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.
― sucka (sucka), Friday, 30 January 2004 08:14 (twenty years ago) link
***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
― stevo (stevo), Friday, 30 January 2004 11:14 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Nick H (Nick H), Friday, 30 January 2004 12:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Myonga Von Bontee, Friday, 30 January 2004 22:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 30 January 2004 22:38 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:53 (nineteen years ago) link
-- 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.
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Monday, 15 November 2004 06:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 15 November 2004 07:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 15 November 2004 08:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 15 November 2004 08:24 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Henry A Blacktune, Monday, 15 November 2004 08:28 (nineteen years ago) link
And here is a stupid bandname I might post on another thread:
The Rick Okaysections
― Henry A Blacktune, Monday, 15 November 2004 08:55 (nineteen years ago) link
They were kind of powerpop meets Television meets Gary Numan, which was a cool mixture.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 15 November 2004 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 15 November 2004 14:09 (nineteen years ago) link
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".
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:23 (nineteen years ago) link
This thread shouldn't even exist.
― cdwill, Monday, 15 November 2004 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link
Anywho, my favorite Cars track has always been "Since You're Gone." All in all, though, classic.
― Phil Dennison (Phil D.), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:02 (nineteen years ago) link
Shit, I never realized that! And you can bet that the "I Will" one was lifted from some Carl Perkins record, too!
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 02:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 05:02 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 9 September 2005 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link
http://dreamvalley-mlp.com/cars/graphics/davidrum.jpg
http://www.creemmagazine.com/ProfilesImages/Cars_1979_02.jpg
― ZionTrain (ZionTrain), Friday, 14 October 2005 10:03 (eighteen years ago) link
the cars=the bluieprint for just about any 'retro 80's band' today see also- the killers, et all.
― eedd, Friday, 14 October 2005 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 October 2005 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 14 October 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Friday, 14 October 2005 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link
SHAME SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
― ZionTrain (ZionTrain), Friday, 14 October 2005 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 14 October 2005 16:50 (eighteen years ago) link
For the sake of argument:
Gimme Some Slack / Don't Go to Pieces (Elektra 47101; January 5, 1981)
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 14 October 2005 17:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― ZionTrain (ZionTrain), Friday, 14 October 2005 17:52 (eighteen years ago) link
But Ric Ocasek was releasing better solo singles at the time.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 14 October 2005 19:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― John Fredland (jfredland), Saturday, 15 October 2005 00:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― strom (strom), Saturday, 15 October 2005 00:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― William Paper Scissors (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 15 October 2005 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 15 October 2005 01:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― John Fredland (jfredland), Saturday, 15 October 2005 11:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Actually though - I did have Heartbeat City a long time ago. I forgot about that.
― Bimble The Nimble, Jumped Over A Thimble! (Bimble...), Sunday, 16 October 2005 02:58 (eighteen years ago) link
Me too. And there aren't many vocalists who could have delivered such perfectly-judged performances to a pair of songs as stylistically diverse as Just What I Needed and Drive. Props to Ocasek too, for having humility enough to hand over his two finest compositions to another guy to sing.
― Palomino (Palomino), Sunday, 16 October 2005 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 October 2005 03:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 16 October 2005 12:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Keith C (lync0), Sunday, 16 October 2005 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 16 October 2005 13:45 (eighteen years ago) link
That Milkwood album is so weird. I keep listening to it and wondering how it's possible that you can't hear one single atom of similarity between it and anything the Cars ever did.
― dlp9001, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 03:15 (fourteen years ago) link
DRIVE = fucking amazing. anyone who thinks otherwise is flat out insane.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 13 October 2010 16:33 (thirteen years ago) link
What is that song about, anyway?
― Lazarus Niles-Burnham (res), Wednesday, 13 October 2010 17:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Ha that’s the tune that’s been in my head all fucking day!
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:05 (four years ago) link
"Touch and Go" is an interesting one for making a case about the Cars being '50s-oriented. Not sure hear it in them too much overall.
― timellison, Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:10 (four years ago) link
have you heard perhaps an obscure little track titled "my best friend's girl"?
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:43 (four years ago) link
man i love efd as a person and dj and baseball fan but less so as a radio voice/interviewer
― mookieproof, Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:43 (four years ago) link
Haha, but I'm not sure which '50s artists "My Best Friend's Girl" is supposed to sound like. Kind of hear female singing group style in the background vocals; that's about the best I can come up with (and yeah that's a '50s style lead guitar lick, but that doesn't mean that the song sounds like Carl Perkins).
― timellison, Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:51 (four years ago) link
Really cool that Evan and Annie got to talking about the Stratford 4 and how Ric helped them get the rights to the album back -- here's the Bandcamp page for the album:
https://thestratford4.bandcamp.com/album/keep-your-crazy-head-on-straight
And Annie in her piece linked to/quoted from my piece that I did with them back in 2015 where they talk about Ric's help some more:
http://www.sfweekly.com/music/the-stratford-4-reunite-at-rickshaw-stop-tonight/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 September 2019 01:53 (four years ago) link
“My Best Friends Girl” reminds me of “Peggy Sue” played at 0.75 speed. They generally take those 50s melodies and slow them to a strut- the hiccups and yelps become gulps and coos.
― bendy, Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:01 (four years ago) link
Early Cars feels so 50s in the literal words and subjects (CARS, rock and roll, my girl or someone else's girl or some girl who just showed up). Compare them to, say, Devo or Journey on either end of the classic-rock spectrum and they're more retro in the lyrics and chords, but then made new.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:03 (four years ago) link
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:15 (four years ago) link
(Hint: it was played by a well known Carl Perkins disciple)
I mean to say, James Redd, that the song doesn't really sound like a Carl Perkins song. (In fact...that is what I did say!)
― timellison, Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:22 (four years ago) link
Was it played by Carl Ramone?
― timellison, Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:23 (four years ago) link
name rings a bel... didn’t he play on “let the good times roll” (1956)?
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Thursday, 19 September 2019 03:36 (four years ago) link
Sorry to doubt you, Tim, you are correct.
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 September 2019 09:48 (four years ago) link
They generally take those 50s melodies and slow them to a strut- the hiccups and yelps become gulps and coos.This is so key to cars magic! That delicious andante tempo with the leathery palm muted rhythm guitars like walking shoes
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 19 September 2019 12:16 (four years ago) link
I did a deep dive into Foghat albums earlier this year, and came away really loving Zig Zag Walk, their "new wave sellout" and final release before breaking up. I hear quite a bit of Cars in this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O38S85pKmtM&list=OLAK5uy_lfXu8zvdq2o8QbdYRcy8mNUw1EOqKwksw&index=2
― confusementalism (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 19 September 2019 14:17 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1o1wgxOKdw
― confusementalism (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 19 September 2019 14:20 (four years ago) link
Reading the Ric Ocasek wiki page today has led me to the point where I'm now streaming the 1973 album by Milkwood.
I'm not quite sure which songs are sung by Ocasek and which are sung by Benjamin Orr, but my brain is completely unable to reconcile that either of these guys were ever in the Cars. It's roughly akin to Spinal Tap having an early single called "Listen to the Flower People".
Here's the first verse from Lincoln Park:
Old men playing cardsSmiling, they speak in foreign wordsAnd every day at threeThey sit and play like children after schoolOh ain’t that coolAnd they lived here all their lives in Lincoln Park
― enochroot, Thursday, 19 September 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
that's Ben on that tune…
― veronica moser, Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:27 (four years ago) link
man it's truly weird to hear Ocasek sing Seals and Croft shit…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr1tiAmOJqo
― veronica moser, Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:29 (four years ago) link
Mustache is even weirder.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:35 (four years ago) link
Paulina remembers and reflects:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paulina-porizkova-ric-ocasek-894349/
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 October 2019 23:06 (four years ago) link
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"
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 5 October 2019 03:29 (four years ago) link
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.”
― Three Borads and the HOOS (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 5 October 2019 10:19 (four years ago) link
Yeah great piece. Would love to hear the recent Ocasek tracks that she was so excited about
― Vinnie, Saturday, 5 October 2019 13:24 (four years ago) link
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.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 8 November 2019 18:37 (four years ago) link
Weren't they selling his Gramercy home for like $13 million?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 November 2019 18:50 (four years ago) link
To echo the guy quoted in the article, the couple probably would have had their jointly owned property in a Trust.
― quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Friday, 8 November 2019 18:53 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQq91RgZJyw
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 13 November 2023 22:54 (four months ago) link
Yeah, the probate inventory shows the probate estate. Anything he put in trust during his life would not appear on that inventory.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 13 November 2023 23:06 (four months ago) link
And by the way, stone fuckin' classic, at least through Shake it Up.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 13 November 2023 23:07 (four months ago) link