Cars, Guitars, and Elliot Easton

this is the American forces Network Berlin [Music] days I will excite I make a Dream On Me once I found the guitar it was like there was no no decision of what I was going to do with my life all those kind of Crisis that a lot of people I was growing up with were having Elliot Easton lead guitarist for the Cars one of the world's most successful and creative rock and roll bands there was no kind of choice invol for me I mean I knew I was just going to be playing music I made that decision from a really early age I need someone to I gu you just what I needed I [Music] [Applause] need I don't mind you here wasting all my [Music] time cuz when you standing know so near I kind of lose my mind yeah it's not the you have it's not the rib in your house I don't mind you coming here on my I get you just I need I need you I guess you're just I need I need some to yeah I believe I think the first time that I ever performed for people was probably in in the back backyard of my house in a surf group that's probably 12 you're just I [Applause] [Music] [Applause] need as never before with with another group that I've been in there's a no weak links no kind of uh no kind of personality problems that you encounter with a lot of groups it was a pretty much uh the idea of a band the idea of a group five people working together being a Cooperative was something that we talked about from the beginning and we've kind of stuck to that when the cars formed in 1976 the band had the same plans hopes and dreams that every new group has to take their music to the top all five members David Robinson Greg Hawks Ben or Rick O cassic and Elliot Easton had played in a variety of earlier groups including okas or Richard and the rabbits DMZ and Captain swing I first met him at Angus Studios they were working on a project out there and they needed saxophones as I recall so I just sort of played saxophone on one or two songs and then didn't see him again for a year or two before that there was a band called The Richard and the rabbits which Greg was in and Benjamin uh so there was another sort of and that was like uh that was a good band I don't know what happened to it actually I suppose in in some ways the cars was a result of trying to get things right after Captain swing probably uh we learned from our mistakes in the last group from the time they formed as the cars the top would come staggeringly fast within a year they had released their first album which has sold millions of copies as have all four of their records and though they now play live for millions of fans in the largest concert halls in the world it started back in 76 in clubs like the rat in Boston I love the cars I think they were classified as New Wave but uh for some reason I didn't figure them as new wave when I first heard them I'd say they were music for the80s I really like the cars I I really like the sound of their music and I really like them I have a record of their they're very original and I think that they they've really opened up a different field in the music that they're playing I think they're wonderful they all blend I like R Ric how he sings I like um Elliot Easton I think he plays a fabulous guitar light with his fingers light cords his fingers seem to go down and up you know with the same amount of enthusiasm and I like that a lot then or on base excellent wonderful drums when the cars started playing back like 1976 around did you think about whether or not the band was going to get famous whether it was going to become a sure I thought about it I always think about that you know until it happens you always wonder you never know um we had high hopes for the band but uh I can I can even remember when the first album came out thinking thought it would be great if it sold you know I'd be amazed to sld 100,000 copies you know and we'll you know be able to make another one so I mean and that was you know pretty much the feeling of the other members too were you all surprised that it did so phenomenally shocked shocked it took it took well over a year to sink in that it had that it was in as many homes as it was in I mean I just didn't didn't think in those terms relate to the fact that the brand was really getting quite popular I think is a writer and music historian who's been part of the Boston and National Music scenes for two decades well there were several bands that preceded the cars as the cars uh there was immediately preceding them Captain swing which had some of the members right and had uh several of the members it had Elliot it had Ben had Rick goes back to probably 70576 so now we have the band and it is late 19 76 because I remember David Robinson and uh Rick oasic at that table over there uh talking with me about their first publicity bio as the cars which I wrote for them James ISAC writer and contributor to many music Publications including Rolling Stone and then big Turning Point April 77 at the last minute an opening act on a Bob Seager concert at the Music Hall cancelled the cars were added Standing Ovation so now the music industry has been yeah they've heard the the word about this band out of Boston very good for all four of the Cars albums the band has worked with the talents of renowned producer Roy Thomas Baker who has also produced records with other Platinum selling bands Queen joury and Foreigner went up to to see him in the middle of a blizzard and it was one of those things that nobody could get to the show there was only eight people the show because it was blizzard were in and I only got in because someone took me in in a Volkswagen we seemed to get through the snow okay um and then that's where I first met him and I literally I saw him you know performing in front of eight people um and I said yes they can do that I said yes and I committed myself then and then on the spot I said what you doing in January and they said well nothing I said why don't we go to England and make a record you I'm not standing here with this blizzard going on so I we we were in a month or so we were in we were in England made made the first record edifus program director dor of Boston radio station wbcn the first station to play the cars I've always considered them a punk band because they were band that started in the clubs and they grew up from the clubs and punk is not a sound it's an attitude they did it their way Rick directed The Band completely the way he wanted to do it because he had learned from all his experience that's why he transformed the band from Captain swing and and moved on and made it to cars he did it completely and totally his own way the way he wanted to do it and that's punk I love the cars I've known them ever since are little Volkswagens and um I think they're great I think that they're Boston and I hope that they go on forever taking a break from recording the car's fourth album Shake It Up lead guitarist Elliot Easton allowed us a rare look at his world a world of making albums designing guitars producing bands and writing music Elliot here we are at your house in the country what made you decide to move move out of the city why did you come out here well first of all it's only really 12 Mi out of Boston so the way I drive it's about 4 minutes it's not it's not really that far and it's just nice to get to get away from the city and be but to be able to have it quite easily just being a hop in so it's I just I just like it it's more peaceful it's it's uh safer [Music] you have literally been playing two decades almost 20 years somewhere around there somewhere and uh and your musical influences are very interesting and different than one would think for a guitarist for a rock and roll band like the cars they they come from a wide variety who are your who were your early Heroes well early on it was like the surf guitar players the ventures and Dick Dale things like that white yeah right all that all that kind of stuff and you know [Music] that kind of um then the Beatles and all that kind of the English guitar players um I say after the Beatles I kind of uh fell victim to the big Blues boom of the mid to late 60s and got into that pretty heavily for a while who listen well um Mike Bloomfield um Robbie Roberts with like John Hammond things like that and by this time were you already writing music yourself uh I've never really concentrated too much on songw writing mostly guitar playing and at the time I was more concerning myself with absorbing as much as I could on the guitar so that's that's probably where my strength lies and I you know where some people say it with a lyric I'll say it with with a guitar break or something like that were you conscious when you heard a piece of music that you really liked of sort of implementing that style into yours yeah I steal it immediately really yeah sure sure I mean it's all from records it all comes from records what's a blues to Blues Blues blues guitar H riff a riff nice very did you ever play the BL band um I never played in a blues band but I played Blues in bands which is to say you know we would do we do other things as well just what we like to hear when what was the first instrument you ever messed with you know did you ever oh plastic ukulele when you were like little kid yeah ukulele were big background so having a guitar in your in your arms is something you yeah and I you know I saw Elvis too on TV and and and the whole image of a guitar became really important and this all night go all [Music] night all night I love his hair um he's a great guitar player and he practices 10 hours a day and you can tell he could be uh the blue E king of the blues guitar players he could be little Lefty Hank and and play country music if you wanted to also that left-handed guy yeah he originally was playing right-handed till he met me and I'm the one that suggested no now that he's you know had to change over to being left-handed and you know so he has that physical handicap of working with that you know but I think he came across that pretty well yes I'm very proud of that I I was a right-handed guitar player for years and years and years until I met uh my manager Elliot Roberts and he taught me how to play left-handed he thought it would be a lot more unique and more Visual and kind of with Ben and I standing on stage with the the necks facing in opposite directions kind of evoke images of The Beetles and things like that so he insisted I completely switched that is really wow that's he's he's a clever guy well in fact um you have been playing left-handed guitar for a long time and uh yes was it did it make it more difficult for you because I assume you didn't know to go out and buy a left-handed guitar right when you started assum right I didn't I wouldn't have been able to find a left-handed guitar if I you know had known that they exist even it was just the kind of thing where I played for a couple years with the strings upside down and finally realized that I was playing upside down and then rest the right-handed guitar did you were playing with them upside you you held it the wrong direction no I held it this way but it was a right-handed guitar to start so all the strings were turned upside down and so I was learning you know the patterns were like all reversed did that make it very hard to did you have to relearn everything well I hadn't learned learned too much fortunately at that point I got you know I I I I smoothed all out and started playing a left-handed guitar Fair early on you and Rick both play guitar in the cars right he a minute doesn't Rick play doesn't Rick Oak play guitar yeah Rick Rick Rhythm Ben Bass right got it is that uh is that a David drums yeah Rick Rick is rhythm right Greg uh Greg Gunda I always remember when you when you and Rick is that like working out a thing when you have two guitarists in the band do you work alone together to figure out how to yeah well we we play really differently we we're kind of you know it's like you know recognize that yeah well that that that's kind of that's like you know a large part of our Cent those little clickies seems to pop up in a lot of songs and you know I'll play around and do do all the little different things that I do and if you listen to the record you can sort of hear how the the parts fit together as long as you um bring up best friend's girlfriend for some reason and a lot of the other people we've been speaking to for this film they've brought that song up as an example of Elliott bringing an amazing style of guitar to the cars what's the scoop there why oh good good friends I don't know I hear that a lot too but all it is is maybe maybe it was just maybe it was just the idea of putting a rock Billy riff in in an unlikely place what's the rockabill what is the Riff in there oh it goes um goes St Down Eyes a new boy to meet doesn't she she she I think she she like like the way she do she's F go she's the last but to be the rest of the song doesn't you know wouldn't wouldn't automatically dictate that kind of a guitar part it's just kind of a funny ju deposition of two things and that's you know what what makes the band sound the way it does is unlikely references and influences popping up in even more unlikely places [Applause] one of the things that's interesting about guitarists when you go to see a Band in concert a lot of times you'll see the guitarist with their six guitars on stage you don't see Six drum sets on stage why is that why do people have a wardrobe of guitars with them well for some people it is a wardrobe uh with me it's a little of both I I you know from early on I realized that the guitar was not only something you played but something you wore you know and and that definitely is part of the part of the fun of it m but they do have different sounds and uh different purposes and they'll bring different things out of you whereas uh you play the different guitar different ways feel different on a different instrument this first one is offended Telecaster it was the first commercially available solid body electric guitar I think it came out in 1946 so it uh preceded the Le Paul by a few years uh it's also the first electric guitar I ever owned first good electric guitar I ever owned and played and also happened to be the choice of many of my favorite guitar players and uh it still to this day is my main guitar I could I could really more or less play a whole show on on this thing this is uh probably the rarest guitar I have it's a 1964 Stratocaster in a color that were maybe 60 guitars were made in it's called purple burgundy mist and uh the weirdest thing about the guitar is that I got it unplayed with the original strings receipt you know guitar strap everything was brand new this is a a prototype of a model that uh I actually Drew out and designed the specs to and Dean zinsky of Dean guitars built and uh as yet we're still working on it we're still making some minor modifications but it could well see the light of okay this is my road hazard Fender this this is a guitar that isn't even available uh this is something that that I cooked up with uh with John pagee who was the the head of research and development at Fender and what it basically does is is uh incorporate the pickup from the lead one model with a normal Stratocaster pickup into a two pickup guitar which is kind of a hybrid I wanted the lead sound in in the Strat body with with the tremo bar okay this is a a Dean Z Model hand painted by Eric Manson's designed by Dean zalinsky and uh what can I say it's a stage guitar it's uh it's one of those things that uh that the visuals are at least as important part of it as the uh sound but as it happens it's a great guitar you know more oh this is a a 1981 fenda cheer Caster I don't think any self-respecting guitar player should have anything else in his kitchen to cut cheese on uh you plug this into some good monterey jack or some nice vintage cert and it it does Scream Of course left-handed as far as I'm concerned if I was to do an artist say a solo artist and I needed you know outside musician he' be the first one on my list from Berkeley school is when I first started hearing about him and he is I mean he he's serious he's a serious player and his playing reflex it I mean he's other than being clean he's tasteful and to me that's the Hallmark they're you know there are fast guys and there are you know a lot of you know psychedelic run guys but to combine it both in your head and your hands is really an art and they're very few players who do that and I think Ellie is just one of them that does that I think he's uh definitely developed a style of his own which is uh not easy to do uh just from being persistent and playing it he has a sense of humor you know a good sense of humor yeah and uh knows when to play when not to just basically a good person to have around Elliot is is it hard to in some ways staying together five of you for 5 years it must be sort of like a marriage multiplied is it hard to work out the relationships through all the changes that you go through no I think it's gotten easier now to where uh we you know it's not so necessary to be in constant touch and and to to worry about things everyone sort of settled into their groove and pretty relaxed with what they're doing and who they are and and it's it's beyond the point of trying to uh you know reinforce any feelings we have for each other or anything like we all have seen the best the worst right whatever you know every situation possible yeah The Good the Bad and the Ugly and for a few dollars more and uh just basically uh you know it's it's past the point of of uh any surprise in a way kind of know what to expect and it's it's very much a a solid relationship in the early days we would like always be in constant touch and you know but now it's kind of relaxed so it's it's nice and everybody does some different things in addition to yeah and and there's no worry about you know is it taking away from the group or anything like that you know we're uh you know where the cars was kind of like a launching pad and a foundation to do to do all the other things we wanted to do now that we've gotten to the point of being able to sort of relax and and the band is sort of reached a certain level we can do those other things without having to worry about sacrificing the band or you know when you're trying to make it you very single-minded and just worry about the one thing but then when you get that off the ground then you can start doing other things and that's that's sort of what's happened freeing up yeah defitely are the cars going to be staying together do you think and becoming a a music Force for the'80s if you will like they are anyway I mean and and I mean I I can see them all all shooting off and doing their own individual things you know I mean it's it's no big secret that Rick's going to go off and do things it's no big secret that Elliot goes off and plays on other people's records and does his own song it's no big secret any of them do other things necessary for a band to keep themselves as well as individual probably best good to keep them sane yeah because obviously there must be certain Diversified things in their own mind where where you know where're Elliot might s say well I got some guitarix here but it won't work in the conjunction of the car so it' be nice if I could play on an R&B session say and he might use it on that um I think that's necessity just to say frustration at the cars private recording studio Synchro sound we met up with Elliot Easton recording one of his own compositions with other cars members David Robinson and Greg Hawks and Boston musicians Eric lingren Paul Carter and Andy py [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] you [Applause] a [Applause] [Music] yeah they are not only always doing something musically to either further themselves but they really are into music they're into what's happening what's been happening what's gone on before and what's coming in the future and that's always exciting I mean the first time I heard of a lot of the new wave English bands the teardrop explodes and the baow wow wow where a year and a half ago from Rick who gave me cassettes that weren't even out his records yet and from Elliot as well who they just come across things and are actually involved in music which is really refreshing most players they're off the road or they threw at their album The Woodshed you know and you ask them what's happening and what new music they're exposed to and there's very little that they're exposed to other than the radio and the cars do actually look for new music and that gets them off and that's exciting traditionally artists do not make good businessmen so one of the most important decisions a group can make is to find the right management Elliot Roberts is one of the most respected managers in the country currently working with Joanie Mitchell Neil Young dvo Tom Petty and the cars I always thought that Rick was an exceptional writer and that as a band they were very unique soundwise and that by the second album by cyio was when I really became a Die Hard cars fan cuz I just like the natural progression that they didn't put themselves on repeat mhm and uh at that time I went and saw them in New York and then met with them in Boston when they were looking for management car's fourth album Shake It Up what do you think of it wonderful wonderful I think it's the best so far of the whole set because it's got all the sort like the nice puppy songs that we had on the first album it has a lot of the the technical achievements that we did on the on the third album recently the car has reinvested some of their money and energy into the building of Synchro sound a state-of-the-art recording studio in Boston Massachusetts synchros sound provides them not only a place to record Cars albums and work on their own individual projects but also a facility where they can afford to work with new and diverse musical Talent we talked with RI o cassin during a break from producing the San Francisco band Romeo void at Synchro where do you find the people that you decide to work with outside of the cars um well I usually find them in clubs you know just just I do a lot of local bands and things that I just think are fun to do more esoteric than maybe some commercial projects or whatever I just do it uh for the sheer fun of it and and you know in fact to help if I can you and Benjamin had actually worked together as a sort of folk Duo right yeah well it wasn't really folk but it was uh at least acoustic cuz I could only I could only afford I had an acoustic guitar um when I came to Boston and uh that's the only one I had so and I found out that I could work around Cambridge and things like that you know relatively easy so uh that's why I did it I just ran around and I just wanted to keep uh you know playing basically and I didn't know any musicians here in fact so decided that until I met some I would do that do you think about the cars as as being a group that will stay together for a long time or I think so yeah cuz we all get along real well and we're still friends you know so and I like the cars a lot I don't see any reason why they wouldn't when did you think about the idea of getting putting a studio together and being able to work out of it it sort of came came about you know out of necessity because instead of spending all the money that we would normally spend making a record we decided that we would put it into our own Studio every aspect of this building has been changed tremendously I don't think there's a ceiling or a wall or a light fixture that hasn't been changed or replaced the board's been tremendously expanded from 24 to 36 with uh a lot of other mixing capabilities this room completely designed again is is uh actually an ingenious I think design for both sound and visual reasons every corner and angle of this room is Meaningful just going around these cylinder type things on the wall serve as both a hard and a reflective surface uh it has to do with no standing waves and and sounds that develop in studios especially exciting I think of these these overhead lights because they serve as as the lighting system they're also the outtake of the heating air conditioning system and you don't see any of that which is a terrific thing just going all the way around there's we we also have captured every blue oak tree that we could find in the United States and we have it all that was a joke and we have that all right in here it's all over the place and we have so much portable equipment that can be a loud room a soft room an intimate room uh um crackling room or um it's just a very versatile room and a in a ingenious display of man's technological advances I think every band that's ever gotten together has dreamed of making it find you know hitting it big why the cars why did they get there I think there's a lot of uh circumstance involved obviously uh you have to believe in what you're doing you have to believe until the ultimate end I mean if you don't keep trying it could happen the next week the next year you don't know rock and roll music everything that goes into it is very indeterminate and uh I think there's no question that uh to varying degrees all the members of the band uh have struggled have suffered and have gone through the rock and roll agonies and uh there's nothing that ever tells you that you're right except can I touch you are you out of touch I guess you never notice that much you IDI lover life on your wire who come and take that whoever you are see a lot like you the dangerous see the L like you as a band they're first started to creatively be free of the grinds of making it because they're all individually just starting to feel successful not in terms of money but in terms of as people inside always look set keeps we ever met who can I bring you out in the light my curiosity it's got me tonight yeah see a l like you dangerous fight a like you directs I chicking heads they KCK with shadows till play they want to cry you cross smile can I shake you out for wild yeah still like youday just still I like you the you [Music] like see like you see the you [Music] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] let go some of the early very successful rock and roll musicians had seemingly a hard time with both their success and also getting rich very fast and some people died from it from overindulgence and then there's now a new breed sort of the ladies and gentlemen of rock and roll who've been doing it a long time and take care of their lives and party but not so much so that it kills them is that a conscious decision that you make that you're going to take care of your as I think it's I think it's a matter of uh of uh people are being a little bit more realistic about it in the business I think I think in the 60s and and and in the ' 50s there was no there was no real precedent for that kind of super super Fame and uh and some of those people probably thought of themselves as fairly indestructible you know lock gods and things like that and uh probably tended to believe a lot of their own hype I think uh people people today uh tend to put that more in its proper perspective and and uh not take it quite so seriously and realize that you are only human and that you know you're just a musician you're not uh you're not indestructible you're not a God you're not you're probably more fragile than the average person and and if you abuse yourself you're going to die and what's been the most magic moment of it all for you most Magic Moment probably going to England to make the first album that was very exciting time now it was a first and first of anything or exciting and uh that that that was a very special kind of time and have that New York boy plays sold out Madison Square Garden well that that was a lot of fun that's a lot of fun but that's that's also sort of uh you know a very tense thing and and you have a million friends and relatives coming and you're worried about them so it's it's kind of your hometown is the hardest town to play because you have so much extra to worry about with all your loved ones and all your old friends and things like that but yeah it is exciting here we go yeah yep 1 2 3 [Music] 4 what do you think the most joyous thing in it now is for you uh just making great records probably just just just continuing to make good [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] music [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] go [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] no [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] yeah oh [Music] this all night all day don't know nothing getting away dance all night keep don't you wor about to let Shake it up Shake it up Shake it up Shake It Up dance all night get real loose you don't need no bad excuse dance all night with anyone don't let nobody pick your B Shake it up Shake It Up yeah Shake it up Shake It [Applause] Up

Channel: Calvin Thomas

Views: 339,173

Keywords: Rock, The Cars, Elliot Easton, Lisa Karlin, Boston

Id: 3R1zoVGqqbE

Length: 47min 10sec (2830 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2016