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1970s music
1980s music
A01=Bill Janovitz
Author_Bill Janovitz
Benjamin Orr
boston music scene
Category=AV
Category=AVP
Elliott Easton
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Greg Hawkes
Jonathan Richman
music book
pop culture book
pop music books
Ric Ocasek
rock and roll

Product details

  • ISBN 9780306835063
  • Weight: 760g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 232mm
  • Publication Date: 23 Oct 2025
  • Publisher: Hachette Books
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
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New York Times bestselling author Bill Janovitz delivers the definitive story of The Cars, one of the most popular, beloved, and influential bands to emerge from New Wave-with a foreword by Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes.

The Cars formed in the late 1970s as an alliance of five journeymen musicians with roots in Maryland, Ohio, New York, and New England. They had each performed in a series of bands before finding one another-along with the right sound at the right time. That sound, soon fortified by their iconic imagery, turned them into Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Biographer, critic, and musician Bill Janovitz explores the musical, cultural, and commercial impact of the band with articulate and knowing insights. He draws on his own exclusive new reporting along with the enthusiastic participation of the surviving members of the band, as well as nearly everyone who surrounded them over the years. The band's unusual providence is fully explored here for the first time, and each of their landmark albums is masterfully chronicled and dissected, as is their profound support of the Boston music scene that has reverberated around the world and throughout the decades.
Yet, with all of the success, there were also significant conflicts within the band, which led to an untimely end. Janovitz reveals the stories of each member, and of the group as a whole, with great care and understanding. To paraphrase The Car's own lyrics: Hello again, you might think this is just what you needed. It's magic. Let's shake it up and let the good times roll.

Bill Janovitz is the New York Times bestselling author of Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History, The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St., and Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones. He is a founding member of the international touring and recording band Buffalo Tom, formed in 1986 in Massachusetts. He lives with his family outside of Boston.

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