Quote:
Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
Earlier in this thread I posted my favorite Cars songs ( http://www.musicbanter.com/rock-meta...ml#post1103682 ), but I haven't commented yet on Benjamin Orr.
He was definitely one handsome man, I feel.
When I got my first Cars cassette in the '80s, I didn't really notice or know how they all looked. I think there was just a drawing on the front of the cassette and no picture of the band. I was inspired by the music alone, which sounded hot and risqué. 
Then last year when I saw Benjamin Orr in videos, similar to this excellent video below of their 1978 performance of "Just What I Needed," I realized to my surprise that...he was lovely.
I also had to laugh because I noticed that the keyboard player looks like a slender little 15-year-old boy, and I remembered reading wisdom's hypothesis that keyboard players tend not to be very manly. Based on this one band, that hypothesis would be proven, in my opinion. 
The Cars - Just What I Needed - The Midnight Special 1978
I love the "chuck, chuck, chuck" of the rhythm guitar complemented by Ben's warm singing. |
He sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2000 and sure Greg Hawkes was always one of the geekiest keyboard players ever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
Have you heard Ben's one and only solo album? What a shame he never got to record more. RIP Ben...  |
I think that's a poor album as he doesn't have Ric Ocasek writing for him, its basically just a tame AOR album and Ben's vocals are wasted on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Holerbot6000
I think Panorama was their best album. It was a slow decline into commercial irrelevance after that.
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Their most risque album and also their darkest and most negative, they never tried anything like that again, despite always having some dark or negative songs on their other albums. It was a big seller despite not being very commercial.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
Yeah, those are my two favorites by them as well. There are really no bad tracks on either one of them.
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A superb pair, Candy O not quite as good as the debut but you could easily listen to both albums together and think it was just one album.