The Cars - Candy-O

I really like the first couple of albums by The Cars.  As they went on I think they were always good for a hit single that I wouldn't hate on the Top 40 station when I came across it, but the first two albums, the self titled one and Candy-O are easily my favorites and the only two I’ll probably ever own.  Maybe it’s because they came out when I was in high school and the others came out when I was out of school and music had become much less of a communal activity for me.  Or, it could be that I just like the first two albums and The Cars had kind of a sameness to their sound and I got bored with them after that.

The summer Candy-O came out I had a job at a restaurant called Casey’s.  Casey’s was an old style place.  You could get breakfast any time, and you could get dinner any time.  You could get beer and liquor any time, too.  We had a little bar off the dining room and it was real dark, but the waitresses could get you a drink if you were in the dining room even if it was 5:30 AM when we opened.  I never worked that early, I worked the end of breakfast rush and then lunch and after lunch I cooked all of Mrs. Casey’s daily specials like meat loaf, stuffed cabbage and I got to make all the soups, too.  Lunch there was pretty quiet and the waitress and I were often the only two people there (but the manager was an ex-cop and showed up to check on us all the time).  I remember I was 17 and we ran out of beer in the keg and they told three guys from Ford they’d have to drink bottles for lunch.  I told the manager I could swap a keg in two minutes or less and he (being an ex-cop) was skeptical, but I did it and the Ford guys were happy and tipped the waitress really well, and even started getting food to go after that.  So when I showed up, I was a pretty decent teenage cook to have around.

My problem was I hardly ever showed up after my parents took the summer off and when to their cottage.  I got to stay home, but to insure I wouldn't have big parties, my little sister’s sitter moved in.  She didn’t care what I did so long as I didn't have a big party (I wasn't that kid anyway), and my friends were absolutely in L-U-V love with her.  She still didn't let me smoke in the house, cuz she didn't smoke.  What’s all this got to do with Candy-O, you’re asking?

Well, I moved my stereo (there’s a post about on here somewhere) out into the rec room.  I moved the whole room around to accommodate my teenage trash and I lived in that room all summer.  It was pretty great, lemme tell ya!  One of the albums I bought that summer was The Cars – Candy-O.  It was brand new, and just came out right at the beginning of summer.  For me, this album just screams “Summertime!  Let’s have fun!”  I thought the cover was brilliant.  I thought the first single, Let’s Go, was even more brilliant (I think I still do).  The best thing about it is that absolutely everybody loved it.  All my friends thought it was great.  Me, the stupid wannabe Punk Rock music snob thought it was great.  The jocks loved it, and girls liked it, too.  There weren't always records that so many people could get behind, and the summer of ‘79 this was the go to album for pretty much everyone.

I already mentioned Let’s Go, and it’s totally solid to this day.  I always felt there were four real classics by The Cars on this album.  The other three are the title track, which was sort of a tamed down Devo with better guitars and It’s All I Can Do, which was a really good ballad and the last song on the album, Dangerous Type.  The girl in Dangerous Type was like adult dangerous.  Now that I’m definitely an adult I think she’s dangerous because she’s apparently barely formed in Ric Ocasek’s head (have you looked at the lyrics? They’re dumb).  But I was 17 and I was pretty sure I wanted to meet a dangerous type girl.  Which is pretty funny, now that I think about it.

That was a great summer, and I couldn’t get enough of Candy-O.  In fact, I ended up losing it.  I think I took it to a party and forgot it and the party thrower said they never could find it (LIAR!).  But that’s okay.  My wife got it for me on cd in the 80’s and a few years back I decided to get one, but I wanted it cheap.  It took about three copies, but I now have a really nice one.  I think my total investment is around  two dollars, so I did pretty well.  And here’s where I tell you a secret that will save you cash if you follow my advice.  Mine is a Columbia House Record Club version.  It’s got the CHC on the back cover, and other than that it’s all Elektra.  Columbia House was a division of Columbia Records, and yes, they occasionally made their own pressings of records, but the Terre Haute pressing plant wasn’t some fly by night outfit.  Those guys were good.  Other labels often just sent Columbia House their own pressings and the art for the covers, because Columbia House bought so many of them.  They were great customers and they were given quality product.  I've never had an inferior pressed record from them.

Now, you may see some really trashed CH records.  The reason is because a lot of the people that did that were kids or people that didn't really see music as an important part of their daily breakfast.  Those aren't the ones you want.  The ones you want are the ones that people got stuck with.  A record they didn't order, but got because they didn't send a postcard back in time.  So then you get a record that is undesirable because of old rumors about how CH got their records, and a record someone never wanted anyway.  So it’s probably unplayed.  An unplayed record whose worst case scenario is that it was pressed by Columbia Records.  Hey, don’t believe me.  I’ll keep buying them cheap and minty and enjoy the hell out of them, like I do with this one!