"Shake It Up" brought about two of the Cars' funniest music videos, with the title track being the Cars' most famous of the pre-Heartbeat City collection.
This video begins with an obvious automotive pun with Ric Ocasek as a mechanic closing up shop for the night. But as he's driving home, he meets up with several strange people, including the rest of the Cars, who hitch a ride with him and they next thing you know, they're all having a party. And those people he picked up along the way - they looked like guys, but were really girls underneath their costumes.
Ric Ocasek claims that even though several Cars' videos feature beautiful, yet seemingly brainless girls, the Cars' videos were not intended to be degrading to women. It's also been said that some of Ric's lyrics are also degrading, but he sees them as more of a warning to the women he writes about. As if he's saying "can't you see, they're taking advantage of you" in reference to all the macho man/jocks/tough guys that are out there who try to exploit women. In both the Cars' songs and video, women are presented as intelligent and sophisticated, rather than the bimbos and/or faceless bodies to be ogled at. Ric stated: "They are always featured in some unique or funny situation, but never derogatorily done as far as I'm concerned." This video is available on the "Heartbeat City" video album.
It's age shows with that filmy glaze common to many early 80's videos. The story of "Since You're Gone" is exactly what you see, as Ric wanders through the house of an ex-girlfriend who is moving away. Obviously unable to deal with it, Ric hallucinates and sees everything from vanishing eggs and flowers to a vacuum cleaner and shoes that move by themselves. This is a charming video that I was lucky enough to record when it was featured on VH1's very first History of Music Videos A to Z.
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