Ric Ocasek, RIP

[mjzee]

https://pagesix.com/2019/09/15/the-cars-frontman-ric-ocasek-found-dead-in-manhattan-townhouse/

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow. RIP Rick. The Cars had their own sound. 

[Brad]

I can't say I'm intimately familiar with all their music but they had some great songs and the one that creeped into the public consciousness and one probably everybody knows -- You Might Think -- is a great song and a dynamite video. RIP. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The Cars were a favorite of my younger days. I was very bummed out when co-founder Benjamin Orr died back in 2000 at the young age of 53, knowing full well that it was likely the end of The Cars as the Ocasek/Orr combo *was* The Cars. Ric made it to 75, which is a pretty good run.

The Cars were formed in Boston, so I heard about them before they hit the big time. They got some local radio play and I remember thinking that they might make it.

The thing that I remember most from their heyday was that their music did not seem to translate well to live venues. They were, by far, the worst rock show I ever saw live. I saw them a couple of times to see if it got better and it didn't.

I think their Greatest Hits record is one of the best greatest hits compilations ever. To top it off, they had a rarity: a previously unreleased song on a greatest hits compilation that became a hit.

[JSngry]

He looked dead while he was alive, so congrats for lasting so long!

[Justin V]

50 minutes ago, Captain Howdy said:

Oof, one more memento mori. The thing about seeing these old rock stars drop is that most of them have been artistically dead for decades, so their real deaths are anticlimactic. My reaction is more like, "Huh, he was still alive?" than "What a tragedy."

Stay classy.  

RIP, Mr. Ocasek.

[Rooster_Ties]

The very first non-kids album I ever purchased was Heartbeat City (circa 1984, when I was 15).  Such a unique-sounding band, that really was a hybrid of a number of different styles.  One of my favorite discoveries in the last 15 years was this original **DEMO** version of "Moving in Stereo" from their debut.  The final (finished) album version was super atmospheric, and this demo-version even more so.

Thank goodness they were inducted into the Rock n Roll HOF just last year, and not a moment too late.

Seems he was a good 5 years older than commonly known (at least from some other discussions I've seen online in the last 24 hours).  His DOB was more commonly cited as being 1949, when it was really 1944 -- thus he was 75 (and not 70).

 

Again, this is the original DEMO version of this song.  RIP Ric.

 

[soulpope]

R.I.P ....

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIWVH9g4PoY&fbclid

great HQ audience footage here- very strong performance too

Edited September 16, 2019 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[Kevin Bresnahan]

14 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIWVH9g4PoY&fbclid

great HQ audience footage here- very strong performance too

Yup, there's the audio mud I remember.  Ben Orr was a very good singer.

[Soulstation1]

Rest Easy Ric

🕶 

😢

 

[Rooster_Ties]

6 hours ago, bresna said:

Ben Orr was a very good singer.

Very true (what a good singer Ben Orr was).  But Ric was arguably the more unique voice in the group, and I'd certainly ague that was a critical part of the mix that led to their success.

[bertrand]

On 9/16/2019 at 8:06 AM, Brad said:

I can't say I'm intimately familiar with all their music but they had some great songs and the one that creeped into the public consciousness and one probably everybody knows -- You Might Think -- is a great song and a dynamite video. RIP. 

That video was fantastic, one of the very best from the heyday of music videos.

[JSngry]

It's funny. I remember the band, I remember there being hits and videos, I remember liking them well enough, and I definitely remember the album covers and Ocasek marrying that gorgeous model (and staying married to her, hooray!).

But I can't remember one bit of the actual music (not one!!!!), nor am I particularly curious to do so, seems to be enough to know that it happened then. Weird.

Pop culture works in mysterious ways

[Soulstation1]

 

[Soulstation1]

I ❤️ The Cars 

[Soulstation1]

Shake it up tour was the first concert I went to by myself 

[Rooster_Ties]

I (finally) found Ric's first solo album, Beatitude (1982) on CD about a year or two  ago (for about $25 on ebay) -- after having been on the lookout for one for nearly 10 years.  $25 wasn't a bargain, but I'd often (only) ever seen it going for $45 or more, usually.

I only knew the album from spinning it off YouTube now and then, but it was really a joy to finally hear on a real stereo system (I don't have my computer hooked up to my main stereo, so I'd never heard it on anything other than laptop speakers).

Anyway, Beatitude comes off sounding like a really weird Cars album -- even quirkier than The Cars, and tons of 'fun' in the sense that 'fun' in music for me often includes lots of left turns.

Don't know that it'll ever see a reissue on CD, but if it does, it's well worth seeking out.  Little of it would have ever gotten any traction on the radio, and it seems just be dripping with Ric's personality, less filtered through the need to be as commercial (while still being a fairly slick production).  It's certainly no less modern, production-wise, than any Cars album -- but it sure goes places The Cars mostly didn't.

[Soulstation1]

i think I had this on cassette 

[Soulstation1]

 

[sonnymax]

On 10/18/2019 at 4:39 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

I (finally) found Ric's first solo album, Beatitude (1982) on CD about a year or two  ago (for about $25 on ebay) -- after having been on the lookout for one for nearly 10 years.  $25 wasn't a bargain, but I'd often (only) ever seen it going for $45 or more, usually.

I only knew the album from spinning it off YouTube now and then, but it was really a joy to finally hear on a real stereo system (I don't have my computer hooked up to my main stereo, so I'd never heard it on anything other than laptop speakers).

Anyway, Beatitude comes off sounding like a really weird Cars album -- even quirkier than The Cars, and tons of 'fun' in the sense that 'fun' in music for me often includes lots of left turns.

Don't know that it'll ever see a reissue on CD, but if it does, it's well worth seeking out.  Little of it would have ever gotten any traction on the radio, and it seems just be dripping with Ric's personality, less filtered through the need to be as commercial (while still being a fairly slick production).  It's certainly no less modern, production-wise, than any Cars album -- but it sure goes places The Cars mostly didn't.

All of Ric's solo outings are available on Spotify (a pleasant surprise).

[Soulstation1]

 

[Brad]

Allegedly, he cut his wife out of his will days before he died because he said she abandoned him. 

[Soulstation1]

prob the most played album ever for me 

[Soulstation1]

21 hours ago, Brad said:

Allegedly, he cut his wife out of his will days before he died because he said she abandoned him. 

She’s worth about $80 mill herself