“Silver” by Ric Ocasek

The album cover for “Nexterday,” which includes the song “Silver.”

All that glitters is not gold – sometimes, it’s silver. Others, as in the mournful tribute “Silver” by Ric Ocasek, it’s nostalgia for loved ones we’ve lost. As Ocasek states in the song’s opening lines:

You were my silver, you were my gold
You were all the things that can’t be told
You were my star falling through the night
You were the one who showed me grand delight

Ocasek wrote “Silver” shortly after the death of his friend and fellow musician, Ben Orr. The duo had co-founded the Cars, a popular New Wave/post-punk band. They collaborated for over a decade until the band’s dissolution in the late 1980s, when the two had a falling out. Ocasek went on to record solo albums, while producing musicians such as Weezer, Nada Surf and Bad Religion.

Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr
Credit: Scoopnest.com

After Orr was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the two made amends; Orr died in 2000. “He wrote that song about Ben,” Paulina Porizkova, a Czech-born model and Ocasek’s third wife, told Rolling Stone of “Silver.” “I think that was the only time I really heard him say how he felt about Ben.” As Ocasek lamented in the song, released on the 2005 album “Nexterday”:

You were my right hand you were my friend
You were always strong until the end
You were my good time you were my rave

You’re the one that always set the stage
You’re what I once knew, now I miss you
‘Cause you’re gone

For anyone grieving the loss of friends or family members this holiday season, “Silver” may provide just the antidote. Glitter isn’t, after all, confined to gold, silver – or even tinsel. It can be connection. It can be the melancholy upbeat of a song; the drifting tides of memories that come and go.

You can listen to Ocasek’s “Silver” in the video below.