the cars, considered
It's fashionable now to despise the corrupting, homogenizing influence of big record labels on young bands: your cool new sound gets you a contract, the contract gets you in way over your head, some balding producer comes in during the studio recording and takes you in a "new direction;" your cool new sound gets left in the suburbs, and you're just another ho-hum band.
One advertisement for the success of bringing in the big guns, though, is the Cars. I was just listening to them yesterday, and marvelling at that huge sound. The label had brought in Roy Thomas Baker, a big-name big-hit guy ("more cowbell!"), and he didn't touch their weird sound but he brought in his trademark ways of turning the volume up to eleven. He was the producer for several Queen albums, and he persuaded the Cars to do 400 tons of backing vocals like Queen did. "Let the Good Times Roll" has 72 backing vocals; when they first come in, it slams you in the face (and, now that I mention it, reminds you a lot of Queen). Same with all of them: "Best Friend's Girl," "You're All I've Got Tonight."
It's so interesting to me that the overwrought sound that helped Queen define the 70s lent so much to the Cars, who, after all, set the agenda for the 80s. Their 1979 debut had it all: the gadgety fascination with electronic drums and weird tech sounds, the spiffy guitar riffs, the enigmatic lyrics, the loopy voice quality, the mix of AM cheese with Warhol erudition. And, on a separate topic entirely, their music is pure joy. What would we do without them?
One advertisement for the success of bringing in the big guns, though, is the Cars. I was just listening to them yesterday, and marvelling at that huge sound. The label had brought in Roy Thomas Baker, a big-name big-hit guy ("more cowbell!"), and he didn't touch their weird sound but he brought in his trademark ways of turning the volume up to eleven. He was the producer for several Queen albums, and he persuaded the Cars to do 400 tons of backing vocals like Queen did. "Let the Good Times Roll" has 72 backing vocals; when they first come in, it slams you in the face (and, now that I mention it, reminds you a lot of Queen). Same with all of them: "Best Friend's Girl," "You're All I've Got Tonight."
It's so interesting to me that the overwrought sound that helped Queen define the 70s lent so much to the Cars, who, after all, set the agenda for the 80s. Their 1979 debut had it all: the gadgety fascination with electronic drums and weird tech sounds, the spiffy guitar riffs, the enigmatic lyrics, the loopy voice quality, the mix of AM cheese with Warhol erudition. And, on a separate topic entirely, their music is pure joy. What would we do without them?
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