By Wade Coggeshall
Their new release is titled “The Latest,” but don’t expect Cheap Trick to meddle with the formula that’s made them one of the most endearing power-pop acts in rock history.
Not only do they still maintain those Beatlesesque hooks on loud guitars, they even continue to release their music on vinyl and 8-track. On the latter, a particular head-scratcher, guitarist Rick Nielsen says it’s because “nobody else is.” For him, there’s also a nostalgic factor.
“I really miss all the artwork and having stuff you can read,” said Nielsen, 60, during a recent phone interview. “I guess an 8-track was kind of reminiscent of that idea, where you didn’t have to have elder font or a magnifying glass to read anything. Plus I think Bunny (drummer Bun E. Carlos) still has a car with an 8-track player, and he wanted to hear it that way.”
8-tracks aren’t the only blast from the past on “The Latest.” The gleefully stomping “Sick Man of Europe,” the record’s first single, is also the name of an early Cheap Trick incarnation, before singer Robin Zander joined.
“It must’ve been flashbacks from some bad something or other,” said Nielsen of the resurrection. “Every time we said that, people would say, ‘What?’ Then we’d try to explain it but never had a great answer. We thought it was a bad idea then — let’s do it again! It’s tried and true. We know no one will understand it. It’s not brain surgery. It’s rock. We’re supposed to make mistakes.”
All in all, however, Nielsen doesn’t think Cheap Trick have made too many of those over the course of their 35-year career.
“We’re still playing,” he said. “We’re still putting out new stuff and having fun. I think we’re doing it right.”
And they’ve done it with the same lineup, a rare feat in any line of work. Only bassist Tom Petersson left the fold for a while in the ’80s.
“We never broke up to get back together,” said Nielsen. “Maybe we should’ve. (Then we’d) be more popular.”
They’ve still done quite well. VH1 named them the 25th best hard rock artist ever. Their cover of Big Star’s “In the Street” served as the theme song for television’s “That ’70s Show.” And every night their melodic, stentorian savvy can be heard on “The Colbert Report.”
But in Japan, Cheap Trick are huge. Fab Four huge. It’s a phenomenon Nielsen can’t explain, other than “they like our music. It’s all you can ever ask for really.”
It was their 1978 live album, “Cheap Trick at Budokan,” that catapulted them into the upper echelons of music, both in Japan and here. They still tour there every year and a half. Nielsen says he mispronounced “Budokan” for so long that the Japanese now enunciate it the same way.
“I changed a whole culture,” he said. “And we tried to help the economy. We were the only ones bringing paltry sums to the United States (from Japan) as opposed to just departing.”
The mania has never quite reached those heights on these shores, but Cheap Trick are still as busy as ever. At over 5,000 concerts, they’ve played more shows than any band except solo artist B.B. King. Nielsen credits their longevity on a solid body of work, a tightknit performance, and a willingness to play anywhere that wants them.
“We try to keep ourselves relevant,” he said. “I’m doing an interview with you, so there you go.”
Nielsen claims he doesn’t have time for reflection, but he does realize the influence Cheap Trick have had on subsequent generations of musicians. During a recent dinner in New York, the band Jet approached their table and started gushing about how much they loved them.
“They were falling all over us,” said Nielsen. “We couldn’t get rid of them. But they were really nice, and they came up to us. Musicians don’t like to do that. They like to think they invented the guitar.”
A member of Jet noted they have a song on their new album that he hopes Cheap Trick don’t hear, because they’d probably want to sue them.
“I think he was just trying to sell us a record,” said Nielsen.
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Online:
www.cheaptrick.com
wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com
