Gentlemen, Please Start Your Engines...

Now that a hitcher has passed by on these pages a couple of days ago, the next step seems obvious. Quick question: What does a hitcher nned to do what he does? Why, cars of course! And so Cars is what we're going to deliver! The Cars' self-titled album is of course an unassailable classic, one of the best, most-fully formed debut albums of all time. Oh, and it has posible the best three song run to open a record. Quickly, name me an opening trio that rivals "Good Times Roll", "My Best Friend's Gir" and "Just What I Needed" - it might exists, but it sure isn't easy to find. But the crazy thing is that the album has't just shot all its powder on that opening salvo, but keeps the energy and hooks coming. It's an album that runs essentially like a greatest hits album. 

As a matter of fact, the music of that debut was so confident and refined in its own inimitable style - which would of coure be almost instantly imitated - that one could wonder how that band could bring out such an album without a false note without...you know...working towards it. But of course nothing is ever developed right out of thin air. The funniest thing when thinking about the Cars is of course that the nucleus of the band - vocalists Raic Ocasek and Ben Orr, nés Richard Otcasek and Benjamin Orzechowski - was doing a folk-ish country rock-ish music before, something that has left absolutely no traces in The Cars' oeuvre. But the weird sidestory of Milkwood is a story for another day. When Ocasek and Orr hooked up first with Greg Hawkes in Richard and the Rabbits, then with Elliot Easton in Capt'n Swing and finally with all of the above and drummer David Robinson as the Cars.

Uuuuh. Let The Good Geek Times Roll...

On today's One Buck Record you can hear how fully formed the band is so early in the game, mainly because they spent a lot of time on developing and putting these songs in shape, while also throwing off a ton of promising contenders that didn't make the cut. This album gathers demos for eight of the nine album tracks - late addition and kickass opener "Good Times Roll" seemingly wasn't demoed, but developed on the spot in the studio. And then there's eight tracks, some of them demoed really early, in spring 1977, that got put aside. Two of these, "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo" and "Leave Or Stay" were rescued and finally recorded for the band's lackluster swan song in a 'back to the roots' move that often precede a band's imminent break up. Reconnecting through the shared past and all that. But I digress. 

Listening to Test Drive should be interesting for a number of reasons: First of all, and again: the songs are really good. Even the outtakes are all of really high quality. There's also the chance to listen to a couple of these songs, such as "Moving In Stereo" and "All Mixed Up", in their original version with Ric Ocasek's vocals, before he gave almost half of them to Ben Orr to sing. 

Aaaaah. Let the good times roll...

Test Drive is both comforting and a discovery - you know most of these songs, but maybe not quite like this. So, strap yourself into the front seat, let the engine roar, and, uh, the good times roll...