Reputation Is a Fragile Thing: The Story of Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick, you might have noticed, is in the midst of a rather unusual revival. Earlier this year Sony’s archival label Legacy issued At Budokan: The Complete Concert, and on Tuesday it will release “expanded editions” of the three albums that preceded the original Budokan: Cheap Trick (1977), In Color (1977), and Heaven Tonight (1978). Four shows at Metro this spring, each of which celebrated one of Cheap Trick’s first four albums, all sold out. This summer the band, which hasn’t had a hit since 1990, warmed up for Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam–and if that’s not enough cred for you, both guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos have spun records at Lounge Ax’s Sunday-night DJ series, a job usually reserved for underground insiders like Steve Albini or Jim O’Rourke.
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Right from the start, though, Cheap Trick have worn their contradictions on their sleeve. The cover of the first album sandwiched well-groomed pretty boys Robin Zander and Tom Petersson between gaunt goof Nielsen and mustachioed oaf Carlos. The ragtag look may not have hurt the band, but it didn’t move many units either: Cheap Trick sold only about 150,000 copies the first time around.
This of course happened prior to developments like Live Aid, back when rock stars were expected to be (or at least act) filthy rich, debauchedly decadent, and royally arrogant. But for the most part sudden fame didn’t faze the Rockford natives. Rick Nielsen told an interviewer at the time, in a quote reprinted in the book, “Yeah, we’re doing all right. It’s fine, but to me success is longevity, longevity without stepping on people and without doing it just for the money.” These comments would turn out to be prophetic for Nielsen and his mates.
Had Cheap Trick sold out? Maybe, although if the single hadn’t succeeded it probably would have just found its place alongside other compromised, nondescript tracks the band turned out throughout the 80s. Nielsen later recounted, “In 1980, things started to go wrong. The record company started to get real smart on us and instead of fighting for us, our manager went along with it. You listen to what they say and before you know it, you start believing it.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): album covers/ photos by Chuck Jones.
