Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace (Live At Budokan-Video)

Cheap Trick from a Japanese TV broadcast of the "Live At Budokan" shows.
Cheap Trick-Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace (Live At Budokan).mov
Buy the 1st Cheap Trick LP. It's the one Nirvana based their whole sound on.
Update: We have a quibbler in the comments already. Here's the quote for you unbelievers, from your God  "…We sound just like Cheap Trick, only the guitars are louder"- Kurt Cobain, Rolling Stone magazine." They also ripped off the Pixies if you hadn't noticed. And here's MP3.com's Nirvana similar artists page that lists Cheap Trick. Oh yeah, they're at the TOP of the list of Nirvana influences on AllMusic.com.

Comments

[telly]

"Buy the 1st Cheap Trick LP. It's the one Nirvana based their whole sound on."

Please tell me that was a joke.

[Percy]

"…We sound just like Cheap Trick only the guitars are louder"- Kurt Cobain, Rolling Stone magazine."

You've obviously never heard the first Cheap Trick Record!Check it out. You probably think the Bee Gees are a disco band too!

[telly]

I didn't mean to say Nirvana were anything remotely original; clearly there were a lot of bands that are bloody obvious influemces (Beat Happening, Wipers, Sonic Youth, Melvins, etc, etc).

I just meant they're nothing at all like Cheap Trick, so the comparison seemed a bit odd. Odd to the point of trollery, in fact.

[Percy]

Cheap Trick is Nirvana's biggest and most obvious influence. They thought so and said so. (Do you not believe the quote? I didn't make it up!) Every Rock reference online agrees. You obviously have never heard the FIRST Cheap Trick LP or you would realize this. The melodies, the songs, the singing are all HEAVILY influenced (if not ripped off from) by Cheap Trick. All of the bands you mention were more comptemporaries of NIrvana than influences. Please listen to the 1st Cheap Trick record cause otherwise you are making an uninformed judgement. And how could I be a troll on my own site? You must have a different meaning of Troll...

[Suzie]

They do (did) sound like Cheap Trick's first record, specifically stuff like "I dig go go girls." The whole record is a bit glam sounding.

Personally I always thought Nirvana sounded like they were ripping off Slint, no matter what they said. Though the most Nirvana-ish Slint record (Spiderland) BARELY predates Bleach (by six months, maybe).

Gee, I'm a geek.

[Mark]

Don't forget, this song was originally written and performed by Terry Reid. I like his version better. But I do love the first couple Cheap Trick albums, started listening to those in the late 80s, when I used to see Nirvana play a lot in Olympia.

[Pete Comita]

Spiderland certainly influenced a slew of indie rock bands, and the guys in Nirvana may well have dug it, but Bleach was released two or three years before Spiderland.

[Sam Juan]

And here I always thought that Uriah Heap was Nirvana's main influence.

[Percy]

heh

[Suzie]

I stand corrected. Spiderland was released in '91. I had originally thought that Bleach was (it's '89.) Slint's Tweez *was* out in '89, but I don't know if it predates Bleach.

Stupid rereleases always mess me up.

[Jangle Radio]

Krist Novolesic mentoned in a interview several years ago that Kurt was also a big Smithereens fan. Its a damn shame that The Pixies, Husker Du, Replacements, Minutemen and other 80's bands that paved the way for Nirvana never got the sales and airplay that they did.

[jim]

Ah, children...they didn't live through the craprock of the early/mid-70s but have delusions that they know all about it...Cheap Trick rocks, fulltime.