The Cars part 5, OUT!

The last batch of Cars boots that I have, hope you've been enjoying them....we're into the point now in which the band was more mainstream, thusly, IMO, not as eccentric, nor as good.....still a listenable bunch of tunes, and still entertaining live, but there is on this band, NO ARGUEMENT, I don't think, as to their artistic peak, "The Cars" and "Candy-O", both 5 star classics......after that, pretty much another "new wave rock band", albeit one that could come up with a winning tune every now and again.

So with that, the remainder of my live Cars stuff, not nearly as engaging as the earlier ones, but so be it...up first is a 1979 set from Los Angeles. Heavy on "Candy-O" stuff, including an unusual set opener, "Got a Lot On My head", which works quite well. "Take What You Want" appears once again, I'm not sure why they thought it was such a good tune to perform live, as they did quite often, but we'd REALLY be splitting hairs there.

From 1980 comes a Tokyo show, again with a somewhat odd show opener ("Misfit Kid"), as the "Panorama" tracks begin to creep into the setlist (actually I quite like the live version of "Panorama", arguably superior to the studio take....."Getting Through" closes the show, in my opinion another somewhat odd choice.

Houston Texas is the scene for a 1984 set, by now, the novelty was LONG gone and this was a "hit machine" so to speak....lots of stuff from "Shake It Up" and "heartbeat City", and not really, in my opinion, to that great of an effect....see what you think, but to me stuff like "Hello Again", "Drive", and "You might Think" were just markedly inferior to ANY track on the first two albums. A version of "Jimmy Jimmy", and a not so great one, turns up in the setlist as well.

Now we come to 1987, the University of Missouri, and this is not, for my money, a good set at all, this is a
band that was about at the end of the line, and it sounds like it. One positive: a lively show opening version of "Tonight She Comes" (WHY it was never on an album I'll never know, I thought it was one of their best, if not their best, post-"Candy-O" tunes).

Another set from the same year, this from Grand Rapids Michigan, has an almost identical setlist to the Missouri show, and, to me, further documents their decline......at least they open with "Tonight She Comes" again.

The 1979 release, "Supergroups In Concert", IS a pretty good set, not sure, exactly, what it is from, but there are several fairly interesting interview segments and the performances are pretty spot-on.....I recommend this one over anything else from today's post.

So there you are....The Cars......background music for my junior and senior years in high school, timed thier career PERFECTLY as opposed to Roxy Music, as we've discussed before, likely THE representative band of 78-80, the ultra-hip music fans adored them, as did music critics, and, as a bonus they sounded great on the radio and program directors loved them as well......as a whole, their career was a line straight downhill after the first 2 (well, 3) albums, but make no mistake there were highlights after that, and, really, how many groups make two undeniably classic albums anyway.....a few, but not THAT many.

At the end of the day, they done damn fine.

LOS ANGELES 1979-01 Got a Lot on My head/02 Good Times Roll/03 Let's Go/04 Night Spots/05 Since I held You/06 Double Life/07 Moving In Stereo/08 Candy-O/09 Don't Cha Stop/10 Bye Bye Love/11 All Mixed Up/12 Take What You Want/13 You're All I've Got Tonight/14 Just What I Needed/15 Dangerous Type

TOKYO 1980-01 Misfit Kid/02 Best Friend's Girl/03 Moving In Stereo/04 Just What I Needed/05 Gimme Some Slack/06 Candy-O/07 Good Times Roll/08 Bye Bye Love/09 You're All I've Got Tonight/10 Panorama/11 Don't Tell me No/12 Double Life/13 Getting Through

HOUSTON 1984-01 Hello Again/02 It's Not the Night/03 Touch and Go/04 Candy-O/05 Good Times
Roll/06 Jimmy Jimmy/07 Moving In Stereo/08 Just What I Needed/09 Dream Away/10 Drive/11 You might Think/12 Best Friend's Girl/13 Magic/14 Let's Go/15 Heartbeat City/16 You're All I've Got Tonight


GRAND RAPIDS 1987-01 Tonight She Comes/02 Touch and Go/03 Double Trouble/04 You Are the Girl/05 Everything You Say/06 Since You're Gone/07 Fine line/08 Let's Go/09 Strap Me In/10 Candy-O/11 Moving In Stereo/12 Dangerous Type/13 Drive/14 Best Friend's Girl/15 Good Times Roll/16 You Might Think/17 Hello Again/18 Just What I Needed

U OF MISSOURI 1987-01 Tonight She Comes/02 Touch and Go/03 Double Trouble/04 You Are the
girl/05 Everything You Say/06 Since You're Gone/07 Nightspots/08 Strap Me In/09 Let's Go/10 Candy-O/11 Moving In Stereo/12 Dangerous Type/13 Drive/14 Hello Again/15 Just What I Needed/16 Best Friend's Girl/17 Good Times Roll/18 You Might Think

SUPERGROUPS IN CONCERT-01 ABC Intro/02 Got a Lot On My Head/03 Good Times Roll/04 Ric Ocasek Talks About "Let's Go"/05 Let's Go/06 Night Spots/07 Since I Held You/08 Elliot Easton Talks About the Cars Sound/09 Double Life/10 Moving In Stereo/11 Candy-0/12 Don't Cha Stop/13 Ric Ocasek Talks About 70's Music/14 Bye Bye Love/15 All Mixed Up/16 Take What You Want/17 Ric Ocasek Talks About "You're All I've Got Tonight"/18 You're All I've Got Tonight/19 Just What I Needed/20 Dangerous Type/21 ABC Outro