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Rating: 1978. Cars. Or how to combine '50s iconography with a "sense of the sixties record"... Or how to musically unite the rock of the past with the new wave.
Listen to it begin, "Good Times Roll", with that riff that alone is worth an album, feel all the taste in arranging a simple piece, perhaps, but managing to make it so... Hear a choir too eager to show that the Cars are also vocally present. A guitar solo "dragged by the ears" intentionally and a keyboard serving the song. Memorable to say the least.
And what do you say about "My Best Friend's Girl"? I imagine a girl of that era, in front of this record, with at least a couple of handsome faces with the right look and the right sound on the back of the lp. Here rockabilly returns, Ocasek's voice is friendly and carefree like the lyrics (yet another trademark: few verses repeated 2, even 3 times), the initial and final clap-claps, this too is a piece where the choirs are meant to shine. How could a girl not want to become a groupie of the Cars?
In "Just What I Needed" there's vitaminized new wave (they're always from Boston), tainted with hard rock. So far, Ocasek (who lets Benjaminn Orr sing the song) is a great songwriter, a new god of 3 and a half minutes. No specials for the songs, easy solo, choirs in the chorus, no second voices in the verses... There is no time to waste here, and everything is sacrificed for the goal: let the good times roll! The jovial Ocasek who will never cease to exist in the following albums of the Cars and in his solo ventures plays a bit of the clown in "I'm In Touch With Your World", undoubtedly not a great song, which needs a good guitar work and bursts of genius on the keyboards. In the fun, there is also a sax phrasing (by the multi-instrumentalist keyboardist Greg Hawkes). It won't be a song that will make you shout for a miracle, but what was there obviously better at the time to make a 18-year-old Bostonian listen?
Listen to the initial riff of "Don't Cha Stop" and imagine it with a more surf sound: you'll understand why Elliot Easton is Brian Wilson's favorite guitarist. A chorus characterized by keyboards like a carnival music. So far, although everything is well played and predictably able to make the stage collapse live, on the album the sound wall never rises, sometimes leaving me puzzled, but there is definitely a reason, and it's always the same: the album has to glide, "flow", the good times have to roll...
"You're All I've Got Tonight" is the hardest episode of the album. Not for nothing, twenty years later, the Smashing Pumpkins will make a version of it, even simplifying its guitar plots. Again, resounding choirs. But the producer is Roy Thomas Baker, a man who produced the early Queen. And who knows what came to his mind when he first got the Cars material in his hands. That the early Cars are the early Queen, accidentally born ten years later in east-America, when New York was the London of 10 years ago? Orr sings his second song, his voice destined by the table to be the "second", like that of James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins or Brian May (or Roger Taylor) of Queen (I mention these two bands because I mentioned them before, so as not to digress too much) and which over time will reveal itself to be much more. He sings "Bye Bye Love" and the piece sounds as if the Who of "Baba O'Riley" were born 10 years (or 15?) later. The keyboard solo is excellent. Here we are at "Moving In Stereo", another very famous track, almost horror. Very tense keyboards, a tragic pumping bass, and the best vocal performance of Ocasek in the album (and perhaps of his career)... Or how to transform the Goblin into a new wave product. Also in this case, the song anticipates a penchant of the author, in this case for darker atmospheres... Be clear that in the times of Joy Division, this album sounds a bit bubblegum, starting from the fact that most times our guys don't take themselves too seriously, in the pure good-natured style of rock 'n' roll and the Bostonian suburb bully.
With "Moving In Stereo" begins the emphatic finale of the album, and right on the ashes of this track starts the bass of "All Mixed Up", sung again by Orr, which starts very delicately on his vocal cords and on those of his instrument, that explodes in strumming, that continues in time with a somewhat prog keyboard (not the best), which has a refrain where the synth sounds like an oboe and good choirs, which has a guitar solo and then resumes the verse, this time with a more consistent rhythm, well marked by the drums... until the second chorus, the last, from which a long groove of lead guitar is born that travels constant and low, good keyboard parts and above all a nice sax solo that fades out.
If every band of the era drew something from the past to shed light on their creature, the alchemist Ric Ocasek, to give life to the Cars golem, mixes the dream of '50s rock 'n' roll, the taste for the '60s 3 and a half minutes, a surf or rockabilly guitar, a confidential and a rock-romantic voice, just a hint of prog and a lot of joviality, sometimes overflowing into irony. Producer Baker puts in that bit of baroque, those little choirs he likes so much. The result will be simply excellent and excellently simple (and of enormous success).
I know for many new wave means Joy Division and Psychedelic Furs (bands I love), but this album is a giant wave, a rock and new wave breaker, whatever they say. And it should matter little whether this breaker is drinking water, or seltzer. Indeed, perhaps even better: should we be thirsty...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Good Times Roll (03:45)
let the good times roll
let them knock you around
let the good times roll
let them make you a clown
let them leave you up in the air
let them brush your rock and roll hair
let the good times roll
let the good times roll
let the good times roll
let the stories be told
let them say what they want
let the photos be BOLD
let them show what they want
let them leave you up in the air
let them brush your rock and roll hair
let the good times roll
let the good times roll-oll
won't you let the good times roll
good times roll
if the illusion is real
let them give you a ride
if they got thunder appeal
let them be on your side
let them leave you up in the air
let them brush your rock and roll hair
let the good times roll
won't you let the good times roll-oll
let the good times roll
let the good times roll
won't you let the good times roll
well let the good times roll
let 'em roll (good times roll)
let the good times roll
oo let the good times roll
oo let the good times roll
let 'em roll (good times roll)
well, let the good times roll
(let the good times roll)
well let the good times roll
good times roll
(let the good times roll)
let the good times roll
let 'em roll
02 My Best Friend's Girl (03:43)
you're always dancing down the street
with your suede blue eyes
and every new boy that you meet
he doesn't know the real surprise
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
oo, she'll make you flip
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
I kinda like the way she dips
well she's my best friend's girl
she's my best friend's girl-irl
but she used to be mine
you've got your nuclear boots
and your drip dry glove
oo when you bite your lip
it's some reaction to love, o-ove, o-ove
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
yeah, I think you'll flip
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
(here she comes again)
I kinda like the way, I like the way she dips
‘cause she's my best friend's girl
well she's my best friend's girl-irl
and she used to be mine
she's so fine
you're always dancing down the street
with your suede blue eye-eyes
and every new boy that you meet
doesn't know the real surprise
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
(here she comes again)
oh, she'll make you flip
(here she comes again)
when she's dancing 'neath the starry sky
(here she comes again)
I kinda like the way, I like the way she dips
‘cause she's my best friend's girl, uh
she's my best friend's girl-irl-u-irl
she used to be mine
she so, fine
(my best friend's girlfriend)
oh
(my best friend's girlfriend)
she used to be mine
(my best friend's girlfriend)
yeah yeah
(my best friend's girlfriend)
said she used to be mine
(my best friend's girlfriend)
oh, yeah yeah yeah
(my best friend's girlfriend)
she used to be mine
(my best friend's girlfriend)
03 Just What I Needed (03:43)
I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time
'Cause when you're standin' oh so near
I kinda lose my mind
It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time
I don't mind you hangin' out
And talkin' in your sleep
It doesn't matter where you've been
As long as it was deep, yeah
You always knew to wear it well and
You look so fancy I can tell
I don't mind you hangin' out
And talkin' in your sleep
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to bleed
I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time time
'Cause when you're standin' oh so near
I kinda lose my mind, yeah
It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you comin' here
And wastin' all my time
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to bleed
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what I needed
(Just what I needed)
I needed someone to plead
Yeah, yeah, so plead me
You're just what I needed
You're just what I needed
Yeah, you're just what I needed
Yeah, yeah yeah
05 Don't Cha Stop (03:02)
right here I'd like to melt inside of you
right here you kiss is totally new
right here your hands are soft and creamy
right here your mouth is wet and dreamy
and it's just what I like
so dim down the light
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
if it makes you feel good
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
your rhapsody is blowing my cool-ool
your fantasies there written for fools
your long black hair tickles my skin skin
it feels so luscious come on do it again, oh yeah
and it's just what I like
dim down the light
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
if it makes you feel good
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
if it makes you feel good
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
if it makes you feel good, good,
good, good, good
don't cha stop don't cha stop
a don't cha stop if it makes you feel
good, good, good
oo don't cha stop don't cha stop
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
don't you stop don't cha stop
if it makes you feel
good, good, good
good, good, good
good, good, good
don't cha stop
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
(don't cha stop don't cha stop)
[repeat-fade]
07 Bye Bye Love (04:13)
I can't feel this way much longer
expecting to survive
with all these hidden innuendoes
just waiting to arrive
it's such a wavy midnight
and you slip into insane
electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you're playin'
it's an orangy sky
always it's some other guy
it's just a broken lullaby
bye bye love
bye bye love
bye bye love
bye bye love
substitution mass confusion
clouds inside your head
involving all my energies
until you visited
with your eyes of porcelain and of blue
they shock me into sense
you think you're so illustrious
you call yourself intense
it's an orangy sky
always it's some other guy
it's just a broken lullaby
bye bye love
bye g-bye love
yeah bye bye love
bye bye love-ov-ov-ove
substitution mass confusion
clouds inside your head
well foggin' all my energies
until you visited
with your eyes of porcelain and of blue
they shock me into sense
you think you're so illustrious
you call yourself intense
it's an orangy sky
always it's some other guy
it's just a broken lullaby
bye bye love
bye bye love
bye bye love
bye bye love
08 Moving in Stereo (04:41)
life's the same I'm moving in stereo
life's the same except for my shoes
life's the same you're shakin' like tremolo
life's the same it's all inside you
it's so easy to blow up your problems
it's so easy to play up your breakdown
it's so easy to fly through a window
it's so easy to fool with the sound
it's so tough to get up
it's so tough
it's so tough to live up
it's so tough on you
life's the same I'm moving in stereo
life's the same except for my shoes
life's the same you're shakin' like tremolo
life's the same it's all inside you
life's the same I'm moving in stereo
life's the same except for my shoes
life's the same you're shakin' like tremolo
life's the same it's all inside you
09 All Mixed Up (04:17)
she shadows me in the mirror
she never leaves on the light
and some things that I say to her
they just don't seem to bite
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
she tricks me into thinkin'
I can't believe my eyes
I wait for her forever
but she never does arrive
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
she says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
she says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
she's always out makin' pictures
she's always out makin' scenes
she's always out the window
when it comes to makin' dreams
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
it's all mixed up
she says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
she says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
she says to leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
she says to leave it to me, yeah
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
if you leave it to me
(leave it to me)
everything'll be alright
(be alright)
yeah, if you leave it to me
(leave it to me)
(be alright)
(be alright)
(be alright)
(be alright)
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