First things first, do not take my advice and buy this CD!
No, no!
Please go get all SIX of the legitimate albums The Cars made so you have the full catalog! They are – by a wide margin – the most underappreciated band of the modern era simply because they didn’t tour long enough (and, sadly, Benjamin Orr didn’t live long enough) to give this band the comeback and attention it probably deserved.
My praise of the band’s entire catalog is represented by this selection but this particular release changed my life because it was the first CD I ever purchased once I had a CD player. So this one holds a special place in my life.
I went to the Record Bar at Eastpoint Mall (I’m pretty sure Lauren Paneto sold it to me) and they had a tiny section with about 40 CDs – mostly like Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen.
It was the fall of 1985.
This was a VERY Gucci item but the prices were beginning to drop. I bought this, and the specially “made for CD” greatest hits packages of Steely Dan and Billy Joel.
And I still love them all.
But this particular piece changed my life because it allowed me to really begin “collecting” music appropriately in a format that I – stupidly, really stupidly – believed would be a format that I would have for a lifetime.
Yeah.
I didn’t see that Ipod thing or Napster or the internet coming!
But I do have 5,000 CDs taking up a few drawers of space with really near artwork. I have all of The Cars CD’s plus the boxset and the DVDs.
Do your homework and go appreciate the genius that was Baltimore’s Ric Ocasek and tender voice of Orr, who is one of the greatest vocalists in the history of rock music.
It’s all I can do to keep The Cars music relevant because everyone deserves a ride with this band the way we let the good times roll in stereo.
And most of us guys had a Phoebe Cates moment that immortalized this band.
