“I don't feel like we're competing with ourselves anymore. I think of it more as adding to the list of our inventory."
By Tom Semioli
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once upon a time, four guys from the Midwest “rescued� the pop music world from Tales of Topographic Oceans, Never Mind The Bullocks and Birds Of Fire. "There was a lot of that going around wasn't there?" laughs Cheap Trick founder, songwriter, and iconic guitarist Rick Nielsen, safe at home in Rockford, Illinois. “Actually there were other things we wanted to get rid of too. Return to Forever? I think it was them and Dance Fever as well! I learned guitar by playing along to TV shows. Have Gun Will Travel. Da-da-da-da. Diddle-de-dum-de-dum. Gunsmoke and Bonanza too. Dum diddy-dum-diddy-dum-dum. Peter Gunn was another good one.�
Cheap Trick's hearty re-invention of British Invasion, bubble-gum, and heavy metal with the audacious addition of the almighty power chord seems quaint nowadays. But as progressive rock, nihilistic punk, and jazz fusion resounded in the major cities and on college radio, Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, drummer Bun E. Carlos, and vocalist Robin Zander effectively stamped out the “me� decade with a healthy dose of eccentricity, impossibly catchy melodies and, above all, humor.
It didn't come easy. In the late 1960s, Nielsen and Peterson started out as Fuse, but the band’s only record bombed. Enter Carlos and former folk-singer Zander and a new name. Incessant touring in support of 70s super-groups Kiss, Santana, AC/DC and Queen among others afforded the newly named Cheap Trick ample opportunity to hone their songcraft and quirky stage persona for the masses.
Signed to Epic, Cheap Trick's self-titled debut was followed by a strong sophomore effort, In Color. Both were moderate movers in the USA, but the band earned first dibs to the now tongue-in-cheek term "big in Japan" as Cheap Trick records routinely hit gold status in the Land of the Rising Sun and their overseas concerts were instant sell-outs. Following Heaven Tonight (1978) which yielded their first domestic hit "Surrender," the band released their magnum opus live collection At Budokan. A certified smash in America, the album was a chart mainstay for over a year with "I Want You To Want Me" emerging as their first Top Ten entry. Cheap Trick’s back catalog found a new audience too, pushing them into the arena rock cauldron. Expectations were high for Dream Police, the band's fourth studio disc, and it did not disappoint with the title track and "Voices" scoring on the hit parade and the album peaking at #6.
By 1980 all was not well within the ranks. Petersson left the band, missing out on the legendary John & Yoko Double Fantasy sessions. Beatles producer George Martin came on board to produce All Shook Up but as the tsunami of new wave and hard rock artists latched on to the Cheap Trick formula (infectious riffs plus crafted pop), the band's commercial appeal gradually fizzled. One On One (1982), Next Position Please (1983), Standing On The Edge (1985), and The Doctor (1986) were workman-like at best. Petersson returned to the fold in '88 for good and the result, Lap Of Luxury, pushed the band back into the Top 20. That second taste of success was tempered by the failure of Busted (1990) and Cheap Trick’s first record for Warner Bros., 1994's Woke Up With A Monster went unnoticed. When Budokan II hit the racks, culled from the same gigs that won the band American acclaim, the tide began to turn in a most unexpected manner.
Cheap Trick finally grabbed what Rodney Dangerfield had pined for all those years ago: respect. The grunge and alt-rock generation, most notably Kurt Cobain, openly praised a band which had uniformly received backhanded compliments from the rock press throughout their storied career. In 1995, Cheap Trick was a special guest on a Smashing Pumpkins tour and in ’96 the group was tapped to spice up the all important Lollapalooza Tour. Box sets, celebrated performances reviving the band's first four albums in their entirety, a 25th Anniversary DVD/CD set (Silver) and a few more studio efforts (their second self-titled album and 2003's Special One) plus the ubiquitous theme song to That 70s Show all proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Cheap Trick had plenty of gas left in the tank. So what do you do when you've done it all?
“We bring it all back home,� says Neilsen. As Rockford kicks off with the anthemic "Welcome To The World," Cheap Trick sounds comfortable in its own skin for the first time in ages. Nielsen opines "Whatever we do will always be compared to what we've done in the past, all the big records. I don't feel like we're competing with ourselves anymore. I think of it more as adding to the list of our inventory."
Unlike some of their earlier efforts, Rockford was written communally and self-produced. "We just went in and did it," Nielson says matter-of-factly. “We knew we were bound to make a few mistakes. But we have to look at it like we kind of know what we're doing, so we're bound to do something right as well.�
Infamous knob twiddler and super fan Steve Albini (whom the band worked with in 1997 on the single “Baby Talk�) mixed Rockford to afford the project a uniform veneer. "We did this record in Chicago, Rockford, New York, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles—we were all over the place with this thing" recalls Nielson. "Steve made it all stick for us."
For the first single "Perfect Stranger," the band deferred to another super fan with a pretty decent track record: Linda Perry. The former 4-Non Blonde and multi-hit-making producer/songwriter (who also co-wrote the track) made the first move. "She actually asked if she could work with the band," boasts a still obviously impressed Neilson. “We love her, she's diverse like us. Linda can do it all. She’s a fabulous singer. I don't know if she can dance, but she's an engineer, a musician, a producer, and she writes fantastic songs. If people like Linda want to work with us, we know that's a pretty good indication that we're still viable."
Patented Cheap Trick-ish hooks abound on the syrupy ballad "O Claire," Nielsen flexes his blues chops on "One More Day" and romantic self-reflection underpins "All Those Years.� Fab Four-fueled melodies define "Dream The Night Away" and "Come On Come On Come On," while paranoia peppers "Decaf" (a potential anti-Starbucks call to arms if there ever was one). "On every record we've made we've always gone with the first few takes," explains Neilson on why Rockford sounds like the band members are all in the same room, "probably 95% the time that’s what worked best."
The guitarist waxes proud of the band's newfound elder statesman status though he has strong opinions on modern chart toppers. "It seems as if everybody thinks they're a star. More people know how to dance than play music." As for Cheap Trick's legacy, Neilsen states, “Every thing we do is a body of work. We never went on a whim of 'I feel like recording today' or 'we have to put a new single out.' If that were the case we'd have one out every month. We make records because that's what's important to us. Our music is diverse enough where one song certainly does not define us. If it did we’d be long gone.�
Yes, there will be more Cheap Trick albums in the future. "It's still difficult but it's still fun," cackles Nielsen. "Isn't it cool that we picked a hobby that others would classify as our job?"
