"That's how the band took Ric's demos and turned them into Cars songs": The Cars are working on a new album using Ric Ocasek’s old recordings

The surviving members of The Cars are reportedly working on a new album, using old recordings left behind by Ric Ocasek, who died in 2019.

That is what guitarist Elliot Easton, drummer David Robinson and keyboard player Greg Hawkes are planning, according to a new book about the band, The Cars: Let The Stories Be Told.

The book is penned by Bill Janovitz, and if that name looks familiar to older readers it’s because it’s the same Bill Janovitz whose other career is being frontman of alt rock stalwarts Buffalo Tom.

Anyway, in the book’s final chapter Janovitz reveals that a few years back Hawkes was sent over two dozen tracks that had been compiled by a close friend of Ocasek’s. One of them, I Just Can’t Say, even features the band’s original bassist and ‘other’ singer, Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000.

Hawkes worked on the tracks for a while with producer Ed Valauskas, before roping Robinson and Easton into the project. Indeed Easton has already added his guitar parts to I Just Can’t Say and another track, Can’t Stop The Rain.

"Elliot's twenty-five second solo on Can't Stop the Rain is sure to put smiles on the faces of fans, as it did for me," Janovitz says. "And he added a hook that runs through the song, completely transforming it from the version I heard months before. 'There,' I thought. 'Along with Greg's synth part, that's how the band took Ric's demos and turned them into Cars songs.'"

As yet there’s no word on when this material will eventually be released. Janovitz does note in the book that the surviving band members and the estates of Orr and Ocasek "were all optimistic that disagreements about Cars business would not get in the way of giving their fans unheard Cars music."

The Cars, and indeed Ocasek, their main creative force, had an interesting career. They were one of the first new wave bands to gain mainstream success in the US, despite Ocasek’s advanced age – he was 34 by the time they released their self titled debut album. In the UK, their career never really caught fire and they’re probably best known for their mid 80s smash Drive, which sounds like the work of a completely different band to their first hit over here, 1978’s My Best Friend’s Girl.

Janovitz’s book covers all this, as well as the frosty relationship between Ocasek and Orr, as well as the egotism, controlling behaviour and creative rivalries that are meat and potatoes for any half-decent biographer. The Cars: Let The Stories Be Told is out now.