Benjamin Orr of the Cars was born on this date.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

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[JohnnyRingo]

1. Cleveland boy I believe.

I got to see them when they opened for Dire Straits at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls.
I'm grateful I had the opportunity during their prime. It was magic.

RIP Benjamin.

[displacedvermoter]

2. God they had that sound down....

[CentralMass]

3. I saw them play in 1979 at the Yale Bowl.

They were there with the Beach Boys and Eddie Money

[highplainsdem]

4. Great singer. Two of my favorites from the Cars: Just What I Needed & Drive

[ProfessorGAC]

5. The Solo On The 1st Song You Posted...

...was required learning for every guitar student I ever had.
Used to do that song. In one band, I played both the synth & guitar solos.
Was fun to sing, too. I didn't deviate too much from how Ben sang it, because he pretty much nailed the delivery.

[highplainsdem]

8. It is a perfect song for your band to have covered. By any chance do you have video of that?

[ProfessorGAC]

11. No

That was the band before the one that lasted forever. Even if there was video it would be grainy VHS with crummy audio.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Gone Too Soon

Pancreatic cancer. Rotten way to go. Only 53.
We did the song you posted, back to back with You're All I've Got Tonight coming first.
That was an awesome debut album.

[highplainsdem]

9. Yes. Much too soon. I lost a friend to pancreatic cancer several years ago. She was about to retire,

had been dreaming of getting an RV for traveling all over the country, when she got the diagnosis.

I agree about the Cars' debut album being awesome.

[keep_left]

7. Orr also made a solo record at about the same time as the Cars...

...were falling apart. He worked with Larry Klein, who has produced just about everyone, including Joni Mitchell (former wife) and the Innocence Mission's first two records (fantastic!). Orr's 1986 solo release The Lace had a couple of singles; probably the best-known is "Stay the Night", which peaked at #2 on the AC chart.

As others have mentioned here, Orr left us much too soon. "Drive" was always a favorite of mine, sounding a lot more like a track off Roxy Music's Avalon than a Cars record.

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[highplainsdem]

10. Thanks! A couple of threads from last summer have videos of his music before and long after the Cars:

Early records: https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034103572

And the replies in this thread - https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034103533 - include videos from 1999 & 2000 of Orr with Big People in reply 4, and an 18-minute tribute video with clips from family and friends in reply 5.

[keep_left]

12. Thanks much for the links!