On recording The Lace in England: “…no sun, constant wind, drizzle and clouds — just misery. The highlight of the day was, like, dinner.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986
Tag: The Lace
Quoting Benjamin
How his relationship with Diane influenced his songwriting for The Lace: “We share a large amount of romance in this life, and you can’t help but put that into music. How can you be miserable? … It’s good for now and I hope it’s good later. There’s the cynical part — you have to maintain some portion of realism.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986
Quoting Benjamin
On his feelings about The Lace: “I did the absolute best I could possibly do under the circumstances. I’m happy with what I have, but it makes me personally cringe when I don’t hear exactly [what I wanted]. Probably no one else would notice except myself and a few other people. It won’t happen like that again. It took me much too long to do this project. I wasn’t thrilled about some of the things that went on [referring to recording in England]. I’m real glad it’s over.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986
Quoting Benjamin
With regard to his boat, the Blue Di, and writing songs on the water: “This is the best thing I’ve ever bought, bar none. It’s not too conspicuous. It’s big enough for one guy to operate and the chief pretty officer over here [referring to Diane]. She hates taking orders, but somebody’s gotta be captain of the boat… I enjoy my free time. I like doing this [boating]. I’d much rather do this, now that we’re writing…. We love the water. It’s really soothing. It seems to be good for us.” — excerpts from “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986
Quoting Benjamin
Ben played all the instruments on his demos for The Lace. When asked why he chose a band when it came time to record the album: “It’s much easier to sit back and watch it be done. I play a lot of instruments, but I don’t play them well. I get through them. The only thing I’m efficient at is drums.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
Quoting Benjamin
On what he was doing during the three years it took to make The Lace: “Horsing around. I went to Hawaii for two weeks and stayed for three months.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
Quoting Benjamin
On recording The Lace: “When I went down to the studio, I was totally on my own. I had no influences… I don’t think anybody who sits down to write a song wants to be thought of as pulling off somebody else’s material.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
In other words:
“I remember one of the happiest days of my life was when we did our first promotional tour for the album. We were in Cleveland and riding in the backseat of the promoter’s car when ‘Stay the Night’ came on the radio for the first time. We were so excited and yelling like kids!” — Diane Grey Page, Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars by Joe Milliken
Quoting Benjamin
On writing lyrics for The Lace: “I didn’t have a lot of success. Lyrics are my weakest point. I don’t listen to a song for the first five or six times for the lyrics, I listen for the melody. Never really pay attention to the lyrics until after that point. [My desire was] to tell a story. Just something you would actually say to someone, rather than one line and then something clever to rhyme with it.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
In other words:
“Our objective was to make a very radio-sounding pop record. And the songs dictated that direction. They weren’t the type of thing you’d want to superimpose some kind of quirky approach to, just to be interesting. Since it’s very pop-sounding, some people are just gonna turn off to it right away. But if people listen to it carefully, there’s some real interesting textural stuff going on there.” — Larry Klein, co-producer of The Lace, from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
In other words:
“We were searching for some sounds with some humor, because Ben’s writing is very quirky, with a lot of non sequiturs and strange juxtaposition of words. In that way, it’s similar to The Cars.” — Larry Klein, co-producer of The Lace, from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987
Lyrics: This Time Around
This Time Around (written by Benjamin Orr and Diane Page ©1986)
So many times disappointed
Thrown about with a doubt you could never see
And out of nowhere it sounded…. something is happening
Someone who happened to hear it
Listened in silence and knew how to understand
One step ahead of a feeling, touching with loving hands
Now I know that things are going to be alright (this time, this time) this time around
Lonely days give way to warm and gentle nights (this time)
No need to keep second guessing
Racing in circles and trying to figure out
Answers to all of the questions… you had them all along (you had them all along)
Yes, I know that things are going to be alright (this time, this time) this time around
Lonely days give way to warm and gentle nights (this time)
Take away all the old doubts
‘Cause there’s something for you that comes from a different place
In a different way
Straight ahead, you and me every day,
You just got to be you… just believe
You know that love can give you what you need
Now I know that things are going to be alright (this time, this time) this time around
Lonely days give way to warm and gentle nights (this time)
Warm and gentle summer nights…
So many times disappointed
Thrown about with a doubt you could never see
Then out of nowhere it sounded straight to the heart of me
Now I know that things are going to be alright (this time, this time) this time around
Lonely days give way to warm and gentle nights (this time)
Yes, I know that things are going to be alright (this time, this time) this time around
Lonely days give way to warm and gentle nights (this time)
Warm and gentle summer nights
This time… it’s gonna be alright… this time
This time… I know it’s gonna be alright… this time
This time… it’s gonna be alright… this time
This time… I know it’s gonna be alright… this time
sweetpurplejune 