The Cars and a Partial List of Career Defining Debut Records - by Colin Gawel and Ricki C.

(Colin & Ricki collaborated cybernetically on this post: Colin is in plain text, Ricki’s in italics.)

Sadly, we recently lost the talented musician and producer Ric Ocasek. The Cars debut record could perhaps be the most fully realized debut record of all time. Think about that. Off the top of my head here is an incomplete list of the greatest debut records ever recorded. The criteria for this list follows one simple rule:

If you only had the debut record, you would fully understand the artist. That knocks out 99.9% of records. For example, you can’t only own Meet the Beatles and claim to appreciate The Beatles. A great debut record, no doubt, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. But if you heard The Cars, you would never need another Cars record to fully appreciate the band. Let’s go to my list. Please let me know who I am missing as I am sure there are plenty. 

The Cars - I used to play this record over the phone to girls I was too scared to talk to in 7th grade. Later when Watershed was working on The More It Hurts with Tim Patalan, we took a break from recording feeling pretty good about ourselves and ended up at a house party in Detroit. Someone put on The Cars and we all just kinda slumped at the same time. That record was flawless. We still had a wide river to cross. (I totally agree with Colin on this one. As he said, flawless record. For an in-depth account of my Troubled History with The Cars founder, check out Growing Old With Rock & Roll / Fighting With Ric Ocasek sometime.)

Van Halen - Boom. Have you seen the cover? Have you heard “Eruption”? What is this? 

Tracy Chapman - “Fast Car” only gets better and the rest of the record is just as good.

Guns N’ Roses / Appetite for Destruction - Though the video for “November Rain” is the only GNR you need to watch.

Weezer / The Blue Record - Produced by Ric Ocasek. Pinkerton is my personal favorite but all other 15 Weezer records are just them trying to rip off their debut. You hear this, you get the gist.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - It’s got “American Girl.” Oh, and Jimmy Iovine can get bent  for bad-mouthing Stan Lynch on later records. Sounds like a fake-ass producer looking for a scapegoat. Jimmy couldn’t get the right drum sounds with Bruce Springsteen, either?  Stan seemed to play pretty well on this record. Once again see: “American Girl.” (Ricki: I’m gonna throw in my two cents on this one. Back in 1976 when I went HUGE for the Year Zero aspect of punk-rock and literally gave away all my old acoustic records from the 1960’s & 70’s, that first Heartbreakers record was mind-blowing. Yeah, The Clash were great and The Sex Pistols had a coupla cool singles, but Tom Petty and the guys were just so AMERICAN, ya know? I couldn’t really picture Sid Vicious sittin’ around a swimming pool quaffing beers & smoking joints, but I could CERTAINLY see Stan Lynch indulging in those activities whilst simultaneously trying to scam pert, pretty young American Girls. “The Wild One Forever,” “Anything That’s Rock & Roll,” “American Girl;” all classics. And “Mystery Man“ is definitely one of the Top Ten Rolling Stones Songs That The Rolling Stones Forgot To Write EVER.)

MeatLoaf / Bat Out of Hell - The first and only Meat record you need to own. Jim Steinman is from another planet. 

Ramones - Made some better records but if you hear this, you pretty much know Ramones.

Here Is Little Richard - Same as Ramones.

The Killers / Hot Fuss.

Anyway, I’m at work serving coffee so chime in with who is missing. 

R.I.P. Ric Ocasek and  Ben Orr. 

Ricki’s addendum to Great Debut Records List:

The New York Dolls. Possibly - In My Humble Opinion - THE GREATEST DEBUT ALBUM in the history of rock & roll, but I’m not going through my entire record collection to verify that. If I think of any better, I’ll get back to you.

The Whiles / Colors Of The Year. Joe Peppercorn has certainly had great moments on later records (who else in Columbus could have written “Interregnum Thrones/Sink Beneath Your Smile”?) but never as consistently genius a record as this debut.

The MC5 / Kick Out The Jams. What more needs to be said? “Kick out the jams, motherfucker!”

Ian Hunter / self-titled 1976 release. I’m not really sure this one should count, since Hunter already had 6 or 7 Mott The Hoople records behind him when he released this solo debut, but GODDAMN, what a great Declaration of Independence.

The Modern Lovers / self-titled (I HATE the term “eponymous,” and it’s hard to spell.) Recorded as demos in 1972 or so, not released until 1976. Classic. (For more check out Growing Old With Rock & Roll / The Modern Lovers.)

Nine Albums That Changed My Life - by Anne Marie

(This is the second installment of what we here at Pencilstorm hope becomes a regular feature of the site: X-amount of records – it doesn’t HAVE to be 10 – that changed our writers’ lives. Our Virginia correspondent JCE launched the series a week ago, his inaugural offering is linked here…Ten Albums That Changed My Life - JCE. Anne Marie is featured here for the second round.)

I first wondered who this JCE was when he wrote a TV Party Tonight! about Mark Linkous and Sparklehorse. I’d never met another person who listened to Sparklehorse or who had even had heard of Linkous. Since then, I have gleaned from JCE’s writing that we’re around the same age and have daughters around the same age, so I guess it’s not surprising that in taking up his challenge tonight, two of my albums overlap his list.

Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack) - When this movie was released in December 1977, I had just turned 11, and was the oldest of my siblings, ranging in age down to 5. I remember that somehow, however improbably, we convinced my father to take us to see this movie and he had to argue with the ticket guy to get us in, but in we went and see it we did and it was the most exciting two hours of my young life and then we got the soundtrack for Christmas and I became obsessed with the Bee Gees and their younger brother Andy Gibb for at least the next year, spending any gift/babysitting money I’d receive on fan magazines with glossy (fully-clothed) centerfolds.

The Cars / The Cars, Candy-O and Shake it Up - When their self-titled debut came out in 1978, it was not on my radar (that being full of Brothers Gibb that year), but by 1982, Shake it Up’s title track was getting major radio play and I bought that album and the debut and Candy-O. I had just gotten my license and when my cousin Karen would visit from Texas for extended vacations twice per year, I would drive my old Chevy Nova to mall parking lots where no one could hear us sing the songs from all three at the top of our lungs. Karen was my closest cousin in both age and personality and sadly she died in an auto accident when she was 18. But I’ll have these memories forever.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers / Damn the Torpedoes - How Tom Petty managed to sneak onto the radar to shake me out of my disco fixation in 1979 is still a mystery, but I think that it was when I had my Columbia House membership where I would get all these 8-track tapes sent to me each month. Anyway, Petty entered the picture and my sister and I, who just years earlier were jumping on our beds and arguing over whether David or Shaun Cassidy was cuter, both totally agreed that we loved this guy and every song on this album - and so it went with pretty much everything he ever did. Over the years, if a Petty song came on the radio and I was with my sister, we’d both reach out instinctively to crank the volume. This album was pretty much the first thing I can remember us agreeing on and is one of those points of connection that years later allowed us to transition from feuding siblings to lifelong friends.

Steely Dan / Aja and Donald Fagan / The Nightfly - By the time I started at Boston University in late 1984, MTV had been around for years and I thought that even though I hailed from rock-heavy Rochester, NY, I had been exposed to the world of music. And yet, I was wrong.  There was so much music that I had missed. Among my classmates at BU were two quirky best friends from Philadelphia, Bob and Brian, who were obsessed with a band called Steely Dan.  And this was music unlike any I had heard before – rock combined with jazz - and it blew me away.   

Ben Folds Five / Ben Folds Five - I love it when I hear fresh music, music that seems new to me. That gets me excited to find out, who is this? And once I know the answer, when can I see them live?  That’s how I felt in 1995 when I first heard Ben Folds. The debut is an amazing album and I’ve followed Ben Folds - with his distinctive voice and storytelling and piano- pounding delivery - ever since.  What’s really cool is that about five years ago now, my daughter Caitlin decided that she too loves Ben Folds and so we have been seeing his shows together ever since.  That makes three acts that she and I will see together if at all possible: Ben Folds, Guster and The Flaming Lips. Enjoying music with both of my kids (and having taken each of them to their first concert - both saw different Flaming Lips tours) is definitely life-changing.  I almost cheated and selected my favorite Ben Folds Five album - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner – which is the first that came to mind. While it doesn’t fit the rules of the challenge, my favorite song on that album, the heartbreakingly beautiful Magic, has provided comfort following the untimely death of my sister’s son Matthew this year.

Alvvays - Antisocialites - In December last year, I went to the CD 102.5 Holiday Show, mainly to see Spoon, but was blown away by opening act Alvvays, a Canadian indie-pop band fronted by Molly Rankin, who looked like she had stepped straight from a J Crew ad but proceeded to give a high-energy performance full of songs from their then recently released Antisocialites album, decidedly more punk/harder edge than their 2014 self-titled debut, especially as performed live.  Just a few months later, I would move to Boston to start a new job and life and that album would become my personal soundtrack, in steady rotation for a six-month period of 2018 and still played regularly.

AML 11/18/18

Ten Albums That Changed My Life - by JCE

Not my ten favorite albums, not my “desert island discs,” but the ten albums that CHANGED MY LIFE. Don’t get me wrong, none of these records got me off of a ledge or anything. It’s just that rock and roll music, after family, means more to me than anything. So, certain records that impact how I feel and what I listen to, really do change my day-to-day life on occasion. Here we go:

1. Paul Revere and the Raiders / Greatest Hits – My first LP record. I had purchased quite a few 45 rpm’s, but this was my first full length album. I bought it for their cover of “Louie, Louie” which I could not find on a 45 but I had to have it. My Mom took me to Korvettes department store and I paid for it with nickels and dimes. When I got it home, I discovered that most every song on it was great, especially “Kicks.” And so began my full-on rock n roll addiction. This was released in 1967, but I know I must’ve been more than four years old when I got it, but I’m not sure how old. It’s very fitting that “many now see it as a bold 1960’s rock n roll record with a defiant punk edge” according to one review I just read.

2. The Beach Boys / Endless Summer – I played this double-LP in my room and day-dreamed about girls for hours and hours on end. I had a little all-in-one stereo that I absolutely loved, and I think my true love for vinyl records began with this one. It had a gatefold cover and great artwork. It was released in 1974. I loved the song “Wendy.” I would have been eleven or twelve years old when I got it. Yep, that sounds about right.

3. The Cars – My sister Molly went to Boston University (we lived in Virginia). She discovered a local band there called The Cars, right before they broke it big. When their debut came out in 1978, I got a copy on her advice and I loved every song on it from the first day. I had been listening non-stop to the first Van Halen record, which I also loved, and which had been released a few months before The Cars record. The Cars were the band that somehow sent me down the path to punk rock. R.I.P. Molly, I miss you.

4. The Clash – I probably got this record having never heard any songs on it. It was already older (1977) than the Cars record, but I didn’t learn about The Clash and the Sex Pistols and punk rock until after. I will always love everything about this record. It led me on a direct path to The Damned, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Buzzcocks, 999, Stiff Little Fingers, Generation X and on and on…. HUGE impact on my life.

5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers / Damn the Torpedoes – This record just couldn’t be any better. In high school, being a punk and a skater made me somewhat of an outcast. Damn the Torpedoes was one record I could play that I was pretty sure everyone could agree was pure genius. “Here Comes My Girl” was a song that ran a shiver up my back every time I heard it, still does. The record was released late in 1979. I would have been a junior. The record got me through some of those times when I felt a little alone, maybe a little too much like a loner. I don’t know why, it just spoke to me. It still does.

6. X / Los Angeles – After about a year listening to punk mostly from across the big pond, this record came out and re-energized me. I found it to be scary and dangerous and urgent. It is truly one of my favorite records and one I feel is very important. I consider the Dead Kennedy’s “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” almost equal to this X record, but I got the X record first, so it gets on my list. Both records came out in 1980.

7. Government Issue / Joy Ride – With my musical tastes firmly entrenched in punk rock, I found myself immersed in the punk scene which was percolating in the city in which I was born, Washington, D.C. The HarD.C.ore scene was very exciting to me, but being honest, I felt that quite a bit of the music itself was not up to par with other stuff I was listening to. Initially, I found it hard to truly enjoy the super-speed, play-as-fast-as-you-can style coming from the D.C. hardcore punk scene. Then I discovered Government Issue. John Stabb (R.I.P.) was spectacular live. This 1984 release had a song on it called “Understand” that really got a hold of me, although every song on the record is great. From this record, I embraced HarD.C.ore and I still listen to a steady diet of it today. I have many fond memories of the scene in its heyday.

8. The Neighborhoods / The High Hard One – There was a guy in the music scene in Charlottesville, VA, where I went to college, by the name of Maynard. Maynard played in some great bands and he promoted some shows. He started putting up fliers all over town one day that said “Fire Is Coming.” I didn’t know what it meant at first, until I found out it was the name of an EP by a band from Boston called The Neighborhoods. I got very close to a bunch of amazing people in Charlottesville, including, eventually, my wife. We all saw tons of great shows, went to every gig played by our friends in a band called 98 Colours (some of those opening for the ‘Hoods)—it was a great time in my life. Everyone I knew absolutely loved The Neighborhoods upon the release of “The High Hard One.” I must’ve played “WUSA” ten thousand times. This record, for me, was the soundtrack for one of the happiest times of my life. I actually like the “Reptile Men” record even better, but this was the record (1986) that I associate with discovering so many new things and new people and so much new music.

9. Enuff Z’Nuff – From the hair metal, Sunset Strip, glam and sleaze era, a few bands emerged that were so much more and so far above many bands from that genre. Every song on it is excellent and because of this record, I began listening to some different bands that I may have previously blown off as “not punk enough.” On the more metal side, I discovered The Hangmen. On the pop side, I went back and rediscovered my love of Cheap Trick. I started dating the beautiful woman that has now been my wife for 27 years in 1990. This Enuff Z’Nuff record, released in 1989, was played damn near every single day for the first few months of our relationship. We saw the band at The Bayou in Georgetown as they toured in support of this record. We have a handful of “our songs” but this is definitely “our record.”

10. Social Distortion – This self-titled release came out in 1990. The album “Mommy’s Little Monster” was released in 1983 and I have been a Social Distortion fan since that time. There are a number of reasons why this record is on my list. This record came out the year I started dating my wife, and like the Enuff Z’Nuff record, it was a record we loved together. The song “Ball and Chain” is one of my all-time favorites, and my wife adores the Johnny Cash cover, “Ring of Fire.” The record also includes “Sick Boy” and “Story of My Life,” which are both classics. My wife and I gave up alcohol for about twelve years, during the time that we conceived our daughter and during the formative years after she was born. We also saw very little live music during that period of time. Upon taking up beer and wine drinking after a long hiatus, the first show we went to see was Social Distortion at the 9:30 Club in D.C. in October 2010. It was so frigging awesome that we have been to see an average of more than a show per month from that day to the present. I recently got my first tattoo, to honor my sister who I lost, and during the process, at my request, the artist played the Social Distortion Pandora radio station. I can’t express how truly integral music is to my daily life, and this very personal experience was definitely enhanced by the soundtrack that accompanied it. This band has meant a great deal to me since 1983. This particular record is the most representative of the impact they have had

This list is in chronological order.  I cannot guarantee that the list wouldn’t change if I thought about it longer, but I think I’m pretty happy with it.  You might notice there is nothing on the list newer than 1990.  That may be a mistake, as I love and continue to collect music now just as much or even more than ever.  I love music more than ever, but there probably just aren’t that many instances where it can change my life at this point.  My list is heavy on the 1977-1980 releases, but I think that’s natural because when you’re 15 years old, your life is just starting to take shape.  This is a list of records that truly left their mark. - JCE

(editor’s note: JCE thinks it might be cool if some/all of the other Pencilstorm writers - Colin, Ricki C, Anne Marie, Scott Carr, etc. write up THEIR life-changing disc picks. For that matter, it might be nice if we could figure a way for READERS of Pencilstorm to chip in and send their two cents worth on the matter, participatory journalism at its best.)