I always like to pose questions to Google AI to see how stupid it is. When I asked the question, “Did The Guess Who open the door for other Canadian bands to make it big in America?” the response was “Yes, The Guess Who is widely considered the breakthrough act that opened the door for Canadian rock bands in the United States and on the international stage.”

Not bad, but Mr. Smartypants omitted the all-important context. Most Americans assumed that The Guess Who was an American band, so the breakthrough was an undercover operation. You couldn’t have convinced Americans of that truth any more than you could convince them that Captain Kirk was Canadian. “No! He was raised in Iowa!” I hear the Trekkies scream. Had the disgusting phrase been in use in the 70s, the Yanks would have dismissed it as “fake news.”

Canadians in several artistic fields had made it big in America long before the 70s, but Americans didn’t know it. Lily Hardman explained this conundrum in the article “Why Your Favourite American Artists Are Probably Canadian” on Far Out.

The truth is that the entertainment industry in America is full of Canadians, and most of them are the best at what they do . . . In Hollywood and the broader entertainment world, however, Canadians are anything but the politely benign neighbours who put up with our shit. From controversial auteurs to pioneering comedians, they are wildly talented and consequential, so much so that we Americans – arrogant as we are – blithely assume that they must be one of us.

She also points out that the first Hollywood star was none other than Mary Pickford . . . from Toronto.

If you ignore the hybrids like Buffalo Springfield (a Canadian-majority band), The Guess Who was the first all-Canadian rock band to make a huge splash in the States with a string of hits, and the first to top the Billboard 100. Even if the terrible secret regarding their origins had received serious media attention in the States, I don’t believe it would have changed a thing. During their peak period, The Guess Who was considered one of the best bands anywhere. The classic lineup featured a child prodigy drummer in Garry Peterson, A solid bass player in Jim Kale, a top-tier songwriter/guitarist in Randy Bachman, and a fabulous lead vocalist/songwriter in Burton Cummings. Alas, a series of lineup changes in the midst of their success ended their run far too soon.

The origins of the band tell a fascinating story, summarized in The Canadian Encyclopedia:

The Guess Who emerged from a series of Winnipeg bands fronted by lead singer Chad Allan. In the late 1950s, Allan formed a band called The Silvertones with other Winnipeg teenagers, including bassist Jim Kale. Randy Bachman and drummer Garry Peterson joined in 1962, when the group’s name was changed to Chad Allan & The Reflections. Keyboardist Bob Ashley rounded out the five-man lineup, which changed its name to Chad Allan & the Expressions in 1965.

Heavily influenced by the “British Invasion,” the group issued a few singles and two albums. Although they developed a loyal following in Winnipeg, they received little radio support in the rest of the country, due in part to the refusal by most radio stations in Canada to play Canadian material.

There were several reasons why Canadian material was virtually verboten in the homeland. The Yanks and the Brits dominated the Billboard 100, and the stations wanted to go with the tried-and-true. At the time, there was little in the way of a structured music industry in Canada, and many believed that Canadian acts were sub-par. The band was forced to engage in a bit of trickery to break through the invisible barrier:

When the band recorded a cover of the influential British hit “Shakin’ All Over” in 1965, Quality Records producer George Struth released it to radio stations under the moniker “Guess Who?” in the hope that DJs would be more inclined to play a song by a mysterious new British band. Whether this marketing ploy had anything to do with the song’s success is debatable, but it reached No. 1 in Canada and No. 22 in the US.

Of course, the DJ’s referred to the band as The Guess Who, so they were stuck with that name whether they liked it or not. When keyboardist Bob Ashley left the band, he was replaced by Burton Cummings, who had just turned eighteen. When frontman Chad Allan developed problems with his vocal pipes, he also said goodbye, and Cummings was promoted to lead singer.

So! The classic lineup was in place and rarin’ to go . . . and went nowhere, commercially speaking. We’ll switch to Wikipedia for the story of their breakthrough.

Later in 1967, the Guess Who were hired as the house band for the CBC Radio show The Swingers, and as the house band for the CBC Television program Let’s Go, which was hosted by former band mate Chad Allan. They initially performed hit singles by other artists, but the CBC producers encouraged them to develop more of their own music as well. This gave the Guess Who greater exposure in Canada and financial stability for the next two years. After seeing the Guess Who on Let’s Go, record producer and sales executive Jack Richardson contacted the band about participating in an advertising project for Coca-Cola. This project became a split album titled A Wild Pair with Ottawa band the Staccatos (themselves soon to renamed Five Man Electrical Band). The album could be purchased only by mail-order from Coca-Cola. Richardson served as the Guess Who’s producer until the band’s breakup in 1975.

Richardson signed the Guess Who to his Nimbus 9 label and production company, and personally financed the recording of a new album in late 1968. The band was also signed to RCA for distribution outside of Canada. The Guess Who transitioned to a more mature pop-rock sound with Soul music and jazz influences. Their second studio album Wheatfield Soul was released in early 1969 and achieved success in both Canada and the United States. The single “These Eyes” reached the top ten in the United States and became a gold record with sales of more than one million copies.

The musicianship of the classic lineup was undeniable, and Jack Richardson was the final piece of the puzzle—the George Martin figure who helped the Guess Who become “the best-selling rock group in the world.” When Richardson passed away at the age of 81, Burton Cummings told The Globe and Mail, “He was a great friend . . . bright, talented and funny. He taught me infinite amounts of about producing and arranging.” (Wikipedia)

It was a bumpy ride for The Guess Who—and there would be more bumps to overcome—but in the end, they established a lasting legacy. “As Canada’s Walk of Fame noted upon the band’s induction in 2001, The Guess Who ‘were the guys who made it okay to be Canadian, who proved that you didn’t have to leave our shores to score big. And they’ve influenced just about every Canadian performer who has followed since.’” (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

*****

Note: The year of release represents the single release, not necessarily the album release.

“These Eyes” (Cummings-Bachman, 1969, Wheatfield Soul): If the decision had been left up to the band, “These Eyes” might have never seen the light of day. As Randy Bachman explained to the crowd in Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall during his Every Song Tells a Story tour in 2003, “Our motto was to take Canadian tuque rock to the world, and here our record label wanted us to release this ballad, and we didn’t want to.” (Winnipeg Sun)

The truth is, if the band had tried to break into the Billboard 100 in 1969 with a no-doubt-about-it rocker, The Guess Who might never have seen the light of day in the USA. The lede to the Wikipedia article on 1968 says it all: “1968 in the United States was marked by several major historical events. It is often considered to be one of the most turbulent and traumatic years of the 20th century in the United States.” After surviving a year filled with horrible news, from the Tet Offensive to the MLK and RFK assassinations, and the televised disruption of the Democratic Convention, people yearned for a break from constant social unrest and developed a craving for music that took their minds off the daily news. The 1969 year-end Billboard 100 was filled with light pop, ballads, danceable soul music, mid-tempo roots rock, and even a boy named Sue.  The hottest rocker to make the Top 100 was The Ventures’ version of the Hawaii-Five-O theme, and the song that topped the 100 was “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.

Well, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you’ll find you get what you need,” and what The Guess Who needed first of all was a single that spoke to the current market in the USA. Though Bachman and Cummings weren’t particularly happy when the label ignored their preferences, I’m sure they got over it once the song became a hit in America. With its lovely melody, fascinating chord patterns, and a series of upward key changes, “These Eyes” qualifies as a timeless classic (and a most interesting take on the breakup song).

The story behind the development of the song involves a happy accident that proves once again that great songs often result from untrained musicians messing around on the keyboard or fretboard. From Songfacts: “Randy Bachman started writing this song when he was waiting in the living room at the house of his date, Lorayne Stevenson. She was taking a long time getting ready, so Bachman sat at the piano and wrote the beginning of this song . . . While doodling on the piano in the living room of Lorayne’s parents’ home, Randy – a guitarist and definitely not a pianist – innocently constructed unconventional piano fingerings for the opening Dm7 and Cmaj7 chords. His Guess Who collaborator Burton Cummings, a trained Royal Conservatory of Music pianist, later complimented Randy for devising riffs that were technically wrong but sonically right for the emerging song.” Given that Randy was a piano novice, the “technically wrong” chord positions were likely a pair of inversions achieved by stacking the notes from a position other than the root note. The song was originally titled “These Arms,” but Burton wisely changed it to “These Eyes,” connecting the song to the “window to the soul.” He also inserted the middle eight to vary the intensity of the song.

The key changes and the contrasting, speedier notes in the middle eight may present a challenge for some vocalists, but Burton nailed the technical aspects of the vocal while also managing to convey a range of emotions from sadness to frustration while articulating every note and phrase so well that you do not need a lyric sheet. His work on the Hohner Pianet electric piano in this song is largely limited to rhythmic support, and he nails that as well. The rhythm section of Kale, Peterson (and in this case) Bachman does an excellent job of mirroring the mood in Burton’s vocals, with soft counterpoints and fills in the verses and supplying additional power during the upward key changes. Ben McPeek’s subtle arrangement of strings and horns adds splashes of musical color to the arrangement while avoiding interference with the song’s marvelous flow.

“These Eyes” peaked at #6 in the U.S., #7 in Canada, and #10 in South Africa. As for the album, Wheatfield Soul hit #3 on the Canadian charts but failed to make the top 40 in the States. The album also featured a beautiful tribute to Gordon Lightfoot (“Lightfoot”), but at this point in history, Americans had never heard of him (and I’m sure that when “If You Could Read My Mind” took the country by storm a year or so later, they probably claimed him as one of their own).

“Laughing” (Cummings-Bachman) 1969, Canned Wheat: The songwriting team claimed that they wrote “These Eyes” in fifteen minutes. They beat that record with “Laughing” by finishing it off in about ten minutes. “Speaking with The Edmonton Journal in 1969, Bachman said: ‘We find that if we have to sit down and ponder, it doesn’t happen.'” (Songfacts) That makes perfect sense to me. Music is a form of emotional expression, and if you’re not feeling it, fuck it (but remember that some songs deserve more careful attention).

Some listeners have pointed out that the intro is reminiscent of the opening passage of the Bee Gees song “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” but the similarity begins and ends with the strumming pattern. The Bee Gees intro consists of a single repeated chord, while the intro to “Laughing” features a subtle build consisting of variations on the A chord (A-Aaug-A6-A7) followed by a rising pattern of Dmaj7-Dm7-C#m7, then using a pair of tension chords (E7sus4-E7) to close the verse and cue Garry Peterson to ramp up the power. The grabber for this bass whore is Jim Kale’s marvelous contribution that highlights the key notes of the changing chord pattern. The vocal harmonies are also a treat, and though it’s another ballad about another failed relationship, the energy and tightness of the band carry the day.

“Laughing” made it to #10 on the Billboard charts, and better still, the single turned out to be a double-sided hit.

“Undun” (Bachman) 1969, Canned Wheat: The B-side to “Laughing” only made it to #22 in the States, and #21 in the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart. . . but #3 on the RPM Adult Contemporary charts, likely due to the jazz-bossa nova feel of the song. According to Songfacts, this is Randy Bachman’s favorite Guess Who song, and it happens to be mine as well. It appeals to me because I love listening to jazz, regularly play jazz compositions on my piano, and from time to time I’ve sat in with jazz combos in clubs when the regular pianist was unable to make the gig. I would venture a guess that it was Randy’s favorite song because he had to overcome several obstacles to bring the song to life.

“Undun” is a true story about “a girl Bachman saw at a party who went into a coma after dropping acid.” (Songfacts)  While mulling over how he might tell the story in song form, Bob Dylan’s “Ballad In Plain D” appeared on his radio, and just when he was about to turn it off, Dylan uttered the line “She came undone.”

Despite having undergone music training on the violin with the Royal Toronto Conservatory system when he was a child, Bachman was unable to read music, but “he found that he could play anything if he heard it once; he referred to this skill as ‘phonographic memory.'” (Wikipedia) All very well and good, but at this point there was no music to remember. Fortunately, he was also blessed with intuitive musical insight, and his intuition was telling him that the song should have a jazz feel to it. Nice thought, but he’d never played a jazz chord in his life. He solved that problem by asking fellow guitarist and musician Lenny Breau to show him some jazz chords.  Breau was versed in nearly every genre you can name, and had already trained Bachman in finger-picking styles.

When I first heard the song, it felt like something the Zombies would have done, and sure enough, Bachman admitted his admiration for the band in the Guitar Player article. The jazz feel of many a Zombie’s song comes from Rod Argent on the keyboards, and both Bachman and Cummings were well aware of that. “At first, Bachman and Cummings envisioned an electric piano solo, an idea they quickly nixed. ‘That would have screamed ‘We’re copying the Zombies!’” Instead of the 88s, Bachman thought it would be nice to introduce a flute into the mix, but no one in the band had a lick of experience on the flute. “Burton could play the sax, and we discovered that a flute used the same fingering. We went to a music store, bought a flute, and he learned how to play the solo. He’d never played the flute in his life.” (Guitar Player) As a trained flutist, I would point out that switching from a vertical instrument to a horizontal instrument does take some getting used to, so double kudos to Burton for pulling it off. The last obstacle they faced was the requirement to record their music in RCA Studio in New York, a room built for a full orchestra. With Jack Richardson’s help, they snuck off to A & R Recording to record both “Laughing” and “Undun.” RCA found out and forgave them once both songs became hits.

When I run across a fascinating composition like this one, I always take a peep at the available sheet music online. While they all agree on the key (G/Em), the chording is way off base. Many omit the 9th and 6th “jazz chords,” either dumbing them down to the base chord or turning them into diminished chords. Lucky for the guitarists in the audience, the correct chording can be found on Ultimate Guitar, but you’re going to have to stretch your fingers to pull off the Cmaj7(b5) beast.

I love everything about this song. The groove is superbly executed, the breathy “k-shaws” are a perfect fit, Bachman’s mastery of the guitar is on full display, and Burton’s vocals are a perfect fit for the song’s changing moods. The most fascinating part of the song is the middle eight, where the boys shift out of jazz mode and replace the syncopation with a captivating guitar arpeggio leading the way. The lyrics hint at some of the reasons why the girl sought the truth in LSD: the sheer difficulty of becoming oneself without help from others, the challenge of sorting through different definitions of truth, the chosen blindness of self-absorbed people, and the various façades we try to master to fit in with home life, work life or the crowd.

Too many mountains and not enough stairs to climb.
Too many churches and not enough truth.
Too many people and not enough eyes to see.
Too many lives to lead and not enough time.

I also love the way they end the song, with Burton taking center stage with an emotionally powered vocal crescendo followed by a touch of scat. Best of all, “Undun” displays the band’s versatility, giving them the opportunity to take their music in different directions in an ever-changing music scene.

“No Time” (Cummings-Bachman): 1969, American Woman: “No Time” was the opening track for Canned Wheat, but it was not released as a single from that album because it clocked in at 5:36. RCA still thought it had promise as a single, so they had the band re-record it to serve as the teaser single for American Woman.

Since we’ve already learned that RCA’s chosen studios were not in the best shape, it’s more than possible that the engineering team didn’t have the means to produce a 5-plus 45 as they did at Columbia with “Like a Rolling Stone” or the team at Abbey Road with “Hey Jude.” I rather like the album version with its weird opening passage and lengthy guitar solo from Bachman, but those contributions were sacrificed in the name of commerce. In that sense, the trimming did the trick, as the single went to #1 in Canada, #5 in the U.S., and #16 in New Zealand. The catchy melody, Bachman’s truncated but still solid guitar work, and the vocal harmonies work like magic.

The problem is that the song is another breakup song, the third in the series of their first four hits. If I had been alive back then, I might have written them a fan letter begging the question, “Hey guys, don’t you have anything else to write about?”

And thanks to a broken guitar string, my wish would be granted.

“American Woman” (Cummings-Bachman-Kale-Peterson) 1970, American Woman:

Songfacts can be a hit-or-miss provider, but man, did they fucking nail it on this classic song.

Some songs take months to write, others come quickly in writing sessions or during studio jams. This one, however, had a much more spontaneous genesis: It was written on stage. Randy Bachman explained the origins in a Songfacts interview. The band was playing a show at a curling rink in Ontario when he broke a string on his guitar. In those days, that meant stopping the show until he could replace it. His bandmates left the stage, and Bachman put a new string on his ’59 Les Paul. The next challenge was getting it in tune (he didn’t have a tech or even a tuner in those days), so he went in front of Burton Cummings’ electric piano and hit the E and B notes to give him reference. As he tuned his guitar a riff developed, then something magical happened.

“I started to play that riff on stage, and I look at the audience, who are now milling about and talking amongst themselves,” Bachman said. “And all their heads snapped back. Suddenly I realize I’m playing a riff I don’t want to forget, and I have to keep playing it. So I stand up and I’m playing this riff. I’m alone on stage.”

The band’s drummer, Garry Peterson, who had made his way to the audience, jumped on stage and started playing. Bassist Jim Kale heard the ruckus and joined them, and finally Burton Cummings came up and grabbed the microphone. “Sing something!” Bachman implored him. Burton obliged: the first words out of his mouth were, “American woman, stay away from me.”

According to Burton Cummings, this song owes its creation to a piece of modern technology: a portable cassette recorder. He says that after his ad-libbed performance of the song, they discovered a kid in the crowd who was bootlegging the concert using the device (this is when bootlegging meant literally strapping the recorder to your leg). Listening back to his tape, they were able to jot down the words to recreate the lyric.

Oddly enough, the two songwriters offered contrasting opinions as to what “American Woman” was all about.

The Guess Who are Canadian, and Burton Cummings (the song’s lyricist) insists it has nothing to do with American pride. “What was on my mind was that girls in the States seemed to get older quicker than our girls and that made them, well, dangerous,” Cummings told the Toronto Star in 2014. “When I said ‘American woman, stay away from me,’ I really meant ‘Canadian woman, I prefer you.’ It was all a happy accident.”

Speaking with Songfacts, Randy Bachman called “American Woman” an “antiwar protest song,” explaining that when they came up with it on stage, both the band and the audience had a problem with the Vietnam War. Said Bachman: “We had been touring the States. This was the late ’60s, they tried to draft us, send us to Vietnam. We were back in Canada, playing in the safety of Canada where the dance is full of draft dodgers who’ve all left the States.” The lines where the anti-Vietnam sentiment are most apparent are “I don’t want your war machines, I don’t want your ghetto scenes.”

I let my father have the deciding vote. “It was an anti-Vietnam War song, along the lines of Joni’s ‘The Fiddle and The Drum’ but more specific. It hit all of my buddies pretty hard—we were waiting for our numbers to come up in the draft and talked a lot about heading over the border if our luck ran out. I heard the woman thing as kind of a warning not to get entrapped in a relationship with an American woman because it would only make it that much harder to get the hell out of the country. It gave you a lot to think about.”

The piece on Songfacts also helped me understand something that made no sense whatsoever.

One of the most misinterpreted songs ever, this is often heard as a patriotic ode or a tribute to American women. It’s usually American listeners who arrive at the jingoistic conclusions, ignoring a very clear lyric: “American Woman, get away from me.”

Fortunately for The Guess Who, American radio stations either didn’t hear this as a protest song or didn’t care. With a monster riff and the word “American” in the title, it was embraced and quickly added to playlists. By this time, the band were proven hitmakers, having scored with “These Eyes,” “Laughing” and “No Time,” so this single was widely anticipated. “Radio just played it automatically without even thinking we were saying antiwar words in there,” Bachman told us.

The confusion continues to this day. While researching the song, I stumbled across a claim that Taylor Swift used a recording of “American Woman” to announce her appearance during the Eras Tour. That didn’t sound right,  because I know that Taylor Swift is no dummy. Well, it turns out she made her entrance with a song she had covered on one of her albums—“American Girl” by Tom Petty!

Another plausible interpretation of interest is that the American woman in the song is the Statue of Liberty, which makes sense because she represents the nation, while a single American woman represents only herself.

As their first #1 song on the Billboard charts, it is considered their signature song, but I think their catalog is diverse enough not to be tied to a single signature song. I do like the album version a bit better with its laid-back, bluesy intro, but I have to admit the all-electric single version packs more punch and immediacy. I’ve included both versions for your convenience. No matter which you prefer, “American Woman” is an all-time rock ‘n’ roll classic.

In closing, I think it was pretty classy for all the members to receive songwriting credit. I’ve run into too many cases where the lead songwriter or songwriters automatically exclude those who are not considered real songwriters despite significant contributions, and I think that’s bullshit.

“No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature” (Cummings-Bachman) 1970, American Woman: Randy Bachman had written a song that was too short (“No Sugar Tonight”), so Burton Cummings suggested that they turn it into a suite by attaching a song Burton had written in the same key (“New Mother Nature”). The album featured the suite, but somehow “No Sugar Tonight” appeared as the B-side to “American Woman,” then DJs began playing the suite instead.

The incident that inspired “No Sugar Tonight” took place when Randy was taking a little stroll in downtown Berkeley, California. “Randy was walking and talking with a bandmate when he looked up and saw four big biker guys walking on the same sidewalk approaching them. Randy made up his mind to cross the street rather than confront the bikers, then he heard the skidding of car tires. Just as Randy was stepping off the sidewalk, the car came to a skidding stop, and a biker lady got out of the car, walked over to one of the bikers and engaged in a heated conversation with him. When the argument ended, the biker lady walked back to the car, opened the door, turned around, then shouted to the biker, ‘One more thing honey, you’re not getting any sugar tonight,’ indicating he was not going to get any sex that night from her. The car took off; Randy crossed the street, went back to his hotel and started writing the song based on that experience.”

Sugar has a long history as a metaphor for sex, most effectively in Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl.” By contrast, the lyrics in “No Sugar Tonight” sound more domestic than sexy, making the connection with “New Mother Nature” and the line “We’re gonna get it on right tonight” tenuous at best—a case of musical Coitus interruptus.

No sugar tonight in my coffee
No sugar tonight in my tea
No sugar to stand beside me
No sugar to run with me

The only thing that makes this a suite is that the two parts share the same key. You can blame the Beatles for launching the suite craze by sticking a bunch of unfinished songs with no connection at all in the closing moments of Abbey Road.

Sadly, American Woman represented the end of the Bachman-Cummings songwriting team. “Bachman had converted to Mormonism when he married his first wife Lorayne Stevenson in 1966, and as the spoils of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle increased with The Guess Who’s higher profile, Bachman’s beliefs and lifestyle clashed with those of his bandmates. He was also suffering from serious gallbladder attacks and was replaced on tour by guitarist Bobby Sabellico while he returned to see his doctor in Winnipeg. After playing a final show at the Fillmore East in New York on 16 May 1970, Bachman left the group.” (The Canadian Encyclopedia) He was replaced by two lead guitarists from Winnipeg bands: Kurt Winter from the band Brother and Greg Leskiw from Wild Rice. The latter would become Burton’s new part-time writing partner.

I should note that Burton tells a different story about Randy’s departure in his interview with Ivor Levene on Relix. I really don’t want to get in the middle of this, so check it out for yourself. 

“Hand Me Down World” (Winter) 1970, Share the Land: This is a song about the generation gap that Winter brought with him from Brother. Now that a new generation gap is challenging the Establishment all over Europe, I think the Gen Z protesters would be wise to employ “Hand Me Down World” as their anthem. In addition to the anti-Establishment lyrics, Burton’s angry vocals convey the message that he is on their side.

Don’t give me no hand me down shoes
Don’t give me no hand me down love
Don’t give me no hand me down world
Got one already.

Now that the success of “American Woman” freed the band from ballad after ballad, the band was able to rock the fuck out, and it sounds like they’re having a good time doing it—especially Garry Peterson, who beats the ever-loving crap out of his kit like a man who just got out of jail. The only downside is that their embrace of the rough stuff kicked them out of the Billboard top ten, indicating that a chunk of their American fan base still yearned for more ballads.

When I tell you that “Hand Me Down World” was written by all the members of Brother, you may wonder why Kurt Winter gets the songwriting credit. From Songfacts: “Along with ‘Bus Rider,’ this was a main song for a trio called Brother, who were made up of Kurt Winter, Bill Wallace, and Vance Masters. All three members of Brother wrote the song, but when The Guess Who recorded it, lead singer Burton Cummings made sure Winter got the sole writing credit, since he was a member of The Guess Who. Wallace and Masters did receive financial compensation under this agreement.” Kudos to Burton for his integrity.

“Share the Land” (Cummings) 1970, Share the Land: This utopian vision of a future where the human race abandons territoriality and greed for a world where we share land and work together to improve our lot may seem dated, but I firmly believe it defines a goal worth pursuing. Capitalism has become an unmitigated disaster where the only signs of “progress” are that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer—and the rich get richer by destroying the environment with fossil fuels and data centers while overlooking the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. In 1970, the Doomsday Clock was set to 600 minutes before midnight; it is now set at 85 seconds. And what are our leaders doing about this problem? Competing with each other, engaging in wars and enriching themselves. Leaders on both the left and right are absolutely clueless when it comes to solutions, because they’re too busy attacking their enemies in a mad attempt to retain power.

I read that Burton Cummings still closes his concerts with “Share the Land,” so I rank him as one of the few people in the world who gets it. The song has the feel of an agnostic rock spiritual that encourages singalongs, and the twin guitars on opposing speakers provide a solid musical backdrop

Have you been around?
Have you done your share of comin’ down
On different things that people do?
Have you been aware?
You got brothers and sisters who care
About what’s gonna happen to you

In a year from now
Maybe I’ll be there to shake your hand (Shake your hand)
Maybe I’ll be there to share the land (Share the land)
That they’ll be givin’ away
When we all live together, we’re talkin’ ’bout together, now

Did you pay your dues?
Did you read the news
This morning when the paper landed in your yard?
Do you know their names?
Can you play their games
Without losin’ track
And coming down a bit too hard?

I am particularly fond of the fade, where Burton goes full preacher while the background singers repeat the lines “Shake your hand, share the land.”

You know I’ll be standing by to help you if you worry
Now more sadness, no more sorrow, and no more bad times
Everyday comin’ sunshine, everyday everybody laughin’
Walkin’ together by the river, walkin’ together and laughin’
Everybody singin’ together, everybody singin’ and laughin’
Good times, good times, everybody walkin’ by the river now
Walkin’, singin’, talkin’, smilin’, laughin’ diggin’ each other

“Amen,” shouts the atheist. “That’s the kind of world I want to live in!”

“Hang On to Your Life” (Cummings-Winter) 1971, Share the Land: Once again, we are faced with conflicting accounts about a song’s origin.

Songfacts: “Lead singer Burton Cummings says that he wrote the lyrics to this song after getting a very severe case of sunburn while in Hawaii.”

Wikipedia: “‘Hang On to Your Life’ was written by Cummings supposedly after a bad case of sunburn, but many people believe it was written after a bad acid trip. It is an anti-drug song, and was used in commercials to promote stopping the usage of heavy drugs.”

It’s definitely an anti-drug song, so I’m going with the bad acid trip. It’s also one of my least favorite songs on the album for two reasons. Burton’s high-pitched, gravelly vocals are too much like Robert Plant, who I can only take in very small doses. The second complaint is the narrated insertion of Psalm #22 at the end of the song, which seems more than superfluous.

As was true with “Hand Me Down World,” the Americans weren’t particularly enamored by this single, as it topped out at #46. The good news is that Share the Land became their second stateside gold album in a row. Whether that was due to the lingering success of American Woman or the ongoing change in purchasing habits from 45s to LP’s is anyone’s guess, but the Guess Who would never have another top 20 album in the USA.

“Albert Flasher” (Cummings) 1971, non-album single:  If the lyrics to this song make no sense to you, you have plenty of company. In an interview with Ivor on Relix, Burton explained the “inspiration.”

Originally it was just a riff I came up with to warm up my hands, that was how it started. I played that riff in Albert Flasher for about two years, and the guy I was living with, Gary McLean from McLean and McLean finally said one day, “why don’t you just put that riff into a song”? I came up with the lyrics while we were doing an interview in a Los Angeles radio station and we were scheduled to leave for Honolulu the next morning. I was talking about the records and American Woman, and the personnel changes, and in the middle of the conversation, the DJ pressed this button on his console that was labeled “Alert Flasher”. I was stoned at the time; I had smoked a little before the interview and when I looked down, I thought, “what a great name for a song!”

It’s nice to hear Burton show off his dexterity on the keyboard, but that’s about all I have to say about this song.

“Rain Dance” (Cummings-Winter) 1971, So Long, Bannatyne: With a few exceptions, creating lyrics was not a strength for the Guess Who, largely because they wrote them quickly and often chose this word only because it rhymed with that word. Burton was asked about the lyrics to “Rain Dance” during the Relix interview.

Ivor: I’ve always been curious about the lyrics to that song. Who were Christopher, the Astronomer, and John with the gun?

Burton: There was no Christopher or an astronomer, those were just words I chose to rhyme with “Where’d you get the gun John.” John was my next door neighbor and one day I went over and he was sitting on the steps cleaning his rifle. He was a duck hunter. Kurt came over one day and he was just playing that 1-5 drone on my piano; [don’t you want a rain dance, don’t you wanna rain dance]. I thought it was pretty cool and I had this bit that went [changing just a few things]. I had had that before. That song was finished in about 25 minutes. We just put all those pieces together, had a cold beer, put it on a reel-to-reel, then went to Chicago and made a record of it. Good song, bad record. The drums sound awful, Kale played walking bass and it should have been A-C-D-C eights.

I hate to argue with Burton, but I find the drone rather creepy and I wish the song had never been released. Oh, well. Though the Canadians still bought their records in droves, “Rain Dance” would become their last top twenty single in the States until late 1974.

“Sour Suite” (Cummings) 1971, So Long, Bannatyne: The lyrics convey the sourness, but the music is a work of melancholic beauty, in large part due to Burton’s incredibly moving performance on the 88s. Except for one or two rough cello cuts, the tasteful orchestral backing integrates well with the piano. Best of all, there is plenty of evidence that Burton spent more time on the lyrics than the usual 25 minutes, largely because he was reflecting on his own life from childhood to adulthood, from anonymity to fame.

If you take a peek at the lyrics, you’ll find that the song is set in 46201, the ZIP code for Indianapolis, which Burton noticed on a fan letter he received from the Hoosier State. Setting the song in a different city in a different country allowed Burton to place some aesthetic distance between himself and his story, allowing him to tell his story without drowning the narrative in self-pity. The distance allows the listener to experience the emotional impact.

In the first verse, Burton reflects on his current state as a celebrity, and like Garbo, he desperately wants some alone time.

Don’t wanna listen to my telephone ring
Or sing ding-a-ling or talk about a thing
Not this morning
Don’t wanna think about the night before
Or maybe it’s a bore behind an open door
Got no time for that this morning
If I had the mind or I had the time
Maybe I could throw together a new kind of rhyme
And tell about my warning
But it’s too late now.
It’s too late now.
It’s too late now.

In verse two, he moves from past to present, beginning with the father who abandoned him and his family when he was an infant.

I don’t wanna think about a runaway dad
That took away the only thing that I never had
Don’t even miss him this morning
I don’t wanna think about a cold goodbye
Or a high school buddy got a little too high
I can’t help him out this morning
Reviewers laugh at me so I go out to sea
And perhaps it’s just as well cause I’d rather be in hell
Than be a wealthy man this morning
But it’s too late now.
It’s too late now.
It’s too late now.

The bridge focuses on unwelcome changes in the social milieu and the natural environment, coupled with a yearning for both simpler times and warmer relationships.

Whatever happened to images cause now they’re gone
And worn-out phrases just keep a hangin’ on
Whatever happened to homes as opposed to houses
The conversation sinks as the evening drowses
It’s just like 46201.
It’s just like 46201.

Whatever happened to early morning open skies
And broken faces, half with melting eyes
Enough of riddles that just play with time
Cause I’m still here and I can’t beg a dime
I’m back here in 46201.
I’m back here in 46201.

Though the story is personal, I think most people can connect the lyrics to their own journey through life and the need to take a moment to figure out how we wound up where we are today. Honest self-reflection does not come easily, as we all have episodes in our lives that trigger feelings of regret. I want to thank Burton for giving people a primer to aid them in their quest for self-understanding.

“Heartbroken Bopper” (Cummings-Winter) 1972, Rockin’: Meh. Sounds too much like Aerosmith, who earned a place on my no-fly list from the moment I created it. The production is terrible and the guitars are quite annoying.

“Guns Guns Guns” (Cummings) 1972, Rockin’: As you might know if you read my bio, I abandoned the United States after the Sandy Hook massacre and the disgusting non-response to the mass murder of children, so I have a very favorable opinion regarding this song.

American hunter, bring ‘em up the north side
Guns, guns, guns
Run, take the money, here’s a bullet for your boyfriend
Guns, guns, guns
Eagle all gone, and no more caribou
Guns, guns, guns
You be the red king, I’ll be the yellow pawn

God speed Mother Nature
Never really wanted to say good-bye

Burton wrote a piece about the song for his Facebook page in which he shared his views on the American gun fetish.

I came up with this whole thing based around that piano riff that starts it off. When flying home we used to see the “American hunters” getting on to the plane in Minnesota and North Dakota to come up north to hunt. Back in those “ancient times” before nine-eleven, they were allowed to bring their rifles on to the plane. One time, sitting up in first class, I looked up to see about 7 or 8 rifles leaning up against the cockpit door. No word of a lie. You’ll never see that again. That was what initially inspired my approach. Then I looked for other references to guns and such. Mao Tse Tung was once quoted as saying “power comes out of the barrel of a gun”…that always stuck with me…hence the line “you be the Red king, I’ll be the Yellow pawn”…red being Communist, yellow being Chinese…it all made perfect sense to me when I sang it, so I kept it that way.

User Mavsgirl on Song Meanings recalled seeing an interview with Burton that described his motivation: “It upset him that these people were just allowed to go into Canada with their guns & basically take the resources of Canada with zero regard to what they were doing to ‘Mother Nature’. That’s why he wrote this song.” Putting aside the fact that I am persona non grata because I revoked my American citizenship, I will never set foot in the States until they adopt serious gun control measures similar to what we have in Ireland . . . which will never happen in my lifetime.

Backed by a fabulous blues-rock piano performance by Burton and a pair of seriously hot guitars, one might think that the single would sell like hotcakes. Wrong! It bombed in both Canada (#58) and the States (#70).

More lineup changes were in store after Rockin’. Greg Leskiw would hand over his seat on the bus to Donnie McDougall, who made his first appearance on the follow-up album Live at the Paramount. Jim Kale split after that effort and was replaced by Bill Wallace on Artificial Paradise.

“Follow Your Daughter Home” (The Guess Who) 1973, Artificial Paradise: The Guess Who explored genres beyond rock and ballads on Artificial Paradise, adding world music to their repertoire. The reaction was lukewarm in Canada (#25) and non-existent in the States, where the album failed to crack the Billboard 100 albums list. This calypso number is pretty run-of-the-mill and gets rather boring in less than a minute. Sales may also have been affected by the weird cover which fails to mention the album title or the name of the band.

“Star Baby” (Cummings) 1974, Road Food: Okay! We’re back to the rock ‘n’ roll and the 20-minute composition! From Songfacts:

“Star Baby” was written by Guess Who lead singer Burton Cummings. At the time, the band was on tour with Bonnie Bramlett, who had split from her husband and musical partner, Delaney Bramlett and was having an affair with one of The Guess Who’s roadies. “When I wrote it I was trying to see Bonnie through our roadie’s eyes and what he might say to her,” Cummings told Ken Sharp. “It was finished really quickly. I wrote that in about 20 minutes.”

Burton Cummings would often describe this song as “straight-ahead, toe-tapping rock and roll” before performing it in concert, often adding that even if you don’t like it, it will be over in two minutes and 57 seconds.

The single did well in Canada (#9) and in a few metro areas in the States, but not enough to break the Billboard top 30. It’s far from their best work, and I also object to Burton’s description of Bonnie as “shiny little two-timin’ mama,” as the pair had finalized their divorce in 1973.  Move on!

“Clap for the Wolfman” (Cummings-Wallace-Winter) 1974, Road Food: This southern-tinged rocker was the last Guess Who single to enter the Billboard top ten. It’s really a novelty song with occasional appearances by the Wolfman himself, and while it grabbed the listening public on both sides of the border, it doesn’t grab me. At this point, I get the sense that The Guess Who had lost any sense of an artistic vision and were just playing out the game at this point.

“Dancin’ Fool” (Cummings-Troiano) 1975, Flavours: Both Kurt Winter and Donnie McDougall left the band after Road Food, and Burton made a big mistake by replacing them with Dominic Troiano, as he would later admit in the Relix interview:

Ivor: Any regrets about any of it, your days in The Guess Who?

Burton: I get asked this all the time. The only thing I regret is not leaving the group two years earlier. I should have left after “Road Food,” those two years with Troiano were very unhappy for me. It turned into some sort of bullshit fusion band that it never was. At one time we had Mahavishnu as our opening act, and that’s just somebody being stupid. I mean shame on me, I let Domenic Troiano talk me into singing the hits as a medley, so he could have his arrogant fucking jazz solos go on a little longer. None of it made sense to me at the end and I really should have left two years earlier. It was a desperation money machine at the end, the other guys wouldn’t hear of it, and I just said “this is not what I want to do”.

It’s okay, Burton. We all make mistakes, and you would recapture your status as a serious artist when you launched your solo career.

Well, there’s no hint of fusion in this song, and Troiano behaves himself, delivering a series of hot guitar licks that blend well with Burton’s equally hot piano performance. There may have been some crap going down in the background, but all I hear in this song is the joy of rock ‘n’ roll complemented by a successful search for a new squeeze.

It was a Saturday night without a whole lot shakin’
Ooh my ooh my I was bored
I had my best duds on it was a chance worth takin’
Somehow I was still ignored
Been too long since I been shy and lonely
Ooh, but that’s okay
Need some gal to be my one and only

I got a wink and a smile from a flashy filly
Ooh my ooh my she looked grand
She said “I like your style, now don’t go acting silly…”
Ooh my ooh, she grabbed my hand
Never thought that I could shake and groove it
Now I’m a dancin’ fool
Dug my feet cause they could really move it.

She got the message across and me and her got kissin’
Ooh my ooh my havin’ fun
I know that this is the thing that I’ve been really missin’
One more dance has just begun
No more time for feelin’ shy and lonely
Now I’m a dancin’ fool
Found some gal to be my one and only
Ooh, I’m a dancin’ fool
I’m a dancin’ fool, I’m a dancer…

And I am delighted to end this review on a positive note.

*****

I’m also happy to report that Cummings and Bachman kissed and made up a few years ago, and after filing a lawsuit to reclaim the band’s name, they reformed The Guess Who with a new lineup and launched the Taking It Back Tour earlier this year. It’s unfortunate that the two split at the height of their popularity, robbing the band of one of the best songwriting pairs in rock. It’s nice that it all worked out in the end with Burton pursuing a solo career and Bachman forming the Bachman-Turner-Overdrive and leaving us with several rock ‘n’ roll classics.

I’ll close with a quote from Ivor Lavene that says it all. “Burton Cummings and the Guess Who gave Canadians what it had longed for, for decades: a seat at the big table. No longer would Canada be dismissed as a cultural wasteland and merely a sportsman’s paradise. In a country that’s used to being the quiet one, going about its business without noisily celebrating their successes, The Guess Who was like a 10-year energy drink.”