This is a thorough and thoroughly absorbing history of this seminal 80s band that still sounds like its music was recorded last week.

Author Janovitz had access to almost anyone alive who was in or near the band, and what he mines from those sources gives great insight into what it felt like to be in the big rock band business, and The Cars in particular. There’s so much I never knew - how long Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr knocked around together before making it big; how critical Greg Hawkes was to the band’s success; the genius of Elliot Easton’s solos, what an ordeal it was to record Heartbreak City, and how much Elliot Easton and Ocasek simply didn’t get along.

What hit me was how conflict-avoidant most artists are. They just don’t want to fight with bandmates, particularly about business matters. Of course, that’s how people get hosed in that business, but this was a real eye-opener.

What results from this reporting is a true 360-degree view of the band - no one is a pure villain and Janovitz goes to great pains to see key events from all sides.

This is how a music bios should be written - tons of direct reporting and empathy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC.

Being a 1980s kid who happens to be well into his 50s, new wave and alternative music played an outsized role in my youth. Although most (the vast majority, to be honest) artists came from the UK, we did have a few out here from the States: The Talking Heads, The B-52s, and of course The Cars, one of the premier examples of the new wave artists arising out of punk’s ashes. Bill Janovitz, a musician himself, tells us all about Ric Ocasek and company in “The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told”, a band biography that takes us from the late 1970s until today.

Mr. Janovitz starts out with backgrounds on all five members, along with their earlier musical work, but the focus soon becomes the story of Benjamin Orr and Ric Ocasek, how these two became friends and musical partners. Through several false starts, moving into (and helping to create) the Boston scene, we see how the various bits and pieces fall together to form The Cars. We see the first album, one of the best debuts of all time, come together and take the world by surprise. As usual, with success comes the start of splinters in the group, as Ric starts to exert more control and take over the band. As more albums come forward, with varying degrees of success, the band really falls apart and starts to drift in separate directions, with Ric as the dictator of all things involving the band. The inevitable split follows, solo projects, and then the also inevitable reunion, unfortunately not in time for Benjamin Orr who passed away very young and quite suddenly. And with the death of Ric, The Cars are over (probably) for good.

The amount of detail and history in this book is really impressive, all three living band members cooperated with the author to provide their recollections and inside information. Wives, lovers, and the assorted members of the extended band family were also interviewed, providing a deeper picture, sometimes not very flattering (Ric’s earlier marriages and how he treated his children), but still a slice of the 1980s music scene. The only parts that drag were where the author, being a musician himself, gets into the intricate detail of specific songs, parts of songs, musical instruments, etc. – things that may be interesting to musicians but mean absolutely nothing to the general reading audience.

If you are a fan, this is a must read.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Grand Central Publishing - Da Capo via NetGalley. Thank you!

Back in the go-go '80s, Time magazine named David Byrne "Rocks Renaissance Man." Well, I'm afraid the Psycho Killer has to pass his crown to Bill Janovitz. Bill, the front man of Boston's superb Buffalo Tom, has been an incredible rock musician for many years. Bill is also a wonderful writer who has authored two great books on the Stones as well as a bio on Leon Russell.

Well, I'm happy to report that Bill's latest book is amazing. It's the definitive story of The Cars. Because Bill's a musician, all the surviving key players were happy to talk to him. He's able to get them to open up in a way they might not to a non-musician. Bill's expertise is sprinkled throughout. He gives wonderful breakdowns of most of the Cars songs providing insight that only a fellow musician would come up with. There are many instances where he tells you to go to a specific moment in a Cars song and you can hear what song they're being influenced by. (In one song, Bill even points out that Benjamin Orr hits the "t" sound exactly like Frank Sinatra does. This is Ph. D-level rock insight, folks.)

But it's not all music expertise, Bill is also a terrific writer. His turns of phrase are wonderful-- (Bill describes Ric Ocasek as resembling "a praying mantis in black shades." Granted, not something you want to say at the eulogy, but he's not wrong. His research is incredible as well. Did you know that Susan Orlean wrote a review of "Candy-o" when she was just starting out?

If you're a fan of The Cars or the Boston music scene in the '70s and '80s, this is a book you have to check out. Thanks to Netgalley, which provided a free e-galley of the book in return for this honest review.