The Cars - Take Me Now - Non-Album Tracks (1977-1981)

Sadly, Ric Ocasek, lead singer for the Cars, died yesterday at the age of 75. In his honor, I've put a stray tracks album together from the band's early years.

When the Car's first album, simply called "The Cars," was released in 1978, it was a big success. Just about every song on it got played on the radio, even until today. The band members semi-jokingly called it their "greatest hits" album, because it was that good.

Why was it so good? Well, it turns out that the band had a lot more original material at that time, but chose only their very best songs for their first album. Then they pretty much forgot about all those other songs, even though most of them were also very good (if not their very best). The bulk of this album is made up of songs that could be considered outtakes from their first album. Only the last three songs after from later, and this would be a full-sized album even without those.

Now, clearly, this album considered as a whole isn't on par with the Car's first album. But few albums are. But if compared with other albums from that era, even some later Cars albums, I think this is pretty solid. The songs certainly don't deserve their obscurity. (They came out many years later on archival releases.) I believe all the songs are originals except for the last two.

Two of the songs here are from a live album (a very obscure one, "Live at the Agora," that only had a limited release in 2017). But those sound as good as studio tracks, especially since I removed all traces of audience noise. For one of those songs, "Take What You Want," I had a choice between this live version or a studio version. But I went with the live version because I felt it was a more energetic performance.

Slip Away" a song written by Ocasek, actually was a top forty hit for Ian Lloyd in 1979.

01 Leave or Stay (Cars)
02 Ta Ta Wayo Wayo (Cars)
03 Cool Fool (Cars)
04 Take Me Now (Cars)
05 They Won't See You (Cars)
06 Wake Me Up (Cars)
07 You Just Can't Push Me (Cars)
08 Hotel Queenie (Cars)
09 Take What You Want (Cars)
10 Night Spots (Cars)
11 Slip Away (Cars)
12 Don't Go to Pieces (Cars)
13 The Little Black Egg (Cars)
14 Funtime (Cars)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105123/TCar_1977-1981_TakeMeNow_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, at first, I was going to use a photo of the band circa 1978. But before I did that, I asked myself, "What would the ultimate Cars album cover look like?" I decided it would be a drawing of a woman by Alberto Vargas sitting on the hood of a car. (They used Vargas pin-ups for a couple of their album covers.) So I found a drawing by Vargas that I liked, and a color pencil drawing of a car by the name of Willie E. Sims. I put the woman on the car and made some adjustments, including adding a shadow underneath her and some grass in the background. I'm pleased with the result. :)