Cheap Trick is the quintessential ’70s rock band.
Think about it: you have your fashion-model prototypes in vocalist/guitarist Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson, your blue-collar chain-smoking (at least back then) drummer in Bun E. Carlos, and your off-the-wall goofball in guitarist Rick Nielsen, all while you’re wearing your musical influences on your sleeves while trying to carve out your own unique niche.
This formula shouldn’t have worked... but, for a brief time, it was hugely successful. Listening to Cheap Trick’s 1977 debut effort, one can hear the promise the band had... even though it’s still lacking in some areas.
The first thing that hits the listener in the face is the strength of Peterssen’s bass lines. Combined with Carlos’s solid timekeeping, a strong foundation is laid for these 10 offerings. Listen to “Elo Kiddies” and just feel the locomotive-like rhythm laid down; all Nielsen and Zander needed to do was add on the pop-rock layer of sweetness (countered with surprisingly biting lyrics).
The next thing that one hears are the musical influences. A little bit here borrowed from The Beatles, a little there lifted from The Who, and maybe a smidgen of The Kinks thrown in for added texture? Why not? What Cheap Trick does well is they don’t merely mimic their musical heroes, they work them into their own formula.
Where this disc slips for me is there isn’t enough attention paid to Zander’s vocals (and, subsequently, lyrics primarily written by Nielsen). There are some important messages in songs like “Daddy Should Have Stayed In High School,” had they been brought forward more in the mix by producer Jack Douglas.
Cheap Trick features a band still discovering who they were and where they fit into the whole scene. So, you’re not going to find the huge hits on this one. You will, however, find tracks such as “The Ballad Of T.V. Violence (I’m Not The Only Boy),” “He’s A Whore,” “Taxman (Mr. Thief)” and the hauntingly beautiful “Mandocello.”
Other than the lyrics losing power, the biggest flaw with this disc is it’s not always the easiest disc to listen to. These songs require you to pay attention; a casual listen will leave you thinking there was no substance to this disc. I know... I made that mistake when I was younger, and even found myself struggling while listening to it for this review.
I realize I’m overlooking the bonus tracks thrown on to the reissue... honestly, they do little to add to the original disc, so I’d rather focus on the album as it was released (even though I agree reversing the sides so “Elo Kiddies” led things off on the reissue was the correct move).
All in all, Cheap Trick does prove itself to be a solid first step for the lads from Rockford, Illinois—if one is willing to put the time and attention needed into it. And, perhaps, that’s the reason it just missed denting the Billboard charts—it demanded that the listener actually think.