Ric Ocasek, best known as the main creative force behind
The Cars,
died last month. Although associated with the late 70s / early 80s
new wave movement, it's hard to overstate the influence that The Cars had on modern music. Much like the Beatles, the reason why The Cars do not sound dated today is because they directly and indirectly influenced everyone who came after them. I will not attempt to replicate the many memorials that followed his death (for example:
Weezer's tribute and this
retrospective in Rolling Stone), but instead I'll offer my own perspective.
The Cars hit their peak popularity right at the time I was hitting the age where one really becomes aware of music. I always liked what I heard on the radio (and at the time, you heard it a
lot), but "
Shake It Up", their fourth LP from 1981, is the first one I remember coming out as a "new" LP; prior to that their previous three LPs had always existed, represented both on the radio and in the record store bins that I would browse but seldom have the cash for purchasing. I did get "Shake It Up" on cassette tape shortly after it came out.
This is also the LP that corresponds with the
debut of MTV in 1981, and while they probably had videos prior to MTV, they were one of the bands that quickly embraced the medium and went beyond simple concert footage. While the
title track had a good video, my personal favorite was the melancholy "
Since You're Gone". I'm not 100% sure, but I believe those were the only two singles that received videos and radio airplay. "Shake It Up" is not necessarily considered one of their "classic" LPs, but it's the first one that I bought and thus remains special to me.
Of course, one has to note that Ric Ocasek's contributions to music were not just through The Cars; his
production credits alone would guarantee him a place in the hall of fame. Although the list is a who's-who of alternative bands, I'm especially fond of his work on my two favorite Weezer LPs, "
Blue" and "
Green"; imagine how much better "
Pinkerton" would have been if they had worked with Ocasek on that one as well.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of my middle school crushes, Julie, who was a huge fan of The Cars (as well as The Police, well before they were popular) who even at the time could articulately explain the significance of The Cars and their impact on music. She was a year ahead of me, exotic, and infinitely cooler than I was (or indeed, cooler than entire neighborhood we shared). She would later be a member of one of the many alternative bands our high school would produce. I would have eventually formed the same opinion of The Cars on my own, but I am indebted to her precocious insight and tutelage about which bands are truly innovative and why.
The Cars - "
Since You're Gone"
