Poll--The Weakest Link: Cheap Trick CHEAP TRICK (1st album), Round 1

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by LandHorses, Mar 14, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Joisey
    ELO kiddies, ELO kiddies
    What ya gonna do when the lights start shining?

    [​IMG]

    Hi everyone. In the mood to run some Cheap Trick. We're going to start at the beginning and run Cheap Trick's 1st album. This may become an off and on series of their early studio albums through All Shook Up (the famous live album was run). Two songs initially have to go. Vote your weakest links.

    A couple of notes..........
    1. Please vote on these studio versions, not based on live recordings (this is probably more important for In Color, and afterwards).

    2. Hesitant to mention but.....obviously, some of these songs are deal with topics that we're not allowed to discuss on here. Please try not to get in any discussions that might derail threads. If you don't like those songs, please just vote them off. Thanks.

    Discussion question: When did you hear this album for the first time, and what did you initially think of it?
     
  2. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    Speak Now and Mandochello.

    DQ: 2016-17 after already knowing the live album, Dream Police, and All Shook Up. Some of it I really loved but I wasn’t into the whole thing.
     
  3. grimble

    grimble Forum Resident

    Location:
    Metroland, UK
    This wasn't released in the UK until after Dream Police, so its rawness came as quite a surprise to me, barely into my teens at the time.

    Hot Love and Cry Cry, but I love them all
     
    Zoot Marimba likes this.
  4. Stencil

    Stencil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lockport, IL
    Its hard to pick 2 bad songs off this album. It truly is Side 1 and Side A as it said on the original vinyl. I first heard this album in late 1977 when a friend recommended it to me. Went to see them at a small bar near Joliet, Illinois. It was packed and an amazing show. Saw them several times after until their shows got too populated to be enjoyable. My favorite memory is seeing them in a small college auditorium where they played Heaven Tonight. Not my favorite song on that album before but they did a great job with it.
     
    Zoot Marimba likes this.
  5. geo50000

    geo50000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canon City, CO.
    "Elo Kiddies" and "Daddy..." I just don't care for these two. Love the rest of the album.
    First heard Side A playing in a record store, and I had to have it.

    The record store clerk who sold me the album later turned out to be the lead singer in a band I joined, we covered "He's A Whore".
     
    Zoot Marimba likes this.
  6. JuanTCB

    JuanTCB Senior Member

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    ELO and Cry Cry

    I first heard this in 1997. I'd only heard Budokan prior - I was absolutely floored.
     
    Zoot Marimba, The MEZ and Strummergas like this.
  7. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Joisey
  8. jeffrey walsh

    jeffrey walsh Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, Pa. USA
    ELO and Cry
     
  9. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    This is a perfect record. There are no weak songs at all. But for the sake of the game I chose 'Ballad' and 'Kiddies' - mostly because I know they'll survive.

    First heard this record in I think it was '86. I was already into Cheap Trick in '78 - '79 but at the time I only had Heaven Tonight, Dream Police and Budokan. I loved them all and even saw the band live.

    On September 28 1979 at the New Haven Coliseum to be exact. With the Laughing Dogs opening (who we hated at the time but I later discovered were a great band.)

    This was during Cheap Trick's brief time as arena headliners. So that was pretty cool. I remember being blown away when they threw out the KISS record during Surrender. Rock and Roll Over if anyone's wondering. There's something about seeing your favorite things validated when you're a kid. Wow, a KISS record in the wild!

    Anyway, I loved Cheap Trick but only had those three records...and the live one wasn't even really mine. I was kind of long-term borrowing it from my brother. I'm not even sure if I knew the debut album existed. It's kind of funny to think about now but as a kid at that time you didn't necessarily even know what records a band had.

    A short time later I got heavily into Van Halen and kind of lost interest in Cheap Trick...and everything else for a while. Everything that wasn't VH that is. Plus CT's commercial fortunes had slipped in the early '80s anyway and they kind of fell off my radar I guess.

    Fast forward to '86 and I'm in a band with a couple other guys around my age (19) and a singer who was a lot older. Like mid-30s or something. Which seemed ancient at the time. Plus this guy was completely crazy. I can't even begin to describe this dude and what he was like. Just totally whacked out.

    But he could sing and he had good taste. This is the guy that first turned me on to Alex Harvey which had a big impact.

    Anyway, this guy wanted to cover He's a Whore. So I went and checked the record out of the library(!), took it home and had my mind completely blown. I could not believe how amazing this record was/is. And from then on my love for Cheap Trick was reignited in a big way. Still to this day they are one of my very favorite bands.
     
  10. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Joisey
    Bump again. Out in a place with bad reception and can’t answer until later
     
  11. ironbutterfly

    ironbutterfly Listening to marky mark in mono

    Lots of bad songs on this album
    I went with speak now and he’s a whore
     
  12. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    I went for Taxman. I don't dislike it but I love all the other tracks too much to vote for them.
     
  13. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Awesome choice! I was actually thinking of starting one on this album myself a few weeks back.

    Taxman and Cry Cry get my votes to go first.
     
  14. edenofflowers

    edenofflowers A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular!

    Location:
    UK
    I'm surprised by the number for votes for 'Daddy'. It's an incredibly intense and dark track, something that a lot of this first album is and something that CT would move away from. I love the sick swagger of the track, it's a wrong'un and it's the menace of it and most of this album that sets it apart from the rest of CT's catalogue. Out of all of CT's albums this is the one that I revisit the most often.

    It's a disturbing, intense, foreboding record and having someone who looks and sounds like Zander singing this material makes it perfect. It's borderline psychotic in places and Zander is like the albums version of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho or Ted Bundy.

    I love what CT became but this album is special, under-heard by those that would write off CT as bubblegum rock and underappreciated by fans of the bands larger body of work.

    In my mind it always starts with Hot Love and ends with Oh Candy. That was the track listing on my original US pressing and also the first CD copy I got of it. It sounds right to my ears ending with the unresolved conclusion of Oh Candy as opposed to the abrasive jarring ending of TV Violence. Both work really well but old habits die hard and I like ending on the sad sweetness of Oh Candy.
     
    DME1061 and Geee! like this.
  15. Love this album! It's still a somewhat unknown LP. It actually flopped on its release and did not even chart in the Top 200. Still, it's one of the more timeless 70's albums & hasn't aged one iota.

    "Today money rules and everybody steals it"
     
    geo50000 likes this.
  16. DME1061

    DME1061 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    Love all of the songs, but for the sake of playing....."Cry Cry" and "Mandocello". I heard and owned In Color and Heaven Tonight before this one, but loved it as much as those two. Saw them back in 2015 in Red Bank, NJ and they did "Hot Love" and "Daddy" that night. Hard to believe that those 1st three classic albums were all released in just a little over a year!
     
  17. This is a cruel weakest link...

    I came by the debut after hearing all the other first 6. It is tied #1 as my favorite from them. I have it ranked as my #32 favorite of all time & #2 of 1977 (behind Exodus).

    "Cry, Cry" although it's a really nice groove and great, mumbling Zander vocal.
    "Hot Love" has great guitar work and is sweetly gritty. Just not a strong enough lead off track (I prefer "Elo Kiddies" as lead off)
     
    owsley likes this.
  18. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    Totally agree, not a good weakest link candidate at all. I give this lp a 9.5. It's probably my favorite lp of the punk/new wave era. Every song is a well written and a winner. CT's best album by far IMO.
    Oh Candy is just a total jaw dropper and stuns me every time I play it with those incredible power chords and that totally unexpected Roy Wood style wah-wah solo. I rank Candy up there with Big Star's September Gurls as greatest power pop songs of all time. The rest of the lp is nearly as flawless.
    I would concur Cry Cry and Hot Love are arguably the weakest , only because the other 8 are total killers. Those two weak links are probably the best tracks on anyone else's lp. The only other track that some may consider worst may be High School only because of the disturbing subject matter. However no record reviews I ever read of it at the time ever made any big deal about it.
     
    Geee! likes this.
  19. readr

    readr Forum Resident

    Heck, they're a worthy of staying....but I took out Cry, Cry and Daddy this time....but I love this entire album.
     
  20. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    I've always felt it was a better title than song.
     
    geo50000 likes this.
  21. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Joisey
    I'm kind of a later-comer to Cheap Trick. I remember the live "I Want You To Want Me" on the radio from back in the day, but they were a group where I liked what I heard on the radio, but didn't venture beyond that.....(the Grateful Dead were my main interest). I started taking interest when the 1998 CDs with the bonus tracks came out. Bought them all figuring it was a good time to start. I loved this album right away.
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Elo Kiddies
    Hot Love

    I first heard Cheap Trick via Dream Police ... I bought that album, Budokan and One On One, and really liked them all.
    I ended up getting the first three years later. I enjoyed them all, for different reasons. This album was a little more raw and Neilson was still polishing his songwriting
     
  23. intv7

    intv7 Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    Cry Cry
    Daddy Should've Stayed In High School

    Tough to pick songs here...I may have to bow out of future rounds.

    First heard the album in the mid-'90s...maybe '94 or '95, when I set about buying the entire CT catalog. I didn't like it much on first listen, I thought it wasn't polished enough and too embryonic compared to their later albums. I grew to love it over a relatively short period of time and now I think it's one of their better efforts.
     
  24. LandHorses

    LandHorses I contain multitudes Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Joisey
  25. MPLRecords

    MPLRecords Owner of eleven copies of Tug of War

    Location:
    Lake Ontario
    Darn, missed the voting! Would've picked "Cry Cry" and "Daddy Should've Stayed In High School" anyway, though.

    DQ: I heard it in 1978 through a friend of mine, and thought it was a fairly good rock album. Nothing more, nothing less.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine