Monday, September 26, 2016

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Cheap Trick: 'Dream Police'
released September 21, 1979


I remember when this album was released in September of 1979......it had a very cool cover (note Rick Neilsen is toting a chain saw, with a dismembered female mannequin lying nearby). 

The interior gatefold and back cover also were pretty elaborate.



I didn't know it at the time, but the band made a music video to promote the album........this was two years before MTV even existed, so it was rather unusual for 1979.


Although the title track and the followup single 'Voices' are the best known cuts, there are a couple of other tracks worth listening too on the album. These are garage rock songs, genuine 70s stuff. 

The signature song in the album probably is the 9 minute 'Gonna Raise Hell'......an overambitious song, and arguably an outstanding example of 70s Excess (there is an segment where Robin Zander tries to screech and wail like Robert Plant........!) but also a song possessed of a kind of crazed energy and exuberance that is very rare in today's over-produced guitar rock........

No comments: