The Cars - Touch And Go Reaction

[@Kevvinm]

Thanks , C and C , That was a good live version , that’s a killer solo from Elliot Easton. I’m a fan of this underrated Cars lp, that being said Candy -O is still my favorite album from them.

[@sean---the-other-one]

Since you’re already well familiar with The Cars this is an excellent choice to show their depth. Most of their singles are great ballads or very uptempo dance/rock numbers. This track shows their underlying talent as it’s not an easy song to play if you’re only comfortable in common time or 3/4 signatures. Just Whet I Needed doesn’t go down the odd-time route, but it does play with convention by altering which beat in the bar that the snare plays (usually the backbeats of 2 and 4 in common time). When done well it can be hidden from people, other times you can lean into the odd time and challenge people out of their comfort zone like The Cars did here. A couple of very popular songs in odd times: All You Need Is Love by The Beatles has 7/4 in the verses. Money by Pink Floyd uses 7/4 for most of the song but 4/4 in the guitar solo as an ‘energy boost’ Solisbury Hill by Peter Gabriel is in 7/4 The Ocean by Led Zeppelin is on 7/4 and 4/4 Living In The Past by Jethro Tull is in 5/4 The Mission Impossible Theme is in 5/4 Other songs rip into odd times. For example Heart Of Glass by Blondie adds 3 bars of 7/4 in the middle of a disco song, which is fantastic given that often some of the angular feel of odd time is mitigated by two odd bars resolving into an even number of beats. In Heart Of Glass the 3 x 7/4 bars accumulates to 21 beats. That would normally completely mess up a dancer’s rhythm, but I suspect that the four-on-the-floor kick drum of disco helps smooth this out.

[@waggafletcher]

The Cars are coded into my brain. One of the best American bands of what was the Great Era for rock/pop. They were huge in Oz. A fixture on the jukeboxes in Sydney pubs in the 80s.

[@davidellis5141]

The song You Wear Those Eyes from this album is the only Cars song where Ric & Ben trade-off lead vocals ( duet )

[@JamesDickson-vs5of]

Oh and the rest of the band, excellent 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✌️

[@wayne_twentyfive]

..Although it's not one of my favourite Cars songs, I do quite like this one .. It has a cool vibe, and that unusual time signature makes it nicely edgy .. The repeating 2 chord keyboard riff during the verses is very reminiscent to me of the verse riff in The Police's "Spirits In The Material World", which is one of my faves by them .. Good reaction to a good song.👍

[@dudefromtx1404]

They could have applied my depth to the lyrics in my opinion but the rest of it is fun touch and go. Well done Cars classic music. ❤

[@OnceWasRStrathfield]

Hey guys, Don't forget the email on Divinyls and the picture attached.. and the links!

[@rayman20us]

How could they not mention that awesome guitar solo by Elliot Easton?

[@a.k.1740]

The original studio version of “Touch and Go” (on the Panorama album) is much better than this live version, in which the bass is buried in the mix.

[@davidellis5141]

In their early days , The Cars 🚗 were a mediocre live band but by the Panorama album ( from which this song is taken ) they were quite good.

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

So, what we're watching is them being quite good as a live band. I have trouble sleeping, so if you can direct me to footage of a mediocre Cars concert, I will be forever grateful. 🙂

[@davidellis5141]

Sleeping is my business & business is good. 💤

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

@@davidellis5141 😄

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

Get in 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@SPKdesign1]

Mornin.

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@SPKdesign1 right back at ye sir , were you a fan of the Buzzcocks ? 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@SPKdesign1]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering I quite liked them at the time.

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@SPKdesign1 aye so did I , I didn’t buy any of their albums , but I think My best friends Girlfriend is in my top 20 70’s singles .. I bought it back in the day . I only really know their singles , but this is mince imho 😳 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@SPKdesign1]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering I only have some 7"s as well on vinyl. I have most of their stuff on File but don't listen to it too often.

[@BenTurner-vz7cr]

For a Wednesday comparison could I pretty please request do it by the pink fairies vs the Rollins bands version. Thank you kindly

[@delorangeade]

It's clever in the verses, it's well played, it's a bit dull. I remember, when The Cars first singles came out in the UK, the British music press suggested they were America's answer to the British New Wave, something The Cars I think were quick to deny. But America never really understood anything that came out of the UK, just how to turn something interesting into something glossy, corporate and bland for the MTV generation, which The Cars very quickly became.

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

Like it Del 👌 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@SPKdesign1]

Beat you to this one V

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

But still 2nd to me sir 😅 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@mightyV444]

My Mum had taught me to share! 😄

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@mightyV444 Be honest , you were too busy texting your lad bragging about being first with The Buzzcocks one V … 😆.. took yer eye off the ball and I nipped in and scored 😁 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@mightyV444]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering - Oh yes, definitely to some degree! 😄 But I was actually content with just the first video, too! 😊

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@mightyV444 awesome 😀 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis.]

I normally like The Cars but this is far from their best in my opinion, but I know that others will probably like it a lot.

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

I bought the album Panorama in 1980. I probably bought it because I saw the ''Touch And Go'' video on Countdown (surprise, surprise). I liked what they were aiming for. It wasn't commercial, but the darkness and slickness was suitable for my little New Wave mind in 1980. I found when I listened to the Panorama album, I would get straight to something very poppy like Devo's Freedom Of Choice or Split Enz's True Colours. I needed to get The Cars' artistic cred-before-commerciality approach out of my system, and listen to New Wave bands laden with hooks and melodies. ''Touch And Go'' reminds me of a refrigerator in the dark for reasons unbeknownst. I blame the live performance more than the song.

[@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis.]

@@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83 Right, that can be it at times, the live performance being different from an album or single track. I haven't heard this song before, or the album so, I can't comment on the darkness bit, but of course I've known other bands and artists who have had songs and albums which were darker than their earlier stuff. I had The Cars '70s albums "The Cars" and "Candy-O", but never heard the '80s stuff from them. That could well be because at that time I moved from where I was living in the U.K. to London so, I missed out on a few things in 1980 due to moving there and trying to find somewhere to live properly and finding work, when I first arrived there I was living in a friend's squat for the first month or so.

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

@@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis. That's very interesting. I sincerely mean that. As a kid I naively assumed music was everywhere in London and that nobody living there could avoid the ''hit parade''. My picture of London at that time was walking down the street and hearing The Vapors playing ''Turning Japanese'' in a pub, and then walking down further to hear Dexy's Midnight Runners playing ''Geno'' in another pub. I thought everybody's neighbour had a hit single and were performing on Top Of The Pops. When you talk about moving to London in 1980 and missing out on things, my 13 year old brain kicks in and thinks ''But how is that possible when London has so much music?''. In Australia around this time we were saturated with latest US and UK releases and as a ''Countdown kid'' my (child labour) job was to listen to as much of the latest releases as possible and talk to my peers about these records. What was life in London in 1980 and what were you doing there to keep you away from music? I know you said you were settling in and living in a squat for a while, but was there anything else? I've always had this romantic impression of London in 1980 because I listened to so much music from that place in that year.

[@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis.]

@@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83 When I first moved to London, I'd been DJing on the Alternative scene in the place that I lived before, but once I got there I had only a bag of clothes and toiletries with me. My friend had who was living there had a radio, the others in the squat were Jamaican so, much of the music that I heard was Reggae etc. I spent much of my day looking for jobs in the papers and Jobcentres etc, going to interviews navigating a large new city, once I got a job, I looked for a place of my own to live which wasn't too far from work. I was working in the Hi-Fi and TV Department of Harrods in the daytime and at night I worked in a bar so, I would go straight there after I finished my day job, which meant I was out of my place from 8am until 1am so, it was a case of getting up for work getting home from work sleeping, rinse and repeat, days/nights off were spent going to the launderette, doing food shopping, visiting friends etc. Sadly, I had to work two jobs due to the rent, with it being central London it was very expensive for very little space, things got better after a year or so but I missed out on a lot due to this.

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

@@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis. I have to say that I find that fascinating. A lot of it has to do with being an Aussie in Melbourne and looking at England with ''rose-tint glasses''. I watched too many music videos of bands walking around English streets with a backdrop of the grey sky. When you're in Australia watching videos like Dexy's '''Geno'', Members' ''Killing Time'', and every Madness (they all look the same, really), you develop this impression that working at Harrods in the day and working at a bar at night and 'killing time at the launderette' (reference to the Members' song) is a very cool way to spend your life. Obviously it would have been tough for you, and maybe not much fun. But to an Aussie that was a teenager in 1980 and taking in British music video after British music video, I saw struggling in London as being something that only happened to.. I don't know.. very cool people? lol This response is coming from your first reply, which I had mistaken as your recent reply: I have a pretty good memory and from what I remember, Sharon O'Neill (New Zealand pop singer that the Haniers SHOULD explore) was hosting an episode of Countdown in 1980 and she introduced the ''Touch & Go'' video. A lot of times you didn't get to see the video introduced by the host when being in the Countdown studio. You only got to see two days later on TV. I remember waiting for the hook or a good chorus to come at me while watching the ''Touch & Go'' video and not really getting it. However, I had a fascination with artists trying something new or doing things I didn't fully understand. The Cars' Panorama album fit that bill. It just wasn't an immediate record. You had to listen again and again to fully understand what was going on. It was the perfect pop band trying to be experimental. DEVO's second album Duty Now For The Future was of that same nature. It was a disappointing second album to many, but to me it was an album I had to listen to again and again while scratching my head. First albums by INXS, James Freud, Boys Next Door and La Femme also had that same effect. They were all nascent bands trying to figure themselves out and I liked that. I found it less interesting when I band knew exactly what they were going. I liked it when bands entered unknown territory and I think The Cars were doing that with Panorama.

[@JamesDickson-vs5of]

IMO, he sounds and looks bit like " the coulor field" Terry hall , which is okay by me, I like it 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✌️

[@davidellis5141]

Terry started in The Specials

[@JamesDickson-vs5of]

@@davidellis5141 yes David, he sure did , I'm one of those funny Terry hall fans, who thinks " the coulor field" stuff was his best stuff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✌️

[@davidellis5141]

@JamesDickson-vs5of I like him solo in the 90's with the track Happy Go Lucky & duet with Tricky Poems

[@JamesDickson-vs5of]

@@davidellis5141 iv not heard them David, I,LL check them out 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✌️

[@DamienCalnon-uq7zj]

It was Okay. Quality guitar lead work with an excellent tone. However, perhaps the song wasn't strong enough for the guitar solo - a touch incongruous. The synth ead a bit repetitive. But overall Okay.

[@chrislewis-n3v]

the cars were a great band but live on stage they had no charisma whatsoever- they looked as if they hated every minute of playing live, though they did sound good

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

Wearing sunglasses indoors = Tool 😳 I don’t mind some Cars , but this is some weak ass nonsense here 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@ghichens3418]

Yep , big steaming pair of Bloomers , with extra hot air !!

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@ghichens3418 creative and understandable comment as usual Sir G 😀 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@ghichens3418]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering One has to try and keep UN Pc comments alive , doesnt one Sir Jay ! Cor Blimey !!

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@ghichens3418 Stone the crows yes 😝 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@ghichens3418]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering Mind you ! have you ever seen a stoned Crow ?? How do they smoke the stuff ??

[@colrhodes377]

This borders on annoying

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

You know it Sir Col 🙌 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@colrhodes377]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering 👍👍👍👍🤣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴‍☠️

[@ghichens3418]

Yep ! Binned it , doing my head in !

[@colrhodes377]

@@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering How about Foreigner, with Cold as ice. One for the elderly, Sir Jay 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🏴‍☠️

[@jaymacgee_A_Bawbag_Blethering]

@@colrhodes377 OMG Sir col that song is half dead with beastliness 🤯 There was only 1 Foreigner song I could even bear and that was Urgent ! But the rest of their stuff I’ve heard .. ?💩 😆 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@ghichens3418]

I like the Cars ! Best friends Girl ! Just What I Needed ! Candy O ! would have been good , This is a bit bitty not their best .

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

I don't know the difference between this and your ''Friday Favourites''. I know somebody's requested this, but your ''Friday Favourites'' segment is also made up by requests. 🤷‍♀ Just speaking my mind.

[@hanierfamily]

That's fair. We probably should have saved it for Friday.

[@JamesDickson-vs5of]

@@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83 strike that Ck, I do understand what you mean 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✌️

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

@@JamesDickson-vs5of lol

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

@@hanierfamily Do you even know if the guy that requested this song is still alive? It just seems like such an out of the blue song by a band you're very familiar with (3 songs that you saw on MuchMusic is familiar enough, and they have been on your ''Favourites'' before). I know this song pretty well, because I had every Cars album bar Door To Door. I have always been okay with this track, but The Cars never excited me as a live band. I never got to see them live because they didn't bother coming DOWN to Australia, and they sort of avoided Countdown until 1984. Just another American band that saw that we were buying their albums, and thought ''Good the little people are consuming Cars LPs. We heard they have the grasp of the English language down there. Understanding our songs shouldn't be difficult for the little people''. There's no humour nor life in this live performance. The audience look like they're on New Wave like it's a fashion trip. Instead of being an idea of the late 70's, New Wave became a fashion accessory and 80's Cars had it commodified down to a T. Split Enz were a New Wave band that could pull it off live. They had been releasing albums as far back as 1975. DEVO impressed me when they played on stage. I took New Wave in like it was breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not saying I don't like The Cars, but there are moments when The Cars made New Wave look as exciting as a business conference for some brand of hair spray. This video exemplifies that notion. Anyway, I've given you guys a list of non-Australian songs that were only hits in Australia because of the Countdown kid brigade. It would be nice if you actually said in your intro that the song you'll be checking out was only a hit in Australia because the Countdown kids made it that way. We never pushed radio to play any song by The Cars because radio got on to them before we did. The Cars didn't need us to barrack for them. Cheers, Hayley

[@davidellis5141]

@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83 So , you leave comments & replies that make it seem like this is your channel & it's not. The Cars were a " studio " band that even at their best were far from an essential live act. Heartbeat City took a year to record & mix & Ric Ocasek became a successful Producer. Cars had good management who realized they were musicians & not performers. They didn't take advantage of you or any overseas fans .. they knew they weren't up to par live & didn't fleece you. Anyway you always leave really unnecessary replies to my comments & I hope you cease to do so & I will avoid yours as well. It's just music & it's supposed to be a good time & if you want things your way ..start a channel. Thank You.

[@GeorgetteHolloway-g4q]

There is better songs than this for Cars, who the hell sent this suggestion in?

[@I_was_a_Countdown_Kid-75-83]

A troll