Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, and author Bill Janovitz for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

The hardest part of reading The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told was comparing it to another recent book I’d read about them, albeit focused mainly on the lead singer, Ric Ocasek. I had to keep reminding myself to judge the book on its own merits. I will try to do that here, and at the end, I will add my thoughts about both of these works.

Author Bill Janovitz spent a number of years working on this book and was given unprecedented access to the surviving members of The Cars as well as friends and family of the band. This gives him a unique perspective on the band. He also thoroughly researched the background of the band, which ends up giving a very good picture of the Boston music scene from the early 1970s through the late 1980s. The band was far from an overnight sensation, something they were keenly aware of as Ric Ocasek fudged his age for the public. Being closer in age to Mick Jagger than other musicians breaking through at the time of new wave and punk, he would have likely been treated differently by fans who were used to the idea that younger was edgier.

The Cars are usually regarded as a Boston band, but the roots are in Cleveland, which is where Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met after Ric’s family moved there from Baltimore. The two tried to break through with bands there before picking up and moving to Boston. There were several different bands that the two led, which embraced different musical styles, before the people and things came together that formed The Cars. The story is not one of overnight success, but of dedication to one’s craft until the band’s lineup and style aligned perfectly with the times.

The book is quite long, at over 500 pages. There is incredible detail given at times, and it felt like the story drifted to be more about the times than the band. Janovitz details the Boston music scene so extensively that I felt immersed in the times, but I also would think, “When are we getting back to the band?” while reading. The same is true for the detail given to the recording process and how the songs were produced, particularly on what he considers their “perfect” first album. Yes, I had all of The Cars’ records in my collection and think that first one was pretty near perfect too.

Where The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told really shines is in regard to the relationships between the band members. Janovitz successfully captures the evolution of the band. When they first came together and hit it big, there was little questioning of the process or the division of the money. Everyone just seemed to relish their success. As time went on, though, the fractures appeared. Benjamin Orr was always easy-going, but apparently, he internalized a lot of the strife he felt. As time went on, there were changes in his personality and something of a descent into mental illness. Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton, and Dave Robinson also start to feel shortchanged. It was amazing how much Easton’s interviews resonated with what Mike Campbell described from being in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The stories are similar in many ways.

Which brings me to the differences between The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told and Moving in Stereo: Ric Ocasek, the Driving Force of The Cars by Peter Aaron. Moving in Stereo is very much written to paint Ric Ocasek in a good light, when the reality is he was something of a jerk, not only to his bandmates but also to the two other families he abandoned before marrying Paulina Porizkova. Because he was the chief lyricist, Ric saw himself as the principal songwriter and took all of the publishing credit. There are scant few songs where he allowed Greg Hawkes to take some credit, yet it seems that many of the songs were a group project. This, in addition to not allowing any other band members to contribute their own songs, caused friction as time went on. Peter Aaron seems to give Ric a pass on some of his selfish, narcissistic behavior, while Bill Janovitz allows the band members and friends to tell their side of the story. Unfortunately, it’s a familiar one in the music business. I was just remarking in one of the fan groups I admin on Facebook: “It’s been interesting reading a lot of musician biographies. The pattern seems to be one person leading the group with an ego that doesn’t allow him or her to appreciate that they are not the sole talent in the group. That was true of Tom Petty, the Bangles, The Cars, and many others.”

Now, this doesn’t take away from how much I enjoy the music; it’s just how it is. In the case of The Cars, there also seems to be some blame leveled at Elliot Roberts, who was their manager. He seemed to focus on Ric Ocasek at the expense of the other band members. This isn’t addressed in Moving in Stereo, only in The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told. Also missing from Moving in Stereo is the extensive detail about working on the Heartbeat City album with renowned record producer Mutt Lange. This took such a toll on the band and was so different from how they usually recorded that it likely contributed to the breakup of the band.

Of the two, I think The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told is the better book, and if you’re only going to read one book about this band, it should be this one. Both books are good and worth reading, but The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told does a better job of giving voice to all of the members of the band and doesn’t seem to worship Ocasek while still managing to give him credit for what a creative genius he was. I really enjoyed a more complete portrait of the other members of the band, particularly Easton, who also grew up on Long Island. There are more details than you could possibly want, but it is likely the truest portrait of the band we’ll get.