Gonna Raise Hell by Cheap Trick

Album: Dream Police (1979)

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This epic rocker with a disco beat contains an interlude for violins and cellos that was scored by guitarist Rick Nielsen and keyboardist Jai Winding. Bassist Tom Petersson recalled to Uncut: "We always wanted to work with an orchestra, but (producer) Tom Werman did not want to hear about it, and he was just begrudgingly going along with it. We were in there like, 'Come on, this will be great!'"

"We liked to use orchestras not to sweeten things, but to make them scarier with these violins and cellos and crazy string lines going on. That's the way we look at orchestras – it's really to darken things up, not sweeten it."
In a Songfacts interview with Tom Werman, he talked about producing this track. "We did some interesting things," he said. "'Gonna Raise Hell,' I remember slamming a 2x4 on the floor of the studio to double the snare drum in certain sections - choruses and some other parts. I think that's the one I put a Hammond B3 in."

Comments: 1

Mike Keenan from New YorkI find this work to be very evocative, it has poetic lyrics which, when screamed, provide the connection from John Lennon through to Kurt Cobain. The melody is amazingly infectious. The lead (!) bridge is sublime. Cheap Trick evolved from Beatles and was the midwife for Nirvana of that there is no question, this and Auf Weiderzehen bring it home, a melodic disco-esque tour-de-force from this strong rock 70's (and after) quartet. Best heard live without the strings.

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