Thursday, December 14, 2017

Drive to The Cars and Dire Straits



THREE AMAZING BANDS are finally getting into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. The hall had some head-scratching recent inclusions, but this year, the hall got it right. Three of my favorites got in - The Moody Blues, Dire Straits and The Cars.

Making Movies by Dire Straits might be the best rock album ever made. Yup. Album. You could listen to the whole thing, start to finish, and it was considered a complete work. Today we are used to hitting a button and going right to the song. Nobody seems to make albums anymore .... they are just songs strung together. The Moody Blues were good at it too, and it's hard to believe they are still around and planning a tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Days Of Future Passed.

Mark Knopfler is from another planet and nobody plays guitar like him, nobody. He could play the blazing licks and rock your socks off, but it was how he played, and his "less is more" technique and style is still a joy to hear. I dare you to listen to Romeo and Juliet and not cry. Double dare you.

Then there's The Cars. Look, the 1980s were the longest 15 years of my life and not necessarily a great time to grow up listening to music. At least we had bands like The Cars - they had a weird and strange leader, Rick Ocasek. They had a geeky keyboard player, a drummer with Flock of Seagulls hair who was replaced by a drum machine, a sex symbol bass player with an incredible voice and a left-handed guitar player named Elliot who tore it up. Some of their songs were direct and to the point (My Best Friend's Girlfriend) and some of them left you wondering what spaceship they were using (Moving In Stereo). I wore out albums like The Cars, Candy O, Shake It up and even Heartbreak City. A few years ago they came out with Door To Door and it still sounded great.

So hurrah for classic rock and bands that had talented players and songwriters. Long live rock!

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