Episode 42: Cheap Trick and Rick Neilson

Let’s go back to 1979. Cheap Trick reigned supreme! Rick Neilson’s chaotic control of his band brings them in by the thousands. From selling out concert halls to selling millions of records worldwide. His mixture of chaos and structure seems to work but it does leave you scratching your head while rocking out. Listen and find out more about this successful rock band where rock and roll show meets one man circus. 

Contact the show: jaysrockandrollstories@gmail.com

Transcript

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Hello, baby. Hey there, how you doing? I haven't seen you in so long. You look great. You got a little haircut, huh? You look good. You're welcome. Anyway, hello, back to you, back to me. Let's do it. Rock and roll, let's see. Welcome back to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. It's been a while. I'm your host Jay. It's been quite a while. That sometimes just life gets in the way and just you. You know what I mean? Anyway, what are we gonna do today? We are going to talk about Um Cheap Trick and their uh lead guitarist Rick Nielsen. And this episode is a special episode. I'm dedicating this episode to someone who's been in my life for a very long time. It was their favorite uh band when they were a young human being. And let's see, I'm gonna dedicate this episode. We'll keep it anonymous. Let's just say we'll make up a name. This episode is dedicated to Scooter. Scooter. Scooter, this episode is dedicated just for you. So, Rick Nielsen, cheap trick. So I'm um I'm getting all my uh all my all of this, I all the stories and stuff come from this episode of uh no sorry, this edition of Guitar Player magazine from November 1979. And it's it's pretty much about just Rick Nielsen. The lead guitarist at Cheap Trick. Let me just a really quick thing about Cheap Trick. Uh let's go over like stats really quick, you could call it. Um their single, I Want You to Want Me, that sold a million copies. The albums In Color, Heaven Tonight, they both sold over 500,000 copies. Their album, Cheap Trick Live at Boudicon, double double platinum, which means it sold over 2 million copies. That that album was freaking huge. When they were they're really, really big in Japan. And the when they toured Japan uh for that album, the 12,000 seat uh Boudicon Hall was sold out by phone in like 36 hours. Let's um let's do like a description of the band. I always thought like looking at the band themselves, if you like a picture of them all together, I've always kind of like I could describe them as sort of like a a thrift store ragtag superhero team. So you got you let let's start with the drummer. The drummer's name is Bun E. Carlos, and uh journalists uh from that time describe him looking like a, for example, a 1940s bank clerk, a tire salesman, or a Panamanian coffee exporter. Or simply he just looked like J. Edgar Hoover. That's Bun E. Carlos. Their rhythm guitar and vocals, that's Robin Xander. He's like this, like the blonde pretty boy of the band, sculpted good looks, um, expensive duds. The bass player, also, Tom Peterson, he's like a good-looking guy, glamorous stage presence. Um, Tom Peterson is also uh he's the the the bass player and he has a a collection of um collection of uh bass guitars, just kind of like how John Etwistle from The Who had like a giant John Etwistle from The Who had a room dedicated to bass guitars. Also, another person who has a lot of guitars is the main topic of today, Rick Nielsen, their uh lead guitar player. Also lead lead guitar player, songwriter, he really Rick Nielsen really, really uh this is kind of like his band. Um he has a he has a giant collection of guitars. He's he's like uh the ringleader. You you could you could call him uh like a carnival barker, you know. Uh the magazines call him as or like a it was quoted in a magazine saying Rick Nielsen is Jimmy Page with a squirting rubber flower, you know, like the clown with the thing. So he's he's kind of like a goofy guy, doesn't take himself seriously at all. Um Rick Nielsen is is described as the goofiest nerd in study hall. This combination of um singer, bass player, like the heartthrob-looking pretty boys, and then you have the nerd boy guitar player, and then you have like a like a schmucky, like a like a schmuck schlepping around on the drums. Um from the beginning, Rick Nielsen was playing music since like uh the mid to late 60s in the band called Fuse, also a band called uh Grim Reaper, which is a pretty cool freaking name for a rock and roll band. But then that kind of switched over to Cheap Trick before I mean before they got famous. Rick Nielsen he he had so many guitars that he was just selling guitars to to famous rock rock and roll stars. Like he tells a story about in the magazine how he went to a Jeff Beck concert in 1971, and uh Jeff's guitar slipped off the strap and smashed to the ground, and the headstock broke. So after the concert, he went back, he was able to get backstage and he was like, hey, listen, here's my number. If you're you're if you're still doing your tour, you need you need some guitars, give me a call. And they called him, and uh they bought a bunch of guitars off of Rick Nielsen. Like he was like wheeling and dealing with like guitars. So he sells guitars to geez, the members of Yes, it's it's like uh Johnny, uh, what's his name? Edward Winner. Um so during the time, the very beginning of uh Cheap Trick, late 60s, early 70s, they're doing small clubs, and with with you know, and then creating their albums, they get a little famous, they start doing arenas, and uh Rick Nilsen describes doing arena like what what do you like the question from interviewer was like, Can you describe doing the clubs versus doing arenas? Like what's the difference between between the two? And Rick Nilsen says, Well, yeah, playing at the the arenas, like the the food was really lousy. He's he he doesn't take himself seriously at work at work, yeah. He doesn't take himself seriously at all. Um but he's dedicated like uh this band, Cheap Trick, like he talks about Rick Nielsen talks about in uh almost all the albums, half of the songs are done in one take. Like they get together, record one time, and then just like add stuff on it. Like that's that's pretty cool. Um that's where the magic happens in those one or two takes, you know. Anything after that, it's just like it's just becomes kind of monotonous. It just it just it takes the spirit and the soul out of it. So they would like uh he one one take, add some more stuff on it. I think it was I don't remember if it was Oscar Peterson or Thelonius Monk, the the the jazz musicians, who said, I think it was Thelonius Monk, he said that uh in the studio we got two takes. Alright, you screw it up on the first take, you get one more. You screw it up on that take, I'm putting your name really big on the back of the record. This is the guy who fucked it all up. I I don't know, because there's there's something just I mean, I've I've been in a couple bands, I've I've recorded and played with with other musicians. It's just if you have a song, that first take, that's the magic one, right? Feels good. You know, once once you if you spend the entire day on one song, it's like, oh fucking Christ almighty, what are we doing? It just it's not fun anymore. Anyway, um I spent at work uh the good day, the whole day listening to like the first four Cheap Trick albums, and it it's good stuff. Um I mean Cheap Trick, you you like everyone knows those songs. I want you to want me, you know. Or uh what are the other ones? You know, the the one the the non-radio hits, like there's some really good music. These guys, it's um it's it's like it's not punk, but it's not glam, it's really like kind of high spirited like rock and roll. It's it's it's kind of goofy, tongue-in-cheek in a way. It's uh it's cool. It's like it's it's like party music. So let's see here. Here's some good songs uh I recommend from the first couple albums. Actually, the first album is great. Hello Kitties, He's a Whore, Mando Cello, Tex Man Miss Mr. Thief, Oh Candy, uh Alf Wiedershin, Here Tonight. Great, great songs. Another song they did, um, Southern Girls. This is interesting here because this the song Southern Girls came out in 1977. The song sounds very similar to a song by Big Star called September Girls that came out in I think '74. Um speaking of uh the band Big Star, Big Star was I I have to do an episode on Big Star. I I read a fantastic book about the lead singer of Big Star. That was Alex Chilton. Uh the book's called A Man Called Destruction. Fantastic book. He was a lead singer at Box Tops, and then Big Star. But uh Big Star wrote the song uh Out in the Street. I think that was like '72 on their first album, number one record by Big Star. Um Cheap Trick redid that song for the show, That 70s show. So when you hear that That 70s show, um, that theme song is um was by a band called the Big Star. And and then that's like Cheap Trick kind of got like um, they just kind of came out of the shadows and came back in every once in a while. I remember in the 90s, for example, um what's his name? Billy Corrigan and James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins would always mention uh Cheap Trick, like in interviews and stuff. And then the the that TV show, that 70s show with the theme song of that Cheap Trick did, they re-recorded that song in I think 1998 or 1999. So it's kind of funny how Cheap Trick just kind of never really disappeared. They always they always kind of just um had like reunion concerts, they were like inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which I really don't give a rat's ass about, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I don't think anybody really well the audience does, you know, but I it it it's meaningless, right? Today we're inducting Chuck Berry and the Beastie Boys on the same day. No, what? No, alright, anyway, so back to the uh interview from the magazine. He talks a lot about how um he need he needs the stage, like Rick Nielsen, the guitar player. He's never gonna just sit on a stool or a chair and play guitar, he uses the whole stage to walk around. And like as I said, he's kind of like uh the leader of the show, the carnival barker, you know, and and he kind of gets the audience into it. He he likes to throw the picks into the audience and kind of antagonize people in the audience. He doesn't he doesn't take himself seriously, but he's dedicated to his craft. Um the interviewer asks him, Do you have certain solos of yours that you think are particularly good? Any favorites that stand out? He responds, eh, not really, nah. Uh the interviewer asks, um, you seem to have a good time playing other people's styles. A Chuck Berry lick, a Dwayne Eddie lick. Rick responds, oh yeah, and there's even one note that's me, the wrong note. Uh he goes on and says that Rick, he says, I used to play a lot of blues type things. I can play what I think is a very good blues guitar, but it just doesn't seem to fit in with what we do. Play three guitars at once? It's just silly in itself. He's talking about, like, I'm I'm gonna you can see the picture, uploading the picture here. He this is the picture of the of the the cover of the magazine. He has three guitars on him. He's one, two, three. And it's just uh it it's it's it's crazy. It's it's like uh it's like Bozo the Clown meets like Jimi Hendrix or something. Um it's funny in this in this uh in this interview, he he talks shit about Carlos Santana for like half a page, and uh which reminds me right after this episode, I'm gonna do an extra um bonus episode about my Carlos Santana concert that I went to. Um so he talks about how alright, so let me remember what he talked about. Okay, so he he was he was playing with Carlos Santana at a concert. This is the 80s, and at the time Carlos Santana was going through like a like a spiritual kind of um like a like a path, right? And um Carlos Santana adopted the name Deva Dip. It's like a I don't know, Sanskrit or Indian or something, but it's Deva Dip. D-E-V-A-D-I-P. And fucking hell. Rick Nilsen says, yeah, we were watching Carlos Santana, and like, oh, he's like, this is so great. Oh, Carlos Santana is one of my favorite dips. You know, the Deva dip. Like, I mean, it's funny, but it's just just God. And it's it's it kind of everything it it it it makes sense because at the very end of the uh interview the interviewer asks him, would you ever do would you ever do a solo Rick Nielsen album? He's like, solo Rick Nil nick Rick Nielsen album. I wouldn't do one, I would do a bunch. I would do comedy. I would say, hey, take my wife. Oh, come on, remember the you know, and it's just so God, he's so goofy. Um he talks about uh he he starts fucking with the interviewer too. He's like messing with the guy. Um Tom Wheeler, who's interviewing him from Guitar Player Magazine, he asks um oh, so Rick Nilsen says, uh, hey, uh God. He says, if Guitar Player Magazine, if you guys had pictures of like naked girls playing guitar, you would actually get more of an audience. The inner the interviewer just kind of says, like, uh, sure, yeah, I'll I'll mention that. And then he moves on. He says, uh, but what are other things that you do that other guitar players don't do? And Rick responds, I don't know, have a coin collection, collect stamps. And it just kind of the interview just kind of dissipates in that, it just kind of runs out of steam. It's it's funny. Um I think Cheap Trick is a pretty good band. Uh they're it they're they are influenced by a bunch of different things. And uh like I keep comparing them to the band Big Star. If you've never heard the band Big Star, listen to their first two albums. The first album is number one record, 71, 72, and then the second album was uh Radio City, uh 73, 74. Um if if Big Star was like uh the cool kid at school, cheap trick would be like their younger uh Braddy brother with like a slingshot in the back pocket and a whoopee cushion in the other hand. But it's cool. It's it's music that it's it's kind of like party rock. You know, it's it's it really it's cool. It's good stuff. Um Rick Nielsen's a good player, he's a he's a good guitar player, and he really has control of something that it's I like the balance that he has of not taking shit seriously, but at the same time running the boat, like running the ship. So it's like a carnival on a fucking ocean liner, just going down, going fucking through the ocean, but everything is intact, and it but it's just madness. I'm gonna end it there. That was it. It was uh this is a magazine article about uh Rick Nilsen and Cheap Trick. Scooter, hope you liked it. You know, if not, we'll try again. Anyway, so thank you for coming back to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. I know it's been a while. Um, I'm going to do some more stuff. I'm gonna do my uh bonus episode of the Santana concert. A couple interesting things I want to point out that I wonder if anyone else noticed. So if you like that episode, do you like this podcast? I don't know, do uh send me a message at Jay's Rock and Roll Stories at Proton.me. Uh give me five stars, leave a comment, do whatever you gotta do. Uh I hope you have a fantastic day. All right, love you guys. See you next time. Bye bye.