C or D:: the Guess Who

have you been aware you've got brothers and sisters who care?

Heard this on the CBC the other day, first time since it was a minor hit around here. Must have been in just the right mood--sounded better than I remembered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE8-67z9dGo

I was doing some last-minute shopping in the Cloverdale Mall Sunrise on the 24th, and one of the two guys on cash had a Wheatfield Empire T-shirt. "Guess Who reference?" I asked him. It was, and he reached over for one of the books on the counter; it was his book, so I got an autographed copy for $25.

https://tinnitist.com/2021/01/12/book-review-wheatfield-empire-the-listeners-guide-to-the-guess-who-by-robert-lawson/

(Have no idea why this review is written the way it's written.)

"Whatcha gonna do, mama, now that the roast beef's gone?"

That's a reference to guitarist Greg Leskiw, who left the band just before the live album was recorded.

i like them better than the who?!

How come no-one ever acknowledges Randy Bachman for his attempt to warn 90s rappers about soon-to-be infamous label owners:

No Suge Knight in my coffee
No Suge Knight in my tea

etc etc

Based in Winnipeg, the Guess Who were in the ideal location to broker a truce in the notorious 70s Canadian music East Coast/West Coast rivalry, whose factions were led by Anne Murray and Trooper.

I once tried to start a fake feud between Thundermug and Mashmakhan--save your energy, it won't work.

This is the first mention of Mashmakhan on this board in 13 years; I'll take this rare opportunity to relate how disappointed I would get when "As Years Go By" would start up on Q107 as the token Cancon on their Psychedelic Psunday show.

The Guess Who were surprisingly really good at SARStock. Really tight, nailed all those harmonies iirc.

They had dropped "American Woman" from E to C# by that point, and if Burton Cummings sounded really raspy in 2002 I can't imagine how he sounds now.

Wasn't Burton Cummings in one of those in-retrospect really cool lineups of Ringo's All-Stars? Let me see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ0E96QlUCA

^Another incredible Nils solo!

I think that's the same jacket or sweater Joe Walsh has on that he we wearing when I saw him and his brother-in-law enjoying some music around that time.

This doesn't seem to mention the Randy Bachman/Lenny Breau/Les Paul story. I see that I mentioned that over here:Guess Who/Burton Cummings/BTO OP10

Maybe this should be taken to the Guess Who thread (is there a Guess who thread?) but I’m really curious about the hatred for “Undun”. I love it, but that’s wrapped up with hearing it on AM radio for the first time and thinking it was just the strangest thing – this “jazzy” (not really) sound like Blood Sweat and Tears complete with a swingin’ singer I could picture on the nightclub stage snapping his fingers, but the lyrics were BLEAK: disillusionment, loss, a complete breakdown. That contrast has always stuck with me.

― gjoon1, Sunday, October 23, 2022 1:18 PM

You make a good case for it, but for me it just sounds wrong for them. My favourites are "Albert Flasher" (which swings in its own way), "Rain Dance" (which is truly weird, especially the recurring line about the gun), and "No Time" and "Hand Me Down World," which are about as melodic as prairie-rock gets. I like many others, too, but only as a fan could.

I think of "Undun" as Randy Bachman's early attempt to use his lessons with Lenny Breau to write a jazz-inspired chord progression, like "Lookin' Out For #1". Also makes me wonder why Burton Cummings used his flute so infrequently.

My favourites are "Albert Flasher" (which swings in its own way), "Rain Dance" (which is truly weird, especially the recurring line about the gun), and "No Time" and "Hand Me Down World," which are about as melodic as prairie-rock gets. I like many others, too, but only as a fan could.

I need to dig deeper into the Guess Who, as I only know the last two. “No Time” is a favorite, especially in the album version: the mix of those guitar freak-outs with the more melodic passages is exciting.

Also lyrically one of the more cold-blooded examples of that dubious genre I think of as the babe-I-gotta-leave-ya-to-roam song…though not much more so than, say, Chad & Jeremy’s “Yesterday’s Gone”.

Also, back before Dave Sim completely wigged out, he printed a letter in Cerebus (circa Melmoth) in which a fan posited that much of the plot of Cerebus up to that point was in fact directly taken from “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature”. It made a certain sense: Canadian misogynists gotta stick together.

Approach "Rain Dance" with caution, for reasons that I'm sure are already obvious, but I think it and "Albert Flasher" are two of the strangest hit singles of '71--haven't a clue what either's about. Except for "Clap for the Wolfman," they were already on the downside of their American chart run by that point (but still doing well in Canada).

A compilation of all the weird stuff on their albums would be one of the stranger artifacts of the era. Artificial Paradise from 1973 is the band spending 40 minutes circumnavigating commercial expectations (except for one conventionally rocking single), ending with "The Watcher", which sounds to me like a Zappa/Rundgren pastiche:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmG9qhrxqSQ

God, I used to own that. (Starting with Rockin', Guess Who LPs were in remainder bins everywhere by 1980 or so.) "Follow Your Daughter Home"'s on that one, right?

Yes, more flute! Half of the songs don't even feature Cummings on lead vocal, and one of the ones that does is in Zulu, 13 years earlier than Paul Simon.

this “jazzy” (not really) sound like Blood Sweat and Tears complete with a swingin’ singer I could picture on the nightclub stage snapping his fingers, but the lyrics were BLEAK: disillusionment, loss, a complete breakdown.

"Undun" is one of my absolute favorite songs, and this gets at why. To my ears the lyrical bleakness extends to the music, but only partway; the vibe is ominously swingin' with flashes of light (that flute solo!) rather than completely dark.

Just a great, great singles band. I've never really dug into the albums, so I should probably get on that...

FWIW, Kurt Elling's cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxULVThP7jc

Quite a few people think it's one of his best albums (I think Penguin Guide in its last edition?) and there are others who think the album took Elling in a wrong direction, like he decided he wanted to sell more records (Howard Reich). I don't think it's his most adventurous work, but on its own terms it's very good. Elling also loves and understands Sinatra, and to me, it feels like Elling doing the kind of album Sinatra theoretically could have made if he lived and his health and talents held up while he continued to make classic vocal pop into the '00s.

Kurt is a great vocalist and can seemingly sing anything he chooses to and doesn't seem to make weird choices. Now that I think of it one time I contacted his people about one of the tunes on his Brill Building album and why it was on there.

Where is the love for “Heartbroken Bopper”?

Not that I have any. Title is bad and track sounds like an Aerosmith clone.

Clemenza OTM above re: the '71 singles. I get obsessed with 'Sour Suite' every six months or so (or whenever I go through Indianapolis, the '46201' referred to in the song).

The circa-'00 _Runnin' Back Through Canada_ live double is surprisingly good -- Randy Bachman is along and some of the better BTO songs are sprinkled in.

I like "Sour Suite" too, and there even a fourth good one, "Broken."

No time for the killing floor

the "guess who" discover 1989.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L08p0n1BFJ4

this upon discovering that they and orleans are playing at the nearby tilles center, top ticket $70, and wondering who the heck are in the guess who these days. the drummer, if you're curious.

yes, that's totally normal i think? i just wish we had another word for it because crush is typically associated with romantic attraction that does involve kissing etc.

A compilation of all the weird stuff on their albums would be one of the stranger artifacts of the era. _Artificial Paradise_ from 1973 is the band spending 40 minutes circumnavigating commercial expectations (except for one conventionally rocking single), ending with "The Watcher", which sounds to me like a Zappa/Rundgren pastiche:

📹🕸

Whoops, ignore first quoted thing there

And just produce the weird playlist kthx

Okay, but a lot of the weird stuff is stranger in the album context - like spreading lead vocals around between half a dozen members on various songs when you have Burton Cummings sitting there, or putting these unusual tracks in between run-of-the-mill 50s pastiches and lounge-style piano ballads (although some of the latter are really exceptional).
Anyway, here's a chronological list from the albums I've heard:

Friends of Mine
Maple Fudge
Fair Warning
Hi Rockers medley
Truckin' Off Across the Sky
Samantha's Living Room
Those Show Biz Shoes
Hamba Gahle-Usalang Gahle
The Watcher
Glamour Boy
One Way Road to Hell

Some album tracks I at least used to like/love.

"A Wednesday in Your Garden"
"8:15"
"Do You Miss Me Darlin'?"
"Coming Down Off the Money Bag"/"Song of the Dog"
"Herbert's a Loser"

Most of their greatest songs were singles.

Sure, I could come up with another album's worth of "deep tracks" that I love (probably heavy with Burton ballads), but I was spotlighting the weird stuff that I mentioned a few months ago.
Of the songs you mentioned "A Wednesday in Your Garden" is an excellent psychedelic jazz thing, and "Do You Miss Me Darlin'?" is probably regarded as a single now due to appearing on several compilations.

You're a bigger fan of the non-singles than I am. I scrolled through their albums up till Flavours (almost all of which I owned at one time) and that's all that jumped out at me.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/burton-cummings-randy-bachman-sue-former-guess-who-bandmates-over-use-of-name-1.6628569

You know, I took it to heart when they told us to share the land, so this is very disappointing.

If it's any consolation to Bachman, the name BTO probably has more monetary value than the Guess Who.

This is the most generic story imaginable--rock stars sue former bandmates--it's just funny to see Cummings and Bachman on the same side. They feuded for years. Not that that's unusual either.

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/randy-bachman-writes-about-split-with-burton-cummings/article_5938f364-7e7f-5223-828a-14e54fc58a82.html

Using Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship as a precedent, judge rules that one party may continue as the Guess Who, while the other must henceforth use "the Who." More lawsuits ensue.

Bachman sued his own brother/bandmate, this is no big deal for him.
He and Cummings could provide case histories for a whole semester’s worth of music business horror stories like these.