Old Enough to Forget

By 1981 The Cars had released four albums in four years. When they dropped Shake It Up late in '81 the band suddenly had a top 10 hit with "Shake It Up" an infectious earworm that contained yet another brilliant Elliot Easton guitar solo. While the other singles from the album that dropped throughout 1982 didn't get as much traction the album still went double platinum and the song "Since You're Gone" is one of my favourite songs by the band ... ever. Roy Thomas Baker was again in the producer's chair and with Shake It Up the band crafted a collection of tightly packed new wave pop songs. It was more of the same, but different - but not as different as the songs on the previous album Panorama . It's always fun reading old reviews, and apparently the reviewer (Alan Niester) with the Globe and Mail back in '81 wrote. "Ric Ocasek and the boys have produced an understated and decidedly underwhelming package that makes no attempt to deviate...

DISCLAIMER: Today is a little more meanderambling than normal.  Oddly this wasn't the record I had intended to write about ... I was pulling out Heatbeat City and Panorama came out at the same time. So being me, I played both. It was strange and my reaction was backward to what I remembered. Back in the day it was Heartbeat City that I played to death ... I mean I had their other albums and they were good, but man oh man to 21 year old me Heartbeat City was far and away their best album. I hadn't actually played Heartbeat City end to end for a long time, and while I still thought it was great, it was  Panorama that felt fresh. It was the drums. David Robinson had a way with his fills and the way his tom toms jumped out of the speakers was just so good. They were fat and demanded attention. He didn't overdo it and not every song needed extra fills. Heartbeat City was mainly Fairlight programming and it was cool at the time.  Panorama was the band's third album ...

Although released in 1986 I didn't get it until I found this on sale back in '87. This was when CDs were having a bit of a packaging issue and because most record stores weren't configured for them, somewhere some smartass must have figured that creating a full reproduction of the artwork in a disposable long box was a good idea.  Yeah, it last about as long as you think it would last - not long.  Regardless, I found myself in the possession of This Side of Paradise and I did remember hearing "Emotion in Motion" which was a cool track, and even knew that Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears provided the guitar. It was a pretty decent song, and oddly not the best song on the album. I always found it cool when a guy did a solo album and then brought along the guys from the band to play on some of the tracks. Ric brought everyone from The Cars except David Robinson to guest on at least one track. Poor David, everyone forgets about the drummer. "True to You"...

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 ...