I always had a soft spot for ‘the budget Television’.
He was 75. I suppose the New Wavers are now going to start dropping like flies.
Ric Ocasek RIP
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Sad news, The Cars had some excellent singles. Heres a tune that got reworked more recently for one of the Pixar Cars films which then became a staple of my kids playlists.
Confirming the belief that US “Noo’ wave existed to give a belated start to many a player, he being, blimey, virtually as old as Debbie Harry when he got his break.
Great band: loved those first singles.
I’ve said it before, but I had Debbie Harry’s poster on my wall. Turns out she is nearly three years older than my mum. No wonder I was a confused young man.
Not if your name was Oedipus.
When I was a teenager living in Switzerland, every single song from Heartbeat City seemed to be on permanent rotation on MTV. I was a bit of a sucker for their clever videos and slightly melancholic pop that seemed to wallow in a trough between glossy pleasure and elegiac sadness. Softening me up for goth, in some ways, even if I was never sure if their commercialism was Warholian or trite.
It seems strange now to think that the lead singer (who in his somewhat gaunt pallid skin, matt black hair and shades had a definitely Eldritch resemblance), was only a couple of years younger than my parents.
I guess there have always been a few older musicians (eg Jet Black) scattered among what is supposedly a ‘young person’s game’.
Thanks to him and his band for making some of the music that soundtracked my younger years.
I too have a soft spot for The Cars. Not a completist by any means, but I have a couple of their albums.
However, to this day, I still cannot listen to “Drive” without seeing images of starving Ethiopians after it was shown on Live Aid all those years ago. The power of music eh…..
My brother bought me You Might Think for my birthday.
He handed it to me – I said “oh…” It’s the kind of song he really likes, but not really my thing.
He said -quickly- “it’s OK if you don’t want it, I’ll have it” -and then put it on the record player really loud and danced like a loon, shouting “Happy Birthday!” and doing a thumbs up.
LOL.
I hope you bought him ‘People are People’ as a return gesture for his birthday.
No way – he’d snap it on his knee and say “oops!”
OMG He sounds like a thug.
He is! No not really…just an older brother.
Very sad. I was listening to the first album only last week and it’s still wonderful (the demos on the extended version only highlight how good the production is). Fun fact 1 – the intro of “Stacy’s Mom” is a homage to “Just What I Needed”, and reportedly similar enough that Ocasek thought it was a sample. Fun fact 2: “Drive” was the first song at my wedding – it was the only thing we couldn’t agree on, and “Drive” was the compromise, even though neither of us really wanted it. 24 years later the subject still resurfaces occasionally – we should have gone with our instincts and plumped for “It might as well be you”.
First three Cars albums very good indeed. On trips to the USA at that time they were on every radio station on heavy rotation as they say.
They had a way with a tune and I never thought of ‘Stacy’s Mum’ to ‘Just what I needed’ connection yet when I think about it now it is of course perfectly obvious.
My friend’s brother was a big Cars fan, so we got to hear a lot of their stuff. Loved their first couple of albums – still highly impressed whenever I hear ‘Moving In Stereo’. Loved his production on the first Weezer album as well.
AllMusic has his time of birth as March 1949, which would put him at 70 rather than 75, which is a small but significant difference in age, making him not really THAT much older than the norm during the Cars’ heyday (late 20s/early 30s).
Well according to wikipedia he graduated from high school in 1963, which makes it much more likely he was born in ’44 than ’49.
Sad news, but he was much older than I thought. More of the age of 60s rock stars than late 70s ones. So I would think most of the “New Wavers” are at least 10 years younger.
I think the handclaps on My Best Friends Girl are quite simply the best in pop.
The Cars released the first commercially available shaped picture disc … in the shape of a car (obviously).
Their legacy, and the one that will fill the airwaves for the next couple of weeks, is “Drive”.
But there is more to discover (the first album is a fine starting point, but I believe they are best served in The Greatest Hits department)
And the first (and probably last) picture disc in the shape of a pig wearing shades and carrying a ghettoblaster was, obviously, Muck It Out! by The Farmer’s Boys.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Farmers-Boys-Muck-It-Out/release/2942891
When did the beshaded pig stop being the icon of the Now! albums?
Now 5 (summer 1985)
One of the many Pub Trivia nuggets lodged in my brain (for no useful reason other than answering questions like this – which happen VERY rarely)
Of course the Pink Fairies had the best beshaded pig cover art. Three of ‘ em with wings flying in formation.
Yebbut, none of them carrying a ghettoblaster, innit?
Possibly after David Cameron had a word.
I can heartily recommend Bob Lefsetz’ recent blogs on the subject of Ric; he was without any doubt one of the really good guys.
Nice obit here – in The Atlantic.
I always come back to this. I read somewhere that it’s about the ubiquity of prescription drugs and that seems plausible to me. An absolutely haunting tune. Love it.
It’s beautiful isn’t it?