Impact Albums:Cheap Trick- At Budokan(1979)

 

Crazy that Cheap Tricks Budokan release has been a part of my listening curve for almost 40 years now!  Back in 1977 was when I discovered KISS (Thanks to John Young a friend who introduced me to KISS). So as a 11-year-old fanboy it was all KISS as my bedroom walls were covered in their posters and such.

1979 I expanded my listening pleasure to include Cheap Trick.  As at the time  I read about them in magazines as they were opening for KISS and even name dropped KISS in the song Surrender.

It wasn’t too long that later on I heard on our local crap radio station 580 CKPR I Want You To Want Me complete with live screaming girls with Trick rolling down some serious Hard Pop Metal. It was catchy and I was hooked.

Off to purchase At  Budokan and the albums 10 tracks hooked me line and sinker as this was a complete brilliant recording! No duds on this and Cheap Trick became my second favourite band after Kiss. I had no Number 3 favourite band as I was only 11 going on 12 back in  79!

Love everything about this record even to this day. Liked the fact that they had the two cool rock guys (Robin Zander & Tom Petersson) and two geeks (Bun E Carlos & Rick Nielsen) 

What a great gimmick but make no mistake these cats could play and write a batch of hook laden rockers.

There is a great story how the Budokan album came to be as it was never intended to be released in North America. Cheap Trick back in 78 visited Japan as there three albums had gone Gold there( Cheap Trick/In Color/Heaven Tonight) making Japan their biggest market.

So Cheap Trick recorded there live shows upon their visit in April of 78 and decided as thank you to put out the Budokan only in Japan!

It wasn’t too long that import copies were being purchased in North America at ridiculous prices so Tricks record company Epic Records printed off a 7 song sampler of Budokan for North American release. It was not to long before all 75,000 copies of the sampler were sold out. Epic records finally released the Full 10 track album and 3 Million copies to date have been sold with this album reaching #1 In Canada!

Cheap Trick in early 1979 (when Budokan came out) were in great shape as their next studio release Dream Police was recorded/finished but because of Budokan selling and selling Dream Police got pushed back(came out in November of 1979). How many times has that happened? Good Headache to have!

All 10 Tracks on Budokan are a well written exercise in how to deliver hard rock as all these tunes are ear candy at it’s finest!

What a great way to open your show with Hello There and from there the songs just keep coming at you. Come On Come On/Lookout/Big Eyes/ the 9 minute build up of Need Your Love make up just Side One.

Side Two lifts off with the Bun E intro of Ain’t That A Shame/Mega mega mega classic of I Want You To Want Me is next while the other big hit Surrender is performed. Good Night/Clock Strikes 10 ends with all 14,000 Japanese girls screaming and you all have been Cheap Tricked!

In the latest issue of Rock Candy Magazine  there is a 6 page article on the Budokan release and Zander points out the recording of the shows didn’t come without glitches as in the case of I Want You To Want Me where they had to take the lead vocal from one night and add it overtop to the music from another night  as the when the song  was being recorded they had a technical issue with the lead vocal. So it’s still live but the song features two different nights. One for the music and one for the vocal.

This album has always been on my radar. Its part of my musical DNA when you really think about it and it has to be one of reasons to this day I still love live albums! I’m thinking out of my first four ever owned records which would between KISS and Cheap Trick  three were live releases (KISS ALIVE & Alive 2) and Budokan! The lone studio album out of that batch would have been KISS Love Gun.

Cheap Trick set the bar way high here folks. I have been a fan since 79. Suffered through their mid 80’s/early 90’s output which was sketchy at best yet in 2017 in my humble opinion put out the best studio album(We’re All Alright) of the year which I ranked #1 in my year-end Top Album lists!

How many times Have I been Tricked?

Originally owned on vinyl (1978). Purchased on CD around 1990. Got the Budokan 30th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set** as Xmas gift back in 2008. Purchased a second-hand copy on Vinyl in 2017.

**- I would highly recommend the 30th Edition Box Set for the complete Trick Music Meal deal. Spread out over 3 CD’S and One DVD.Included is a poster along with an excellent 40 page color booklet with pictures of the Japan tour along with commentary from the guys on the recording and timeline of what was going on in Japan when they were greeted by 5000 at the airport upon arrival.

Also included in this box set is an unreleased audio only show of one of the nights that was recorded but not sold publicly. They left this recording warts n all. So good…..

Thanks to Fender who hung out with me while typed this up!