In Memoriam—Tim & Robbie Bachman

[purchase Bachman-Turner Overdrive II]

Hey, Star Maker Machine fans, we’re temporarily back.  At least as long as some of our writers feel like keeping our year-end “In Memoriam” tradition alive.  Every year, the music world loses contributors, some really famous, others obscure, and many in between.  When I looked at the list(s) of potential subjects available on the Internet, the fact that two Bachman brothers died in 2023 jumped out at me.  So, while they are far from my favorite musicians who passed this year, I thought it would be worth investigating their lives.

Tim Bachman was born in 1951 and Robin “Robbie” Bachman was born in 1953 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the younger brothers of Randy, who was born in 1943 (brother Gary, born in 1945, briefly was BTO’s manager before moving into real estate; he died in 2020).  Randy achieved fame and success as a member of The Guess Who, but at the height of that band’s popularity, Randy quit in 1970.  His departure was due to a combination of his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the conflict his beliefs had with the more standard rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles of his bandmates, a desire to spend time with his family, and gall bladder issues.

Randy eventually formed a country-rock band with Chad Allen, who was the original vocalist for The Guess Who, called Brave Belt, with 18-year-old Robbie on drums.  Fred Turner joined Brave Belt on bass and vocals, and Allen departed, as their sound moved from soft to hard rock.  Tim Bachman was recruited as a second guitarist, and the band was renamed “Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”  Their eponymous debut album was a success due to their relentless touring schedule, despite lacking a hit single.  But Bachman-Turner Overdrive II spawned two massive hits, “Let It Ride,” and “Takin’ Care of Business,” an enduring rock classic. 

But all was not fraternal among the Bachman brothers.  Randy’s religious beliefs mandated that all BTO members abstain from drugs, alcohol and premarital sex on tour, and it appears that brother Tim was a serial offender, and he left the band in early 1974, replaced by Blair Thornton.  This was far from the last time that the three brothers would be at odds over the ensuing decades.  The next album, Not Fragile (a commentary on the Yes album), without Tim, was another success, featuring “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” and “Roll on Down the Highway.”

After releasing a few albums that were fairly successful, Randy Bachman left the band in 1977, due to a series of creative and other disagreements with his bandmates, including Robbie.  The remaining members added bassist/vocalist Jim Clench, and toured as “BTO,” since Randy retained the rights to his last name, before disbanding in 1980.

Randy decided to reform the band in 1983, with Tim on second guitar, but not Robbie, who objected to certain licensing arrangements, and because he wanted Thornton to be included, rather than his brother Tim.  There was, inevitably, litigation.  Randy left the band again in 1987, and a version of BTO, led by Tim as the only Bachman, toured for a few years, before Randy returned to the fold with Robbie on drums, but no Tim.  In 1991, Randy was out again, replaced in the band by a different Randy (Murray), and this incarnation toured until 2004, making it the most enduring lineup.

The conflict between Randy and Robbie prevented the band from being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2003, because Robbie insisted that his big brother be excluded, but eventually, in 2014, the induction happened, with both brothers (but not Tim) included. 

In 2009, Randy and Turner reunited as “Bachman & Turner” after Robbie and Thornton sued to prevent them from using either the BTO or Bachman-Turner Overdrive names. 

Tim was accused of a number of sexual offenses in the 2010s, but was either found not guilty, or had the charges stayed.

Robbie died on January 12, 2023, aged 69; Tim followed him on April 28, 2023, at the age of 71, after battling cancer, leaving Randy as the last Bachman brother. 

 

OVER: SHAKIN' ALL OVER

Can there be a more evocative intro to a song? The pizzicato guitar plucks, with then the rolling riff of the lead guitar, sounding exactly how a shiver feels, creeping up your back(bone), standing all the hairs up on end. It's glorious. But the version you know is possibly not the version I know, the original failing to cross the atlantic at the time. Which is a pity, as it that rarity, a song of the early pre-Beatle 60s that can still hold its head up, undrenched in the syrupy strings that would spoil most of the UK's rock'n'roll output, often a tawdry and anodyne bowdlerisation of the real thing.

Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were huge during that short period of homegrown rockers, their calling card being their appearance, always in pirate costume, Kidd sporting an eyepatch and a cutlass. With the line up including the now legendary session man on drums, Clem Cattini, the guitar motif, both bits, was provided by one Joe Moretti, a Scot who also played on Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac. Number one in 1960, Kidd and his band couldn't hold on to that momentum, each further follow-up bringing diminishing returns, the line-up frequently changing until Kidd was killed, in a car accident, in 1966. For trivia lovers, also injured in that same crash was then Pirate, Nick Simper, later to be a founder member of Deep Purple. The Pirates weren't finished though, and I saw a revived version perform at the famous London pub venue, The Hope and Anchor, in the late 70s. A trio including the dynamic guitarmanship of Mick Green, he was one of the first players to play in a hybrid lead/rhythm style. Somehow, despite their age and portliness, they were lumped into the punk movement, mainly due the speed and precision of their sonic assault. Green was a key influence on Wilko Johnson, who picked up and ran with that style in first Dr Feelgood and then is his own band and with Ian Dury. I remember they did play Shakin' All Over that night, and I was bemused, knowing the song but not why they were playing it, other than the fact it was fast and ferocious. Green later became an integral part of Van Morrison's band, in the days when fellow 60's survivor, Georgie Fame was musical director and organist supreme. He died in 2010.

Wilko Johnson is then a link to the next version, courtesy his still fairly recent album with Roger Daltrey, the excellent Going Back Home, from 2014. Daltrey, of course, the then, the very much earlier and the still vocalist of the Who. Often cited as one of the best live albums of all time, their Live At Leeds, their version is a little slower and has a harder rock sound, with less roll. Legend has it that the only reason they played the song, was to get over the sometime confusion between themselves and Canadian band, the Guess Who, who had had a big North American hit with the song, in 1965. If a confused section of the audience were to muddle them up, and to call out for the song, it was easier to just play it, rather than have to explain. 

(By coincidence, and possibly for the same reason, guess what song the Guess Who played on their possibly less well remembered 1967 Live in Winnipeg opus? Good stuttering practice for a  later collaboration, too.)

Another noteworthy version was by from veteran rockabilly shouter, Wanda Jackson, who possibly shared a stage with Kidd at some time in the late 50s or early 60s. Better perhaps known for another song about shaking, she gave it a delightfully retro twang, including it on her 2011 collaboration with Jack White, The Party Ain't Over.

Quite why the emerging country and blues singer Eilen Jewell included it in her repertoire, on Sea of Tears, I do not know, other than that the idea was to reproduce the twangy tone of that time period, it suiting well her own material, if written nearly a half century later. But I'm glad she did. Still then an avid mix-tape maker, quirky covers were always a welcome discovery to slip alongside other songs I was trying to impress upon friends and family. It meant, in her case, I got to hear more of her own work, liking them and keeping up with her continuing career. Again, her cover is not a radical rewrite, but offered a little more of a western swing to it, with a decidedly more touchy vocal.

Johnny, Rog, Wanda, Eilen.

The Case for : The Guess Who of the 1970's

[Purchase]

From 1965 to 1970, from "Shakin' All Over" (#22, 1965) to "American Woman" (#1, 1970) , The Guess Who were Canada's top singles band, thanks to founding guitarist Randy Bachman and lead vocalist Burton Cummings. 1969 was an especially big year for the band with "These Eyes" ( US #6), "Laughing ( US #10) and "Undun"( US #22). Then, at the height of the band's success,  Bachman, a recently converted Mormon, bailed on the Guess Who.

  The Guess Who had two more big hits ,"Share the Land" (#10, 1970) and "Hand Me Down World" (#17, 1970). Then in 1971 they released The Best of the Guess Who ( containing a far out black light poster of the group!) and that's probably where most people stopped listening. It's definitely where most of the critics stopped paying attention.

     Huge mistake.

     Next to The Beach Boys output of the same period, no band deserves to have its albums re-appraised more than the Burton Cummings led Guess Who of the early 70's.

    Consider "Albert Flasher", the single from So Long, Bannatyne , an album full of infectious tunes that made one Rolling Stone critic cite The Beatles Rubber Soul in a search of comparisons.



Next came one of the greatest live albums of all time, Live at the Paramount. This is the one that had  Lester Bangs declare "The Guess Who is God!"

 In his review, Bangs continues :

I saw the Guess Who do this version of “American Woman” live a year ago, and I have never been more offended by a concert. Just as he does on the record, Burton Cummings indulged himself in a long, extremely cranky rumination on Yankee Yin, in a sort of fallen-out Beat poetic style:

 American bitch 
American cunt 
 American slut
 American lesbian 
American schoolgirl 
 American housewife
 American beaver etc., etc., etc.

 

 Wouldn’t you be offended by this Canuck creep coming down here taking all our money while running down our women? Sure you would! Until you realized, as I did, eventually, that that kind of stuff is exactly what makes the Guess Who great. They have absolutely no taste at all, they don’t even mind embarrassing everybody in the audience, they’re real punks without even working too hard at it.

At this point The Guess Who begin going through "revolving door syndrome" with Cummings the only constant. But he's on a roll.

    For the follow-up , #10, he delivers "Glamour Boy", a tribute to the cross dressing antics of Bowie and Bolan ( "For $37,000 you can look like your sister tonight...). The band could still fill an auditorium but the album stalled at #155 in the charts

   There would be one more hit before the assembly line of writing, recording and the road got to be too much for Cummings: the Top 10 1974 novelty tune "Clap for the Wolfman" from Road Food. There's a lot of good songs on this album including the catchy "Pleasin For a Reason" and the first single, a power pop number called "Star Baby".  It didn't matter. Guess Who fans were rushing out to buy the latest offerings from Bachman Turner Overdrive instead.

   In 1975 Burton Cummings went solo and the group disbanded. But not before releasing a batch of Guess Who albums that deserve to be heard. Especially by fans of classic, catchy pop music and lyricists strange enough to write lines like "Well, have you ever seen a Madras monkey?/Have you seen an Orlon eel?"

Well, have you?

By the way Burton Cumming has been especially busy on Facebook these days, sharing tons of memories and pictures  https://www.facebook.com/officialburtoncummings