American Standard: Cheap Trick from the Bars to the Budokan and Beyond

by Ross Warner

They’ve sold more than 20 million albums, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they’re one of Homer Simpson’s favorite bands—but even today, fifty years after they first formed, Cheap Trick remains to many a club band with a cult following. They certainly started out that way, with a carnival-like stage show featuring four perfectly mismatched guitarist Rick Nielsen, in bowtie, sweater, and baseball cap, stood next to blonde dreamboat Robin Zander, while the mysterious, chestnut-haired bassist Tom Peterson held down the bottom end with drummer Bun E. Carlos, never seen without his cigarette or tie.

American Cheap Trick from the Bars to the Budokan and Beyond tells the unlikely story of the band’s path to greatness, from their origins in Rockford, Illinois to their massively successful live album At Budokan to the many, many ups and downs that followed. This is a rollicking tale of artistic genius, rock excess, hilarious misbehavior, chance encounters with music’s biggest names, and international stardom that brought new meaning to the phrase “big in Japan.” Drawing on exhaustive research and interviews, American Standard gives an intimate look at a truly original band—whether you consider them rock icons or criminally underrated,

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2024

About the author

Ross Warner has been writing about the three pillars of popular culture (television, music and film) since high school; his work has appeared in such magazines as American Heritage, Cinema Retro, Hittin’ The Note, Heeb, and Glide. His obsession with the Chargers landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. His work on his other major obsession, the Grateful Dead, has been similarly featured in both books and magazines. Drunk on Sunday is his first book.

Reviews

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a long time there was only one major book on Cheap Trick. I’m very glad we’ve gotten a couple more in recent years, and of course I have to read them. Brian Kemp’s book was an excellent look at the early days, and this book is great exploration of history past that.

Having heard so many tall tales from the band about Budokan, this book does a very good job of getting the real facts—and just the strangeness around how a band that was supposed to break big did so in an unexpected way.

I would have been interested to hear a little bit more about the later years of the band in the book too, but other than that is a real enjoyable read for a fan of the band.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth published history of Cheap Trick. The first, published in 1998, "Reputation Is a Fragile Thing" written by Mike Hayes with Ken Sharp, the second from 2017, by Robert Lawson, titled "Still Competition: The Listeners Guide to Cheap Trick", the third, Brian Kramp's "This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick", and now "American Standard: Cheap Trick From the Bars to the Budokan and Beyond" by Ross Warner. All are good, and well worth a read. Brian Kramp's is perhaps the most deeply researched and detailed of the very early days of each member of Cheap Trick. And, it should be mentioned that Lawson's book is technically not a history, but as the title says, "a listening guide".

Ross Warner has written an excellent history which shines a spotlight on the history with more focus on the time after Cheap Trick slugged it out playing the bars in Wisconsin, Illinois and opening for national acts across America. His narrative really starts to take off after Cheap Trick performed for screaming audiences at Budokan in Japan in April 1978. The history then comes thick and fast after that with a ton of previously unknown facts, strange situations the band found themselves in and packed with details and hilarious anecdotes.

I was part of the "Fan Base" in the early days of the band and became friends with them. I traded tapes with Bunny and enjoyed hanging out with them between sets and after gigs. But, after 1978, while I was delighted that they became a very successful group, I had moved on. "American Standard..." has filled in the blanks for me after 1978.

Warner's immaculate research is well on display, and his breezy, smooth writing style makes this a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.

[Brant Starkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have become a massive Cheap Trick fan in the past five or six years. I decided to a deep dive on them back in 2019 and was floored by how much I like them. I found that what attracted me to them is the same thing that attracted so many fans to them and their work in the late ‘70s - blistering, well-done music presented by a group whose image was impossible to categorize.
This book goes all the way back to their earliest days, including the time they spent in groups prior to the formation of Cheap Trick. This band’s history is not a straight line, which is how the band prefers it. They are perfectly fine with urban legends and rumors being a part of their “official” story, and Ross Warner does a masterful job of weaving fact and fiction in telling this band’s story. This band, despite all their success, is still underappreciated to a degree, and Warner makes sure the reader has an understanding of who this band with “no past” is and why their influence is still felt in some of today’s bands.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history of the band to a point. I would have liked a little more about recent times and the exit of Bun E.