A pre-fame live tape of a show by new wave heroes, the Cars, recently surfaced online. The 1977 recording documents the Boston band less than a year on from their concert debut, and just when they were starting to gain some notoriety. The tape contains songs that are now classics, as well as those that are only known to diehard fans, including a few that have never been released.
The gig took place at the Paradise Theater, a small Boston venue, on October 1st, 1977. At the time, the Cars hadn’t been together all that long, but they were a band on the move. Demos of “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Just What I Needed” had started to receive prominent airplay on Boston radio, and following a major label bidding war, the Cars signed a multi-album deal with Elektra/Asylum Records in November.
In addition to playing six songs that would be included on their self-titled debut (1978), the Cars played a number of tunes that didn’t end up on the record, though many would turn up later. “You Can’t Hold On Too Long” was tapped for album #2, Candy-O (1979), and “Leave Or Stay” kicks off their final album before disbanding, Door to Door (1987). Demos of “Cool Fool,” “Take What You Want,” and “You Just Can’t Push Me” were released in the ‘90s. Three songs still haven’t officially seen the light of day: the Stonesy rocker, “When You Gonna Lay Me Down”; the T. Rex-inspired, “You Can Have ‘Em”; and the power pop nugget, “I Don’t Want To,” sung by guitarist Elliot Easton.
The Cars came out in mid ‘78, and excitement about the group was growing not just at the local level, but nationally now, too. “Just What I Needed” was the first single from the album released to radio, and it was getting lots of spins on both rock and top 40 stations. Around this time, the Cars played six sold out shows at the Paradise Theater.
The October 1st, 1977 show, taped by an audience member, was transferred from a first generation reel-to-reel dub; the recording hasn’t widely circulated until now.
The setlist:
1. Leave Or Stay
2. Cool Fool
3. Bye Bye Love
4. When You Gonna Lay Me Down
5. Take What You Want
6. You Can Have ‘Em
7. You Can’t Hold On Too Long
8. My Best Friend’s Girl
9. I Don’t Want To
10. All Mixed Up
11. Don’t Cha Stop
12. You Just Can’t Push Me
13. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
14. Just What I Needed
Ric Ocasek on the cover of Andy Warhol’s Interview
When the Cars released their Heartbeat City album in 1984, they garnered a massive MTV hit with the iconically “totally 90s” computer animated music video for “You Might Think,” so pop artist Andy Warhol had his work cut out for him when he was tasked by band leader Ric Ocasek with directing their next video.
Technically the “Hello Again” video was co-directed by Andy Warhol and Don Munroe, who had worked with Warhol on his various cable access TV shows in the early 1980s and later Warhol’s short-lived MTV series, but other than showing up I can’t imagine that Warhol actually that all had much else to do with it.
There are however, some distinctly Warholian touches to “Hello Again”: As the video begins we see bartender Andy watching a fake youth culture show on TV, with one kid arguing how every skyscraper is a phallic symbol (a nod to Warhol’s film Empire, his eight hour and five minute long “portrait” of the Empire State Building.) Voyeur Andy also watches people kissing like in his 1963 film Kiss. We see several glamorous “superstars” dancing and prancing around with revealing costumes. One of them (John Sex) has his own pet python wrapped around his body. A gorgeous young Gina Gershon is seen with alphabet soup letters on her tongue. Busty New York City clubland “It Girl” of the early 80s Dianne Brill is her usual effervescent self and there’s Warhol’s studio assistant Benjamin Liu appearing in drag as his alter ego Ming Vauze. And of course the Cars, let’s not forget them.
Gina Gershon
At least that’s what happens in the tamer, PG-rated version of the video. The “uncensored” version features small cars driving all over some exposed breasts with stop motion animation! WHERE did they think this could or would be exploited? Only HBO could have aired something like it at the time. I guess it was for nightclubs. Most Cars fans didn’t even know the sexier version existed until YouTube came along.
From an entry dated Thursday, March 29, 1984, pages 560-561 in The Andy Warhol Diaries:
It was raining and snowing out and this was the day we had to film all day doing the Cars video for their song “Hello Again” at the Be-Bop Cafe on 8th Street. Benjamin [Liu] came in drag to pick me up for shooting. He was going to be in it, too.
I had to be a bartender and wear a tux. The crowd of extras looked like the old Factory days—Benjamin in drag, and a bald-headed mime in a Pierrot outfit, and John Sex with this snake. And then there was Dianne Brill with her big tits and hourglass figure. The Cars were cute.
They finally got to my part at 8:00 and I had to sing a song but I couldn’t remember the words. And I had to mix a drink while I was doing it, and with my contacts on I couldn’t see the Coke button on the soda dispenser.
And that meant being face to face with the Cars for a while, and it was hard to talk to them. I didn’t know what to say. I finished at 9:15. One of the kids gave me a ride home.
The words Warhol couldn’t remember were apparently just “Hello again”...
Dianne Brill
According to Cars keyboardist Greg Hawke:
“I think [Warhol] mainly did some of the conceptualizing and showed up to be an extra. And he invited his various friends to be in it. It was like any video shoot, but with a more interesting cast of characters. And you could always look over on the set and go ‘Hey that’s Andy Warhol.’”
Sounds about right!
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct The Cars—Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, Benjamin Orr and David Robinson—later this month and Rhino has just released expanded editions of two of The Cars’ most iconic albums Shake It Up and Heartbeat City on CD and as a double-LP set. Each release features the remastered original album expanded with rare and unreleased bonus tracks. Illustrated booklets accompany the music and contain extensive liner notes written by rock journalist David Fricke. Enter below to win.
After the jump, watch the notorious “uncensored” NSFW version of “Hello Again”...
Whether you categorize the Cars’ uniquely angular music as new wave, minimalist power pop or radio-friendly art rock they are undeniably one of the best-selling American bands of the late 70s and beyond, moving an incredible 23 million albums. They’re being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April and unsurprisingly, expanded editions for two of The Cars’ most iconic albums—Shake It Up and Heartbeat City—will be coming out to mark their induction. Shake It Up: Expanded Edition and Heartbeat City: Expanded Edition will be released on March 30.
Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, Benjamin Orr and David Robinson recorded Shake It Up in 1981 at Syncro Sound, the group’s own studio in Boston, with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. Working in their own space afforded them the time to craft the sound of the album, their third-straight Top 10 hit, which went double platinum, selling more than two million copies. Several unreleased tracks make their debut on Shake It Up: Expanded Edition, including an early version of “Since You’re Gone,” the demo for “Shake It Up” and “Midnight Dancer,” a previously unreleased song.
In 1984, the Cars came back with Heartbeat City, produced by noted hard rock hitmaker “Mutt” Lange, famous for his work with AC/DC, Foreigner and Def Leppard. The album went to #3 on the charts and sold four million copies, the band’s fifth consecutive platinum album. The album launched five Top 40 hits, including “Drive” and “You Might Think,” which famously won the inaugural MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 1984. Among the seven bonus tracks included on Heartbeat City: Expanded Edition are unreleased versions of “Why Can’t I Have You” and “I Refuse,” as well as the demo for “Drive.”
Each album will be available on CD, as a double-LP set and digitally on the same day. Each release features the remastered original album along with rare and unreleased bonus tracks. Illustrated booklets accompany the music and contain liner notes written by rock journalist David Fricke, who details the history of each album with new interviews by band members Ric Ocasek (for Heartbeat City) and David Robinson (for Shake It Up).
Here’s an exclusive preview of “Coming Up You Again,” the 1981 version of “Coming Up You,” previously unreleased.
Below, The MTV award-winning video for “You Might Think”:
On July 28th, Rhino Records will be putting out expanded editions of the Cars’ second and third albums for the very first time. That’s right, neither Candy-O (1979) nor Panorama (1980) have ever been reissued with additional tracks.
In the event you’re a Cars newbie: Candy-O is essentially a continuation of the type of new wave pop/rock they perfected on their 1978 debut; for Panorama, they colored outside of the lines, resulting in what would prove to be their most experimental work. The Candy-O reissue includes five alternate mixes, a B-side, as well as a previously unreleased track, while the updated Panorama contains another B-side, plus three tracks from the vaults. The albums have been remastered by Cars front-man, Ric Ocasek, and the newly expanded editions will be offered on CD, 2LP, and digital formats, plus they will be accessible via streaming platforms. The double vinyl looks like the way to go, as both sets will be housed in gatefold sleeves, with tunes on the first three sides and an etching on the fourth.
Click on the following links to pre-order Candy-O and Panorama on Amazon.
We’re thrilled to have the world premiere of “Shooting For You,” one of the previously unheard tracks on the ‘Panorama’ reissue, after the jump…
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.
I’ve been fairly unrestrained in expressing my abiding fandom of the commercially underachieving ‘90s rock band Failure, both in real life and on Dangerous Minds. They had everything I loved—dense and creamy distorted guitar tones, gripping tension-and-release dynamics, emotive, anxious melodic and lyrical content that FAR surpassed the one-dimensional angst typical of the period’s radio rock. The poor sales of their masterpiece Fantastic Planet contributed to the band’s end, though time has rehabilitated the album and it’s now considered an influential classic, which set the stage for Failure’s reunion last year. The announcement of that tour made me as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning, and I drove three hours to once again catch a band I utterly adored but hadn’t seen in concert since 1992.
As it happens, there was more than just a tour in the offing—Failure have fully reactivated, and their first album in 19 years, The Heart Is A Monster, will arrive next week. I’m confident that fans of Fantastic Planet will be more than satisfied—I typically take a dim view of reunions, and if Monster was in any way unsatisfactory, I’d be properly bitching up a storm about it. But no. It’s goddamn glorious. The band conceived Monster as a continuation of Planet, and even picked up the numbering of its interstitial segues from where the prior album left off. I’ll not subject you to lengthy gushing, it’s streaming in its entirety on Entertainment Weekly’s web site if you want to judge for yourself. I recommend listening from beginning to end in a sitting if you can swing the time. (I should add that they’re on tour now, and later in the summer they’re doing dates with another neglected ‘90s favorite of mine, Hum, about which I’m kinda headsploding.)
One of Failure’s most illuminating, and just flat out most fun albums wasn’t even a Failure album, but a 1995 time-killer project. Waiting for Fantastic Planet to be released and unable to tour, Failure prime movers Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards teamed up with ex-Tool bassist Paul D’Amour and keyboardist Chris Pitman (Tool, Blinker the Star, and I shit you not Guns N’ Roses) to record a superb album of transformative ‘70s and ‘80s cover songs under the name Replicants, a winking Blade Runner reference. What could have just been a goof turned out as an extremely strong work in its own right, and their eponymous album is not just my favorite covers album, it’s been one of my favorite albums period for 20 years.
A contemporary article in the UCLA Daily Bruin of all places provided a look at the band’s formation and intent:
Ken Andrews, lead singer of the Replicants, has been stuck in a “Warehousy loft-type space” for about a year. Tired of the white-walled complex and its “big air conditioning ducts,” he wants to be out and on the road. But the tortured musician must continue mixing and producing in his “utilitarian” studio.
“I’m really sick of it. I really want to play live now,” complains Andrews. However, the current band member of Failure and frontman for his side project the Replicants manages to remain laid back and positive. And with good reason. The Replicants have just released a self-titled album of covers of tunes ranging from the Beatles to the Cars. Snatching countless enthusiastic reviews, the project includes the talents of one Tool member (Paul D’Amour), one Eye In Triangle musician (Chris Pitman), and one other Failure member (Greg Edwards). And, once Andrews’ soon-to-be-released Failure album hits stores, he will be able to return to his beloved stage.
Strangely, a four-track demo tape of the haphazard group landed on a desk at Zoo Entertainment. Before they knew it, the Replicants were an official band with an offer to record an entire album of cover songs. “At that point, we had no idea what to do,” explains a baffled Andrews. “Everyone would just bring up songs and either we would all agree or we wouldn’t and I think everyone sort of got their one song that maybe other people didn’t want.” However, they could all agree on one thing: The Replicants would have their own musical freedom.
“We like doing the Replicants because we could do different versions of these songs in ways that Failure or Tool wouldn’t,” Andrews says. For instance, neither spawning ground for the creative forces of the Replicants would think to record Missing Persons’ “Destination Unknown” with an industrial/techno spin. Each song was dealt with individually, following no preconceived notion of the album’s overall sound. This system provided a good musical balance for Andrews and his associates.
Some of the transformations are huge (John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?”), some are closer to mere production-values updates (obligatory cover-band “Cinnamon Girl”), but pretty much every revamped tune on the CD has some kind of a tonal shift to the darker. One simple and actually sorta brilliant minor-key modulation imparts a wholly unexpected sense of dread to Replicants’ version of the Cars’ bouncy “Just What I Needed.” See if you ever unhear it.
The Cars perform before an audience of students at the University Of Sussex in Brighton, England - November, 1978. This was broadcast of part of the BBC’s Rock Goes To College series.
Just What I Needed
Good Times Roll
My Best Friend’s Girl
All Mixed Up
Night Spots
Bye Bye Love
Don’t Cha Stop
You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
A workmanlike set. As much as I loved the band, The Cars were never a particularly exciting live act, sacrificing heat for crafty perfectionism, but they never sounded less than really really good. Pure pop with a little bit of a punk bite.
Andy Warhol co-directed this seldom-seen video for The Cars’ single, “Hello Again,” with Don Munroe in 1984. It featured Manhattan “It Girl” fashion designer Dianne Brill (above), a young Gina Gershon, Benjamin Liu (as Ming Vauze), Warhol himself as the bartender and my late friend John Sex, the guy with the boa constrictor.
From an entry dated Thursday, March 29, 1984, pages 560-561 in The Andy Warhol Diaries:
It was raining and snowing out and this was the day we had to film all day doing the Cars video for their song “Hello Again” at the Be-Bop Cafe on 8th Street. Benjamin [Liu] came in drag to pick me up for shooting. He was going to be in it, too.
I had to be a bartender and wear a tux. The crowd of extras looked like the old Factory days—Benjamin in drag, and a bald-headed mine in a Pierrot outfit, and John Sex with this snake. And then there was Dianne Brill with her big tits and hourglass figure. The Cars were cute.
They finally got to my part at 8:00 and I had to sing a song but I couldn’t remember the words. And I had to mix a drink while I was doing it, and with my contacts on I couldn’t see the Coke button on the soda dispenser.
And that meant being face to face with the Cars for a while, and it was hard to talk to them. I didn’t know what to say. I finished at 9:15. One of the kids gave me a ride home.
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