Cheap Trick: Standing On the Edge

Cheap Trick: Standing On the Edge

1985

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Little Sister  2. Tonight It's You  3. She's Got Motion  4. Love Comes  5. How About You  6. Standing on the Edge  7. This Time Around  8. Rock All Night  9. Cover Girl  10. Wild Wild Women



I can remember hearing "Tonight It's You" on the radio station 102.5 WIOG as a kid...

 It was the type of pop station that used to play Michael Bolton and  Heart ballads...I think they've moved onto Adele and shit like that...Who knows haven't heard it in over a decade...Anyway. I can strongly recall hearing "Tonight It's You" popping out of the speakers of my parent's car in the mid-80's...

The song seemed to contain a whole album's worth of memorable hooks...A virtual orchestra of ringing pop-guitars and a vocal melody that set its sights straight to the stratosphere... The song's heavy rotation inevitably ended and it may have faded from the airwaves, but it stayed in my head for years as I searched high and low for it...There was no internet back then, so if you were scraping to find out who performed a song, you had to spend years combing the old record bins and asking other music aficionados about it...



 Eventually somewhere in the 90's I found the single and played it endlessly...It was almost as glorious as I had remembered it...It had the slight patina of Hair Metal Ballad, but even that couldn't diminish its power...

I never picked up the album "Standing On the Edge"...I was hesitant to check out any Cheap Trick album after "Dream Police" because I was afraid sooner or later I was going to hit "The Flame."



Years after I lost my "Tonight It's You" single, I found a copy of "Standing on the Edge" for $1.99 at a used record store and decided to take the plunge...And it's safe for me to say that this is the exact point where Cheap Trick loses it...

Things start fine enough with "Little Sister." If the 80's drums were a little less booming and echoing, I could see myself playing the shit out of this song...Classic Cheap Trick...They hadn't rocked this hard since "One on One" but the melody is as sharp as "Next Position Please." Fantastic song!

Next up is "Tonight It's You" and you all know how much I like that one...So far, so good...But wait! What in the hell is "She's Got Motion" supposed to be?! I think they're aiming for ZZ Top's Eliminator, but instead of capturing the hard, sleek vibe of that album, it's a clattering headache...Skippity skip!



Uhhh, maybe I shouldn't have skipped ahead so soon..."Love Comes" is  an endlessly dull power ballad with maybe the ickiest and most intrusive keyboard sound I've ever heard...And when you slow things down this much it's a good idea to have some sort of melody or something...I think "The Flame" is better than this song...

The next two songs ("How About You" and the title track) don't irritate me, but on the other hand, they don't exactly excite me either...Wallpaper rock. 

"This Time Around" is great though...I'd say it falls squarely in the 80's power ballad category, but this time they do everything right...Robin sings the hell out of that soaring chorus! I guess it kind of remind me of "I Don't Love Here Anymore" mixed with mid anthemic 80's U2...Damn, this thing wasn't a hit?

..and that's pretty much it..."Rock All Night" sounds like some terrible Slaughter song, and "Wild Wild Women" has a heavy riff and not much else..So yea, I don't think I'm going any further on these Cheap Trick albums..."Standing On the Edge" has three stunners and a whole lot of blah tracks...I'd skip it if I was you...

Let's listen to "This Time Around" by Cheap Trick. Rock on, brotha...

Cheap Trick: Next Position Please

Cheap Trick: Next Position Please

1983

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. I Can't Take It  2. Borderline  3. I Don't Love Here Anymore  4. Next Position Please  5. Younger Girls  6. Dancing the Night Away  7. 3-D  8. You Say Jump  9. Y.O.Y.O.Y.  10. Won't Take No for an Answer  11. Heaven's Falling  12. Invaders of the Heart


Remember the other day when I was ranking my favorite Cheap Trick albums? Well, their first three records get the top three spots, but I honestly think "Next Position Please" easily takes the number 4 slot...

The band teams up with Todd Rundgren and recorded a pure power-pop album...Their previous hard rock tendencies are turned waaayyy down, but it's not their later, wussier "Lap of Luxury" style either...



Damn, looking at that "Lap of Luxury" cover makes me wish I lived in an alternate reality where Cheap Trick never put out "The Doctor" or "Lap of Luxury" and all those shittier albums...In my alterante reality they just kept putting out high-quality pop albums like "Next Position Please"...

Which is much preferable to the reality I actually live in where I have to listen to "Busted" as I stare out my bedroom window at the Cobra Commander Memorial...

But yea, the band sounds really natural and comfortable with this sound...Album opener "I Can't Take It" has a bit of big-radio bombast, but starting with the second track, the light pop-rock "Borderline," they sound so relaxed...Its insidiously catchy chorus kind of sneaks up on you.

Really, everything on Side One is stellar...When I first picked up the album and saw the song title "Younger Girls" I was like, "uh-oh," but man, what a chorus! Against all odds, you can't help but raise your fist to the sky and sing at the top of your lungs, "Younger girls, oh, how I love those younger girls!"

And then Chris Hansen shows up...

The title track is also one of the band's best moments...Somehow I had never heard it until I picked up this album a few years ago, and it immediately jumped to the top of my Cheap Trick playlist...Playful, funny, irreverent, well-arranged and poppy...This has it all...the lyrics are a hoot, freely quoting "Bohemian Rhapsody"...So underrated...

The only song that does nothing for me is the cover of "Dancing the Night Away." It seems like this song should have been a perfect fit for the band, but somehow they miss the mark...They skip the extended jangly guitar intro (which was the coolest part of the Motor's  original) and traded the hard-pop sound of the original for a colder, new-wave novelty feel...Weird, but not surprising since this was forced on them by their record company...



The album does seem a bit front-loaded, although there's definitely some  good songs on Side Two, like "Heaven's Falling," a dead-ringer for late-period Utopia, which is fine by me...The album closes with "Invaders of the Heart" which rules! It sounds like a fast, rocking version of  Tom Petty's "Free Falling." Whenever I'm belting out this song in the shower, I can't help but sing,:

"Invaders of the heart
Are messin' with my mind,
They love Jesus,
and America, too!"

But that's my curse...

The CD and cassette version of this album features two additional tracks not on the vinyl version I own...

 To be honest I've never even heard "You Talk Too Much" or "Don't Make Our Love a Crime." Let me spotify 'em real quick and I'll let you know what I think..

(Time Passes...)

I like "Don't Make Our Love a Crime," the verses rock a little more than the other songs on the album, but that confident chorus fits right in...They bumped  this for "Dancing the Night Away"? "You Talk to Me" rocks for sure, but it does seem a bit like a minor entry...I  would have gladly traded "Y.O.Y.O.Y. " for this, though...

Alright, let's check out a video of Cheap Trick playing "Borderline" on the Alan Thicke Show...

Huh? Alan Thicke had a TV show? Besides "Growing Pains"?

Let's check it out...Enjoy...

 

Cheap Trick: One on One

Cheap Trick: One on One

1982

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. I Want You  2. One on One  3. If You Want My Love  4. Oo La La La  5. Lookin' Out for Number One  6. She's Tight  7. Time is Running  8. Saturday at Midnight  9. Love's Got a Hold on Me  10. I Want Be Man  11. Four Letter Word



I had a ridiculously hard time finding this album for some reason...I've combed record stores all the way from Michigan to Arizona trying to score a copy, but I just could not get my hands on it...

My eyes popped out of my head when I found a copy at FYE records, but when I inspected the record more closely I was horrified to discover it was all scratched to shit. Finally, I stopped by Zia Records about 5 months ago and finally scored "One On One."

I was thrilled when I put this on the turntable and heard album opener "I Want You."  It was just the type of finely-tuned pop-rocker that was missing from "All Shook Up."



This is power-pop with extra power...Almost heavy metal at times, particularly on the part of Robin Zander, who spends a good chunk of the album almost screaming, but if there's any singer who can pull that off, it's Robin, so...Check out album closer "Four Letter Word" (possibly the band's heaviest track) for proof ...



The album's not perfect...There's  the meat-headed "Looking Out for Number One," and the album's worst moment, the new wave monstrosity  "Saturday at Midnight."  "Saturday at Midnight" apparently has a 8-minute remix version out there...What!?!?? Thankfully the version contained here is three minutes and change... The song's only point of interest is hearing the band find a place for the  "Lovin' Money" lyrics six years after the fact...

...but for the most  part it's pure Beatlesque melodies with heavy guitars...I mean, check out "Time Is Running," so damn catchy!! I swear to God I heard it once and the next day at work it was so deeply lodged in my brain that it almost drove me crazy...As soon as I got home I had to give it a spin just to get it out of my head! And "If You Want My Love" is one of those effortless pop-songs that you can't believe didn't exist, already...Well, if you don't' count the part that sounds exactly like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," but a nice accomplishment, nonetheless!


For a record that doesn't get mentioned too often, "One on One" ended up being one of my favorite Cheap Trick albums...I'm placing it in 5th or 6th place depending on how I feel about "Dream Police" on the day I'm doing the rankings...Let's call it number five for today...

Alright, it's finally Friday, so let's get our record party started for reals...Let's crack open a 'ha...

...and crank up  "Time is Running" by Cheap Trick...This song's a good cranker, too...So turn it up...

Cheap Trick: All Shook Up

Cheap Trick: All Shook Up

1980

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Stop This Game  2. Just Got Back  3. Baby Loves to Rock  4. Can't Stop It But I'm Gonna Try  5. World's Greatest Lover  6. High Priest of Rhythmic Noise  7. Love Comes A-Tumblin' Down  8. I Love You Honey But I Hate Your Friends  9. Go For the Throat (Use Your Own Imagination)  10. Who D'King

CD Bonus Tracks: 11. Everything Works If You Let It  12. Day Tripper  13. Can't Hold On (live)  14. Such a Good Girl  15. Take Me I'm Yours



For some reason I love the album art...I'm endlessly fascinated by the cool, blue feel and paranoid/psychedelic vibe...If it's within reach I often find myself staring at it all day...

It's a good thing I enjoy the cover so much, cos I have a hard time getting into the record itself, which finds Cheap Trick teaming up with Legendary Beatles producer George Martin...

Given the band's always blatant Beatles worship, this partnership sounds like it should have been a perfect fit, but for some unknown reason it isn't...I mean, the music itself sounds incredible; it's loud, striking, bright, and has a lot of depth, but these songs aren't quite up to the high standard of their previous albums...

Problems are evident as soon as the album starts...Let's face it, as hard as it tries to be,  "Stop This Game" isn't a knockout song...George doesn't sound like he knows what to do with it, so they just layer on the bombast until it sounds like some sort of hard-rock showtune... It's not a bad song though...I really like Robin's vocal delivery on the "All I wanna do is stop this game, It's gonna really end..."

 Now that I re-listen to this, I find that moment somewhat emblematic of the entire record...Every song has some sort of knock-out aspect to it, but no song is truly 100% great...



For example,  when "Baby Loves to Rock" comes on, it takes all my strength not to skip it...The verses sounds like one of those second tier early Beatles tracks where Paul McCartney attempts to summon the spirit of Little Richard, but can't quite do it...But then suddenly the chorus comes along and I'm temporarily transported to pop heaven...

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I love the sound of "World's Greatest Lover," which does nothing less than capture the magic sound of John Lennon in his prime (and mixes in a riff that's somewhere between "Big Balls" and "Boris the Spider"), but the song itself doesn't grab me at all...It sounds nice, but I don't exactly walk around with "World's Greatest Lover" stuck in my head...

Probably my favorite song is  "Go For the Throat (Use Your Own Imagination)" which crosses the opening guitar riff of the Beatles' "Fixing a Hole" with the vocal melody" You Never Give Me Your Money." Is it derivative? Well, yea, but I don't care about that...They really sell the idea and that's all that matters...

I also always enjoy " Just Got Back," it's short length makes it gives it an a half-written quality, but it doesn't matter when every second of it is so enjoyable...

 

It's certainly an ambitious album...They try all kinds of new things, so if it's not full of their usual ace melodies, at least there's never a dull moment, and I can respect that...So if you're a Cheap Trick fan check it out for sure, I just wouldn't start here or anything...

The CD version of "All Shook Up" is a pretty sweet deal though, cos it comes with the entire "Found All the Parts" EP...It also has a song from the soundtrack to some movie called "Roadie' starring Meatloaf and Debbie Harry.,.Huh?

So let's check out "Just Got Back" by Cheap Trick...Enjoy...

Cheap Trick: Found All the Parts

Cheap Trick: Found All the Parts

1980

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Day Tripper (Live)  2. Can't Hold On (Live)  3. Such a Good Girl  4. Take Me I'm Yours


I think I went over this in the Captain Beefheart "Music in Sea Minor" post, but  this is one of the few ten inch records I own...I love the format...Not quite a single/not quite a full album...

 I'd always wondered about the prominent "Nu Disk" logo emblazoned on the cover, so I finally got around to researching  (or in other words, Googling it) and discovered that it was a line of $5.00 Ep's that Epic put out to promote seemingly lesser-known bands...What was Cheap Trick doing here? I don't know. Possibly to bring some prestige or visibility to the line?

"Found All the Parts" is made up of tracks from various sources...It kicks off with a fake-live cover of the Beatles "Day Tripper." Cheap Trick has always worn their Beatles influence on their sleeves, even going so far as releasing a live album where they cover "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in its entirety...



...So it's no surprise that their take on "Day Tripper" closely follows the original...They don't especially do anything original with the song, but it's pretty notable for the ease in which they pull off the Goddamn Beatles...

The next track is an outtake from "At Budokan." I like "Can't Hold,On," it's sort of a generic bluesy number, not their best but not their worst..."Such a Good Girl" on the other hand, is one of the band's best... Top notch power-pop where everything is in place...Tight playing, crisp production, an interesting and innovative arrangement, hooks galore...Once I heard it I wondered how I ever lived without it...This song gets my highest possible recommendation...So if for nothing else, pick up "Found All the Parts" for this song...

The fourth and final track is "Take Me I'm Yours" which they wrote for Bryan Ferry and boy, you can tell...Robin Zander sounds exactly like him here...Listen to him sing the line, "You've got a new approach and the time is right " He's got  Ferry's elegantly disaffected croon down cold...

Oddly enough no one has posted any of the songs from "Found All the Parts" on youtube, and I don't particularly feel like doing it, but I did find one video of someone playing a record of "Such a Good Girl." Great song, but the sound quality in the video isn't the best...So here's a tinny version of "Such a Good Girl" by Cheap Trick...

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

1979

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Dream Police  2. Way of the World  3. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems)  4. Gonna Raise Hell  5. I'll Be with You Tonight  6. Voices  7. Writing on the Wall  8. I Know What I Want  9. Need Your Love

CD Bonus Tracks:  10. The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems) (live)  11. Way of the World (live)  12. Dream Police (No Strings Version)  13. I Know What I Want (live)
 

After hitting their commercial home-run with "At Budokan,"  Cheap Trick quickly followed up with "Dream Police."
It's hard to talk any trash about this album because there's no much excellent material here...Let me put it this way...Every single song on here under the 7 and a half minute mark is a pure gold!



So let's start with the good...I fell like the title track is where all the potential inherent in Cheap Trick's sound is realized to its fullest...Feverish, thrilling, orchestral rock with  an embarrassing overload of killer hooks...The high point of the song is the paranoid break, where Rick takes over the lead vocals that leads into that brilliantly twisted (and melodic solo...It's just the best shit ever...Everything you could ever want in a pop single and so much more...



"Voices" is another favorite of mine. This one was also a successful single, but you don't really hear it on radio anymore, but it's one of their most enjoyable and beautifully sung ballads...Intricately produced and tastefully played...Compare this to "The Flame" and weep bitter tears...

"I Know What I Want" turns the Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK" into bubblegum pop..This never fails to bring a smile to my face...Same with the bouncy and enthusiastic "Writing on the Wall."

The album would go up a few notches in my book, if they would have left "Need Your Love" and "Gonna Raise Hell" on the cutting room floor...They're both absurdly long ("Gonna Raise Hell" clocking in at a mind-numbing 9 and a half minutes...) and both are little more than repetitive vamps...Basically, "Gonna Raise Hell" resembles some sort of 12" disco mega-mix and "Need Your Love" functioned fine in a live setting on "At Budokan," but the studio recording is a real snooze...

I think they should have spent another month writing songs for the album or extended the right tracks (imagine a 10 minute "Dream Police!" Now, that would be something...Add a few more sections...Hell, get all prog and devote a whole side to it...)  Do what I do and skip the two overlong tracks and you have the best EP ever recorded...

Let's check out "Voices" by Cheap Trick...Enjoy...

Cheap Trick: At Budokan

Cheap Trick: At Budokan

1979

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Hello There  2. Come On, Come On  3. Lookout  4. Big Eyes  5. Need Your Love  6. Ain't That a Shame  7. I Want You to Want Me  8. Surrender  9. Goodnight Now  10. Clock Strikes Ten


One of the most monumental live albums of all time..Right up there with...



Kabukiband Lives...



Bobby Beard-O and the Blue-Collar Bullets...



Talky Talkbox Comes Alive...

I used to be one of those wiseacres who always had to point out that even though it went Octuple-Platinum, I had never met a single person who had listened to "Frampton Comes Alive." Man, I take that back...I meet them all the time now...Apparently they all went on to become White-Collar Corporate Fifty-somethings...

But forget, Peter Frampton for now...Today we're discussing "Cheap Trick at Budokan," which single-handedly catapulted the band into fame...

 With good reason! Listen to it...You put the needle down, a quick guitar scrape, then Rick starts pounding away on that huge A Chord:

"Hello there Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hello there Ladies and Gents,
ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!"

 YES!!  Buy that $40 T-shirt!

  Pay $50 for that pretzel!
 

Flash your boobs at the Jumbotron!

Blow your doob smoke directly into the Security Guard's face...

But whatever you do...DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE LASER!!! PEOOWWW! PEEEOOOOWW!

Yea, "At Budokan" captures that whole experience so well...And it comes with that big, cool book that's all written in Japanese and stuff...

But the real highlight is all the songs that hadn't appeared on their proper studio albums at this point, like the solid pop-rock song "Lookout," the atmospheric "Need Your Love" and  there's even a rousing Fats Domino cover!


I almost count the version of "I Want You to Want Me" as one of the new songs...This is the version that you always hear on the radio and it's radically different than the soft-rock version that appeared on "In Color." In retrospect, it feels like the perfect middle-ground between the nosier outtake version from the first album and the "In Color" version.

There's been other reissues since the 1979 vinyl...Deluxe version that actually have the entire show, rather than the original 42 minute original...

I have no idea why I've haven't checked these out yet...The original version holds such nostalgia for me for some reason...It'd be weird to hear "At Budokan" sequenced differently, or with a different cover...But yea, it does leave you wanting more, so I'll check one of the reissues out one of these days...

In the meantime,  let's check out "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick...Enjoy...

Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight

Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight

1978

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Surrender  2. On Top of the World  3. California Man  4. High Roller  5. Auf Wiedersehen  6. Takin' Me Back  7. On the Radio  8. Heaven Tonight  9. Stiff Competition  10. How Are You?  11. Oh Claire

CD Bonus Tracks: 12. Stiff Competition (outtake)  13. Surrender (outtake)



I know it's usually all good times here at the Friday Night Record Party but I'm gonna have to be all sad, dirty clown today for a few minutes...

Not so much sad as complain-y, I guess...But definitely still dirty...

Anyway, I spent the entire week sick as a dog, and to top it all off, I was coming home from work on Thursday and as soon as I stepped off and the bus and watched it drive away I realized I was missing a bag...Uh-oh...It was the bag with my CD wallet in it...

 I know what you're thinking..."What? You listen to a discman and you still have a CD wallet? It's the two-thousand and teens, Man!!! Get yourself an ipod and fill it with Miley Cyrus' "Bangerz" and move on!!!"



But it's not that simple...See, I'm allowed to listen to music all day at work, but only if it's with a CD player or some similar device that doesn't have a phone or camera...And since all mp3 players have cameras now, that pretty much leaves me with two options....A portable CD player or I bust out the Wang Chung cassettes...

But yea, this CD version of "Heaven Tonight" was one of the CD's that was in the wallet...I've had no luck with Valley Metro's lost and found department yet, since no one answer's their phone, which means all you can do is leave messages, but no one actually calls you back...

It's tough to remember what was all in that CD wallet...I think I've narrowed it down to these selections...Ahem...



Cheap Trick: In Color



Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight (which we're covering today...)

Robyn Hitchcock: Bad Case of History Disc 1 (Now this one reeeeaaaaaallly sucks, cos it's only available as part of the "Luminous Groove"  boxset...booo...)

 

The 13th Floor Elevators: Bull of the Woods (Ditto this one...I got this in the 13th Floor Elevators Box set...)



Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks



Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz



Nick Lowe: Labour of Lust



Rancid: B Sides and C Sides

 

 Dead Milkmen: Big Lizard in My Back Yard

Tobin Sprout: Demos and Outtakes



Cure: Wish



Neil Young: On the Beach



T-Rex: Tanx (Still have my "Tanx" vinyl, so this one is not such a big loss..Same for the Cheap Trick ones...)


So yea, that kinds sucks, but my weekend turned out pretty great...I still have a ridulously lingering cough and no voice to speak of, but I went out with my friends for a birthday celebration that included trips to various record shops...

Such as the new Double Nickels Co-Op, which is where the Eastside Records is located now...I believe I've raved on and on before how mind-blowing Eastside Records is, and I'm glad to have it back again!

...I also got to check out the new Zia Records on Mill Avenue & Southern in Tempe...

 I wasn't aware the new location was open yet, but there it was...and the place is massive! I only made it through about a quarter of the store, but I had to leave...Otherwise I would've gone stone cold broke...Easily the best Zia location I've been to yet, and I've been to a lot of them...

I ended the day bar-hopping between The Time Out Lounge and Monkey Pants, playing pool and eating fried cheese curds...Ugh...Still a little queasy, but beautifully so...

All in all, it was a huge blast and thanks to the generosity of everyone, I now have a new crateful of top-notch vinyl that will keep the Friday Night Record Party rolling for a few additional years...


Oh yea, I think I invited you here to talk about "Heaven Tonight, " so I should probably get around to that...

This is their most representative work and the one people usually point out as being their best record. This is where they perfectly blend all their different styles and iterations into one knockout album...

You know this one's a winner as soon as you put this on and you're greeted to the fluttering synths and crashing power chords of "Surrender." Along with "Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss (whom Cheap Trick famously name-checks in the song), this track set the standard for large-scale arena rock, but this does it so much more intelligently...Easily one of the greatest album openers ever.



This album also has "Auf Wiedersehen," which is also one of their best songs...A fierce rocker with an awesomely chilling bass intro...Robin Zander proves to be one of the most versatile (and hilarious!) vocalists in rock history, here...It's hard not to be won over by his robotic montone as he's quoting Bob Dylan, or his song-ending "Suicide" shrieks, all while Rick Nielsen delivers some of his most-crushing riffs...They were one of the rare arena rock bands that definitely had one attentive ear tuned to the punk scene that was in full-swing at the time...Check out the choppy "Stiff Competition" for further evidence...

The whole thing is really good...No weak songs whatsoever...While I do enjoy a lot of the albums that came after this one, it's impossible not to acknowlege "Heaven Tonight" as the band's  peak...Everything they did during this period is golden, and they would follow this with one of the most famous live albums ever, but we'll get to that tomorrow...

For now, let's check out "Stiff Competition" by Cheap Trick..Enjoy...