Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Maybe "shockingly old" is a bit of a stretch, but I had no idea until today that artist Ken Kelly, of Conan and Tarzan and metal album cover fame, is the nephew of artist Frank Franzetta.

I mean I must've heard 'Major Tom (Coming Home)' dozens of times in my life but I'm somehow only just now hearing the accent and discovering that Peter Schilling is German.

there's a German-language version, worth checking out if you only know the English one! i would suggest we poll it against the German versions of "99 Red Balloons" and "Der Kommissar," but i'm pretty sure Nena would take it in a walk (even if Falco has the best video).

Cool, will check out! This grave oversight is all the more inexcusable because I'm at least passingly familiar with Neue Deutsche Welle in general. It really should've come to my attention sooner.

Doc, that is an interesting idea but I would be physically unable to rank those three. All three are essential.

Due to only slight interest in the band via classic rock radio I didn't realize that Benjamin Orr sang lots of the Cars' hits. I always assumed it was just Ric Ocasek, the only guy in the band I could recognize by sight. Relatedly, I discovered extremely late what a major fox Orr was.

I think this is a pretty common one because Ocasek was so visible in the MTV era and there's some similarity in their voices.

Okay, I knew about 'Drive' but didn't know he was also lead vocalist 'Just What I Needed' and 'Let's Go' as well. So count me among the shockingly old.

that's not ric ocasek on just what i needed??? 🤯

Wowza:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsPh-EgH65M

Also Moving In Stereo and Candy-O

Yeah, I started to wonder about those two, as well, given the similarity of pronunciation. 'let's gao' and 'moving in stere-ao' and 'Candy-ao'. Orr, you sneaky sonofagun.

The easiest way to tell Ocasek's vocals from Orr's on any given Cars song is to ask yourself "do I want to add 'garsh!' to the end of this vocal line?"

If the answer is yes, it's an Ocasek vocal

Orr's voice is chesty and Ocasek's is throaty. Same range though, and since they're Rik's melodies, that adds to the similarity.

Excellent topic

Orr's an overlooked giant, 'tis true.

Of course if you'd watched the video back in the day, you'd know both that Ocasek was not singing lead AND that Orr was a lovely man and a fine musician

(of "Drive" I mean, but it goes for some of the others as well)

and DJP's diagnostic test is A+

idgi

Ric Ocasek sounds like Goofy when he sings

have always had a hard time telling orr and ocasek apart, but i've known there were two vocalists for some time.

xp ooh lol

Add "Just What I Needed" starting like "Yummy Yummy Yummy" to the roll call.

in late high school and college my friends and I ended up using 'ben orr' as a verb for crashing overnight at someone's house due to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ySLmwsfP4Q

DJP goofygawsh vocal criterion is utterly otm & hilarious I find on reviewing a few tracks!

Ric Ocasek sounds like Goofy when he sings

― Totino's Fortnite Training Room (DJP), Friday, January 8, 2021 11:54 AM bookmarkflaglink

Oh gawd, I won't be able to listen to "You Might Think" the same way again.

Hee-yuk, you might think it's hishterical!

I was today years old when I learned that "Ric Ocasek sounds like Goofy when he sings" wasn't a universal truism

Well I only just recently figured out that Rob Thomas sings like Mr. Ed so I'm incredibly slow on the 'anthropomorphized animals as inspiration of famed singers' uptake.

Rob Thomas sings like he enjoys fucking horses

I see no contraction with my own assertion.

it's 3 pm, you must be lonely

I'm not sure what Goofy sounds like, but after this thread I may have also never heard Ric Ocasek sing

I know what Goofy sounds like but, as Benjamin Orr seems to have sung all the Cars' songs I know, I don't know what Ric Ocasek sounds like either.

would've been a better 'wikipedia factoid' post but it's not on wikipedia

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/roald-dahl-owned-francis-bacon-triptych-could-fetch-56m-at-auction-35479363.html

in short, roald dahl owned several francis bacon paintings, at least this tryptic and one of freud (and they went for $51.7M in the end)

I have only just this minute realised that Wilford Brimley is called Wilford and not Wilfred. Wilford not being a name you ever see in the UK is my excuse for this cognitive mishap.

tbf it's not a name you ever see in the USA either, apart from references to Wilford Brimley

That Kate Pierson of the B52s is 72 (shockingly old, I guess)

Maybe doesn't quite fit itt (inasmuch as it's pretty random trivia and I don't know that it was particularly publicized at the time) but Peter Billingsley was onsite when the Challenger exploded.

...with his BB gun

rip

He said "fudge" when it exploded

meaning of the term Upper decker. yuk

Due to only slight interest in the band via classic rock radio I didn't realize that Benjamin Orr sang lots of the Cars' hits. I always assumed it was just Ric Ocasek, the only guy in the band I could recognize by sight. Relatedly, I discovered extremely late what a major fox Orr was.

This was me but with The Beautiful South. Only recently learned they had a male singer other than Paul Heaton. No opinion on his vulpinity.

xpost Many years back my wife and I were at the movies, and while I can't remember what movie it was, beforehand was the trailer for "MacGruber," which had a fleeting "upper decker" joke in which I think he defines it, and my wife cracked up so much, for several hysterical minutes, that she almost had to leave the theater.

Heaton brought the second drummer from the Housemartins over to the South just for his voice, but wrote fewer and fewer songs for him as the band went on. A Little Time is a big single that the other bloke is male lead on, off the top of my head.

Stanley Burrell was an 11-year-old batboy with the Oakland A's in the early '70s.

Reggie Jackson thought the kid looked so much like Hank Aaron that he started calling him "Hammer" and that's where MC Hammer got his name. pic.twitter.com/ShCxY3Hnc1

— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) January 22, 2021

great story

Mind blown

proper

I've just realised the correct phrase is "whet your appetite" and how did that just occur to me?