Monday Night Music Byte
I guess we will stick to Boston bands from the mid 1970′s once again. There is a lot to choose from after all. Tonight we will focus on a song by The Cars. This band was actually the co-creation of two of its members, Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. They were somewhat of an ever-present club band in Boston in the early 70′s although the duo used different names such as Milkwood and Richard and the Rabbits. The latter name having been suggested by Jonathan Richman of The Modern Lovers (they were the subject last night’s music focus by the way).
The material in The Cars first album (also named The Cars) was written and performed by the band predominantly throughout 1976 although the album was not released until early 1978. their sound was later described as New Wave, and they were one of the forefathers of the New Wave movement of the late 70′s and early 80′s. Please enjoy or get reacquainted with their first hit single, Just What I Needed.
Posted on August 31, 2009, in Songs, Uncategorized and tagged Just What I Needed, Songs, The Cars. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
Boston made quite the contribution to the music scene of that era. I loved The Cars.
Just wait until tomorrow night’s entry. I think it will have a bi-coastal flavor to it.
I’m going to be at a party tomorrow that I’m co-hosting. Now my curiosity is piqued. I may have to break it up early. What to do, what to do.
A Tuesday night party, eh? We’re not in Kansas anymore, Rockets!
We have parties any night of the week here!
And Lawrence, KS was where I had the weirdest thing ever happen to me, even with all the other places I’ve been/lived! Needless to say, I’m avoiding it like the plague.
Funny how people react differently. I always return with a hop, skip and a jump to the place where the weirdest thing ever happened to me. By the way, who is Lawrence?
Now, it’s off to bed.
The so-called Berkeley of the Midwest. (It was way too humid and I was bitten by mosquitoes 14 times in the time it took to get from the front door to the porch seats. But that wasn’t the weirdest thing.)
I’ll take the real Berkeley any day. And have a party at the same time.
The Cars were one of my favorite bands. I love their music, but was SO dissapointed to see them live in concert. I’ve seen them 3 times, and each of their shows they played for 45 minutes – including one encore. Who do they think they are??? The Beatles? “Dangerous type” off the Candy-O album is my favorite Cars tune. Also- I was pissed off to see “The New Cars” performing in concert a couple of years ago. How can you call yourself the Cars if you don’t have Ric Ocasek or Ben Orr? WTF?
Ben Orr is dead so it is sort of like the Stones replacing Brian Jones with Mick Taylor and then replacing Mick Taylor with Ronnie Wood, and then replacing Bill Wyman with Darryl Jones.
Also, although I miss Ocasek, he is an egocentric weirdo and I sort of like Todd “the God” Rundgrenn as his replacement.
I agree with you that they were terrible in concert. No audience interaction whatsoever.
Ocasek may have been a weirdo, but he married well. LOL.
Ben Orr was definitely the major talent in the group.
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Agreed on both points.
Their first “Long play” was one of those few records that contained no filler tracks.
Agreed.