The Cars part 5, OUT!

The last batch of Cars boots that I have, hope you've been enjoying them....we're into the point now in which the band was more mainstream, thusly, IMO, not as eccentric, nor as good.....still a listenable bunch of tunes, and still entertaining live, but there is on this band, NO ARGUMENT, I don't think, as to their artistic peak, "The Cars" and "Candy-O", both 5 star classics......after that, pretty much another "new wave rock band", albeit one that could come up with a winning tune every now and again.

So with that, the remainder of my live Cars stuff, not nearly as engaging as the earlier ones, but so be it...up first is a 1979 set from Los Angeles. Heavy on "Candy-O" stuff, including an unusual set opener, "Got a Lot On My head", which works quite well. "Take What You Want" appears once again, I'm not sure why they thought it was such a good tune to perform live, as they did quite often, but we'd REALLY be splitting hairs there.

From 1980 comes a Tokyo show, again with a somewhat odd show opener ("Misfit Kid"), as the "Panorama" tracks begin to creep into the setlist (actually I quite like the live version of "Panorama", arguably superior to the studio take....."Getting Through" closes the show, in my opinion another somewhat odd choice.

Houston Texas is the scene for a 1984 set, by now, the novelty was LONG gone and this was a "hit machine" so to speak....lots of stuff from "Shake It Up" and "heartbeat City", and not really, in my opinion, to that great of an effect....see what you think, but to me stuff like "Hello Again", "Drive", and "You might Think" were just markedly inferior to ANY track on the first two albums. A version of "Jimmy Jimmy", and a not so great one, turns up in the setlist as well.

Now we come to 1987, the University of Missouri, and this is not, for my money, a good set at all, this is a
band that was about at the end of the line, and it sounds like it. One positive: a lively show opening version of "Tonight She Comes" (WHY it was never on an album I'll never know, I thought it was one of their best, if not their best, post-"Candy-O" tunes).

Another set from the same year, this from Grand Rapids Michigan, has an almost identical setlist to the Missouri show, and, to me, further documents their decline......at least they open with "Tonight She Comes" again.

The 1979 release, "Supergroups In Concert", IS a pretty good set, not sure, exactly, what it is from, but there are several fairly interesting interview segments and the performances are pretty spot-on.....I recommend this one over anything else from today's post.

So there you are....The Cars......background music for my junior and senior years in high school, timed their career PERFECTLY as opposed to Roxy Music, as we've discussed before, likely THE representative band of 78-80, the ultra-hip music fans adored them, as did music critics, and, as a bonus they sounded great on the radio and program directors loved them as well......as a whole, their career was a line straight downhill after the first 2 (well, 3) albums, but make no mistake there were highlights after that, and, really, how many groups make two undeniably classic albums anyway.....a few, but not THAT many.

At the end of the day, they done damn fine.

LOS ANGELES 1979-01 Got a Lot on My head/02 Good Times Roll/03 Let's Go/04 Night Spots/05 Since I held You/06 Double Life/07 Moving In Stereo/08 Candy-O/09 Don't Cha Stop/10 Bye Bye Love/11 All Mixed Up/12 Take What You Want/13 You're All I've Got Tonight/14 Just What I Needed/15 Dangerous Type

TOKYO 1980-01 Misfit Kid/02 Best Friend's Girl/03 Moving In Stereo/04 Just What I Needed/05 Gimme Some Slack/06 Candy-O/07 Good Times Roll/08 Bye Bye Love/09 You're All I've Got Tonight/10 Panorama/11 Don't Tell me No/12 Double Life/13 Getting Through

HOUSTON 1984-01 Hello Again/02 It's Not the Night/03 Touch and Go/04 Candy-O/05 Good Times
Roll/06 Jimmy Jimmy/07 Moving In Stereo/08 Just What I Needed/09 Dream Away/10 Drive/11 You might Think/12 Best Friend's Girl/13 Magic/14 Let's Go/15 Heartbeat City/16 You're All I've Got Tonight


GRAND RAPIDS 1987-01 Tonight She Comes/02 Touch and Go/03 Double Trouble/04 You Are the Girl/05 Everything You Say/06 Since You're Gone/07 Fine line/08 Let's Go/09 Strap Me In/10 Candy-O/11 Moving In Stereo/12 Dangerous Type/13 Drive/14 Best Friend's Girl/15 Good Times Roll/16 You Might Think/17 Hello Again/18 Just What I Needed

U OF MISSOURI 1987-01 Tonight She Comes/02 Touch and Go/03 Double Trouble/04 You Are the
girl/05 Everything You Say/06 Since You're Gone/07 Nightspots/08 Strap Me In/09 Let's Go/10 Candy-O/11 Moving In Stereo/12 Dangerous Type/13 Drive/14 Hello Again/15 Just What I Needed/16 Best Friend's Girl/17 Good Times Roll/18 You Might Think

SUPERGROUPS IN CONCERT-01 ABC Intro/02 Got a Lot On My Head/03 Good Times Roll/04 Ric Ocasek Talks About "Let's Go"/05 Let's Go/06 Night Spots/07 Since I Held You/08 Elliot Easton Talks About the Cars Sound/09 Double Life/10 Moving In Stereo/11 Candy-0/12 Don't Cha Stop/13 Ric Ocasek Talks About 70's Music/14 Bye Bye Love/15 All Mixed Up/16 Take What You Want/17 Ric Ocasek Talks About "You're All I've Got Tonight"/18 You're All I've Got Tonight/19 Just What I Needed/20 Dangerous Type/21 ABC Outro

The Cars Part 4

Bringing you another batch of Cars boots, for the most part quite fine sound quality on them, so see what
you think..... as with my boots in general I try to focus mostly on the band's prime years, in other words, I have for the most part avoided the post-"Panorama' era stuff. Another handful tomorrow will finish these up, and I think then the next mega-multi-part opus will be one of my VERY faves Talking Heads, and be forewarned..... I have a LOT of stuff from them. A LOT. A WHOLE LOT!

First up for today we have The Cars performing a good set from 1978, Brighton England, The University of Susex.... nothing unusual in the set list, just a fired up set of tracks from the first two albums.... this (1978) is just about when the band became a sensation, and they really do put out on this (I assume their first trip abroad, could be wrong about that).

Next I have a set from 9/22/78, at The Palladium in NYC.... again, the setlist plays it fairly safe, as the band was getting "big", and they were playing what the people wanted. A couple of "Panorama" tunes work their way into the set list.....now, a little confusing, but on this same CD, thanks to the miracle of MP3, I ALSO have a show from Central park, four years later, 5/17/82... interesting to compare the two shows back to back for certain, imo by the time of the 1982 set, they sounded a lot more slick and weary (who could blame them?) Compare, for best example, the 1978 version of "Misfit Kid" that closes the first show, and the version of the same song which opens the 1982 show.....draw your own conclusions, I just find it interesting myself. Remember, both of these shows are in one file and will fit on one Cd should you desire to do so.

From Cleveland Ohio's Agora Ballroom, 7/18/78, we have a set with a somewhat varied setlist, "Take What You Want" was rarely peformed live back then, the same with "Hotel Queenie", as well as closing the set with a seemingly impromptu "Something Else"....good set.

Our next show comes from San Francisco's Old Waldorf, 8/19/78.....similar to the Cleveland show, with two "rarely performed live" tracks mentioned above also make an appearance, as does "I'm in Touch With Your World" which seems to me they didn't perform live that much.

There is also something here called "The Cars Unlocked, Live Performances 1979-87"....as best as I can recall, this was a DVD I borrowed from the public library and separated the audio onto CD. Various dates/locales, obviously, but does include a live version of "Tonight She Comes" which is welcome.

OK, that'll do it for the Cars for today.....in the next couple of days, sometime, I'll finish these up.....I know I've been posting a lot of stuff in a short time frame, so don't overlook stuff like Brian's tremendous Bowie covers project, and the Radiohead shows which were recorded on the last couple of nights as I type this.....I just need something to focus my energies on right now, and this blog is what I am doing that with currently.

BRIGHTON ENGLAND 1978-01 Just What I Needed/02 Good Times Roll/03 I'm In Touch With Your World/04 Best Friend's Girl/05 Moving in Stereo/06 All mixed Up/07 Night Spots/08 Bye Bye Love/09 Don't Cha Stop/10 You're All I've Got Tonight

THE PALLADIUM NYC 9/22/78-01 Intro/02 Good Times Roll/03 Bye Bye Love/04 Night Spots/05 best Friend's Girl/06 Moving In Stereo/07 Since I Held You/08 Just What I Needed/09 Gimme Some Slack/10 Candy-O/11 Don't Cha Stop/12 You're All I've Got Tonight/13 Misfit Kid/CENTRAL PARK NYC 5/17/82-14 Misfit Kid/15 best Friend's Girl/16 Just What I Needed/17 Gimme Some Slack/18 Candy-O/19 Good Times Roll/20 You're all I've Got Tonight

CLEVELAND 7/18/78-01 Intro/02 Good Times Roll/03 Bye Bye Love/04 Night Spots/05 I'm in Touch
With Your World/06 Best Friend's Girl/07 Moving In Stereo/08 All Mixed Up/09 Take What You Want/10 Don't Cha Stop/11 You're All Ive Got Tonight/12 Just What I Needed/13 Hotel Queenie/14 Something Else

SAN FRANCISCO 8/19/78-01 Good Times Roll/02 Bye Bye Love/03 Nightspots/04 I'm In Touch With Your World/05 Best Friend's Girl/06 Moving In Stereo/07 All Mixed Up/08 Don't Cha Stop/09 You're all I've Got Tonight/10 Just What I Needed/11 Take What You Want/12 Hotel Queenie

CARS UNLOCKED-01 Magic/02 Let's Go/03 Touch and Go/04 Drive/05 Best Friend's Girl/06 Tonight She Comes/07 Moving In Stereo/08 You Might Think/09 Just What I Needed/10 Good Times Roll/11 Hello Again/12 Double Trouble/13 Nightspots/14 Heartbeat City

The Cars Part 3

I went back to the "C" shelf to see just how much material I have for the rest of The Cars post, as we move on to live/rare stuff and GOOD LORD there is a lot.....I know I did part 2 only this morning, but I need to get moving on this, a LOT LOT LOT of stuff here, if you hate the Cars, you are temporarily at least in the complete wrong place.

I think I'll put up about half of it here, and at it'll take at least one or two more posts to wrap it.....time was, when it was fairly hard to catch quality boots of this band, much like their early 80's cousins The Pretenders, but in recent years there has been an absolute deluge of them, and I have a load of them.

But, to that end, let's start off this chapter with NON-live stuff, it's more than interesting, some of it is quite wonderful.

First up, I have a full length album of demo material from the first classic album. The entire album is recreated, in order, completely with demo versions (most of which are VERY good), and as a bonus, there are demo versions of five tracks that never made an album. Fascinating stuff.

I have an EP simply entitled "Alternate Versions", for the life of me I don't remember who gave me this one, but again, six tracks from the first two albums, very, very good stuff to listen to as well. This was one band whose demos and alternates EASILLY could have replaced the final product in some cases, a testamony to their skill/musicianship.

Another EP simply titled "Live/Rare" contains but 4 tracks, with a bit of overlap too, "They Won't See You" also appears on the demo disc above, but a demo "Moving In Stereo"/"All Mixed Up" and a couple of live tracks fill it out nicely.

"The Candy-O Monitor Mixes", naturally, contains different mixes of the stuff from THAT album, and this one as well adds on a couple of non-LP tracks "That's It" and "Slip Away".

For the hell of it, and just because I happen to have it, I'm going to put up a Ric Ocasek solo effort, "Troublizing".....it's not awful or anything, but he misses the context of the Cars.....The Cars, like their godfathers Roxy Music, were a BAND in the truest sense of the word, as no one member EVER dominated the sound, it was ALWAYS an even distribution, and this is a bit TOO much Ocasek, however, certainly interesting and listenable.

I seem to have about twelve (by my loose count) live boots, so if I pop a pair of those up this evening, the next two parts can be 5/5 and finito!.....so let me tease this thing with a couple of the older boots I have. The first disc I have is from 1977, before the band broke.....it contains a pair of shows, both from their Boston home, one from the Rathskeller (April 77), and a very short set (4 songs) from Boston U (March 77), which includes two tunes ("Cool Fool" and "Strawberry Moonlight") that you certainly don't hear every day.

Wrapping up this post is a fairly straight forward show from Toronto's El Mocambo, a good performance, in particular the set closing "You're All I've Got Tonight", but no unusual song selections or anythng, just a fine concert recording.

OK, that's TWO Cars posts for today, maybe I'll get to the next part tomorrow, or maybe I won't....you never know what I might feel like doing. But please let me know what you think of this series, as The Cars seem to be quite popular here (the "regular" studio albums have had quite a bit of traffic)

I don't know if I'm going to put up anything more this evening or not, if not, likely see you tomorrow, but I AM quite bored so I might get around to a few more gems, we'll just have to see!

1ST ALBUM DEMOS-01 Good Times Roll (Live)/02 My best Friend's Girl (Demo)/03 Just What I Needed (Demo)/04 I'm In Touch With Your World (Demo)/05 Don't Cha Stop (Demo)/06 You're All I've Got Tonight (Demo)/07 Bye Bye Love (Demo)/08 Moving In Stereo (Demo)/09 All Mixed Up (Demo)/10 They Won't See You (Demo)/11 Take What You Want (Demo)/12 Wake Me Up (Demo)/13 You just Can't Push Me (Demo)/14 Hotel Queenie (Demo)

ALTERNATE VERSIONS EP-01 Moving In Stereo/02 Let the Good Times Roll/03 You're All I've Got Tonight/04 Candy-O/05 Best Friend's Girl/06 Just What I Needed

RARE/LIVE EP-01 Moving In Stereo/All Mixed Up (Demo)/12 Good Times Roll (Live)/13 Just What I Needed (Live)/14 They Won't See You (Unreleased Demo)

CANDY-O MONITOR MIXES-01 Let's Go/02 Since I held You/03 It's All I Can Do/04 Double Life/05 Shoo Be Doo/06 Candy-O/07 Nightspots/08 You Can't Hold On Too Long/09 Lust For Kicks/10 Got a Lot On My Head/11 Dangerous Type/12 That's It/13 Slip Away

TROUBLIZING (OCASEK)-01  The Next Right Moment/02 Hang On Tight/03 Crashland Consequence/04 Troublizing/05 Not Shocked/06 Situation/07 Fix On You/08 People We Know/09 Here We Go/10 Society Chance/11 Asia Minor

LIVE BOSTON THE RATHSKELLER 4/77-01 Just What I Needed/02 I'm In Touch With Your World/03 Strawberry Moonlight/04 Lover and a Holiday/05 Bye Bye Love/06 Wake Me Up/07 Cool Fool/08 Looking To See You/09 Don't Cha Stop/10 You're All I've Got Tonight/LIVE AT BOSTON U 3/77 11 Just What I Needed/12 I'm In Touch With Your World/13 Cool Fool/14 Strawberry Moonlight/15 (Emcee)

LIVE AT THE EL MOCAMBO TORONTO 9/14/78-01 Good Times Roll/02 Bye Bye Love/03
Nightspots/04 My best Friends Girl/05 Moving In Stereo/06 Since I Held You/07 Take What You Want/08 They Won't See You/09 Don't Cha Stop/10 Just What I Needed/11 Candy-O/12 You're all I've Got Tonight

Remember I still have about ten or so live albums to go, so stay tuned......

The Cars, Part 2

How to do this, how to do this? Well, yesterday, we posted the studio efforts of The Cars, from the debut (5 stars) through "Door to Door" (1 star).....like I did with Elvis Costello, I want to get through all of the commercially available stuff before I get into my stack of smoking hot rarities, bootlegs, etc.......you literally will not believe your own ears (I posted them YEARS ago, unless you've been "with me" forever, likely you have no memory of them. If you're a Cars fan, though.......this stuff is going to bash your skull.

First, though, I wanted to get through these. Another submission form the Link Machine John N, who also sent me the albums for yesterday's post as well and helped me to decide to do this post in the first place (the one from "years ago" was ONLY rarities, this post will give a much better overview. How I've changed over the years!).

Before I start the anthologies, I forgot (at least I WANTED to) that the band reunited in 2011 (sans bassist Benjamin Orr who had passed away from pancreatic cancer) to create "Move Like This".....after a 14 year layoff, they might likely have come up with something better than this, no question it was time to move these Cars to the scrapheap.......bad album, but I vowed to present the entire picture as best as I could, so here it is if you want it (why you would, I don't know, but......)

OK, the Anthology.....the two disc "Just What I Needed" contains a bunch of stuff culled from the albums posted yesterday, however, the Cars were a simply over-the-top singles band, so an anthology plays as wonderfully as some of the albums (they were rare in that they were a great album band AND a great singles band, aside from being an outstanding live act). This WOULD be quite redundant, had they not stacked the discs with some cool stuff.....to wit:

Disc 1 contains three previously unreleased tracks ("Take Me Now", "Cool Fool", and "Slipaway"), none a classic but still cool to hear. The disc also contains the original demo version of "Night Spots", and a pair of B-Sides, "That's It" and "Don't Go to Pieces", the latter being from the "Panorama" era and would have sounded fine on that album.

The second of the two discs also contains some goodies:  A pair of unreleased covers: a goofy take on "The Little Black Egg", and Bowie/Iggy's "Funtime". Also included is the B-Side "Breakaway", a pair of demos ("Leave Or Stay" and "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo"..... also an important inclusion is the fantastic single, "Tonight She Comes" which was heard only on a previously released "Greatest Hits" affair....I've always thought it was one of their better numbers.

Again, today I find myself thinking of my friend who hated this band so much, as they were "ripping off Roxy Music"......again, Roxy was my favorite band ever, The Cars took the Roxy sound/concept, updated it, and delivered it RIGHT AT THE EXACT TIME the market demanded it........to discredit The Cars for such market savvy and understanding of the musical trends is unbelievably naive and shortsighted, JMO.

MOVE LIKE THIS-01 Blue Tip/02 Too late/03 Keep On Knocking/04 Soon/05 Sad Song/06 Free/07 Drag On Forever/08 Take Another Look/09 It's Only/10 Hits Me

JUST WHAT I NEEDED DISC 1-01 Just What I Needed/02 My Best Friend's Girl/03 Good Times Roll/04 You're All I've Got Tonight/05 Don't Cha Stop/06 Moving In Stereo/07 Take Me Now (previously unreleased)/08 Cool Fool (previously unreleased)/09 Let's Go/10 Candy-O/11 Dangerous Type/12 Double Life/13 Got a Lot On My Head/14 It's All I Can Do/15 Night Spots (original demo version)/16 Slipaway (previously unreleased)/17 That's It (B Side)/18 Panorama/19 Gimme Some Slack/20 Don't Go to Pieces

JUST WHAT I NEEDED DISC 2-01 Touch and Go/02 Don't Tell me No/03 Shake it Up/04 Since You're
Gone/05 I'm not the One/06 Cruiser/07 The Little Black Egg (previously unreleased)/08 Funtime (previously unreleased)/09 You Might Think/10 Drive/11 Magic/12 Hello Again/13 Why Can't I Have You/14 Breakaway (B Side)/15 Tonight She Comes/16 You Are the Girl/17 Strap Me In/18 Door To Door/19 Leave Or Stay (1977 demo version)/20 Ta Ta Wayo Wayo (1977 demo version)

OK, a few odds and ends for you to investigate and keep you Cars fans busy until (either later today or tomorrow) when I begin putting up the treasure trove of live shows and other surprises!

The Cars (part 1)

Long ago, I posted a bunch of WAY cool Cars rarities (don't worry, they will turn up here as well), but
never did I post their original albums.....I think it'll be ok to do so now, after all, these are 30 year old discs....

I liked The Cars, one of my best friends HATED them....."They are ripping off Roxy Music!", he would say....now, he and I both LOVED Roxy Music, BUT......the Cars didn't "rip them off"......The Cars took the basic Roxy sound/concept, tightened it up and made it far more accessible, and took it to the bank. How do you blame someone for THAT? My Junior year of high school, one could literally not turn around without hearing a track from "The Cars" or "Candy-O", and for good reason.....they were two of the greatest albums of the late 1970's......

So, in this part, we'll focus on the studio efforts (with thorough critique, coz I was really into the first three albums), and we'll follow that up (whenever I feel like it) with a slew of boots, demos, alt versions....if you missed em the first time, and this is a band you enjoy, PLEASE don't miss that stuff at least, some of it is quite rare and you will be SORRY if in 2019 you are asking me to reup the links (by now you should know I won't do it)

OK, here's how this will work.....thanks to John N, we have "The Elektra Years", with the original LP's as they were originally released.....the first file contains "The Cars", "Candy-O", and "Panorama", one file/one disc, a wonderful way to package this. The next file will contain the (lesser, but still OK) "Shake It Up", "Heartbeat City" and (ugh) "Door To Door"...anyway, it's a neat little package of six LP's into two files, I'll have some comps with some rarities next, then on to MY stash of Cars rarities, which will freak you out!

OK..."The Cars" came out, as I said, my junior year of high school....YES, they did wear the Roxy Music influence on their sleeves, but Roxy were YEARS ahead of their time, the Cars were RIGHT ON TIME....man, that first album.....really, every track is a classic....."Just What I Needed", "Best Friend's Girl" and (MY faves) "You're All I've Got Tonight" and "Bye Bye Love".....but there is not ONE dog on this total 5-star effort

"Candy-O" came out a year or so later....it is DAMN NEAR as good... still Roxy derivative, down to the Vargas cover art, but loaded with great songs, not a loser here either....."Let's Go", "Double Life", "Lust For Kicks", "The Dangerous Type", "Since I Held You"......oh fuck it, it's all great too.....Roxy fans (Roxy was MY favorite band of all so I can make this statement), GET THE FUCK OVER IT...the Cars nicked Roxy's groove and took it to the bank, they were, for a while, the ultimate "hip" band, AND dominated commercially.....

Unfortunately, they had no more "classic" material in them....."Panorama" is "just" OK, I do enjoy the (oh, irony, the Roxy-like) title track, "Touch and Go", and a few others, but these Cars were running out of gas. "Shake it Up" continues the trend downward, the title track is (just) OK, and though a lot of people like "Heartbeat City" ("Drive", "You might Think", etc) there was nothing original here, either....the less said about "Door to Door" the better IMO (note: they would release another phenomenal single, "Tonight She Comes", which wasn't on any of there LP's but will appear on one of the comps.

OK, The Cars were a great band for a couple of albums at least.......they headed toward suckville later on, but still had a knack for a hook or two.....I'll never argue that they WERE derivative of Roxy Music, but, honestly, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG with being derivative of one of the greatest bands of all time? The Cars did it up right, and the first 2.5 albums still sound phenomenal. What more could you ask for?

So, pay attention to how these are bundled, it's not exactly the norm, but I'm sure you'll get it.....wait until the next couple of posts when we get to the GREAT stuff (lives stuff, alternate mixes, you will love it!)


THE CARS-01 Good Times Roll/02 Best Friends Girl/03 Just What I Needed/04 I'm In Touch With Your World/05 Don't Cha Stop/06 You're All Ive Got Tonight/07 Bye Bye Love/08 Moving In Stereo/09 All Mixed Up

CANDY-O-10 Let's Go/11 Since I Held You/12 It's All I can Do/13 Double Life/14 Shoo Be Doo/15 Candy-O/16 Night Spots/17 You can't Hold On Too Long/18 Lust For kicks/19 Got a Lot On My Head/20 Dangerous Type

PANORAMA-21 Panorama/22 Touch and Go/23 Gimme Some Slack/24 Don't Tell Me No/25 Getting Through/26 Misfit Kid/27 Down Boys/28 You Wear Those Eyes/29 Running to You/30 Up and Down

(Understand, these three albums are in ONE file, albeit in two parts!....same for the NEXT three albums!)

SHAKE IT UP-01 Since You're Gone/02 Shake It Up/03 I'm Not the One/04 Victim of Love/05
Cruiser/06 A Dream Away/07 This Could be Love/08 Think It Over/09 Maybe Baby

HEARTBEAT CITY-10 Hello Again/11 Looking For Love/12 Magic/13 Drive/14 Stranger Eyes/15 You Might Think/16 It's Not the Night/17 Why Can't I have You/18 I Refuse/19 Heartbeat City

DOOR TO DOOR-20 Leave or Stay/21 You Are the Girl/22 Double Trouble/23 Fine Line/24 Everything You Say/25 Tato Wayo Wayo/26 Strap Me In/27 Coming Up You/28 Wound Up On You/29 Go Away/30 Door To Door

Again, these last three discs are in ONE FILE, which is split into TWO PARTS......it's easy if you think about it!