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Let's Go!: Benjamin Orr and the Cars

Joe Milliken (Goodreads Author)

4.22 · Rating details · 32 ratings · 12 reviews

"When Ben got out of the hospital he said, 'When I fall down and can't pick myself up we'll know it's over. Until then, we rock!'" - Jeff Carlisi Benjamin Orr was the co-founder, co-lead singer, and bassist for the platinum-selling rock band The Cars. Often considered the band's heartthrob, Orr possessed an incredible voice, diverse musical talent, and rare stage presence, ...more

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Hardcover, 248 pages

Published November 15th 2018 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (first published November 2018)

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Oct 26, 2018 Valerity (Val) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, biography, entertainment, music, netgalley, non-fiction, to-review, americana

Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars

This was a well-researched book about The Cars and Benjamin Orr, born Orzechowski aka “Benny 11-Letters” because so many of his friends and acquaintances had trouble pronouncing his name. He was almost universally liked as he was making his way in the music business, seemingly a genuinely nice and caring man. Ben was also quite talented when it came to singing and drumming, and learning other musical instruments from what many of his friends had to say in the b Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars

This was a well-researched book about The Cars and Benjamin Orr, born Orzechowski aka “Benny 11-Letters” because so many of his friends and acquaintances had trouble pronouncing his name. He was almost universally liked as he was making his way in the music business, seemingly a genuinely nice and caring man. Ben was also quite talented when it came to singing and drumming, and learning other musical instruments from what many of his friends had to say in the book. You certainly could use a scorecard for this one to keep up with all of the band incarnations and band member rotations. I was amazed at the number of times the name of the band changed, and it didn’t always depend on whether any members were moved in or out. There were some interesting anecdotes in the book of things that happened to the band members.

The Grasshoppers dissolved in 1965. Orr joined a band called The Proof Sets, playing for about 6 months before changing the name to The Mixed Emotions, playing extensively all over Ohio. Then that band ended in 1967. Then they were The Rush for a while. Then near the end of 1967 several of them got back together again and became the band Colours with Ben and Wayne Weston, John Matuska, and a new manager, a local promoter named Bob Bobchuck They stayed busy with gigs and even cut a single, “You Came into My Life.” Things were going well and they had some interest from Roulette Records in Florida. They were driving down to meet with them when they called home and got a message that Ben had to fly back immediately because he’d been drafted. Everything stopped right then. It took a year before he could get out on a hardship discharge, being the only son. By this time it was 1969 and he had mixed feelings about a music career, as he’d be starting all over basically.

I do however confess to being a great fan of The Cars back in the day, I just loved them and listened all the time. I was surprised to learn in the book that Ric Ocasek also modified his name. It was Richard Otcasek struggling as a draftsman for Ohio Bell, starting out. He also had a band called ID Nirvana he formed in 1967. He met Ben in 1968. They started playing together after Orr joined the band, and they began opening for shows for such Ohio notables as The Bob Seger System, Alice Cooper, The Lemon Pipers and The Strawberry Alarm Clock. To make ends meet, Ric also managed a clothing store called Family Britches, hiring Ben too. They would later become The Cars and famous, The rest is in the book and history. This would be a good read for fans of The Cars or Ben Orr. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Joe Milliken, and the publisher for my fair review.

Rowman & Littlefield 216
Pub: Nov 11th, 2018

3.5 of 5 Stars

See on my BookZone blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20... ...more

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Oct 16, 2018 Donna Neale rated it it was amazing

Any retrospective on the late 1970s and 1980s HAS to include some focus on the new wave rock legends, The Cars. A debut album that stayed on the charts for 139 consecutive weeks, winners of the first MTV “Video of the Year” award in 1984, creators of what would become the haunting signature song for Live Aid (“Drive”) — they are more than deserving of their 2018 induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

While all five guys generally resisted the limelight, bassist Benjamin Orr was arguably the m ...more

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Dec 20, 2018 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biographies

Joe Milliken spent 11 years working on this book, but the words aren't his.

Instead, the story of Benjamin Orzechowski is told by family, friends and peers. Joe merely serves as your tour guide; ensuring chronology and clarity along the way.

But 'merely' is a misnomer. What he actually does is reconcile the inherently-human trait of faulty memories and vague recollections from years past with actual events, moments and circumstances, all the while dealing with... what turns out to be... an emotion ...more

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Feb 01, 2020 Chuck Abdella rated it it was amazing

I grew up in the 80s and the Cars were my favorite band, but I always felt like I was the only kid in the world whose favorite member of the Cars was Ben Orr. I thought Ben's bass playing was underrated and his vocals were not featured on enough songs in the Cars catalog. I even met Ben in the 1990s when he was playing a concert with his band "ORR" at South Station in Boston. Very randomly, as I got off the train for the concert, I saw Ben all by himself tuning his guitar. I approached him (call I grew up in the 80s and the Cars were my favorite band, but I always felt like I was the only kid in the world whose favorite member of the Cars was Ben Orr. I thought Ben's bass playing was underrated and his vocals were not featured on enough songs in the Cars catalog. I even met Ben in the 1990s when he was playing a concert with his band "ORR" at South Station in Boston. Very randomly, as I got off the train for the concert, I saw Ben all by himself tuning his guitar. I approached him (calling him "Mr. Orr") and told him I was a huge Cars fan. He was super-nice and signed an autograph which I still have framed in my house. When Ben died of cancer, I was devastated. All of this is to say, even though he was one of my rock heroes, I knew very little about Ben Orr and thought no one was a fan but me. Enter Joe Milliken. Mr. Milliken has spent 11 years researching this book and he takes you from Ben's childhood as "Benny 11 letters" all the way to his untimely death. The detail is fascinating and the book really takes off when Ben and Ric Ocasek form the Cars. I try not to give an excessive amount of 5 star reviews, but I give "Let's Go" 5 stars because it filled a void for me. Ric Ocasek was always the face of the Cars and Ben sort of faded into the background. Milliken does a real service by trying to shine some light on a rock star who was just as important in the Cars' meteoric success. If you grew up in the 70s or 80s, love the Cars, or just want to read about a guy who succeeded beyond his wildest rock dreams and didn't let that stardom change him, pick up this book. My 2 minute interaction with Ben Orr seemed very typical, based on Milliken's research. Ben Orr was a good guy and remained a good guy, even when the Cars became a Hall of Fame-caliber band with the fame to match. I hope Milliken's book lights a fire under someone to release all of Ben's songs with one of his final bands, ORR. And I want to thank Mr. Milliken personally for all of the time and effort he put into this book. Clearly I am not the only guy in the world who thought that Ben Orr was a phenomenal rock star. ...more

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Oct 09, 2019 Tia Murrell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books-ever

This will be a long review as I treasure this book so much.
I have been a fan of The Cars since I first heard their music & a huge fan of Benjamin Orr since I saw him perform Let's Go on a music video with The Cars. The B Bomb had exploded. The late legendary Benjamin Orr (born Benjamin Orzechowski) was the co-founder, co-lead singer, and bassist of the famous band The Cars. Benjamin possessed not only a phenomenal voice, incredible range and warmth to his tone, perfect pitch and delivery, he pos This will be a long review as I treasure this book so much.
I have been a fan of The Cars since I first heard their music & a huge fan of Benjamin Orr since I saw him perform Let's Go on a music video with The Cars. The B Bomb had exploded. The late legendary Benjamin Orr (born Benjamin Orzechowski) was the co-founder, co-lead singer, and bassist of the famous band The Cars. Benjamin possessed not only a phenomenal voice, incredible range and warmth to his tone, perfect pitch and delivery, he possessed such magnificent charisma which is shown with his breathtakingly extraordinary stage presence, Benjamin had a mesmerizing yet enigmatic personality and we cannot avoid mentioning his truly stunning striking good looks. (I apologize if I am gushing)
Benjamin also had oodles of style, the way he dressed and in some way he was always evolving new looks and somehow looked always cool even 40 years later on.
Yet there are there is not much known about the personal life of this musician, the man behind those alluring performances and THAT voice, in fact even if you search everywhere you will rarely get to hear Benjamin actually talk in a band interview or hear him comment much in a radio interview. He was a man that stayed so private, although always known to be kind to his fans. He was an enigma and so when I heard early this year that there was a biography about Benjamin I was thrilled, but then I felt concern as I read some biographies that do not show respect to musicians who have passed away. So then I read and watched interviews with the author Joe Milliken and became aware that this book was indeed a labour of love and took so very many years to write and all the effort and time he put into researching his book in order to get his close friends and band members to trust Joe to share their memories of Benjamin (11 years of hard work and effort) and this made me happily place my order for this book and not a day goes by that I do not pick it up, to read or to fact check for my Facebook page called Benjamin Orr _Electric Angel Rock and Roller
or for my Youtube channel with the same name. I love this biography and love the photos of Benjamin in this book, I love the stories his loved ones, his close friends share and how much information is in this biography. I read this book in one sitting till the early hours of the morning and dawn arrived (to my surprise as I did not notice time passing) as I could not stop reading, this is how involved I became in this wonderful book and life of a true musical legend and I have to add I was very tired before I started to read and wide awake when I got into the first chapter. This is how the book affected me.
I do regret though that Ric Ocasek (RIP) and Elliot Easton did not become involved and declined to communicate with Joe for this biography and would like to thank David Robinson and Greg Hawkes for sharing their memories of Benjamin in this book. I would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of Benjamin's friends, loved ones who shared their wonderful thoughts and memories of him so generously.
I feel even more respect for Benjamin, the musician, the man and his kindness after reading this biography and I love how this also showed that Benjamin was a human being with some faults and that he was indeed complex. However his innate kindness came through the stories and memories told and of course his intrinsic drive to become a successful musician, his hard working ethics, his incredible talent, his immense drive, his even-tempered approach to his different roles in various bands, his unflappable way of adapting to change his role and instrument in each band of his career, his calm nature, gentleness and love for animals were something I admire greatly.
I found it difficult to read the last pages and cried a lot but also am glad to have read of his incredible courage and his strength as he battled pancreatic cancer. The fact that he continued to perform until 10 days or so before his death shows what an incredible (in the words of his band brother) "tough cat" he was and this also made me feel even more in awe of the man Benjamin was.

I am grateful that the last photo of the book is from the Heartbeat City days as this made me smile after the tears.
I love the way the biography is arranged and how you can look for something with keywords in the wonderful index, the interview can be found easily as you can check by the name for the person, which makes this biography perfect for fact checking when publishing on a fan page or website or channel.
I think Joe has written such an insightful book and yet left us, the reader, with some feeling or sense of Benjamin's alluring mystery and I believe Benjamin would love that and smile about this as this was true to his nature.

I do wish there would be a second book with more photos as I believe there are more that Joe was given but perhaps the quality is not good enough to be printed but I would buy it in a minute. I guess I am greedy.
I also want to say how extremely moved I was reading the Afterword. I had tears in my eyes and reading Donna J Neale's words (after Joe and Donna went to visit Benjamin's final resting place after 11 years of being immersed in this biography) made me feel sure that Joe has done something incredible and indeed Joe was the perfect choice to write this biography and no one could have done it better.
I read how Joe waited for some sort of sign from Benjamin ( by this time I had to dry my tears ) and you will have to read this book to find out what happened <3
I recently read a post on Joe's Facebook page Let's Go: A Biography of The Cars' Benjamin Orr
In this post basically he wrote how he received his first royalty cheque , Joe wrote :" It has *never* been about the money for me, when I started this project back in the spring of 2007. I joke with my family about *not* figuring out what my "hourly wage" might be."

This once again made it clear to me how much love, respect and dedication Joe has for Benjamin.
Joe and Donna, thank you for making more people aware of Benjamin Orr and for making sure we do not forget him and honour him all the best way we can. <3

I recommend this book not only to all fans of The Cars and of Benjamin but also to anyone who is interested in music , to see what it takes to become a musician in a famous band and anyone interested in the 60's 70's 80's music and of course also the 90's. It is also inspirational for anyone battling disease as it shows the courageous way Benjamin fought his cancer. ...more

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Nov 08, 2018 Linda Smith rated it liked it

Sometimes you just want to read a book that brings back fond memories. This is one of them. As a much younger person, I loved The Cars. Fantastic music that you could sing along with, dance to, you know...just happy music.
This is the biography of the lead singer and made for an interesting tale.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

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Nov 20, 2018 John rated it it was amazing

What a great read that flows well and a great tribute to an amazing musician...Milliken tells the story of a rock star with respectful and dignity that family, friends and fans of the late great man should love..

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Dec 31, 2019 Anastasia Karel rated it liked it

For someone as mysterious as Ben Orr was, this book does an admirable job of telling his story. However, the oral history format could have used more editing to create a better flow.

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Jan 05, 2019 J Earl rated it really liked it

Let's Go!: Benjamin Orr and The Cars from Joe Milliken is the type of entertainment biography I would like to see more of. It is well-researched, it is less about gossip and more about the subject (in this case Benjamin Orr), and it respects what the subject would have likely wanted without being a shallow white-washing. Orr was a private person and so the lack of the types of things he didn't care to share during his life is, for me, respectful. If he never cared to share what he did after conc ...more

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Apr 17, 2020 Paula Gheen rated it it was amazing

This wonderful and extraordinarily written book tells of the totally gorgeous, humble, greatly talented and hugely missed Benjamin Orr from his beginnings all the way up to Rock and Roll fame from those who knew him. Intricately detailed in every page about Ben's life and his passion for music and a huge amount of photos throughout. I can't thank you enough Joe Milliken for all of your years of research to write this book in highest honor to Benjamin Orr!!

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Apr 06, 2019 Richie Cirillo rated it it was amazing

Joe Milliken has completed a magnificent telling of the life of Ben Orr.
As a 14 year old, I became mesmerised with Ben's voice and of course with all those incredible Cars songs. Like millions of others, I felt an odd kinship with this incredible artist, that has remained with me to this day.
I too am a musician, and I am now the exact age that Ben was when he passed away.
The beautiful anecdotes, stories and testimonies from his band mates, friends and family, have confirmed what I have unknowi ...more

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Feb 29, 2020 Swee Lee rated it it was amazing

Was always interested in learning Ben's life story ever since becoming in love with The Cars and their music. Thankful for this biography on what comes across a very lovely, kind and generous man who never forgot his roots.

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