dEFROG ON 45 #82: DRIVING AWAY WITH THE DIM LIGHTS ON
Like most of this blog, I’ve let this series lapse, and I don’t know that I have the time to keep it going regularly after this instalment, but Ric Ocasek is gone, and this seemed like a good time to mention that my first Cars record was the 45 single for “Let’s Go”.
Most people of course know The Cars from the MTV hits from Heartbeat City - “All I Want Is You”, “Magic” and “Drive” were ubiquitous at the time, and still get airplay to this day even on adult contemporary stations. Personally, I’m not that big a fan of Heartbeat City for that very reason. The first two albums (The Cars and Candy-O) capture the essence of what made The Cars so appealing in the late 70s, while their fourth album (Shake It Up) was a more satisfying pop album - overall it’s not as good as the first two, but it still has a few of their better songs on it.
The Cars stood out partly because Ocasek was a sharp songwriter, but also because they were basically New Wave before New Wave was a thing - which is ironic since they were Americans, not Brits. But they were the perfect bridge from the back-to-basics punk scene of The Ramones to synth-driven 80s pop.
For my money, they were also one of the first bands to create that blend of guitars and cheap synths that bridged rock’s evolution from the 70s to the 80s. Sure, bands like Devo, The B-52s and Talking Heads were doing it too (and possibly better), but The Cars were one of the first to take it mainstream. They were very much at the vanguard of the 80s pop culture landscape before it became infused with dayglo, hairspray, shoulderpads and Miami Vice fonts.
Or at least they were for me. “Let’s Go” was my intro to them, or at least the song I remember noticing first - I don’t remember if the radio stations in my neighbourhood played songs from the first album before then, but they certainly did afterwards.
FUN FACT 01: I always thought the lyric went, “She's got wonderful eyes and a whiskey mouth.” Which sounded like a delightful thing when I was 14. I kind of like my version better.
FUN FACT 02: I was today years old when I realized that “Moving In Stereo” is the song playing during the pool scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Which is another way of saying that the music was the last thing I was paying attention to. If you see what I’m saying.
PRODUCTION NOTE: Don’t worry, that’s the edited-for-TV version, so it’s reasonably safe for work, depending on how strict your office is about that kind of thing.
BONUS TRACK: It’s also worth mentioning that Ocasek was also a top-notch producer who was willing to work with underground bands like Bad Brains, Suicide and Romeo Void. Oh, and Weezer.
She’s a frozen fire,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1629511.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Click to viewMost people of course know The Cars from the MTV hits from Heartbeat City - “All I Want Is You”, “Magic” and “Drive” were ubiquitous at the time, and still get airplay to this day even on adult contemporary stations. Personally, I’m not that big a fan of Heartbeat City for that very reason. The first two albums (The Cars and Candy-O) capture the essence of what made The Cars so appealing in the late 70s, while their fourth album (Shake It Up) was a more satisfying pop album - overall it’s not as good as the first two, but it still has a few of their better songs on it.
The Cars stood out partly because Ocasek was a sharp songwriter, but also because they were basically New Wave before New Wave was a thing - which is ironic since they were Americans, not Brits. But they were the perfect bridge from the back-to-basics punk scene of The Ramones to synth-driven 80s pop.
For my money, they were also one of the first bands to create that blend of guitars and cheap synths that bridged rock’s evolution from the 70s to the 80s. Sure, bands like Devo, The B-52s and Talking Heads were doing it too (and possibly better), but The Cars were one of the first to take it mainstream. They were very much at the vanguard of the 80s pop culture landscape before it became infused with dayglo, hairspray, shoulderpads and Miami Vice fonts.
Or at least they were for me. “Let’s Go” was my intro to them, or at least the song I remember noticing first - I don’t remember if the radio stations in my neighbourhood played songs from the first album before then, but they certainly did afterwards.
FUN FACT 01: I always thought the lyric went, “She's got wonderful eyes and a whiskey mouth.” Which sounded like a delightful thing when I was 14. I kind of like my version better.
FUN FACT 02: I was today years old when I realized that “Moving In Stereo” is the song playing during the pool scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Which is another way of saying that the music was the last thing I was paying attention to. If you see what I’m saying.
PRODUCTION NOTE: Don’t worry, that’s the edited-for-TV version, so it’s reasonably safe for work, depending on how strict your office is about that kind of thing.
BONUS TRACK: It’s also worth mentioning that Ocasek was also a top-notch producer who was willing to work with underground bands like Bad Brains, Suicide and Romeo Void. Oh, and Weezer.
She’s a frozen fire,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1629511.html. Please comment there using OpenID.