Why Ric Ocasek is a genius

Maybe it's the fact that The Cars peaked at a time in the early to mid-80's when pop music seemed to be at its most disposable. Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that they made silly videos that aired incessantly on MTV, and the band (leader Ric Ocasek especially) looked so damn goofy. For whatever reason, The Cars are often tossed in with the flash in the pan group of 80's pop bands that are rarely taken seriously. But I am here to declare that Ric Ocasek is a genius of pop music. As sure as Beethoven proved to be the master of symphonies with his 5th and 9th, Ocasek is the master of the 3-4 minute pop single.

I’ve tried to spread the gospel of The Cars for decades, but I still get hit anew by some killer riff or great line. The whole band was outstanding, but The Cars were always Ric Ocasek’s band. He wrote all of the songs and sang many of them as well. While bassist Ben Orr would take vocal duties on some of Ocasek’s more straightforward ballads (“Drive”) or rockers, Ric always reserved his more biting and wonderfully cynical tunes for himself to sing in his idiosyncratic voice. (I dig his voice on most anything – I recently downloaded his version of Disney’s “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da” off of some Disney tribute album that he turns into a Cars-like rocker).

A tight Cars Greatest Hits disc is about as tight as a single disc can get, but not surprisingly I’ve really enjoyed exploring the more obscure stuff as well. Songs like “Nightspots,” “Candy-O,” “Dangerous Type” and “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” Played in a row, those four deep cuts tackle vapid 80’s club culture beautifully. As much as I admire great lyrics, I always start with the music. Ocasek is a master writer of pop hooks and riffs. A song like “Nightspots” is phenomenal to me, as it is layered with three or four hooks that could have been untangled and used on three or four individual great songs. He can also write fantastic moody numbers, like “Heartbeat City,” “This Side of Paradise” (from one of his solo efforts), “Troublizing” (another solo gem) and especially “Dream Away” from The Cars’ Shake It Up.

The genius of Ric Ocasek is that he is able to write interesting, edgy tunes that are disguised in the most radio friendly hooks you’ve ever heard. Take the Cars hit “Since You’re Gone,” which received decent airplay on the radio and MTV. But if you listen closely, it is a rather off kilter tune, musically. Yet he fools you into grooving to it with the bait and switch of throwing in some irresistible hooks. For more blatant proof that Ric is not as mainstream as you might have remembered, just listen to most of the Cars’ Panorama album (like the title track and the killer “Gimme Some Slack.”) He accomplishes the difficult feat of writing radio friendly tunes by the dozen, yet throws in enough interesting twists to where music snobs can also safely declare their allegiance. The Cars were one of the few New Wave bands that punks could like, while they were also the cool, quirky band in the otherwise dull, average mainstream record collection.

Lately I’ve been hunting down all of Ric Ocasek’s solo efforts (several of which are hard to find and expensive to acquire). Not surprisingly they are much more experimental than The Cars heyday, yet he still manages to bring you in with those hooks.

The perks of being a rock star? Only through popular music could a dude like this…


marry a supermodel who looks like this…


Yes, that is Ric Ocasek’s wife (former 80’s supermodel Paulina Porizkova).