Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Maren Wiederhold
Categories
Music

THE CARS

Bill Janovitz

Let the stories be told

The definitive book about The Cars, one of the most popular and beloved bands to emerge from New Wave, with articulate musical insights and exclusive new reporting with access to the surviving members of the band and everyone who surrounded themfrom critically acclaimed writer and musician Bill Janovitz, author of the New York Times bestselling biography of Leon Russell.

New York Times bestselling author Bill Janovitz explores the musical, cultural, and commercial impact of The Cars, one of the biggest and most influential bands of the 1970s and 80s. With roots in Maryland, Ohio, New York, and New England, eventually convening in Boston, The Cars were journeymen musicians, all forming and performing in a series of bands before finding each other along with the right sound at the right time. It turned them into Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. Janovitz reveals the stories of each member of the band, and of the band as a unit, with great care and understanding. He has the cooperation of the surviving members and everyone in the orbit of the band, but he does not shy away from the significant conflicts within the group or the reasons for the band's untimely end. The band's unusual providence in the Boston area, with the support of Jonathan Richman, is fully explored for the first time. Each of the band's landmark albums is chronicled and dissected in the way that only a writer and musician like Janovitz can achieve. To paraphrase the band's own lyrics, hello again, you might think this is just what music readers 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, and The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. (Bloomsbury 33 1/3, 2005) and Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones (St. Martin's, 2014). He is a founding member of the international touring and recording band Buffalo Tom, formed in 1986 in Massachusetts. His most recent work has appeared in the Cambridge Companion series, Cambridge University Press; the Observer; Esquire.com; Rock and Roll Globe; and Post Road. He lives with his family outside of Boston.

Available products
Book Published 2025-10-07 by Hachette Book Group - New York (USA)

Comments

A comprehensive look at the New Wave band from Boston that charmed the world. . Janovitz's writing about the band's music is wonderfulhe is himself a Boston-area musician, the singer-songwriter for Buffalo Tom, and brings ample context to the Cars' oeuvre. This is a superb rock biography, a must for anyone with even a passing interest in pop music. Read more...

Like The Cars, I was born in Ohio in the late seventies. I grew up listening to their cool, stylized, slightly unnerving songs, but now, thanks to Bill Janovitz, the records sound new to me. With The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told, Janovitz has given us a meticulously researched and satisfyingly granular portrait of the band, the history, the personalities, and the unmistakable sound. And what a writer! He had me on page one.

This inside account of the life of a rock band bristles with extravagant details and penetrating insights, much like his masterpiece biography of Leon Russell, but Bill Janovitz's The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told persuasively makes the case for the Cars as one of the essential American rock bands of their day. Janovitz brings a fellow musician's perspective, a scholar's depth and a fan's enthusiasm to this riveting, rollercoaster ride of the entire bell curve of the storied band's epic career.

I loved The Cars and followed their career from beginning to end, and I loved this book. Well written and researched, it captures the rock scene from the hippie days to new wave. It also stands as a cautionary tale about how not to run a band. All band dynamics are slippery, but I have always believed that everybody in a great band should be valued and rewarded.