Posted on 09/19/2019 7:27:25 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Nice day in Manhattan today so decided to take a walk from my midtown office over to see Ric Ocasek's townhouse. Yes, he died over the weekend. 75 years old. Purportedly. Lead singer of The Cars. Confirmed. Had a lot of quirky and catchy hit songs from the late 1970s to mid 1980s. Multi-platinum albums. Produced some creative videos that showed on MTV back when MTV played music videos. Now you can see all of them on demand out on the YouTube.
Ric Ocasek seemed like a decent guy. Kept a low profile. He never screeched about his politics at award shows (and he won a lot of them and got into the R&R Hall of Fame). Hell, I don't even know what his politics were and that's probably a good thing. Also, he helped out a lot of other musicians after his Cars run was over. Most notably with Weezer.
So I expected a little bit of a crowd at the Otcasek townhouse today. (Otcasek is his legal name). You know, groupies holding candles and singing "I don't mind you coming here...wasting all my time...cause when you're standing oh so near....I kinda lose my mind..."
You know, a scene something like that. I mean, it was only four days ago that he passed. I really did expect a bit of a crowd in front of the place. I might even have joined in for a verse or two. Maybe I would have started singing my favorite Cars song ("It's All I Can Do") and gotten everyone else to join in. A real Kumbaya moment. But alas, it was not to be. As I got south of Gramercy Park and hung a left on E 19th towards no. 140, the street was practically empty. A woman on her cellphone yapping about something or other, and some other guy just walking down the street like I was.
As I approached the Ocasek townhouse, I could see some bouquets of flowers by the doorstep with some cards but that was it. Suddenly, I come to a stop right in front of Ric's door and I'm all by myself. I glance up and I can see right into the corner room of the second floor and I see a bookcase lined with books. Perhaps that was Ric's study. I wonder what kind of books that he kept and read. Were some of the books in my library as well? Maybe a Patriot's History of the United States by Larry Schweikart? Perhaps a copy of "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand? Or "The Accidental Superpower" by Peter Zeihan? It's possible. Anyway, I spent about 30 seconds (about a half an hour in NYC time) in a peaceful vigil for the lead singer of The Cars. Gazing into what might have been his private library. Or maybe it was just a bunch of cookbooks. Who knows.
I didn't stick around there all that long. Didn't want to be seen as a pathetic lone Cars groupie. Even though I obviously was. So I casually thrust my hands in my pocket and sauntered on down the street like I was just some interested buyer (the townhouse is on the market for $13m). I then hung a left on 3rd Avenue and was thrown right back into the chaos of busy NYC, the sirens, the honking cars, the construction noises, and the usual beggars holding out their hands for some coin. Passed a local few bars where Ric likely pulled a pint or two with his supermodel wife on a Saturday night. But it could have been any night because Ric was a retired rock star. He didn't have to get up for work in the morning. According to some "celebrity net worth" websites, he had $80 million in the bank more or less. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Anyway, I got to thinking why is it that whenever a music star dies, his or her catalog suddenly starts selling like hotcakes? There was an article I read earlier tonight about how sales, downloads and streams of the music of Eddie Money (who also died this past week) and The Cars SPIKED
Why is that? Did their music suddenly get better on account of them dying? I remember how Johnny Cash recordings flew off the shelves after he died about 15 years back. That was back when people bought a lot of compact discs. It was like suddenly everybody became a Johnny Cash fan on account of his dying.
I would just feel overly self-conscious purchasing music of an artist who just died. Makes for an awkward moment at the cash register. "Dude," the nose-pierced cashier might say, "Are you aware that this dude just kicked the bucket?"
"Yeah, I heard..." I might sheepishly reply as I handed my money over. "Real bummer man. Guess I ought to go about discovering his music now..." Anyway, that won't happen this time because I already own pretty much every album Ocasek put out, not just with Cars but his solo stuff as well.
The story of The Cars is an interesting one. I won't get into it here in too much detail. But I was a teenager living in Boston when they made it to the big leagues back in 1978. Local station WBCN played the heck out of their demo tape before they even had a record deal. I saw the band at Downtown Crossing (in Boston near the old red light district) posing for photos around April or May of 1978. Probably for some magazine cover. I remember Ric Ocasek as being this really tall and very skinny guy with sunglasses (on a cloudy day) and leather jacket. He was already in his mid-30s at that point - very old for rock and roll back in the day - almost as old as Mick Jagger. But he managed to have quite a career despite the late start.
The music of The Cars really spoke to me as a teenager and young adult. It was fun to listen to. Their debut album came out when I hit puberty and their last proper album "Door to Door" was released the year I got married. That album was panned by critics but I liked it as well. The "Shake It Up" and "Heartbeat City" albums came out when I was in the Marine Corps and I drove my roommate crazy with them. Though he did eventually warm up to them and he turned me on to country music so we expanded each other's musical horizons.
The Cars only had one really bad song and it was that lead in to Candy-O on the Candy-O album. "Shoo-be-do" I think it was. It was an experiment, I believe. But I always skip over that one when it come up.
So this was my stab at an obituary (of sorts) for Ric Ocasek. I hope I did him some justice. I do not consider myself a professional obituary writer. I don't even think my mother wants me writing her obituary.
Anyway, Ric had a good life and his music was quite good. Even the solo stuff that nobody apparently bought. Check out his solo album "This Side Of Paradise" as a primer. That will yield some good stuff, much of it sounding like The Cars. "Emotion in Motion" ,"Mystery" and "True Love" the top tracks in my opinion.
That era of music was the last of the time of love songs before the commies started accelerating the politicization of Rock and Pop music.
Good stuff. I was a fan as well, though not at your level. Thanks.
I still remember driving around late at night in a car with my brothers trying to find a cabin in the mountains. It took us way to long, but The Cars and Tom Petty kept us company while we tooled around.
The Cars’ debut is the perfect album.
Side One was AM, short power pop classics.
Side Two was FM, longer more guitar-driven songs, that all blended into each other perfectly.
Retrowave, Synthwave and even EDM/Trance have brought that back in a big way in recent years.
Credit where credit is due. Ric was not a handsome guy, yet he somehow managed to marry Paulina Porizkova, who at the time was a stunningly beautiful Czech girl.
When the bulk of your remaining fans are past the age of 60, you’re not likely to find scores of them gathered at his front gate, dissolved in tears or wails of deep sorrow.
There aren’t a lot of remaining music giants who would cause that reaction, but there are a few. Paul McCartney, Burt Bachrach, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Diana Ross and Dolly Parton, (mainly for the songs Dolly wrote). Oh, and Weird Al Yankovich!
Born: March 23, 1949, Baltimore, MD
Died: September 15, 2019, Manhattan, New York, NY
But no worries, he'll probably outlive all of us.
Double Life, Shoo-Be-Doo and Candy-O were all one song and can only be played as such.
Candy-O - Just as perfect except for that Shooby-Doo crap near the end.
Panorama - For serious fans only. I liked it.
Shake It Up - Back to the power pop of their first two albums.
Heartbeat City - Their MTV album
Door to Door - Their swan song. They played to some half-empty arenas. They were so embarrassed that they broke up the band. A shame. I did like this album.
Correct. But in iTunes you can adjust the start and ending times.
Good point. Much like the medley on side 2 of Abbey Road.
The Cars really weren’t an arena band. Clubs were more appropriate for them.
I definitely remember reading an article about The Cars when Candy-O came out and being shocked that Ric then was in his mid-30s according to the article. So I think he was closer to 75.
a) 3/23/44-09/15/19 b. Baltimore for O(t)Casek;
3/21/49-09/13/19 b. Brooklyn for Eddie Money.
b) Shoo-Be-Doo was an experiment / Bridge song,
Buddy Holly-cum-Devo. Always liked how it cut over
to Candy-O and truth be told Cars Devo and Talking
Heads (all WEA groups) overlapped sonically at times.
They performed it on FRIDAYS led into Gimme Some Slack.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QzDmo1LVLsc
c) Of course younger music buyers who weren’t around
for artists the 1st goround will become interested and
older folks will rediscover and refresh their collections
d) When punk started to explode I went to Boston to college.
(AOC has devalued my degree though!)
The local music scene was thrilling and who did I swear
to this day I saw at a Hahvahd mixer in 77? The Cars who were already
fully formed and played some of their soon to be hit songs.
e) Varga(s) came out of retirement to paint the cover
and actress Candy Moore was the model
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
