“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
- Ric Ocasek
Museum directors
With high shaking heads
They kick white shadows
Until they play dead
Do you find those lyrics interesting? I always have (except I would have said “wet” shadows instead of “white”). They are from the song Dangerous Type, written by Ric Ocasek of the group, the Cars, one of the most inventive and important rock bands in history. From their self-titled debut album in 1978 through 1984, The Cars were a magic act. Everything they put out was intriguing, infectious and wildly popular. Ocasek wrote all the lyrics and music for the band. He was a “new wave eccentric," an odd and interesting cat (he passed away in 2019) who left his quirky fingerprints on modern music.
I have never read how Ocasek went about writing his lyrics. I do know that he was a big fan of Beat Poets, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William S. Burroughs and he liked the idea of “throwing around words like you're painting.” For me, Ocasek wrote so many intriguing and fascinating words and verses that have stayed with me for forty-plus years. Countless ones roll around in my head and show up at random times in life out of nowhere. Geranium lover, I'm live on your wire - They're like modernist paintings, open to endless interpretation, set to entrancing pop melodies.
Of course, lyrics need not be avant-garde or cryptic to be good or interesting and most aren't. It's one approach, though, and and Ric Ocasek was the master. Here's a handful:
I dream frequently, sometimes they come out funny
I live with absurdity, it's always warm and runny
All these parties they get so ritual
Lonely hearts and aces
Always pushin', always pullin', always in the races
I get cooled out
I get the come ons
I get rumbled
I get crumbled
I'm the American misfit kid
Still wonderin' what I did
I'm on the inside, takin' a fast ride
- Misfit Kid
He's just a hit parader
She's just a cycle ride
He likes to masquerader
When she tells him lies
- Lust For Kicks
Big city noise disappears
Sucker punch is in your heart
Light is reason light is due
My shape is shapeless in your suit
- Cruiser
I can't feel this way much longer
Expecting to survive
With all these hidden innuendos
Just waiting to arrive
It's such a wavy midnight
When you slip into insane
Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you're playin'
It's an orangy sky
Always it's some other guy
It's just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love