a bolt from the blue, chart wise. The Jam were already a well-established chart act by 1980 and there had been plenty of punk and rock in the upper ends of the charts. Some people might have thought "ugh", but I can't imagine anyone being taken aback by the noise of it.

WHAT THE FUCK. Dan and I both post an 'even "Drive"' summation. Clearly we *are* twins. Alright, Dan, tell me where the fuck all my melatonin went.

-- Ned Raggett, Tuesday, April 3, 2001 8:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Link

ned i think u meant melanin??

btw was reviving cuz i just heard "let's go" for the 1st time

I love the nightlife, baby.

CLASSIC

The CarssssszZZZzzzZzzzzzz....... oh sorry fell asleep thinking abt the question. DUD!

I think classic, but not very timeless. Alex in NYC summed it up nicely above. I understand that they were horrible live, which is odd since they were supposedly good musicians. Regardless, classic for this:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/115124/phoebe_cates_fast_times_at_ridgemont_high/

I guess I should warn that link is NSFW.

1st album and Candy-O definitely classic, after that less so but there's still a few good songs from later in their career.

TBH I thought I hated them until 2003 when I met my wife because as a British I only knew Drive which I associate with awful commercial radio stations in my childhood playing shit like Paul Young and Mr Mister over and over. She put me straight.

Total classic. The first album is obviously classic but Candy-O is even better.

I think Panorama get's a really hard time but it's really good, Touch & Go might actually be my favourite song of theirs. Shake It Up is also pretty good but I haven't heard anything after that album apart from Drive of course.

First album is wonderful and such an enduring blueprint. For me that new wave thrum is one of those instantly satisfying sounds, even when lazily appropriated, like a motorik rhythm, or a Be My Baby beat or an old school hip hop break.

So am I the only one who thinks Heartbeat City is their best?

The CarssssszZZZzzzZzzzzzz....... oh sorry fell asleep thinking abt the question. DUD!

― the new mordant & zingy ilxor persona (ilxor), Tuesday, February 1, 2011 1:41 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't sb ppl, but if i did i would sb you for this.

The first album is obviously classic but Candy-O is even better.

This. I've been humming "You Can't Hold On Too Long all week.

Unimpeachably classic, M@tt OTM

I refuse to get into a facebook beef with Elliot Easton about reggae. I just have to keep repeating that to myself...

He doesn't like?

yeah idgi

everybody loves reggae!

- Bob Marley

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.