South by Southwest 2010: Cheap Trick talks Lennon, Beatles and fixing 'Budokan'
AUSTIN, Texas -- Interviewed Cheap Trick on Wednesday afternoon as part of South by Southwest with my Sound Opinions partner Jim DeRogatis. Rick Nielsen was, as usual, in excellent self-deprecating form. Among the highlights, he pulled out his cellphone, where he had stored a sound bite from Yoko Ono describing how working with Cheap Trick in the studio "inspired John," referring to her late husband, John Lennon. Nielsen smiled proudly, then followed that up with a sound bite from his daughter proclaiming, "You're annoying."
"Just when you start feeling good about yourself," he cracked.
Among other tidbits, Nielsen and singer Robin Zander said the band did little post-production surgery to its career-changing "Budokan" live album. Carlos' drum pedal broke during the performance, so afterward he recorded about "three hours of thump, thump, thump" on his kick drum in the studio to beef up the live mix, Nielsen said.
Update 4-10-10, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, who didn't attend South by Southwest, emailed to give his take: "When I read the Budokan interview I laughed and thought 'au contraire!' Myself and Jay Messina were at the board for the 'Budokan' overdub session at the Record Plant in New York City. There are no drum overdubs of any kind on any of the 'Budokan' releases. However, there are guitar, bass, and vocal overdubs on the 'Budokan' releases. End of story."
Zander revealed that "I Want You to Want Me," the big single off the "Budokan" album, nearly wasn't part of the performance. "The promoters wanted us to add a song because the set wasn't long enough," the singer said. "So we put 'I Want You to Want Me' in the set list about 15 minutes before the show."
The band also confirmed that it was indeed signed to its first record deal in the mid-'70s after performing a gig at a bowling alley in Waukesha, Wis. And despite the countless record-company battles and road fatigue since then, they remain uber rock fans. They talked with undisguised zeal about performing and recording the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" band album recently with a symphony orchestra. Said bassist Tom Petersson of learning Paul McCartney's "Pepper" parts: "The album is like one long bass solo. Amazing."
I bought the Cheap Trick performing Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on DVD and it is an amazing peformance! If you're a fan of the Beatles or Cheap Trick do yourself a favor and buy this DVD. It's an incredible live performance by an incredbible rockin' band. Everybody I've watched the DVD with since I bought it can't believe they've never even heard of it being available and how on earth did they miss it. Every single person I've shown the DVD to has thanked me for turning them on to this landmark performance. Kudos to Rick, Robin, Tom and Bun E for such an incredible performance.
Posted by: Homer Simpson | March 24, 2010 at 03:12 PM