Cheap Trick have always seemed pretty ludicrous to me. In part, I'm sure that the band meant it to be this way. The visual gag that pits the gawky geekiness of guitarist Rick Neilsen and the pudgy accountant chic of drummer Bun E. Carlos against the pouffy prettiness of bassist Tom Petersson and singer Robin Zander has been sustaining the band's stage presence for years. And anybody who shows up with five necks on his guitar isn't exactly going for gravitas.
But the rest of their ludicrousness is purely my problem. My first introduction to Cheap Trick came in 1988, when as an impressionable 14 year old, I thought that their big comeback hit "The Flame" was the hottest thing in a long, hot summer. But even though I was young, impressionable, more than a little stupid and utterly oblivious to the finer things in life, the band's total commitment to the drecky, schmaltzy silliness that was "The Flame" even then struck me as, well, pretty ludicrous. Around the same time they put out their cover of "Don't Be Cruel," a slight and little recording dressed up in studio trickery. One day it hit me; these guys are cheesy, they know it, and I love it.
But if Cheap Trick have run for thirty years now on an inexhaustible supply of silliness, loud guitars, and giant hooks, it is a testament to the durability of those eternal virtues. They are a band who have always seemed to be more than the sum of their parts. With the exception of one or two absolutely flawless songs that should be presented to future generations as emblems of perfection (I'm thinking of "Surrender" and "I Want You To Want Me"), I have always been hard pressed to define what makes Cheap Trick's music so compelling, so endlessly entertaining, when it is also so insubstantial.
Well, I think I've figured it out: it's a trick, smoke and mirrors. The closer you look, the more it melts away and the more the baby unicorn behind the curtain looks like a badly malformed cow fetus floating in formaldehyde. But just as people never tire of Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, and the guys running the three card monte game outside the bus depot, I can't ever get tired of Cheap Trick. Take my money! This is fun!!
As part of their ongoing effort to monetize every niche and corner of their prodigious back catalog (it's called churn), Sony/Legacy have finally taken it upon themselves to reissue a number of Cheap Trick's mid-period albums in slick new remastered and expanded packages. The pick of these is probably 1979's Dream Police, which for my money is probably the last Cheap Trick album I'd urge anyone to run and by. Wait. That didn't come out right. It's not that Dream Police is a bad album, not that. What I mean is, it's the last solid album they made, and after 1980 the band's output became decidedly — let's be generous — uneven.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Vern Halen
But it was real good late 70's power pop over three or four albums, as opposed to a one hit/one album wonder (i.e., the Knack).
And I saw them on tour recently. Bun E. is the most underrated rock drummer - his deep groove drives the band as well as Bonham's drove Led Zeppelin.
2 - John Owen
Heck yes on all counts! They had a great four album run. Which is more than I can say for any four consecutive Beatles records, 'cuz I always keep running into Magical Mystery Tour.
(Did he just say Cheap Trick were better than the Beatles??)
(Yup. But he didn't mean it, so it's okay.)
3 - Rodney Welch
You nailed it, John. I was a huge Cheap Trick fan in college (late 1970s, when they first hit it big) and in retrospect Dream Police does seem like their jump-the-shark moment. Interesting to read that it was recorded pre-Budokan; nonetheless, the cover itself was a bad sign. It indicated the band had become a cliche, and were way too self-conscious about their image as quirky or offbeat or strange. The songs followed suit, unfortunately. I agree with you about Bun, though; in fact, his short little solo on "Clock Strikes Twelve" on Budokan remains for me a prime rock fantasy -- far more so than anything John Bonham did.
4 - Mark Saleski
mostly...yea..though i would argue that Southside Johnny is the quintessential bar band.
5 - Joanie
A bar band? Oh man. Perhaps it's your age that causes you to say such a thing.
Cheap Trick IS and Cheap Trick will always BE. There is no dissecting them.
Oddly enough, this past weekend was Cheap Trick Weekend here.
"Surrender", John. Give in to the power of CT.
6 - Al Barger
I'm with Joanie. Dream Police is a classic album, and it doesn't need to be defended as any kind of camp. The title song has a fine melody, and a perfectly good, clever lyric.
And disrespecting All Shook Up- them's fightin' words around these parts.
7 - Christopher Rose
This is one of those cute Americana things, isn't it? Much like this Springsteen fellow many of you seem to revere, on this side of the pond Cheap Trick only serve to provoke much baffled head scratching and faint cries of "huh?".
*hides*
8 - Mark Saleski
...much like all of the "next big things" that are supposed to come rocketing across the pond, only to drown along the way.
9 - John Owen
Aw, c'mon Joanie and Al... there is no slight implied in calling Cheap Trick a bar band. Okay, it does say something about the scale of their music, but the fundamental difference between "bar band" and other bands is that bar bands succeed only as long as they can keep the attention of an intrinsically disinterested crowd. A band like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Radiohead, who cut their teeth in music scenes that have many clubs who cater directly to patrons who are looking for novelty, and not necessarily catchy songs to drink to, would probably crash and burn playing Rockford, Illinois.
Canadian bands are the kings of bar band music right now. Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous, and even the great Tragically Hip had to play everywhere from Ottawa to Yellowknife in venues filled with patrons looking for FUN, rather than total originality. And when I say Cheap Trick are the best bar band in the world (South Side Johnny, Joe Gruscheky, The Clarks, or Aerosmith circa 1977 notwithstanding), I mean they can get a drunk and surly crowd on their side faster than Tara Reid lunging for a bottle of Bacardi 151.
And Rodney is right on something I should have pointed out - the Dream Police album cover is totally, purely self-conscious in a way the band hadn't quite gotten to before. Granted, all their prior album covers made hay out of the sartorial and tonsorial differences between Neilsen/Carlos and Zander/Petersson, but dressing them in white leather cop costumes with gold badges? That smacks of 70's Rock Decadance! Smell The Glove, anyone?
Although I would contend that it wasn't till Shark Sandwich, I mean, All Shook Up, Al, that the music really started to suffer.
(An aside to Mr. Rose... you got us on that one, but I'd strongly recommend you hide the Roxette and Take That! records you bought when you were in school before you say that too loudly. (ArcticMonkeys))
Christopher,
10 - John Owen
Hmm... Seems I left a comma hanging like a mad lib at the end of my comment.
I'll go first.
Christopher, I didn't want to say anything, but your flies are open.
Christopher, a canteloup won't fit up there!
11 - Christopher Rose
Hi John, I had actually left school a while before either Roxette or Take That! formed. Er, I can't quite imagine why you'd want to but I think a fairly good slice through the inside of my head is provided by my Pandora favourites list or, if you're really a glutton for punishment, you can listen to my own personal soundtrack here. I listen to Pandora a lot and she never fails to amaze, inform and delight me! Sorry if that sounds like an ad but it is true.
12 - John Owen
Yes, I see.... keep your filty cut-rate English imports off our soil! Those puffed-up and overhyped celebrity nothings like Joy Division and Rory Gallagher!
Um... er... I actually quite like your taste in music so I'm going to STFU now. Though, anyone who digs Christina Aguilera must surely also agree that Cheap Trick's "Surrender" is one helluva song.
But your country has a lot of apologizing to do for Oasis.
13 - Christopher Rose
John, I couldn't agree more about Oasis. I loathe that band to the max. In fact, I've never seen a band so terribly uncreative become so popular before. I'd rather listen to The Carpenters or Barry Manilow than that dreck - and I'm from Manchester!
14 - Vern Halen
I would've said classic Southside Johnny is more than just a bar band. Hearts of Stone is one of the best albums of its era.
Go back to Cheap Trick's first self titled album to hear a band walking the fine lines between pop sensibility, rock 'n' roll backbeat and (almost) inappropriate lyrical weirdness. Too bad they couldn't sustain that past four albums.
15 - zingzing
hey--what's wrong with joy division? i am a viking.
16 - El Bicho
Good write-up and overview of the band, but I disagree on a couple of points
You're looking to hard because there is no trick in what they do. Their music is very simple and straight forward.
You also lost me with the "bar band" comment. Bar bands don't have top ten hits and platinum albums. Your age gives you away because in 1978 Cheap Trick and KISS were the two biggest bands.
Besides, people don't go to see bar bands unless their friend is playing. Instead, they go to the bar for drinks and the band just happens to be there.
17 - Al Barger
No, I wouldn't take "bar band" as an insult at all, but stuff like comparing their work to "a badly malformed cow fetus floating in formaldehyde" does sound like less than high praise.
I can see I'm going to have to carve out time to do a proper right up on the glory of All Shook Up.
And I wouldn't trade the entire screamingly pretentious Radiohead catalogue for "Can't Stop It But I'm Gonna Try," much less "Surrender" or "Auf Wiedershen."
18 - Connie Phillips
Editor's note: This article has been placed at the Advance.net Web sites, a site affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
19 - Vern Halen
Right now I'm thinking I'm going to spin "I Dig Go-Go Girls," an outtake from the first Cheap Trick album. Bar band? How about Art Rock? This is as weird as Eno's "Baby's On Fire," and rocks as hard too; maybe harder.
20 - John Owen
Bicho:
"Bar bands don't have top ten hits and platinum albums." Barenaked Ladies much?
I swear I didn't mean any slight by calling Cheap Trick a bar band... your point that "people don't go to see bar bands unless their friend is playing. Instead, they go to the bar for drinks and the band just happens to be there" is exactly what I'm saying. If you're going to be a totally great bar band, then you need to be able to win over everyone in the place, no matter how indifferent they are to your presence at first. And I know from experience just how incredibly difficult that hill can be to climb. Moreover, it's a hill that a lot of platinum bands never really have to climb once, much less probably the thousand times that the Trick did it.
But anyway, I guess I'll just leave it at "no offense intended."
Al, I do have to admit that I was really just looking for an excuse to use the wonderfully evocative "cow fetus" analogy. Cheap Trick really are a beautiful unicorn. As are you. ;)
21 - Eric Olsen
sweet as always John O - power-pop is among the handful of apexes of rock 'n' roll: done well it has it all and has it now. Cheap Trick did it extremely well for several albums in the '70s and a number of singles since - ROCK!
22 - Vern Halen
You know, the great lost Cheap Trick album is the self titled release that came out in 1997 on the Red Ant label. Too bad the company went under - it was a great comeback album. The lead off song, "Anytime" was as tough as nails, and the rest of the album was full of classic Cheap Trick moments. "Baby No More" would've destroyed all other songs on the radio.
23 - Mark Saleski
vern, i think i've got that record....haveta go check it out tonight. i remember seeing them live during that time and Zander saying something about how they had some new tunes but couldn't play them due to some legal hocum going on.
24 - JP
I love these guys, they're camp and they know it. Don't you miss those early 80s hits "She's Tight" and "If you want my love.."? I need to get this CD, as all I have is the GH. I enjoy the Don't Be Cruel cover though, nicely adept bass line. They didnt' even write "The Flame," you know.. just instapop cheese they recorded to get a hit.
Love the bigger than life image they project, and I find their careerlong interest in Roy Wood and The Move from England very interesting indeed!
25 - Mark James Meli
There isn't a band around that can't learn something from Cheap Trick! If I could conceptualize a band of my own and how songs should be played, I'd come up with Cheap Trick over and over again. DREAM POLICE is just as much "serious fun" now as it was when I first bought it in 1979! I'm 15 all over again when this album comes on.