The Cars have stood the test of time -- they are CLASSIC ROCK now! As a 41 year old wife and mom, I still drive around with music blaring out my open windows. Nothing like a little "Candy-O" to jump start the Route 93/Woburn commute. Other drivers give a thumbs up -- for those that don't like ... too bad.
@@JMAC-rs6eyBen and Ric formed the Cars together and were co-lead singers. During the last few years, Ric became more controlling and pushed Ben out of the limelight, out of co-lead singing.
They were such an awesome band . My first album when I was a teen ,wore it out I played it so much 😆. Such fun songs to listen to . RIP Ric & Ben thanks for all the great music 🎵
It's such a shame Benjamin was taken too soon. I heard about his passing on the radio driving to work. I just wish I knew about his solo band and when he was with Big People. We didn't have social media so I had no idea when or where they played unless I heard it on the radio. I wish his son would do something on behalf of him. ❤️❤️❤️
i live in lakewood ohi0 where ben orr was born...i moved here a while ago and i just so happen to be a bass player..Drive is a song that really tears at my heart..i know it was writen about the end of a relationship..but i always saw it as some one who is not well"thinking nothings wrong" whos going to take care of them if they dont take care of themselves..RIP ben orr..this 2009 i hope to pay some tribute to ben orr right here in lakewood D
Ric definitely is the talent of the band with his songwriting but Bens voice is the better of the two and gave an edge to the cars hits. For me his voice was the Cars.
@@pawnhearts8785Excellent analogy. The body can’t function well without each part working in rhythm. That’s what made this group really special. Miss them!
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Benjamin speaks maybe 3 times. Hard to tell with different recordings (each with different EQ) on Ric. Benjamin's all sound the same, EQ-wise. Bassist & principal singer, here; also keys, acoustic & electric 6-string, percussion, recorders, & synth bass. I've done a number of The Cars' songs. But I never saw them. We lived in N Hollywood, CA, in the '80s. No MTV in the Valley because of cable company wars. Never saw an album, except Ric's solo one, which came out of Warner Records shipping (WEA); most of my band worked for Warners'. So I just saw Benjamin Orr for the first time last week. Major mind-scramble. My hair was never blonde back then, & it was longer. He was pop; I'm rock. But geez -- it's like looking at myself. Held his bass like me & at same height. Used a pick. Anchored right hand with little finger. Same stance, same mic technique, same facial expressions, same body movements. Wore a lot of the same clothes, only I wouldn't go onstage with anything sleeveless. My arms were too skinny! The vest/tie thing amazes me. Stills are shocking. But the vids are overwhelming. How did I miss this all these years? I did "Midnight Special," too, & The Cars did just what we did: they filmed on an empty soundstage. Audience was "dubbed" in later. So they don't bow. There was nobody there but crew, & it was probably 8 in the morning. "Midnight Special" is the only time I have ever in my life performed without bowing. Benjamin Orr. I had no idea. And I don't want to think about how many bass players I know who've had pancreatic cancer or other problems, including me.
Me, watching this: "is that Ric or Ben talking...definitely Ben. Nope, that's Ric. Okay, NOW I think Ben is ta- nope. Still Ric." No offense to Ric tho
"You Might Think" was definitely one of the most famous songs and had probably the most famous music video from 1984. There was only Ric there and he was knows pretty good by people. I actually thought for a really long time that Ric Ocasek sang all the song of The Cars. I didn't know Ben and I listened only to "Heartbeat City" at the time :) Some time later I found "It's Not The Night" live video and was amazed how two perfectly two of them look together, not to mention the rest of The CARS! ;)
Seeing all these classic artists being glorified with holographic tours, wouldn't it be cool for the Cars to try it if they perform for their Hall of Fame induction? Their performance at Live Aid is criminally overlooked...
Do you really think that Ric's relaxed attitude about who got to sing which song (Ben or him) is really how it was? I hear and read too much about a kind of competition over lead vocals. Interesting.. I do think Ric's comment over Ben's ability on the song "Drive" where Ric says, "I couldn't sing that great." All is forgiven now :)
I don't think it was that relaxed. If it was Ben's lead vocal numbers wouldn't have kept shrinking(which dropped steadily from 4 1/2 on Candy-O to 2 1/2 on Heartbeat City). By the time of HBC, most people didn't even know Ben sang, despite the fact that on the first two albums he sang some of their best known songs(on the first album not just the single that "broke them", Just What I Needed, but even though not released as singles Bye Bye Love, Moving in Stereo and All Mixed up got major FM radio play). Someone who doesn't really care or is laid back about it doesn't mind if the guy with the better voice actually sings more songs and doesn't mind if the guy with the better voice gets enough attention so that people know he sings. I do think Ric genuinely liked Ben's voice, I also think he was too jealous to allow Ben to get any real attention and acclaim for it.
Most of the Cars' songs are about women and/or sex. BTW, Paulina admitted in an interview a long time ago that as a young girl she had a fantasy of seducing Mr. Spock! Seriously.
1:10 Ahhh... Nice to see this picture in Brussels, with the famous Atomium on the background. For those who don't know it, it was the symbol of the World Fair in 1958, and represents an iron molecule. It still exists, and attracts lots of visitors. There is a restaurant in the highest "atom". Today, that ball is named after the architect, André Waterkeyn. The structure is 102 m high.
This interview is of Ric only. Even though it's stated above that it's a interview with both Ben and Ric. To my ears it's just Ric taken from various interviews. Ben, I think didn't do too many interviews. He was quiet and didn't like the limelight too much.
Let me break it down.. .the cars are a success because off all the pieces working together. Both Ric and Ben are great singers. On one side of the coin, Ric writes all the songs, as well as sings...on the flip side - Ben is also a great singer, but he engages the crowd more. Ben is a better showman over-all. I believe that in both of their solo careers, they were both 1 hit wonders....The Cars with either singer, is a really good band - The Cars with both singers - a super group.....Remember one thing - their only number 1 hit - was Drive. I too did not know who sang what until MTV came out
I didn't think it was too difficult to tell who sang what songs. Ocasek sang like he wasn't going to exhale, more nasal. Ben had a deeper voice. My friends and I liked the way Ocasek sang the way he delivered the lyrics always cracked us up. We'd go around imitating him. It was usually the less popular songs. Gimme Some Slack, Misfit Kid, Lust For Kicks, Up and Down. He had the shades, he was cool.
Rics comment, was he bisexual? Paulina mentioned in her book she found out something about him after he died but it was his secret to tell and she doesn't divulge secrets.
Yeah, Ric was saying how 'he really understood women and could tell them how they were being taken advantage of.' Really Ric? Didn't you walk out on two wives and four sons? And didn't you leave your second wife for an eighteen year old model? Please! Totally in denial....
I'm sure he told 18 year old Paulina all about how she was being taken advantage(her dad abandoned the family after she was finally allowed to join her parents in Sweden after a 7 year custody battle between communist Czechoslavakia and her defector parents). You know she had daddy issues I'm sure 40 year old Ric didn't take advantage of at all. :/
your right. i went back and listened to it again and that is Ben talking about Boston and England. i think thats the only time he does speak though. both Ben and Ric have low soft voices. Ben had the better singing voice i think and boy did he have the looks over Ric too!
@@sherryjohnson2152 I dont think they were competitive as much as people cursed them that way ....GOD SAYS COMPARING THEMSELVES AMONGST THEM SELVES IS UNWISE, LETS IN JEALOUS demons that kill steal and destroy...just saying it ....
it says, interview with Ben Orr and Ric Ocasek, but i dont think Ben was even there. I read he hated doing interviews but, i think if he were at this one the person doing the interview would have at least asked Ben one question.
"Oh, so Ric was secretly gay?" Nah. Ask Paulina. In all seriousness, sexuality isn't black and white, it's a spectrum. That's why we use rainbows as a metaphor.
Benjamin was on in the beginning and the middle the beginning he was the cat saying it took him no time to adjust to stardom well 15 minutes , the tongue in cheek joke.. and i only know his from watching another interview after Ben passes, L( and rick talks about how uncomfortable he was with all of that.. which for someone that was his ugly ass had to be front and center in all the group shots , when you got beautiful Benjamin
+dawn fillinger The Cars tried all sorts of poses, but the ones photographers and publishers wanted were with Ric in the center. It makes artistic and intellectual sense. First of all, he's practically a foot taller than everyone else. He's going to stand out no matter what. Secondly, it's his band. You can have your favorites; I personally like Elliot Easton a lot, but the fact remains, the Cars were a band that played Ric Ocasek songs and nothing else. I'm sure they always understood that from the start. And Ric did sing most of the hit singles. That's just how it is. A band needs a leader. Benjamin Orr was not the leader.
I love Ric, I love Ben but, I don't get all this vocal discussion talk. Let's talk guitars. Elliott played the guitars, Ric played the "clickies." Ric's word. Elliott was heartbroken when they heard his take on Touch n Go and basically went, meh. Then they made him do it again and loved it. Elliott said it was basically the same.
How could he possibly have taken more credit? I mean the rest of the band was virtually invisible and nameless. People thought Drive was the only song Benjamin had ever sung because the Ric First PR had been so successful at burying the fact.
@@GizziesGirl2 Mm-hm; and still people are just discovering it was Ben who sang DRIVE. Honestly! I don't understand this unearned deference to RO. A complimentary comment to Ben can't pass unsullied by someone with a Ric hero worship. In most respects that's all Benjamin has!
Gareth Leitner Ric's "a modest guy"? Are we talking about the same person? And he "could have taken more credit than he did"? I don't think that was possible.
@@moodylicious Yeah it annoys me. I said it to someone on another video recently - RO made sure he got nearly all the kudos and attention while he was alive, don't begrudge fans of the other members, whether it's Ben or Greg or any of them, to praise them now when their names are barely even known except to those fans.
LOL maybe that's one way to tell when Ric speaking and when Ben is speaking. If he isn't saying "you know" every 10 seconds, it might be Ben. :D (At least I don't think Ben says it every 10 seconds, I haven't really heard enough of him speaking in interviews to know, he didn't do in the Live Aid interview with Martha Quinn or the interview with Mark Goodman for his solo album.)
I love the cars , but who ever said Ric writes most of the hits and that Ben sings most of the hits is an idiot. RIC wrote all the songs on every record , but hawks gets credit on like 2 songs in their entire history . Ric sings: let the good times roll,shake it up, touch and go,magic,you might think,tonight she comes. The singing of the hits is kinda equal.
Randy Jones I've done the boring math. Ric sings most of the hits by a significant amount. But the people who really want to establish Ben-Orr-superiority will resort to "Well, Ben sang most of the _fan favorites"_ or just "the _best_ songs." You know, move the goalposts, and you can win anything. It's best not to argue with the Ben Orr devotees. They don't love Side Two of the first album any more than I do, but there's something drastically wrong with them, because there was never a Cars War. They're not Pink Floyd.
rhythmic slapper if im not mistaken the song that got the the record deal was "just what I needed" that was sung by Benjamin . Don't try to diminish his work is not his fault he was talented and a babe. Ric is amazing too writing the songs and singing too.
Danni Lomuscio It's all Ric Ocasek c , he wrote practically every song . Benjamin Orr was a good vocalist but Benjamin never wrote any music for the cars . It's 100 percent Ric Ocasek
interesting.... I wonder; had Ben used EE, Greg, and David as his band for a solo effort, would his solo flight been on par with Ric, who DID coincidentally wind up with The Cars as his back-up band?
