Cheap Trick - She's Tight

A couple of years back I got to see Cheap Trick and Def Leppard in concert at the Stampede Roundup. My ticket was a gift from my boss at the time, she wanted to reward me for all my hard work and she knew I listened to a lot of music, and she correctly guessed that this included Cheap Trick and Def Leppard. It was great seeing Def Leppard but I was more excited to see Cheap Trick.

Live, Cheap Trick like to introduce themselves as the “best band in the world,” while this is surely meant as a playful boast I take such claims seriously, and I must disagree with Cheap Trick, they are not the best band in the world, in fact I suspect only the most diehard of Cheap Trick fans, and presumably Cheap Trick themselves, could believe such a claim. When we consider the greatest bands of all time we tend to think of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Queen and Black Sabbath, and all those bands are British, so perhaps an argument could be made that Cheap Trick are America’s best band, but I still wouldn’t believe that, I mean The Doors are a thing. Anyway that is enough over-thinking regarding that.

Cheap Trick is one of those bands whose repertoire of songs is very deep and enjoyable. The greatest hits album for Cheap Trick could never suffice as proper appreciation for the band, they have too many great songs that were never hits, or just minor hits on the radio, and as a consequence many great songs are largely forgotten in the sands of time. Cheap Trick’s three most famous songs are surely “Surrender,” “Dream Police” and “I Want You to Want Me,” which is somewhat tragic because I do not like two of those songs. “Surrender” is such a classic that I have nothing but praise for that song, but the other two, I have always felt were kind of lame, not bad songs, but certainly not great, at least in my opinion, so it is something of a bummer that these three songs dominate Cheap Trick radio presence, and also their live performances.

This problem, if we can call it that, manifested itself when I saw them live, or any time I watch a live performance of Cheap Trick on DVD or youtube. During the Stampede Roundup I was really hoping to hear songs like “Southern Girls,” “This Time Around,” or “Gonna Raise Hell,” I thought if they would play at least one or two of those songs, or any of the other songs I adored I would be a very happy man, and they played none of them. This is not to claim the concert was bad, it was good, they were good, they played “Surrender” and that rocked, but they also played “Dream Police” and “I Want You To Want Me,” and I was lukewarm of that. It is a bizarre position to be in when you have so many songs but only so much time to play them live, Cheap Trick by necessity needed to focus on their three most popular songs and other hits that and choice picks, and it just happened that it did not align with what I would have preferred.

Alright we are four paragraphs in and this review is beginning to read like a criticism of Cheap Trick, when in reality I am attempting to give them a runabout compliment. The compliment being Cheap Trick have so many great songs that a fan like me will always be disappointed with any greatest hits album or live concert, because there is too much Cheap Trick I want to hear. They may not be the greatest band ever, but they are a really freaking good one. That’s the take away here.

I mentioned my admiration of songs like “Southern Girls,” “This Time Around” and “Gonna Raise Hell” but in addition to those three, and perhaps my favorite Cheap Trick song is “She’s Tight.”

There are countless rock songs about women, and many, if not most, are hyper sexual. It should require literally no meaningful insight to deduce that a song titled “She’s Tight” is sexual in nature and referencing the high quality of a woman’s genitals. We often refer to songs like “She’s Tight” as cock rock songs, as they are ultimately the ideal sort of songs to rock out to. The pace is fast and the subject matter is encouraging, cock rock songs are always ideal for enjoying ourselves and bonding with one another, also they assist in broaching the subject of actual sex with would be lovers, because intentions can become painfully obvious in the embrace of such song and lyrics.

What separate “She’s Tight” from the run of mill cock rock songs is quality, which is really just another way of saying personal preference. There is a lot of praise, and not necessarily all of it sexual, being heaped upon this mystery women being described to us in “She’s Tight,” and there is a flimsy argument that “tight” might be referring to “cool” as that was an alternative for “cool” in California at the time of this song’s release, but it is impossible to interpret this song as anything other than purely sexual, in fact it might be a song about a prostitute.

“She’s Tight” may not be the classiest or deepest of songs I have brought up on this blog, but not everything needs to be. It is a great song regardless of its lack of depth, and it is a very fun song from a band that focus was primarily on good times and other positive themes.

- King of Braves