The Cars
 

As far as I can tell, the search function is not turning up a general thread for The Cars. So I'm making one. Talk about this great band here!

Without doubt one of the best bands to have ever come out of the USA. Here in the UK they were known but largely under-appreciated by British listeners. Their debut is a timeless classic and I still listen to it often, their fourth album "Shake it Up" is all time fav of mine and I love the commercial "Heartbeat City" album as well.

I`m not overly happy that they`ve reformed, because without Benjamin Orr (the voice of the Cars) it will never quite be the same.

Best song is a hard choice, but it has to be the legendary "Moving in Stereo"

"Heartbeat City" is a great song too. I always liked it.



Yes, Benjamin Orr really did add a whole other dimension to their music. I love all the songs that he sang, and he was not a bad bassist either.

One of their best singles Drive, would not be the same without Benjamin Orr on vocals. The Cars were a very versatile band out of the early new wave scene in the 70s, which infused a lot of different styles into their sound, Rock, Hard rock, Art rock, New wave, Post-punk, Synthpop, Power pop, etc. I'm glad they reformed the band, I hope they play Columbus, Ohio, where Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr first met and performed as a duo back in the early 70s, that would be a good home coming for Ric Ocasek and a tribute to Benjamin Orr.

If memory serves me right they were in a band called Milkwood that didn`t have too much in common with the Cars sound. It was the early influence of David Robinson ex Modern Lovers who was an influence image wise on the band that steered them into what would become new-wave.

Milkwood had a more folk sound, it seems like.



I think the Modern Lovers only ever released one album, plus some live stuff, but only after they broke up in 1974. Their sound definitely influenced the Cars, just listen to this:

Modern Lovers definitely were a big influence, the whole sound of that song is very early Cars and even has a clapping sound that featured heavily "On My Best Friends Girl"

I think Ric Ocasek was more the voice of the Cars. Ben Orr only sang on a handful of songs as far as I know.

The singing on the albums was usually a 70/30 split in favour of Ric Ocasek. When I say the voice of the Cars, I mean to say that his songs were more memorable. He sang some of the best known songs in "Just what I Needed" "Lets Go" and "Drive"

Other great songs he sung include "Moving in Stereo" "All Mixed Up" "Candy O" "Don`t Tell Me No" "Cruiser" "This Could be Love" "Stranger Eyes" "Double Trouble" to name some.

Ric Ocasek`s hiccup style delivery is the Cars, but the cooler more decisive delivery of Ben Orr provided the soul of the group.

Ben Orr definitely had more sex appeal than the rest of them though! :laughing: