LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JUNE 5, 2019…FORTY ONE YEARS AGO CHEAP TRICK RELEASED THEIR FIRST SINGLE ‘SURRENDER’
IT WAS FROM THE GROUP’S FIRST ALBUM ‘HEAVEN TONIGHT’. IN AMERICA IT ONLY WENT TO # 62. HOWEVER IN JAPAN IT WAS A NUMBER ONE SONG, AND WITH THE LATER SUCCESS THE BAND ENJOYED WITH THE SINGLES ‘CLOCK STRIKES TEN’ AND ‘I WANT YOU TO WANT ME’ IT LEAD TO THE RECORDING OF THE RECORDING OF THE BAND’S MOST POPULAR ALBUM ‘CHEAP TRICK AT BUDOKAN’.
THE SONG HAS BEEN DESCRIBED BY “ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK” AS:
“a tongue-in-cheek examination of the culture clash between the World War II generation and their hairy, reefer-smoking kids.”
THE ABOUT THE MOTHER BEING IN THE WACS IS A REFERENCE TO THE WOMEN’S ARMY CORPS, WHICH WAS ACTIVE DURING WORLD WAR II.
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHY THE LYRICS “Now I had heard the WACs recruited old maids for the war ” DON’T MAKE MUCH SENSE IT’S BECAUSE THEY WEREN’T WRITTEN THAT WAY. THE ORIGINAL LYRICS WERE DEEMED TOO RACY AND THE BAND WAS FORCED TO CHANGE THEM FOR THE RECORD. THE ORIGINAL LYRICS WERE: “Now I had heard the WACs were either old maids, dykes or whores.”
GOD I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE KEPT THE ORIGINAL LYRICS !!
“ROLLING STONE” MAGAZINE CALLED ‘SURRENDER’ “the ultimate Seventies teen anthem” AND PLACED IT AT NUMBER 471 ON IT’S LIST OF “THE 500 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL-TIME”
HERE’S CHEAP TRICK WITH THE LIVE VERSION OF ‘SURRENDER’ FROM THE BUDOKAN
