#bun e. carlos

[twixnmix]

Andy Warhol and Cheap Trick backstage at the Bottom Line in New York City on June 12, 1978.

Photo by Bob Gruen

[rockingreads]

Brian J. Kramp: This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick (2022)

As much as it's the story of Cheap Trick's decade-long climb from obscurity to stardom, the sarcastically named This Band Has No Past (a line cribbed from the group's farcical first label bio) is a sobering reminder of the hard life of working rock musicians in the '70s.

Author Brian J. Kramp does an incredible job of moving the narrative along in entertaining fashion amidst the exhaustive detail he unearths about the four members' very distinct upbringings in and around Rockford, Illinois.

But I was personally just as interested to learn more about Trick's pre-history as I was to gather every crumb of information about Rick Nielsen's and Tom Petersson's first experience with a recording contract in 1970, via failed heavy psych rockers Fuse.

That being said, even if you're only half as nerdy as I, whether you love (a) and can't get enough Cheap Trick and/or (b) classic rock as much as I do, I think you'll enjoy this book.

But fair warning: it concludes along with the decade that spawned the band, and therefore covers merely that first Cheap trick LP, In Color, At Budokan, and Heaven Tonight.

Some would say that's all you really need to know about Cheap Trick ...

Featured Records:

Cheap Trick: Cheap Trick (1977)

Fuse: Fuse (1970)

Cheap Trick: Are You Ready? Live 12/31/1979 (2019)

Buy from: Amazon

[jeffcbliss]

(Left to right) Bun E. Carlos, Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander: Cheap Trick press conference for their album, “One On One” – Hollywood, CA (1982). #TBT @cheaptrick @CheapTrickRick

Photo: Jeff Bliss

[krispyweiss]

Longtime Beach Boys and Brian Wilson Band Member Jeffrey Foskett Dies at 67

- “Jeff was one of the most talented guys I ever knew,” Wilson says

Jeffrey Foskett, who spent decades singing falsetto and playing guitar for the Beach Boys and the Brian Wilson Band, died Dec. 12, a “heartbroken” Wilson said.

Foskett was 67 and had been battling cancer.

“Jeff was always there for me when we toured and we couldn’t have done it without him,” Wilson said in a statement.

“Jeff was one of the most talented guys I ever knew. He was a great musical leader and guitarist and he could sing like an angel. … We will remember him forever.”

Foskett, who first joined the Beach Boys in 1981, is credited with persuading Wilson to complete Smile, which was released in 2004, and was instrumental in helping the composer recreate Pet Sounds on stage. He was a member of the Beach Boys’ 50th-anniversary touring band in 2012 and sang on every cut of that year’s That’s Why God Made the Radio.

“Jeff always kept in touch with us, no matter which Beach Boys hat he was wearing,” Al Jardine said in a statement.

“He was so talented on so many different levels but it was his wonderful sense of humor that kept him balanced and helped him navigate all the hard knocks you get in the music business. … Rest in peace, Jeff, and thanks for always making us smile.”

Bun E. Carlos echoed Jardine, calling Foskett “one of the nicest guys in the music biz.”

“What a great guy,” the former Cheap Trick drummer said.

Foskett, who also recorded a string of solo albums and worked with Paul McCartney, Heart, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Ringo Starr among others, most recently toured with America, who mourned their “longtime friend and musical peer” on social media.

“May Jeffrey Foskett rest in peace and love,” Todd Rundgren’s Spirit of Harmony Foundation said.

12/12/23

[sunset-supergirl]

Happy birthday Bun E. Carlos

[robin-zander-is-my-man]

My favorite midwestern boys

Tom Petersson, Bun E. Carlos, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander

Cheap Trick in 1980 photographed by Lynn Goldsmith.

[heavypedia]

No dia 18 de janeiro de 2009, Cheap Trick lançava "When the Lights Are Out" como single do álbum The Latest. A faixa é um cover da banda Slade, originalmente lançada em 1974.

[zimtrim]

Cheap Trick - Rick Nielsen

[metalcultbrigade]

Bun E. Carlos 12/06/1951

[possible-streetwear]

[johnentwistlesbassguitar]

Fav rockstar 4some

[vinylspinning]

Cheap Trick: Are You Ready? Live 12/31/1979 (2019)

Sometimes I can't even remember what I was doing last week, let alone last year and certainly not on New Year's Eve 1979, but, thanks to this clearly dated Record Store Day release, we all know precisely what Cheap Trick were doing as the '70s gave way to the '80s ...

Yes, seems Rockford's finest were rocking their fans at L.A.'s Fabulous Forum while local radio station KLOS broadcasted a small part of the show live; but this double LP from 2019 rounds up the entire, 90-minute, 19-song concert for the first time. (*)

To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first, since this isn't the first time (nor will it be the last) that Sony Music has tried to exploit the incomparable legacy of 1978's At Budokan to sell inevitably inferior in-concert recordings of Trick at their precocious peak.

But I must say that Are You Ready? Live 12/31/1979 may be the closest they've come to justifying the exercise -- and the spending of your hard-earned dollars -- with a recording that balances believable rawness (**) and excitement with a sheer wealth of classic material.

As they did At Budokan, Cheap Trick were still bookending shows with "Hello There" and "Goodnight Now," playing those early hits ("Clock Strikes Ten," "Ain't That a Shame," "I Want You to Want Me," "Surrender"), plus In Color's excellent "Downed," but, oddly, still totally ignoring their self-titled debut.

But fans of Heaven Tonight got a generous helping (the title track, "Stiff Competition," "Way of the World," and an apropos "California Man") and those partial to the recently released Dream Police got virtually the entire LP, including standout performances of "Voices," "I Know What I Want," and the wonderfully creepy "Need Your Love."

On the other hand, the interminable "Gonna Raise Hell" is only slightly more tolerable live than on record, Rick Nielsen's stage raps are just as often irritating as amusing, and employing a keyboard player behind a curtain to enhance their sound when needed (e.g. "Surrender" and the encore of "Dream Police") was always a little shady.

But, all things considered, these are largely small "nits" about a set that obviously still boasts a lot of additional and essential early Cheap Trick material (***), much of which that had yet to be released at the time of At Budokan's recording, all of 18 months earlier.

So I don't want to lead you astray by suggesting Are You Ready? Live 12/31/1979 actually compares with that earlier set's flawless (and, admittedly, somewhat doctored) perfection, but its probably the next-best Cheap Trick live album I've heard, and that includes the expanded Budokan concerts package.

Happy new year!

* Although some of these cuts were previously available on expanded CD reissues of the Dream Police album.

** The first reel of the master tapes was never found, so that rawness is especially noticeable on the first four songs, which had to be sourced and remastered from a high-resolution tape of the original radio broadcast.

*** Presumably, when the clock strikes midnight (no pun intended on "Clock Strikes Ten"), the band sneaks in a quick rendition of "Auld Lang Syne."

More Cheap Trick: Cheap Trick, In Color, Heaven Tonight, At Budokan, Dream Police, Found All the Parts, All Shook Up, One on One, Woke Up with a Monster.

[sunset-supergirl]

Happy birthday Bun E. Carlos

[instantelephantmix]

bun e carlos image dump - part 1

hey another one of these and another of my favourite men

30 image cap, ill do the rest sometime

[elokitties]