RIP Ric Ocasek

bykfixer

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It's been a few days since Ric went on to join Ben Orr wherever rockers go in the afterlife.

The Cars was a great band in my view and did a lot to revitalize American rock n roll in the late 1970's and the 80's.

RIP Ric.

E37-CD820-97-BB-4-C68-95-C7-0-ABE80947529.jpg
 

dotCPF

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Wow, I totally missed that he had passed. That's a terrible loss, I always wanted to see them live. Absolutely love The Cars, always have always will. I was born far too late for my music interests. I'll have to give them a blast on the way home.

I always loved the story about how they got their name.
 

Cyclops942

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Wow, I totally missed that he had passed. That's a terrible loss, I always wanted to see them live. Absolutely love The Cars, always have always will. I was born far too late for my music interests. I'll have to give them a blast on the way home.

I always loved the story about how they got their name.

So how about you share it here, or perhaps a link to it, in his honor?
 

boo5ted

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So how about you share it here, or perhaps a link to it, in his honor?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cars#The_New_Cars

wikipedia said:
Before the Cars, members of the band performed together in several different incarnations. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1960s after Ocasek saw Orr performing with his band the Grasshoppers on the Big 5 Show, a local musical variety program. The two were in various bands in Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, before relocating to Boston in the early 1970s. In Boston, Ocasek and Orr, along with lead guitarist Jas Goodkind, formed a Crosby, Stills and Nash-style folk rock band called Milkwood. In 1973, they released one album, How's the Weather, on Paramount Records, that failed to chart.

After Milkwood, Ocasek and Orr formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, whose name was suggested by Jonathan Richman. The band included Greg Hawkes, who had studied at the Berklee School of Music and had played saxophone on Milkwood's album. Hawkes left to tour with Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture, a musical comedy act in which Mull played a variety of instruments. Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr then performed as an acoustic duo called simply Ocasek and Orr at the Idler coffeehouse in Cambridge. Some of the songs they played became the early Cars songs.

Later, Ocasek and Orr teamed up with guitarist Elliot Easton (who had also studied at Berklee) in the band Cap'n Swing. Cap'n Swing also featured drummer Glenn Evans, later followed by Kevin Robichaud, and a jazzy bass player, which clashed with Ocasek's more rock-and-roll leanings. Benjamin Orr was the lead vocalist and did not play an instrument. Cap'n Swing soon came to the attention of WBCN disc jockey Maxanne Sartori, who began playing songs from their demo tape on her show.

After being rejected by several record labels, Ocasek got rid of the bass player and drummer and decided to form a band that better fit his style of writing. Orr took over on bass and Robichaud was replaced by David Robinson, best known for his career with the Modern Lovers. Robinson had also played in DMZ and the Pop! Hawkes returned to play keyboards and the band became "The Cars", a name suggested by Robinson, whose sense of fashion had a strong influence on the band's image.
 

bykfixer

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Only thing I knew was David Robinson came up with the name. I did not know why.

Man I played Candy-O over and over, like a million billion times. It's All I Can Do, Dangerous Type, Night Spots, Lust for Kicks etc. Holy cow!!

I had Panorama before their first one. The local radio stations did not play tunes like "You're All I've Got Tonight" until after Panorama was out. Really. Yet "Skateboarder" magazine was wild about the dynamic new band called The Cars in like 1977.

I was waiting in line for a Roses store to open the day Shake It Up came out. More traditional Cars than Panorama, it still expanded on everybodys favorite goofball riffs and fun sound machines while Elliott was still jamming on lead……and it worked.

I saw them in the HeartBeat City tour because Wang Chung was the opening act. I thought that new album sucked……until I saw them live. Next day I had a copy of HeartBeat City recorded onto a Maxell Cassette from my B&O turntable through a Nakamichi tape player. Everybody within 100 yards of my 77 Nova knew I was digging that new Cars record. They never toured anywhere near me after HeartBeat City.

I did not buy Door to Door until about 2017, or 18. I had all the tunes from it I wanted from the Anthology collection. They did "Strap Me In" on Saturday Night Live and man I was hooked on that tune, but until I rebought every Cars record on CD I just never was interested in it.

They came out with two live albums not that long ago. One called Unlocked was a bunch of recordings from over the years. Then the one called El Macambo is a live show early in their career in Canada in 1978. They did Unlocked on video too. That has even more gems. But my favorite is the show they did in a bar in Germany where like 80 people are sitting there all shock faced like "whatthehell is this?" as Greg Hawkes played all kinds of gadgets and gizmos, Ric stood around like a wax museum figure and the Ben/Elliott duo stole the show. The end features a great interview shortly before Ben passed away.

Of course I bought a copy of every solo record. Greg playing "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" on yukelelee? Awesome. Elliott's was great. Ric's were hit and miss with a few gems and Ben's……well except for that one hit……
Apparently David runs a restaurant now while Elliott and Greg still play in bands on occasion.

The Cars were certainly a game changer and shoulda been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago.
 
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dotCPF

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So how about you share it here, or perhaps a link to it, in his honor?

I mean, I'm not going to dispute the wiki, but the way I heard it:

They were all in a bar in Boston wondering what they were going to name themselves (reportedly at a bar near Faneuil Hall. They wanted to go with "Boston" but lo and behold.... Brad Delp, Barry Goudreau, and a few other fellas had already formed "Boston". Someone asked "Well, what else does Boston have a lot of?"

Of course the answer given? Cars!


Could not be more true today! Not sure how (actual) Boston is going to work in 10 years...
 

martinaee

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Didn't really know the band at all, but I love the song Just What I needed.
 

LGT

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Will be missed, he was working on another album this year. For me, The Cars represented the sound of normalcy and happiness, in some very devastated places, during some odd and taxing times.
http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2019/02/ric-ocasek-the-tvd-interview/
They were one of my favorite bands as a teen during the early 80's. I still listen to them. I saw them at the Providence civic center in 1980 or 81, and suicide opened for them, as mentioned in the interview, and yes, they were booed off the stage.
 
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