Posted on 10/11/2018 6:22:26 PM PDT by mdittmar
The Cars - "Just What I Needed" (Official Video)
June of 1978, I was in Downtown Crossing, which was sort of an outside shopping mall area in Boston and next to the Strawberries - a sizable record store chain at the time - there was a photoshoot going on with a rock band. From a distance, I thought it might be The Ramones. But as I got closer, there was tall, lanky Ric Ocasek and the rest of the band. They weren't world-famous yet but starting to break nationally with "Just What I Needed."
Hated The Cars. Awful
Use to cruise the ave listening to them.
Loved them.
We had a “Touch and Go” thread a few days ago. The Cars were a personal favorite. Great memories. This was Benjamin Orr’s signature song perhaps until “Drive.”
The first album has often been described as a greatest hits effort. Almost every song got radio airplay. Give “Cruiser,” “Strap Me In,” and “Don’t Tell Me No” a try, to same some otherwise obscure songs.
LOL, we had a friend in our group who was a musician and he looked just like Ric Ocasek...his name was “Mick”...:)
Good times. I enjoyed “Cruising in Stereo”
Way more edge and rock than the 80’s synth pop crappola that came a little after. Good rock song writing and production with the Cars, with always solid backing vocal and instrumentation and effects with Greg Hawkes. Two lead vox both having many hits is fairly rare.
Freegards
Why, thank you!
The cars were “just what I needed” as a teenager.
Of course, I can name at least two dozen more great Cars songs. But this one really brings back memories of the summer of 1979. It was my first summer with a driver's license and I used to drive my father's car endlessly up and down Revere Beach with the windows rolled down and the radio blasting. Whenever I hear this song, I can almost smell the fried clams from Kelly's Roast Beef!
Apparently they started off as more of a jam band with longer, less structured songs and more instrumental improv. Then a producer or maybe a record company exec got hold of them and told them they had a future but only if they would make their songs more concise. I can’t remember the details but for whatever reason that advice registered with them and they made a big effort to pare their songs down to the bare essentials, and the rest is history.
Off their first album - I think “My Best Friend’s Girl” was their breakout hit on the east coast, but out west, “Just What I Needed” was the first most of us heard of The Cars. Great debut album, though for me “Candy-O” was the better album. As part of my getting back into vinyl, I bought their first two albums on vinyl again from Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs - they still sound great to me.
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