Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I'm surprised it has taken this long...



... to buy a copy of The Cars eponymous album, 31 years after first hearing it played at ear-blistering levels of volume in my freshman year in Mr. Caraboolad's home room classroom at Walsh Jesuit High School (surrounded by foosball tables, couches, dart boards, posters, and a beer tab chain hundreds of feet long hanging from the ceiling). My chair that year was a bucket car seat. Mr. C. was, to say the least, not your run of the mill high school Geometry and Theology teacher.

Along with staples such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, the Easy Rider soundtrack, the Woodstock soundtrack, and AC/DC, Mr. C. really enjoyed the fresh new sound of The Cars that year - in classic vinyl and sent through an amplifier that could be heard throughout the entire school.

The video above is a live rendition from a concert in Houston in 1984. It seems that The Cars didn't have a studio video for "Good Times Roll," the opening track of the album, and a nice piece of rock and roll. Either that, or it is simply unavailable at YouTube.

Anyway, it has been a long time since I bought a CD, but thanks to the bargain section at Borders, I was able to snag a copy for $7.99, and I'm enjoying it.

"Let the good times roll," indeed, which is the English translation of our unofficial motto of New Orleans.

5 comments:

Fraser Pearce said...

One must dig the Cars.

Personal favourites: Best Friend's Girl; Let's Go.

Fussball (with umlaut)?

Monique said...

You. Are. So. Old.

:D

Rev. Larry Beane said...

Dear Fraser:

There is something irresistibly hip about the Cars. The only umlauts in Mr. C's room involved Blue Oyster Cult. :-)

Rev. Larry Beane said...

Dear Monique:

As. Dirt.

When I was little, I used to spin my dad's 45's of Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, Danny and the Juniors (does anyone remember them?) and (Gretna native) Frankie Ford.

My dad also turned me on to Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and the Beatles.

When I was twelve, I borrowed E. Power Biggs' mighty rendition of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D-minor" from the library on vinyl LP - now THAT'S the realm of the oldies.

Fraser Pearce said...

Not Spinal Tap?