• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Cheap Trick: Home Town Heroes
By Tim W. BrownCheap Trick has reached another milestone in its long history with the release of its latestalbum,
 Rockford 
. Its appearance is like the publication of a mature poet's new and selected poems, a cause for appreciation and celebration. Named after the band's hometown of Rockford,Illinois – which, incidentally, was where I was born and raised, so it's like a double celebrationfor me – 
 Rockford 
recaptures Cheap Trick's signature sound melding hard rock and Beatlesesqueharmonies. Like that elder poet releasing his selected poems, Cheap Trick peaked in popularity25 years ago, maintained a constant flow of better or lesser work, and came back with avengeance late in life. Listening to
 Rockford 
has prompted me to think about their early career and my proximity to it.
Rockford 
, the Album
“Cheap Trick’s latest,
Rockford
 , is their strongest collection since
Heaven Tonight
. Rock n Roll  Hall of Fame, take notice.”
– Rockgod (iTunes Customer Review)Cheap Trick yanks out every rabbit, scarf and dove from their bag of not-so-cheapmusical tricks in
 Rockford 
. In "Welcome to the World," the album's strong opener, and the prototypical headbanger "Come On Come On Come On," singer Robin Zander displays his bestPlant screech over Zeppelinesque riffs. Elsewhere, he delivers the lyrics more quietly, as in "OClaire," a creepy ballad in the tradition of 1978’s "Heaven Tonight," or "If It Takes a Lifetime"wherein it sounds like he's French-kissing the mic. Zander slyly bends up and down the ends of  phrases like George Harrison, reminding you that Cheap Trick's Beatles sound always echoedGeorge’s songs much more than John, Paul or Ringo’s. Just listen to the vocal harmonies on"Dream Tonight": they're lifted straight out of George's cuts on the
White Album
.
1
 
"One More" opens with Bun E. Carlos' trademark punchy solo drum intro after whichguitar whiz Rick Nielsen takes over. Nielsen plops down heavy riffs everywhere, chordsmodulating chromatically upward in key, another Cheap Trick trademark, sounding like theswamp monster climbing stairs. He particularly shows off his gutsy grunge in "Perfect Stranger."This song reminds you that Nielsen practically invented grunge – the style’s heavy guitar soundcoupled with snappy melodies started with him. Hence, the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corganand others' long-standing interest in the band. Actually, I once saw Corgan get up onstage and play guitar on a couple of tunes with Cheap Trick. He couldn't keep up.
Rockford, the City
“In Rockford there is always a lot of talk about negativism.... When people talk about negativismin Rockford, they are talking not about some new condition brought on by standard urban problems, but about some element in the city’s character that evolved from history or geographyor chance – an element that would be present in the best of times.”
– Calvin Trillin,
The NewYorker 
, November 1976Cheap Trick emerged in the mid-to-late 1970s at the height of post-Vietnam malaise.Ford, then Carter, two of the most feckless leaders in American history, were the presidents.There was an energy crisis that sent gas prices through the roof. The overall economy was in ashambles, whipped and beaten by recession and inflation. The Japanese were kicking our buttsindustrially and the Iranians were blackmailing our asses diplomatically. American industrial prowess had reached its nadir with the AMC Gremlin and Ford Pinto (which sometimes blew upwhen rear-ended). No city in the country was affected more direly by the confluence of negative nationaland international events than Rockford. An insufficiently diverse industrial base, an absence of natural and cultural resources, and a lack of foresight on the part of local business leaders andgovernment officials led to growing unemployment, rising crime and spreading disaffection.
2
 
What the city needed was jobs, but what it had was an overabundance of waterbed stores, theoriginal blueprint for deindustrialization, causing formerly well-paid factory workers to settle for lower paying service sector jobs. It got so bad in 1976-77 that the superintendent of schoolscanceled all athletics, because the school system had gone broke and voters turned down areferendum to raise school taxes, a situation commemorated by Calvin Trillin in his 1976
 NewYorker 
article titled "Schools Without Money." I didn’t play sports, but I was an already talented,future All-State tubist, so I was relieved when the cost-cutters, recognizing music had someacademic value, fortunately spared band and orchestra.In the sorry wake of the 70s, the city’s population steadily declined during the 80s and90s. If thousands of people voting with their feet were not enough, journalists regularly pointedto the undesirability of life in Rockford. Every year Rockford comes in near the bottom of 
Money
 
Magazine
’s annual "Best Places to Live" feature. Examining areas like employment,schools, taxes, crime, environment, health care and recreation, the magazine rates the threehundred largest metropolitan areas in the United States. In 1996 Rockford beat out allcompetitors and finished in three-hundredth place, dead last, behind such earthly paradises asGary, Indiana and Flint, Michigan.In short, Rockford exuded destroyed confidence and low expectations in those days (andinto the present). However, a handful of our number, the four members of Cheap Trick, rose fromthe wreckage of our city and made a big splash on the world musical stage. What's more, theystayed true to their Rockford roots and expressed the aspirations of those of us left behind livingin a post-industrial wasteland. Their virtuosity appealed to our work ethic, and their ballsy soundflattered our tough self-image. Cheap Trick enabled the average Rockford resident to overcometwo broken arms and reach around to give himself a pat on the back.
3
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...