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Desert Island Orr-gasm!


Just What I Needed 3 votes

Bye Bye Love 2 votes

Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up 3 votes

Let's Go 4 votes

It's All I Can Do 0 votes

Candy-O 0 votes

Cruiser 0 votes

Think It Over 0 votes

Drive 2 votes

Too Hot To Stop 0 votes

FIELD 1 votes

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 08:16 AM

Today before they whisk you off to a desert island to spend the rest of your life, the Cruel Gods of Fate have granted you the privilege of adding to your Mix Tape one (1) song by legendary new-wave-power-poppers The Cars, with the stipulation that your selection be limited to those songs that Benjamin Orr provided lead vocals for. That eliminates roughly 70% of the Cars repetoire but leaves behind the following hits. No write-ins allowed, but you may select to play the "field" as described below or choose the lead single from Orr's first solo album, the cheesetastic "Too Hot to Stop" which I've included mainly to share Orr's horrendously embarrassing dance moves and leather pants.

OK?

Just What I Needed
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MWJwGM2Oo8

Bye Bye Love
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbXzAAXOBsY

Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZhfFXEMMI4

Let's Go
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpA3NVafsdo

It's All I Can Do
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZAkOSpVumw

Candy-O
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSmJvNq1wu8

Cruiser
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrchpa6-wtU

Think it Over
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4poR2cZzMQ

Drive
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbTjzZzfR7w

Bonus Solo Pick!: Too Hot to Stop (cheesiest 80s dance-moves video ever?)
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RQYWC1JzTg

Field (Running to You, You Wear Those Eyes, Stranger Eyes, This Could Be Love, It's Not the Night)

TransMonk
Dec 07 2010 08:19 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

I'd be happy with any of these, but went with Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up.

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 08:22 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

If all they did were Orrsongs, this still would have been a heckuva memorable band.

Look at those first three songs. First four! First FIVE AND SIX!! How do you choose?

She never likes to choose.

MFS62
Dec 07 2010 08:23 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

If those were my only choices, I'd swing at everything because we all have heard that "you can't walk off the island".

Later

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 08:29 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

"All Mixed Up," live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjmJLWh6uWQ

Pretty awesome until we get to the "leave it to me" part when the harmonies don't quite work and Ocasek doesn't even bother joining in.

For all I know, Rick Ocasek is a prince of a guy, but he strikes me as one of the most underminingly dicky frontmen this side of Mike Love.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 08:35 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

This poll grew out of a list I made here: [url]http://rd.io/x/QGJDLyJw (I'm telling you folks the stream is where it's at. Sign up already).

Orr not only had a much better voice than Ocasek, it really "mixed" wonderfully with Hawkes' keyboard work, as heard especially on "It's All I Can Do." That combo, rather than Ocasek's zany detatchment + Easton's choppy guitar, was really the Cars' best signature, IMO. The other thing you realize is that the Cars work really went downhill after the the first few albums.

Here's some more fun facts about the Cars: They didn't design (or necessarily like) their first album cover, it was a stock image the record company found. They of course went on to put girls on all their covers except Panorama, and that album sold like shit.

I think I'm gonna go for Bye Bye Love here.

Fman99
Dec 07 2010 08:38 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

All these years, I never realized that anyone besides Rik Ocasek was the vocalist on any Cars song. Hell.

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 08:53 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Well, welcome to school.

As I suspected, a four-way tie between the first four.

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 09:03 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

There's something compelling about the Cars' wild success in the midst of Cold War saber-rattling as both their frontmen came from families who were exiles from Soviet-bloc regimes. Ocasek's family were Czechoslovakian Americans, and his father was a computer analyst for NASA. Orr (born Benjamin Orzechowski) had Russian and Czech parents.

The Cars broke out of Boston and are generally considered a Boston band, but the nucleus formed in Ohio, where Lakewood native Orr met Ocasek, who came to the Buckeye State to study at Bowling Green U.

TransMonk
Dec 07 2010 09:08 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Fman99 wrote:
All these years, I never realized that anyone besides Rik Ocasek was the vocalist on any Cars song. Hell.


You're not the only one. I have a friend who is a huge Cars fan that never knew until recently either.

soupcan
Dec 07 2010 09:14 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Let's Go, 'ba baah, ba ba ba baah...Da na na da na na naaaah'

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 09:30 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Edgy DC wrote:
"All Mixed Up," live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjmJLWh6uWQ


Play this. I just myself got to the sax solo.

Ashie62
Dec 07 2010 09:52 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Didn't know either, was looking for "Let the Good Times Roll" , let them knock you around..

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Dec 07 2010 09:56 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Edgy DC wrote:
... Ocasek's family were Czechoslovakian Americans


I could have sworn they were Alpha Centaurian.

Went with "Moving in Stereo." This is a lot harder when you actually like the band/music.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 10:03 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Edgy DC wrote:
Edgy DC wrote:
"All Mixed Up," live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjmJLWh6uWQ


Play this. I just myself got to the sax solo.


I did. Now how about that "Too Hot to Stop"?

Youtube has some recordings of proto-Cars bands Milkwood and Cap'n Swing including early versions of Let's Go and Bye Bye Love and a nice duet where Ocasek & Orr sing "Everyday" by Buddy Holly.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 10:32 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Who voted "Field"? 4 way tie at the top!

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 10:41 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

"Cruiser" is stinky poo. Too long an intro and a few good riffs disappearing into the formulaic production values the Cars had already slipped into by 1981, and it's got all the afterhought hallmarks of Orr accepting his B-side status.

A lot of great Cars songs aren't much as compositions ("She's so beautiful now she doesn't wear her shoes"?), but they really executed with great and inspired arrangements. Once the formula was nailed, even that was gone, and every song was a variation on "You Might Think."

Edgy DC
Dec 07 2010 07:07 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:
Orr not only had a much better voice than Ocasek, it really "mixed" wonderfully with Hawkes' keyboard work, as heard especially on "It's All I Can Do." That combo, rather than Ocasek's zany detatchment + Easton's choppy guitar, was really the Cars' best signature, IMO. The other thing you realize is that the Cars work really went downhill after the the first few albums.

Don't count out Greg Hawkes' work as a frontman.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 07:25 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Wow. The girl in the pink dress doesn't even sing.

Ashie62
Dec 07 2010 07:35 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

The Cars are back with Rundgren & Orr as the New Cars. No Ocasek or Easton.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 07 2010 07:48 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Orr is dead (pancreatic cancer).

Easton, Hawkes & Robinson formed The New Cars with Rundgren & Kasim Sultan, but the project went nowhere after Easton broke his collarbone or something just as their tour was starting. Also, people didn't like the Cars minus Ocasek, but they didn't realize what was missing was Orr. That was kinda doubly sad I thought, even though I kinda liked their one single "Not Tonight."

Fman99
Dec 07 2010 08:05 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

The first five songs are all terrific, and I always liked "Drive" as a ballad (real easy on the guitar, also, for you hacks out there like myself).

Having said that, I'm giving my vote to Fmeat, who of course picks "Moving in Stereo" thanks to the great Phoebe Cates in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

And trust me, that memory, on a desert island, may come in handy

Rockin' Doc
Dec 07 2010 08:10 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

soupcan wrote:
Let's Go, 'ba baah, ba ba ba baah...Da na na da na na naaaah'


I'm hitching a ride with the Captain. Crank the stereo and Lets Go.

MFS62
Dec 07 2010 10:01 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Edgy DC wrote:
For all I know, Rick Ocasek is a prince of a guy, but he strikes me as one of the most underminingly dicky frontmen this side of Mike Love.

I sat in the row in front of Ric on a long plane ride, back in the day when Ric was at the top of his game. Dicky doesn't begin to describe his behavior to his fellow passengers and the flight attendants.

Later

Edgy DC
Dec 08 2010 07:54 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

More Cartalk NOW!!!!

TransMonk
Dec 08 2010 07:58 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 09 2010 11:25 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

More Cartalk NOW!!!!


I'm listening to the girl-less covered PANORAMA album now, and I'd like to say that the guitar solo(s) in "Touch and Go" (Ocasek vocals) are really, really great. Outstanding. Definitely a strange album of theirs but that's a neat single, little raggae feel to it in a new wave-y way.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V7lTFzdSn0
solo starts at 2:15, then comes back in small bites later.

When Panorama came out the first single I heard was 'Gimmee Some Slack' which has a nice energy to it but sort of is the same 30 seconds 7 times and I wasn't much open to it after that.

Finally, I realize now that Panorama's "Don't Tell Me No" belongs on the Orr-gasm lists, even if it's not a likely winner. I like it when you tell me so.

That said, we're still all tied up! Someone cast a winning vote!

Also, "You Wear Those Eyes" from the "field" selection is really a duet with both singers, prolly more Ric than Ben, but we'll let it go.

Edgy DC
Dec 10 2010 07:26 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

You hear them do "Every Day" and you wish they could've done three duets every album like the Beatles.

It's strange, but the ability to pass the vocals around was certainly a strength for a band like the Beatles but labels always resisted it, wanting an identifiable face to build the marketing around, and they totally swore off it come the video era, really hurting bands like the the Cars and the Bangles.

Basically, what the industry seems to have always preferred iis the No Doubt model, that every act be a band until they broke through, and then they would break up and the label could keep the lead singer as a solo act.

Orr needs more... VOTES.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 10 2010 07:42 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Ocasek got 99.9% of the Cars' songwriting credits, with Hawkes getting partial credit on a few, though each of them contributed something as musicians.

I haven't ever given Ocasek's solo work a good listening but I can't imagine it's any more distinguished than Orr's 'Too Hot' or probably, this peice from Elliott Easton's solo album, which sounds a little like a Marshall Crenshaw 50s-inspired pop song.

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZD9DQ5HmOg

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 12 2010 05:11 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

We need a tiebreaker... NOW!!!!

cooby
Dec 12 2010 05:35 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Drive

Edgy DC
Dec 12 2010 06:02 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

I tell you, though, his solo music waivers between passable and desperate. A real chore to wade through, and not just because of the clothing selections.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Apr 08 2011 08:08 AM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Not for nothing but this poll still requires a tiebreraker vote.

Meantime, here's a Cars song I've never heard. It was the flip side of "Gimmee Some Slack," the first single off Panorama, but never appeared on the album, Ben also singing.

"You feel like trash but you look so clean."

[youtube:2fi9gr18]SXC_-GO9wIQ[/youtube:2fi9gr18]

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Apr 08 2011 07:48 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

Tixx for May tour went on sale today, got some.

Edgy DC
Apr 08 2011 09:25 PM
Re: Desert Island Orr-gasm!

The instumentals sound like the Go-Gos with a better. Then the vocal start and it's Devo, llike "Big Mess" or something. I see why it ended up on a B-side, as it sounds pretty derivative today.

I always the thought David Robinson was the weak link --- functional, but he was sort of the only guy not moving them forward. As he was left out of the New Cars, I'm kind of surprised that he ended up in the reunion.

Part of me thinks they might also have gotten an out-of-work contemporary singing bassist for the retunion, like the Scottish guy from APB or the guy from Mr. Mister or somebody, but that would have been Mr. Silly.