Chordplay - The Chords Of The Cars
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Here's the next episode of Chordplay with The Chords Of The Cars.
Elliot Easton and the brilliant music from The Cars exploded onto the scene in the late 1970s and their success continued onward well into the 1980s, where they were in heavy rotation on MTV, the radio, in music magazines, and just about everywhere else for over a decade.
This lesson focuses on some of Easton's tricky fretboard maneuvers and for a guitarist known for playing with a "new wave" band in the 1980s, his licks/tricks originated from classic rock, blues, rockabilly, surf guitar ideas. His interesting twists to almost everything he plays makes him an inspiring and unusual guitarist to watch, as you never know what he's going to play next or exactly how it played it. Easton's truly a unique guitarist to listen to and learn from, and this lesson skims the surface of his musical ideas and creative genius on the guitar.
The songs featured in this lesson were mainly pulled from their 1978 self-titled debut (a beyond-classic album), while a few other examples are from popular albums such as 'Shake It Up' and 'Heartbeat City.' The songs we're hitting here include classic rock radio staples, such as 'My Best Friend's Girl,' 'Good Times Roll,' 'Shake It Up,' and many more. This includes some lesser-known fan favorites as well, such as 'Moving In Stereo.'
Needless to say, there's something very interesting about The Cars music and the various left-field ideas floating around Easton's fingers when he picks up a guitar. Long-term fans of this group will find several of their favorites targeted in this episode, while newcomers of this classic band will locate plenty to work through and chew around with hiding in this lesson.
Give this episode a view, leave some comments and feedback, and please subscribe to Late Night Lessons - THANK YOU!
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Brewster, I have now decreed that you are my favorite RUclips guitar guy. Calming voice, guitar historian and with chops on loan from god. These videos are just amazing. Thank you for the Bye Bye Love breakdown. One of the great songs of the early 80’s and I’ve never seen anyone actually understand it, much less break it down this clearly.
The Cars and EE are just a master class of hooks. Like you said some songs are 3 chords but EE added so much color and variation at just the right time - its like crack for your ears - and you have to listen again and again lol. Great lesson!
Great insight on the tricky little additions Elliot threw into the cars songs. I never caught the harmonic thing before.. i tried and the light came on... Thanks for that Dave.
Doesn't matter the subject band.. I always learn something here
Every video I've seen of him playing My Best friend's girl it's in E. That song is just amazingly full of licks
Lessons like this remind me exactly how bad my teachers were. Great lesson, thanks!
Love your analysis and beeakdowns of how to play all these great bands guitar parts. Wow I've always wondered how to play Let the Good Times Roll and you nailed it!! Also totally agree The Cars are a Rock Band and not New Wave. Thanks very much for your great content and talent!
Fun fact: Warrant’s “Down Boys” can be overlayed on the Cars’ “Bye Bye Love” almost exactly. The harmony needs a little massaging and the “Down Boys” bridge is half as long otherwise it’s almost the same song.
That's pretty wild, I never heard that before. It's also interesting to note, that The Cars also had a song called "Down Boys" off of their album "Panorama".
Wow. Just “listened” to this in my head and now I can’t I unhear it.
Have you ever thought of doing a chordplay of Jim Mankey (Concrete Blonde)? Very interesting finger style chord playing on God is a bullet for instance which I never quite could nail that opening chord and have never seen a correct tab
Killer.
It’s too bad Rick isn’t around. He sang like Buddy Holly. He had the Holly hiccup.
Elliot Easton was a master. Correction...
IS a master!
These guys were so good at what they did as a band. So many great songs and were fairly simple in their writing style. But they had such a magic that really defined a sound and an era. I love the cars man! Just one of those rare bands that just put their noses to the grind and made catchy, great sing-a-long tunes that most everyone could relate to. Great lesson bro.
The Cars is one of those bands, that if you ask someone "Are you a fan of The Cars?" They might say "no." But when you start playing their songs, *everybody* knows all the lyrics. I remember the first time I saw the video for "It's Magic" and it blew my 10-year-old mind.
Eliot Easton is a great player for sure. But Ocasek's signature 16th note skip on those steady 8ths is priceless (e.g. You Might Think, right after he sings "To hang around with you"). That's one example, but it's all over their discography.
Finally, some Elliot!
Both him & Neil Geraldo were such musical rhythm and lead players.
This is such a great dive into a criminally underrated guitar band. Your treatment of the wicked cool guitar part in "Let the Good Times Roll" is especially terrific!
Easton is so underrated. Thank you for this.
So underrated that everyone always says that exact phrase. Nuno praises him highly.
This comment is so overated I've seriously considered disabling all comments on music related videos because there is always a Chad or a Karen saying the same fucking thing. There is nothing uNdErAtEd about Elliot Easton or Rick. It's The Cars. Get a fuckin clue already.
Elliot Easton is a monster guitarist and highly revered in the guitar community. He was hardly "underrated".
My first guitar teacher always told me he loved Elliott Easton's solo's and playing because it was almost like a song in it's own right. They were the opening act for Foreigner in the late 70s in Atlanta when I saw them.
First concert I ever went to. I was 14 and it was shaparoned by the local newspaper. I was one of a handful of people that won tickets by getting the most new customers on my paper route lol. Changed my life and have loved the Cars ever since. The opening act was a two piece punk duo called Suicide. They were literally booed off the stage with people throwing all sorts of stuff them. It was 1980.
Excellent. Love the cars. Thanks man
Thumbs up as soon as I heard the 1st bar of 'Bye Bye Love'!
Great lesson... I got to be 10 feet away from the cars at winterland back in the day. Great no ego guitarist. Just played the perfect part for the song. Result - just great beautiful songs. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.
Great lesson and the Cars ROCK. Just What I Needed was the first song I learned from my guitar teacher.
Elliot Easton has such a Country/Rockabilly influence on his playing that it shows through in everything he's come up with for leads/solos and little licks during songs.
Heartbeat City is a masterpiece of a record.... listen to "It's Not The Night".
Hey David and ( everybody else)check the Jeff Carlisi video on ivideosongs ,he talks about the Cars influence on writing songs like Hold on Loosely, it’s a great video for anyone who plays guitar.
Fascinating video! The Cars were so misunderstood. They were a connection to Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochrane and forerunners of the Rockabilly phase to emerge in the early 1980s with bands like the Stray Cats. 1978 was the year of the debut monsters in music. In February, Van Halen debuted, in March, it was Squeeze, in April, it was Prince, in June it was The Cars, in August it was Devo, in October it was Dire Straits, in November it was The Police and The Clash (their self-titled debut released in 1977 in the U.K. didn’t hit the U.S. until 1979}.
A Great Time to hear this Music when it first aired!
Then in 1979, The Knack, Blondie, Cheap Trick, Toto, Styx, Foreigner, Tom Petty, SuperTramp...
Great episode!! Thank you!!
Psyched that you did a session on the Cars. Great stuff!
The first two Cars albums are absolute MASTERPIECES. Every single goddamn song is good. Every solo is tasty.
I'm still going to ask you check out Bob Welch man. "Ebony Eyes", "Sentimental Lady", "Precious Love", "Hypnotize" and "Easy to Fall". Great stuff.
Easton does a sort of country fingerpicking roll section in “Here She Comes Again” that just makes that song unique. It has sort of a rockabilly vibe. Great band, my first real rock show in the mid 80s for their Heartbeat City tour.
Yeah, also there is a awesome little country lick near the end of the Just What I Needed solo. Very tasty stuff!
Hello Dave, from Blighty. Great lesson, as ever. I’m sure that you have answered this question before, but, where did you get the Beck print from please. Thanks in advance. 🙏🏻🖖🏼
You frikn nailed it.. 100%. The Cars rock and rock hard... classic rock with the most underrated guitar work throughout their catalog..and yes Easton's brilliant guitar work is a huge reason why... like VH in a different way..but those 1st 2 albums destroy.
Thank you, thank you! This channel rocks...literally amd figuratively! 😄
It was initially dubbed the ‘new wave of rock’ and the Cars were the epitome. The Cars were definitely a rock and roll band BUT they also had something distinctly different. A different approach to rock. Most notably for me was the percussive nature of the main rhythm guitar riff parts as the base with Elliot’s additional lines over the top or a complimentary rhythm part (usually behind the verse). Additionally, they used fresh chord voicing and arrangements compared to classic rock. Like the Police’s debut, the Cars totally influenced the New Wave after its release as well as pop in the 80’s.
I believe Elliot was a Juliard grad and can play many styles - well. Some would say underrated but not by me. What I don’t hear much praise for in his regard is his tones. In addition to his phenomenal technique, arranging and choice of parts (some incredibly iconic 2 - 4 bar hooks and solos are burned into my brain), the guitar tones were just as good and appropriate as any epic tune that came before the Cars or after. Elliot’s tones are as iconic to me as Page’s, May’s, Gilmore’s etc.
I was probably 10 or 11 and at my Aunts HS graduation party when I first heard that album- from beginning to end and very loud. Let the good times roll sounded like nothing else id ever heard and loved every second of it - immediately. Summer of 78 or 79. Can’t recall for sure.
The Cars/ Elliot Easton?😎
Perhaps it's time to investigate Blondie of their first 5 lps at least?😎 Lot of good guitar rhythms and licks there that if only because of Deborah Harry's vocals had to impact future artists more than we often acredit to Blondie. Talk about versatility, Chris Stein, and even for a time Infante, had impact bands eighties and beyond. And I'm a crazy metal head, but grew up on Hendrix, Who, LZ, Boston, The Runaways and Blondie. 🤔😉😎
I'm older guy, so sorry if I ramble with this post... I really enjoyed your overview of The Cars and their songs. I write and record mainly commercially licensed music (under performance rights organization, BMI, Inc). One reason why I play so many instruments is because originally living up in New England for so many years "way back" in the day... The Cars were really one of my main influences earlier on... I also actually met Benjamin Orr a few years in Massachusetts before He passed away.. great guy, really "down to earth". You are actually are 100% on spot with saying that they are more of a "rock band" even in the 1970s before The Cars... when they were "Cap'n Swing". If you listen to Best Friends Girl, Touch and Go and Everything You Say, they also presented a "country music" feel with those songs with beats or guitar riffs. And sure, they also fit in to the 80's pop/new wave genre a bit.. but not getting rid of the "rock" feel to their songs. Have a great day, stay safe out there.
Give it a short period of time... David’s channel will hit the “guitar players mainstream”. He is beyond gimmicks and clichés . He what what the community has been waiting for
ALRIGHT B🐓!!
You opened up with my favorite Cars tune👍. Mr, Diversity 👍
Dude... I just got it...I was like..”what’s B chicken??”...I’m a little slow!!!!
@@eddiejr540 hehehe, he's a rooster. I've been calling him that for a while now. Another guy on here calls him "🍻ski".
(Brewski) hehe.
Just one big happy family here!
Brilliant demo/lesson as usual from your good self! Thanks so very much, every member of The Cars was pretty special. I was always a big fan. 🌌💕🌠👌
Just went thru some CARS tunes and found one that is definitely one of his best solos from "Shake It Up" that solo is killer, it's like he hit another level !!
Since watching your video I can't get em (the CARS) outta my head... lol 👍
Great lesson. You are spot-on with your chords analysis. You really get the nuanced nature of Elliot's playing. Thanks for sharing.
Nice!! Great job...so many great songs from this iconic rock band!
Or it would also be very interesting if you included time markers in the video that would be direct to when you play the licks or chords. That would be great !!. Thanks again
By the way, placing the finger in the *middle* between two frets as the optimum is new to me! I'd always been told to move it closer to the *higher* fret, when I'd started to learn the guitar! 🤔 🙂 And I too don't agree with The Cars being labelled as 'New Wave', despite it being one of my favourite genres 🙂
Love the Cars love Elliott
I’d be willing to bet Ric Ocasek is responsible for 98% of all the staccato rhythm notes played in The Cars.
They were "Art Rock", an American version of early Roxy Music.
Elliot Easton solo album might have some good idea to make a lesson on check it out. I like Benjamin Orr solo album a lot if it has more catchy hit song it would have been a good solo career from him.
Hello, my friend, I think you should play at the beginning of the video all the chords or licks that you are going to develop in that same video once at normal speed and once at slow speed, since it is very heavy to have to be searching throughout From the video the examples that you are developing, and there are more advanced guitarists and with less time who could hunt down your lesson just to see you play at the beginning of the video once at normal speed, and another at slower speed. I am not saying that the explanations are less interesting, but not always one has the time or patience to watch a 20 minute video to learn some ideas that are spread indiscriminately in a video of that duration, and that do not take more than 30 or 40 seconds to hunt them at a glance and the I love your content and tastes, but I don't have the time to watch so many minutes of video, that's why this suggestion. Thank you and congratulations on your content and playing.
So. The song that is the easiest is actually the hardest. Harmonics and all. Thanks Again Dave!
Very cool. Good times roll! Love to see these subtle but important guitar tricks unlocked. Thanks
Great lesson. Simple but really slick voicings and 2 part connecting parts. Simple yet genius...
BlackBerry Smoke band would be great Chordplay
Great lesson! I had head that they raised the pitch of Best Friends Girl since the sequence of the album had Good Times Roll ending in a ringing E chord, and wanted the next song to change key. It could have been too slow as well. The fast pull-off phrases at the end of the solo would not work if the song was in F (at least without a capo).
Funny, just playing some Cars on my guitar. EE is amazing!!!
Great lesson and very cool ways to mix two guitars together
cool! thank you!
good article with Elliot Easton in the Nov 2020 issue of Vintage Guitar.
That was fucking awesome! Please show us more of those songs was awesome
Yes! The Cars are definitely a Rock & Roll band, for sure! Godly rock n roll synths!
You should transcribe the solo for You Might Think I’m Crazy. I learnt it recently and it’s a really interesting composition.
I'm sorta gauging my progress as a play through your lessons. When I first found you it seemed way beyond me like your Trevor Rabin lesson. However i am starting to get more what you are talking about.
Three Elliott Easton licks from...
Great video Dave. I love The Cars! Great band.
Thank you for this! One of my fav guitarist
Ive learned over the years that if you take a log chain and a cement block and attach it to your strap right between your shoulders, your strap will stay put while you are sitting down. It is a bit of a fiddle but it ends up to be worth it.
Awesome video, I'm a big CARS fan. And your right, they're a Rock band !!!
They have so many great song's.
And Elliott's guitar was the driving force behind them
👍👍
Vivian Campbell the dio years please
I am in a Cars tribute band and I thought I had nailed all the chordal structures down pretty well… Until I saw your video! Thanks a lot
Yeah!! Another set of the Bad Boys from Boston. the CARS!
TY for this lesson-great insights.
Great,yeah,i almost forgot this great band! Thank you!
They are in my top 10 bands of all time
great content as always - thanks!
No offense but I’m SO glad ‘metal month’ is over ;)
Love his playing! Glad you covered this!
I play these songs on my EE Pro Kramer. I got it cheap after he disavowed the guitars and said he only played Gibson and Fender.
I saw The Cars on the Panorama tour...they were awesome....one band that sounded better live than the recordings!!!!
Thanks David for bringing back a flood of memories, I saw them in1978 at the CNE in Toronto. Never forget the black limo with the cars licence plate pulling up on stage
I get to be first. Great stuff as always Dave. And a question There is a David Brewster I came across on Spotify, is that you?
Awesome job playing those parts. I love The Cars. Elliot played so many tasty cool riffs. Their music was so accessible that it's easy to miss the great craftmanship that went into making it.
The Cars, Loverboy, The Knack etc were some of the first influencers of New Wave Rock, man....Flock Of Seagulls and others were more of New Wave Pop. But to say they WEREN'T New Wave is simply inaccurate....they were. Definitely
Candy-O, so to speak! 😎
Never understood the mentality that rock couldn't have keyboards. There's tons of if out there played by many great rock bands. Great vid, thanks!🎶✌
These guys were unlike anyone else with their song writing and their overall sound. Such an awesome band all around. Oh and I used to hate keyboards back in the 90's but have seen the light and know it has its place and really enjoy it.
You took down the picks!!
I just moved them bro! There's a small section of them still visible on the far righthand side, but they were creating a mirror/reflection thingy on the framed album I feature, so I thought it would be better to move them.
Plus...I wanted to show the 'Guitar Shop' artwork framed in its place. I just recently framed that and was rather proud of it!
Anywho...thanks and take care!
Good observation.
You nailed this lesson! Well done🤘😎🎸
I graduated in 1981. The Cars where in steady rotation back in that day. Lots of party memories of these songs playing. I know who will be on Spotify on the drive to work!
When you said "Craftsman" I audibly said "YASSS" ... That is the word to describe EE. Every note gets love.
Agreed! The Cars had great sounding songs
Finally, someone who plays good times roll correctly with the harmonic!! I’m hoping i find Easton’s solos on your channel.
another epic one
Thank you for solving "Good Times Roll," which i could NEVER seem to nail.
I could hear that harmonic, the oddness of the riff, but always played it kinda
straight & incorrectly.
Great tone BUD!! I've always loved the guitar from The Cars ! Crafty and mean when required!! Peace brother
You got always a very good sound....not too much distortion....but a good drive. Which amp and effects do you use here? Congrats and cheers...Roger
Anyone else thinking "simone get this man a les paul or sg. ? Would be spot-on....
freekin loves me some strat but just doesn't sound right w Cars oramicray..? I keep waiting for the humbucker tones....lol
Gr8 vids!
Fascinating! I loved the Cars... Now that I play guitar, I wonder why I’ve never tried to play these!! Thank you for the video!!
Excellent Instruction - Extremely Useful! Got me past some sticking points. Thank You!
Damn. My best day is still Smoke On The Water but I shall live & learn vicariously thru you & your articulate explanations. You are replaying my youth & best concert experiences on your channel! New sub. 👍🇨🇦