Talk:Ric Ocasek/Archive 1

Saturday Night Live appearance
Does his walking off the show during filming because he got tired of people making jokes about his name qualify for inclusion or not? Badbilltucker 19:42, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it's notable enough for a mention.--Twintone 19:43, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

The Killers?
I can find no mention of Ric having been involved with any of The Killers' music. The only mention of any relation at all between them is an interview where the Killers' frontman mentions The Cars as having been a huge influence on his music. None of their albums mention Ric as having produced any of their work. I suspect that they are mentioned in error. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.84.39.125 (talk) 12:49, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Fangoria?
"Ocasek was also an editor and major contributor to the magazine Fangoria, a cult horror b-movie fanzine." This is vandalism. The Cars were releasing records well before Fangoria first appeared in 1979, so if Ocasek was editimg or even contributing to the magazine, there'd be some documentation of it somewhere.

There is none. Bustter (talk) 22:20, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I tried to track it back to the original vandal and found that until a few mnths ago the name of the magazine was "fantagoria" which does not even exist. Someone "corrected" the spelling without verifyingBustter (talk) 22:39, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

What happened to this article? "RICK and the Rabbits"? Really? Seriously? When did THIS happen?
It predates Wikipedia, predates the Internet as we know it today: Cars fanatics who read books like Frozen Fire or just about any old "rock encyclopedia", as used to be published frequently. . . It was Richard and the Rabbits, a name suggested by Jonathan Richman. Not "Rick and the Rabbits".

If I understand correctly, on the Milkwood album credits he went by "Richard Otcasek", and never "Rick" with a k.

The Wikipedia article for The Cars already reads "After Milkwood, Ocasek and Orr formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, whose name was suggested by Jonathan Richman."

So, I'm putting that in here.

At the moment, the only online source I've found is a LinkedIn page for. . . Oh, what was that guy's name. . . You know who I'm-- GREG HAWKES. Greg Hawkes lists his tenure in Richard and the Rabbits on his LinkedIn Page.

I suppose somebody's going to tell me that isn't really Greg's LinkedIn page, but for the moment, I'm going to believe in it, use it, and change the article.

Changing it to "Rick", in the first place, was the sort of thing that required a source, and a word or two here explaining it. --50.11.49.92 (talk) 02:58, 29 November 2012 (UTC) Sorry, this was me. --Ben Culture (talk) 03:07, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Sexuality
All references to Ric Ocasek as a bisexual man have been purged from the article by one user (I see no discussion of it on this Talk page), who said in his edit summary, (ric ocasek has never publicly said to any news organization or anybody else that he is bisexual. nndb.com is a gossip site and not to be trusted as actual facts.) First of all, even publications like TIME and Entertainment Weekly have their utterly-untrustworthy moments. See here and here. I'm no stranger to seeing journalists put words in people's mouths and extract factoids from them. And that makes me angry.

However, it looks to me like this nndb.com is getting its facts right, and trying to reassure its readers of it. They DO have a quotation and a source, you know. The article's only footnote reads: [1] Profile '86 radio interview, broadcast 1986 on NBC Radio: "I like beautiful women. Tall, thin, beautiful women. Fat little ugly women. I like all kinds of women. I'm always attracted to the opposite sex. I'm attracted to both sexes, actually. But not only beautiful men -- I think I like weird men."

I don't know about anyone else, but I am inclined to believe that. Why make up a quotation out of whole cloth? And an actual source? And HOW were they able to make one up that sounds just like something Ric Ocasek WOULD say? At some point, you have to ask yourself, what's more believable: That nndb.com would make up such a thing, in SUCH a perfunctory, NON-malicious tone, and cite a false source -- OR that a beautiful-weirdo poet/artist/rock star who has incredible wealth and fame would fuck around with a few guys for the sheer hell of it?

I mean, if it's good enough for John Lennon (OH! I'm sorry, you didn't know?) it's surely good enough for Ric. Actually, I should probably have said "Lou Reed" instead of "John Lennon", who allegedly only had the gay sex once (yes, of course it was with Brian Epstein), whereas Reed spent whole years living with a transgender, and declared himself "a gay man head to foot" (right up until he married Sylvia, and the two of them attempted to sanitize his sexual history). It's certaintly a known fact that Ocasek's a Velvet Underground/Lou Reed fan. Anyway.

I think they're telling the truth. They're quoting a radio show. I'm going to look into this, and if I find what I think I'll find, the article will be changing again.

For those who feel Ric has been "accused" of something, has been "insulted" -- you need to look at yourself and work on your perhaps-unconscious-and-unintended bigotry. --Ben Culture (talk) 03:50, 29 November 2012 (UTC)


 * It's doubtful that this would be accepted as a reputable source, but I've actually found the interview where he says this quote on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci7z6_auVQA. NNDB's quote is correct except for the end - he seems to say "I don't like beautiful men, I think I like weird men." But apart from that, it's good. Does it count for anything if it's an interview on YouTube? Slightly  Mad wanna si-ign? 01:46, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

BOOK
Ric Ocasek has put out a book titled Lyrics and Prose. I don't know where or how to put this information into the article. Perhaps there was a press release or something?

--Ben Culture (talk) 15:22, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

Polish/Czech descent?
I understand that there has been some confusion recently, especially with a number of edits, about Ric's heritage. The article currently lists his father as being of Polish descent, when in fact, Ocasek is of Czech origins. Here are a number of sources which point to this being true:

1. -- "On the set of Drive she met Ric Ocasek, also of Czech orgin."

2. -- "Race or Ethnicity: Czech"

3. -- "Ric Ocasek (born Richard T Otcasek on March 23, 1949) is an American of Czech heritage, musician, and music producer."

I believe these sources should serve as sufficient evidence. The source currently cited (People Magazine, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20074338,00.html While Much of the New Wave Goes Dry, Studio Whiz Ric Ocasek Has His Band, the Cars, Running on Full) could have easily simply made a mistake when researching him. In any case, I believe the repeated attempts to clarify this were not acts of vandalism or ethnically motivated, but rather repeated attempts to correct an error and going about it using the wrong methods. Hopefully, this will serve to finally resolve the issue. 67.244.15.134 (talk) 03:49, 26 September 2013 (UTC)
 * None of those look like particularly reliable sources. Infact the 2nd reference simply got its data from Wikipedia, and the 3rd reference simply pulls from Wikipedia and another wikipedia-like edited database. Either way, the reference doesn't say that Ric's father is of Polish descent, it says he was Polish born.  He can be both Polish-born and be of Czech descent.  The two are not mutually exclusive. Centerone (talk) 04:47, 26 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Since there are conflicting sources on this subject, perhaps it would be better to just remove any reference to ethnicity for now. Ethnicity doesn't seem to be particularly pertinent to Ocasek's career as a recording artist, for which he is notable, anyway. The lead section also contains other inconsequential information about schools attended which could be disposed of or moved a biography section of the article.


 * If ethnicity were to be mentioned in the body of the article, there is a better source than People magazine. In a Rolling Stone article by Jon Pareles dated January 25, 1979 it states "Ocasek was born into a Polish Catholic family in Baltimore, the son of a computer systems analyst, and attended a parochial elementary school." People is also partly inaccurate in stating Ocasek's father was "Polish-born" because it appears his father was born in the United States. Piriczki (talk) 13:35, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
 * If you have the title of the Parales article, you should add it as a reference. Let me repeat Centerone's point from above: What people are failing to take into account here is that our article does not claim that Ocasek is of Polish ethnicity, merely that is father was born in Poland. Since there are ethnic Czechs in Poland, it is not impossible for both claims -- that Ocasek is of Czech ethnicity and that his father was born in Poiland -- to be correct.  The problem is, of course, that we only have citations from reliable sources for the one claim.  (The sources listed above are not reliable.)  To add the claim of Czech ethnicity to the article, all that is needed is a citation from a reliable source. Beyond My Ken (talk) 16:53, 23 October 2013 (UTC)


 * If the only purpose is to say that his father was born in Poland without indicating any particular ethnicity, the passage seems even more pointless. Plus, many readers could easily infer that "Polish-born" means he was Polish. The larger problem is that the statement is inaccurate. A little genealogy search shows that Ocasek's father was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on January 16, 1921. Going further back the history is a little muddled but it does indicate Czech heritage on his father's side and nothing pointing to Polish or anyone living in Poland (on his father's side). This article appears to say he's half czech but without the full preview I wouldn't be certain about citing it. The open question then is heritage on his mother's side.


 * Obviously this is original research and can't go in the article but it should be enough to remove the inaccurate People magazine statement. Piriczki (talk) 12:11, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Sure. Beyond My Ken (talk) 15:03, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Can you provide the references to the genealogy research you did? Someone previously mentioned the census.. but then mentioned a census that didn't exist! And when I did look up the census that might have applied I did not find conclusive evidence to support their claim. Centerone (talk) 18:25, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

How Tall Is He?
In several videos, he appears to dwarf the other members of the band. Please add to the bio sidebar his height. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.1.137.242 (talk) 06:22, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

This link says he is 6' 4" http://celebriot.com/ric-ocasek-weight-height-ethnicity-hair-color-net-worth — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.1.137.242 (talk) 06:25, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Ric Ocasek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070125100636/http://music.aol.com/artist/ric-ocasek/5058/main to http://music.aol.com/artist/ric-ocasek/5058/main

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 22:27, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Friendship Ocasek-Orr alluded to in "Mindhunter"?
Given this friendship between Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, mentioned in the article, is it a pure coincidence that in Episode 4 of TV series "Mindhunter" there is a local police officer Mark Ocasek befriended with a suspect called Benjamin "Benji" Barnwright? Just asking myself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.192.222.127 (talk) 09:47, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

Jewish?
For some reason I was under the impression Ocasek was Jewish, and if you Google he is listed as such on a few websites (albeit mostly Nazi ones). Was I conflating him with Geddy Lee or is there legit basis behind this idea? Rqe1 (talk) 16:59, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

Pronunciation of his last name
Here is a YouTube video of the bandmembers of The Cars introducing themselves. Can someone familiar with IPA add a pronunciation note to the main page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lambdacalculator (talk • contribs) 19:34, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Done. But someone just reverted my edit without stating a reason. Aikclaes (talk) 14:37, 17 April 2017 (UTC)