The Cars - C or D/S&D

“John? Go ahead, you’re on the line...”

When I say I nearly passed out from laughing... pic.twitter.com/TJgpLocqrL

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 16, 2019

lol For some reason reminds me of that classic Police Squad line (one of the funniest gags of all time), where they show up to the grieving widow and apologetically tell her "We would have come sooner, ma'am, but your husband wasn't dead yet."

Speaking of the Cars and Roxy, I've got to assume Roxy had the Cars in mind when they did this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm84LZF66_w

for sure

I asked him if Roxy was important to him, and he said no, he didn't even listen to 'em. I have to think he liked them a whole bunch, that the band was modeled on Roxy, but he had to have been sensitive about how clearly this was so, didn't like frequent questions as such and so denied it.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/09/how-ric-ocasek-met-paulina-porizkova-and-the-80s-videos?fbclid=IwAR1SuwhYak9lykkyPm-U-DOjcFVb0lVC_4tsQ_yM_NvJEAC9pidHtwk69Uk

re: two assertions in the above: 1.) I know that the other guy who wore a hair piece in the Cars was Easton 2.) It sez that Ocasek and Orr fell out. I don't know why, but I wonder if it was "look man, I'm the one who sings the romantic songs, I look good in the videos sucking my cheeks in, I'm a star, we need to do my songs, like 'Stay the Night"" (which suck ass) "and I need more say." And then maybe Ocasek said "fuck this, I don't need this."

wasn't Orr kind of a wreck?

Was he? Drunks and drink?

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-cars-door-to-door-album/ gets into it.

I have to think he liked them a whole bunch, that the band was modeled on Roxy

huh this has never occurred to me. I don't really hear it tbh.

there's some obvious parallels (synths + art school rock + hot shit guitarist) but idk Roxy seems so quintessentially British and abstract, whereas The Cars were *funny*

I hear the Velvets more than I hear Roxy

Yeah the connection is more widely aesthetic than specifically musical. They drew on many similar points of reference, but recombined them very differently.

T. Rex and Berlin--era Iggy too.

there are clear vocal similarities between ferry and ocasek, but it's definitely plausible that ric arrived at his vocal style by way of buddy holly and bypassed ferry. he was older than ferry after all.

I only hear the VU more or less the way I hear them in a hundred bands of the time (or before, incl. in Roxy). But Roxy, that's a more rarified influence, esp. before the British new wave got to them. I brought them up because of that John Lennon quote re: the Cars as '50s rockers, but really they reflect what Roxy did, too: take kind of "corny" old rock and roll influences and futurize/contemporize them (in a way that, say, Springsteen - also praised by Lennon back there - didn't). But beyond the po-mo music there are a lot of circumstantial comparisons, too, from the emphasis on stage look/fashion (as dictated by David Robinson), or the pinups on the covers. And a tall, striking aloof leader ... though Ferry was a mere 6'1" to Ocasek's 6'4"!

xpost Ferry is 73, that's only a hair younger than Ocasek.

Of course Ric's fave Suicide was into (literally) synthesizing the 50's, too. But "Candy-o" is a pretty undeniably Roxy like song.

We shouldn't take the Lennon quote seriously beyond what he was trying to say, "Hey, '(Just Like) Starting Over' is cool! There's contemporary stuff that sounds like it!"

it's definitely plausible that ric arrived at his vocal style by way of buddy holly and bypassed ferry. he was older than ferry after all.

I mean yeah this seems like a given? I can’t imagine why or how an American rocker who grew up in the 50s would be more indebted to Bryan Ferry than Buddy Holly

Possibly because he was posing? I mean, there were plenty of late 70s contemporaries of his that sounded like Buddy Holly!

VM, as far as odd production moments, did you and Ric talk about:

But you kep it goin
Til the sun fell down
You kep it
[bizarre throat click]
Goin.

Well, I guess I hear Roxy more clearly than you guys…to me, it is more than plausible that he was paying attention to shit that was going on in the UK in the 70s…and after trying a few projects with Orr that failed to take off, Roxy would be a band that he would see and think "I can do an american version of that," rather than being inspired by ZZ Top or Jackson Browne (has anyone heard Milkwood?). But I see what you guys are saying, and he certainly said to me that they weren't important to him and instead talked about how much he was into post Stooges Iggy and VU.

idk if Ferry ever tried to be funny, but there are so many sly and/or goofy moments in the Cars' canonical material from the just-posted throat click to the "but she used to be mine!" kicker in "Best Friend's Girl" to all the silly videos

no we did not discuss that…I don't think I ever noticed that bit much…

"and wasting all my time time" from "Just What I Needed" echoes that odd usage in lines from "Sister Ray" (& "Cool It Now").

I could have sworn some I read critic at the time taking issue with the "time time" thing, for some reason. I assumed it was Christgau, so looked up his reviews ... which mentions Roxy Music a couple of times. "That accentuated detachment may feel like a Roxy Music move in the first flush of studio infatuation, but schlock it up a little and this band really could turn into an American Queen," in the review of the first album. "They've always basked in the shadow of Roxy Music, too," in the review of "Shake It Up."

(Heh, look at that jumble. Should have been "I could have sworn I read some critic at the time ...")

before youtube, I had not seen a lot of footage of the band, so I got this Rhino DVD of them playing the first record in I guess 78 or 79, maybe it was Rockpalast? They included an interview with all five from 1999-2000, and Orr was absolutely near death but was there, answering in croaking monosyllables and ravaged by cancer, and it seemed to me to be a terrible idea to have him sit there with the other guys utterly discomfited, having to pretend that he's not about to die. Although maybe he absolutely wanted to take part in this deeply uncomfortable interview situation, and maybe those guys would have been awkward around each other anyway…

love this performance. greg going ham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmGkuiC9hM4

ocasek on his fallout with orr:

Ben and I had a real cold war going that lasted about 23 years. I could never really figure out exactly why, but I think there was a lot of jealousy because I wrote the songs and I got a lot of attention. And there was all kinds of weird stuff, like he said, “My girlfriend writes songs, let’s use one of those or two of those.” I said, “No, that’s not the Cars.”

[The Cars] was the first album I really bonded with, so as my music smugness expanded, I'm sure I had an ah-ha moment when i got to Roxy Music, and looking at the dates on the jackets, declared Ocasek modeled his sound on Roxy. For some number of decades, I've heard The Cars as an American Roxy.

Knowing his age now, it does seem possible that he was synthesizing the same approaches as the Cars took shape. He may even have heard stuff like "Street Life" and pushed it away for being just off from his vision.

Both frontmen projected such horny ennui, there had to be cross-pollination though.

I wonder if Ric and Alan Vega had convos about hiding birthdays and how to hang with the next gen.

I wonder if rock stars have a favored brand of black hair dye?

Ric being nearly 5 years older than my dad is wild as hell. they seem like they are from two very different generations. obv both “boomers” but you know

Ocasek was born before the baby boom!

ha you’re right! it’s just wild that my parents were well past their paying attn to pop culture phase well before the Cars were a radio staple

I think The Cars was Ric's 7th band?

V much good listening for tonight, from Evan Davies at WFMU:

https://www.facebook.com/efdonFMU/photos/a.251102038244747/2724365904251669/?type=3&theater

Here's more info on the big Ric Ocasek tribute show I'm doing on WFMU tonight (9pm-midnight Eastern Time)! I'll be joined via telephone by some special guests. First up will be journalist/editor/author Annie Zaleski, who has written extensively about The Cars (see links in comments).
We'll also hear from three musicians who were in bands produced by Ric Ocasek: Paul Zone from The Fast (past guest of the show!), Debora Iyall of Romeo Void, and Danny Sage of D Generation. In between I'll be panicking about not having enough time to play all the music I want to play (spoiler: I won't have enough time). Tune in tonight at 9 Eastern/6 Pacific!

"But you kep it goin
Til the sun fell down
You kep it
[bizarre throat click]
Goin."

YES

They included an interview with all five from 1999-2000, and Orr was absolutely near death but was there, answering in croaking monosyllables and ravaged by cancer, and it seemed to me to be a terrible idea to have him sit there with the other guys utterly discomfited, having to pretend that he's not about to die.

They all look pretty old in that interview!

WFMU show kicking in with "Double Life."

Ha that’s the tune that’s been in my head all fucking day!

"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.

have you heard perhaps an obscure little track titled "my best friend's girl"?

man i love efd as a person and dj and baseball fan but less so as a radio voice/interviewer

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).

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/

“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.

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.

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).

(Hint: it was played by a well known Carl Perkins disciple)