Cheap Trick...meh

this past weekend the garage band I jam with started working a CT tune into the set (He's A Whore). I have to admit this is a band that I still remain pretty indifferent to . I just listened to the "Essential" disk on Spotify...still don't get it

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I just listened to the "Essential" disk on Spotify...still don't get it

When you say "Essential" ... do you mean "Live at Budokan?" That's the only essential disk cassette of theirs that I can think of.

Still. Tread carefully.

That comment on this message board should go over like a fart in church!

(waiting for passionate, epic, unanswerable response....)

unfortunately when it comes to Cheap Trick it seems my brain interprets most of their tunes as if they were "The Flame".

I may give "budokan" a listen...sometime when I feel like losing an irreplaceable block of time from my life...

I'm guessing you're of an age where "The Flame" was one of the first Trick songs you heard. I wouldn't blame you for thinking they were a classic rock dinosaur desperately trying to be relevant in the 80s.

But I love them. Great melodies, real rock power, funny lyrics (at least on the first half-dozen albums or so) and a great vocalist. I've seen them a couple of times in the past couple of years and they've barely lost a step. (Guess when you don't overindulgence in chemical excess you can retain your natural abilities.)

They get really spotty past Dream Police, as has been indicated here, but they're still capable of pulling a slice of genius out of their hats from time to time.

Having said that, if you heard "He's a Whore" and it didn't do it for ya, then I doubt anything else in their catalog will flip the switch. Nobody likes everything. I still can't fathom the passion many on this board feel for the Stone Roses.

IMO, that "Essential" album is missing some key tracks ("Oh Caroline," "Come On, Come On," "Big Eyes," "Look Out," "Heaven Tonight," to name a few).

Really, I just need to direct any doubters here

I'm not a Cheap Trick fan. Never did that much for me, although I think some of their hits were alright. "Southern Girls," that was a good early one.

"The Flame," however.

well said R.
I read recently somewhere that they were considered the "American Beatles" . After regaining consciousness I took to TP to start this thread.

I thought Cheap Trick were the metal Beatles?



Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

The "essential" Cheap Trick? That must refer to their first five albums.

The second CD of the Essential compilation cherry-picks the remaining Epic albums fairly well.

Mr. Interesting, I'll stand with you on this one. Back when TP magazine was championing these guys on a monthly basis I couldn't figure out whatinhell the staff saw in them. The only notable thing they ever did as far as I was concerned was to perform a couple of Move covers, a well intentioned notion that was greatly reduced by the fact that they sucked at them. Nothing has happened in the century since then to change my mind. The prettyboy/schlub/clown dynamic might have made for an interesting stage performance, I guess, but it don't count when there's no grit in the grooves.

Although I enjoy Sgt. Pepper Live a lot, I wouldn't consider Cheap Trick the American Beatles.

So far, there are very few Cheap Trick defenders in this thread.

If you have a problem with their work post '85, I can't say I blame you. On the other hand, their classic albums (debut through Dream Police) are top notch, IMO. Can't see any reason to hate on those power-pop classics.

I've seen a ton of Cheap Trick shows over the past 30+ years, and they've never disappointed. They're a great live band, but the studio stuff still holds up.

America's Beatles is kind of crazy, but Cheap Trick's a quintessentially American band (they come into your town, they help you party down) that's managed to transcend a hell of a lot of labels over the years. If you'll listen to the admittedly oddly-sequenced In Color with an open mind, you'll hear one of the best albums of the past half-century. If you don't dig that, see if you can find the Steve Albini re-recording from a few years ago.

Plus, who's delivered a better original tune for a low-budget movie than "Up the Creek"? Martin Ansell & 3/4 of The Fixx + Rupert Hine did a bang-up job with "Shine" on the Better Off Dead soundtrack, but I digress...

cheap trick is the greatest american rock band in the world!



Post Edited (05-19-13 23:03)

dont mention the beatles? why should anyone?

were talkin about cheap trick. god broke the mould with this band. for the simple reason that cheap trick continues to rock more people between the age of eight and eighty (cool album title, huh?) in the entire solar system.

sometimes familiarity just has to laugh at contempt.



Post Edited (05-23-13 21:01)

For the time they came up in (mid-to-late Seventies), Cheap Trick defined and upheld rock & roll as well as The Beatles or the Stones did in theirs, IMO. Yes, their post-'70s output gets spotty, but the same is true of the Stones, and that never slowed them down. They're still a reliable, indefatigable live act -- the show I saw last year in Olympia was terrific. Even "The Flame" sounded good when they played it live. Seriously.

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Even "The Flame" sounded good when they played it live. Seriously.

According to The Almighty Wikipedia:

Reportedly, although the band disliked the song at first*, Nielsen disliked the song so much on first hearing that he yanked it from the tape player and ground the cassette beneath his boot heel.

In an interview with Gerry Galipault, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos stated: "Tom Petersson rejoined in 1988, and then the vice president at Epic Records told us he had these two songs and they're both gonna be #1. He goes, 'We got one for you and one for the group Chicago, but you can have first choice.' He said, 'I think the one 'The Flame' would be good for you guys.' The other one was 'Look Away,' and it sounded like some girl singing on the demo. We really didn't like that song anyway, so 'Sure, we'll do 'The Flame.' We're game.'"

According to lead vocalist Robin Zander, "The band was very skeptical about performing this song live, because we only liked to perform songs written by us. However, a young man from, oh, I don't know, somewhere, confirmed to us after a show in Florida about a week after the song was released that the song was great and, get this, would be a #1 single. As we joked about the guy's prediction, we later realized whoa! This guy was right. I thank him for that."

~ [en.wikipedia.org])


* Theory: "at first" = "prior to seeing the financial benefits." This from a band that once felt cozy calling other guys whores?

1.) Cheap Trick had "The Flame."
2.) The Bangles had "Eternal Flame."
3.) Bill Hicks had a routine about lame-assed pop stars sucking Satan's cock in Hell.

You should hear all three. They're sort of an amusing trilogy.

Say what you want about "The Flame," when I saw them perform it live, Robin sang his heart out and delivered a great performance. If anything, it's a showcase for the guys' vocal chops. Then they played "Heaven Tonight" just to show that they can do both lightweight and heavy as good as any band.

I have to agree - Zander sings the shit out of it live, plus without all the synths it sounds more like a Trick ballad. The lyrics are still dire, of course, but there are plenty of Trick originals about which you can say the same thing.

Was Trick sucking Satan's cock for a hit? Probably. But the success of that song gave the band its second wind as career musicians. I don't blame artists for that. Sometimes you have to make a crappy compromise to make sure you can keep making art down the road.

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Was Trick sucking Satan's cock for a hit? Probably.

"And I, on scanning some who sat around
Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight,
Could recognise not one. I only found
A purse hung from the throat of every wight …"

~ Dante's Inferno, Canto XVII
[www.gutenberg.org]

...

In their defense, at least Robin Zander actually sang the tune. That's the sort of artistic integrity Milli Vanilli can only dream about.

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But the success of that song gave the band its second wind as career musicians.

That's a useful distinction. Perhaps it'll also help to remind myself that it wasn't so much a case of "selling out" as it was "buying in?"

...

Please refer all further inquiries to the desk of "How Do You Do It?"

Gerry & The Pacemakers will be more than happy to assist you. They're easy.

Whatever you do, don't mention The Beatles.



Post Edited (05-21-13 01:33)

> According to lead vocalist Robin Zander, "The band was very skeptical about performing this
> song live, because we only liked to perform songs written by us...."

They apparently have never had such qualms about "Ain't That a Shame" (a warhorse I wouldn't miss very much if they benched it permanently) or "California Man" (a glorious highlight of their catalog, IMO, that sounded great at the Olympia show last year).

> The lyrics are still dire, of course, but there are plenty of Trick originals about which
> you can say the same thing.

True enough. "Scent of a Woman" comes to mind.