Cheap Trickery

The music's up loud... and we don't care

Zipping back to my early days of high school, I find myself watching TV one day, the local station.... and there is a guy I recognize from my school playing drums in a band. You know, one of those little local talent shows where people tap dance, sing, and play the spoons. Well, I only slightly knew this guy at the time... he was a friend of a friend (of a friend?), and I did see him wandering the halls of my educational institution now and then. Dave was his name. Long hair and an air about him that said "I'm not like the rest of you". But in a friendly and unchallenging way. Nice guy, really. I got to know him a bit better over time, as my buddies and I played "roadies" for the band at one gig and watched them rehearse a few times. 

So - Dave and his bandmates scored a gig on TV, and I was impressed. They played pretty well, too, certainly better than me. I'm sure it was an unpaid performance, but hey,it was free promotion. The band played a Cheap Trick song... I'm not positive which one, but it might have been Hello There. Anyway, at the time, I stored away this information for later. 

This is where the story of Dave ends and the story of Cheap Trick begins. Dave's TV appearance was my introduction to Cheap Trick. There you go.

Then I went bananas for Cheap Trick. I started collecting their existing records, not in any particular order, but it wasn't long before I had them all. The local record shop had them on sale for just five bucks apiece, so I found it pretty easy to afford them - one by one: Cheap Trick, In Color, Heaven Tonight, Cheap Trick at Budokan, Found All the Parts, and Dream Police.

Those were good times, spinning all of those great 70's rockers, ballads and pop songs. Cheap Trick became my favourite band, and I think my obsession with them pre-dated my immersion in Rush just a bit later. I even owned two copies each of Dream Police and ... At Budokan, one on vinyl and one on rickety old 8-track tape, if you can believe it. Years later, I'd replace those with cassette tapes and then CDs. Oh, how those recording companies (and artists hopefully) cleaned up on my multiple purchases of the same album.

After All Shook Up came out in 1980, I sort of lost touch with the band. Rush was number one for me by then and my tastes were rapidly veering deep into heavy metal territory. Sabbath and Maiden and Scorpions were gaining footing in my music collection. But occasionally I'd hear a new Cheap Trick song and would then come running back to revisit those great old tunes. The soundtrack for the movie Heavy Metal featured two terrific CT tracks, I Must Be Dreamin' and Reach Out. My friends and I loved that soundtrack, playing it constantly at our respectable gatherings.

Collectible? Hmmm, could be....

Oh, and included in the cool 1980 EP Found All the Parts was a bonus promotional single of Everything Works If You Let It, one of my favourite CT songs. It was the eclecticism of the band that I loved so much. The variety of styles in their catalogue rivaled that of The Beatles, to whom CT was frequently compared. Trick never quite reached the heights of the Fab Four, but they certainly made their mark on the world for a few years, even if their post-70's work was less successful. I'm guilty of not weathering the rough ride with the band. I stopped following them entirely until 1988, when Lap of Luxury put them back on the map with the international hit ballad The Flame (which plays everywhere nowadays, and sadly, which many younger people cite as the best CT song ever). Good song.... excellent guitar solo.... but it doesn't touch their 70's output. 

A few years back I filled in some of the gaps in my Trick CD collection, but I intentionally left some holes. Maybe I'll eventually try out those remaining albums and see what I think. I did, however, get their latest, called The Latest, released in 2009. Pretty good for a band whose glory days were decades in the past. The talent is still there, instrumentally, vocally, and perhaps to a lesser extent, in the songwriting department. Still....

Fast forward to 2011 and I'm standing with my daughter just a bottle cap's flick from the stage at an outdoor music festival. Cheap Trick is looking awesome, about four songs into their set. Then a blast of wind sent from deep space tore through the stage.... we were too close to the mayhem to stick around so we turned and ran for our lives. It was scary! The stage supports buckled and the roof and everything came tumbling down. Rain bucketed down and high winds ripped through the festival grounds. I thought a tornado was descending upon us. But that wasn't the case. Just that one massive gust, enough to ruin the day for everyone. 

It was a miracle no lives were lost that day. But I sure hated missing out on the one opportunity I had to see Cheap Trick up close. Well, they still tour, so maybe I'll get my chance again sometime.