1. “Power & The Passion” – Midnight Oil: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Power & The Passion” – Midnight Oil

(From the album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)

1983

In some ways Midnight Oil is a difficult band to place in my project chronologically. The core of the band formed way back in 1971 as The Farm. Lead singer Peter Garrett, who’s look, voice, and politics largely would come to define the band, joined in 1975 and the band soon changed their name to Midnight Oil. The band soon developed a reputation for a powerful live show and went looking for a record deal in their native Australia. However, when they were not offered one Midnight Oil showed the independent spirit they would become known for and started their own – Powderworks Records. Midnight Oil went on to release several albums – Midnight Oil, Head Injuries, and Place Without A Postcard – to increased success in their native Australia. The success of these albums and the singles “Cold Cold Change” and “Armistice Day” in Australia, along with Midnight Oil’s reputation for fiery and powerful live shows, earned them an American record deal with Columbia Records. So, while Midnight Oil were already stars in their native country, it was their fourth album (and first international release) 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 that brought them their first major attention outside of Australia. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 is a strong and uncompromising album, showing Midnight Oil’s strengths without compromising their sound or political integrity. This focus on muscular rock that wasn’t really New Wave or Punk, but also wasn’t Hair Metal or classic Arena Rock, and that focused on Australian issues did little to earn a broad American or international audience, but the quality of the music was also undeniable and Midnight Oil earned some airplay on college radio with the anthemic rock of “Power & The Passion”. “Power & The Passion” combines a jerky, stuttering verse with a soaring chorus that peaks with the repeated declaration of “it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees!”. Not exactly Top 40 radio fare at the time but a great introduction to Midnight Oil for much of the world.

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7. “Drive” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “Drive” – The Cars

(From the album Heartbeat City)

1984

The Cars run of hits from Heartbeat City had begun with the massive success of “You Might Think” and then had been followed up with “Magic”. However, for the third and most successful single from Heartbeat City The Cars released the Ben Orr sung ballad “Drive”. While “Drive” is driven by synths and electronic sounding drums at its heart it is really just a pop ballad and it deservedly became a massive pop hit, eventually going to #3 in the US and #4 in UK. The success of “Drive” in the UK really helped The Cars’ status there as, maybe somewhat surprisingly because of their new wave roots, the band had not had a sizable UK hit since “My Best Friend’s Girl” in 1978. Some of this renewed interest in the song in the UK was also due to the Live Aid charity concert as The Cars performed “Drive” live as part of their set at the Philadelphia show; while at the London show the song was used as the background music for a video montage introduced by David Bowie that showed the suffering caused by the famine in Ethiopia (which was the cause that Live Aid was raising money to alleviate). Following “Drive” their would be several other hit singles released from Heartbeat City including “Hello Again” and “Why Can’t I Have You?” and another Top 10 hit with “Tonight She Comes”, a new song included on a greatest hits album. The Cars then went on another break and this time Ben Orr and Elliot Easton released their debut solo albums, while Ocasek released his second solo effort. Maybe all of these solo albums should have been a clue that the members of The Cars were tiring of working together or maybe they had just put their best songs on their solo albums, but when their next album, 1987’s lackluster Door To Door was released, it was both a critical and commercial flop. Not long after, in early 1988, The Cars announced their breakup. In the years following their breakup various solo albums and other projects were made by the band members and Ric Ocasek also became a sought after record producer, producing albums by Weezer, Bad Brains, Guided By Voices, Hole, No Doubt, Bad Religion, Black 47 and many more. In 2000 bassist Ben Orr would die of pancreatic cancer. In 2005 guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes reformed a new version of the band called The New Cars along with singer/guitarist Todd Rundgren (to replace Ocasek who gave his blessing to the project but had announced repeatedly that he had no interest in a Cars reunion. Original drummer David Robinson also was invited to take part but he declined as well so the line-up was rounded out with Rundgren regulars Prarie Prince on drums and Kasim Sulton on bass. This line-up would record three new songs and release one album, It’s Alive, that would include three new studio recorded songs and fifteen live songs, mostly drawn from The Cars hits but also including a pair of Rundgren’s songs. The New Cars broke up not long after releasing It’s Alive. Then, somewhat surprisingly given Ric Ocasek’s long refusal to do a Cars reunion, the four surviving members gathered in 2010 to start work on a new album and in 2011 Move Like This was released. While not a commercial smash, Move Like This was a critical success and made longtime fans happy as it sounded and felt like a classic Cars album and was a much better ending for the band than 1987’s weak Door To Door. In 2018 The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, capping a long career as both trendsetters and hit makers. A year later Ric Ocasek died of heart failure, bringing an official end to the band.

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6. “You Might Think” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “You Might Think” – The Cars

(From the album Heartbeat City)

1984

After recording four albums in four years and having their most recent album Shake It Up suffer somewhat critically and commercially The Cars decided to take an extended break. During the break both leader Rick Ocasek and keyboardist Greg Hawkes would release solo albums but otherwise it was largely a quiet period for the band. In 1984 The Cars would reenter the studio to start working on their fifth album, choosing for the first time to not work with producer Roy Thomas Baker. This time, for the album that would become Heartbeat City, The Cars would work with producer Mutt Lange. Lange had made a reputation working with heavier rock acts like AC/CD, Foreigner, and Def Leppard, but his specialty was taking these harder, heavier bands and giving them a pop sheen that would help them sound both big and commercial (indeed, Lange was just coming off the success of Def Leppard’s Pyromania). This seemed to be a perfect formula for a band like The Cars who had always blended new wave, classic rock, and pop, and Lange helped to create the sound of Heartbeat City, which would go on to be The Cars’ most successful album. Heartbeat City isn’t all production and gloss though, after all The Cars had always made music like that to large degree, the real key to the album’s success was that the time off had paid dividends and Heartbeat City had the best batch of songs Ocasek had written since their debut. Ultimately, Heartbeat City would spin off six singles, four of which reached the American Top 20 and one more the US Top 40 (two would go Top 10). The lead single and first of the Top 10 hits is the new wave classic “You Might Think”. With its staccato guitar stabs and heavy keyboard and synth presence “You Might Think” is one of the most overtly new wave songs that The Cars would ever release, but by 1984 new wave music had largely been embraced by the American mainstream (largely due to the hard work and success of The Cars) and so the mainstream success of a full-blown new wave song seemed like a natural progression of their journey. “You Might Think” was helped by the success of its visually stunning, groundbreaking music video that was released just as MTV was coming into its full power. The video for “You Might Think” was one of the first two use computer graphics to help make the video more interesting and unusual and the investment paid off as the video for “You Might Think” received very heavy play on MTV and ultimately one the first MTV Video Award for Video of the Year. This, of course, boosted the success of what was already a well-crafted hit song and “You Might Think” not only hit #7 on the Billboard charts but also went to #1 on the new Mainstream Rock chart that was created for the rising alternative rock scene. The success of The Cars with “You Might Think” was a sign that by 1984 music that had previously been seen as underground or alternative could reasonably become a hit in the United States, especially if it was streamlined enough.

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5. “Shake It Up” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “Shake It Up” – The Cars

(From the album Shake It Up)

1981

The Cars’ first two album were both big successes, both as albums and as vehicles for hit singles. The Cars had also played an instrumental role in helping to introduce the the sound and style of new wave to a mainstream American audience. However, after two albums that were sonically very similar, The Cars felt a need to shake up their sound and style in order to stay creatively relevant and to keep from becoming mere copycats of themselves. So for The Cars third album Panorama the group moved in a less pop-oriented and more experimental direction. Panorama was far less successful commercially and only had one single, “Touch and Go”, reach the Top 40 at #37. However, the album did earn critical respect and helped to reestablish the The Cars as creative trendsetters rather than as a pop band. Even without hits Panorama was able to reach #5 on the Billboard albums chart. After three successful albums and a run of hit singles The Cars had the financial means to build their own recording studio in Boston and it would there that The Cars would record their fourth album Shake It Up. In spite of being able to record their new album in the comfort of home, Shake It Up proved to be The Cars weakest and most inconsistent album to date. After The Cars proved they could still be experimental and edgy with Panorama they moved back in a more pop-orientation for Shake It Up but much of the album feels as if their hearts weren’t really into it. The album opens fairly strongly with its opening trio of “Since You’re Gone”, “Shake It Up”, and “I’m Not The One”, streamlining the pop-oriented new wave sound that The Cars had developed and found success with on their first two albums. Indeed, the rest of the Shake It Up album also follows that formula but the songs themselves are largely inferior versions of the work The Cars had previously done. Indeed, the title track and lead single “Shake It Up” was a much older song that the band had already tried to record several times before over the years and never been happy with. For these recording sessions the band decided to start completely over with the song and approach it like it was new. Doing this they reshaped “Shake It Up” as a new wave meets 1950’s blend that was similar in tone to their early hit “My Best Friend’s Girl”. “Shake It Up” was released as the lead single, a clear sign to fans that The Cars were moving back towards more pop-oriented music, and the fans rewarded that decision by making “Shake It Up” The Cars first Top 10 hit when the song hit #4 on the US charts. However, their was no hiding the fact that the songs on Shake It Up just were not as strong and no other singles from the album broke the American Top 40. 

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4. “Let’s Go” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Let’s Go” – The Cars

(From the album Candy-O)

1979

The Cars released their second album Candy-O almost exactly one year after their debut. Unlike many bands who are trying to quickly follow up a successful debut and draw on older, lesser material that didn’t make the first record, for Candy-O The Cars wrote an almost entirely new batch of songs. Overall, Candy-O sounds really solid when it’s playing and generally follows the same formula as the debut album does, even bringing back producer Roy Thomas Baker who once again gives The Cars’ new wave rock a shiny Top 40 gloss. However, upon a closer listen Candy-O is a little less consistent (how could it not be?) than the debut. This makes sense since The Cars had had a decade to write the songs for the first album and had only a year to write the songs for Candy-O. However, that dip in the quality of the material is only relative, and the album still has its fair share of highlights including “It’s All I Can Do”, “Dangerous Type”, “Candy-O”, and the lead single “Let’s Go”. While not much of a departure from the sound of the first record, “Let’s Go” is a tight, well-crafted song that does what most of the best Cars songs do by combining new wave, classic rock, and pop into a sharp and catchy song that could equally appeal to mainstream rock audiences, the growing new wave scene, and Top 40 pop fans. “Let’s Go” was another success for the band reaching #14 in the US, helping the Candy-O album peak at #3, a full fifteen spots better than their classic debut. 

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3. “Moving In Stereo” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Moving In Stereo” – The Cars

(From the album The Cars)

1978

The Cars followed up the success of “My Best Friend’s Girl” with the more traditionally rock-oriented “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”, which became the third hit. However, nearly every song on The Cars became a radio standard whether or not it was ever released as a single, leading to the band regularly making the joke that their debut album was actually their “true greatest hits album”. One of the best-known songs from their debut album that was never released as a single (it was the B-side to the European version of the “My Best Friend’s Girl” single) is the synth-heavy crawl of “Moving In Stereo”. Reliant on Ben Orr’s crawling bassline and Greg Hawkes’ keys and synths “Moving In Stereo” is one of the most new wave sounding songs on The Cars debut album. It is also sexy, seductive, and creepy sounding all at once. This combination made it the perfect choice to have an instrumental version be used to score a key scene in the 1982 film Fast Times At Ridgemont High. “Moving In Stereo” had already received airplay and attention prior to its use in the film but its role in Fast Times At Ridgemont High helped to make it one of The Cars best-known songs. It also helped ensure that “Moving In Stereo” has remained in the public consciousness ever since and that it has become one of the iconic songs of the 1980’s (even though it was actually released in 1978). 

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2. “My Best Friend’s Girl” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “My Best Friend’s Girl” – The Cars

(From the album The Cars)

1978

The Cars had found success with their very first single, the new wave/classic rock fusion of “Just What I Needed”. However, in order to avoid the fate of several other new wave, punk, and synthpop artists of this era that became known as one-hit-wonder novelty acts, The Cars needed to follow it up with another hit. In order to do this the band made a brilliant but brave choice in choosing “My Best Friend’s Girl” as their second single. The band had some notion that “My Best Friend’s Girl” could be a hit as, similar to what had happened with “Just What I Needed”, a demo version of “My Best Friend’s Girl” had been a radio favorite in Boston prior to The Cars signing with Elektra. However, in other ways “My Best Friend’s Girl” was also a brave choice. First of all, the new wave influences on the song are stronger and more obvious than those in “Just What I Needed”. Second, the song’s lead vocals were sung by Ric Ocasek rather than Ben Orr, who had sung their first hit. These differences give “My Best Friend’s Girl” a sonically different sound and feel than their first hit and therefore made the song a somewhat risky choice as a follow-up single. However, in spite of these differences, The Cars already had developed a very distinctive sound and “My Best Friend’s Girl” sounds like the same band who had hit with “Just What I Needed” (some of this is also due to the slick, glossy, pop-oriented production everything is given by producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had previously worked with Queen). Another clever reason to think “My Best Friend’s Girl” could be another American hit is that the song, undeniably, draws on the rockabilly sound and template of early 1950’s rock and roll. So, in spite its new wave irony and slick production, at its core it has a strong connection to the sense of nostalgic Americana that was driving much of the punk and new wave scenes but that was also resonating with the mainstream as well (remember, mainstream artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and Tom Petty were also being given critical praise and commercial success because of their perceived revival and modernization of early rock and roll styles and genres). “My Best Friend’s Girl” scored The Cars a second American Top 40 hit when it peaked at #35 and did even better in the more new wave friendly UK, where the song peaked at #3.

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1. “Just What I Needed” – The Cars: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Just What I Needed” – The Cars

(From the album The Cars)

1978

The Cars were formed from the ashes of several earlier bands where the various members of what would eventually become The Cars played together in different combinations. These bands included groups like Milkwood, Richard & The Rabbits, and Cap’n Swing, and it was through these groups that the two vocalists, guitarist Ric Ocasek and bassist Ben Orr (who had known each other for years already), would ultimately meet the other members of The Cars. The Cars would form officially in 1976 with a line-up of Ocasek on rhythm guitar and vocals (and serving as primary songwriter), Orr on bass and vocals, David Robinson on drums, Elliot Easton on lead guitar and Greg Hawkes on keyboards. After a decade of slogging away in bands without much to show for it The Cars began to find success rather quickly when a demo version of the song “Just What I Needed” began to be played regularly on Boston radio stations. This success led to a record label bidding war over the group, with The Cars ultimately signing to Elektra Records. The Cars soon headed into the studio to record their debut album The Cars, which was released in June of 1978 and almost immediately found success. A rerecorded version of “Just What I Needed”, sung by bassist Ben Orr, was released as the lead single and went to #27 on the US charts and #17 in the UK. The success of the song in the USA was pivotal in helping to introduce the sound of “new wave” music to a wider, more mainstream audience. Groups like Blondie and Talking Heads had already found some success with new wave music, especially in markets like New York City, but new wave music was still largely the provision of the underground scene. With “Just What I Needed” The Cars were able to expertly blend new wave with power pop and just enough of a classic rock punch to earn airplay on mainstream rock radio and not just in the emerging underground/alternative rock scene being developed in the bars, dance clubs, and underground radio of the large urban areas. With “Just What I Needed” The Cars were able to largely bridge the divide between the mainstream and underground rock worlds in a way that few bands would be able to do for quite some time still, and in the process, introduce elements of new wave to a wider American audience (and in the process helping to normalize the style of much of the great music coming out of the UK at the time).

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One More Week Off!

Hey all, sorry to do this but my life is sort of chaos right now so I’m putting things on hold for one more week but things really should be coming back next week. Until then head back through and peruse all the various categories, write-ups, and playlists you may have missed.

Metropolis: Eighty-One Songs About Cities – A Playlist

I hadn’t put together a thematic playlist in a long time so, since I am taking a week off from the “Artist of the Week/Song of the Day” project, I decided to do a city-themed playlist. I know I missed some good songs and I am sure there are more I don’t know about but this playlist is long enough. Basically, I started in New York City and then moved in a circuitous route around the world, ending up 81 songs later in Reykjavik, Iceland. Enjoy some old favorites and maybe find some new ones!