Gimme Some Slack

"Gimme Some Slack"
Single by the Cars
from the album Panorama
B-side"Don't Go to Pieces"
ReleasedJanuary 5, 1981 (1981-01-05)
Recorded1980
GenreNew wave
Length3:32
LabelElektra
Songwriter(s)Ric Ocasek
Producer(s)Roy Thomas Baker
The Cars singles chronology
"Don't Tell Me No"
(1980) 		"Gimme Some Slack"
(1981) 		"Shake It Up"
(1981)
Panorama track listing
10 tracks
Side one
  1. "Panorama"
  2. "Touch and Go"
  3. "Gimme Some Slack"
  4. "Don't Tell Me No"
  5. "Getting Through"
Side two
  2. "Misfit Kid"
  3. "Down Boys"
  4. "You Wear Those Eyes"
  5. "Running To You"
  6. "Up and Down"

"Gimme Some Slack" is a song by the American rock band the Cars from the album Panorama. The song was written by bandleader Ric Ocasek.

Lyrics and music

The lyrics to "Gimme Some Slack" have a more concrete basis than many songs written by Ocasek. They are influenced by Ocasek's memories of the apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in which he lived in the early 1970s.[1] Ocasek stated that "I remember people hanging clothes out on the roof and having all kinds of dirt in the hallway. So I'd think 'gimme some slack, gimme some rope, please.'"[1] Jonathan Takiff of the Philadelphia Daily News points out that "Gimme Some Slack" and "Touch and Go" are examples of a "subtle, philosophical vision of first person survival" that represents an alternative side of the Cars from the "lost and frantic new age romantic" side exposed in songs like "Candy-O" and "Just What I Needed."[2]

Stuart Mungalies of The News states that "Gimme Some Slack" sounds like a combination of the Rolling Stones and Devo.[3] Jim Bohen of the Daily Record describes the music as starting with "revved up rhythm guitar" but then having a refrain on which it is difficult to find the groove.[4] Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays both organ and saxophone on "Gimme Some Slack."[5]

Release and reception

"Gimme Some Slack" was first released on Panorama, and in 1981, the song was released as the third single from said album. However, the song failed to chart in any countries, making it one of the band's least successful singles. The song has since appeared on the compilation album Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology.

Record World said that "the band hits a rhythm gallop over a steady dance beat" and that the song has "contagious keyboards."[6] Daily Record critic Jim Bohen said that "it begins with revved-up rhythm guitar, then chokes on the chorus, daring you to sing along, to find the groove."[7] Fresno Bee critic Don Mayhew said that "[keyboardist Greg] Hawkes grabs your attention by sounding off like a two-by-four against somebody's skull."[8] Newsday critic Wayne Robins said that the song shows the Cars' "rigidity" and that the Cars "don't really have the firepower to rip off the Rolling Stones."[9] Quad-City Times critic Greg Kot praised the guitar riff.[10] Saginaw News critic Nancy Kuharevicz felt that the song was one of the few melodic songs on Panorama but that it was ruined by Ocasek's "disinterested" vocal and by the "pinball machine-like keyboard effects."[11]

In his review of Panorama, AllMusic reviewer Greg Prato stated "'Gimme Some Slack' proved to be a fierce rocker."[12] Prato also said, in his review of Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology, that it was "previously released album tracks [on the album]" that were "highlights."[13] In the Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology liner notes, Brett Milano said, "Rockers like 'Getting Through' and 'Gimme Some Slack' had a heavier sound than before [Panorama]."[14]

Boston Globe critic Steve Morse called "Gimme Some Slack" a "true masterpiece."[1] Morse praises how the song "paints a seedily phantasmic portrait of a tenement building" with the lines "the seven floors of walkup/the odor musted cracks/the peeping keyhole introverts/with the monkeys on their backs/the rooftops strung with frauleins/the pastel pinned up sails/the eighteen color roses/against your face so pale."[1] Morse suggests that the stream of consciousness style of the song was influenced by E.E. Cummings, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Richard Brautigan.[1]

B-side

The B-side of the song, "Don't Go to Pieces", features Benjamin Orr on lead vocals. "Don't Go to Pieces" was first released as the B-side to "Don't Tell Me No", the single released before "Gimme Some Slack".

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Dave Swanson rated it as the 8th best Benjamin Orr Cars song, calling it "the best, yet least known, Cars song" and praising the "catchy guitar riff" and Orr's bass guitar part.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Morse, Steve (September 7, 1980). "Cars in High Gear". Boston Globe. pp. C1, C9. Retrieved 2020-04-22 – via newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Takiff, Jonathan (November 21, 1980). "The Cars Tune Up Here". Philadelphia Daily News. p. 49. Retrieved 2020-04-22 – via newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Mungalies, Stuart (August 30, 1980). "Shock Value Can't Always Sell". The News. p. 35.
  4. ^ Bohen, Jim (September 21, 1980). "Shortcuts". Daily Record. p. D1. Retrieved 2020-04-22 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Roysdon, Keith (October 18, 1980). "The Cars' 'Panorama' LP depressing, repetitious". Muncie Evening Press. p. T-8.
  6. ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. January 24, 1981. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  7. ^ Bohen, Jim (September 21, 1980). "Shortcuts". Daily Record. p. D1. Retrieved 2024-10-27 – via newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Mayhew, Don (October 10, 1980). "Cars sometimes sputter under new LP's weight". Fresno Bee. p. F9. Retrieved 2024-10-25 – via newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Robins, Wayne (September 11, 1980). "In Short". Newsday. p. Part II, 35. Retrieved 2024-10-26 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Kot, Greg (September 12, 1980). "This is a recording". Quad-City Times. p. 38. Retrieved 2024-10-26 – via newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Kuharevicz, Nancy (August 30, 1980). "The Cars' latest album is on the wrong track". Saginaw News. p. B2. Retrieved 2024-10-27 – via newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Prato, Greg. "Panorama". allmusic.com.
  13. ^ Prato, Greg. "Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology". allmusic.com.
  14. ^ Milano, Brett. Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology. Rhino.
  15. ^ Swanson, Dave (September 8, 2015). "Top 10 Benjamin Orr Cars Songs". UltimateClassicRock.com. Retrieved 2024-10-25.