Dirty Laundry
Winchell World's Ear Candy XXIV
These stories are about the times of my life and the music inextricably involved in those journeys. I hope this story about one of my favorite bands, our dear American treasure, Cheap Trick, adds something positive to your day. Much love to all of you.
Laundry and I have an interesting relationship. That relationship took hold in college when I figured out how to rig the machines in the basement of my dorm to do my laundry for free, and when I did have to actually pay, the slush fund that I kept from my student government position picked up the slack. With my clean clothes in tow, I would head to my dorm room and use the training my mom provided to iron my shirts. My freshman year she literally sent me a written diagram of how to iron. That has stuck with me to this day.
As time has tumbled on, I’ve always had a penchant for laundry, making sure that it is done correctly and that my clothes look somewhat presentable. You might not have known that in the grungy days of the late 80’s and 90’s, but as my career eventually began to settle in it was simply one of my things; something I do very well. That translated into my daughter’s clothes and now lives as a stronghold in our home. I fold my shirts a certain way. I understand the temperatures for washing and drying. I don’t mix whites and colors, and mixing dish towels with bath towels is a mortal sin. There are certain detergents for certain things, and the wrong detergent can be a miserable experience for some people’s skin. The time I used a can of Tide pods instead of my All Free & Clear Mighty Pods was a disaster of itchery for weeks.
I do the laundry. As a matter of fact, on the rare moment I catch Shannon with any amount of clothing heading for the door leading to our Speed Queen Commercial Heavy Duty I stop her and go full on interrogation. I usually win that situation and take over whatever it is she needs laundered at that exact moment. It’s these little victories that help solidify my identity as a laundry wizard.
But, Shannon did something this summer that seems so small, but was another signal that I am in the right place, with the best situation I could ever imagine. Without my guidance, without my lifelong laundry insights, she purchased an outdoor retractable clothesline and installed it on our patio. That thing is a hugely wise and important addition to our world of laundry health. The clothesline has brought an element that takes our laundry game over the top, nearly unstoppable. Hell, we literally wash and hang dry our curtains. Who does that? We do. We do.
In 2014 I had just moved back to Birmingham after a year-long speed cycle in Wichita and I was spinning. I literally had to rent an apartment, sight unseen, in a few days and it was in a part of town I swore I would never move to: Hoover. I rolled into town, cat in tow, hunkered down in a basement apartment (I always chose to live on higher floors), with a new position, and not much else. Yes, I was fine financially, but I was disheveled from the situation. I jumped into my work and hot yoga classes, and got out as much as possible, but it was pretty lonely. At one point, I literally thought, “Fuck it.” Instead of looking for a relationship or towing the line of something from the past, I was just going to embrace the single life and do whatever came up. Quite frankly, that moment was liberating, and would eventually lead me to the brightest spot possible.
While that damn apartment was the first place in my proper adult life that didn’t have a washing machine, I found The Soap Box just a few blocks from the tenement. Each week I would drop off my clothes with the ladies that worked the wash & fold counter there. It was scary at first, but their smiles were comforting, and when I picked up my first batch all neatly folded or hung, I was good. The Soap Box was the real deal, and although I felt I was in purgatory for the moment, I also felt there were angels helping me out.
I saw a ton of shows during that period. It helped that I was working in radio and that we had relationships with every promoter and venue. It also helped that it was a boom moment in Birmingham for live concerts. That era saw new venues and promoters competing to get good acts into those halls. I would travel to Nashville or Memphis to see shows and friends, just living loose and free. A.F.I., Amon Amarth, Kacey Musgraves, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, The Sword, and countless others are in my concert history from that time. And, Cheap Trick.
October 5, 2014, Cheap Trick played Iron City in Birmingham, Alabama. This would be the umpteenth time for me to see the quartet from Rockford, Illinois who shook the foundations of the world back in 1979 with the wildly huge hit “I Want You to Want Me” from their “At Budokan” album. My older brothers 8-track tapes of Cheap Trick’s early albums “In Color” and “Heaven Tonight” graced our household, whether in their cars or living room, and I was well prepped by the time “Dream Police” came out at the beginning of my eighth grade year, one year prior to high school, in 1979.
I was a sponge at that point in time, lapping up every drop of music possible, and when I began hearing Robin Zanders high flying tenor whipping through “Dream Police” on the radio, I knew this band was going to be around a bit.
Just a year later, in the dawn of my high school experience that would be the backdrop of every John Hughes story line imaginable, “All Shook Up” followed “Dream Police”. “All Shook Up” arrived at our mailbox one 1980 day in Kansas as a part of my first stash of ‘buy 1 get 10 albums free’ from Columbia Record Club. I was ecstatic as I got to drop the needle on side one and the beginnings of “Stop This Game” slowly arose throughout my bedroom cycling me through a menagerie of rock that defied new wave, yet was new wave, didn’t quite fit hard rock, but was heavy, and sat well with the Beatles sounds, but was far different and beyond. “All Shook Up” is where I really got to know Cheap Trick, to let it all soak in and bleach my soul permanently with a mark that would never really go away. The album gave me a real look at guitarist Rick Nielsen’s eccentric depth that went far beyond his amps. “High Priest of Rhythmic Noise” was just weird and cool enough to make me want to enlist in whatever army Cheap Trick was building. As other bands singers had their places and vibes, Robin Zander was in his own category with the ability to actually sing AND scream. You see, the two are not necessarily mutually inclusive. There was drummer Bun E. Carlos who was mainly recognized for pulling off what can arguably be said as the most physically rigorous job in any band (drummer) while constantly smoking a cigarette. And, Tom Petersson, the quiet bass player, yet always front and center in every single Cheap Trick image.
Cheap Trick was, and is, cool. Times move along for bands. Cheap Trick had their peaks and valleys; a few stains on their catalog that didn’t go over so well. The pinnacle of a number one hit came to them in the late 80’s with one of the biggest ballads of that decade, “The Flame”. By the time I saw them in college during a trip to Daytona Beach for spring break, Tom Petersson was out of the band for several albums. The show still rocked. Molly Hatchet and Autograph were also on the bill, and I tried to give live band Karaoke a shot at some bar. My song was “My Sharona”.
Cheap Trick has always been consistent. Always releasing music, always touring. Never have they been the football stadium headliner. Often, they seem like the perennial opening act playing in front of bands with much shallower catalogs. The albums keep coming and coming, regardless of age and changes in the music business.
I woke up this Friday morning to the full album release of Cheap Trick’s 21st album, “All Washed Up”. The title itself is a self-deprecating bow which throws back to that 1980 masterpiece that still has a home in my vinyl collection, “All Shook Up”. My headphones have been on all morning listening to these fellas just taking it to another level. Zander, Nielsen, and Petersson are in their 70’s. They sound like 1980.
“All Washed Up” begins with the title track and cycles through the huge, melodic, and boisterous sounds that have made Cheap Trick one of our great American musical treasures. “All Gone Wrong”, “The Riff Won’t Quit", and “Bet It All” are some of the freshest, vibrant Cheap Trick compositions I have heard in all of their career. And, they produced, performed and wrote or co-wrote it all.
Some albums take a bit to sink in. “All Washed Up” does it like our Speed Queen, clean in one cycle with no doubt. There is no need to rinse and repeat before you know if this is a clean album or not. It is, and it is at the top of the heap within the compendium of Cheap Trick’s work. I can’t wait to pick up my vinyl copy this afternoon.
Some of my favorite Cheap Trick songs over the decades are their hearfelt rock ballads. “Tonight It’s You” from “Standing On The Edge”, “If You Want My Love” from “One On One”. Who didn’t love “The Flame” from “Lap Of Luxury”. Sitting at track #5 on “All Washed Up” is “The Best Thing”.
“I can’t believe the way this happened
Just when I thought I was lost
It goes to show if you open your eyes
You might see what you’re looking for”(From ‘The Best Thing’)
I can’t remember the last time I visited The Soap Box back during my ‘wilderness’ period in 2014. But I can remember when all things came clean. It was just days into the new year of 2015 when I drove up to the Black Market Bar & Grille in Birmingham and met Shannon. All that wandering went right out the door. I have said it a thousand times, but, that day Shannon saved me from certain doom.
It is not lost on me, and I have a bit of trouble believing its just coincidence that “The Best Thing” greeted me this morning on the new Cheap Trick album. Give it all a listen.
Thanks so much for reading. I see alot of family and friends on the subscriber list, and I hope every single one of you are doing well. We continue to navigate strange times. Hold those you love, stand for truth (not the bullshit guised as truth), look people in the eye and have tough conversations if needed. Don’t try to go back. You can’t. The way is forward, and the only thing that will guide us is love. And, much love to all of you.