Triumph - Rock and Roll Machine Documentary

 A little while back, I caught the Triumph documentary Rock and Roll Machine on one of my streaming services. Only weeks later, it appeared on network TV. As soon as I learned about the doc, I was keen to see it ASAP. And I'll tell you why...

Triumph was one of my absolute favourite bands back in the late 70's and early 80's, right after the kings of Canada, Rush, and possibly vying for position with Van Halen and The Police. A friend turned me on to their music, and hearing some of their tunes on rock radio reinforced my interest. When in late 1980, it was announced that Triumph would play a show on the coming New Year's Eve in the big city nearest me, my pal and I made a point of being there. It was a game-changer. My first true concert experience... in a large venue (does the Beatlemania show I saw earlier count?). So my best friend and I reserved our tickets for that evening down the road, and counted the days 'til the big event. More on that here and over here.

Long story short, I was blown away by the big venue experience. Triumph had one of the most impressive high-tech stage shows at the time, with flashpots, explosions, fog effects, and a massive lighting array which included lasers. I was hooked on the whole rock concert thing and this set me off on a long journey into the world of music, attending gigs both small and large.

At one time, I had all of their albums on cassette tape, and then on CD, but as the years wore on, I lost most interest in them (on to heavier pastures with Metallica and Megadeth) and cast off a bunch of my Triumph albums to make room for newer stuff. I do still own a couple of their albums, one on CD (Rock and Roll Machine) and one on vinyl (Just a Game). Good enough.

Fun fact: my ex-wife's uncle, who lived in the Toronto area during Triumph's early days, hung out with the band and even served as their roadie for a time. Before they hit the big-time with arena shows, that is.

Back to the documentary: it gives us a fun and informative overview of Triumph's career, their rise to fame, their unfortunate decline, and slight shuffling of personnel in order to carry on until they packed it in in 1993. A few reunion shows came about in the subsequent decades. Tons of concert and interview footage is fascinating and revealing - and often funny, and I once again felt like a super-fan. After about the mid-80's, after seeing them on their Thunder Seven tour, I sort of forgot about them, or at least stopped following their progress or buying their new releases. I did continue to listen to their earlier work, though they just didn't hold my attention much longer. But this documentary piqued my interest given my nostalgic feelings for the band and their music. And that milestone first concert experience.

So.... if you are a Canadian rock fan of a certain age (or any age, I say), I highly recommend this doc to immerse you in a wave of great nostalgic hard rock, Canuck style. Rock out, roll on...

In the Listening Room

I haven't found much time for proper music listening lately. I might pop on a CD while I cook dinner or something, but to actually sit down and pay attention to what I'm listening to, well, that hasn't happened much in a while. But I'm working at carving out an hour or two on weekends to spin some of my records. Those things I've been working at collecting for the past four years.

A young suave Roy Orbison, shades intact, pluckin' his geetar

This weekend has been pretty good for tunes. I dusted off a couple of records that were given to me about a year ago. They were in a stack of albums, most of which were of great interest. I cleaned up and dedicated some time to those immediately cool ones, but set aside a couple that I was doubtful about. But lo and behold... that old, very rough around the edges copy of The Roy Orbison Collection (on Jukebox Records) plays very nicely and introduced me to some great music. Of course, I knew the biggies on there, like Crying, Oh Pretty Woman, and Only the Lonely, but all those unknowns impressed me, too. My knowledge of Roy's history is pretty much non-existent, but I sort of gather that he was operating in the same era as Elvis on the rock'n'roll timeline, right? And I can hear parallels in Orbison's music. The production, the arrangements, the strings and vocal accompaniments... not unlike Elvis' material. Great songwriting that stands the test of time.

Then I had a hankering for some Styx on vinyl, so I chose Cornerstone (1979), a really strong set of songs that range from the ballad Babe to sleek pop-rocker Lights to the folk-rock of Boat on the River. This was Styx's first Top 5 album in the States, thanks mainly to Babe, which went to #1 on Billboard and was everywhere during my early high school days. It's glossy ear-candy for rockers, and even though I wasn't really a fan back then, I can appreciate it a lot now. Great musicianship and songwriting... stuff that holds up amazingly well today.

I also popped my vinyl copy of the new Voivod album, Synchro Anarchy, on the turntable. While this isn't bowling me over immediately the way their previous recording (The Wake) did, repeated listenings reveal fascinating aspects of the band's creativity. Voivod have morphed themselves several times during their career, from the punk thrash of the first two albums to the technical sci-fi metal of the late 80's, on to stripped down progressive, then a lighter almost radio-friendly sound, then veering back toward their heavier prog-thrash style. The Wake was a true return to form, in my opinion, and Synchro sort of branches off from that, with not quite as big a sound, but amping up the complexity. Loads of apocalyptic sci-fi lyrical meanderings, most of which I can't make head nor tale out of, yet it's engaging and somehow works. That's what Voivod succeeds at.... making their brand of chaos seem perfectly natural. It's not for everyone, but I dig it.

I have Elvis' first album (1956) playing on Youtube as I write this. I'm giving it a couple of test listens to see if this is something I'd like to add to my record collection. While I do enjoy that early roots rock'n'roll vibe and sound, there aren't enough songs that really grab me. Blue Suede Shoes is a given, with a handful of other neat ones. For now, I'll stick with my three vinyl compilations and about five more on CD. At least there's a lot of coverage of his hits plus some slightly lesser known tracks. All timeless classics that I never tire of. All hail The King.

Songs About Sickness... Music For What Ails You

Not to be morbid here, but a while back, after a little bout with the virus that's been floating around the planet, I got to thinking about songs about illness or anything related, like doctors, medication, and so on. So just for "fun", off the top of my head, I came up with a bunch of ill tunes. Yup, sick of it all.

Some of the songs are not specifically about physical illness, but are related to the seemingly feverish state of love, or of other things that fog the brain and weaken the body. So here's my modest list of sick songs... take two and call me in the morning:

Love is the Drug, Roxy Music

Catscratch Fever, Ted Nugent

Boogie Fever, The Sylvers

Saturday Night Fever & Stayin' Alive, BeeGees

Sick as a Dog, Aerosmith

Fever & Burning Up, Kylie Minogue

Bad Medicine, Bon Jovi

Calling Doctor Love, Kiss

Somebody Get Me a Doctor, Van Halen

Hot Blooded, Foreigner

Sick Again, Led Zeppelin

Fever, Peggy Lee

Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor), Robert Palmer

Medication, Garbage

Lithium, Nirvana

Industrial Disease, Dire Straits

Spreading the Disease, Queensryche

I Want a New Drug, Huey Lewis & the News

Dr. Feelgood, Motley Crue

Poison Was the Cure, Megadeth

Get well soon!

New Addition to the Record Shelf AND Is Cheap Trick Cool Again?

So here's a funny co-incidence:

A couple of weeks ago I bought a nice gently used 70's issue of Cheap Trick's live At Budokan album on vinyl. The very next week, I learned of the announcement that the band would be coming to my city in the fall. Unfortunately, they are only playing support act to... Rod Stewart?! Nah, I'll give it a pass. I was never a Rod fan, and he is WELL past his prime. Plus the steep ticket prices scare me off what would be a very short Cheap Trick set, probably less than an hour. What a weird pairing, though, eh?

As for that record, it's in really nice condition and plays like it's brand new. It's the only live album I know I'll listen to (not a live recording fan normally), so it was worth grabbing to complete my early-era Trick vinyl collection. A very reasonable price, too. In a live context, the band really heavies up classics like Look Out, Come On Come On, Surrender, and I Want You To Want Me, and I love the CT hard rock treatment of Ain't That a Shame... its extended intro with guitar and drum solos stands alone in history for me. I also have a thing for the dark and heavy vibe of Need Your Love, which would arrive a bit later on the Dream Police studio album.

After spinning and thoroughly enjoying that LP, I remembered that I had two other versions of the album on CD (not to mention another vinyl copy, which is unplayable). The first is At Budokan: The Complete Concert, which includes an assembly of all 19 songs played at two Japan shows. The other edition is Cheap Trick - Budokan!, a 30th Anniversary release. This package is bursting with previously-unreleased material, including a CD of the same setlist on the Complete Concert, bonus tracks from other live performances, and a DVD of 15 songs that were filmed live at those shows for Japanese TV. That live video was what prompted me to jump on that purchase. Live vintage 70's Trick!

It can be a bit confusing with this mangled history of the album. Apparently the original At Budokan was actually an edited down compilation of songs pulled from two different concerts. The Complete Concert contains one version of every song they played at those shows, where setlists varied slightly. Then the live video was a selection of those songs. Whew.

Now...

Something has struck me lately, and it is that Cheap Trick, 1970's rock superstars, have never completely left the public consciousness. They reached their peak in the late 70's with their live At Budokan and studio Dream Police albums. After that, there was sporadic success with hit singles (like The Flame in '88), but they weren't on the tip of everyone's tongue any longer. And even though I was a huge fan up until Dream Police or maybe even All Shook Up (1980), I lost interest in following the band any longer. I was moving on to heavier, proggier music while keeping the classic-era Rick and Company music close to my heart.

Cheap Trick never stopped touring and recording, though. They have, according to Wikipedia, played more than 5,000 concerts, released over 20 albums, and sold more than 20 million units  over the course of their career. And still going.

It's interesting though how I've noticed a nod to this seminal "cult" band in a couple of movies and a TV show I saw recently. I'm certain there are many more references to the Trick in film (Top Gun, Heavy Metal, and so on), but just within the past couple of weeks, I noted some neat ones. I watched, for the first time, 10 Things I Hate About You, a 1999 teen comedy which is okay but nothing to write home about. The final scene and credits were backed by a cover version of I Want You To Want Me by indie band Letters To Cleo (never heard of them before). We actually see the band playing the song high up on a rooftop. Cool to see this, with a decent instrumental interpretation, though the vocals were kind of touch-and-go.

Then in episode 8 of the 2020 TV series High Fidelity (cancelled, sadly), we are treated to that exact same song - I Want You To Want Me, as part of the soundtrack, as played by Cheap Trick. And then there's the Simon character in the show, who is frequently wearing the same Trick T-shirt. A pretty good re-interpretation of the story (the book and the original movie adaptation).

Another recent Cheap Trick sighting was in the 2009 movie Bandslam, a pleasantly fun teen music flick. That same song, a popular one of course, shows up in an early scene. The kid who shows up to hear the teen band play for the first time gets to hear a super rough version of the tune. The girl has a pretty good singing voice but it doesn't really suit the song all that well. And sloppy guitar. Still, neat seeing this modern-day nod to one of my favourite all-time bands.

Though my affection for the band is rooted far in the past, a warm nostalgic feeling sweeps over me when I see acknowledgement of Rick and boys. Well.... back to Budokan.

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For more on Cheap Trick, check these posts:

Cheap Trickery

Cheap Trick Hits #1 in U.S. - 1988