With a hook-filled sound that blends subversive lyrics, gleeful pop melodies and guitar riffs that could cut through sheet metal, Cheap Trick has long been the rock and roll band of, for and by smartasses. Their late-’70s-era songs like “Surrender” and “Elo Kiddies” and albums like In Color, Heaven Tonight and the only live record that ever made a venue famous — At Budokan — rendered punk profoundly stupid and even make today’s indie sneer-rock sound like its flatlining. After “I Want You To Want Me” pigeonholed them as the weird-looking mid-tempo ballad band that made Japanese girls scream, they disappeared into a haze of synthesizers and rightfully (and then wrongfully) overlooked records. Finally gaining recognition for their songwriting, their fist-pumping, up-and-down-jumping, stupid-grin-inspiring joyous live show and their influence on three generations of music, Cheap Trick is cool again at last. With their newest album Rockford, the band and lead guitar player/principle songwriter Rick Nielsen work like musical sculptors who chisel choruses from hunks of — yeah, that’s right — solid rock. In advance of the Tricksters’ Nov. 17 gig at Avalon, Nielsen offers the lowdown on his songs, his guitars and those rumors of detainee torture by the Dream Police.
Muse: What I love about Cheap Trick songs is how catchy the choruses are … if I were to name a Cheap Trick song that you never play in concert, would you be able to hum the chorus?
Rick Nielsen: Yes.
Muse: “Man-U-Lip-U-Lator” from The Doctor?
R.N.: [Clears his throat. Sings something that sounds like “Man-U-Lip-U-Lator.”] That’s pretty obscure. I think you’re the first person to ever ask about that song in anything I’ve ever done in life. In reviews. In interviews. Even in the studio, when we were recording it.
Muse: If health reasons forced you to amputate all the necks but one on your famous five-necked guitar, which would you keep?
R.N.: The 12-string plays pretty well. That way I get at least double for my money.
Muse: Are there any bands that cite you as an influence that you wish would keep quiet? Maybe one of those 80s glam bands like … Enuff Z Nuff?
R.N.: Anytime somebody mentions you, it’s nice. [Enuff Z Nuff] started out to be a good band. Then they made the mistake of wearing their mother’s clothes on their first album cover. That doomed them for life.
Muse: How do you account for your band’s wide appeal?
R.N.: We just have good songs, and we play well. It’s like, “We forgot our makeup, we forgot our pyro, we forgot our movie screens and we forgot how to dance.” It’s down to songs and knowing how to play them. And I think that’s it.
Muse: Cheap Trick has always been a great rock band and a satire of a great rock band. How conscious were you of creating that image?
R.N.: I’d go to see all these bands and the guitarist has his mouth open, he’s grimacing, he’s got his eyes closed …it’s like, “What is he doing?” Then he gets to the solo and you can see a wet spot in his pants! It’s like Spinal Tap … its fake. So if you see a wet spot on me, I really did [ejaculate] in my pants.
I have a line that I’ve been toying with. As I grew up, I taught myself how to play [guitar]. And now, that I’ve gotten older, people say, “Rick, tell me a little about yourself,” and I say that I’m self-taut. T-A-U-T. You’re the first person I’ve ever told that to. It’s an exclusive.
