If there is an album that personifies a band it is Cheap Trick At Budokan. Released in 1979, At Budokan was recorded live in April 1978 in Tokyo, Japan at Nippon Budokan in support of their latest album entitled Heaven Tonight and captures the band’s first time playing in Japan. Budokan is an indoor arena originally built for the judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. It has also been the home for many other sporting events and concerts. The Beatles were the first rock group to play Budokan in 1966. The arena can hold around 15,000 screaming fans and is a venue many bands have chosen for recording live albums. Cheap Trick At Budokan catapulted Cheap Trick to rock-n-roll stardom and it wasn’t even supposed to be released in the United States! At the time of its hurried U.S. release in 1979, the band was not happy that At Budokan was released at all in the U.S. They did not feel that Epic Records put their best effort into the album’s production as the label did not expect it to see the light of day or grace the ears of American listeners. In spite of that, the Budokan live version of “I Want You To Want Me” started getting radio airplay in the States and people loved it! The album hit #4 on the Billboard charts and fueled interest in the next Cheap Trick album, Dream Police.
Cheap Trick was formed in 1973 in Rockford, Illinois by Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersen, and Bun E. Carlos and they quickly became known as one of the hardest working bands in American rock-n-roll. They have a vast catalog spanning over forty years and their latest album, In Another World was released in 2021 (which rocks from the first track to the last!). Their first live album, At Budokan, is often in rock critics’ top five or ten best live albums ever. Released when I was a freshman in high school, that album was spinning on my turntable for hours on a daily basis for close to a year! Cheap Trick was my first concert and I’ve seen them perform live numerous times over the years. They never disappoint and At Budokan is the next best thing to experiencing their live show.
The opening track “Hello There” is the staple opening song for most Cheap Trick live shows and gets the crowd pumped and ready to rock! The crowd noise is phenomenal and guitarist Rick Nielsen likened the Japanese ferver for Cheap Trick to that of the Beatles when they took the U.S. by storm in 1964! The screaming crowd carries us to sturdy rockers “Come On, Come On”, “Look Out”, and “Big Eyes”. A frenzied crowd and Robin Zander seductively telling every screaming girl in the audience that he needs their love sets the stage for the long, hypnotic “Need Your Love”, which was an immensely popular song in Japan. In fact, the Japanese record label responsible for releasing and promoting the album demanded that it be included. And side one ends with a fade out of a screaming sold out Budokan in a rock-n-roll frenzy!
Side two begins with a slow fade in of screaming Cheap Trick fans and Bun E. Carlos banging out syncopated beats on his drum kit in the intro to the Fats Domino cover “Ain’t That A Shame”. As the crowd goes wild at the seemingly endless drum and guitar battle to close the song, Robin Zander announces to the infatuated crowd “I Want You To Want Me” and what became the most popular Cheap Trick song was born of teen lust and zeal! As the last chords fade away and the crowd does not, Robin announces “This next one is the first song on our new album. It just came out this week and the song is called Surrender”, which was another extremely popular song in Japan. Budokan goes nuts! Nielsen launches the raunchy guitar chords of “Goodnight Now” which is the staple show ending song for most Cheap Trick shows and it ends with thirty-five seconds of the raucous crowd screaming for one more song. The last song of the live album is “Clock Strikes Ten” and the show fades out with a reverberating guitar slowly fading away and a fever pitch crowd wanting more for about forty-five seconds. A live rock and roll story has been told and stars were born!
And that’s Cheap Trick At Budokan…in its entirety.
Also, check out the 30th Anniversary Edition of At Budokan!
Cheap Trick At Budokan
Side One
- Hello There
- Come On, Come On
- Look Out
- Big Eyes
- Need Your Love
Side Two
- Ain’t That A Shame
- I Want You To Want Me
- Surrender
- Goodnight Now
- Clock Strikes Ten
© 2023 Gregory Vessar. All Rights Reserved.
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