The Cars vs. Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick

first four (five?) albums are nearly perfect. the Cars have, what, two? Also the Cars are pretty much just Ocasek, where part of what makes Cheap Trick so great is the bizarro mix of personas on display - the two geeks and the two pretty boys, the hard rock and the pretty pop songs, etc.

Also the Cars are pretty much just Ocasek

I would pick Cheap Trick too, but this is just wrong. Ben Orr's voice and Elliott Easton's solos are a big part of what everyone remembers about The Cars.

I assume Orr is the one who sang "Who's Gonna Drive You Home" or whatever it's called

and "Let's Go" and "Just What I Needed," among others.

what I meant to say is the Cars are basically just Todd Rundgren

amirite

no.

Ben Orr was cooler than Ocasek.

and "Let's Go" and "Just What I Needed," among others.

And It's All I Can Do. Never realized he sings Just What I Needed. That means my 3 favorite Cars songs are sung by Benjamin Orr. Holy mackerel!!!

With that said, this was an easy vote for Cheap Trick.

Pretty sure Orr sang "Bye, Bye Love" as well.

The Cars get the Phoebe Cates scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, while Damone can't even get rid of his Cheap Trick tickets. But both bands sound great together on the Over The Edge soundtrack.

Pretty sure Orr sang "Bye, Bye Love" as well.

Yes. No snark intended, but is the misconception that Ocasek sang all the songs so prevalent? Orr doesn't sound like him at all; he's higher and breathier.

Over the Edge is beyond classic - agreed

Cheap Trick. wheres the dilema exactly?

No dilemma, really... I just thought they were kind of similar: both quirky American new wave/powerpop/rock bands with a string of late-70's/early 80's hits. Didn't realize Cheap Trick would walk off with it so easily.

Toughie, but am going with The Cars.

I'm going with The Cars as well. Might be the New England bias, as The Cars were everywhere when I was growing up; except for "I Want You To Want Me", Cheap Trick were absent. I thought they were one-hit wonders until "The Flame." Exposure to their first few albums later on made me appreciate them, but nothing more.

part of what made it an easy call for me is that Nielsen's just a sharper lyricist - He's a Whore, Surrender, Oh Candy - has Ocasek ever written anything near this level?

part of what made it an easy call for me is that cheap trick is kinda boring and the vocals grate

skipping live albums and EPs and late-career crap:

The Cars (debut) > Cheap Trick (debut) (close, though)
Candy-O > In Color
Heaven Tonight > Panorama (which is underrated anyway)
Dream Police > Shake It Up (which is also underrated)
All Shook Up > Heartbeat City (challop vote, also true)
One On One > Door To Door (but who cares really)

So, I'm going with Cheap Trick, but it's closer than this thread's consensus seems to think it is.

its not so close if you bring Live at Budokan into the equation

Never been a huge fan of that, since pretty much everything on it had been more fun in the studio. And never liked Found All The Parts at all.

i'm with xhuck up thru Dream Police > Shake It Up, but only because i don't really know much Cheap Trick after this, except that "She's Tight" is one of the best songs ever.

also, i might go Candy-O = In Color based on the strength of "Southern Girls"

(Cheap Trick obv)

Cheap Trick wrote Surrender so they win.

Cars. "Cheap Trick" had some great songs but were generally a bit too heavy and too screamy compared to The Cars.

Also the Cars are pretty much just Ocasek, where part of what makes Cheap Trick so great is the bizarro mix of personas on display - the two geeks and the two pretty boys, the hard rock and the pretty pop songs, etc.

I would say The Cars built on a bigger variety of influences compared to Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick were mainly just the heavier side of powerpop, adding a bit of metal and an even slighter bit of new wave. Cars were equal parts powerpop, new wave and AOR, with a little dash of synthpop added to the mix as well.

So fucking weird that all I've been listening to for the past couple days is these exact two bands (when not being faux Brasilian).

20/20 > The Cars > Cheap Trick

20/20 are fucking great, but seriously, Cheap Trick walk this.

Cheap Trick were mainly just the heavier side of powerpop, adding a bit of metal and an even slighter bit of new wave. Cars were equal parts powerpop, new wave and AOR, with a little dash of synthpop added to the mix as well.

Geir your ears are broken

actually that should be

Cheap Trick were mainly just the heavier side of powerpop, adding a bit of metal and an even slighter bit of new wave Cars were equal parts powerpop, new waveand AOR, with a little dash of synthpop added to the mix as well.

Later Cheap Trick, maybe. Generally, they were too heavy for their own good. But once they got less heavy (the "Heaven Tonight" album in particular) they got better. At least until they went wholly manufactured outside-songwriters-AOR from the mid 80s.

Heaven Tonight is heavier than In Color to my ears.

One thing that is great about The Cars is the bubblegum/Roxy Music aspect of the sound and songs. Ric Ocasek's songs are every bit as twisted, cold and catchy as Rick Neilsen's.

Where I grew up, The Cars had way more radio hits and fame than Cheap Trick, and that makes Cheap Trick sound fresher to me these days, but it would be a good time to listen to Panorama again.

I'm much more of a peak-value than career-value guy, so even if you only credit Cheap Trick with maybe six great songs--"He's a Whore," "Southern Girls," "Downed," "I Want You to Want Me," "Surrender," and "Dream Police"--those six are so great, it's not even close. If you credit them with more than six, then it's even more not-even-close.

cars, no contest. not that cheap trick sucks but there's things like the cars totally pulled off an american roxy music ("moving in stereo"/"all mixed up") and their huge schmaltzy ballad ("drive") is way better than cheap trick's ("the flame")

I'll go with The Cars, if only because of how awesome that debut record sounded, even on my crummy home stereo...

I'm voting Cheap Trick, while really feeling I SHOULD vote for the Cars. Alas, I have not heard the Cars entire discography and can't remember much about what I did have, aside from the radio staples, of course. I always thought Benjamin Orr was pretty hot, though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Cheap Trick put out more bad albums than the Cars did.

That's pretty indisputable, actually. (And they didn't put out that many more good albums than the Cars did, either.)

Going by albums, I'd lean Cheap Trick, but by singles I think the Cars are right there with them.

any result other than a Cars landslide is challops on a massive scale

Come on, that's surely a challop in itself.

The first 2 Cars albums were great, the others not so. The first 4 Cheap Trick albums are great and their latest reunion album Rockford is as well. Cheap Trick wins.

Come on, that's surely a challop in itself.

l'il bit. but i've never thought of these bands as in the same league, really, so i'm surprised that consensus seems to be "cheap trick obv".

Love the Cars but c'mon: Bun E. Carlos. Easy win for Cheap Trick right there, and that doesn't even take into account any of the music.

Sure, Cheap Trick released far more bad albums than the Cars, but all it took for the Cars to pull even in the badness portion of the contest was one album to the Trick's how many sub-par albums?

I love The Cars. But - and I'm sure I've made just this kind of idle threat before - if Cheap Trick don't win this, I'm quiting ILM.

To my ears, The Cars had one perfect album; Cheap Trick never did that for me—there was always pacing problems or filler. But I hardly ever feel like listening to anything but that first perfect album from The Cars, even though Candy-O is decent, etc. Cheap Trick have four albums that I can go to any time I want to listen to them, and that feel essential.

So Cheap Trick on points.

Also, Southern Girls has been stuck in my head all weekend.

i've never thought of these bands as in the same league, really

I haven't either, ha.

gotta go w/cheap trick but I've been listening to the cars lately. candy-o is flawless album.

i saw the cars open for cheap trick outdoors around toledo somewhere in 1979. the one thing I remember is the cars stood rock-still while they played.

^yeah i watched some cars youtube gold when this thread started and they really had this stoned listlessness thing down. it's kind of awesome imo. doesn't hurt that they could play the fuck out of their instruments (weren't like three of these dudes Berklee grads?), even when a lot of the parts aren't terribly strenuous.

The Cars = the MOST BORING live show ever.

Seriously, they make Krafwerk look like Van Halen in that respect.

hahaha

perhaps it works better on video than in a live setting...

It'd not an indictment of the music, but I remember seeing them circa Heartbeat City and it was like staring at a picture.

I've heard the same thing from others who saw the Cars live. If you can call it live.

Also, they never wrote a song as perfect as "Surrender."

But the Cars win this easily for me. Partly because they were one of the first bands I got into. And I've been listening to them a lot lately, for the first time in years. But they win because they had so much style. Cheap Trick sound like an extension of The Sweet, T Rex, etc. (hardly a slam). But the Cars were the sole band to get Devo/Newamn/Krafwerk deadpan onto FM Rock radio, in to the green-smoke-filled, wood panel basements of suburbia. Hearing a song like "I'm in Touch With Your World" after decades of not owning the record, I'm amazed how awkward and dissonant it is. Yet still works as pop. There's not many bands with two singer-songwriters who have such a cohesive sound. Going through the hits in my head, it takes me a minute to register which were Ocasek songs and which were Orr.

Also, I like the production on Rock for Light.

Hm, this is kind of interesting to watch:

"a bit too heavy and too screamy compared to The Cars."

Like in what universe this is bad.

Cheap Trick put out more bad albums than the Cars did.

Maybe--Bob Dylan has too, ditto Neil Young, and I'm guessing Scorsese's made more bad films at this point than hacks like Ron Howard and Rob Reiner. If you're judging them by whose mediocrities are less mediocre, the Cars might be better. But to me, the best Cars songs aren't even within shouting distance of "Surrender," "He's a Whore," or "Southern Girls."

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Heheheh *snicker* Cheap Trick won! *shhhhhh* heheheh

i approve of these results

I mean, I do like Cheap Trick, but y'know -- they still sound like the past and The Cars still sound like the future.

The Cars still sound like the future.

!

Two good bands anyway, but the result here is still wrong, as The Cars were obviously the better band of the two.

But again, 20/20 did roughly the same thing better than both.

I like 20/20, but I'm not sure they ever did anything approaching hard rock (as both the Cars and Cheap Trick did.) If I'm wrong (and I kind of hope I am, in a way), please list song examples.

As for the results, they're perfect: The slightly better band won, but it was very close.

The spine on the gatefold LP of "Heartbeat City" is really thick. Looking at my record rack, I can always pick it out from across the room. It's been years since I've played it (or any Cars) but I think they would just edge out Cheap Trick for me, which would have made it one vote closer had i voted.

Greg Hawkes is amazing to watch in that clip! (I miss the free-jazz alto sax parts tho.)

So, I'm going with Cheap Trick, but it's closer than this thread's consensus seems to think it is.

xhuxk and most everyone else here, not really there originally, in the first place.

There's no album in the short Cars catalog that even begins to approach the angular
tuneful and blasting hard rock on the first Cheap Trick album. Which was one of a kind the year it entered the market.

Ben Orr, the best singer in the Cars, while good, does not approach Robin Zander. Rick Neilsen and Elliot Easton are great guitarists. Nielsen, however, is one of a few US guitarists who does the Beatles as well as he does big time arena guitar hero. Elliot Easton isn't in that class.

In the short term, the Cars eclipsed Cheap Trick. And that's more a matter of fortune than execution. Long term, Cheap Trick has been recognized as a much better band. The last two Cheap Trick records were good, much better than material from their great middle period. The Cars aren't even in this game.

Who, for example, would buy a Cars box set? On the other hand, there's a big market for Cheap Trick expanded remasters, its original box, and DVDs of its history, one of which I reviewed for the Voice. xhuxk, I know you know better. You edited it.

Elliot Easton isn't in that class.

bwaha wat?

I like 20/20, but I'm not sure they ever did anything approaching hard rock (as both the Cars and Cheap Trick did.)

I wouldn't say The Cars did either. Which was a good thing and basically the one reason why I like Cheap Trick the least of the three.

after some reflection and a few days to play all these really loud--

The Cars > Cheap Trick = Heaven Tonight > In Color = Dream Police > all the other Cars records >>> all the other Cheap Trick records*

*note: i haven't heard the last one that got all the decent to good reviews