1978 was an unbelievably cool year for music. From hard rock to new wave, and yes (unfortunately) disco (for those who liked that sort of thing), music was alive and well, and it was a heady time. The Cars seemed to come out of nowhere, and while they wore their rock credentials on their collective sleeves, they were also very different. They were living in the future and bringing it to the present. Yeah, that's as confusing as it sounds. The band enlisted the legendary Roy Thomas Baker to produce the album, who certainly knew a thing or two about getting the most out of a band. The guy's list of credits is unbelievable.
It's kind of weird and fun sitting here listening to an album I actually never had as a kid. I mean, it's not like I didn't know the songs, but for whatever reason I wouldn't pick up the album, and all the others, until the early '80s. Before Heartbeat City, I might add, and that was because the rock station here played "Since You're Gone" fairly often, and so my journey actually started with Shake It Up ... so there, and I stayed on the bandwagon all the way through to Move Like This.
Still, that first album is something special. It's practically a greatest hits album all by itself. The first three songs set the bar impossibly high, and it's still amazing to me that the entire album didn't just fall flat after the opening salvo. Although I have to say the only song that I have a hard time with is the love-to-hate-it "I'm in Touch with Your World," but other than that one wobbly entry, the whole album is so good.
Greg Hawkes gets a lot of credit for his keyboard textures, and he was such an important part of the band's sound, but for me, what put the band over the top was Elliot Easton. I won't say he's underrated, because people who know know. There are so many great moments on the album that showcase Elliot's touch, but to me, his work on "My Best Friend's Girl" is structured perfectly, and the riffs and pickin' are just so good. The pull-offs and little flourishes are a wicked counterpoint to the new wave elements in the song. His guitar solo is astoundingly good.
I had some friends who had a bar band in the early '80s who played it, and they played it in F, and Bill would contort his fingers trying to get things to sound like the record. It always struck me that it was played in E and then either sped up, or Elliot used a capo. There was no way to do those pull runs otherwise. Turns out the song was recorded in E but felt too plodding, so Mr. Baker baked it by speeding it up to F. Anyways, it's trivia, and who doesn't love trivia?
The album was already something special, and then a few years later Amy Heckerling released Fast Times at Ridgemont High to an unsuspecting world, and "Moving in Stereo" would forever, and ever, be associated with Phoebe Cates. Thank you, Judge Reinhold, for your vivid imagination. Anyways, now that you've got that in your mind's eye, I'll give you a moment. Oh, if you were wondering, "Moving in Stereo" isn't on the soundtrack album ... however, it's worth it just to hear "Goodbye, Goodbye" by Oingo Boingo.
Anyway, I think I've gone down a rabbit hole, and need to find my way back. I don't have to get all the way back, I just need to poke my head out of the dirt long enough to wind this up.
A lot of bands will make their mark with a spectacular debut, and then spend the rest of their careers chasing after themselves. One could argue they never did anything as good as this, but that would be dismissing so many good albums in a spectacular discography. I'd agree that as far as cohesiveness, this was about as good as it got, but my goodness, they would have so many awesome songs, and this was only the beginning.
I think that's as far as I'm going today ... I'm out of gas, but the Car kept running.
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