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Elliot Easton

Photograph by Tom Zimmerman

Like fellow Car Greg Hawkes, Elliot seriously studied music by attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the time, he wasn't even thinking about starting a band and just wanted to get out of the house.  His love of guitars has lead him to an extensive collection and being a left handed player, he has one of the largest (if not the largest) collection of left handed guitars.  He has also helped to create guitars - most recently the Elliot Easton Model 6128ee Jet Electric Guitar for the famous Gretsch Musical Instrument Company (click here for a JPG of the catalog page).  Despite his exceptional attention to guitars and those who play them, Elliot sees himself as being into more than just guitars.  "I'm not into guitarists. I'm more into songs and songwriters. If I consider myself anything, I consider myself the songwriter's guitarist."

Photograph courtesy of the Guitar Gods website

I have created this page to help fans of Elliot Easton and The Cars.  This is little more than cursory coverage of Elliot's career and the projects/groups he has been involved with.  It is far from complete and I am always looking for more information.  If you have any info, pictures or just comments, feel free to .

The Internet Movie Database provided most of the film related information on this page.  Many of the live Creedence Clearwater Revisted pictures come from http://www.ping.be/~tor-4707/revisite.htm  and the rest from the Creedence Clearwater Revisted homepage.  Much of the Bristols info came from Mark at MediaOne (Thanks Mark!).

Elliot Easton - Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals
1977-1988

Elliot Easton, calls The Cars "the result of five very different people's contributions. When we got together it wasn't based like most bands on mutual affection for a particular sound. When we got together there was simply a chemical reaction."

Elliot performed Lead Guitar and Backup Vocals for The Cars - he even belted out a few lead vocals in their early live performances.  Elliot was also a part of The Cars' immediate antecedent, Cap'n Swing. "I'm a guitar nut," says the New York native. "I've probably absorbed everything that's been played on the instrument. Eventually I realized that it wasn't important how much you could play, as much as what you should leave out. Now when I play a Chuck Berry lick it's because I want to, not because it's the only thing I know how to do."

Regarding the breakup: "You had all the band members living under the same roof when they're used to having their own space, so tell me there won't be any differences in eight months. We're all different, and it comes together in a heavy brew, a volatile mixture, but that's responsible, I think, for a lot of the unique qualities of the band. Among ourselves, the band never ended. The subject never came up."  Unfortunately for all fans of The Cars, breakup they did and the entire band has gotten together publicly only once since - for the Cars: Live DVD interview from Rhino.

Solo Album - Change no Change
Elliot Easton - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
1985

Unfortunately, I don't have much information other than the liner notes about Elliot's only solo release. Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about this solo effort.

Ric Ocasek : This Side Of Paradise
Elliot Easton - Guitar
1986

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release.  Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work with Ric on this release.

Berlin: Count Three & Pray
Elliot Easton - Guitar
1988

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release.  Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work with Berlin.

The Bristols
Elliot Easton - Producer

The Bristols are a band of great reputation and 'fame' in the Boston area as a working rock band. Despite years of hard work and local popularity, they never landed a major label recording contract, and thus remain largely unheard by the masses. Their claim to national fame, if any, lies with bassist Kim Ernst, who is married to a member of The Replacements. (not sure which, but it's not Paul Westerberg.)  According to Pat DiNizio songwriter for The Smithereens, the hit song 'Behind The Wall Of Sleep,' "was written on an airplane from Boston to New York City about a girl <<Kim Ernst>> who played bass in a band called The Bristols in Boston."  The Bristols' heyday was the late 80s and early 90s, though they still continue to this day.

It is likely that The Bristols connection to Elliot Easton as a Producer was a matter of geography. Members of The Cars have produced records for countless Boston area bands.  If you are interested in CD's from The Bristols, check out http://dir.icorp.net/ss/dir/b/bristols.htm (I get nothing for the purchase, it was just a source I discovered).

Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about this band Elliot produced.

Cinnamon
Elliot Easton - Producer

Unfortunately, I don't have much information about this band yet. Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about this band Elliot produced.

Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson
Elliot Easton - Guitar
1988

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release.  Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work with Brian Wilson.

Nelson: Because They Can
Elliot Easton - Guitar
1995

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release.  Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work with Nelson.

Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods
Elliot Easton - Lead Guitar
1997-????

There are only a few excellent tracks available from Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods.  This interesting 'group' is actually Elliot playing everything for his own enjoyment. You can find "Monte Carlo Nights" on the Jackie Brown Soundtrack and the Pulp Surfing compilation.  "Bullwinkle, Pt. 2" is on the Delfonic Sounds In Hi-Fi, tribute CD and "Mr. Lucky" is on the Shots In The Dark Henry Mancini tribute.

There is still unreleased Tiki Gods material.  He has cut "Goldfinger," a version of the Dave Clark Five's "Because" and  "Harlem Nocturne."  According to an Express.Com interview for the Cars: Live DVD, he has about eight tracks recorded right now, and is considering releasing a CD after recording a couple more.

Unfortunately, I don't have much more information about this band yet. Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about this band Elliot was an integral part of.

Traveller: Soundtrack
Elliot Easton - Producer
1997

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release. Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work on this soundtrack.

Amy Rigby
Elliot Easton - Producer, multiple instruments and backing vocals
1998

On Middlescence, the worthy sequel to 1996's perfect Diary Of A Mod Housewife, Amy Rigby confronts the quandaries facing a struggling thirty-something single parent needing, as she asserts in the jaunty "Calling Professor Longhair," "sex and sympathy." She's mining territory unfamiliar to most other former indie-rockers (Rigby was in the Shams and Last Roundup) by writing narratives of daily life, and she's at her best when she's most explicitly personal, describing the dilemma of bringing home a boyfriend to whining kids ("What I Need"), lamenting buying clothes off the "As Is" rack, and discovering she's "Invisible" to men more interested in leering at her daughter. She's so sharp a writer that, on a song about the "20th Anniversary" of her loss of virginity, you may flinch before her eye for detail does, but you'll still laugh at the jokes in the bonus track "Give The Drummer Some" (as in, "Tonight I'm gonna..."--Rigby was married to dB's drummer Will Rigby). With the Cars' Elliot Easton's help, she sets her witty songs to classic archetypes--a Byrds guitar here, a Beatles reference there, a bossa nova beat as a change of pace, lots of acoustic guitar. Fortunately for us, Amy Rigby's "time of life between arrested development and hard-won maturity" inspired arrestingly mature songs.

Cars, Guitars & Elliot Easton!
Elliot Easton - Instructor & Guitar
1998

Elliot shows the different techniques he used to create some of the excellent guitar work that appeared on some of the The Cars' biggest hits, including his solos. Elliot discusses the technique and concepts used for the solo from Best Friend's Girl, Don't You Stop, You're All I got Tonight, and more.  There is also a unique section called "You Supply The Lead."  Elliot shows you how to play a solo,  then shows how it sounds being played with a live band and finally you can play the solo with the band as Elliot switches to rhythm guitar!

You can find out more about this video and order it from Power Rock Instructional Music Videos.

The Ziggens
Elliot Easton - Producer
1998- 2000

Elliot Easton produced this San Diegan group that balances surf punk and rockabilly to create some really fun tongue-in-cheek rock. Elliot shows up on a number of tracks as well.  The man at the mixing board is Mark Linett, who worked with the Beach Boys and Los Straitjackets.  The 19-track effort veers from folk to country, dub, punk and surf on tracks such as "Can't We All Just Get a Longboard?" and "The Spy Who Dubbed Me."

The Corndog Man
Elliot Easton - Music Supervisor
1999

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (American Spectrum), Jan. 22, 1999. (Also in Berlin Film Festival.) Running time: 83 MIN.  Second indie feature by Andrew Shea ("Santa Fe") works primarily as a showcase for Noble Willingham's ferociously effective performance as a foulmouthed, fierce-tempered redneck who's gradually unhinged by blasts from his past.  By turns monstrous and pathetic, abrasive and defensive, Willingham's Ace Barker is introduced as the best salesman at a small-town South Carolina boat dealership. His world starts to fall apart when he receives a phone call from an unseen stranger (co-scripter Jim Hoimes) who claims to be a potential customer. Over time, however, the caller emerges as a hectoring stalker, repeatedly reminding the redneck of his cowardly betrayal of a black friend during their Army stint. Revelations of past and current sexual improprieties are slow in coming, and far short of unpredictable. A few minor supporting players drift through, but pic basically is a two-hander that could easily be adapted into a stage play.

Please if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about this.

Guitar Tone Secrets Revealed!
Elliot Easton - Interviewer & Guitar
2000

In the video Seymour Duncan is interviewed by Elliot Easton in a Nightline kind of setting adding a bit of humor to the traditional Power Rock format.  Seymour also goes to a music store, takes a guitar off the shelf, then makes and installs a pick-up - all on camera.  In addition to showing you how to adjust your pick-ups for the best sound, Seymour reveals how to use the "no-pick" style of playing employed by greats like Jeff Beck. Also appearing on this video are Marty Friedman (Megadeth) and Elliot Easton, who hold forth on Seymour and his pick-ups.

You can find out more about this video and order it from Power Rock Instructional Music Videos.

Creedence Clearwater Revisted
Elliot Easton - Lead Guitar
1999 - Present

Stu Cook and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford may not have intended it, but their band has taken on a startling life of its own. The rhythm section (bass and drums respectively) from the legendary Creedence Clearwater Revival launched the Revisited project in 1995 to play live Creedence Clearwater Revival hits. Though the pair initially planned to play private parties, Revisited is now performing up to 100 shows a year and has released of a double live album, RECOLLECTION.

"We thought if we could find the musicians that could capture the sound and recreate what the music was about, we’d do it,” recalls Cook. “If we couldn’t we wouldn’t.”  They found the musicians, one in particular, in a surprising place. “Every interview we do, people say ‘Well isn’t this a weird combo’”, says Cook referring to Revisited lead guitarist Elliot Easton. Though Easton gained fame playing lead guitar in The Cars, “his guitar had the bluesy rock feel,” Cook says, “In fact, Elliot has the same musical roots and grew up on the same stuff we did.”

Regarding his work with Revisited, Easton says, "My deep, spiritual love for folk, blues, soul, excello swamp-rock, rockabilly, San Francisco psychedelia, and Bakersfield chicken-pickin' country, places me in a unique position to not merely parrot the original versions, but perhaps add something of my own to the proceedings. Come and enjoy the extended extrapolations on such prime evergreens as Susie Q, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, and Run Through the Jungle."

“I couldn’t imagine [the band] coming together and staying together better than this organization,” offers Cook who likens Revisited’s intraband rapport to that of early Creedence Clearwater Revival, when the band was slugging it out in Central California as the Golliwogs.

RECOLLECTION - a 22- track double CD - features passionate, authoritative versions of classic Creedence Clearwater Revival hits. “It was generated by requests of the people who came to the shows, “Clifford acknowledges. “Over and over they would go to the concession stand and ask ‘Do you guys have a CD?’”  RECOLLECTION takes in classics like “Susie Q,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Run Through The Jungle,” “Bad Moon Raising,” “Fortunate Son” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”

Ghosts Of Mars : Score of the John Carpenter Film
Elliot Easton - Guitar
2001

Little is known about Elliot's contribution to this release. E-Mail me if you have any pictures, reviews, histories or other info about Elliot's work on this soundtrack.