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Music Memory: The Cars, "Candy-O"

by Jacquie Fuller

December 07, 2013

The Cars
The Cars, circa 1979
The Cars press photo

This week's Music Memory comes from Brian Stewart of Red Wing, Minn.


As a kid I loved lying on the living room floor listening to my parents record collection. I'd examine the album art, read all the track lists and any band info that they would print on the sleeves. Dreams of being a rock star were formed sitting in front of a stack of albums and an old Sony turntable.

Albums like Zepplin's Physical Graffiti and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon fascinated me and helped cultivate a lifelong love of music.

However, the music that triggers the strongest memories of that time and place is the song "combo" of The Cars' "Shoo Be Doo" and "Candy-O". The anxious tension that builds in "Shoo Be Doo" is released with a scream only to be reformed into opening riff of Candy-O. The song traps you in its manic, obsessive message: "Candy-O, I need you". And you stay trapped until the needle lifts on side one.