While working with the kind and talented Dante Tomaselli on our Fanorama article, I couldn’t help but immerse myself in this song for a bit. As you know, Panorama is my favorite Cars album, and “You Wear Those Eyes” is one of the reasons why. It was written by Ric Ocasek, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and recorded at Cherokee Studios in 1980. It wasn’t released as a single, and because it is on an album that was generally shunned by the critics, I feel like this song never really gets the credit it deserves.
Much to my amazement, many people don’t know that Ric and Benjamin actually share the vocals on this song. Benjamin sings all of the verses, but Ric takes the bridge with “Just take your time, it’s not too late. I’ll be your mirror, you won’t hesitate.” To me it’s so obvious, but you know I’m obsessed with Benjamin’s voice.
And speaking of his voice, I love the way he performs this: that low tone, speaking the words rather than singing them. It adds the perfect mood for this sensual, pulsing song. The swaying bass melody punctured by Greg’s sci-fi sounds and riffs… and then Greg weaves that beautiful orchestral violin right behind Benjamin singing, “I’m easy to be found whenever you come down…” and later behind Ric’s vocals. Gorgeous.
So here are some tidbits I found that you may or may not know about this song…
According to setlist.com (grain of salt, I know), “You Wear Those Eyes” was only played in concert twice: once at Festival Hall in Osaka, Japan, on November 4th, 1980. Fortunately for us the audio from that is available and it is pretty great. Take a listen:
The other performance noted is from Madison Square Garden on December 4th, 1980. There is a tiny teaser of footage on The Cars’ Unlocked DVD… just a snippet (see it at 1:12 just below) where Ric is singing “just take your time” during what is obviously a Panorama concert — I wonder if it’s MSG? It makes me a little crazy to know that that footage exists but has not been released (thanks for pointing it out, Jen!). Keeping my fingers crossed for good things to come in 2017 — seeing a full Panorama concert would be ‘grand delight.’
Now here’s an obscure one you might not know… I came across a reference to “You Wear Those Eyes” in a recent novel! It is mentioned in John Shirley’s 2015 horror thriller (such a coincidence since I was working on my Dante article) Wetbones: The Authorized Edition. Now I confess, I didn’t read the book myself (a little too grisly for me), but I discovered it through Google Books. Here’s a screenshot of it:
Of course, I’m a little annoyed that the author implies that Ric actually sings the whole song; it appears to me that someone didn’t know what they were talking about when they chose the title. But I can get over that fairly easily because, heck, The Cars were mentioned in a modern novel by a strong, relevant, award-winning author! And with a song from Panorama! Pretty cool, overall.
The liner notes for Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology tells us that the lyric “I’ll be your mirror” is a tribute to the Velvet Underground, who had a song with that title. Nice!
I’ll go ahead and post a link to the album version of this song; if at all possible, turn off the lights and put your headphones on. Oh, and if you need lyrics, click here. Enjoy!
Advertisements Share this:
