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Classic Vinyl

With John Gardiner

The music of the Guess Who really defined the whole generation of the late1960's and early 1970's

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

I'm not much of a live concert goer. I'd almost always rather spin a little vinyl on my turntable and forget about battling the crowds to maybe catch a glimpse of some tiny figures on a faraway stage and being blasted off the planet by the volume of the band. So, you can count on your fingers the number of big concerts I've attended.
Still, I've seen the Guess Who twice. I saw them about three years ago in the Kitchener Auditorium on their big comeback tour and I saw them away back in about 1968-69 at Hanover District High School, before they'd really hit the big time. Yup! Can you believe it? You used to be able to see bands the calibre of the Guess Who right in your hometown high school gymnasium. How's that compare to a Much Music Video Dance?
I should mention that I wasn't a really big Guess Who fan back in the 60's and early 1970's. Their first hit was a bit of old time rock 'n' roll, Shakin' All Over, back in the early 1960's, sort of before they really got going – perhaps a bit of beginner's luck. Anyway, it passed without me really noticing.
And the band's next couple of hits really didn't grab me either. I mean, These Eyes and Laughin' just didn't cut it when you stacked them up against Cream and Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin. For me and the musicians I was jamming with, the Guess Who might as well have been The Cowsills or The Monkees at that point.
But you had to get beyond the radio tunes that were being played in those early days. You had to get into the albums to hear the really good stuff. And when tunes like No Time and Undone started to surface, we started to get a sense that the Guess Who really should be taken seriously and that they were a top notch rock outfit.
By the time American Woman hit in the summer of 1971, the band was really on fire. How on fire were they? Well, in 1971, the Guess Who were the hottest band on the planet. The Beatles were in their death throes that year, but came out with Let It Be, and even that was no match for American Woman. The song topped the Billboard 100 for three solid weeks during that hot dusty summer when I was on the road hitchhiking.
Anyway, back to the concert thing. When I had the chance to see the Guess Who on their reunion tour three years ago, I wasn't sure whether to go or not. After all, as I said earlier, I'm not much on big crowds and noisy venues. Still, I decided to grab the tickets for the sold out show – why not check it out!
The actual concert started out ominously. It was sweltering hot, so that you just sat there and dripped. The opening band, Wide Mouth Mason, was unintelligible, leaving us wondering about the sound quality for the headliners. All in all, things weren't setting themselves up for a good night.
Then, the Guess Who took to the stage. Wow! They played in intense heat for over two hours, performing a seemingly endless succession of hits – some of which I didn't realize were their tunes. When you added up the Guess Who hits with the Randy Bachman and BTO hits and the Burton Cummings hits, there were just a whole lot of hits. And while American Woman got a big ovation, the one for Takin' Care of Business was just as big.
The long and the short of it is that I walked out of that building with a whole new appreciation for the band that simply has to be Canada's single biggest contribution to the history of rock – and there are some other biggies out there like The Band, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Still, I came to the realization that the music of the Guess Who really defined the whole generation of the late 1960's and early 1970's in much the same way as CSNY and other early rockers did.
I'm not sure why I've waited so long to do a Classic Vinyl on the Guess Who. I realize now that their music has always been part of my consciousness and still is today. Great work to them for buring their differences and getting back together after all these years to make some terrific music again. Wow, what a band!



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.