Bye Bye Love
By Mitch Berg
The Cars were one of those bands I was always kind of ambivalent about. It took me a few years to realize why; the songs Ric Ocasek sang, I really didn’t much care about. Bassist Ben Orr, on the other hand, sang the cool stuff.
And when it came to the Cars, there was no cooler song than this one!
UPDATE: It seems the copyright police struck overnight.
Well, anyway – I remember seeing the Cars in live appearances later on in their career (during and after the Panorama era) where they looked like they could barely tolerate each other. The last time I saw them was probably on SNL in ’87, doing “Touch and Go”; the band visibly hated each other, and ground through the song with all the spark and zing of a late-afternoon staff meeting.
The vid I linked, though, was from a German concernt in about 1978, doing “Bye Bye Love”. The band was young and kinetic; the song centered on Elliot Easton’s spare but incendiary guitar and Dave Robinson’s Keith-Moonish drums (great on the album, better live). On the album, “Bye Bye Love” is one of the most perfect pop records of all time. Live, played by a band that still could leave it all out on stage, it’s a thrill.
But you’ll have to take my word for it.
April 17th, 2007 at 5:40 am
That was quick. Clicking the link brings us to:
“”This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Studio Hamburg Distribution & Marketing GmbH””
Dang Copyright Police!
April 17th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Dammit. Since last night that happened.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:15 am
I’ve always loved Elliot Easton’s guitar playing quite a bit. I guess I never knew that anyone other than Rik even sang on Cars’ records. Interesting. Hell of a band, either way.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Yeah, Ben Orr sang all of the songs I actually liked – and probably 60% of everything they did.
And Easton was always an amazing player. The solo on “It’s All I Can Do” (from Candy-O is one of my favorites ever.
April 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I was a pretty big Cars fan in their heyday, but was never much impressed with their live performances. They always seemed to be going through the motions.
“Candy-O” was probably their best album, although I also enjoyed “Heartbeat City” quite a bit. “Panorama” was the only real clunker.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I loved the first two; great hooks, plus you got the feeling someone was having fun playing the stuff.
Not so much after that, although to be honest Panorama did turn me off so badly I didn’t really listen much more.
April 17th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I’ve always admired Elliot Easton for sneaking a country riff in “My Best Friend’s Girl.”