New Wave Outpost Forum

The name of Ocasek’s first post-
Milkwood band was supplied by one of his
musical heroes, Modern Lovers leader
Jonathan Richman. Ocasek mentioned that
he was putting together a rock ’n’ roll
band, and Richman replied, “Then you’ve
got to call it Richard & The Rabbits.” So he
did, and that band hit the clubs with Orr
and Hawkes in tow.

“We were walking a fine line, and it
contributed a great deal to the success of
the band,” notes lead guitarist Elliot
Easton. “The Cars would have that one
record in a punk rocker’s collection that
was just a little right of center. And it might
be that one record for mainstream fans
who thought they were being really punky.
We managed to span those two audiences.
It’s not something you can calculate, just
that we had the songs. And we really had
great songs.”

Of course, a smart, idiosyncratic
band needs material to match; and song-
writer Ric Ocasek supplied that by the
trunk load. Informed by Beat poetry and
steeped in rock ’n’ roll tradition, Ocasek’s
songs were as literate as they were acces-
sible. And for all his Kerouac-inspired
leanings, Ocasek never failed to address
the things that really mattered — girls, fast
cars, and nightlife; girls, reckless
romance, and girls.

Making their first appearance here
are two songs from the 1977 demo session
that were never officially released, or even
bootlegged, during the band’s lifetime.
“Take Me Now” is the first in a string of
moody, hypnotic Cars ballads, while “Cool
Fool” catches them in full-throttle rock ’n’
roll mode. It’s the only Cars song to sport
an Ocasek/Easton writing credit; Easton’s
writing wouldn’t be heard again until his
one solo album in 1984. “It would have
been harder to do within the group,” he
says. “Ric’s writing was so stylized and
idiosyncratic that every time I tried to
write for The Cars, I’d be trying to write a
Ric Ocasek song.”

“There was definitely a little self-con-
scious irony in there,” says Hawkes, who
usually cowrote one song per album. “We
started out wanting to be electric and
straight-ahead rock, and it turned into an
artier kind of thing.”