Cheap Trick (1977 album) poll

another tough one

toss-up between elo kiddies, oh candy, and he's a whore...but all of these are awesome...

oh,candy.
everything except tv violence,mandocello, hot love and cry,cry (which i always skip) comes close 2nd.

this album re-define the term "ahead of it's time".
steve albini,for example, owns alot to it, i think.

albini's always been a pretty vocal cheap trick fan. they are like homies and shit. i saw rick nielson on this travel network thing, he was taking the host around chicago places and they went to a record store where he made her buy 1000 hurts by shellac

if you listen to "speak now or.." it sounds like it was produced, and even played by albini and shelllac, or rapeman or whatever

no wonder he chose "he's a whore" to cover for "songs about fucking"

"Oh Candy". This is the weakest prime years Cheap Trick album though.

No way. I find it getting better and better.

it's almost perfect. so amazing in every way. the only reason they didn't make it perfect was so that they wouldn't offend God.

the bonus tracks on the last cd reissue are kinda awesome too. that weirdo pomp queen go-go girls song is nuts

There are some strong songs in there, but there is so much to be desired on the production front. Sounds like they just play through the songs without adding anything special at all. That would be OK if they were The Ramones, but Cheap Trick were a powerpop band!

i totally disagree. i think it sounds phenomenal. you really need to invest in a turntable, geir. i don't think think i've ever even heard a cheap trick album on cd, so i have no idea how good or bad those might sound. i DO know that the first three or four cheap trick albums on vinyl should be some sort of ideal for rock bands to aspire to (sound and production-wise).

this is what POWERpop was meant to sound like! jack douglas = great producer. the trick's best album.

speak now (or forever hold yr peace)

i've been trying to pool some money to get rick nielson to deliver us a pizza but all my friends are poor. ;_;

"but there is so much to be desired on the production front"

what?!

it's a masterpiece of production skills, resulting the perfect combination between metal,post punk and of course power pop, a combination that wasnt created before that, and arguably not as good as this one after, with clear, trebley,and powerfull sound for all the instruments involved.what more can you ask?

on the contrary, i find the production on other CT records as something to be improved.

this iw what i'm talking about, btw.

xpost.

Can't decide. I'll take side A over side 1 though, and always play side A first (so the LP starts with "Hot Love" not "ELO Kiddies").

Oh yeah, same here.

"he's a whore," because it's the one that pops into my head the most often. i love the chord progression on that song, it always goes somewhere a little different than it seems like it's going to.

Can't decide. I'll take side A over side 1 though, and always play side A first (so the LP starts with "Hot Love" not "ELO Kiddies").

The CD version (before the recentish re-ish w/ bonus tracks) did flip the sides, and I thought that's the way it was supposed to be. "Hot Love" is such an awesome opening number, & the same w/ "Oh Candy" closing things out. When I finally bought the reissue, I was totally confused.

Thank you for "convincing" me that this needs to get back on my iPod! :D

Also, I'm not voting (too hard!), but I'd probably end up voting for "Mandocello" because I'm a wuss that always falls for gorgeous swelling bullshit like this.

Another easy one - "He's a Whore"

this is what POWERpop was meant to sound like!

Too much power, not enough pop. That makes it rock, not pop. They got it right around their third album.

And for how great powerpop production is supposed to sound, look to Jellyfish, not Cheap Trick.

'ELO Kiddies', but Geir is OTM

Their best album. The others aren't even close, actually.
Oh Candy.

Another 'ELO Kiddies' vote - I'm starting to wonder if it's my favorite opening track ever.

I too had the original CD with the fucked-up running order (starts with "Hot Love"). I can't imagine it any other way.

What a powerful fucking band. I'm torn between "Whore" and "Candy"...so I'll vote for "Daddy Should Have Stayed In High School" because it doesn't get enough love, and the charm is in the sprawl.

And for how great powerpop production is supposed to sound, look to Jellyfish, not Cheap Trick.

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 20 June 2008 09:24 (4 hours ago) Link

this is one of the most laughably stupid things i've ever seen on ilm. quite an accomplishment.

"And for how great powerpop production is supposed to sound.."

this is the thing: one of the great things about this record is that it doesnt sound like yet another power pop-formula-production-record, the uniqueness lies in tha fact that it isn't exactly power pop, nor heavy metal, or punk or post punk: it's all of them together,and it's far more intersting.
otherwise it will be BANAL.

"Oh, Candy"

this is what POWERpop was meant to sound like! jack douglas = great producer. the trick's best album.

-- m coleman, Thursday, June 19, 2008 7:51 PM (Yesterday)

^^OTM. between this and 'Rocks', Jack Douglas is a god to me.

since the link in Monica's blog is broken ... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280236274506

hahahaha even for geir, that jellyfish statement is a doozy...well done sir!

Well, other than the fact that the album predated Jellyfish by 13 years, I stand by that.

In their time, Cheap Trick could have listened to 10cc, ELO or Queen to learn about production though.

you are the only person who thinks that there is a problem with the production. which is fine. we are all entitled to our opinions. even our crazy wrong ones.

and i'm really glad that this album doesn't sound like an ELO album. or a queen album! even though i love them both. actually, the first queen album isn't THAT far from what cheap trick were going for sonically in some respects.

Oh, Geir Wrongo.

I'm not sure if I'll even vote in this one. Each time I've listened through, my favorite of He's A Whore, ELO Kiddies and Oh, Candy is whatever one I've heard most recently. (Maybe I'll play 'em all at once. That'll do it!)

xpost— Yeah, but the first Queen album sounds so cluttered and indistinct (at least to me, at least my copy) compared to Cheap Trick.

ive just listened to some of this record,and the clear,out of its time production techniques is something that even Steely Dan members can appreciate.

the first queen album isn't THAT far from what cheap trick were going for sonically in some respects.

The first Queen album was low budget and unrepresentative. "Cheap Trick" would have been way better with the "Killer Queen" influenced backing vocals with heavy flanger effects and extremely wide stereo though.

I have come out of retirement to say that the production here is perfect, Jellyfish is not a band that ever existed, and I voted for "ELO Kiddies" because it is bitter and because it is my heart.

the best song no one (including me) is going to vote for is "taxman, mr. thief"

Either their best album or their second best (I'd still probably take the third one, given a choice.) I went with "He's A Whore" (Albini's favorite too, I assume, seeing how Big Black covered it and all.)

Surprised Geir doesn't like the second album (which I've always thought erred too much in the not-rock-enough Big Star direction -- in fact, I'd say it's not as good as All Shook Up or Dream Police, but that's just me) more than the third one.

And Jellyfish were not a powerpop band. Period.

That would be OK if they were The Ramones, but Cheap Trick were a powerpop band!

So were the Ramones, if you really think about it.

I'm a little confused about folks saying early Cheap Trick contains elements of "post-punk," though. Guess it depends how you define the terms; I'm not even sure that music that people now call "post-punk existed in 1977. So Zeno, are you saying they sound like later post-punk stuff, or what? Just curious. What I do hear in their sound is an influence by some of the weird prog-glam type bands (say, Sparks, and maybe Tubes, definitely the Sweet) whose sound would later evolve into certain parts of the new wave. And I'd be just as inclined to believe they were listening to some of the harder-rocking, more metallic, semi proggy stuff to come up out of the cornbelt (say, early Styx or Head East maybe) than to punk. (Have they ever talked, in interviews, about how much they'd heard say the Ramones and Pistols before they recorded their debut? I'm curious now. It's possible, given how high-energy so much '70s hard rock once, that they'd never even heard punk then. Though they were wise guys; they probably read about in Creem, at least. I bet they were listening to loads of glam, though.)

Fuse (Rick Nielsen's pre-Cheap Trick band, album in 1969) were suppposed to be a sort of heavy pyschedelic band, right? (I've never heard them.)

The Who a pretty big influence too, I'd say.

And I'm not discounting Jack Douglas's contribution, obviously. He insured them got that sound. But I'm talking about their songwriting influences; they didn't just rock and pop -- they were weird.

they were definitely sparks fans.

they were big Move fans too and that makes all kinds of sense when you listen to cheap trick early on.

True -- they even covered "California Man" (plus "Brontosaurus," on a 45 that Albini produced years later.)

ok, can we start arguing about "in color" next?

what is it with me and cheap trick and the masons?

cheap trick's in color is still almost perfect.

but it's true. both the debut and in color are almost perfect. i like them both about the same. can still listen to them over and over. it's funny, my brother was a HUGE cheap trick fan when i was a kid, but other than the hits, i didn't really dig them until later in life. my sister was a big fan too. she wore her copy of budokan OUT. the only one i had as a kid was the found all the parts EP and i didn't play it that much.

Surprised Geir doesn't like the second album

I do like it considerably better. After all songs are most important of all and the songs were at times really strong on that one. But it is still a bit lacking in production when compared to "Heaven Tonight".

And Big Star were rather too much rock than not rock enough, particularly from the second album onwards. Powerpop is pop. Some people make the mistake by believing powerpop is "melodic rock", but it isn't. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is melodic rock, powerpop is pop.

^^ this guy.

(Have they ever talked, in interviews, about how much they'd heard say the Ramones and Pistols before they recorded their debut? I'm curious now. It's possible, given how high-energy so much '70s hard rock once, that they'd never even heard punk then. Though they were wise guys; they probably read about in Creem, at least. I bet they were listening to loads of glam, though.)

dunno about whether or not they name-checked the ramones or pistols at all, but the live recordings on their box set date from 1975, and use the same approach/arrangements as their studio stuff.

but they loved the mc5, so there's the "punk" influence. one of the bonus features on the mc5: a true testimonial dvd is a (too-brief) interview with Tom Petersson and Rick Nielsen; they talk about trekking out to chicago to see the mc5, who were opening for the then-all-acoustic tyrannosaurus rex. rick and tom were the only people in the audience who dug the 5, everyone else hated them.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

cheap trick recorded their debut in late 76 though they'd been performing a lot of the material for a couple years before that (along with "southern girls" "come on come on" and more from later albums). it's a safe bet that they'd heard the ramones by that point but nobody in the states had heard the sex pistols in 1976.

but they loved the mc5

sonic smith sat in w/cheap trick for a couple numbers at the second chance in ann arbor circa 76-77.

nobody in the states had heard the sex pistols in 1976

Is this true? The import 45 of "Anarchy in the UK" came out in November, right? Which admittedly is pretty late in the year (maybe later than Cheap Trick recorded), but some Americans must've heard it, I would think.

then they probably did hear it cause rick nielsen was way into UK imports. early on cheap trick covered all kinds of obscure UK stuff like jackie lomax and patt.o

The first Queen album was low budget and unrepresentative. "Cheap Trick" would have been way better with the "Killer Queen" influenced backing vocals with heavy flanger effects and extremely wide stereo though.

-- Geir Hongro

Not such a bad idea - proof that Geir is capable of actual productive posts every once in awhile! But I have no problem with the Jack Douglas production. I actually like "ELO Kiddies" better as an LP-opener, even tho "Hot Love" is the more conventional hi-nrg cut. And still prefer In Color overall.

Faverave: "He's A Whore"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

in honor of the winner

Remember that Big Black "The Model/He's A Whore" single which featured Albini et all reproducing the sleeves of Cheap Trick and The Man Machine? That was priceless.

"Taxman" desreves more love