The Cars - C or D/S&D

Hence his production work on their second album?

How do you reckon you can tell that Ric Ocasek liked Suicide from his music? The Suicide album he produced wasn't really particularly great, was it? I'm sure that wasn't his fault, though. Suicide to me seems to be more like 'about music' whereas the Cars are 'about things.'

but it was the synth sound that differentiated them and maybe they were the only people game to try synth stuff in america what with it being so uncool and so non-rock -- so it had to be spiffed up with rock'n'roll imagery right out of sha-na-na hence corny "cars" angle as american drive-in '50s rock institution

they seemed to then get more and more lightweight and i feel panorama captures the lite-synth model cars working properly, although they could have taken the synths in any direction they wanted i suppose given the complete lack of competition for those sounds

ok they needed money, so after the public ignored the more intricate panorama they came back with stuff like the ultimate anti-drink-drive anthem and other easy listening stuff -- i think ocasek had to balance decent songwriting and public taste to pay bills

look at the band -- they're all hired musos except ocasek, who looks completely deviant and trying to hide it in mock juevenile get-up, so isn't this literally just another producer vehicle band ?

I like this band. I haven't listened to the proper albums except the debut and Heartbeat City. The first is very samey-sounding and somewhat pretty overplayed, but for the time and background it was in, very classic indeed. Damn those synths sound great. Heartbeat City was verging on tacky- I can only take it in small doses- but a listen once in a while is great! It has one of my very favorite 80's songs of all, You Might Think. I love this osng it is good enough to blast over and over in the car for at least 7 or 8 times. Can't believe nobody has mentioned it! It rocks so much and the video is unbelievably cool with Ric O. as the human fly scaring the giant nubile woman. OK, but anyway, from this anthology I just put on, I can tell these guys had more depth to them than the overplayed singles might tell you. Well there's the neurotic kind of scary lyrics that work very nicely with the bright pop music- and the Suicide connection is awesome. I love Suicide so much. Their 2nd (Ocasek produced) album is my favorite of theirs! You can hear that stuff in the song Panorama. Robot classic rock = Classic.

***DJ Set - AIR***
Suicide - 'Ghost Rider' (Blast First)
John Carpenter - 'Assault On Precinct 13' (Record Makers)
Air - 'Another Day' (Virgin)
Missy Elliot - 'She's A Bitch' (East West)
The Cars - 'Heartbreak City' (Elektra)
Pheonix - 'Everything Is Everywhere' (Virgin)
Johnny Cash - 'Desperado' (American)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/breezeblock/tracklistings.shtml

Ric Ocasek produced Weezer's Blue and Green albums, and maybe Maladroit, I'm not sure. They did Pinkerton themselves (so Rivers then), and you can tell.

-- Nate Patrin (natepatrin550...), May 19th, 2002 9:00 PM. (link)

I clicked on this thread just now because I thought it read "The Czars" because I've been listening to the off and on today. Needless to say, I was quite confused by Nate's synopsis.

D'oh!

C all the way.

I once read an interview where it was revealed that the guitar hook in "My Best Friend's Girl" was borrowed from a Beatles song. Guess which.

And here is a stupid bandname I might post on another thread:

The Rick Okaysections

They were kind of powerpop meets Television meets Gary Numan, which was a cool mixture.

I have the sentimental favourite thing going on for Shake It Up. It was the first one I realy listened to. Growing up in a small town, didn't get to hear much of the first three albums at all on the radio, because it was fairly conservative. Anyhow, thay played the title track, and then I got the album and discovered that a lot of the rest of the album was kinda dark. But really, in retrospect, the first two are untouchable.

Hmmm...I don't think it's "Drive My Car" :) "Twist & Shout?" (Altho that's more accurately an Isley Brothers song.)

Personally, I like The Cars' first 3 LPs ('specially the overlooked Panorama) and very little after that. And my favourite tracks are the weird ones that rarely get airplay, like "Down Boys" and "I'm In Touch With Your World".

This thread shouldn't even exist.

Anywho, my favorite Cars track has always been "Since You're Gone." All in all, though, classic.

Shit, I never realized that! And you can bet that the "I Will" one was lifted from some Carl Perkins record, too!

Ric Ocasek is managed by Elliot Roberts, but his office would confirm only that Ocasek will release another solo album in September and that he would not be part of any Cars tour if it happened. Further inquiries were referred to Kovac.

Now, this is where the story gets really interesting. Since Ocasek won't do the tour, Easton and Hawkes have apparently recruited an old friend to step into his shoes.

Todd Rundgren is reportedly set to sing most of the lead vocals previously handled by Ocasek and Orr. Anyone familiar with Rundgren's talents as a musical chameleon would easily understand how the Runt could make it work.

Though I'd rather have The Cars be Rundgren's backing band.

http://dreamvalley-mlp.com/cars/graphics/davidrum.jpg

http://www.creemmagazine.com/ProfilesImages/Cars_1979_02.jpg

the cars=the bluieprint for just about any 'retro 80's band' today
see also- the killers, et all.

Mustache is even weirder.

Paulina remembers and reflects:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paulina-porizkova-ric-ocasek-894349/

It's somewhat improbable, but I was aware of the Dead Kennedys before The Cars and when I first saw Ocasek I thought he looked a lot like East Bay Ray.

Ray himself posted a fun note on his Instagram: "RIP Ric Ocasek. Back in the day, I walked into E.U. Wurlitzer Music in Boston and low and behold there he was. We both did a double take, we look like like brothers, and we had a lovely chat"

Thanks, that’s a good story. That Paulina peace is incredible from beginning to end. This part is charming:
Our oldest, Jonathan, was in preschool, and his teacher came up to me after school and said, “We had a meeting in the morning, and we were all talking about what everyone’s parents did. They said, ‘My father’s a doctor’ and things like that.” Jonathan’s answer was, “My dad goes into the basement and my mom sits in the trailer.”

Yeah great piece. Would love to hear the recent Ocasek tracks that she was so excited about

Paulina's out.

Bye bye, love.

Late Cars’ singer Ric Ocasek cut his estranged, supermodel wife out of his will, claiming that she “abandoned” him, the now-public document reveals.

“I have made no provision for my wife Paulina Porizkova (“Paulina”) as we are in the process of divorcing,” the new-wave icon wrote in his last wishes.

“Even if I should die before our divorce is final … Paulina is not entitled to any elective share … because she has abandoned me.”

Porizkova was the one who found her estranged rocker husband’s body in September, while bringing him coffee as he recovered from a recent surgery in his Gramercy Park townhouse.

The money, as usual, fascinates me:

A filing listed with Ocasek’s will show that his assets include $5 million in “copyrights” — but just $100,000 in “tangible personal property” and $15,000 in cash.

The document doesn’t break down what constitutes the “copyrights” assets.

While $5.115 million may seem on the low-end for a rock-legend such as Ocasek, a Trusts and Estates lawyer who examined the document told The Post the Cars’ frontman likely had money stashed away in other trusts.

Like many high-profile deceased stars, Ocasek could have stored away “many millions of dollars worth of assets.”

“That’s the reason people use trusts: to protect their privacy,” the lawyer noted.

I've long speculated this guy was worth, like, $20 million on royalties and sales alone. It's not like he blew it on big houses, drugs, or sports cars.

Weren't they selling his Gramercy home for like $13 million?

To echo the guy quoted in the article, the couple probably would have had their jointly owned property in a Trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQq91RgZJyw

Yeah, the probate inventory shows the probate estate. Anything he put in trust during his life would not appear on that inventory.

And by the way, stone fuckin' classic, at least through Shake it Up.

Surely somebody here besides me done read the Janovitz book!

Ocasek was so so bad to Easton, Robinson, his two children with his first wife…goddamn, he was real bad to everyone! Very selfish with songwriting credit, one of 'em who thinks that coming up with a four chord progression indistinguishable from other four chord progressions, but with very vague, imagistic lyrics, makes him "the writer," and the guys that add hooks and textures ain't shit.

I also guess that in the 80s, a multi platinum band like the Cars could get away with flying commercial from city to city on tour? it seems insanely expensive; does anyone know if anyone below the Beyonce/taylor tier does this now?

Yeah, I read most of the book but bailed before the end. Ocasek was a real bastard, a Kim Fowley-level grasper and hustler. (Also, only a year younger than Mick Jagger!)

The Cars flew from gig to gig? Of all the bands to do that!

haha

I mean, Lynyrd Skynrd flew also? tons of bands did.

ya know what's fucking great? the Greg Hawkes solo LP. I wish I liked the Orr one, but I don't. never heard the Ocasek solo recs.

the first two Ocasek solo records sound quite a lot like the Greg Hawkes album imo, just with Ocasek's vocals on top. Hawkes played on both of them and is credited as co-writer of a single track on each.

Elliot Easton's solo album is really good, kind of sounds like if the Cars had been a full-on power pop group.

good to know, thx!

Skynnyrd were not flying commercial on that fateful trip… I spose by multi-platinum major label 80s standards, flying commercial isn't that stupidly lavish, but the standard then and now would have been the bus… touring via private aircraft was then and is now only for the ultra elite…

now, sure. then, idk. I mean, Buddy Holly?

Bar-Kays?

Haven't read it yet but everything I've heard about Ocasek's general bastardry is making me go "Hm...of course he would be the guy who boosted Weezer."

the first two Ocasek solo records sound quite a lot like the Greg Hawkes album imo, just with Ocasek's vocals on top. Hawkes played on both of them and is credited as co-writer of a single track on each.

Elliot Easton's solo album is really good, kind of sounds like if the Cars had been a full-on power pop group.

The first Ocasek album sports "Jimmy Jimmy," one of the best songs he's ever written. The second (the one with "Emotion in Motion," his only hit) sounds like a Cars album circa 1986; it's eerie how he got sessioneers to ape the band's sound without a hitch.

"Jimmy Jimmy,"

second best "jimmy jimmy" song of the '80s!

Elliot Easton's solo album is really good

disagree strongly, it sounds like what i imagine Joe Bonamassa's music sounds like, just very white BLOOZE like a whole album on the "money for nothing" Dire Straits vibe lol but "Shayla" is good

but even that song is lacking a really good chorus, or verse depending on how you hear the song. idk, the more i explore the solo albums the more it feels like they all needed each other to achieve great heights consistently

I have a weakness for CVS favorite Benjamin Orr's "Stay the Night."

not to pardon ocasek of assholery, but

'do the collapse' is good not bad

otm

_"Jimmy Jimmy,"_

second best "jimmy jimmy" song of the '80s!

my ben orr solo pick is "skyline"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjdoxRxnwSg

i listened to the second record today. for me it's such a precipitous drop from the first one (although to be fair the first Cars record is basically a perfect record). but idk, there just isn't much there for me. "Since I Held You" is an interesting window into a Big Arpeggio/Byrds-y power pop direction they might've gone, but even there the chorus fails to deliver. i'm in the mood to be spending more time with this band and the solo records but between this and the Easton solo album it's not an auspicious start

idk I hear no drop-off at all b/w the debut and Candy-O. "Double Life"? "Dangerous Type"? "Let's Go"? "Lust For Kicks"?

Not to mention "It's All I Can Do", which is every bit as masterful as any single from the first LP.

I definitely prefer the debut, it will always be the great Cars LP for me, but Candy-O is no disappointment either - plenty of top shelf stuff on there, and on par with Heartbeat City as potentially their next best album.

Candy-O isn't as good as the debut (very few albums are), but "Let's Go" might be my favorite Cars song.

Some of the backing vocals on the debut get too emphatic for me.

i loved hearing that the reason for those harmonies on the debut was they chose queen’s producer. i never would have guessed the influence but it’s obvious after you hear that. candy-o and panorama are an interesting pair. apart from let’s go, no power pop classics but very solid and a bit darker and snakier than the debut. candy is the cats album i reach for, it’s not just not overplayed but it’s power pop with restless wandering lyrics that don’t resolve into much but feel impressionistic almost like vampire weekend.

I'd say "Candy-O" and "Dangerous Type" and "Let's Go" are power pop classics insofar as the term means a thing.

I would recommend "Gimme some Slack" off of Panorama as a shockingly potent, indisputable high point for the band for them familiar only with the hits and the debut…

One detail from the book that comes up repeatedly is Easton's disdain for Devo, Kraftwerk, and other new wave and new wave-ish acts that very clearly are severed from blues/rock traditions. He doesn't like that stuff, doesn't like the cars being associated as such, and has a boomer dullard's insistence on the primacy of blues/roots, almost Marsh-esque in his insistence. Whereas Hawkes, who could have passed for a member of Devo but for his bowl haircut, loves Devo and Kraftwerk… in some video related to their RRHoF induction which I can't find, he mentions that he saw the band's peers/competitors as Devo, the Police, talking Heads and the Pretenders.

that's interesting wrt Devo because they started out as a kind of blues-rock band, and there are early versions of a lot of their synthy/new-wave songs that are basically blues rock - I think of Devo as less severed from the 'blues/rock tradition' than the Cars tbh (maybe severed then surgically reattached? prosthetic blues?)

Easton surely would have preferred that The Cars be Cap'n Swing 2.0.

I've a friend who adores Panorama, claims it's their best.

Excellent Janovitz interview. Didn't know this:

Ben had everything he could have needed to be a big solo star. Why do you think that didn’t happen?

There’s a couple of prongs here. He was starting to go through his personal struggles with substances and emotional issues, which were obviously tied together. There was his satisfaction with being in the Cars and his role there, but he did want to start writing more. Ric was never going to let that happen, as Ric himself said. And he was certainly not going to let Ben write lyrics.

I talked to a publicist who was working with the Cars, and then specifically on Ben’s record for Elektra. And he was like, “They pulled the plug on it at some point.” And more than a few people think that Elektra pulled the plug from pressure from Ric and Elliot Roberts. I think it was like, “We got to bring this guy down a peg. Otherwise he might get too big.”

I don’t want to get too conspiratorial because I don’t have evidence of that, but I do have evidence that they said, “We don’t like this video, this last video. Record’s over.”

Janovitz quotes various sources opining that Orr was like Elvis, a natural talent who often needed only one take, a guy who could get laid without any effort whatsoever, but dumb and particularly indulgent. He wrote "Stay the Night" and the other songs from The LAce (uggh, you gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me) with his wife at the time, and in that case, I don't think Ocasek was wrong to say that no way were they gonna write for the Cars.

I read a Rob Tannenbaum interview with Orr in a Musician from early '87 and he came across as charming but dim.

I hear "Stay the Night" at least once a week in Publix or CVS.

I've a friend who adores Panorama, claims it's their best.

I'm another one who's on the record here for preferring Panorama. It was recorded right after Ocasek produced the second Suicide album and that sound reflected back on The Cars in a way I really like.

ne detail from the book that comes up repeatedly is Easton's disdain for Devo, Kraftwerk, and other new wave and new wave-ish acts that very clearly are severed from blues/rock traditions. He doesn't like that stuff, doesn't like the cars being associated as such, and has a boomer dullard's insistence on the primacy of blues/roots, almost Marsh-esque in his insistence

Unsurprisingly, Easton was the guitarist for the Cook/Clifford Creedence Clearwater Revisited band for many years

I hadn't heard about the Janovitz book until I saw mention of it here, but I hastened to purchase it immediately. It's really compelling! There's a grim fascination in following the tale of how Ric Ocasek assembled a quartet of brilliant musicians who could bring his modest demos to vivid life, and then proceeded to systematically belittle and ostracize them for years, to the point that they were all relieved when he called time on the band.

David Robinson's anecdote about Ric telling Ben - his oldest friend - that his solo album "stunk", is like reading about someone kicking a puppy. None of this detracts from Ocasek's immense talent as a songwriter, but it's hard to disagree with Elaine Hawkes' verdict: "What an asshole."

yeah it's really sad, they could have been even better than they were

btw the Greg Hawkes solo album is totally great, if anyone itt has not heard it