Does Cheap Trick know how to make a bad song? How about the Doors? What other band(s) fit this category?

John Frusciante

Has Cheap Trick done anything good since the 70s? And forgetting/not even considering The Doors as a trio, you have heard "The Soft Parade," right?

Yes and yes. Have you heard most of Cheap Trick's mid-80s-early 90s material? Or some of the songs on the post-Morrison Doors albums? Hell, even with Jim they produced a few wastes of tape, like "My Wild Love" or "Indian Summer".

Cheap Trick is one of my all time favorite bands but in my opinion their best work was in the 70s. Their first 3 studio albums to be exact. They showed the true irreverent spirit of what Cheap Trick was all about. Dream Police (1979) is a good album with some good songs but it was already becoming a little too slickly produced. By the time Cheap Trick hit the 80s, their music just became kinda bland and "poppy". "The Flame" for example, makes me cringe. Thankfully, by the 2000s they were getting back to their harder, more punky, rock roots. Their new release sounds pretty good but unfortunately, it won't get any airplay.

Yes they know how to. Listen to some of their live stuff. No artist or band is immune to bad stuff . No one is perfect and there will be bumps, the key for bands like the ones you mention, are the bad stuff is only a song here and there. Most of it stemmed from producers and or record labels wanting 12 songs while they wanted 11. It was a throw away song to appease the label. One bad song off of a really good album is not going to ruin it. Also bad is subjective and it carries differently in a band like the Doors versus say Limp Bizkit. In these nearly perfect bands the good far outweighs the bad.