We're All OK

Cheap Trick - Surrender



Cliche Alert: This song contains more rock cliches per song minute than any song I've reviewed yet and, by all probability, will ever review. It's like every 70s American rock band decided to have a gangbang in the Stones' living room while The Darkness humped The Beatles' leg.

In short, you have:
(1) More slickly produced power chords than all of Tom Scholz sexed-up, soft focus Baywatch fantasies, courtesy of walking guitar stand and permanently baseball-capped (rebel!) Rick Neilson
(2) Castrato vocal fills
(3) The Generation Gap, addressed lyrically
(4) More rim shot drum fills than a bad comedy evening
(5) Iconic lyrics such as "losers of the year" and "We're all alright"
(6) Harmonised backing vocals, sounding like a drunken Beach Boys

Basically, the end result is The Who's My Generation reimagined for a car advert by a particularly untalented coked-up advertising exec. Score 1 to the British Invasion.

Rock Nutter Scale Scores?
(1) Must have done enough drugs to kill a regiment of dutch soldiers
Unless you count the collection of rare guitars as drugs, then nothing. And this scale doesn't. No points.
(2) Must have been to prison more times than the neck tattoo fairy
Nope. In fact, Rockford, Illinois has made April 1 "Annual Cheap Trick Day", obviously in recognition of their complete and utter lack of rock nutterness. No points.
(3) Must be reknowned for wild and destructive behavior
See above
(4) Should have a proper pseudonym
If Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander are pseudonyms, they're shitty ones. No points.
(5) Should have a suitably weird history
They're about as weird as peanut butter. On toast. No points.

So, the song is one big rock and roll cliche, in terms of nutterdom the band are basically as boring as pensioners, and the enduring legacy of this song is something along the lines of "thank you Cheap Trick, for Blink 182 and Bryan Adams". It should be rubbish, right? Right? It probably is, but it's likeable. Cheap Trick weren't rock stars, they were just a bunch of guys who defined the term 'Big In Japan'. They didn't trash hotel rooms or beat up supermodels, they made modest power pop for an adoring audience (mainly in Tokyo - their inexplicable popularity in Japan has led them to be referred to as The American Beatles over there) with no histrionics or ever attracting attention for anything other than the music. And the result has obviously inspired as many good bands as bad ones - Kurt Cobain described Nirvana as Cheap Trick with louder guitars. Surrender has been covered by everybody from Green Day and Down By Law to Marilyn Manson and Bob Mould. The song's cool. And so are Cheap Trick, for no other reason than being working class heroes.

So, for that, they should be saluted.

Verdict: Worth the price of admission

Tomorrow: The Four Tops - Standing in the Shadows of Love