Used Cars – Drive on Ric Ocasek

I was saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Ric Ocasek. I handle these kinds of passings a lot better than I used to, but somehow this one got under my skin more than I thought it would.
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I remember very well when the !rst album by The Cars came out. I was 16 years old. It was highly successful, and of course, I bought it immediately. The album had a fresh and clean sound that was unlike a lot of what you heard on the radio. Being a huge Queen fan, I was also excited that Roy Thomas Baker had produced it.

I liked The Cars a lot, but when their second album “Candy-O” came out in 1979 I was in love with them and totally hooked. I wore that 8-track out. I still have memories of my first summer out of high school, laying by the pool with my girlfriend and listening to it over and over. And it was a staple in my car stereo from 8-Track to cassette to CD. I remained a big fan and followed them until they disbanded. Last year I purchased all of the reissues on colored vinyl, and The Cars got a LOT of new spins on my turntable. It felt good to give their music a lot of attention again.

Ric reminded me of Joey Ramone. If you had met them both before their success, and basing them only on the physical appearance you would have thought they would have been the last people in the world to become rock stars. But they were both brilliant, quirky songwriters who gave us some of the timeless rock and roll and pop music of their generation. Damn, where does the time go? To quote the late great Eddie Money, “I wanna go back...and do it all over.”
JEFF