Song Lyric Sunday: Cheap Trick, “Surrender”

Song Lyric Sunday, Song of the Day 2 Minutes
Source: Melanie

When I saw that Jim had chosen "powerpop" as today’s theme, I was stuck. I mean, I read Max’s Powerpop Blog regularly (and if you don’t, you should) and he seems like he covers the genre, although he covers a lot more music and a few other things like TV. I wanted to make sure I got it right, and not pick a band that wasn’t powerpop.

In the end, I visited The Blogger’s Best Friend ™ and found they had a list of powerpop artists, and right there under "C" was a band from the Chicago area (actually from Rockford, Illinois), Cheap Trick. I remembered reading an article in The Chicago Tribune Magazine one Sunday about the band. They were kind of an odd-looking bunch: half of them, bassist Tom Peterson and guitarist/vocalist Robin Zander, looked like standard-issue rockers, while the other half, guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos… didn’t.

"Surrender" was on the band’s 1978 album Heaven Tonight. As a single, it reached #62 in the US, #79 in Canada, #8 in Belgium, and #9 in the Netherlands. It got sufficient airplay on WLS in Chicago, so we heard it a lot.

[Verse 1]
Mother told me, yes, she told me
I’d meet girls like you
She also told me, “Stay away
You’ll never know what you’ll catch”
Just the other day I heard
Of a soldier’s falling off
Some Indonesian junk
That’s going ’round

[Chorus]
Mommy’s alright
Daddy’s alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender
Surrender
But don’t give yourself away
Hey, hey

[Verse 2]
Father says, “Your mother’s right
She’s really up on things
Before we married, Mommy served
In the WACS in the Philippines”
Now, I had heard the WACs recruited
Old maids for the war
But mommy isn’t one of those
I’ve known her all these years

[Chorus]
Mommy’s alright
Daddy’s alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender
Surrender
But don’t give yourself away
Hey, hey

[Verse 3]
Whatever happened to all this season’s
Losers of the year?
Every time I got to thinking
Where’d they disappear?
But when I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rollin’
Got my KISS records out

[Chorus]
Mommy’s alright
Daddy’s alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender
Surrender
But don’t give yourself away
Hey, hey
Away
Away

[Outro]
Surrender (Mommy’s all right)
Surrender (Daddy’s all right)
But don’t give yourself away
Surrender (Mommy’s all right)
Surrender (Daddy’s all right)
But don’t give yourself away
Surrender (Mommy’s all right)
Surrender (Daddy’s all right)
But don’t give yourself away
Surrender (Bun E.’s alright)
Surrender (Tommy’s alright)
But don’t give yourself away (Robin’s alright, Rick’s alright)
Surrender (We’re all alright)
Surrender (We’re all alright)
But don’t give yourself away (We’re all alright, We’re all alright)
Surrender (Mommy’s all right)
Surrender (Daddy’s all right)
But don’t give yourself away
Surrender (Mommy’s all right)
Surrender (Daddy’s all right)
But don’t give yourself away

Source: Genius

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for December 11, 2022.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

18 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Cheap Trick, “Surrender””

  1. Pingback: ‘Twas The Week Before Christmas That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

        1. Thanks John. When I started in 2017 it took me 8 months to get ONE like and one comment so I don’t take followers for granted.

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