The person who, on my show, portrays my spiritual mentor the Rev Dr Howard Gently is someone I've known since I was in middle school. He used to make comedic tapes with his older brother & I kinda wanted to get in on the action. I wasn't funny at all so I assumed the role of straight man. I would pretend to be a radio call-in host named Gary Franklin & my friend would call in doing different voices. It's been fun to note than we pretended to be on the radio over thirty years ago & seem to still be doing that now, only, you know, for real. For "real." But really on the radio.
One of my favorite calls he did was a fellow who is trapped in his house because a rock band is playing a concert on his front yard. That band is the Cars. My friend had taped the Cars playing on some late-night show - my mind tells me it was the Midnight Special but I dunno - it was around the time of "Shake It Up," as that was the song I could hear in the background. It was a memorable bit because the caller complained to Gary Franklin that he couldn't leave his house because of the people gathered & all his services were disrupted. He couldn't even call out, his phone lines were cut. "How are you calling me, then, sir?" Gary Franklin asked. There was a memorable pause & then the caller said, "I'm losin' my mind, Gary! You gotta help me!"
My friend & I still quote that to this day.
The Cars are a band that holds up. They are classic rock, but they're also new wave. Some of their success had to do with Elliot Easton's iconic guitar solos. Some of it had to do with Greg Hawkes' unbelievably successful incorporation of synth into the classic rock sound. But I believe the lion's share of their success had to do with the oddball cool that pervades Ric Ocasek's music, lyrics, & singing. This is the guy who wrote, "It's an orange-y sky," after all.
The truth is, after I discovered postpunk, I was a little embarrassed how much I liked the Cars. At some point, in my poor early college years, I got rid of their records to buy new or different records. (The place I would go for records, Waterloo in Austin, would buy back LPs at two bucks & sell used ones for four. I often bring in four records & leave with two.)
But sometime in the 90s, I stumbled across the double CD greatest hits collection Just What I Needed. It was like running into a best friend from high school with whom I'd lost touch. I remember going to a movie with some young KVRXers a couple nights later, & everyone talking about what CDs or records they'd just added to their collection, & I sheepishly said I bought the Cars greatest hits CD. They all said, "Holy shit, the Cars are awesome." & I agreed. Wholeheartedly.
But I noticed I don't play the Cars on the radio a lot - my records indicate the last time was 2017, although I did play a cover of "Shake It Up" on Freeform this summer - probably because I was raised to think the sort of radio I do is supposed to be an alternative to classic rock. Those lines are blurring & I will belatedly step up my radio worship of the rock genius of Ric Ocasek & crew. I watched some Youtube videos today - live stuff, mostly, not the videos that defined the band in the 1980s - & was impressed how cohesive they were.
Look, I don't know what kept me in love with music in the dark times where I only knew commercial FM radio & what we now call classic rock, but certainly the Cars helped out. I remember being quite in love with "You Might Think" when I was disenchanted with radio in late high school. & though I don't really know if I like the song "Magic" all that music, hearing Ric Ocasek say, "Summer, summer, summer, it turns me upside down" at the very beginning is as powerful to me as an incantation.
It's sad he's no longer with us. It's amazing what music he left us. Here they are performing the song that gives this post its name on some late-night television show in the 1980s:
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