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‘Moving in Stereo’: The Cars’ accidental soundtrack to an entire generation’s sexual awakening
05.11.2016
06:42 pm
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The Cars were never what I would call a “sexy” band.

I’m not talking about the way that they ever physically appeared, mind you—though Ben Orr was a bit of a pretty boy, the scale is certainly tipped by the alien spectre of Ric Ocasek, the uberdorkiness of Greg Hawkes and the mod-mullet ‘80s normyness of Elliot Easton and David Robinson. But, no, I’m not talking about “sexy” in the physical, visual sense of the word. What I mean to say is that The Cars didn’t make music that I’d call traditionally “sexy.”  As much as I love Candy-O , one of my favorite quirk-rock albums of the new wave era, it’s not what I’d call a “leg-spreader” to put on in the bachelor den.

Still, like a generation of other “certain-aged” dudes, one particular Cars song, “Moving in Stereo,” is forever-stamped on my brain as absolutely “sexy” even though its mechanical groove sounds like it was played by melancholy robots. There’s one reason and one reason alone for that: it plays over one certain iconic swimming pool scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High that every dude of “that certain age” experienced as a crystalizing moment of their sexual awakening. In other words, Phoebe Cates gave a lot of dudes boners and The Cars are forever linked to that particular boner.
 

 
The classic pool sequence in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was where I really fell in love with The Cars. “Moving In Stereo” was inexplicably not included on that film’s soundtrack, so I, like a lot of other dudes was forced to go out and buy The Cars’ first self-titled album to get it. Of course that record was chock full of other amazing hits too like “Good Times Roll,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Just What I Needed,” and “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” The latter three songs, as well as “Moving In Stereo” appear on the new “hits” compilation Moving In Stereo: The Best of the Cars which comes out this week.
 

 
This collection replaces the old 1990, out-of-print, Greatest Hits CD. Being of that “certain age” demographic, I have a HD audio system now, so I can take full advantage of the nice new mastering job they’ve done on all the songs (hand-selected by members of the band) by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound. This new “best of” package also contains remastered versions of “Tonight She Comes” and “I’m Not The One (single mix)” which are not on the just-released, Elektra Years 1978 - 1987 six CD box set, as well as a live version of “Everything You Say,” and a new mix by producer Philippe Zdar of “Sad Song” (which is a track from the band’s last album,  2011’s Move Like This.

The Cars were a great singles band, and every song on this new set is a time-tested classic. And at least one of those songs will still always remind me of being a dumb prepubescent dude falling in love with a pair of perky boobs on cable TV. Thank you forever, top-ten-all-time-crush Phoebe Cates… and thank you, The Cars.
 

 
Below, The Cars in concert in Texas during their ‘Heartbeat City Tour,’ recorded live at The Summit in Houston on September 12, 1984.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Awesome, totally awesome: They put Jeff Spicoli’s shoes on Jeff Spicoli’s shoes

Posted by Christopher Bickel
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05.11.2016
06:42 pm
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