Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 12:04:46 EDT
From: Popdude@aol.com
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: The Cars and The Cars Tribute
Message-ID: <1dc.23dee2c8.2dfdd51e@aol.com>

True, the Cars' sound was most definitely unique.  Speaking of Ocasek and 
Co., is anyone else familiar with Ian Lloyd's amazing version of an Ocasek
tune 
called "Slip Away?"  The Cars' demo version appears on the Rhino two-disc
set 
from a few years back, but Lloyd's (the former lead singer of Stories) 1979 
version is definitive.  It was also produced by Ocasek and he and Ben Orr
play 
and sing on it.  One of my favorite tunes from the era...


Mine too, John. It's as though it was a Cars single with a different lead
vocalist -- and, for my money, it ranks right up there with any of the
singles released by the Cars themselves. "Slip Away" got quite a bit of
airplay in Syracuse.  When I moved to Chicago, I bought the 45. I invariably
dust it off and give it a spin on those infrequent occasions when I have a
jones to play little records with big holes.

The 1979 album from which it was culled, *Goose Bumps*, is supposed to be a
lost classic -- although I could be basing that in part upon a dim nostalgia
vibe. I had a college friend who owned it; I remember really liking it the
one or two times that I heard it. In addition to Ocasek's "Slip Away", the
album also contained songwriting contributions from Ian Hunter, Russ
Ballard, Corky Laing, Paul DaVinci (the "Sugar Baby Love" guy), and
Adams/Vallance (in the days when Bryan Adams was strictly just an obscure
songwriter, at least here in the States). The album also featured covers of
the Bee Gees' "Holiday" and the Zombies' "Time of the Season". I remember
the album as having a lot of synthesizer on it -- not really synthpop, as
that movement was just on the cusp of becoming the next big thing stateside,
but very New Wave-y in feel.

A whole bunch of big names play on *Goose Bumps*, from Orr and Ocasek to
Randy Brecker to some of the guys in Foreigner. In fact, in addition to
Orr's and Ocasek's instrumental contributions to "Slip Away", the guitar
solo is performed by Jimmy Crespo. Right around that time Crespo was being
tabbed to fill the shoes of the departed Joe Perry as Aerosmith's lead
guitarist. The funny thing is that Crespo's solo sounds so much like one of
Elliott Easton's in terms of its tone and New Wave angularity that it
enhances further the whole Cars vibe of the song.

The album was produced by Bruce Fairbairn, who would go on to be the king of
hard rock producers throughout the eighties and nineties.

For all the heavyweights who contributed to the album, it -- and eventually
Ian Lloyd himself -- just seemed to "slip away" without making much of a
dent.


Gregory Sager