cheap trick at budokan

Cheap Trick made it big in Japan and reached the pinnacle of their career with the potent power pop performances of this import live album.  The band had seen increased exposure with each of their first three albums ('Cheap Trick', 'In Color', and 'Heaven Tonight'); but their biggest sales were in Japan.  With such a devoted audience there, they decided to record two shows at the Nippon Budokan indoor arena in Tokyo during April of 1978 with twelve thousand screaming fans.  Tomoo Suzuki was the recording engineer for the shows with Robin Zander on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Rick Nielsen on lead guitar and backing vocals; Tom Petersson on bass and backing vocals; and Bun E. Carlos on drums.  

Nielson reveals:   "It was never supposed to be released in the US. For Epic/Sony, this was their first release. It was supposed to be for the Japanese fans only, but we hadn’t made any special recordings. It was just being taped while we were performing. It wasn’t really planned to be an album. We just played the shows. We recorded in Osaka, Nagoya, Tokya. And a number of months later, we were asked to mix it. It was Bun E, Jack Douglas and I who went to New York — and there was more material but we were just putting out a singles album. It was one of those ‘don’t worry, it’s supposed to be just in Japan; don’t worry, no one will ever see these pictures’ sort of deals. It was an okay big-hit in Japan. There were 30 or 40, 000 people who had seen us over there, who wanted the album. But then it started to get airplay in Boston and they started playing the live version of “I Want You To Want Me” and it started to be a hit — but it was just on this live Japanese album. It eventually became the largest-selling live album import ever, and the record label finally thought, ‘why don’t we release it domestically?’  I don’t remember what the price was, but people were paying four times the price. Something like $40 a copy. People couldn’t import them fast enough."

'Cheap Trick at Budokan' hit twenty-nine in the UK, twenty-six in Sweden, ten in New Zealand, four in the US, two in the Netherlands, and number one in Canada.  It has been certified triple platinum in the US.  

In February of 1994, 'Budokan II" was released with the remaining songs from the shows plus songs from the 1979 tour.  Neilson says:  "I wish the record company and the management and, well, I guess us — I wish we had pushed the record company to put out the other half [of 'Cheap Trick At Budokan'] sooner. They waited 20 years or something. It would have put a different spin on Cheap Trick. It had more of a pop feel and had some heavier duty songs. It would have shown some different sides of Cheap Trick. Side A and B and C and D, specifically."







http://www.cheaptrick.com/








'I Want You to Want Me' broke the band in the US, going to number seven on the singles chart.  
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1fxjr_cheap-trick-i-want-you-to-want-me_music

Cheap trick - i want you to want me by la_shivi




'Cheap Trick at Budokan'
full album:



0:33 Hello There
2:28 Come On, Come On
5:51 Lookout
8:47 Big Eyes
12:43 Need Your Love (Nielsen, Tom Petersson)
21:45 Ain't That a Shame (Antoine Domino, Dave Bartholomew)
26:58 I Want You to Want Me
30:46 Surrender
35:08 Goodnight Now
38:19 Clock Strikes Ten


'Budokan II' 
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFAB77F3755F30B7E



"ELO Kiddies" (Nielsen) - 5:41
"High Roller" (Nielsen, Petersson, Robin Zander) - 5:58
"Southern Girls" (Nielsen, Petersson) - 5:35
"Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace" (Terry Reid) - 4:34
"California Man" (Roy Wood) - 5:45
"Downed" (Nielsen) - 6:51
"Stiff Competition" (Nielsen) - 4:02 (from 1979 tour)
"How Are You?" (Nielsen, Petersson) - 4:14 (from 1979 tour)
"On Top of the World" (Nielsen) - 4:02 (from 1979 tour)
"Can't Hold On" (Nielsen) - 5:55
"Oh Caroline" (Nielsen) - 2:59
"Auf Wiedersehen" (Nielsen, Petersson) - 3:41

DVD
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDF670929615BABCA

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL23E2DB9158FBCCDC


"ELO Kiddies"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZO3JSOFypE


"Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUXgdiMDvdw


"Look Out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81dHrsY99I



"Can't Hold On"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJZXS1mm8Wk


"Oh Caroline"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bhO5IX-5sE


"Surrender"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th370QmFtk8


"Auf Wiedersehen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj0bqypdJI8


"Southern Girls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f9caeIPHWo


"California Man"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K15PnIkDEg


"Goodnight"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-b9RnJwo8A


"Ain't That a Shame"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C-jXJl0Zrg


"Clock Strikes Ten"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbi9mccUpeQ

heaven tonight

Cheap Trick gave themselves away and hit the trifecta with the slick and psychotic power pop of this fierce and funny hyperactive hard rock hullabaloo.   After the critical success of their eponymous debut and its polished follow-up 'In Color' the band combined the sound of both of those albums for their third album.  'Heaven Tonight' was produced by Tom Werman at Record Plant and Sound City Studios, Los Angeles, California with Robin Zander on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Rick Nielsen on lead guitar and backing vocals; Tom Petersson on twelve string electric bass and backing vocals; Bun E. Carlos on drums; with Jai Winding on keyboards.  

Zander recalls the whirlwind that was going on at the time:   "We accumulated a lot of debt. Even after 'Budokan' was successful, we didn’t see the money for a couple years. On top of that, we sued our record company...And we lost the lawsuit because of the laws back then. We were suing over royalties, and spent another million fighting that. I remember sitting in the lawyer’s office during a deposition with my Chicago lawyer with a stogie in his mouth, and they have seven lawyers! One of them just won the Von Bulow case! I was thinking, “Oohhh, great.”  It took us a while to get on our feet, but eventually we did, and you’re right. It’s sort of a strange feeling looking out into an audience of 50,000 people thinking, 'Why am I broke?'...I think it was pre-'Budokan' or leading up to 'Budokan' that really did it for us. It was probably during the 'Heaven Tonight' album. We went on a world tour that lasted two years, and in those days you made two records a year...January ‘77 our first record came out and in the fall of ‘77 our second record came out...And in ’78, 'Heaven Tonight' came out, and we were recording 'Dream Police'...What happened was, during that period we toured with AC/DC and at that point both bands were fairly unknown. They knew who we were in the Midwest, and they knew who AC/DC was in Australia, but the rest of the world didn’t know about either band yet, so we toured for about a year and a half."

'Heaven Tonight' rose to number eighty-four in Australia, forty-eight in the US, and number eleven in Japan.  








http://www.cheaptrick.com/







"Surrender"Carlos reveals:  "We had that track back in 1975. We used to rehearse in the basement of Rick's dad's music shop on Seventh Avenue in Rockford, Illinois. As soon as I heard it, I thought it was a really interesting lyric."
Nielsen says:  "I used to hear my friends saying they thought their parents were strange. The first thing I got was the opening of the chorus: 'Mommy's all right, daddy's all right.' It just rolled off at one sitting. Those opening lines, 'Mother told me, yes, she told me I 'd meet girls like you.' that 's advice to the lovelorn, and obviously inspired by the old Shirelles hit 'Mama said that there'd be days like this.' It 's a good way to start a song, if you can make it go with a chord progression."

The single went to seventy-nine in Canada, sixty-two in US, and thirty-two in Australia. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5YO-XRLnM



Mother told me, yes she told me
I'd meet girls like you
She also told me stay away
You'll never know what you'll catch
Just the other day I heard
Of a soldier's falling off
Some Indonesian junk
That's going 'round
Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away
Father says your mother's right
She's really up on things
Before we married Mommy served
On the WACs in the Philippines
Now I had heard the WACs recruited
Old maids for the war
But Mommy isn't one of those
I've known her all these years
Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away
Whatever happened to all this season's
Losers of the year
Every time I got to thinking
Where'd they disappear
Then I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling
Got my Kiss records out
Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away
Away...

'Heaven Tonight' 
full album:




All songs written by Rick Nielsen, except where noted.

Side one
"Surrender" – 4:16
"On Top of the World" – 4:01
"California Man" (Roy Wood) – 3:44
"High Roller" (Nielsen, Tom Petersson, Robin Zander) – 3:58
"Auf Wiedersehen" (Nielsen, Petersson) – 3:42
Side two[edit]
"Takin' Me Back" – 4:52
"On the Radio" – 4:33
"Heaven Tonight" (Nielsen, Petersson) – 5:25
"Stiff Competition" – 3:40
"How Are You" (Nielsen, Petersson) – 4:21
"Oh Claire" (Bun E. Carlos, Nielsen, Petersson, Zander) – 1:10 (not listed on LP label or album cover)