For a band I like so much I haven’t got around to buying many LPs by The Cars. Sure I own Heartbeat City which was a major album for me as a late teen and I bought Door To Door for £1 once, but the only other one I have is Shake It Up, bought in November 1990 when I popped into a second-hand record shop on my way home from lectures* and I couldn’t find/afford anything I really wanted. Any sane person would simply have left, jingling the money in his/her pocket, me? I grabbed Shake It Up so as not to leave empty-handed. Since you’re reading this, I’m guessing you won’t judge me/have done far worse in record shops.
Now I’d like to be able to tell you how, from that unpromising start, Shake It Up became a major cultural force in my life, how ‘This Could Be Love’ was the first dance at my wedding and how I now have that self-same copy framed above my fireplace. Like to, but I’d be lying a bit really. As I said, I love The Cars however, whilst it has a couple of great tracks on it, Shake It Up is just missing some of the magic glitter that the band were able to dust their best work with, there’s some real filler here. But since I’m a my-cup-is-half-MF-full kinda guy let’s accentuate the positives.
It’s 1981, the start of a brash, flash, crash (and burn) sorta decade, so how you going to open your new LP? very subtlety as it happens. ‘Since You’re Gone’ was a great choice, slinking in, a little worldly weary it has that 1537 fave combo of upbeat music and downbeat lyrics – I can never get enough of that. Rik Ocasek has a voice I just love, although I suspect that I like his voice for exactly the same reason I like Mark Knopfler’s, I can sing along without getting bettered or intimidated – try that with Rob Halford, or Kate Bush. He even throws a bit of a Dylan impression in, to my ears, Zimmermaning** the word ‘treacherous’, a treat.
‘Shake It Up’ does just that, yet another product of that perfect synth rock / new wave combo the band mined so well. Pure, simplistic good times party in abundance here with some proper Elliot Easton guitaring around the edges. How can you resist?
Dance all night whirl your hair
Make the night cats stop and stare
Dance all night go to work
Do the move with quirky jerk
As something of a quirky jerk myself, I just can’t. Moreover, why would you want to resist? Just surrender.
Best track on Shake It Up for my money is the heaviest, although that’s in purely relative terms^, ‘Cruiser’. Within its first line I’m instantly transported to a parallel universe where I’m as tall and skinny as Rik Ocasek, strutting into an impossibly cool Manhattan night spot and I tell you, those chicks with the big hair? they really dig me. It’s just something about that little intermittent synth tinkle that grabs me every time, although my son thinks it’s annoying – but what does he know about partying? or anything else?! Even if it wasn’t perfect in every other way ‘Cruiser’ would still net 1537 bonus points for the line ‘chrome red eyeballs reflect and roll’, never mind bands there are nations out there who have never come up with a line as cool as that!
Besides ‘Cruiser’ is also the only track I know*^ to sing the praises of the humble terrestrial gastropod mollusc – True story. Witness:
Flip the switches pull the plug
You always wait for better news
You need a hit you need a slug
You don’t easily get amused
For me that’s the highlights, although I have a lot of time for the poppy ‘A Dream Away’ and ‘I’m Not The One’. Apart from that though there is a bit of padding here and there and a couple of the more synth-orientated tracks sound a little samey to me. I think working with Mutt Lange next time around really refreshed the band and although Shake It Up is great in places, it is maybe the sound of a band and producer not quite being able to recapture that spark from the earlier albums.
467 Down.
*There were three second-hand record shops on my way home. My student grant and I didn’t stand a MF chance!
**copyrighted by me, glorious me. Feel free to use it, sending appropriate royalties to the usual address.
^a bit like being the toughest Bee Gee, or the tallest man in AC/DC^^
^^pre Highway To Hell.
*^apart from possibly ‘Slug Dub’ by The Orb.
The Cars were always a fascination with me. Firstly because my parents had The Cars Greatest Hits on cassette and would play it often in the car and on beer nights when the card games would get heated and angry. Secondly being a snot-nosed youth in the 80s their videos filled up my brain constantly. The Cars were the wonders of the video age. Whether you liked ’em or not, you remembered ’em. Fortunately they were a damn good band before the creation of MTV.
On one of those beer nights I remember my dad saying to me after a few Strohs, “You know, ‘Let The Good Times Roll’ woulda been a damn good Doors song.” I think he was right.
I agree with your dad too. Such a good band, not sure I would ever have bothered with them live. ‘Best Friends Girlfriend’ is the one for me, just machine-tooled perfection.
You definitely didn’t miss anything by not seeing them in concert. I saw them on the Panorama tour in 1980 and, even though I enjoyed every song they played that night, it was one of the most boring shows I’ve ever witnessed. That never affected my enjoyment of their discography, though.
I can understand that, because it is all about that glossy perfection. I bet Rik was too cool even to bead with sweat.
I think that was just their shtick. Play the songs with no audience interaction beyond the occasional “thank you.” Elliot Easton & Greg Hawkes were the stars of the show. They may not have spoken to the crowd but they kicked ass on their instruments. Be on the lookout for a Cars-related album in my next One And Done post.
I have been a huge Cars fan since I got Candy-O back in ’79. I still remember getting Panorama on the day of release, the clerk opening up the box to give me the first copy. I felt so special (I was only 13, so I can be forgiven for such silliness). Shake It Up was the first slight misstep in their catalog, and you’re the first person I’ve encountered who feels the same way about it. “Cruiser” has always been the highlight for me. I find all their other albums (including the unfairly maligned Door To Door) much more consistent. Love the artwork in this post. Definitely up there with your best work.
Hi Rich, thank you kindly – I had a lot of fun doing these.
That’s a damn cool story about Panorama too. I think you’re right its a slight misstep until Mutt freshened them up again.
Have you ever listened to The Cars first album? To me, that was their best and Mike, it would be a great place to start.
Not for a long time, its on my buy list. Heartbeat City is a good one too.
I don’t have any Cars but am intrigued… where would I start?
I’d agree, first album or a greatest hits. I love ’em. It’s all very precision-tooled stuff.
Your album highlight is, for me, the review highlight: ‘humble terrestrial gastropod mollusc’ indeed. And I love that you included that as a tag. Should bring the Followers slithering in.
Aww shucks! Never underestimate the slug blogging community. I’m currently an A list celebrity in those circles!
Not the biggest fan o’ this one, though this reminds me that there are some really good tracks on there. One to revisit, methinks.
Cruiser really, really floats my boat at the moment. It was also a bit of an excuse to get the shaker out.