Hey, everyone. This is Joe Millican, author of
the book, Let's Go, Benjamin Orr and the Cars.
And you are listening to my weekly mixtape with
Brian Colburn. We had a lot of fun doing this
one, so we hope you enjoy it. Let's go. Welcome
to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that takes the
classic mixtape approach to building a modern
playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn. Joining
me tonight as guest curator is Joe Millican,
music journalist and author of the book Let's
Go, Benjamin Orr and the Cars. Joe, thank you
so much for joining me on My Weekly Mixtape.
Brian, it's great to be here, man. I appreciate
you inviting me on. This is a unique podcast
you got set up here. So it's a little different
than what I'm used to doing. So I'm looking forward
to it. And I'm looking forward to having you
on. But I'm going to start by asking you the
same question I ask all of my first time guests.
And that is, what does the word mixtape mean
to you? Well, to be honest with you, mixtape
means a lot to me because me and mixtapes and
making mixtapes go way back. I think a lot of
people who. are such music enthusiasts as we
are, I think everybody has some kind of connection
to a mixtape somehow. Either they made them themselves
or somebody made one for them, that kind of thing.
And I go way back. I mean, I literally was making
mixtapes going back to when I was like 15 years
old. And it's funny because the first mixtapes
I used to make before I even had like a whole
component stereo set up in my room. I used to
actually make mixtapes off a boombox. I'd set
up the radio dials on my boombox, and I'd put
a blank tape in, and I'd press record and pause,
and I would sit there and wait for a song to
come on that I wanted or whatever I was doing
at the time, and I'd record the song. The song
would over, I'd press pause, and I'd sit there
for a whole day working on tapes. But then I
graduated to making my own mixtapes. I want to
make a classic rock mixtape, or I want to make
a... a jazz mixtape or whatever the case may
be. And then I actually, like after showing a
couple of friends of mine these tapes, I'm like,
wow, I'd love you to make me one of those. I
started making mixtapes for friends and I used
to do it as Christmas presents for friends. And
every year it built up and built up and built
up. And at one point, this is going back to probably
when I was in my late twenties, early thirties
or whatever, I was making like 20 tapes a year
for people. I'd have one going to go, oh, I got
to have this song for this guy's tape. So I'd
get all these tapes started. And as the year
went on, I'd build them all up. And by the end
of the year, I would have mixed tapes for my
friends and family. So me and mixed tapes go
way back. That is time dedication. Bravo. I absolutely
love it. Yeah, a little crazy, but it was fun.
Not at all. That's a gift that shows you were
thinking about that person throughout the whole
year. So I think that's the gift that keeps on
giving. Absolutely. All right. Well, I'm extremely
excited for tonight's episode because tonight
we are talking about the music of the cars, a
band who in no shock to anyone listening to me
and who has heard any episodes before knows that
the cars 1978 self -titled album is my favorite
album of all time. So for me. I'm in trouble
because I kind of want to choose all nine songs
from the self -titled album because to me it's
a masterpiece. But I'm going to do my best to
represent music from across all of the band's
albums because even though their self -titled
is my favorite album of all time, albums like
Candio and Heartbeat City are not too far behind.
And I consider those two both front to back classics
as well. So I'm going to have my work cut out
for me tonight. Now, Joe, as someone who wrote
a book detailing the life of Benjamin Orr, the
band's bassist and co -lead singer, did you find
it difficult to come up with a bank of songs
to pull from for tonight's playlist curation?
I think the only thing that was a little difficult
in putting this together was, you know, you start
writing songs down and making a list and all
of a sudden you're halfway through that list
and you're looking going. I got to start being
really careful about what I'm choosing here to
make sure I get a lot of my favorites on because
there was just, even though they only did what?
Including Move Like This, which happened later
on, I think they only did like six studio albums.
Yeah, it was six studio albums with Ben up to
Door to Door and then Move Like This without
Ben for the seventh. But there's still so many
songs on every album. It's unbelievable. And
I ran into the same kind of problem as you did
with the debut album, because just about every
song on that album still gets played on classic
rock radio. So I very easily could have done
that. My personal favorite's Candio, but it's
more like a sentimental favorite. I kind of get
it that the debut album is their best album.
I mean, it's just from beginning to end. But
Candio kind of slipped in as my favorite. Those
are my top two. So, but really the only problem
with me was, okay, I've got three slots left
and I've got all these songs. Which ones do I
have to take? So that was the only problem I
had was trying to come up with what ones I was
going to use. Well, hopefully you and I have
some overlap here. So that way maybe we're helping
each other out in a way. True. I wrote down a
whole bunch of stuff because I assume that, you
know, if you're a Cars fan, I think there's a
lot of... standard songs that would be on just
about anybody's car's mixtape. There's always
going to be a few of those. So I had a feeling
we'd probably run into a few duplicates along
the way. That's for sure. Well, let's get down
to business. Tonight, as I mentioned earlier,
Joe and I will be curating the ultimate mixtape
for the cars, and we'll use the old cassette
deck approach. Joe, as the guest curator, will
begin side A with his first song choice, and
then I'll add a song that I feel best follows
up his choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for side
A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial flip,
only this time I'll kick things off. with Joe
choosing second. Our overall goal for this episode
is to craft the best Cars playlist possible through
only 20 songs. At the end of the show, you can
take our conversation to the next level by visiting
the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com to give
our final mixtape a listen via the embedded playlist.
And if you like what you're hearing on the show,
You can help me out by telling a friend about
the show, leaving the show a five -star review
wherever you're listening, or by becoming a Patreon
mixtaper at patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape.
And a few of our Patreon mixtapers chimed in
with songs that they would kick off their car's
mixtape with. And I want to give a shout out
to some of these and maybe give you and I some
food for thought. Sounds good. Jason Donchus
said his path to the cars was via You're All
I've Got Tonight because the Smashing Pumpkins
covered it in the 90s on one of their box sets.
But he would also consider Bye Bye Love, but
would have to hope the other curator followed
up immediately with moving in stereo because
those songs need to be back to back. And he thinks
that should be a law in most states. Ben from
the Too Vague podcast said his pick will now
and forever be Don't You Stop. And Sean Faust
is torn between Good Times Roll or Since You're
Gone. And finally, Cactus Pete chimed in with,
off of Heartbeat City, Magic. And Joe, with that,
I'm officially pressing the record button on
our Cars mixtape and I'm passing the mic over
to you. What song will you be using to kick things
off tonight and why? Okay, so those are interesting
choices you made, by the way. Somebody wanting,
don't you stop. That's really, that's interesting.
Yeah, that's certainly a deep cut off the self
-title, but look, I'm all here for it. I feel
it. I mean, that is a deep cut for sure. So that's
interesting to hear that. I went more of a standard,
in a standard direction, I guess. So I'm going
to go with a little shameless self -promotion
here, and I'm going to declare the opening song
to be Let's Go. It's a great way to start. You
know, it sounds like the beginning of something.
Let's go. Let's start this thing up. So I thought
that would be a good choice. Obviously, it's
the title of my book, but that's not the only
reason I chose it. I think it's just a great,
upbeat rock anthem. And it's a jukebox favorite.
And it was also the band's first top 20 hit.
Even after that first album came out, they had
several songs that were in the top 40. But nothing
had cracked the top 20 yet. And Let's Go peaked
at number 14 when it came out. So that's another
little sidebar why I chose that. It happened
to be like their first top 20 single. So I went
with Let's Go to get it opened. Absolutely love
the song. Really, it is the perfect opening song.
And I'm glad you did that because in my heart
of hearts, if I was going to start off. I would
have to go with something from the self -titled.
And if you did go with something from the self
-titled album, I would have had a hard time immediately
following up with a second one from the self
-titled. So that makes my first song choice a
little easier. But about the song Let's Go, Benjamin
Orr on lead vocals, you get one side of this.
Two headed monster. And I mean that in a good
way, because you have two extremely competent
and extremely talented lead singers in Benjamin
or Enrico Kassick. And their voices are not so
far removed that a first time listener to the
cars. might not know that this band has two lead
singers. And there's just something that there's
this tonality about their voices that works so
well together. And Let's Go is a very fun and
exciting song. And it's one of the first ways
my parents got me into the cars as well, because
when I was growing up, one of my first record
albums was Alvin and the Chipmunks' Chipmunk
Punk. And on that album, they covered Let's Go.
So as a kid, I became a fan. Yes, 100%. I'll
have to dig that up. I did not know that. That's
funny. I like that. You know what? Alvin does
a good job of it. He's not no Benjamin Orr, but
he's all right. He's all right. You know, you
are right about there. It's funny because when
this book came out, you know, I had a lot of
Cars fans get a hold of me. Some who were already
huge fans, other people that were just getting
introduced to them. And I actually had some fans
say to me, They thought Rick sang everything.
There were actually some fans out there that
didn't even realize that Ben also took lead on
some of their songs. So it's really weird because
they have a way. You're right. They do have a
way of sounding alike. Because when I first started
learning about and started researching the book,
there were still a few times where I'm like,
is that Rick or is that Ben? So they do have
some similarities, but they also can go in the
total opposite direction as well. You know, Rick
has more of that. I'm going to say this word
a lot during this whole episode, I know, but
he's got that quirky kind of sound to his voice.
Whereas Ben's more classic, more like a smooth
crooner type of voice, almost in an Elvis kind
of way. He's a little more smooth. And Rick had
even said himself that when he wrote songs, he
didn't even say, well, I'm writing this. Oh,
that's Ben's. Oh, I'm singing this song. He actually
brought the songs into the studio when they would
both give it a go. And then he would say, oh,
that's definitely you do that better. Or, you
know, so they would kind of go back and forth
in that way. So there's even a lot of demos out
there where Rick ended up singing the song on
the album. But there's a demo where Ben sings
it and vice versa. So you're right. There's a
lot of similarities to their voice. And sometimes
it takes you a minute to realize who it is. But
there's other times where they go in opposite
directions as well. So pretty interesting give
and take there. By all means. And what I'm going
to do is I'm going to balance the Benjamin. or
Rick Ocasek scale right now. And like I said,
I am going to go to the first album and I'm going
to follow up. Let's go with the band's ode to
rock and roll excess and the lead track off of
the bands. I'm a sucker for opening songs and
the opening song on my favorite album of all
time is good times roll. And I think following
up, let's go. It's just perfect because good
times roll. has that vibe about it that really
describes everything the cars are. They're a
little bit rock. They're a little bit punk. They're
a little bit new wave. And they kind of mix it
all together and craft a sound that completely
ushered in a new era of music. And to me, this
song is their hello to the world. If Hello Again
on Heartbeat City is their reintroducing themselves,
this was the first time they showed up at the
door. And I mean, first song on my favorite album
of all time. So, of course, I got to mention
it first tonight. Good Times Roll from their
self -titled. It makes a lot of sense. And, you
know, I was actually considering Good Times Roll
as well. Obviously, a great opening song, another
anthem -like song. And Good Times Roll for me
was actually the first Cars song I ever heard.
And I remember, I can remember to this day, I'm
in junior high school and I'm playing on my Babe
Ruth baseball team. And I'm hitching a ride to
a game with my assistant coach. And we got in
his car and he plopped in an eight track tape
of the first album. And Good Times Road came
on and hearing that car horn sounding keyboard
sound at the very beginning. And I just remember
looking at it going, what the hell is this? Just
a whole totally different sound. And you described
it really well when you talk about how they blend
elements of different styles. They're a little
bit rock. They're a little bit new wave. They
can even get a little punky. They're a little
pop. So to me, the cars, all of these types of
sounds, all kind of blended together. And I think
that's what makes the cars so distinctive. I
mean, you hear a car song, you know it's them.
I mean, nobody sounds like them. And I think
that's another reason why their music has been
so enduring all these years. Because I mean,
it's been so long since they even put anything
out, but you still hear their music on TV commercials
and radio spots. And it's still all over the
place because I think their music's timeless.
So I agree. That's definitely a good choice to
kick off with, for sure. Well, now I'm throwing
it back to you to follow up with track three.
Okay. So I told you about how I go way back with
making mixtapes. I'm not even sure why I developed
this, but one thing I tried to do was when I
was making a mixtape for, say, one particular
band, I would take all the music I had by them,
so all their albums, and I would want to put
a little bit of everything on the tape. So I
didn't want to go heavy and only put five or
six songs from one album, but only do one from
another. So I tried my best to kind of spread
it out. And I also, for some reason, would not
go from the band's first album to their third
album, back to the second, over to their sixth.
I would like start at the beginning. I'm going
to take something off the first album. Then I'm
going to take something off the second. And then
I'm going to take something off the third. And
I just have this routine I do. So I had to do
it that way here. Obviously, I started with Let's
Go, which is off the second album. So now I have
to go back and revert to my old way of doing
things and go back to the first album and start
there, even though I know you had one. So the
first album is really tough because I was actually
going to try to cheat, but I didn't think I'd
get away with it. Because to me, that whole side
two is one song. You're All I've Got Tonight
into Bye Bye Love into Moving in Stereo into
All Mixed Up. It's hard to listen to those. Not
hard to, but I oftentimes wouldn't listen to
them separately because they all just flow together
and you feel like you got to listen to them all
at once. I actually have. I have ripped Bye Bye
Love moving in stereo and all mixed up as a single
track on my phone. I feel like You're All I've
Got Tonight has a definitive ending, but the
three songs that follow that up, I've always
felt are one. complete piece between the three
songs. I can't hear bye -bye love and not hear
moving in stereo coming out of it. So I completely
see where you're going with that. Yeah. And I,
well, when I said I was going to try to cheat,
I really didn't think he'd let me get away with
counting four songs or three songs as one. So
if I got to split them up, I decided to go with,
it's hard to say what your favorite car song
is, but this is arguably one of my two or three
favorite car song. I went with Bye Bye Love.
Just a great song and I love Ben's vocal in it.
And, you know, I didn't know where this whole
thing was going to go. So I had to make sure
that I got that in as soon as possible because
I'm trying to make sure I get most of my favorite
songs in here somehow. So if I had to break it
up, I figured that would be the first one to
chip off. To me, that is power pop. perfection
this is the side of the cars where when people
listen to heartbeat city and they say oh my god
the cars went pop they were never like this i
always point back to bye bye love because that
is the sound that they just enhanced a little
bit more on heartbeat city so the power pop was
always a signature of this band and that guitar
work By Elliot Easton, the guitar solo in Bye
Bye Love is so perfect, so musical and so underrated
that it's probably one of the best songs on the
album. And it wasn't a massive hit. It's played
on rock radio, but it wasn't one of the lead
singles from the album. So if it wasn't for stations
in New York, like 1027 playing album sides like
they did back when I was growing up, this song,
I feel like got its. push on radio from those
album sites because the second half of the car
self -titled is an absolute masterpiece and following
it up with track four just like patreon mixtaper
jason donchus said at the top of the show the
last thing i want to do is get arrested and i
100 agree you cannot have bye -bye love and follow
it up with anything Other than moving in stereo.
So track four, I am following it right up with
moving in stereo, showing a different side of
Benjamin's voice. Benjamin's voice in Bye Bye
Love is very upbeat, very lively. Perfect for
the pop sensibility, even though the song had
lyrics that might not have leaned that way. Substitution,
mass confusion, clouds inside your head does
not really sound like an upbeat, airy power pop
single. However, the cars were able to make it
work with that balance. Then you slide into moving
in stereo and he drops into this lower register
and it's very ethereal, very dark. brooding almost
yeah and it's so perfect because it's a complete
180 where you're taken to this whole other place
musically but yet they really push and pull off
each other so well so i have to follow up bye
bye love with moving in stereo and then obviously
if i don't mention it given my age at the time
fast times at ridgemount high also cemented that
song into my DNA in other ways other than musically.
I'm in the same boat. I know exactly what you
mean. And you're right about Bye Bye Love. I
think because, yeah, it wasn't released as a
single. And so I think that actually got some
juice, if you will, was from getting played on
FM radio. Because when that album came out, WBCN
in Boston is what I would listen to when I was
younger. And of course, they helped launch the
cars. They were playing, you know, Maxanne Sartori,
who was a famous DJ from Boston. She's iconic
for helping Aerosmith get started. She also helped
the cars get started. And I talked about it in
my book about how before they were the band previously,
they were called Captain Swing before they turned
into the cars. And Bye Bye Love was actually
a Captain Swing song. It was one of the few songs
that they actually brought over into the cars.
So I was hearing, I heard Bye Bye Love on the
radio right when the album came out. And I think
that's how it got its juice. Because, yeah, I
still hear it on classic radio. And you were
also right to mention Elliot's guitar solo on
that song. About as precise and pristine and
perfect as you can get, I think, for sure. All
right. We are back to you following up Bye Bye
Love and moving in stereo. We've already overlapped,
so I'll be... Obviously, I had that set up as
one of my songs. Okay, so going back to my formula,
so now I've taken a song from the first two albums,
so now I have to go to the third album with Panorama,
which is a very unique album, probably their
most misunderstood album, I think, because even
though Kandiyo was quite a bit different from
the first album, the two were still kind of in
the same vein. And with their third album, Rick
consciously wanted to do something different.
It really took the record company by surprise,
and they almost didn't want them to go forth
with Panorama. They wanted them to actually re
-record some other things because they weren't
too sure about it. Because it's definitely a
much different and darker kind of album than
the other ones. So going through Panorama, I
decided to go with the one single. from the album
and the one that got some pretty good radio play,
and that's Touch and Go. Touch and Go is such
a unique song. It's hard to even describe, but
it's such an offbeat song and it's so different.
And the amazing thing is it still entered the
top 40, even though it wasn't your typical rock
song, pop song. chorus bridge solo you know it's
a totally different kind of feel to it it's really
mysterious and dark sounding it's a lot of offbeat
time signatures so it isn't necessarily something
that's conducive to radio but like i said it
did get some radio play and it cracked the top
40 it did number 37 um when panorama came out
i think it's also there their least selling album,
if you will. But it didn't go platinum. And it
took a long time for people to get used to Panorama.
But I do think it gets more respect now as the
years have gone by. So instead of trying to go
with one of the more offbeat cuts, I decided
to go with the one single and went with Touch
and Go. It's a great song. I feel like you hit
the nail on the head. It is their most misunderstood
album, and I would say their most underrated
album, because there's a lot of angst and aggression
in this album that you don't hear on. other cars
albums. And this is where Rick's tongue in cheek
lyrics have a little bit more of a sharp edge
to them. They cut a little deeper and the music
just kind of goes along with that lyric theme.
And I actually understand why the band chose
touch and go as the single from this album, because
it is really the most musically digestible compared
to some of the other songs like the title track.
And give me some slack that are much more intense
compared to the sounds that people were used
to from the self -titled and Candio. So following
that up for track six, I'm going to go in another
direction. I'm going to stick with a Rico Kassick
song, but I'm a sucker for album openers. And
I think the boldest album open that the cars
ever did was when they took a chance. and opened
up an album with a power ballad. And that would
be 1981's Shake It Up and the song Since You're
Gone. One of my absolute favorite songs from
then growing up. I can tell you right now, Wildwood,
New Jersey. I was maybe four or five years old
and they took me on the boardwalk and we played
that game where... You would bet on a color and
then someone would throw a beach ball into a
wrestling ring of holes. And whichever color
the beach ball landed in the hole, if you had
your money on that color, you won a prize. Well,
I had picked blue. The ball went into the blue
hole. And I want a copy of The Cars, Shake It
Up on vinyl. And I've had it ever since. And
Since You're Gone was the first song I ever heard
when I dropped the needle on that album. And
I just fell in love with it. The opening snaps.
The guitar, Elliot's guitar is so beautiful.
It's distorted, but it's smooth. And it works
so well. And you could feel the heartache in
this song. And to open up an album whose lead
single is so upbeat and happy. To have such a
kind of crushing lyrical open is a bold move
by the band and one that I think definitely needs
to be recognized here. So I am following up Touch
and Go with Since You're Gone from Shake It Up.
That's a good choice. I'm taking notes as I go
along here because, yes, that's one that I had
picked. So that's a great choice. One thing that
really amazed me about Regan's songwriting is
how... He could create such a quirky, and there's
that word again, atmosphere in his lyrics and
the music. But somehow it's radio friendly. Because
Since You're Gone was a hair shy of making the
top 40 as a single. It peaked at number 41 when
it came out. So, you know, to have such a quirky
offbeat kind of song to be able to hit the charts
and stay there for a while is really... A unique
thing. And the guitar, Elliot, just seems to
come up with these unique and precise guitar
solos, which really seems to always tie everything
together, no matter how offbeat a song might
be by them. So yeah, I agree. That's a great
choice. All right. Now we're throwing back to
you to follow it up. Okay. So let's see. Going
in my uniform direction here, I did something
from Panorama. So the next album they did was
Shake It Up. And, you know, I looked at Shake
It Up and I decided to throw a little curveball
in here. Or at least I think it's probably considered
a curveball. I went with A Dream Away. This song
is highly underrated to me. And it's just so
dreamlike. And it just has this magical. kind
of feel to it and it's like there's like a mystery
about it and lyrically it what amazes me about
this song is lyrically it just it seemingly makes
no sense at all you know i've sat there and looked
at the lyrics and read them i've tried to read
it as a poem i've tried to read it as a story
and you just can never quite put your finger
on what the hell rick is really talking about
in the song The way he blends things together.
And even though these lyrics make no sense, it's
seemingly perfect. The way they sound together,
it's hard for me to fathom it. You know, to just
read these lyrics and go, that absolutely makes
no sense. But they're perfect. It's like I wouldn't
change a word. So that always amazed me. And,
you know, once again, he just takes such a quirky,
offbeat song and turns it into a... A radio song.
It somehow gets played on the radio, even though
it's just a quirky thing. I guess you would consider
that a curveball. And that is a curveball, definitely.
And I like it because following it up, I have
a curveball as well. So you're throwing a curve
and I'm throwing a curve. Maybe that'll put us
right back on track where we need to be. One
thing I love about the cars. is the fact that
they have two very competent lead singers. And
something I'd like to do on each side of my Cars
mixtapes is have a song that features both Rick
and Ben as the lead vocalists. And there's not
many in the Cars catalog. However, on Heartbeat
City, one of the heaviest songs on the album
is the incredible It's Not the Night, which includes
both Ben and Rick. on lead vocals. This song
is heavy. It's intense. It's a song about sweet,
sweet revenge. And you feel it. You feel it in
this song. And the fact that this song wasn't
a single has always shocked me because it's one
of the most powerful songs on Heartbeat City.
And I know when you have songs like Magic, you
might think, hello again. drive, all massive,
massive hits. I can understand where it's not
the night doesn't fit in with those, but across
the entire chorus catalog, I can't have a mixtape
without this one because of its uniqueness and
rarity in the catalog of both singing lead on
one song. So I am following up a dream away with
it's not the night from heartbeat city. Wow.
So we got back to back really deep cuts. That's
really cool. And, you know, as I went along here,
I was trying my best, consciously trying my best
not to go too far one way. You know, I don't
want to start throwing a curveball every other
pitch, you know. And so I tried to, like, keep
it balanced somehow. So after we both go with
the curveballs, I said to myself, OK, so my last
two songs have been Touch and Go and A Dream
Away, which are both kind of really quirky car
songs. So I was thinking I better go back to
the mainstream a little bit. So I went to the
next album. I have to shake it up, keeping in
my order. And so I'm at Heartbeat City 2. And
I decided to go with a radio -friendly track
this time. And as one of your listeners had typed
into you, I went with Magic. Nice. It's just
a happy -go -lucky, upbeat, you know, summertime
song. And I still have the visual of the video.
Because the video was so huge on MTV when this
album came out of Rick walking on water. It's
like a pool, an underground pool setting, and
Rick's walking on the water there. And also,
I just love Ben Orr's badass bass lines on that
song. I really love his deep bass on that track.
So I decided to go a little mainstream and pick
something off the radio. And so that's why I
went with Magic. I didn't write down. I think
Magic actually was a top 20 single. So I kind
of went a little radio friendly this time and
try to smooth things out a little with Magic.
I think it's great. I love that track. If you
go back and listen to my interview with Will
Turpin of Collective Soul, we talk about how
Magic from Heartbeat City is a influence to Collective
Soul's song Hollywood. So if you ever listen
to the song Hollywood. By Collective Soul. It's
kind of their nod. To Rick Ocasek and the Cars.
And this song. So I think that's a great one.
I love this song. To me. That video. Was just
part of the MTV revolution. As a kid seeing.
This tall lanky guy. Just walking across a pool.
Singing. It was so 80s. But it works so well.
And Heartbeat City. my parents had a VHS of all
the videos from it. And there were some strange,
memorable videos during that time. That's all
I'll say for now, because I have a feeling we'll
touch on heartbeat city some more tonight. So
closing out side a, the cars know how to end
sides really, really well. And they know how
to end albums really, really well. So this one
is actually. easy for me to have a bank of songs
just in and of itself of where to end because
it's the end of a side and they know how to end
strong so i'm at a toss -up right now between
two closing songs both from the same album it's
the side a and side b closer and i think i'm
gonna lean towards the side b closer because
i'm just feeling coming out of magic We need
to talk about the dangerous type. I'm going back
to Candio. I don't think they could have picked
a better closer for that album. And it has such
a tasty Elliot Easton riff that just drives with
the kick drum as it's opening. And the song,
again, has this pop sensibility. So when Letters
to Cleo covered the song for the Crafts soundtrack
in the 90s and added that layer of pop to it.
It made the song reinvigorated again for a whole
new generation. And that's because the cars already
had pop sensibility and letters to Cleo just
put their little bit of a spin on it and reinvented
it. But they didn't reinvent the song because
the songs pop nature was already there. And I
love the lyrics to this song. I love the guitar
work in it. And it's, again, a perfect. for either
a side or an album. So Closing Outside A, Dangerous
Type from Candio. That's a great track. And you
know, I'm learning something. You learn something
new every day because I didn't know that Letters
to Khalil covered that song. So I've already
made a note of it. I'm going to go check it out
for sure. Oh, it's great. And they were a very
good Boston band. So obviously they felt the
car's influence. That's really cool. Yep, I had
Dangerous Type as one of my songs listed. I agree
with that. That's a great choice. Absolutely.
All right. Well, there you have it, folks. Side
A of our ultimate mixtape of the cars, which
kicked off with Let's Go, Good Times Roll, Bye
Bye Love, Moving in Stereo, Touch and Go, Since
You're Gone, A Dream Away, It's Not the Night,
Magic, and Dangerous Type. Head over to MyWeeklyMixtape
.com to hear all the songs we've discussed in
this mix through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. Now, Joe, we've been talking about
your book on and off throughout the night so
far, but I guess my first question, what made
you gravitate towards writing a book specifically
about Benjamin Orr and not the Cars as a whole?
When you think about the members of this band,
all the members have led really unique and interesting
musical careers. Yeah. So I'll make it as brief
as possible, explaining how I came up with the
idea to write or how it came about, because it
actually happened by happenstance. So we're going
back quite a ways now because it took me a long
time to put this book together because I was
kind of doing it in my spare time. You know,
I'm a full time job. I got a family and I can't
just sit in my office and write a book eight
hours a day. So it actually like and do all the
interviews I did and stuff. And of course, Ben
was no longer with us, like couldn't interview
him. So what's the best thing to do? Interview
as many people who knew him as possible. So this
is a very long, grueling process. And people
think I'm exaggerating when I say this, but I'm
not. The book literally took me a decade to complete.
So it was a long time coming. But going all the
way back to the beginning of them. So I was already
a music journalist and a freelance writer. But
all my writing, all my music writing revolved
around local newspapers and a couple of rock
magazines. So when I decided I finally wanted
to tackle a book, I had a short list of ideas
that I was thinking about doing. And so this,
to give you an idea, this goes back to the original
social media MySpace. I had a MySpace account
and on it, I listed my personal information,
said that I was a music writer from Boston, listed
some of my favorite bands. I listed The Cars
as one of my influences. Well, a female fan of
The Cars saw my MySpace page and sent me a message
and said, you should write a book about Ben -Hur.
And exactly what you said earlier, I went back
to her and said, well, why would I write about
Ben? Why wouldn't I want to just write about
the cars in general? And her only reply was,
I think you should just investigate it. A lot
of people don't know about Ben and what he did
in his life. I think you should take a look at
it. So I did. I investigated Ben, did some research,
and I found out some things about him that I
didn't know, such as. He's originally from Cleveland,
which is the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame. So I thought that was pretty cool. I also
learned that he was a childhood star in his town,
if you will. Ben started playing instruments
when he was like 12. He started out as a drummer.
And then by 17, he was a guitar player. And he
actually was fronting his own band in Cleveland
at age 17. The band was called the Grasshoppers.
So this is like in the mid 50s. So here's this
teenage kid fronting his own band. Well, there
was a TV show in Cleveland back then, a music
television show that was called Beat. And it
was kind of like Cleveland's version of American
Bandstand. They brought in professional musicians
who had the hit of the day and they would lip
sync their songs. So it was just like that same
format as American Bandstand. The only thing
different that Upbeat did was when they would
go to and from commercials, they would have a
house band there. that would play music to come
in and out of commercials. And the house bands,
they would go into the city of Cleveland and
find local bands that they thought were good
to be on the show, to do the intros and outros.
And Ben's band was chosen. So this kid's 17 years
old. He's not even out of school yet. And he's
fronting a band and he's on like a nationally
televised. And the show ended up being nationally
syndicated until the early 70s. So it was seen
in like 60 cities across the country. And I'm
thinking to myself, this kid was like a star.
And this was like 15 years before he even met
Rick. So I learned all these things about him.
Like, oh, my God, this kid was a rock star in
his hometown before he even thought about being
a member of the cars. So these types of things,
that's what helped it for me right there. I just
said, I got to tell this guy's story. So that's
how I decided to write about Ben. I just thought
his early life was really cool. And he worked
hard and met Rick in Ohio. They went through
a lot together. A lot of people might think that
it's easy to become a rock star. These guys toiled
away in bars for like 10 years, starving to death
before they ever even got a sniff of a record
deal. Awesome. Well, piggybacking off what you
were talking about. A lot of Cars fans aren't
even familiar with the Crosby, Stills, Nash &
Young or America -esque sounding pre -Cars band
called Milkwood, which featured Ric Ocasek and
Benjamin Orr. It's an album that I've been trying
to get my hands on a CD reissue for for years.
I just can't find it. If you're lucky enough
to stumble across the vinyl in a used bin, please
pick it up and let me know about it, obviously,
because I've been... Long searching for this
one. But if you go on YouTube, there's a song
on there called Dream Traitor, which I'll embed
over at the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com.
Even though the band as a whole isn't what people
expect to hear when someone mentions the cars,
I, for one, hear the foundation of the cars being
laid down in a song like Dream Traitor. Yeah,
you know, I'm going to be totally honest. I never
really clicked with the Milkwood album. I'm not
saying it's bad. And I know what they were doing.
I mean, this is like 1971 or so when they were
doing the whole Milkwood thing. And in that early
70s thing, the whole acoustic coffee houses,
like you said, the Crosby, Stills, Nass kind
of feel, that was huge at the time. And these
guys had already been, Rick and Ben had already
been together for a decade trying to make it.
So that was big at the time. And they were in
Boston, tons of coffee houses in Boston. Actually,
Rick and Ben performed as a duo for a while,
just the two of them playing acoustic guitars.
So they tried to jump on that train, if you will.
That whole acoustic vibe was just big at the
time, and that's why they did it. But it was
short -lived, and it wasn't too long before Rick
decided to strip it all down and go back to being
a straight -up rock band. I don't... possessed
that milkwood album i've seen it a couple of
times um and the times i've seen it the price
tag was too rich for me yeah it's too rich for
me if i like the album i just i'm like i can't
do this i mean you can find copies that on ebay
people are asking for like a couple hundred bucks
for a copy of that album um so it is rare and
i guess they shouldn't say i wouldn't want to
have it but i haven't gone out of my way And,
you know, it's funny because Rick and Ben both
kind of cringe a little when they look back on
the Milkwood thing. But don't get me wrong, just
because I don't like it doesn't mean somebody
else won't. And I've talked to plenty of Cars
fans who love that Milkwood album. So that's
only one man's opinion. Of course, it reminds
me of the way people feel about Billy Joel's
pre -Billy Joel project, Attila. So it's kind
of along that same line. It's just not what they're
used to hearing. So 100 % I get that. Yep. And
here we are in 2023 in a world that unfortunately
no longer has Rick and Benjamin in it. Just curious,
in 2007. Elliot Easton and Greg Hawks got together
with Todd Rugren and performed as the new cars.
Do you think a one -off tour celebrating the
band's legacy? Obviously now that they're both
past would be in good taste because I'm not going
to lie. I was half debating including their song.
Not tonight with a little asterisk next to it
in my bank of songs for tonight, because you
had Elliot, you had Greg and it really felt like
a long lost car song. I don't know. Having never
seen the original lineup live, I almost wish
that this lineup of 2007 would get together and
maybe do a celebration of the band's music for
one more run. I would welcome it. I really would.
You'd be surprised. And I didn't realize this
until once the book came out and I had Cars fans
and Ben fans coming to me and approaching me
about how I put the book together and stuff.
A lot of people... Didn't like the fact that
they tried to do that. But there's a lot of Cars
tribute bands out there, like right now. Yes.
And they do a great job. So if it's okay for
tribute bands to do their thing and you like
hearing them, you know, recreate the Cars music,
what's wrong with having actual legendary musicians
put something like that together? And I mean,
if Greg and even David Robinson, who I know wasn't
in the new Cars, and Elliot, if they were...
wanted to do it and felt like it was a fair representation,
why wouldn't you want to see it? I mean, I'm
not trying to say that Todd Rundgren is going
to personify Rico Kasich, if you will, but Todd
Rundgren's a legend. I mean, he's one of my all
-time favorite musicians. I would welcome it
if they tried to do it again. I don't see any
harm in it at all. You know, it's paying tribute.
No tribute, man. You know, it's because you love
them and you want to continue to keep their music
alive and share it with everybody. So I'd be
totally up for that. That was a great band, too.
Never mind the Drummer Prairie Prince, who was
an original member of the Tubes. I mean, you
got some class A musicians there wanting to recreate
that stuff. So I would welcome it. I really would.
Same here. Well, now we are flipping the tape
over to Side B, and I'm going to kick things
off. And again, I think I might have mentioned
this before tonight, but the Cars self -titled
album is my favorite album of all time. And being
I get to pick the first song for Side B, I thought,
what more perfect way to start off Side B than
with one of the band's most thunderous songs.
The song that started Side B on their self -titled
album, You're All I've Got Tonight. Patreon mixtaper
Jason Donch has talked about the Smashing Pumpkins
cover that took place in the 90s. And I'll just
say this. Smashing Pumpkins did a great job rocking
this song out. However, the Cars version was
heavier. David Robinson's drums are like thunder
on that original version. There was something
about the reverb that they added in the drum
sound that they achieved on this album that made
the song feel so massive that even the smashing
pumpkins, which are inherently a heavier band,
not sound as heavy as the cars. So kicking off
side to you're all I've got tonight. That's a
great choice. And you know, I'm going to have
to shift because guess what I was going to pick
next? You're All I've Got Tonight. You're All
I've Got Tonight was going to be my next choice.
Just a straight up classic rock radio song. I
mean, you know, how can you go wrong with it?
And like you said, it's a great opener for side
two of that album. And so the four songs on side
two that I feel are all one, I knew eventually
it was all going to happen. They were all going
to fall into place. So I'm going to have to switch.
That's a great choice, obviously. I mean, that's
what was up next for me. So I had mentioned to
you, I've already said it a few times, how I
tend to go album to album to make sure I cover
everything. Well, my last choice was from Heartbeat
City. So the next album was Door to Door. And
I took a hard look at it. And I decided in the
end to not choose anything from Door to Door.
But not because I didn't think anything was worthy
of being on a mixtape, but because Door to Door
was a tough album for them. There was already
a lot of bad blood going on between the band
members or some of the band members. The writing
was on the wall already that the band was probably
not going to survive much longer. I mean, they
ended up doing a very short tour for Door to
Door. It just didn't last very long. And they
had kind of taken a different approach by then.
In earlier Cars albums, Rick would come in with
a batch of songs, but the rest of the band would
have a say. You know, whether it be changing
the music a little bit, maybe not necessarily
the lyrics. The lyrics were all Rick. But the
rest of the band members would add to the mix
and they would create and re -record things once
they got in the studio. Well, by the time Door
to Door came around, for lack of a better way
of saying it, the Cars had pretty much turned
into a dictatorship by then. Rick was pretty
much leading the show. He was writing everything.
He was writing all the music. As a matter of
fact, when they entered the studio to do Door
to Door, he already had demo songs on a tape,
and he was pretty much saying, here, learn this.
So the other guys in the band weren't really
able to give their two cents anymore by this
point. So because of those reasons, I just felt
like too many truly iconic car songs were going
to get left off the list, even if it's just one.
So I had a couple of songs in mind for Door to
Door. And if we were picking today and I was
picking 20 songs, a song from Door to Door would
have made it. And I probably would have went
with the title track, Door to Door. It's an upbeat,
fast song. It was almost like a punky kind of
song. Whereas the other songs on the album are
a little more wishy -washy, if you will. They
were kind of getting away from the hard rocking
sound. It was almost like a country western kind
of feel in a couple of the songs. So I don't
dislike the album, but it's definitely my least
favorite. So I decided to go by door to door
and not include anything. So naturally, I would
go back to the first album again. But seeing
as though you just pick something off the first
album, I'm going to go away from the first album
and I'm going to go back to Candy O. Because
it's, I mean, maybe not as many iconic songs
as on the first album, but Candy O is just full.
of hook -laden rock songs that you just can't
go wrong with. So I decided to go with, as one
song, Shoo -Bee -Doo into Candy -O. So the reason
I did this is I really like how it has the quirky
part of Shoo -Bee -Doo where it shows Rick at
his quirky finest. And then it goes right into
the polar opposite of Ben singing Candy -O. So
it goes from this fast, quirky... punky kind
of thing. And it just kind of segues into a more
smooth crooning kind of sound with Kandiyo with
Ben doing almost like his Elvis impersonation
kind of thing. But I just think I like the way
the quirky and the smooth, cool Ben going back
to back. And you would think the polar opposites
wouldn't allow it to mesh, but it somehow still
does. And like I said, to this day, it amazes
me how Rick could make such quirky music. and
have it be so popular and get on the radio and
have people love it. So you had already chosen
Dangerous Type. I had that listed too as one
of my songs. So trying to pick one that, you
know, I went with Let's Go for the first go around.
So I went with Shoo -Bee -Doo and Candy -O for
this pick. Absolutely love it. And like I told
you on side A, I have ripped on my phone Bye
Bye Love moving in stereo and all mixed up. I
also have ripped on my phone Double Life, Shoo
-Bee -Doo, and Candio as a single track because
when I hear the opening of Double Life, I can't
not hear Shoo -Bee -Doo coming out of it. And
Shoo -Bee -Doo almost feels like this Pink Floyd,
psychedelic, just acid trip in the middle of
these two other rock songs. And it's so perfect.
Because it doesn't make sense in between those
two songs. And that was what the cars were so
good at. And Candio, you're right. Ben hits this
Elvis -like delivery where he's almost crooning
the song. And it really fits so perfectly against
that backdrop, which was, again, that punkier
side of the power pop of the cars. So following
that up in track three, I'm going to take. The
heaviness of Candio. Because there is a little
bit of a heft to it. And I'm going to crank it
up. And I'm going to follow you chronologically.
Because we have. Self titled and Candio. I'm
going to follow your playbook here. And go to
Panorama. And I'm going to go with. My favorite
song on the album. That wasn't released as a
single. Should have been. But the band I feel
like made up for it. Because in the 90's they
included it. on the Just What I Needed 2 CD Rhino
set. So they basically admitted that maybe it
was a hit in waiting. And it's the hefty Don't
Tell Me No. Wow. To me, that song shows the rock
side of the cars the way It's Not the Night does
it on Heartbeat City. And it's an element of
the cars that I wanted to make sure I touched
on both sides. So I knew whatever side had It's
Not the Night, The other side would have to have
Don't Tell Me No or vice versa. I wanted to make
sure I split up those songs on each side because
every side of every Cars mixtape I've made growing
up had to have a little bit of the heft. And
I feel like It's Not the Night for side A and
Don't Tell Me No for side B makes that happen.
That's very interesting because, you know, when
I was going through all this, you know, I'm like,
okay, I can't take a lot from Panorama, but I
got to take a couple. And that was one I didn't
take. Really? Yeah. But that's cool. I think
it's very interesting because now you've got
me thinking. Now it's like, oh, wait a minute.
Oh, he's right. I should have probably given
that more attention. So I really like that choice.
That is a great pick. And I really like how it's
starting to seem like we were both trying to
create a balance. I want to do some curveballs
and some deeper cuts. but you don't want to go
too far that way and like not lose interest,
but you got to keep it balanced. You know, they
got to have some of the hits in there too. And
you're going to make me kind of change gears
again. Cause if I'm going in my chronological
order, after picking something from candy, yo
panorama would be next for me. So now it's taking
a panorama song. I got to go past that. And I
am going to go to, um, I want to go back to shake
it up. Nope. Okay, here's where I'm going. I'm
going to go to Heartbeat City. All right. I picked
one Heartbeat City song so far, and that was
Magic. So this song, I really went back and forth
about this because if I was going to be the only
person listening to this tape, I probably would
have left this song off. Not because I don't
love it and not because it's not iconic. You
just hear it a lot. And there's other songs that
I think piqued my interest a little bit more.
So there's other songs I would have went with.
But I'm going to pick Drive. And to me, it wouldn't
seem right to have this mixtape without Drive
because it was their biggest hit. It reached
number three on the Billboard album chart. And
I think it was only the second or third song
that got into the top ten of theirs. So it was
their highest charting song. I wouldn't say most
popular song, but probably most well -known song.
I mean, when that song came out, you weren't
just hearing it on, you were hearing it on rock
stations. You were hearing it on pop stations.
You were hearing it on AM radio, like adult contemporary
stations that like, you know, 60 -year -olds
listen to. So I think if you're, say you're talking
to a 70 -year -old woman who has never heard
the Cars before, she might have heard Drive.
Oh, I remember that song. When the band was in
the studio recording this album and it came time
to do Drive. So I did a couple of exclusive interviews
with David Robinson, the drummer. And he said
something that amazed him about Ben was he didn't
have to prepare to do anything. Like they all
go into the studio and he would just be like
having a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette.
And they were like, OK, you ready? Oh, yeah,
I'm ready. And like, you ready? And like these
guys used to like really have to prepare. And
like get focused mentally and do whatever they
had to do to get ready to record. Ben was nonchalant.
David Robinson called it his Frank Sinatra persona.
He said when they went to record Drive, he told
me, he's like, I'm telling you the honest to
God truth. Ben was sitting there smoking a cigarette
and they said, you ready to record Drive? And
he said, yep. And he went in there and he did
it in one take. No overdubs. No want to try it
again. No, let's do a couple of tracks and see
what sounds better. He did that in one take.
He put a cigarette down. He went in there. He
sang it. He walked back out, picked a cigarette
back up, and like it was nothing. And David Robinson
said it was like the most amazing thing to see
this guy, how he just did it so effortlessly.
So that little story always pops into my head
whenever I talk about drive or hear drive. So
for all those reasons, I just, I couldn't leave
it off. You don't have to defend that song one
bit. There's a reason why 6am has covered it.
There's a reason Kavo has covered it. There's
a reason that they put out a symphonic version
of the song recently with the original track
and it became a hit all over again. There's a
reason why it's been featured in countless movies.
The song's iconic. It's the defining Cars hit.
Because it is their highest charting song. And
there's absolutely nothing wrong with going with
the crowd pleasers. Especially because that brings
a lighter side. A complete 180 from the Don't
Tell Me No. It shifts gears and kind of resets
the palette for me to bounce off of. And one
thing I wanted to do on both sides was kind of
create a balance with my picks. And on side A.
I used It's Not the Night as a heavy song, but
I also used it as a song where both Ben and Rick
sang lead vocals. And I want to make sure I include
that on side B as well. And I'm going to include
that by going back to Candio. And I'm going to
go with the power pop perfection of Since I've
Held You. If Bye Bye Love was the car's self
-titled, hey, here's where the car's power pop
origins came from, its logical follow -up is
Since I've Held You. beautiful vocals, their
voices bouncing off each other. Elliot Easton's
lead guitar over the end of the song when they're
just going, it's been a long time and he's just
wailing the lead. It is probably one of the most
underrated songs in the band's entire discography.
And I'm shocked. It wasn't an absolute smash
single from this album. I am absolutely shocked
because it's all I can do. The song after it
did get traction. But I think Since I Held You,
as much as I love both songs, is just in another
universe. So a deep cut, maybe. I don't think
it should be, though. So I am following up Drive
with Since I've Held You. Wow. And you know,
that is considered a deep cut. I mean, I consider
it a deep cut. But I'm telling you, you're giving
me some things to think about. Because I had
that on my list of Kandiyo songs. I don't think
it made my final list. But it was on there. It
was on there. And you're right. It is a very
underrated song. The guitar solo was just masterful.
I tell you, those first two albums, man. Okay,
let's just go back and forth between the first
two albums. I mean, if we were going to be lazy
about it, you probably could have gotten away
with it. And made a great argument for it, too.
No one's going to argue any song off the first
two albums. Absolutely. That's a really good
choice. So with that, Joe, we're back to you
for track six. Okay, so I know that these songs
belong together and we can't really do that,
but I got to make sure that I get all mixed up
in there. It's like a perfect ending to not just
side two, but the album as a whole. And I think
it's the band's masterpiece. I think that whole
side just goes together so seamlessly to me.
And I just had to make sure. that all mixed up
gets on there. Ben's vocal is incredible. That
little embellishment saxophone from Greg Hawks
at the end of the song, it just seems like just
a perfect fade out to this album. And it's just
one of my favorite car songs. Like I've said
multiple times, that whole second side, making
sure that gets in there, we've got them all from
that side too. By all means, every mixtape my
father made. Of the cars had all four of those
songs somewhere. They never not made it. And
I'm glad that that continues tonight. I love
the fact that you brought up the underrated saxophone
solo by Greg Hawks, because it really comes from
out of left field because it's not like saxophone
was all over this album. And it seems like it's
coming from out of left field. But when you listen
to the song, it's such a. cinematic ending to
this album it really feels like a movie climax
musically so i love the pick obviously say no
more about the album of course i love it so following
that up for track seven you explained at the
beginning of the side that you weren't going
to go to door to door but because some of the
songs that you've chosen were on my list That's
leaving me a little room to go to door to door
and acknowledge one song just because I've been
covering it for years with my group, Colburn
and Company. I love the song. Again, I get to
pick a song that includes both Rick and Ben singing.
So it keeps that piece of the puzzle going. And
it is kind of a sad song because it is their
last top 40 hit. And I'm going to go with You
Are the Girl from Door to Door. Now, on Move
Like This, Sad Song did reach number 33 on the
rock songs chart. But when we're talking about
top 40 hits, You Are the Girl is the final Cars
top 40 hit. And there's a bittersweet part to
that. The video, they were still trying to go
for the Heartbeat City stuff in 1987 when Heartbeat
City was several years earlier. And the music
video scene had changed at that time because
it was a lot of your hair bands were coming to
proximity in 1987. Your Motley Crue's, your Guns
N' Roses, the music video landscape was changing.
And I feel like this song didn't do well because
of that landscape and had the band picked a song
like Double Trouble. Another Ben -led vocal with
that hard rock scene happening. I feel like Double
Trouble might have made more of an impact, but
I'm going to go with You Are The Girl to follow
up all mixed up. That's an interesting choice
for sure. That's a great song. It really is.
And you know, I think by the time Door to Door
came out, like I mentioned, there was some turmoil
going on in the band, and they were kind of losing
some momentum by then. And I think... The record
label didn't put a lot of money into the promotion
of it. It was a very short tour. And I think
it wasn't too long after that album was released
and the tour finished that they kind of announced
that they were breaking up. So I just think it
was kind of like, I hate to say it, but it was
almost like the end of the road. It seemed like
for the band at the time. So I think that's why
door to door kind of gets overlooked. But, you
know, I am glad that you picked something from
it because I was feeling kind of guilty. That
I said, you know, I had a door to door. I was
going to pick the title track just because I
thought it was a harder driving song. It had
some rock elements to it. But that's a really
cool choice. I'm glad you picked something from
door to door. OK, so, you know, you talked a
little bit before about what I thought about
the new cars and if that was disrespectful or
not, that kind of thing. So this kind of in a
way almost goes hand in hand with that. And I
really struggled with this one for a while, going
back to that same premise of, look at all these
songs that I haven't picked that are just iconic.
How can I pick this kind of off -the -wall or
curveball kind of song when all these legendary
songs are still out there? But I'm going to do
it. And I was inspired by you talking about the
new cars. So I went and picked a song from the
one album they did without Ben, Move Like This.
Came out in 2011. The band didn't even try to
replace Ben. Greg Hawks did some bass work. And
the man who produced the album, I didn't really
know of him before that. But his name is Jack
Knightley. I guess this guy is a bass player,
too. So they didn't even want to try to replace
Ben. They just like, well, you can play bass.
You do it kind of a thing. And, you know, I get
mixed reviews from Cars fans. There's some Cars
fans out there. Ben's not there. They don't even
want to give it a try. And then there's other
Cars bands that say, well, if it's the Cars and
it's Rick, I'm going to listen to it. So it kind
of gives mixed reviews. And I don't know if you've
heard the album. Oh, I have. I really like Move
Like This. I do, too. I'm not going to say I
love every song on it, but I think it's got some
really good stuff on it. I really like the fact
that they did that. And, you know, they released
a single from it. It's probably the one song
that was heard the most from it. Part of the
reason why I chose it. But to me, this song sounds
like it could have been like an extra song from
the Shake It Up sessions that never made it onto
the album. It sounded like a car song to me.
And it's blue tint. Nice. I really love the song.
They put a little video with it. And I thought
the video was really creative and cool. I know
there's some people out there that are going
to be like, well, you're not putting this in.
These are all, you know, what about this Ben
song? What about, I mean, obviously, I mean,
we can pick 60 songs probably if we wanted to,
to put on a mixtape. But I just, I wanted to
give a tip of the cap to the guys, you know,
doing that one last album. And I just, I think
it was really well done. And I do like the fact
that they didn't even try to replace Ben. They
just said, you know, Ben Spirit's with us. I
got a batch of songs. you know it wasn't too
long after that unfortunately that rick is no
longer with us so now i look back on and i'm
like thank god that they did that album because
i think it's got some really good songs on it
so i went with bloom tip there's a curveball
for you thank you because i'll tell you right
now had you not gone with blue tip for track
eight That was going to be my track nine as a
tip of the cap to this era. So you and I are
lockstep on it. That's my favorite song on the
album. The first time my father and I put that
CD and I ended up going and getting the Best
Buy version because it had some extra demos at
the end. And I wanted to have the extras because
I'm that big of a Cars geek. But we listened
to Blue Tip. And as soon as the song was over,
my father said. Rewind it. Let's hear that one
again. He goes, that's vintage cars right there.
And it is. And I believe it deserves a spot on
this discussion. And that means we each have
one song left to close things out. And I have
a wide slate because we have now touched on every
single Cars album at some point in this discussion.
And I can, with no guilt, go right back to my
favorite album of all time. and pick one of the
few songs on it that we didn't talk about. And
I'm kind of torn right now because I still have
two more on my list. I have My Best Friend's
Girl, which my band, Colburn & Company, covers
all the time. But I am going to go with a crowd
favorite. I've talked about it several times
because of the fact that they named a greatest
hits after the song. It is one of the band's
most beloved, well -known hits, Just What I Needed.
Oh, from the original album. It to me was one
of the songs that if you go see a cover band
and they're like, we're going to play some cars.
That's usually the one they go to. Sister Hazel
did a fantastic cover of it. It's just a wonderful
song. And again, it shows everything I love about
the cars. It's rock. It's pop. It's got a little
bit of a punk edge to it. It's got a little bit
of a new wave edge to it. And for my contribution
to the night. I feel like I'm kind of giving
you a nice way to close wherever you want. Because
you said your favorite album is Candio. Maybe
you'll pick something from that. Maybe you'll
throw a curveball in there. But I got to touch
on the self -titled One Last Time tonight with
Just What I Needed. That's a great pick. It really
is. To give you another really quick story kind
of related to my book. So when the Cars got elected
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018,
I went to Cleveland. I went to the ceremony.
Six months after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
ceremony, my book came out. So it was really
good timing. So when I went to Cleveland for
the Rock Hall ceremony, I actually went and visited
Ben at his resting place. That was like my final
stop of my trip. And a person who helped me with
the book had also come with me. She was like
my promotions person and helped me a lot with
the book. She was also with me on this Cleveland
trip. Her name is Donna. So at the end of the
trip, I wanted to go visit Ben. So we went to
the cemetery to visit Ben. And I sat there and
my book wasn't out yet. It was a done deal, but
it was in the process. So it wasn't going to
be out for another six months. But I just chatted
with Ben a little bit, had my moment with him.
And as I'm getting ready to leave. I was like,
so Ben, give me a sign, man. You know, let me
know that you know I'm here or anything like
that. And, you know, I looked up and like there
was like a brush of wind and the trees kind of
blew. I kind of looked up and I'm like, well,
all right, I'll take that as, you know, that
is the sign. We went back to the car. We got
in the car to leave. Donnell was driving. She
turned the car engine on. And I swear to God
on my grandmother's grave. She turned the car
on and right on cue. It was on an FM radio station
in Cleveland and right on cue. As soon as she
turned the car over, no end of a commercial,
no radio DJ speaking. The first words out of
the car speaker were, I don't mind you coming
here and wasting all my time. I kid you not.
Wow. I included this little story in the book.
And if there wasn't somebody with me as a witness,
I probably wouldn't even have talked about it
or put it in the book because people would be
like, you're full of shit. No one's going to
do that. I had a witness and that came on. We
looked at each other and I just got chills throughout
my body and I couldn't even react. I started
laughing out loud. I didn't even know what to
think or say. I started stacking my hands on
the dashboard going, I swear to God that happened.
Wow. That is absolutely awesome. And if you hadn't
picked that song, it's what I was going to pick.
Oh, so now I feel hard. You know what? Can I
pull my choice? Now I feel guilty. It's okay
because I still can pick something else. But
when you said that, I'm like, okay, he's picking
that song, but I got to tell this story. I'm
so glad you did. That's amazing. I love it. It
was probably the most surreal moment of my life.
And like I said, I wouldn't tell the story if
I didn't have a witness. Well, I am so sorry
I stole that thunder. But now you get to encore
with the last pick of the evening. So what are
you going to close out this amazing Cars mixtape
with? You know, it's really tough. So you're
saying we haven't picked Best Friend's Girl,
have we? No, we have not. So I had just what
I needed and Best Friend's Girl down to the final
two. But now I'm sitting there saying, do we
want to end it with two songs from the first
album? Or do I try to want to end it with a curveball?
I think I'm going to end it with a curveball.
All right. Because this is all tied together
because of my book. And it's not a cards book,
even though the cards are obviously throughout
the whole thing. It's really a Ben book. It's
a book about Ben's life. And, you know, writing
this book has really changed my life. I've met
so many people and it created so many other avenues
for me that this book journey has just been something
that I never, I thought once the book came out,
you know, I'd sell some copies and it would just
fade into oblivion and that would be the end
of it. But to this day, five years after it's
come out, I'm still meeting people. I still have
people reach out to me. I have people reach out
to me and go, you know, I just read this book
you wrote about Ben. I knew Ben when we were
kids. I really wish you interviewed me for this
book. I would have had some great. So to this
day, people are approaching me, talking to me
about the book, things they know that I didn't
know, all kinds of things like that. So this
book, it's been more than just writing a book.
It's really been an unbelievable adventure. So
in saying that, to end it with a curveball, I
want to pick an unreleased song that was on the
Double Anthology. And it's a song called Fun
Time. And it's a cover song of an Iggy Pop song.
And there's a little story behind it. So they
recorded this song during the Shake It Up sessions,
but it didn't make the final cut. They had enough
original songs, so it didn't make the final cut,
but it did end up on that compilation. Fun Time.
So the cars are at the peak, you know, and they
have their own studio in Boston. And a lot of
bands and musicians, famous musicians who came
into town, they would go and visit the cars in
their studio. So Iggy Pop was in town doing a
show at the Paradise. Some of the guys in the
band went to the show. They invited Iggy back
to their, they called it the Playhouse, invited
Iggy back to their studio. Everyone's hanging
around and partying. And the cars said, we want
to, here's a song we're doing for you. So they
did it in front of Iggy. They played this song.
And Ben did his best Iggy impersonation of Funtime.
And at the end of the song, Iggy was like, holy
crap, man, you sound more like me than me. It's
a really fun song. It's Ben at his coolest and
just being a rock star. And I don't think there's
a lot. If you don't own that anthology, there's
no way of hearing this song. I mean, obviously,
if you Google it, you can go online here. But
if you don't know that this song is in existence.
I've had a lot of people get that anthology and
say, I never heard this song before. So I decided
to end it with a curveball in honor of Ben and
putting fun time in there. Well, knowing my love
of cover songs to anybody who listens to this
show, The Car is covering a song that was written
by Iggy Pop and David Bowie. What a perfect exclamation
point on this amazing mixtape, which... For Side
B, we are on fire here. It kicked off with You're
All I Got Tonight, Shooby Doo, Into Candio, Don't
Tell Me No, Drive, Since I Held You, All Mixed
Up, You Are the Girl, Blue Tip, Just What I Needed,
and Fun Time. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com
to hear all the songs we've discussed in this
mix. through the playlist embedded on the episode
page. Now, Joe, if somebody wants to pick up
a copy of your book, how can they get in touch
with you and where can they find it? Well, there's
really two ways. I mean, it's available on Amazon.
Plug in the title of the book, you know, Let's
Go, Benjamin Orr and the Cars, and you can go
through Amazon and pick it up. I also have a
website for the book. It's really simple, benorrbook
.com. You can go there and there's a link that
will bring you right to the publisher. You can
order it directly from the publisher. I also
want to let people know that I also offer personalized
copies of the book. So some people come directly
to me and I personalize a book for them. I have
a couple of little extra book promotional goodies
that I include with my orders. So if somebody
wanted to come directly to me to get a personalized
copy, they could just find me on Facebook. So
if someone goes to Facebook and just plugs in.
let's go Benjamin or on the cars, my Facebook
page will pop up. So if they want to get a personalized
copy from me, they can come to me for it. If
they don't want to bother with that and just
want to go through the publisher or Amazon, you
can find it online anywhere. Fantastic. And word
is on the street that while it's not the cars,
there's another book you're currently working
on. Why don't you tell the listeners a little
something about that and when they can expect
to hear more? Well, the publisher was happy with
the numbers of the first books. You know, I was
a first time author and considering it was a
niche book and I did all the promotion myself,
the publisher was really happy. So they approached
me about a next book. I gave them a list of ideas
and talked about it a lot. Well, actually, a
Cars book was considered, but I felt like I needed
to go in a different direction. So I am writing
a book about my sentimental favorite musician
is Joe Perry of Aerosmith. So Aerosmith is my
sentimental favorite band. They're not necessarily
the band I listen to more than any other band
anymore. But when I was in junior high school,
that was the first band that really got me crazy
about music. So Aerosmith was always, and I'm
from Boston, and they're a Boston band. But Joe
Perry has always been something a little extra
for me. The way he looked, the way he plays,
everything about him, he's just like Joe Cool
to me. So Joe Perry has always been my favorite
artist. I include that on my list, but I didn't
think that they would want to do it because he
did put out an autobiography about 10 years ago.
But I told him about a different approach I wanted
to take and they agreed with it. So that's what
I'm doing. So I'm doing a biography about Joe
Perry. Obviously, there'll be a whole bunch of
Aerosmith stuff in it, too. And that's the whole
reason he's famous. But that's what I'm working
on now. It'll probably go to press maybe another
year or so. I'm kind of in the middle of it now.
And there's a lot of research, a lot of interview
chasing. and all that kind of stuff. So I'm kind
of knee deep in it as we speak. But I'm hoping
in the next year or so, it'll be ready to submit.
So it's a little ways down the road, but that's
what I'm working on now. It'll be a biography
about Joe Perry. Fantastic. And I guess when
that time comes, we will do the ultimate Aerosmith
mixtape here at My Weekly Mixtape. Joe Millican,
this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you
so much for joining me tonight. It's been a real
pleasure. I think we came up with a pretty cool
list. I'm sure it gives a lot of people things
to talk about. Well, how can they put this on
and not include this, you know? But I mean, that's
what it's all about, right? Everyone's got their
own taste, their own opinions. Hopefully we gave,
you know, good enough descriptions why we chose
the things that we chose. And closing out with
that song, Fun Time. This was really a fun time.
Likewise, man. Thank you again. And remember,
Mixtapers, you can find my weekly mixtape on
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can also head to myweeklymixtape .com to check
out the full catalog of My Weekly Mixtape episodes.
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myweeklymixtape. That's all for this week. Thanks
again for listening. Until next time, enjoy the
tunes.