Ric Ocasek - Solo Acoustic- Spinhouse, New York City, 10-14-2005

I already posted the gist of this album back in 2020. But today I'm deleting that and posting this instead because I've changed most of the music. I found a new source that makes up the bulk of it, causing me to change the name as well. Before, the album was only 23 minutes long, but now it's a more respectable 35 minutes (not including the bonus track.)

Ric Ocasek was the main songwriter and lead singer for the Cars, although Ben Orr had a prominent role too. I found some YouTube videos of Ocasek playing songs in the solo acoustic format. This really intrigued me. For one thing, I really enjoy acoustic versions in general (as you've probably noticed if you follow this blog). But while I like how the Cars produced their songs, it was definitely a heavily produced almost "wall of sound" approach. So acoustic versions are a drastic and interesting contrast.

All the performances here are unreleased. All of them were performed in front of audiences. However, there's virtually no banter between songs.

Ocasek very rarely played in the solo acoustic format, so I had to bring together some songs from very different years. The first song is from 1992, the next two are from 1997, and the rest are from 2005. But in my opinion, there's no way to tell, due to the simple solo acoustic format. Plus, Ocasek's voice hardly changed at all. All the 2005 songs (tracks 4 through 10) come from the single performance mentioned in the title.

In 2005, he released his last studio album, "Nexterday." Three of the songs - "Bottom Dollar," "Carousel," and "Crackpot" - are from that. "People We Know" and "Time Bomb" are from his 1997 solo album "Troublizing." The rest are Cars songs.

The bonus track, "Since You're Gone," is a bonus track because it sounds a lot rougher than the rest. It's from an audience bootleg at a club, and you can hear lots of talking and ambient noise all through it. But I thought it was interesting enough to at least merit bonus track status.

01 Just What I Needed (Ric Ocasek)
02 People We Know (Ric Ocasek)
03 Time Bomb (Ric Ocasek)
04 Moving in Stereo (Ric Ocasek)
05 Bottom Dollar (Ric Ocasek)
06 Carousel (Ric Ocasek)
07 Crackpot (Ric Ocasek)
08 I'm Not the One (Ric Ocasek)
09 My Best Friend's Girl (Ric Ocasek)
10 Drive (Ric Ocasek)

Since You're Gone (Ric Ocasek)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15505782/RicOcask_2005_SoloAcoustcSpnhouseNewYrkC__10-14-2005_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo of Ocasek comes from a concert at the CBGB's club in New York City in 2005. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any acoustic music from that performance.