It\u2019s a Wednesday evening, Oct. 22, and the house lights glow warm in Stockbridge Hall\u2019s Bowker Auditorium. On the stage are two armchairs and a stack of books. To the left, an electric guitar.<\/p>\n
The event, titled \u201cWords and Music: An Evening with Singer-songwriter and Author Bill Janovitz,\u201d invited University of Massachusetts alum Bill Janovitz back to campus after the release of his fourth book, \u201cThe Cars: Let the Stories be Told.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janovitz attended UMass from 1985 to 1989, during which he formed the alt-rock band Buffalo Tom with friends Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis. Hosting and moderating the conversation was Jim Neill, a former WMUA program director and current manager of the Old Chapel who attended UMass at the same time.<\/p>\n
Neill began by introducing Janovitz, moving through his \u201ccareer highlights\u201d in rapid succession. He\u2019s a musician, an author and he owns a real estate company. As Neill pointed out, he\u2019s \u201ckind of a Renaissance man.\u201d But, as Janovitz joked, he prefers the term \u201chustler.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2018, Janovitz joined<\/a> Pearl Jam onstage at Fenway Park to perform \u201cTaillights Fade,\u201d Buffalo Tom\u2019s most popular song off of their 1992 album \u201cLet Me Come Over.\u201d A fan video of the performance was projected behind Janovitz as he turned away, squirming uncomfortably in his chair. When the video ended, he humbly concluded, \u201cThat\u2019s enough \u2026 You get the idea \u2026 It\u2019s painful to sit there.\u201d<\/p>\n Janovitz described the experience as \u201ca weird, surreal moment.\u201d He recalled the Saturday night when he received a text from Pearl Jam\u2019s Eddie Vedder that said, \u201cBill, how about \u2018Taillights Fade\u2019 in center field at Fenway Park?\u201d Janovitz agreed, and within half an hour, he was in an empty Fenway Park doing a sound check.<\/p>\n Janovitz said he was shocked at the audience\u2019s enthusiastic reception. \u201cI thought people would be like, oh who the f\u2014 is this guy, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n But, as Neill indicated, Pearl Jam fans knew Buffalo Tom because the two bands emerged around the same time in the early 1990s. Janovitz and Vedder had met in the early days of their careers when they played<\/a> a show together in Boston; Pearl Jam was at the bottom of the bill below Buffalo Tom. Neill told Janovitz, \u201cyou were part of the Genesis, and you were a seminal influence on a band that went on to be Pearl Jam.\u201d<\/p>\n Janovitz formed Buffalo Tom with bandmates Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis during the Fall of 1986, his junior year at UMass. The three friends would see shows together, but they had all been in separate bands. \u201cSo, we were just like, let\u2019s just see what happens, you know?\u201d Janovitz said.<\/p>\n They had an example in Amherst\u2019s own Dinosaur Jr., which Buffalo Tom gets compared to often. Janovitz recalled meeting the band\u2019s singer and guitarist, J Mascis, and \u201cbeing struck by what an enigma he is and remains.\u201d By the time Buffalo Tom formed, Dinosaur Jr. was touring Europe. Janovitz said he remembered thinking, \u201cif we could only achieve something like that, you know, that would be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n And they did. For 10 years, Buffalo Tom was a full-time career. The band released five records during the 1990s and their work was met<\/a> with critical acclaim. At the end of the decade, between an unsuccessful major U.S. label deal, the changing music industry and the demands of their personal lives it was time for a break.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m almost certain if Buffalo Tom had not started when I was a junior or senior and gotten going in my senior year, that I probably would have preferred to stay on in school and gone for an MFA or something,\u201d Janovitz said. \u201cI was really interested in writing. I took some great courses here, but Buffalo Tom got going.\u201d<\/p>\n While at UMass, Janovitz majored in communication, with minors in comparative literature and sociology.<\/p>\n After 10 years playing in a rock band, he started writing again. Janovitz made his foray into music journalism in the early 2000s, writing song reviews online for $25 each. \u201cA lot of people were just writing even two-paragraph song descriptions, but I was writing my 3,000-word essays about these songs. For, still, 25 bucks a pop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Feeling drawn to longer-form media, Janovitz wrote a short book about The Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cExile on Main Street\u201d for the 33 1\/3 series. He widened the scope of his storytelling with \u201cRocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones,\u201d and then completed his most involved project thus far, his New York Times bestselling biography on the influential musician Leon Russell.<\/p>\n Janovitz originally pitched his idea for a book about the 80s new-wave band The Cars before writing the Leon Russell biography, but it wasn\u2019t until after the first book\u2019s success and the death of The Cars\u2019 frontman, Ric Ocasek, that the band came around to the idea.<\/p>\n According to Janovitz, keyboardist Greg Hawkes said, \u201cLet the stories be told!\u201d The line became the title of Janovitz\u2019s biography exploring the impact and inner tensions of the ubiquitous yet enigmatic band.<\/p>\n The book opens with a story about the first time Janovitz heard The Cars. He was 12 years old, over at his friend Jeff\u2019s house when Jeff\u2019s cool, orange Camaro-driving older brother brought back The Cars\u2019 debut album from college. Upon hearing the record, Janovitz recalled thinking, \u201cI\u2019m all in with this. This is mine.\u201d<\/p>\n That debut album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the English producer best known for working<\/a> on Queen\u2019s first five albums. Baker wanted to tone down the instrumentals for The Cars record and make them sparser. \u201cWith The Cars, he saw this opportunity to kind of do something new and it was. It was old and new at the same time, that debut album,\u201d Janovitz said.<\/p>\n Much of Janovitz\u2019s book focuses on The Cars\u2019 band dynamic. Janovitz shared that he was surprised to learn that Ric Ocasek, the band\u2019s primary vocalist and guitarist, was credited as the sole songwriter for nearly all their work. Though Greg Hawkes, who was often in the studio with Ocasek, received some credit, other band members and producers never did even though they made significant contributions to the music.<\/p>\n Ocasek, Janovitz explained, was the leader and ultimate decision-maker of The Cars. Janovitz contrasted it to the power dynamics of his own band and emphasized that they \u201cwere friends that formed a band together rather than, [saying] \u2018I\u2019m gonna try this band, I\u2019m gonna try this band, now I\u2019m gonna try these different guys,\u2019 which is what The Cars were.\u201d<\/p>\n