{"id":13078,"date":"2017-08-08T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=13078"},"modified":"2017-08-01T10:25:59","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T14:25:59","slug":"still-on-top-of-the-world-cheap-tricks-tom-petersson-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/08\/still-on-top-of-the-world-cheap-tricks-tom-petersson-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Still on Top of the World: Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Petersson recalls the early days when the band was playing clubs. \u201cPeople would come up to us and go, ‘God, I love your band, but you ought to dress your guitar player up like [Jimi] Hendrix.’ Or, ‘We kind of love your band, but when is your drummer going to get with it? You ought to dress him up like David Bowie.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Such unsolicited advice wasn’t limited to garden-variety fans, either. \u201cKim Fowley had a funny idea,\u201d Petersson recalls. The L.A. scenester and self-styled Svengali was an early fan of Cheap Trick when the band was without a deal and playing clubs like the Starwood. \u201cThere’d be eight people in the audience,\u201d Petersson laughs, \u201cand two of them were Ron and Russell Mael from Sparks. And Kim was one of the other ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bassist continues with the story. \u201cHe came up to us and said, ‘I love your band, but you know what you ought to do to really make yourself stand out? Get dressed up and made up like 90 year old men! They’d see you come out there with walkers and canes, and then you\u2019d just get out there and just rock out. People would be completely flipped out!’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course Cheap Trick passed on that suggestion. But the 67-year-old Petersson quips, \u201cI guess naturally that’s what we are now.\u201d But since Fowley passed away in 2015, \u201che can’t see his idea reaching fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheap Trick did establish its own branding quite early; the band’s logo is nearly universally recognized. But Petersson blanches at any comparison to his band’s marketing\/branding approach with that of another band that came to popularity in the 1970s. \u201cWell, as opposed to KISS, <\/b><\/i>what we did was really natural,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really was just our personalities; we just were who we were. It wasn’t like all of a sudden, ‘Okay now you’re<\/i> going to be a horse, and you’re<\/i> going to be a snake, and you’re<\/i> going to be a Martian, and then we’re going to roll in on…\u201d The conversation dissolves into laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn’t like we were some masters of marketing,\u201d Petersson insists. \u201cIt wasn’t like we were on toothpaste tubes and you can buy our coffin or whatever; it was nothing like that. Maybe we should<\/i> have had a marketing plan; maybe that’s where we missed the boat!\u201d<\/p>\n

Things did begin to go a bit sideways for Cheap Trick around the time of 1985’s Standing on the Edge<\/i>. On the surface, that disc was another solid collection of original tunes, highlighted by the hit \u201cTonight’s It’s You,\u201d one of the best exemplars of the oft-maligned \u201cpower ballad\u201d subgenre. But somewhat ominously, \u201csong doctor\u201d Mark Radice would be co-credited on 8 of the record’s ten tracks. Petersson says that Epic was pressuring the band to change their sound in a bid for greater commercial success (i.e. a hit). \u201cIt was like, ‘You guys are great, but boy, you’d be even better<\/i> if you sounded like somebody else.’ Bringing song doctors \u2026 that’s not the way we think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things went even farther afield on the next release, 1986’s The Doctor<\/i>. Perhaps the least appreciated entry in the Cheap Trick catalog, The Doctor<\/i> bore the fingerprints of a large cast of outside meddlers. For the band’s next release, 1988’s Lap of Luxury<\/i>, even more song doctors got involved. And \u2013 fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it \u2013 Cheap Trick scored a massive hit single. Petersson says that the label executives had told the band, \u201c’Oh, if you want to get on the radio you’ve got to do this<\/i>,’ and of course no one was ever correct about that. Except that once<\/i>, they were correct. And if a label \u2013 or your manager, or whomever like that; somebody outside of the group \u2013 is correct about that sort of thing, you’re kind of screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Flame\u201d reached #1 on the Billboard<\/i> Hot 100 chart, also reaching the top spot on charts in Canada and Australia. \u201cWe didn’t mind doing it,\u201d Petersson says. \u201cWe were trying all sorts of different things. We had a hit with ‘The Flame,’ which we didn’t like, but we didn’t dislike<\/i> it.\u201d He recalls that the song, written by a pair of British pop songwriters, was presented to the band near the end of sessions for Lap of Luxury<\/i>. The band’s reaction was, \u201cGod, another thing we have to try?\u201d<\/p>\n

Petersson doesn’t mind so much that one of his band’s most well-known songs isn’t really representative of what Cheap Trick is about musically. \u201cIt’s funny how a lot of artists that I love, their biggest successes were by far their worst material.\u201d He offers a ready example. \u201cI mean, how great was Chuck Berry? But probably his biggest song was ‘My Ding-a-Ling.’\u201d And another: \u201cWhen I was a kid, my idol was Johnny Cash. ‘Walk The Line,’ ‘Ring Of Fire,\u201d oh God \u2026 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison<\/i>. And then: ‘A Boy Named Sue.’ Ahh \u2026 no<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n

But whether it’s \u201cA Boy Named Sue\u201d or \u201cThe Flame,\u201d a hit is a hit. \u201cThat was all well and good,\u201d Petersson says, \u201cbut then it became the search for ‘The Flame’ junior. And that did not pan out.\u201d The band’s fortunes hit a slide. \u201cSo then we did one more record with [Epic parent company] Sony, we signed with Warner Brothers and then everything went to hell at Warner Brothers,\u201d Petersson says. \u201cEverybody got fired, and we went too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding themselves without a label presented an opportunity of its own, Petersson believes. \u201cWe were left to our own devices to do what we actually do, which is just make records for our own enjoyment.\u201d In 1997 the band released its 12th<\/sup> studio album, the second of the band’s records to be titled Cheap Trick<\/i>. For fans who had followed along since the early days, Cheap Trick<\/i> was a welcome return to form, with top-notch songwriting (nearly all done in-house). But shortly after the album’s release, distribution company Red Ant went bankrupt. Cheap Trick<\/i> became hard to find (today it’s available only as a digital download).<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people say that’s their favorite record that we ever did,\u201d Petersson says. He waxes philosophical about the band’s extended run of bad luck culminating in the virtual disappearance of the second Cheap Trick<\/i>. \u201cIt was not successful, but so what? I mean, we<\/i> liked it, and people that liked us liked it. Success is like a lottery: it can<\/i> happen, but it’s probably not<\/i> going to happen.\u201d He offers some sage advice for aspiring rockers: \u201cIf you’re looking to make a living making music, then you might as well go into something more stable \u2026 like professional gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys in Cheap Trick have always viewed making music as something they do to please themselves. \u201cSome people are good at knowing what people want to hear, sometimes,\u201d Petersson says. He names industry mogul Clive Davis as an example. But in Cheap Trick’s case, Petersson isn’t even sure with whom the band would be competing, so to speak. \u201cWhen we started we were competing with disco,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen we were competing with punk, then it was new wave, then it was Nirvana and Soundgarden, and then it was \u2013 God knows, hair bands \u2013 and then it was …\u201d He trails off, then returns, chuckling. \u201cNow it’s, ‘Are we in competition with Beyonc\u00e9?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheap Trick’s 2016 album Bang, Zoom, Crazy \u2026 Hello<\/i> was its first with Daxx Nielsen on drums, and the second with a title made of seemingly random words (the first was the 1996 4CD compilation of hits and rarities, Sex, America, Cheap Trick<\/i>). While some listeners felt they could hear the sonic difference between Daxx and the departed Bun E. Carlos, Petersson says that as the other half of the band’s rhythm section, he didn’t have to make any changes to his playing to accommodate the younger Nielsen’s drumming style.<\/p>\n

Petersson says that Daxx \u201chas a perfect feel of it; he inspired me to do better stuff. He’s explosive, he’s exciting, he enjoys himself while he’s playing, he knows the songs backwards and forward, he can play them on guitar, piano, whatever. He’s a godsend; he just fits in perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re All Right<\/i> is the second Cheap Trick album to feature Daxx Nielsen, who by all accounts has settled in nicely. And to anyone who thinks Cheap Trick plans on slowing down, Petersson has news for you. \u201cScott Borchetta, head of our record label Big Machine said, ‘Look, I love your band; I want you to do an album a year.’ Fine with us,\u201d Tom Petersson says. \u201cSo that’s what we’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Petersson recalls the early days when the band was playing clubs. \u201cPeople would come up to us and go, ‘God, I love your band, but you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,55,62],"tags":[501,3132],"class_list":["post-13078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-powerpop","category-rawk","tag-cheap-trick","tag-tom-petersson","cat-41-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13084,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078\/revisions\/13084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}