-
The Voice He Gave Away: How the Cars’ ‘Drive’ Became the Soundtrack to Live Aid
The Voice He Gave Away: How the Cars’ “Drive” Became the Soundtrack to Live Aid On July 13, 1985, David Bowie stood on the stage at Wembley Stadium in front of 72,000 people and told them they were about to see something important. The screens went dark. Then came the footage: children too weak to…
-
The Two Captains of the Cars: Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr — Love, Estrangement, and the Songs Left Behind
Every great band has a creative engine, and the Cars had two — pulling in different directions, which was exactly the point. Ric Ocasek wrote the songs: wiry, anxious, brilliant, full of romantic static. Benjamin Orr sang the pretty ones: “Just What I Needed,” “Let’s Go,” “Drive,” the voice that made teenage hearts stop and…
-
The Cars (1978): How a Boston Bar Band and a Queen Producer Made the Perfect Debut
Some debut albums sound like a band searching for itself. The Cars sounds like a band that already knew exactly who it was — and was impatient for the rest of us to catch up. Released on June 6, 1978, it spent 139 weeks on the Billboard chart, sold six million copies, and remains one…
-
The Untold Story of the Cars: Cold Machines, Warm Hearts, and the Deadpan Voice of the Eighties
They looked like robots and sounded like the future. Five oddly-matched Bostonians in matching skinny ties, fronted by a six-foot scarecrow with jet-black hair and a voice like a bored telegram — and for a decade, nobody on earth made smarter, stranger, more perfect pop singles. The Cars sold millions, defined MTV’s first golden age,…