What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

R.I.P. Ric Ocasek (1 Viewer)

A rock n roll good guy, and my first favorite band.  They're dropping so fast I hardly notice anymore.

 
Talented dude.   As my first introduction to them, I remember burning up that old Cars Greatest Hits cd that I got for free from the wonderful  people of the Columbia House Music club lol.  Albeit a greatest hits disc, it was an awesome introduction to them, which made me a fan for life.  That whole disc rocked. 

He also produced Weezer's first album aka The Blue Album (and ended up doing the Green one and i believe one other after that).    R.I.P.  RICK. 

 
Will always be a part of me with his Moving In Stereo/Phoebe Cates.    13 years old at the time.  Crazy times man.  Crazy times.   

I was telling one of kids the other day to learn to play guitar.  If Ocasek can pull Paulina Porizkova there is chance for the rest of us.  

 
Ilov80s said:
Weird, I assumed you fn with me. You not a big music guy? The Cars are up there with The Talking Heads and Elvis Costello when we talk about best bands of the late 70s-mid 80s.
Click to expand...
Not messing with you.  To be fair, I don't know who The Talking Heads or Elvis Costello are either.

 
Ilov80s said:
Weird, I assumed you fn with me. You not a big music guy? The Cars are up there with The Talking Heads and Elvis Costello when we talk about best bands of the late 70s-mid 80s.
Click to expand...
The Cars were way more popular in the mainstream than Elvis Costello in the U.S.  Best charting Elvis Costello song was "Veronica" at #19 in 1989 (past his prime).  I don't think I knew much about Elvis until I was in college (1988 +).  The Cars, meanwhile, were all over U.S. radio.  Four top 10 hits and a number of other songs in the top 40.  The Cars albums sold much better too.  It's surprising that someone Don't Noonan's age hadn't heard of them although I'm sure he'd recognize several of the songs if he heard them.

 
My best friend and I snagged 3 or 4 of his older brother's albums that we loved and felt so cool and grown-up when we listened to them in the early/mid 80s:

Changes - David Bowie
Transformer - Lou Reed
Making Movies - Dire Straits

And most of all, The Cars' first album. It might be the album I've listened to more than any other - definitely in the top 5. My wife was an 80s Boston club kid and the same is true for her. Going to put it on tonight and give it a listen for old times' sake. 

 
Loved the Cars, pure musicians that sounded recording studio crisp live. Too many great songs to mention, I thought they had a perfect intro album.

 
The_Man said:
My best friend and I snagged 3 or 4 of his older brother's albums that we loved and felt so cool and grown-up when we listened to them in the early/mid 80s:

Changes - David Bowie
Transformer - Lou Reed
Making Movies - Dire Straits

And most of all, The Cars' first album. It might be the album I've listened to more than any other - definitely in the top 5. My wife was an 80s Boston club kid and the same is true for her. Going to put it on tonight and give it a listen for old times' sake. 
Click to expand...
Was your wife at one time your best friend's girl?

 
I do like the Cars, but I find I listen to two of his solo songs more than his Cars songs at this point:

Something To Grab For (it's necessary to watch the video, Ric had an eye for talent beyond Paula, Marianne Gravette doing the honors here)

Jimmy Jimmy (I'll probably be the only one in this thread that likes this song, and I'm o.k. with that). Here's the video.

Anyways, the dude could write tunes.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah, the "never heard of them" schtick is weird.  Sad if true.

My 33 yo nephew and 21 yo daughter both texted me because they were bummed when they heard the news.

 
WDIK2 said:
Yeah, the "never heard of them" schtick is weird.  Sad if true.

My 33 yo nephew and 21 yo daughter both texted me because they were bummed when they heard the news.
Click to expand...
I called him out on it a couple years ago when Gregg Allman was sick and he said he had never heard of him.  This is a guy who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, which is a hippie paradise.  I thought he was full of it, but now, I'm not so sure.  I think he just didn't ever listen to music, like, ever.  

 
General Malaise said:
I called him out on it a couple years ago when Gregg Allman was sick and he said he had never heard of him.  This is a guy who grew up in Eugene, Oregon, which is a hippie paradise.  I thought he was full of it, but now, I'm not so sure.  I think he just didn't ever listen to music, like, ever.  
Click to expand...
The honest answer is I have listened to music but it obviously is not a passion of mine.  I would recognize songs of all of these folks but I have no name recognition of them nor could I recognize them.   :shrug:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heartbeat City was the first album I ever bought. AS a kid I always loved their videos. Before we got MTV, we would watch them on Night Tracks on Tbs. RIP Ric.

 
The Cars and Blondie were the first bands of their kind to crossover in the US.   I was in college when their debut album was released.  By the second semester, some of the kids who were playing Styx and REO at the beginning of the year had bought The Cars.  Their music and especially their image was much different from any other band getting played on radio at the time. 

Their career mirrored the rise and fall of new wave.  They started in 1978, reached their commercial peak in 1984 and were over in 1988.   I always thought the term new wave was kind of dumb but it started in the UK music mags and stuck for a long time.  It's pretty much been replaced by post-punk freeing up new wave for the next one.

 
CurlyNight said:
Their sound is very crisp and clear. Listening to them on good headphones you really hear it.
Click to expand...
Producer Roy Thomas Baker did a great job on the first four Cars albums.  The vocals are mixed really well.

Baker also produced the early albums from Queen and also worked with Journey and Smashing Pumpkins.

 
Eephus said:
Producer Roy Thomas Baker did a great job on the first four Cars albums.  The vocals are mixed really well.

Baker also produced the early albums from Queen and also worked with Journey and Smashing Pumpkins.
Click to expand...
I know most people don't have best producer lists, but i do. And RTB is definitely on that list.

 
To bring it back on topic, Ocasek was a fine producer as well.   In the early days, he made Suicide, Bad Brains and Romeo Void sound clean without losing the edge.  Post-Cars, he did some great work with Weezer, Nada Surf, GBV and No Doubt.

 
Oh and Lange did produce High N Dry and Pyromania, pretty much your quintessential rock sound if you ask me

 
Eephus said:
that would make a pretty good thread

:nerd:
Click to expand...
 The guys from Weezer wrote that Ocasek pushed them to do Buddy Holly, though they resisted because they thought it would be taken as a novelty record. Ocasek told them it just sounded good, and they should record it, and then let it sit for awhile, and then come back to it. If they still didn't like the sound, they could reject it, and they could move on. That was good advice.  

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

timschochet
Taking requests for another music list countdown
Replies
35
Views
703
krista4
krista4
Chadstroma
Youth Sports- Coach Jerk Move or Fair Game?
2 3
Replies
102
Views
2K
Chadstroma
Chadstroma
Andy Dufresne
  • Poll
What should be the new Minnesota State flag?
2
Replies
69
Views
1K
massraider
massraider

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top