[Review] Cheap Trick: Dream Police (1979)
The last great Cheap Trick album, followed by years of arrested development.
Kronomyth 5.0: Don’t dream, it’s over.
In the spare seconds that masquerade as free time in my life I apparently write eulogies to Cheap Trick since there are none of us free from carrying the lodestone of death around our necks or looking at the sagging eyes and, tsking slightly, seeing that time is a thieving magpie who likes to steal the shiniest bits and baubles. Tonight, for a change, I think I’ll sit on the fence and sing. Dream Police is the last classic Cheap Trick album, the first step in a march to mediocrity, a sham, inspired and invincible, the end of rock and roll’s greatest tease. It all depends on whether you see the glass as half full or half empty, Cheap Trick as a passing fancy or present future. Dream Police and Voices can sustain us, I Know What I Want as well, but what does it bode for the future when the victories seem hard won where they once came easy? The melodies behind Way of the World and I’ll Be With You Tonight seem too contrived. Didn’t “So Good to See You” and “He’s a Whore” flow from a natural place like the beauty of youth? Dream Police is prettied up to cover the crow’s feet and pinch the paunch, but it’s not a natural beauty. Lest I lose my balance on the fence, Dream Police has an allure that later albums lack. The longer tracks (Need Your Love, Gonna Raise Hell) may not bespeak the easy genius of the past, but as a deliberate and calculated risk they rock.
That was my original take on Dream Police, anyway. These days, I’m far more likely to hear this as the last great Cheap Trick album without plotting the band’s musical decline. It’s a great record. Buy it. Pay no mind to the man behind the keyboard and his unsolicited elegies.
Original elpee version
A1. Dream Police (Rick Nielsen) (3:49)
A2. Way of the World (Robin Zander/Rick Nielsen) (3:41)
A3. The House Is Rockin’ (with Domestic Problems) (Tom Petersson/Rick Nielsen) (5:17)
A4. Gonna Raise Hell (Rick Nielsen) (9:18)
B1. I’ll Be with You Tonight (Rick Nielsen/Bun E. Carlos/Tom Petersson/Robin Zander) (3:51)
B2. Voices (Rick Nielsen) (4:29)
B3. Writing on the Wall (Rick Nielsen) (3:26)
B4. I Know What I Want (Rick Nielsen) (4:28)
B5. Need Your Love (Rick Nielsen/Tom Petersson) (7:35)
CD reissue bonus tracks
10. The House Is Rockin’ (with Domestic Problems) (live)
11. Way of the World (live)
12. Dream Police (no strings version)
13. I Know What I Want (live)
The Players
Bun E. Carlos (drum kit), Rick Nielsen (guitars, mandocello, vocals), Tom Petersson (bass, 8 & 12 string bass, vocals), Robin Zander (vocals and rhythm guitar) with Jai Winding (piano and organ). Produced by Tom Werman; engineered by Gary Ladinsky.
The Pictures
Photography by Reid Miles. Design by Paula Scher and Steve Dessau.
The Plastic
Released on elpee and cassette on September 21, 1979 in the US and Canada (Epic, FE 35773), the UK, Italy and the Netherlands (Epic, EPC-83522), Australia and New Zealand (Epic, ELPS-3975) and Japan (Epic, 25-3P-50) with gatefold cover and lyrics innersleeve. Reached #6 on the US charts (RIAA-certified platinum record).
- Re-issued on compact disc in the US (Epic, EK-35773).
- Re-issued on expanded compact disc on March 7, 2006 in the US (Columbia Legacy, 94485) and Japan (Sony, MHCP-1078) with 4 bonus tracks.
