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For more than 60 years, Canadian rock and roll legend Randy Bachman has been takin' care of business and working overtime. He co-founded not one but two of the most successful rock bands to come out of this country: The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Randy sits down with Tom Power to look back on his incredible life in music, from leaving The Guess Who at the height of their success, to Neil Young helping him start his new band, all the way up to his new BTO single, which looks back at Winnipeg — the city that he says gave him everything.
If bad news makes you feel bad, this podcast is an alternative just for you! Jeff Douglas finds out how Morris Green connects with teenage boys when Jeff drops into a GuysWork class at Millwood High. Then, we travel back to the year 1995 to hear how Randy Bachman ended up making a split-single vinyl 45 with The Hardship Post. Jason Buxton talks about his made-in-Halifax film 'Sharp Corner,' opening May 9th across the country. And Alex Guye finds out about why the BCG vaccine may prove to be a Swiss Army knife of vaccines.
This episode spotlights the great Canadian band The Guess Who. led by Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, the group played pop with a blend of blues and jazz. They established their sound in the hard rock genre and had many top ten hits in America and Canada. Listen to previous shows at the main webpage at:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1329053Also, these sites of interest:Please help in the relief effort to help the people of Los Angeles who have been affected by those horrific fires. Please consider making a donation to The Red Cross to find shelter, clean drinking water and other necessities that are desperately needed. got to http://www.redcross.org to make a donation.Donate Now - Online Donations | American Red CrossMake an impact on the lives of St. Jude kids - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (stjude.org)Kathy Bushnell Website for Emily Muff bandHome | Kathy Bushnell | Em & MooPamela Des Barres Home page for books, autographs, clothing and online writing classes.Pamela Des Barres | The Official Website of the Legendary Groupie and Author (pameladesbarresofficial.com)Listen to more music by Laurie Larson at:Home | Shashké Music and Art (laurielarson.net)View the most amazing paintings by Marijke Koger-Dunham (Formally of the 1960's artists collective, "The Fool").Psychedelic, Visionary and Fantasy Art by Marijke Koger (marijkekogerart.com)For unique Candles have a look at Stardust Lady's Etsy shopWhere art and armor become one where gods are by TwistedByStardust (etsy.com)For your astrological chart reading, contact Astrologer Tisch Aitken at:https://www.facebook.com/AstrologerTisch/Tarot card readings by Kalinda available atThe Mythical Muse | FacebookFor booking Children's parties and character parties in the Los Angeles area contact Kalinda Gray at:https://www.facebook.com/wishingwellparties/I'm listed in Feedspot's "Top 10 Psychedelic Podcasts You Must Follow". https://blog.feedspot.com/psychedelic_podcasts/ Please feel free to donate or Tip Jar the show at my Venmo account@jessie-DelgadoII
In this episode of Guess That Record, Jackson speaks with Amy Birnbaum. Amy is the Sr. Director, A&R and Artist Relations at Round Hill Music. Round Hill is a publishing company with a diverse roster that includes Jim Vallance, Randy Bachman, Rob Thomas, and many more. The company handles services like royalty collection, and sync licensing amongst others. During the interview, Amy talks about her time as a backing vocalist, working on Broadway, and what has made Round Hill one of the most successful music publishing companies. Guess That Record is sponsored by: Marvel Marketing (https://marvelmarketing.ca/) Guitarworks (https://guitarworks.ca/) Recordland (https://www.instagram.com/recordlandcalgary/) Guess That Record is picked up on radio by these amazing stations: CKMS (https://radiowaterloo.ca/) CKXU (https://ckxu.com/) South Devon Sound (https://southdevonsound.co.uk/) Visit our website (https://guessthatrecordpodcast.com/) Visit our Spotify playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0B5g5u7usVmyLa3IXmga4P) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/guessthatrecord/?hl=en) Follow us on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@guessthatrecord) Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkDkfXa3P5XIRWIQkdQ0B9Q)
La maison mitoyenne de deux chambres où David Bowie a vécu enfant à Bromley est désormais sur le marché pour 449.500 livres sterling. Un enregistrement inédit de Yes reprenant "Eleanor Rigby" des Beatles vient d'être dévoilé en ligne. Après AC/DC : INXS, Dua Lipa a tenu sa promesse de reprendre une chanson d'un artiste local dans chaque ville où s'arrête sa tournée ‘'Radical Optimism'', en interprétant sa version du classique "Never Tear Us Apart" d'INXS à la Qudos Bank Arena de Sydney, en Australie, le 26 mars. Après plus de 25 ans d'absence discographique, Bachman-Turner Overdrive fait son grand retour avec "60 Years Ago''. Bien que Sum 41 ait terminé sa tournée d'adieu en janvier et sorti son dernier album ‘'Heaven : x : Hell'' l'an dernier, le groupe punk canadien offre encore quelques surprises à ses fans. Mots-Clés : icône, 1953, famille, East End, propriété, quartier résidentiel, Bickley, frontière, annonce immobilière, tranquillité, 1969, sessions, studios, Polydor, Londres, direction, producteur, John Anthony, publié, document d'archives, version, introduction psychédélique, guitariste, Peter Banks, claviériste, Tony Kaye, basse, Chris Squire, relais, performance, Jon Anderson, fin, morceau, rappel, chanteuse, coup d'envoi, tournée mondiale, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, héros locaux, pop star,Highway To Hell, Extraordinaire, foule,extrait, Randy Bachman, genèse, hommage, Winnipeg, ville, Tal Bachman, KoKo Bachman, Fred Turner, chant, solo, Neil Young, scène musicale, local, créativité, Liverpool, Amérique du Nord, véritable, melting-pot, talent, Victoria, Colombie-Britannique, États-Unis, reprise explosive, Sleep Now in the Fire, Rage Against the Machine, version acoustique, Landmines", extrait, sessions, communiqué, gratitude, fans, session, célébrer, monde. --- Classic 21 vous informe des dernières actualités du rock, en Belgique et partout ailleurs. Le Journal du Rock, en direct chaque jour à 7h30 et 18h30 sur votre radio rock'n'pop. Merci pour votre écoute Plus de contenus de Classic 21 sur www.rtbf.be/classic21 Ecoutez-nous en live ici: https://www.rtbf.be/radio/liveradio/classic21 ou sur l'app Radioplayer BelgiqueRetrouvez l'ensemble des contenus de la RTBF sur notre plateforme Auvio.be Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Découvrez nos autres podcasts : Le journal du Rock : https://audmns.com/VCRYfsPComic Street (BD) https://audmns.com/oIcpwibLa chronique économique : https://audmns.com/NXWNCrAHey Teacher : https://audmns.com/CIeSInQHistoires sombres du rock : https://audmns.com/ebcGgvkCollection 21 : https://audmns.com/AUdgDqHMystères et Rock'n Roll : https://audmns.com/pCrZihuLa mauvaise oreille de Freddy Tougaux : https://audmns.com/PlXQOEJRock&Sciences : https://audmns.com/lQLdKWRCook as You Are: https://audmns.com/MrmqALPNobody Knows : https://audmns.com/pnuJUlDPlein Ecran : https://audmns.com/gEmXiKzRadio Caroline : https://audmns.com/WccemSkAinsi que nos séries :Rock Icons : https://audmns.com/pcmKXZHRock'n Roll Heroes: https://audmns.com/bXtHJucFever (Erotique) : https://audmns.com/MEWEOLpEt découvrez nos animateurs dans cette série Close to You : https://audmns.com/QfFankxDistribué par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Evan welcomes Randy Bachman, Canadian rock guitarist, singer and songwriter with The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, to the show!
In January 1970, a band from Winnipeg with a cryptic name released an album that, despite containing criticism of American policies, became a huge success in the U.S. and went to number 1 in Canada. It remains one of the greatest rock albums to ever come from the Great White North. Randy Renaud revisits the story behind the Guess Who's American Woman for its 55th anniversary, on the Chronicles of Rock.
Blind Faith was a supergroup formed from Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, Traffic founder Steve Winwood, and Family bassist/violinist Ric Grech. Cream collapsed after increasing strife between members, particularly Baker and bassist Jack Bruce. Traffic went on hiatus, and Winwood began jamming with Clapton in his basement. Baker sat in on a session shortly after they moved to Traffic's rehearsal space in Berkshire, and was added to the lineup after some reluctance from Clapton was overcome. Finally, Grech was invited to join, and left the Family in the middle of a U.S. tour, creating understandable grievances. The group created blues-oriented and psychedelic rock for their eponymously named Blind Faith debut album. A summer tour was launched, but it was a challenging thing. Clapton didn't want to do long jam sessions on the tour, but their single album was not a lot of material for a concert. As a result, they wound up playing a significant amount of Cream and Traffic songs. This delighted the audience, but irritated and distanced Clapton. Despite great buzz from critics and fans alike, the group was destined to only last a few months. Clapton began drifting away while on tour, spending more time with opening act Delaney & Bonnie. He would eventually join that group prior to launching Derek & the Dominos. Ginger Baker would move on to form Ginger Baker's Air Force, bringing in Winwood and Grech for a short stint before Winwood rejoined Traffic. Rob brings us this short-lived supergroup in this week's podcast. Had to Cry TodayThe title track dispenses with the 3-minute single format in favor of a long form jam written by Steve Winwood. The lyrics are ambiguous, and could reference a dying relationship, or perhaps a friend drifting away.Can't Find My Way HomeWinwood also wrote this well-known single from the album, covered by a number of artists including Joe Cocker, Alison Krauss, and Bonnie Raitt. Winwood has been asked about the meaning of the lyrics, but has said that discussing song lyrics is a little like explaining a joke - it doesn't add anything to the experience. Clapton leaves his electric guitar in favor of a rare acoustic one for this song.Well All RightThis track is the only one not written by members of Blind Faith. Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, Jerry Allison, and Joe B. Mauldin wrote this song, and Holly sang it in 1958. Clapton takes lead vocal duties on this song.Sea of JoyA piece of Winwood's writing also leads off side two of the album. While some believe the song references hallucinogens, a simpler meaning would be simply the joy of being on the water. “And I'm feeling close to when the race is run. Waiting in our boats to set sail. Sea of joy.” ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:Pfft You Were Gone (from the variety show “Hee Haw”)This country comedy and music show premiered on CBS in this month. Buck Owens and Roy Clark led an ensemble of regulars and guests in this variety show. STAFF PICKS:These Eyes by The Guess WhoWayne starts out the staff picks with a song co-written by lead singer Burton Cummings and lead guitarist Randy Bachman. This was their breakout song, with lyrics that describe the devastating feeling in the days following a long relationship break-up.Badge by CreamLynch reminds us that while Cream may have disbanded by this time, their music was still on the charts. Eric Clapton and George Harrison wrote this song. It was supposed to be called "Bridge," but was named "Badge," due to a misreading of the handwritten title. George Harrison plays rhythm guitar, credited as "D'Angelo Misterioso" to avoid contractual issues.Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins SingersBruce features the first gospel song to hit the charts, reaching number 4 on the US singles chart. Edwin Hawkins took a hymn originally written by Phillip Doddridge in 1755, and updated it with a piano introduction inspired by Sergio Mendes and lyrical improvisations influenced by James Brown. See by The Rascals Rob finishes the staff picks with the fuzzy lead off and title track to the Rascals sixth studio album. Between 1966 and 1968, the Rascals released a number of soul-inspired singles. This album marked a change in the band's focus from blue-eyed soul to psychedelic rock. COMEDY TRACK:Gitarzan by Ray StevensOne of the earliest comedy singles from Stevens closes out our podcast this week. Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?” NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.
Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of The Talk Music Podcast!I'm thrilled to announce my guest is LES STROUD! Best known as the producer, creator and star of the hit TV series SURVIVORMAN, Les is also an accomplished musician/songwriter. His music is a rich tapestry of rock, world, prog rock, folk and blues, and it reflects his deep connection to nature. Steve Vai, Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden and Slash have all lent Les their musical talents for his recordings. Les has guested on stage with Journey, Alice Cooper, Blues Traveler, Steven Stills, Chicago, Randy Bachman, Tommy Shaw, James Cotton, Dave Mason and Slash (who's latest solo album Les performs on). Les has always operated in two lanes: his Survivorman and music careers, the latter being his most recent focus. His latest album MOTHER EARTH, produced by MIKE CLINK (“Appetite for Destruction” by Guns N' Roses), blew me away. Some song clips are sprinkled throughout. I loved chatting with Les about his beginnings, both our experiences at Fanshawe college, his remarkable journey as a survival expert, and of course his lifelong passion for using music to express his love for our planet. This in-depth chat took place the day after I saw Les perform as a guest on harp at a truly magical Bruce Cockburn concert. Afterwards, surrounded by nature at his well-hidden cottage, we enjoyed a hot sauna, cold beer and a quick dip in the lake. A blissful time I will always remember. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Not Fragile by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, released in 1974, is a landmark hard rock album that solidified the band's presence in the rock scene. Known for its raw, muscular sound, the album features heavy guitar riffs and the deep, distinctive vocals of Randy Bachman. The title track, Not Fragile, sets the tone with its powerful, aggressive sound, while "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" became the band's signature hit, combining a catchy, stuttering chorus with blues-rock energy. The album blends hard rock with elements of blues and boogie, appealing to fans of both heavier and classic rock. With its anthemic tracks and straightforward rock and roll attitude, Not Fragile has remained a fan favorite and is celebrated as one of BTO's most successful records.Listen to the album on SpotifyListen to the album on Apple MusicWhat did you think of this album? Send us a text! Support the showPatreonWebsitePolyphonic Press SubredditFollow us on InstagramContact: polyphonicpressmusic@gmail.comDISCLAIMER: Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to play pieces of the songs we cover in these episodes. Playing clips of songs are unfortunately prohibitively expensive to obtain the proper licensing. We strongly encourage you to listen to the album along with us on your preferred format to enhance the listening experience.
In 1977, Randy Bachman was a rock star. Then the guitar with which he'd written hits like “American Woman” and “Takin' Care of Business” was stolen.
Liner Notes: Revealing Chats With Canada's Retro Music Makers
This is the 34th episode of our special series ‘Guest Glimpses', short bits from longer conversations with previous guests. You'll hear about 10 minutes of each guest's 60+ minute chat with show host Dan Hare. Featured guests this week are:ROBERT LAWSON RETURNS - expert on The Guess Who and author of ‘Wheatfield Empire' the definitive comprehensive history on The Guess Who. In this short clip from his return visit, Robert debates with Dan some points of the lawsuit launched by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings against the usage of The Guess Who name and likeness.EDMUND PILLING - singer, songwriter, award-winning musician, composer founding member and lead singer of the band Fludd. In this short clip Edmund talks about playing music in England in the 1960s; hanging out with Jon and Robert Plant and joining Cat Steven's band at the age of 16.DAN HARE RETURNS - acclaimed entertainer and musician, moves from hosting this podcast to being a guest. In a short clip from his chat with Dusty Discs Radio's Program Director Lori Dean, Dan shares why he recorded his is new, retro-rock album ‘I Love This Life'at this stage in his career; the trill of working with working with legendary recording engineer/producer Mike Fraser, and more.JIMI (B) BERTUCCI - singer/songwriter, composer, musician, and founding member, bassist and songwriter for the band Abraham's Children. In this short clip Jimi reveals his real name and why he goes by Jimi; the impact seeing the Beatles had on his musical career, and a bit about the band's success.LISTEN to the full interview with each guest @linernotes.ca
This episode features Canadian legend Randy Bachman revealing the unexpected twists that led to the creation of "American Woman." Plus, hear Andy Kim share a secret about "Be My Baby" and feel the energy of Sass Jordan's "Tell Somebody." Dive into the vinyl grooves and discover the tales behind the tunes. Don't miss out!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When the Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Lindsay Ell moved from Calgary to Nashville, she found success, but she didn't feel like she was being her authentic self. So she took a risk, left her record label and started getting more personal in her music, opening up about her experience as a victim of sexual assault and her recovery from an eating disorder. Now, she's released her new EP, “love myself,” which exudes joy and self-acceptance. Lindsay sits down with Tom Power to talk about her journey, from getting discovered by Randy Bachman as a teenager to breaking the boundaries of country music and finding her authentic voice.
We are back with Season Ten! Christopher and Tom begin by talking about their favourite interviews ever. Then, we launch into one of the best interviews you'll ever hear with one the most reluctant rock stars ever – Robert Plant. This 2005 interview with our friend Bill Welychka is very revealing. And within that interview is three episodes of “When Rock Stars attack… which are all pretty funny. Then, we talk about the making of the film, album and song “Purple Rain”, which came out 40 years ago. And we'll talk to the author of a book about that movie – and all the stories behind that. (By the way, you can also hear the long version of that Purple Rain chat in the Famous Lost Words podcast feed, including how Stevie Nicks almost got involved and why Prince decided to call up the guys from Journey.) And we have a wonderful segment with the legendary BB King – which includes one of my favourite stories – about how he used to quiet down an unruly audience. All that, plus some Music News about the very contentious lawsuit over who gets to use the name The Guess Who. And that story has a very good ending if you're a fan of Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman. Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria, AM1150 Kelowna and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.
Chaz N Schatz visit with Heath McCoy, best-selling author, award winning journalist, and sports writer from the Great White North. You may know Heath from his spots on And The Podcast Will Rock, where he's forever defending David Lee Roth's version of Van Halen, and we get to know Heath even better, deep diving on his journalism career, having been the entertainment beat reporter for the Calgary Herald. Not only a Rush fan, Heath has been fortunate enough to interview both Geddy and Alex, and we get to hear some of his best moments speaking to some of his all-time heroes. Join us as Heath shares: What it was like speaking with Ged in 2000 just before the band made their comeback with Vapor Trails. Having fun with Lerxt when the band did come back. The story of a stand-off between Bad News Alan (Schatz's new nickname) and Andre The Giant - and hearing Schatz scold Andre as a result! Getting the run around from James Brown, and being present while he was getting blown backstage, with a big, toothy smile! Pushing David Lee Roth to the point where he drops the “Mr. Showbiz” persona. Getting on stage with Randy Bachman as a drunken fan and being brought back up for an encore! Heath's fandom of Rush goes deep. He name drops some deep cuts and shares that his earliest aspiration was “to be Neil Peart” as a rock star, drummer, and writer of lyrics. The wheel gives us the lighter side of Rush, sharing Different Strings off 1980's Permanent Waves. The guys can't help but make at least two Ozzy Osbourne references from this song, leading them to wonder: was The Ozz-Man a fan of this song and Rush?? We name-drop usual suspects like rushvault.com, and we thought fondly of Ed from rushisaband.com. We forget to give a shout-out to our sponsors Danforth & Pape, and podcastle.ai but we meant to (must be the gummie hangover). More games, merriment, and pointing you all to this list of current links, it's... The Scratch List - go see these bands! UK Scotland Moving Pictures Scotland RushFest Scotland England Leoni Jane Kennedy North America USA YYNOT Second Contact Steel Revenge Solar Federation Accidental Breakdown Rush Archives Mood Lifters Lotus Land Dumb Love Vapor Trail Rash The Discs A Farewell To Kings Canada New World Men 2112 YYC South America Brazil RushFest Brazil Rush news, general nonsensical disorderly conduct, lack of regard for correctness or truth, and reckless endangerment of your whole-brain. This is the only podcast dedicated to increasing opioid release in your anterior insula, your anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and your posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), in addition to the basal ganglia and the thalamus...and all that that implies. Some thick North Jersey accents and they give you some royalty-free sound effects and movie clips too - what more do you need to indulge your urge to scratch?! Join us - you know where to scratch - blah, blah...RushRash.
National corned beef hash day. Entertainment from 2015. Warren Commision gave its final report, 1st blues song ever recorded, E=mc2 released. Todays birthdays - Samuel Adams, Thomas Nast, Wilford Brimley, Randy Bachman, Meatloaf, Shaun Cassidy, Stephen Jenkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Arnold, Lil Wayne, Avril Lavigne. Hugh Hefner died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard http://defleppard.com/Corned beef hash - Yungg CheffCan't feel my face - The WeekndStrip it down - Luke BryanMemphis blues - WC hardyBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/Aint seen nothin yet - BTOTwo outta three aint bad - MeatloafDa do ron ron - Shaun CassidySemi-charmed life - Third Eye BlindKryptonite - 3 Doors DownGo DJ - Lil Waynesk8ter boi - Avril LavigneExit - It's not love - Dokken http://dokken.net/
In this episode of Everything IS Golden, Bo chats with legendary musician Randy Bachman discusses his storied career in music, from his time with The Guess Who to BTO's crossover success. Bachman opens up about the personal and physical challenges he's faced, including a life-threatening gallbladder condition and his commitment to a sober lifestyle. He also shares anecdotes about iconic figures in music, the importance of understanding the music business, and the emotional journey of being reunited with a prized Gretsch guitar after 48 years. With heartfelt discussions on faith, family, and the unending joy of performing, this episode is a deep dive into the resilience and passion that drive Randy Bachman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Burton Cummings' voice has been rated among the finest in rock music. Today he continues at the top of his game as performer, singer, songwriter, poet and recording artist. As lead singer and songwriter for Canada's original rock ‘n' roll superstars, The Guess Who, Burton scored an unprecedented string of international hit singles and albums including “American Woman,” “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” “No Time,” “Share the Land,” “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature,” “Clap for the Wolfman”, “Albert Flasher” and others, all written or co-written by Burton. By 1970, The Guess Who had sold more records than the entire Canadian music industry combined before breaking up in 1975. The group achieved a long list of firsts including first Canadian group to reach #1 on Billboard charts -- holding that spot for three weeks - and first to earn a platinum album for U.S. sales of more than one million copies. Rolling Stone magazine hailed The Guess Who as “one of rock's most consistently fascinating maverick bands” with a succession of songs “that has few equals among contemporary North American groups.” Dick Clark described the group as rock innovators and ambassadors of Canadian music. Beginning his career as a solo artist in 1976, Burton continued his winning streak with a gold record for his solo debut single “Stand Tall,” produced by legendary hitmaker Richard Perry who numbered among his clients Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon and Ringo Starr. The choice of producer was evidence of Burton's star power in the music industry. He followed his inaugural solo success with more than a dozen hit singles and albums including “I'm Scared,” “My Own Way to Rock,” “I Will Play a Rhapsody,” “Timeless Love,” “Break It to Them Gently,” “Dream of a Child,” and “You Saved My Soul.” Sold-out tours across Canada and the United States solidified Burton's stature as a top entertainer. He starred in several highly rated television specials and, between 1977 and 1980, earned five Juno Awards for Best Male Vocalist and Best Album, serving as host of the annual Juno gala a record four times. Burton's 1978 album Dream of a Child became the first quadruple platinum-selling album by a Canadian artist. Through the ‘80s and ‘90s, Burton continued to tour and joined Beatles drummer Ringo Starr's All Starr Band. In 1980, a starring role in the feature film Melanie with Miami Vice star Don Johnson earned Burton a Genie Award for Best Original Song. He also launched his acclaimed Up Close and Alone solo concert series. A live album of the same name followed. The success of Lenny Kravitz' cover of “American Woman” in the hit feature film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me brought renewed attention to the original Guess Who. The group reunited in 1999 for the closing ceremonies of the Pan-American Games with a television audience numbering in the tens of millions. Several high-profile North American tours followed. As the VOICE of all the classic Guess Who hit songs, Burton has toured with his long-time band, for the past twenty-three years across North America as well as joining Randy Bachman onstage as Bachman Cummings, performing his songs from the original The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Burton's solo career. Described as Canadian rock ‘n' roll royalty, a national treasure, and a living legend, for Burton Cummings there has always been one constant: he remains true to himself and his own way to rock… and continuing to perform the songs the way they were originally conceived by the artist who sang and wrote/co-wrote them. Burton joins us this week to share his musical story and lets us know about his other passion - writing poetry. For more information head to his website burtoncummings.com
Randy Bachman and Scott Shannon Call In, Dead Guy in the Envelope, Bieber Baby, What Show Can You Watch Over and Over again?! Robby almost ran into Taylor Swift, TP was invented where?!
Founding member of "The Guess Who" and "BTO", Randy Bachman joined the I-95 Morning Show on Monday. Randy revealed how cold Winnipeg hockey practices pushed him into music. Randy also explained how his epic guitar auction went recently.
The boys got a flood update from Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves. Lou's itchy face interrupts a commercial read. Lou shares one of his most embarrassing moments of all time from the Bridgewater Fair this past weekend. Randy Bachman from BTO checks in for a two-part interview. The boys found out that one of the top social media influencers in America is in Mahopac.
Finally, a song that is unequivocally about the sun! Covers by: Richie Havens, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Womack & Womack, John Entwistle, Randy Bachman, Jacob Collier ft. Dodie, Bumblefoot Tidal playlist here
This week on Classic Vinyl Podcast, Justin and Tyler review the Guess Who and their hit song from 1969, These Eyes. Co-written by Randy Bachman and lead singer Burton Cummings, this was the bands first major hit in the US. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.
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Randy Bachman and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the legendary rock band known for hits like “Taking Care Of Business” and “You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet,” will be playing at the Brown County Music Center in Nashville, IN on June 16.Fans can look forward to an exciting show filled with their classic rock favorites and energetic performances.This upcoming concert is a must-see event for rock music lovers. Randy Bachman, with his iconic guitar skills, will be joined by the talented members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Host Bill Donohue welcomes MLB official scorer and author, Howie Karpin to discuss his new book about Sports Phone, titled “976-1313 - How Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground.” Later, Bill talks with Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter Randy Bachman, founding member of Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Randy talks about the auctioning of a large portion of his guitars and gear coming up at Julien's Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC.
In the electrifying world of rock 'n roll, Canadian Tal Bachman, son of legendary Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive, seemed destined for stardom. Yet, his path was anything but straightforward. For Tal, it was a constant dance between the chords of fame and the doctrines of his devout Mormon upbringing. And as the spotlight beckoned, Tal found himself at a crossroads, as the requirements for stardom clashed with rules of his religion. What led him to step away from the stage? And once he finally breaks free from the cult, does he find his way back? LINKS: Jingle writer: @angelasoffemusic Tal Bachman: @talbachman Follow us: Instagram @wasiinacult Support Us: https://www.patreon.com/wasiinacult Have a story to share on our show? Email us: info@wasiinacult.com — Head to Viiahemp.com and use the code: ‘inacult' to receive 15% off + one free sample of their sleepy Dreams gummies. (21+).
THE MIKE GORMLEY SHOW - Featuring Randy Bachman - BTO & The Guess Who - IN OVERTIME! Hear the story about Randy's lost and found guitar! Mike welcomes legendary guitarist, Randy Bachman! Randy is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of several short-lived bands such as Brave Belt, Union, and Ironhorse. Mike & Randy explore his music with a soundtrack that includes: Takin' Care Of Business (BTO) You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (BTO) Let It Ride (BTO) Roll On Down The Highway (BTO) American Woman (The Guess Who) These Eyes (The Guess Who) Undun (The Guess Who) Randy's Socials: / randybachmanofficial / randybachman / randysvinyltap / randybachmanofficial / bachmanturneroverdrive / bachmanturneroverdrive / btobandofficial Bachman-Turner Overdrive is back! Led by rock legend Randy Bachman, BTO is on tour in 2024. The live show blends BTO's classic hits with fresh energy and also includes classic songs from Bachman's other famous band, The Guess Who. For more info and tickets, visit www.BTOBand.com or www.RandyBachman.com The Mike Gormley Show Host | Mike Gormley Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Graham Palmer | Surprise Studio Mike Gormley's Website www.lapersdev.com/ On Instagram, Follow Mike Gormley Here: @gormster1 @lapersonaldevelopment On facebook: / mike.gormley.10 www.thejeremiahshow.com On Instagram @jeremiahdhiggins linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins @RandyBachman @thewho5803 #bachmanturneroverdrive #thewho #rockstar
THE MIKE GORMLEY SHOW - Featuring Randy Bachman - BTO & The Guess Who Mike welcomes legendary guitarist, Randy Bachman! Randy is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of several short-lived bands such as Brave Belt, Union, and Ironhorse. Mike & Randy explore his music with a soundtrack that includes: Takin' Care Of Business (BTO) You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (BTO) Let It Ride (BTO) Roll On Down The Highway (BTO) American Woman (The Guess Who) These Eyes (The Guess Who) Undun (The Guess Who) Randy's Socials: / randybachmanofficial / randybachman / randysvinyltap / randybachmanofficial / bachmanturneroverdrive / bachmanturneroverdrive / btobandofficial Bachman-Turner Overdrive is back! Led by rock legend Randy Bachman, BTO is on tour in 2024. The live show blends BTO's classic hits with fresh energy and also includes classic songs from Bachman's other famous band, The Guess Who. For more info and tickets, visit www.BTOBand.com or www.RandyBachman.com The Mike Gormley Show Host | Mike Gormley Executive Producer | Jeremiah D. Higgins Producer - Sound Engineer - Graham Palmer | Surprise Studio Mike Gormley's Website http://www.lapersdev.com/ On Instagram, Follow Mike Gormley Here: @gormster1 @lapersonaldevelopment On facebook: / mike.gormley.10 www.thejeremiahshow.com On Instagram @jeremiahdhiggins https://linktr.ee/jeremiahdhiggins @RandyBachman @thewho5803 #bachmanturneroverdrive #thewho #rockstar
On episode 7 of Rock Camp: The Podcast, the official podcast of Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, hear hosts David Fishof, Britt Lightning, and Miles Schuman talk about the many times Rock Camp made rock news. Then, join them for a comprehensive dive into how to get above the noise in the hard to break-through music industry - from Ringo Starr tales to tips from pros like record executive Jason Flom during a Rock Camp Masterclass. All that and more, plus an exclusive on how Randy Bachman set the tone for our show with his catchy theme song. Tune in for a rich tapestry of stories that underscore the unique thrills that are only possible at Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp. Rock Camp: The Podcast is brought to you by Pantheon Podcasts. rockcamp.com/podcast pantheonpodcasts.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
RunRunLive Episode 5483 – The one about 5K's and Relay races and retirement…Hello my running friends. How are you doing today? It's winter here in New England. The shortest days of the year are upon us. The seasons change and so do I. Which is a lyric from a song by the Guess Who called “No Time”, from an album called “Canned Wheat” released in 1969. The Guess Who was an influential Canadian rock band from Winnipeg of all places. Randy Bachman from the band went on to success with Bachman Turner Overdrive. Apologies for not getting a show out. I have ideas in my head. I just don't have the animation to write them down and record. Something is better than nothing they say. But, the older I get, the more I understand the value of nothing as well. Today I'm going to catch you up on a few races I've run and some other stuff as I work my way into shape for my next race, which is the Napa Valley Marathon in March. Now that I've put Boston aside as a goal race, I can add more fun stuff and travel races to my calendar. This year my wife and I will head out to Napa Valley to run the race and then hang around in wine country. Because, my friends, life is short. Memento Mori. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this 1392nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with The Guess Who expert Robert Lawson about Randy Bachman's Toronto Mike'd debut. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com
WTOP Entertainment Reporter Jason Fraley interviews Randy Bachman to celebrate 50 years of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. They discusss his prolific career from The Guess Who hits like “American Woman” and “These Eyes,” to BTO classics like “Takin' Care of Business," "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" and "Let it Ride." (Theme Music: Scott Buckley's "Clarion") Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
WTOP Entertainment Reporter Jason Fraley interviews Randy Bachman to celebrate 50 years of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. They discusss his prolific career from The Guess Who hits like “American Woman” and “These Eyes,” to BTO classics like “Takin' Care of Business," "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" and "Let it Ride." (Theme Music: Scott Buckley's "Clarion") Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What the Riff!?! delves once again into the great (and not so great) Christmas songs to add a little cheer as you rock around the Christmas tree this year.“Carol of the Bells” by Mannheim SteamrollerMannheim Steamroller covers a Ukrainian carol from 1922. They highlight a 3 against 2 polyrhythm that is present in the original song, and add a major key change that is not present in the original. This is off their second Christmas album released in 1988 entitled "A Fresh Aire Christmas." “O Come O Come Emanuel” by Bad ReligionThis fast-paced rendition takes an 8th century song and puts a punk twist to it. It is a quick song, like most bad Religion tracks. “Yellin' at the Xmas Tree” by Billy IdolRocker Billy Idol reminisces about times with his drunk father yelling at the Christmas tree. "Oh the Christmas bells are ringing and the carolers are singing, but Daddy, he don't hear 'em, he's yellin' at the Christmas tree."“Space Christmas” by Shonen KnifeThis Japanese punk-pop band was inspired by the girl groups of the 60's and the Ramones. This sci-fi Christmas track has a "bubblegum pop" sound with a punk edge. “Taking Care of Christmas” by Bachman Turner OverdriveWhen Rob covered "Bachman Turner Overdrive II" earlier this year we discovered this Christmas remake of their classic single. It is surprisingly catchy for a song overhauled for Christmas. Randy Bachman did an all-Christmas album in 2008 including this song.“Christmas All Over Again” by Tom Petty and the HeartbreakersThis original song was penned by Tom Petty on a ukulele in 1992. It was used in the motion picture "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," and also appeared in "Jingle All the Way." Jeff Lynne co-produced the song, played bells, bass, timpani, sang background vocals, and wishes for a Chuck Berry Songbook in the song.“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by the REO SpeedwagonREO Speedwagon keeps the original feel of the carol in their rendition of this classic. It was released on their 2009 album, "Not So Silent Night...Christmas with REO Speedwagon." The original English carol dates back to the 1650's. “Santa Claus” by The SonicsThis song with a fuzzy guitar appeared on the debut album from The Sonics back in 1965. The Sonics were a garage band out of Tacoma, Washington in the 60's, and influenced the punk and grunge movement. They are likely best known for their party song, "Louie, Louie."“Santa's Messin' with the Kid” by Eddie C. CampbellBlues guitarist and singer Eddie C. Campbell was well known in the Chicago blues scene and learned guitar from Muddy Waters. This song was released on his 1977 Christmas album.“What Christmas Means to Me” by Stevie WonderThis original song was released on Tamla records in 1967 on Wonder's eighth studio album entitled "Someday at Christmas." It was the final track on the album which consisted of a mix of Christmas standards and original music. “Merry Christmas Darling” by the CarpentersNo Christmas playlist would be complete without Karen Carpenter's voice. This song was originally recorded by The Carpenters in 1970. The lyrics date back to 1946 when songwriter Frank Pooler wrote it about a love interest at the time. He had The Carpenters perform it when they were his music students at California State University, Long Beach.“White Christmas” by Bing CrosbyBing Crosby originally performed this song composed by Irving Berlin in 1940. It was performed for the first time in December 1941, and appeared in the motion picture "Holiday Inn" in 1942. (and there might be a bonus song...)We at What the Riff?!? wish every one a blessed and Merry Christmas!
This week we give thanks for another twofer with a couple of legends. First up is my brief chat with jazz icon Les McCann. This weekend Les is releasing a special box set for Record Store Day, Never a Dull Moment - Live From Coast to Coast 66-67. This gorgeous collection showcases his mastery of the piano in the Trio setting and is an incredible piece of history. We're SO lucky to get a few minutes of his time. Then we hear from original Guess Who drummer Garry Peterson. The band has been without Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings for decades now, but the younger and hungrier group is still making great music today. This year they released the album Plein D'Amour which, I'm not kidding, sounds just like something Jellyfish would have released in the 90s. Garry describes the band dynamic now, his relationship with his old bandmates, and where this new sound came from. Enjoy! www.lesmccannunlimited.com www.theguesswho.com www.patreon.com/thehustlepod
The songwriters HOF has nominated Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings of The Guess Who for induction. One of their greatest songs has been "American Woman" but the 2 writers differ on what the song is about!
In this 1340th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Randy Bachman about BTO, The Simpsons, Vinyl Tap, Tears Are Not Enough, Winnipeg, Neil Young, reuniting with his lost guitar and writing American Woman in Kitchener. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com
Today on The Richard Syrett Show: Andrew Lawton, reporter for True North News, provides his take on the SS Soldier in Parliament saga. Franco Terrazzano and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are keeping an eye on your money. Plus, "The Cult of Climate Change" with Tony Heller, founder of RealClimateScience.com.Our feature interview for today is Dick Russell, author of "The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior." He shares his book, an intimate biographical portrait of RFK Jr. And then this week in rock history with Jeremiah Tittle, where we celebrate Randy Bachman's 80th birthday!
By the time Bachman Turner Overdrive were ready to record their third album, Not Fragile, Randy Bachman had sent demo tapes to almost two dozen record labels, all met with rejection letters. Finally, a twist of fate led to inking a contract with Mercury Records…but they were told they were one song short of “that magic element” the label thought they needed for the album. In this episode of the Behind The Song podcast, find out how “You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet” was begrudgingly added to the track listing and became a number one smash for B.T.O. even though Randy Bachman had intended for the song to be nothing more than a brotherly inside joke! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
By the time Bachman Turner Overdrive were ready to record their third album, Not Fragile, Randy Bachman had sent demo tapes to almost two dozen record labels, all met with rejection letters. Finally, a twist of fate led to inking a contract with Mercury Records…but they were told they were one song short of “that magic element” the label thought they needed for the album. In this episode of the Behind The Song podcast, find out how “You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet” was begrudgingly added to the track listing and became a number one smash for B.T.O. even though Randy Bachman had intended for the song to be nothing more than a brotherly inside joke! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this episode, the country guitarist walks Shifty through her blazing solo on "Hits Me," after sharing all about what makes her guitar-mind tick. "I've always looked at guitar solos as additional lyrics to the song," says Lindsay Ell. She approaches guitar solos by balancing their voice with that of the actual vocal, and on this episode of Shred With Shifty, the country guitarist and songwriter—who really draws from a host of genres, including rock, jazz, and blues—breaks down her epic solo on "Hits Me" for host Chris Shiflett, walking him through each phrase and figure. But before the two get into the solo breakdown, they cover some ground delving into topics like Lindsay's early bluegrass studies (and how her teacher Randy Bachman later introduced her to jazz and blues), her experience playing with producer Dann Huff, and why there aren't more female lead guitarists. (For that last one, she's not sure she has the answer, but is proud to be on the vanguard!) "Hits Me" is in Bb, which could be a challenging key to play in, and even Chris admits he gets lost on the fretboard if his songs aren't in the far more common keys of E, A, or G. But, she didn't want to be pigeonholed as the "girl who uses a capo," throwing it out at a very young age, and plays the solo high up on the neck, mostly on the top strings, around the 16th fret. It's also full of "guitarmony"—which she loves doing on just one guitar, although the solo was tracked on two for the recording to throw a bone to the mixing engineer. In the final minutes of the ep, Lindsay reveals one of her favorite warm up exercises, which she calls "chromatic spiders," which Shifty finds pretty wild (and they sound just as creepy as their name). Watch the full episode to get the whole story on Lindsay and the nuts and bolts of her guitar wizardry. Click below to subscribe to the podcast! Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314 Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
Always Be Cool (ABC) Podcast - Bobby Kerr & Darren Copeland of SummitLendingUSA.com
Famous musicians to play Knuckleheads: Merle Haggard, Sturgill Simpson, Bruce Hornsby, Edgar & Johnny Winter, Aaron Neville, Kevin Bacon, Blackberry Smoke, Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, Buddy Guy, David Allen Coe, Don McLean, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Johny Lang, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Costner, Los Lonely Boys, Marcus King, Poco, Queensryche, Uncle Cracker, Randy Bachman, Skid Row, Tanya Tucker, Bob Jovi, SoulshineHumble beginnings - Motorcycle repair shop (FOG Cycles) turned best live music venue in the midwest.Story of how the name of the business came to be? (Three Stooges)Importance of not being married to an idea or business idea for eternity - plans change sometimes, growth mindset, etc.Leon Russell first show you booked, that didn't quite pan out? - 6 Gold Records, 2 Grammys - Story about getting burned and life lessons surrounding this occasionSchooled up on contract law, etcStory of murals of deceased musicians?History of Knuckleheads site and buildings? History of Music and entertainment in the East BottomsLate 1800s - Heim Brewing CoRailcars would carry customers to/from the brewery & City MarketDefiance during covid - Govt overreach, importance of live music during troubling economic and uncertain timesKnuckleheads - 5 venues in one - How did the idea of turning the bike repair shop into a live music venue turn into 5 venues?My first experience and knowledge of Knucks - “Billy Bob Thornton's band plays there!”Actually just played there last weekBefore Reiger Whiskey's massive operation ... .why and how did you choose the East Bottoms area in KC and how did you, essentially, convince people from all over to visit the E.Bottoms when they probably wouldn't have otherwise?TRAIN - The train's howl shakes walls and rattles doors. It's also frequently responsible for eerie, magical moments that can happen only at Knuckleheads. “Joe Ely was playing here one time…..Expansion of outdoor area - why? Big cost to you?Business lesson: Slow and steady wins the race, 1% better every day and then 25 years later….you're where you are.“This is the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you've done something.” - Frank Hicks“Was never about the money. It was about having a big party with friends, in my backyard. Everyone who comes here is equal and we all come for the same reason - to enjoy live music.”Known for charity fundraisers and community events - Frankie D, 86 year old Kansas City man who was dragged to death in a carjacking in 2017, while trying to fight off the thiefABC PodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alwaysbecoolpodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/thebobbykerrInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbecoolpodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebobbykerrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@alwaysbecoolSummit LendingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SummitLendingUSATwitter: https://twitter.com/SummitLendingUSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/summitlendingusa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/summitlendingkc/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/loantipskc
Randy Bachman left The Guess Who in 1970 after experiencing lifestyle differences with the other band members. After exploring a number of alternatives, Bachman formed a group with his brothers Tim Bachman (guitars, vocals), and Robbie Bachman (percussion), and with Fred Turner (bass, vocals). The group took the name Bachman -Turner Overdrive, often shortened to BTO. Although their self-titled first album did not produce a single, it was regionally successful, and the band made the most of it with a heavy touring schedule. It was their second studio album, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, which would bring the band significant success. The album would go to number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and number 6 on the charts in their native Canada. Powered by bluesy guitar riffs and infectious choral hooks, BTO-II would become a staple of classic rock radio, and demonstrate the signature rock sound of the early 70's.Tim Bachman would be replaced by Blair Thornton prior to their third and most successful studio album, "Not Fragile." This lineup would produce a further three studio albums before founder Randy Bachman's departure in 1979. The band would continue on until 2005 before calling a hiatus. A number of reunions would follow starting in 2009.Rob features this influential group who maintained a guitar-led hard rock sound during a time when soft rock, glam, and disco were on the rise. Takin' Care of BusinessRandy Bachman originally developed this song while a member of The Guess Who, and it's working title was "White Collar Worker." The Guess Who turned it down because they thought it was too similar to The Beatles' "Paperback Writer," so Bachman rearranged it for BTO as "Takin' Care of Business." Randy Bachman is on lead vocals for this anthem.BlownThe lead track to the album is a deeper cut that describes a long-ago day when smoking drugs led to a collapse and a time "when they locked me up." It has a great hook in the chorus and a fast pace. "I was blown (woo woo) ran and jumped and screamed. I was blo-o-own right inside a dream."Welcome HomeThis is a quirky song has an alternating acoustic Latin verse and heavier chorus, with a jazzy finish. The lyrics talk about life on the road and how good it feels to go back home, drive your own car and sleep in your own bed. It could not be confirmed that Animal from The Muppet Show was an uncredited contributor to this track.Let It RideFred Turner is on lead vocals for the first BTO single to crack the US Top 40 (at number 23). The inspiration for the song was a time when the band was on a highway in their tour bus and got boxed in by a couple of trucks. When the band confronted the truckers about it at a truck stop, they were told to settle down and just let it ride. ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:Opening theme from the television series "The Six Million Dollar Man"This is where we learned about "Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive." The weekly exploits of the Bionic Man would have us running in slow motion on the playground to simulate his 60-mph dashes. STAFF PICKS:Seasons In the Sun by Terry Jacks Wayne brings us a song adapted from a Belgian tune called "The Dying Man." The lyrics portray a dying man's farewell to his loved ones. It was a worldwide hit that went to number 1, becoming the largest-selling Canadian single in history at the time. Jacks rewrote the lyrics to reflect a life that acknowledges rights and wrongs of his life as he passes away peacefully.Living for the City by Stevie Wonder Lynch features a song on which Wonder plays all the instruments and performs all the vocals. The lyrics tell of a young kid from Mississippi who moves to New York City. While down south he had hardships, but was surrounded by caring people. In the city, people take advantage of him, and he is caught with drugs and sentenced to 10 years in jail.Let Me Be There by Olivia Newton-John Bruce's staff pick is Newton-John's first top 10 hit in the US, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. This would also be the start of a more country direction for the singer, and would continue for the next couple of albums. Olivia Newton-John would win a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocalist for this upbeat tune.Mind Games by John LennonRob finishes off the staff picks with a single originally released in 1973 from Lennon's album of the same name. It made it to number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lennon started writing this in 1969 under the working title "Make Love, Not War." That phrase had been overused by the early 70's, and he took inspiration from a book title for the change to "Mind Games." INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:Space Race by Billy Preston Long time Beatles collaborator Billy Preston wrote this instrumental sci fi funk number.
Montrose was considered to be America's answer to Led Zeppelin in the early 70's. Founder Ronnie Montrose had played with a number of musicians including Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs, and with Edgar Winter on the hit singles “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” He formed the band bearing his name with bassist/keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald, drummer Denny Carmassi, and front man Sammy Hagar. Paper Money is the group's second album, and was the band's highest-charting release, reaching number 65 on the Billboard 200 chart. This follow-up to their self-titled debut album took on a broader style, with a stronger range of rhythm and dynamics while downplaying the heavy metal feel of the first album. Ronnie Montrose thought that the heavier music was a passing thing. However Montrose was just ahead of its time, and heavy metal was about to explode. Ronnie Montrose had a strict no-drug use policy for concerts, as he wanted all the members to be in top shape on their instruments and vocals for the show.The sessions for Paper Money were often marred by the deteriorating relationship between Montrose and Hagar. Soon after this album release, Sammy Hagar would leave the band for a solo career and eventual duties as the front man for Van Halen. Fitzgerald would go on to play for Night Ranger, and as an offstage keyboard player for Van Halen in the 90's. Carmassi would play for a number of artists including Heart, Whitesnake, Al Stewart, Kim Carnes, and Joe Walsh, as well as his own solo work, placing him on more recorded albums than Sammy Hagar.Wayne features this rocking album for today's podcast. StarlinerWe start this podcast with an instrumental with a space theme — prior to Star Wars. This song is the final track for side 1 of the album. Spaceage SacrificeAnother space themed song, this one was written by Hagar and Montrose. Although considered “sci-fi rock,” the song itself is a bit critical of the effort and money spent to go to the moon when troubles remained unsolved on Earth. "Don't think twice spaceage sacrifice. Well, let's go back when it all was starting. A man on the moon and people were starving."Paper Money This track is a critique of the monetary system in a time of inflation. “Take away all my silver, take away my gold, and hand me a stack of paper, paper money don't hold.” This one is the first single from the album, and the concluding track.I've Got the FireWayne saves his favorite track for last. It is a hard-driving song with explosive energy. This one may benefit from the concealed tension between Montrose's edgy tone and Hagar's vocal virtuosity. It would be the last one the band recorded before Hagar left the band to pursue a solo career. ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:Puttin' On the Ritz by (from the motion picture “Young Frankenstein”)Mel Brooks' black and white comedy classic featured Dr. Frankenstein (pronounced FRAHNK-en-steen) and the monster in Broadway-styled number. STAFF PICKS:You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman Turner OverdriveRob get's the staff picks rolling with a Canadian band's number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was intended as a joke for Randy Bachman's brother Gary, who had a stutter. It was used as a “work track” to set up the mics and amps in the studio, but it wound up being a hit after it was included on their “Not Fragile” album.Killer Queen by QueenBruce's staff pick is the first U.S. hit from Queen. It went to number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and is off their third album “Sheer Heart Attack.” It is the first Queen song to incorporate the cabaret-style and harmonies that we know today as the quintessentially Queen sound. The lyrics are about a high class call girl.Longfellow Serenade by Neil Diamond Lynch brings us a song inspired by an incident in school where Diamond used the poetry of Henry W. Longfellow to woo a girl. It went to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts. It is off Diamond's ninth studio album, "Serenade."I've Got the Music In Me by Kiki Dee and the Kiki Dee BandWayne wraps up the staff picks on a positive note. The lyrics describe how the singer will not be deterred because they have the music in them. Kiki Dee is best known in the U.S. for her duet with Elton John, but is better known in England as a singer of "blue eyed soul." She was the first white British artist to be signed by Motown. NOVELTY TRACK:Kung Fu Fighting by Carl DouglasInterest in martial arts in the early 70's inspired this song which would go to number 1 on the US, UK, Canadian, and Australian charts.
Elon Musk might just know what he's doing with Twitter. Canada freezes gun sales, so do we care? Starbucks is the McDonalds of Coffee. Amazon has a new season of the popular show Bosch, with a twist. It has commercials! Bob is surprised that he and Lisa don't mind. Are commercials the future of streaming tv? Ed reminisces about his stay at Casa De Rivers. Why Bob and Lisa moved to Las Vegas, and why they love it. If you label something as milk, should it come from something that has teats? Zip warns us to look out for Javelinas. Spike has paid rent on a storage unit for a million years. They finally got rid of it, sort of. We close with a rare recording: Randy Bachman playing 'Taking Care of Business' live in Bob's Garage.
Episode 152 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “For What It's Worth”, and the short but eventful career of Buffalo Springfield. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" by Glen Campbell. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, there's a Mixcloud mix containing all the songs excerpted in the episode. This four-CD box set is the definitive collection of Buffalo Springfield's work, while if you want the mono version of the second album, the stereo version of the first, and the final album as released, but no demos or outtakes, you want this more recent box set. For What It's Worth: The Story of Buffalo Springfield by Richey Furay and John Einarson is obviously Furay's version of the story, but all the more interesting for that. For information on Steve Stills' early life I used Stephen Stills: Change Partners by David Roberts. Information on both Stills and Young comes from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young by David Browne. Jimmy McDonough's Shakey is the definitive biography of Neil Young, while Young's Waging Heavy Peace is his autobiography. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before we begin -- this episode deals with various disabilities. In particular, there are descriptions of epileptic seizures that come from non-medically-trained witnesses, many of whom took ableist attitudes towards the seizures. I don't know enough about epilepsy to know how accurate their descriptions and perceptions are, and I apologise if that means that by repeating some of their statements, I am inadvertently passing on myths about the condition. When I talk about this, I am talking about the after-the-fact recollections of musicians, none of them medically trained and many of them in altered states of consciousness, about events that had happened decades earlier. Please do not take anything said in a podcast about music history as being the last word on the causes or effects of epileptic seizures, rather than how those musicians remember them. Anyway, on with the show. One of the things you notice if you write about protest songs is that a lot of the time, the songs that people talk about as being important or impactful have aged very poorly. Even great songwriters like Bob Dylan or John Lennon, when writing material about the political events of the time, would write material they would later acknowledge was far from their best. Too often a song will be about a truly important event, and be powered by a real sense of outrage at injustice, but it will be overly specific, and then as soon as the immediate issue is no longer topical, the song is at best a curio. For example, the sentencing of the poet and rock band manager John Sinclair to ten years in prison for giving two joints to an undercover police officer was hugely controversial in the early seventies, but by the time John Lennon's song about it was released, Sinclair had been freed by the Supreme Court, and very, very few people would use the song as an example of why Lennon's songwriting still has lasting value: [Excerpt: John Lennon, "John Sinclair"] But there are exceptions, and those tend to be songs where rather than talking about specific headlines, the song is about the emotion that current events have caused. Ninety years on from its first success, for example, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" still has resonance, because there are still people who are put out of work through no fault of their own, and even those of us who are lucky enough to be financially comfortable have the fear that all too soon it may end, and we may end up like Al begging on the streets: [Excerpt: Rudy Vallee, "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?"] And because of that emotional connection, sometimes the very best protest songs can take on new lives and new meanings, and connect with the way people feel about totally unrelated subjects. Take Buffalo Springfield's one hit. The actual subject of the song couldn't be any more trivial in the grand scheme of things -- a change in zoning regulations around the Sunset Strip that meant people under twenty-one couldn't go to the clubs after 10PM, and the subsequent reaction to that -- but because rather than talking about the specific incident, Steve Stills instead talked about the emotions that it called up, and just noted the fleeting images that he was left with, the song became adopted as an anthem by soldiers in Vietnam. Sometimes what a song says is nowhere near as important as how it says it. [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"] Steve Stills seems almost to have been destined to be a musician, although the instrument he started on, the drums, was not the one for which he would become best known. According to Stills, though, he always had an aptitude for rhythm, to the extent that he learned to tapdance almost as soon as he had learned to walk. He started on drums aged eight or nine, after somebody gave him a set of drumsticks. After his parents got sick of him damaging the furniture by playing on every available surface, an actual drum kit followed, and that became his principal instrument, even after he learned to play the guitar at military school, as his roommate owned one. As a teenager, Stills developed an idiosyncratic taste in music, helped by the record collection of his friend Michael Garcia. He didn't particularly like most of the pop music of the time, but he was a big fan of pre-war country music, Motown, girl-group music -- he especially liked the Shirelles -- and Chess blues. He was also especially enamoured of the music of Jimmy Reed, a passion he would later share with his future bandmate Neil Young: [Excerpt: Jimmy Reed, "Baby, What You Want Me To Do?"] In his early teens, he became the drummer for a band called the Radars, and while he was drumming he studied their lead guitarist, Chuck Schwin. He said later "There was a whole little bunch of us who were into kind of a combination of all the blues guys and others including Chet Atkins, Dick Dale, and Hank Marvin: a very weird cross-section of far-out guitar players." Stills taught himself to play like those guitarists, and in particular he taught himself how to emulate Atkins' Travis-picking style, and became remarkably proficient at it. There exists a recording of him, aged sixteen, singing one of his own songs and playing finger-picked guitar, and while the song is not exactly the strongest thing I've ever heard lyrically, it's clearly the work of someone who is already a confident performer: [Excerpt: Stephen Stills, "Travellin'"] But the main reason he switched to becoming a guitarist wasn't because of his admiration for Chet Atkins or Hank Marvin, but because he started driving and discovered that if you have to load a drum kit into your car and then drive it to rehearsals and gigs you either end up bashing up your car or bashing up the drum kit. As this is not a problem with guitars, Stills decided that he'd move on from the Radars, and join a band named the Continentals as their rhythm guitarist, playing with lead guitarist Don Felder. Stills was only in the Continentals for a few months though, before being replaced by another guitarist, Bernie Leadon, and in general Stills' whole early life is one of being uprooted and moved around. His father had jobs in several different countries, and while for the majority of his time Stills was in the southern US, he also ended up spending time in Costa Rica -- and staying there as a teenager even as the rest of his family moved to El Salvador. Eventually, aged eighteen, he moved to New Orleans, where he formed a folk duo with a friend, Chris Sarns. The two had very different tastes in folk music -- Stills preferred Dylan-style singer-songwriters, while Sarns liked the clean sound of the Kingston Trio -- but they played together for several months before moving to Greenwich Village, where they performed together and separately. They were latecomers to the scene, which had already mostly ended, and many of the folk stars had already gone on to do bigger things. But Stills still saw plenty of great performers there -- Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk in the jazz clubs, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, and Richard Pryor in the comedy ones, and Simon and Garfunkel, Richie Havens, Fred Neil and Tim Hardin in the folk ones -- Stills said that other than Chet Atkins, Havens, Neil, and Hardin were the people most responsible for his guitar style. Stills was also, at this time, obsessed with Judy Collins' third album -- the album which had featured Roger McGuinn on banjo and arrangements, and which would soon provide several songs for the Byrds to cover: [Excerpt: Judy Collins, "Turn, Turn, Turn"] Judy Collins would soon become a very important figure in Stills' life, but for now she was just the singer on his favourite record. While the Greenwich Village folk scene was no longer quite what it had been a year or two earlier, it was still a great place for a young talented musician to perform. As well as working with Chris Sarns, Stills also formed a trio with his friend John Hopkins and a banjo player called Peter Tork who everyone said looked just like Stills. Tork soon headed out west to seek his fortune, and then Stills got headhunted to join the Au Go Go Singers. This was a group that was being set up in the same style as the New Christy Minstrels -- a nine-piece vocal and instrumental group that would do clean-sounding versions of currently-popular folk songs. The group were signed to Roulette Records, and recorded one album, They Call Us Au-Go-Go Singers, produced by Hugo and Luigi, the production duo we've previously seen working with everyone from the Tokens to the Isley Brothers. Much of the album is exactly the same kind of thing that a million New Christy Minstrels soundalikes were putting out -- and Stills, with his raspy voice, was clearly intended to be the Barry McGuire of this group -- but there was one exception -- a song called "High Flyin' Bird", on which Stills was able to show off the sound that would later make him famous, and which became so associated with him that even though it was written by Billy Edd Wheeler, the writer of "Jackson", even the biography of Stills I used in researching this episode credits "High Flyin' Bird" as being a Stills original: [Excerpt: The Au-Go-Go Singers, "High Flyin' Bird"] One of the other members of the Au-Go-Go Singers, Richie Furay, also got to sing a lead vocal on the album, on the Tom Paxton song "Where I'm Bound": [Excerpt: The Au-Go-Go Singers, "Where I'm Bound"] The Au-Go-Go Singers got a handful of dates around the folk scene, and Stills and Furay became friendly with another singer playing the same circuit, Gram Parsons. Parsons was one of the few people they knew who could see the value in current country music, and convinced both Stills and Furay to start paying more attention to what was coming out of Nashville and Bakersfield. But soon the Au-Go-Go Singers split up. Several venues where they might otherwise have been booked were apparently scared to book an act that was associated with Morris Levy, and also the market for big folk ensembles dried up more or less overnight when the Beatles hit the music scene. But several of the group -- including Stills but not Furay -- decided they were going to continue anyway, and formed a group called The Company, and they went on a tour of Canada. And one of the venues they played was the Fourth Dimension coffee house in Fort William, Ontario, and there their support act was a rock band called The Squires: [Excerpt: The Squires, "(I'm a Man And) I Can't Cry"] The lead guitarist of the Squires, Neil Young, had a lot in common with Stills, and they bonded instantly. Both men had parents who had split up when they were in their teens, and had a successful but rather absent father and an overbearing mother. And both had shown an interest in music even as babies. According to Young's mother, when he was still in nappies, he would pull himself up by the bars of his playpen and try to dance every time he heard "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie": [Excerpt: Pinetop Smith, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"] Young, though, had had one crucial experience which Stills had not had. At the age of six, he'd come down with polio, and become partially paralysed. He'd spent months in hospital before he regained his ability to walk, and the experience had also affected him in other ways. While he was recovering, he would draw pictures of trains -- other than music, his big interest, almost an obsession, was with electric train sets, and that obsession would remain with him throughout his life -- but for the first time he was drawing with his right hand rather than his left. He later said "The left-hand side got a little screwed. Feels different from the right. If I close my eyes, my left side, I really don't know where it is—but over the years I've discovered that almost one hundred percent for sure it's gonna be very close to my right side … probably to the left. That's why I started appearing to be ambidextrous, I think. Because polio affected my left side, and I think I was left-handed when I was born. What I have done is use the weak side as the dominant one because the strong side was injured." Both Young's father Scott Young -- a very famous Canadian writer and sports broadcaster, who was by all accounts as well known in Canada during his lifetime as his son -- and Scott's brother played ukulele, and they taught Neil how to play, and his first attempt at forming a group had been to get his friend Comrie Smith to get a pair of bongos and play along with him to Preston Epps' "Bongo Rock": [Excerpt: Preston Epps, "Bongo Rock"] Neil Young had liked all the usual rock and roll stars of the fifties -- though in his personal rankings, Elvis came a distant third behind Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis -- but his tastes ran more to the more darkly emotional. He loved "Maybe" by the Chantels, saying "Raw soul—you cannot miss it. That's the real thing. She was believin' every word she was singin'." [Excerpt: The Chantels, "Maybe"] What he liked more than anything was music that had a mainstream surface but seemed slightly off-kilter. He was a major fan of Roy Orbison, saying, "it's almost impossible to comprehend the depth of that soul. It's so deep and dark it just keeps on goin' down—but it's not black. It's blue, deep blue. He's just got it. The drama. There's something sad but proud about Roy's music", and he would say similar things about Del Shannon, saying "He struck me as the ultimate dark figure—behind some Bobby Rydell exterior, y'know? “Hats Off to Larry,” “Runaway,” “Swiss Maid”—very, very inventive. The stuff was weird. Totally unaffected." More surprisingly, perhaps, he was a particular fan of Bobby Darin, who he admired so much because Darin could change styles at the drop of a hat, going from novelty rock and roll like "Splish Splash" to crooning "Mack The Knife" to singing Tim Hardin songs like "If I Were a Carpenter", without any of them seeming any less authentic. As he put it later "He just changed. He's completely different. And he's really into it. Doesn't sound like he's not there. “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife,” “If I Were a Carpenter,” “Queen of the Hop,” “Splish Splash”—tell me about those records, Mr. Darin. Did you write those all the same day, or what happened? He just changed so much. Just kinda went from one place to another. So it's hard to tell who Bobby Darin really was." And one record which Young was hugely influenced by was Floyd Cramer's country instrumental, "Last Date": [Excerpt: Floyd Cramer, "Last Date"] Now, that was a very important record in country music, and if you want to know more about it I strongly recommend listening to the episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones on the Nashville A-Team, which has a long section on the track, but the crucial thing to know about that track is that it's one of the earliest examples of what is known as slip-note playing, where the piano player, before hitting the correct note, briefly hits the note a tone below it, creating a brief discord. Young absolutely loved that sound, and wanted to make a sound like that on the guitar. And then, when he and his mother moved to Winnipeg after his parents' divorce, he found someone who was doing just that. It was the guitarist in a group variously known as Chad Allan and the Reflections and Chad Allan and the Expressions. That group had relatives in the UK who would send them records, and so where most Canadian bands would do covers of American hits, Chad Allan and the Reflections would do covers of British hits, like their version of Geoff Goddard's "Tribute to Buddy Holly", a song that had originally been produced by Joe Meek: [Excerpt: Chad Allan and the Reflections, "Tribute to Buddy Holly"] That would later pay off for them in a big way, when they recorded a version of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over", for which their record label tried to create an air of mystery by releasing it with no artist name, just "Guess Who?" on the label. It became a hit, the name stuck, and they became The Guess Who: [Excerpt: The Guess Who, "Shakin' All Over"] But at this point they, and their guitarist Randy Bachman, were just another group playing around Winnipeg. Bachman, though, was hugely impressive to Neil Young for a few reasons. The first was that he really did have a playing style that was a lot like the piano style of Floyd Cramer -- Young would later say "it was Randy Bachman who did it first. Randy was the first one I ever heard do things on the guitar that reminded me of Floyd. He'd do these pulls—“darrr darrrr,” this two-note thing goin' together—harmony, with one note pulling and the other note stayin' the same." Bachman also had built the first echo unit that Young heard a guitarist play in person. He'd discovered that by playing with the recording heads on a tape recorder owned by his mother, he could replicate the tape echo that Sam Phillips had used at Sun Studios -- and once he'd attached that to his amplifier, he realised how much the resulting sound sounded like his favourite guitarist, Hank Marvin of the Shadows, another favourite of Neil Young's: [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Man of Mystery"] Young soon started looking to Bachman as something of a mentor figure, and he would learn a lot of guitar techniques second hand from Bachman -- every time a famous musician came to the area, Bachman would go along and stand right at the front and watch the guitarist, and make note of the positions their fingers were in. Then Bachman would replicate those guitar parts with the Reflections, and Neil Young would stand in front of him and make notes of where *his* fingers were. Young joined a band on the local circuit called the Esquires, but soon either quit or was fired, depending on which version of the story you choose to believe. He then formed his own rival band, the Squires, with no "e", much to the disgust of his ex-bandmates. In July 1963, five months after they formed, the Squires released their first record, "Aurora" backed with "The Sultan", on a tiny local label. Both tracks were very obviously influenced by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Squires, "Aurora"] The Squires were a mostly-instrumental band for the first year or so they were together, and then the Beatles hit North America, and suddenly people didn't want to hear surf instrumentals and Shadows covers any more, they only wanted to hear songs that sounded a bit like the Beatles. The Squires started to work up the appropriate repertoire -- two songs that have been mentioned as in their set at this point are the Beatles album track "It Won't Be Long", and "Money" which the Beatles had also covered -- but they didn't have a singer, being an instrumental group. They could get in a singer, of course, but that would mean splitting the money with another person. So instead, the guitarist, who had never had any intention of becoming a singer, was more or less volunteered for the role. Over the next eighteen months or so the group's repertoire moved from being largely instrumental to largely vocal, and the group also seem to have shuttled around a bit between two different cities -- Winnipeg and Fort William, staying in one for a while and then moving back to the other. They travelled between the two in Young's car, a Buick Roadmaster hearse. In Winnipeg, Young first met up with a singer named Joni Anderson, who was soon to get married to Chuck Mitchell and would become better known by her married name. The two struck up a friendship, though by all accounts never a particularly close one -- they were too similar in too many ways; as Mitchell later said “Neil and I have a lot in common: Canadian; Scorpios; polio in the same epidemic, struck the same parts of our body; and we both have a black sense of humor". They were both also idiosyncratic artists who never fit very well into boxes. In Fort William the Squires made a few more records, this time vocal tracks like "I'll Love You Forever": [Excerpt: The Squires, "I'll Love You Forever"] It was also in Fort William that Young first encountered two acts that would make a huge impression on him. One was a group called The Thorns, consisting of Tim Rose, Jake Holmes, and Rich Husson. The Thorns showed Young that there was interesting stuff being done on the fringes of the folk music scene. He later said "One of my favourites was “Oh Susannah”—they did this arrangement that was bizarre. It was in a minor key, which completely changed everything—and it was rock and roll. So that idea spawned arrangements of all these other songs for me. I did minor versions of them all. We got into it. That was a certain Squires stage that never got recorded. Wish there were tapes of those shows. We used to do all this stuff, a whole kinda music—folk-rock. We took famous old folk songs like “Clementine,” “She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain,” “Tom Dooley,” and we did them all in minor keys based on the Tim Rose arrangement of “Oh Susannah.” There are no recordings of the Thorns in existence that I know of, but presumably that arrangement that Young is talking about is the version that Rose also later did with the Big 3, which we've heard in a few other episodes: [Excerpt: The Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] The other big influence was, of course, Steve Stills, and the two men quickly found themselves influencing each other deeply. Stills realised that he could bring more rock and roll to his folk-music sound, saying that what amazed him was the way the Squires could go from "Cottonfields" (the Lead Belly song) to "Farmer John", the R&B song by Don and Dewey that was becoming a garage-rock staple. Young in turn was inspired to start thinking about maybe going more in the direction of folk music. The Squires even renamed themselves the High-Flying Birds, after the song that Stills had recorded with the Au Go Go Singers. After The Company's tour of Canada, Stills moved back to New York for a while. He now wanted to move in a folk-rock direction, and for a while he tried to persuade his friend John Sebastian to let him play bass in his new band, but when the Lovin' Spoonful decided against having him in the band, he decided to move West to San Francisco, where he'd heard there was a new music scene forming. He enjoyed a lot of the bands he saw there, and in particular he was impressed by the singer of a band called the Great Society: [Excerpt: The Great Society, "Somebody to Love"] He was much less impressed with the rest of her band, and seriously considered going up to her and asking if she wanted to work with some *real* musicians instead of the unimpressive ones she was working with, but didn't get his nerve up. We will, though, be hearing more about Grace Slick in future episodes. Instead, Stills decided to move south to LA, where many of the people he'd known in Greenwich Village were now based. Soon after he got there, he hooked up with two other musicians, a guitarist named Steve Young and a singer, guitarist, and pianist named Van Dyke Parks. Parks had a record contract at MGM -- he'd been signed by Tom Wilson, the same man who had turned Dylan electric, signed Simon and Garfunkel, and produced the first albums by the Mothers of Invention. With Wilson, Parks put out a couple of singles in 1966, "Come to the Sunshine": [Excerpt: The Van Dyke Parks, "Come to the Sunshine"] And "Number Nine", a reworking of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: [Excerpt: The Van Dyke Parks, "Number Nine"]Parks, Stills, and Steve Young became The Van Dyke Parks Band, though they didn't play together for very long, with their most successful performance being as the support act for the Lovin' Spoonful for a show in Arizona. But they did have a lasting resonance -- when Van Dyke Parks finally got the chance to record his first solo album, he opened it with Steve Young singing the old folk song "Black Jack Davy", filtered to sound like an old tape: [Excerpt: Steve Young, "Black Jack Davy"] And then it goes into a song written for Parks by Randy Newman, but consisting of Newman's ideas about Parks' life and what he knew about him, including that he had been third guitar in the Van Dyke Parks Band: [Excerpt: Van Dyke Parks, "Vine Street"] Parks and Stills also wrote a few songs together, with one of their collaborations, "Hello, I've Returned", later being demoed by Stills for Buffalo Springfield: [Excerpt: Steve Stills, "Hello, I've Returned"] After the Van Dyke Parks Band fell apart, Parks went on to many things, including a brief stint on keyboards in the Mothers of Invention, and we'll be talking more about him next episode. Stills formed a duo called the Buffalo Fish, with his friend Ron Long. That soon became an occasional trio when Stills met up again with his old Greenwich Village friend Peter Tork, who joined the group on the piano. But then Stills auditioned for the Monkees and was turned down because he had bad teeth -- or at least that's how most people told the story. Stills has later claimed that while he turned up for the Monkees auditions, it wasn't to audition, it was to try to pitch them songs, which seems implausible on the face of it. According to Stills, he was offered the job and turned it down because he'd never wanted it. But whatever happened, Stills suggested they might want his friend Peter, who looked just like him apart from having better teeth, and Peter Tork got the job. But what Stills really wanted to do was to form a proper band. He'd had the itch to do it ever since seeing the Squires, and he decided he should ask Neil Young to join. There was only one problem -- when he phoned Young, the phone was answered by Young's mother, who told Stills that Neil had moved out to become a folk singer, and she didn't know where he was. But then Stills heard from his old friend Richie Furay. Furay was still in Greenwich Village, and had decided to write to Stills. He didn't know where Stills was, other than that he was in California somewhere, so he'd written to Stills' father in El Salvador. The letter had been returned, because the postage had been short by one cent, so Furay had resent it with the correct postage. Stills' father had then forwarded the letter to the place Stills had been staying in San Francisco, which had in turn forwarded it on to Stills in LA. Furay's letter mentioned this new folk singer who had been on the scene for a while and then disappeared again, Neil Young, who had said he knew Stills, and had been writing some great songs, one of which Furay had added to his own set. Stills got in touch with Furay and told him about this great band he was forming in LA, which he wanted Furay to join. Furay was in, and travelled from New York to LA, only to be told that at this point there were no other members of this great band, but they'd definitely find some soon. They got a publishing deal with Columbia/Screen Gems, which gave them enough money to not starve, but what they really needed was to find some other musicians. They did, when driving down Hollywood Boulevard on April the sixth, 1966. There, stuck in traffic going the other way, they saw a hearse... After Steve Stills had left Fort William, so had Neil Young. He hadn't initially intended to -- the High-Flying Birds still had a regular gig, but Young and some of his friends had gone away for a few days on a road trip in his hearse. But unfortunately the transmission on the hearse had died, and Young and his friends had been stranded. Many years later, he would write a eulogy to the hearse, which he and Stills would record together: [Excerpt: The Stills-Young Band, "Long May You Run"] Young and his friends had all hitch-hiked in different directions -- Young had ended up in Toronto, where his dad lived, and had stayed with his dad for a while. The rest of his band had eventually followed him there, but Young found the Toronto music scene not to his taste -- the folk and rock scenes there were very insular and didn't mingle with each other, and the group eventually split up. Young even took on a day job for a while, for the only time in his life, though he soon quit. Young started basically commuting between Toronto and New York, a distance of several hundred miles, going to Greenwich Village for a while before ending up back in Toronto, and ping-ponging between the two. In New York, he met up with Richie Furay, and also had a disastrous audition for Elektra Records as a solo artist. One of the songs he sang in the audition was "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", the song which Furay liked so much he started performing it himself. Young doesn't normally explain his songs, but as this was one of the first he ever wrote, he talked about it in interviews in the early years, before he decided to be less voluble about his art. The song was apparently about the sense of youthful hope being crushed. The instigation for it was Young seeing his girlfriend with another man, but the central image, of Clancy not singing, came from Young's schooldays. The Clancy in question was someone Young liked as one of the other weird kids at school. He was disabled, like Young, though with MS rather than polio, and he would sing to himself in the hallways at school. Sadly, of course, the other kids would mock and bully him for that, and eventually he ended up stopping. Young said about it "After awhile, he got so self-conscious he couldn't do his thing any more. When someone who is as beautiful as that and as different as that is actually killed by his fellow man—you know what I mean—like taken and sorta chopped down—all the other things are nothing compared to this." [Excerpt: Neil Young, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Elektra demo)"] One thing I should say for anyone who listens to the Mixcloud for this episode, that song, which will be appearing in a couple of different versions, has one use of a term for Romani people that some (though not all) consider a slur. It's not in the excerpts I'll be using in this episode, but will be in the full versions on the Mixcloud. Sadly that word turns up time and again in songs of this era... When he wasn't in New York, Young was living in Toronto in a communal apartment owned by a folk singer named Vicki Taylor, where many of the Toronto folk scene would stay. Young started listening a lot to Taylor's Bert Jansch albums, which were his first real exposure to the British folk-baroque style of guitar fingerpicking, as opposed to the American Travis-picking style, and Young would soon start to incorporate that style into his own playing: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, "Angie"] Another guitar influence on Young at this point was another of the temporary tenants of Taylor's flat, John Kay, who would later go on to be one of the founding members of Steppenwolf. Young credited Kay with having a funky rhythm guitar style that Young incorporated into his own. While he was in Toronto, he started getting occasional gigs in Detroit, which is "only" a couple of hundred miles away, set up by Joni and Chuck Mitchell, both of whom also sometimes stayed at Taylor's. And it was in Detroit that Neil Young became, albeit very briefly, a Motown artist. The Mynah Birds were a band in Toronto that had at one point included various future members of Steppenwolf, and they were unusual for the time in that they were a white band with a Black lead singer, Ricky Matthews. They also had a rich manager, John Craig Eaton, the heir to the Eaton's department store fortune, who basically gave them whatever money they wanted -- they used to go to his office and tell him they needed seven hundred dollars for lunch, and he'd hand it to them. They were looking for a new guitarist when Bruce Palmer, their bass player, bumped into Neil Young carrying an amp and asked if he was interested in joining. He was. The Mynah Birds quickly became one of the best bands in Toronto, and Young and Matthews became close, both as friends and as a performance team. People who saw them live would talk about things like a song called “Hideaway”, written by Young and Matthews, which had a spot in the middle where Young would start playing a harmonica solo, throw the harmonica up in the air mid-solo, Matthews would catch it, and he would then finish the solo. They got signed to Motown, who were at this point looking to branch out into the white guitar-group market, and they were put through the Motown star-making machine. They recorded an entire album, which remains unreleased, but they did release a single, "It's My Time": [Excerpt: The Mynah Birds, "It's My Time"] Or at least, they released a handful of promo copies. The single was pulled from release after Ricky Matthews got arrested. It turned out his birth name wasn't Ricky Matthews, but James Johnson, and that he wasn't from Toronto as he'd told everyone, but from Buffalo, New York. He'd fled to Canada after going AWOL from the Navy, not wanting to be sent to Vietnam, and he was arrested and jailed for desertion. After getting out of jail, he would start performing under yet another name, and as Rick James would have a string of hits in the seventies and eighties: [Excerpt: Rick James, "Super Freak"] Most of the rest of the group continued gigging as The Mynah Birds, but Young and Palmer had other plans. They sold the expensive equipment Eaton had bought the group, and Young bought a new hearse, which he named Mort 2 – Mort had been his first hearse. And according to one of the band's friends in Toronto, the crucial change in their lives came when Neil Young heard a song on a jukebox: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] Young apparently heard "California Dreamin'" and immediately said "Let's go to California and become rock stars". Now, Young later said of this anecdote that "That sounds like a Canadian story to me. That sounds too real to be true", and he may well be right. Certainly the actual wording of the story is likely incorrect -- people weren't talking about "rock stars" in 1966. Google's Ngram viewer has the first use of the phrase in print being in 1969, and the phrase didn't come into widespread usage until surprisingly late -- even granting that phrases enter slang before they make it to print, it still seems implausible. But even though the precise wording might not be correct, something along those lines definitely seems to have happened, albeit possibly less dramatically. Young's friend Comrie Smith independently said that Young told him “Well, Comrie, I can hear the Mamas and the Papas singing ‘All the leaves are brown, and the skies are gray …' I'm gonna go down to the States and really make it. I'm on my way. Today North Toronto, tomorrow the world!” Young and Palmer loaded up Mort 2 with a bunch of their friends and headed towards California. On the way, they fell out with most of the friends, who parted from them, and Young had an episode which in retrospect may have been his first epileptic seizure. They decided when they got to California that they were going to look for Steve Stills, as they'd heard he was in LA and neither of them knew anyone else in the state. But after several days of going round the Sunset Strip clubs asking if anyone knew Steve Stills, and sleeping in the hearse as they couldn't afford anywhere else, they were getting fed up and about to head off to San Francisco, as they'd heard there was a good music scene there, too. They were going to leave that day, and they were stuck in traffic on Sunset Boulevard, about to head off, when Stills and Furay came driving in the other direction. Furay happened to turn his head, to brush away a fly, and saw a hearse with Ontario license plates. He and Stills both remembered that Young drove a hearse, and so they assumed it must be him. They started honking at the hearse, then did a U-turn. They got Young's attention, and they all pulled into the parking lot at Ben Frank's, the Sunset Strip restaurant that attracted such a hip crowd the Monkees' producers had asked for "Ben Frank's types" in their audition advert. Young introduced Stills and Furay to Palmer, and now there *was* a group -- three singing, songwriting, guitarists and a bass player. Now all they needed was a drummer. There were two drummers seriously considered for the role. One of them, Billy Mundi, was technically the better player, but Young didn't like playing with him as much -- and Mundi also had a better offer, to join the Mothers of Invention as their second drummer -- before they'd recorded their first album, they'd had two drummers for a few months, but Denny Bruce, their second drummer, had become ill with glandular fever and they'd reverted to having Jimmy Carl Black play solo. Now they were looking for someone else, and Mundi took that role. The other drummer, who Young preferred anyway, was another Canadian, Dewey Martin. Martin was a couple of years older than the rest of the group, and by far the most experienced. He'd moved from Canada to Nashville in his teens, and according to Martin he had been taken under the wing of Hank Garland, the great session guitarist most famous for "Sugarfoot Rag": [Excerpt: Hank Garland, "Sugarfoot Rag"] We heard Garland playing with Elvis and others in some of the episodes around 1960, and by many reckonings he was the best session guitarist in Nashville, but in 1961 he had a car accident that left him comatose, and even though he recovered from the coma and lived another thirty-three years, he never returned to recording. According to Martin, though, Garland would still sometimes play jazz clubs around Nashville after the accident, and one day Martin walked into a club and saw him playing. The drummer he was playing with got up and took a break, taking his sticks with him, so Martin got up on stage and started playing, using two combs instead of sticks. Garland was impressed, and told Martin that Faron Young needed a drummer, and he could get him the gig. At the time Young was one of the biggest stars in country music. That year, 1961, he had three country top ten hits, including a number one with his version of Willie Nelson's "Hello Walls", produced by Ken Nelson: [Excerpt: Faron Young, "Hello Walls"] Martin joined Faron Young's band for a while, and also ended up playing short stints in the touring bands of various other Nashville-based country and rock stars, including Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers, before heading to LA for a while. Then Mel Taylor of the Ventures hooked him up with some musicians in the Pacific Northwest scene, and Martin started playing there under the name Sir Raleigh and the Coupons with various musicians. After a while he travelled back to LA where he got some members of the LA group Sons of Adam to become a permanent lineup of Coupons, and they recorded several singles with Martin singing lead, including the Tommy Boyce and Steve Venet song "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day", later recorded by the Monkees: [Excerpt: Sir Raleigh and the Coupons, "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"] He then played with the Standells, before joining the Modern Folk Quartet for a short while, as they were transitioning from their folk sound to a folk-rock style. He was only with them for a short while, and it's difficult to get precise details -- almost everyone involved with Buffalo Springfield has conflicting stories about their own careers with timelines that don't make sense, which is understandable given that people were talking about events decades later and memory plays tricks. "Fast" Eddie Hoh had joined the Modern Folk Quartet on drums in late 1965, at which point they became the Modern Folk Quintet, and nothing I've read about that group talks about Hoh ever actually leaving, but apparently Martin joined them in February 1966, which might mean he's on their single "Night-Time Girl", co-written by Al Kooper and produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche: [Excerpt: The Modern Folk Quintet, "Night-Time Girl"] After that, Martin was taken on by the Dillards, a bluegrass band who are now possibly most famous for having popularised the Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith song "Duellin' Banjos", which they recorded on their first album and played on the Andy Griffith Show a few years before it was used in Deliverance: [Excerpt: The Dillards, "Duellin' Banjos"] The Dillards had decided to go in a country-rock direction -- and Doug Dillard would later join the Byrds and make records with Gene Clark -- but they were hesitant about it, and after a brief period with Martin in the band they decided to go back to their drummerless lineup. To soften the blow, they told him about another band that was looking for a drummer -- their manager, Jim Dickson, who was also the Byrds' manager, knew Stills and his bandmates. Dewey Martin was in the group. The group still needed a name though. They eventually took their name from a brand of steam roller, after seeing one on the streets when some roadwork was being done. Everyone involved disagrees as to who came up with the name. Steve Stills at one point said it was a group decision after Neil Young and the group's manager Frazier Mohawk stole the nameplate off the steamroller, and later Stills said that Richey Furay had suggested the name while they were walking down the street, Dewey Martin said it was his idea, Neil Young said that he, Steve Sills, and Van Dyke Parks had been walking down the street and either Young or Stills had seen the nameplate and suggested the name, and Van Dyke Parks says that *he* saw the nameplate and suggested it to Dewey Martin: [Excerpt: Steve Stills and Van Dyke Parks on the name] For what it's worth, I tend to believe Van Dyke Parks in most instances -- he's an honest man, and he seems to have a better memory of the sixties than many of his friends who led more chemically interesting lives. Whoever came up with it, the name worked -- as Stills later put it "We thought it was pretty apt, because Neil Young is from Manitoba which is buffalo country, and Richie Furay was from Springfield, Ohio -- and I'm the field!" It almost certainly also helped that the word "buffalo" had been in the name of Stills' previous group, Buffalo Fish. On the eleventh of April, 1966, Buffalo Springfield played their first gig, at the Troubadour, using equipment borrowed from the Dillards. Chris Hillman of the Byrds was in the audience and was impressed. He got the group a support slot on a show the Byrds and the Dillards were doing a few days later in San Bernardino. That show was compered by a Merseyside-born British DJ, John Ravenscroft, who had managed to become moderately successful in US radio by playing up his regional accent so he sounded more like the Beatles. He would soon return to the UK, and start broadcasting under the name John Peel. Hillman also got them a week-long slot at the Whisky A-Go-Go, and a bidding war started between record labels to sign the band. Dunhill offered five thousand dollars, Warners counted with ten thousand, and then Atlantic offered twelve thousand. Atlantic were *just* starting to get interested in signing white guitar groups -- Jerry Wexler never liked that kind of music, always preferring to stick with soul and R&B, but Ahmet Ertegun could see which way things were going. Atlantic had only ever signed two other white acts before -- Neil Young's old favourite Bobby Darin, who had since left the label, and Sonny and Cher. And Sonny and Cher's management and production team, Brian Stone and Charlie Greene, were also very interested in the group, who even before they had made a record had quickly become the hottest band on the circuit, even playing the Hollywood Bowl as the Rolling Stones' support act. Buffalo Springfield already had managers -- Frazier Mohawk and Richard Davis, the lighting man at the Troubadour (who was sometimes also referred to as Dickie Davis, but I'll use his full name so as not to cause unnecessary confusion in British people who remember the sports TV presenter of the same name), who Mohawk had enlisted to help him. But Stone and Greene weren't going to let a thing like that stop them. According to anonymous reports quoted without attribution in David Roberts' biography of Stills -- so take this with as many grains of salt as you want -- Stone and Greene took Mohawk for a ride around LA in a limo, just the three of them, a gun, and a used hotdog napkin. At the end of the ride, the hotdog napkin had Mohawk's scrawled signature, signing the group over to Stone and Greene. Davis stayed on, but was demoted to just doing their lights. The way things ended up, the group signed to Stone and Greene's production company, who then leased their masters to Atlantic's Atco subsidiary. A publishing company was also set up for the group's songs -- owned thirty-seven point five percent by Atlantic, thirty-seven point five percent by Stone and Greene, and the other twenty-five percent split six ways between the group and Davis, who they considered their sixth member. Almost immediately, Charlie Greene started playing Stills and Young off against each other, trying a divide-and-conquer strategy on the group. This was quite easy, as both men saw themselves as natural leaders, though Stills was regarded by everyone as the senior partner -- the back cover of their first album would contain the line "Steve is the leader but we all are". Stills and Young were the two stars of the group as far as the audience were concerned -- though most musicians who heard them play live say that the band's real strength was in its rhythm section, with people comparing Palmer's playing to that of James Jamerson. But Stills and Young would get into guitar battles on stage, one-upping each other, in ways that turned the tension between them in creative directions. Other clashes, though were more petty -- both men had very domineering mothers, who would actually call the group's management to complain about press coverage if their son was given less space than the other one. The group were also not sure about Young's voice -- to the extent that Stills was known to jokingly apologise to the audience before Young took a lead vocal -- and so while the song chosen as the group's first A-side was Young's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", Furay was chosen to sing it, rather than Young: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing"] On the group's first session, though, both Stills and Young realised that their producers didn't really have a clue -- the group had built up arrangements that had a complex interplay of instruments and vocals, but the producers insisted on cutting things very straightforwardly, with a basic backing track and then the vocals. They also thought that the song was too long so the group should play faster. Stills and Young quickly decided that they were going to have to start producing their own material, though Stone and Greene would remain the producers for the first album. There was another bone of contention though, because in the session the initial plan had been for Stills' song "Go and Say Goodbye" to be the A-side with Young's song as the B-side. It was flipped, and nobody seems quite sure why -- it's certainly the case that, whatever the merits of the two tracks as songs, Stills' song was the one that would have been more likely to become a hit. "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" was a flop, but it did get some local airplay. The next single, "Burned", was a Young song as well, and this time did have Young taking the lead, though in a song dominated by harmonies: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Burned"] Over the summer, though, something had happened that would affect everything for the group -- Neil Young had started to have epileptic seizures. At first these were undiagnosed episodes, but soon they became almost routine events, and they would often happen on stage, particularly at moments of great stress or excitement. Several other members of the group became convinced -- entirely wrongly -- that Young was faking these seizures in order to get women to pay attention to him. They thought that what he wanted was for women to comfort him and mop his brow, and that collapsing would get him that. The seizures became so common that Richard Davis, the group's lighting tech, learned to recognise the signs of a seizure before it happened. As soon as it looked like Young was about to collapse the lights would turn on, someone would get ready to carry him off stage, and Richie Furay would know to grab Young's guitar before he fell so that the guitar wouldn't get damaged. Because they weren't properly grounded and Furay had an electric guitar of his own, he'd get a shock every time. Young would later claim that during some of the seizures, he would hallucinate that he was another person, in another world, living another life that seemed to have its own continuity -- people in the other world would recognise him and talk to him as if he'd been away for a while -- and then when he recovered he would have to quickly rebuild his identity, as if temporarily amnesiac, and during those times he would find things like the concept of lying painful. The group's first album came out in December, and they were very, very, unhappy with it. They thought the material was great, but they also thought that the production was terrible. Stone and Greene's insistence that they record the backing tracks first and then overdub vocals, rather than singing live with the instruments, meant that the recordings, according to Stills and Young in particular, didn't capture the sound of the group's live performance, and sounded sterile. Stills and Young thought they'd fixed some of that in the mono mix, which they spent ten days on, but then Stone and Greene did the stereo mix without consulting the band, in less than two days, and the album was released at precisely the time that stereo was starting to overtake mono in the album market. I'm using the mono mixes in this podcast, but for decades the only versions available were the stereo ones, which Stills and Young both loathed. Ahmet Ertegun also apparently thought that the demo versions of the songs -- some of which were eventually released on a box set in 2001 -- were much better than the finished studio recordings. The album was not a success on release, but it did contain the first song any of the group had written to chart. Soon after its release, Van Dyke Parks' friend Lenny Waronker was producing a single by a group who had originally been led by Sly Stone and had been called Sly and the Mojo Men. By this time Stone was no longer involved in the group, and they were making music in a very different style from the music their former leader would later become known for. Parks was brought in to arrange a baroque-pop version of Stills' album track "Sit Down I Think I Love You" for the group, and it became their only top forty hit, reaching number thirty-six: [Excerpt: The Mojo Men, "Sit Down I Think I Love You"] It was shortly after the first Buffalo Springfield album was released, though, that Steve Stills wrote what would turn out to be *his* group's only top forty single. The song had its roots in both LA and San Francisco. The LA roots were more obvious -- the song was written about a specific experience Stills had had. He had been driving to Sunset Strip from Laurel Canyon on November the twelfth 1966, and he had seen a mass of young people and police in riot gear, and he had immediately turned round, partly because he didn't want to get involved in what looked to be a riot, and partly because he'd been inspired -- he had the idea for a lyric, which he pretty much finished in the car even before he got home: [Excerpt: The Buffalo Springfield, "For What it's Worth"] The riots he saw were what became known later as the Riot on Sunset Strip. This was a minor skirmish between the police and young people of LA -- there had been complaints that young people had been spilling out of the nightclubs on Sunset Strip into the street, causing traffic problems, and as a result the city council had introduced various heavy-handed restrictions, including a ten PM curfew for all young people in the area, removing the permits that many clubs had which allowed people under twenty-one to be present, forcing the Whisky A-Go-Go to change its name just to "the Whisk", and forcing a club named Pandora's Box, which was considered the epicentre of the problem, to close altogether. Flyers had been passed around calling for a "funeral" for Pandora's Box -- a peaceful gathering at which people could say goodbye to a favourite nightspot, and a thousand people had turned up. The police also turned up, and in the heavy-handed way common among law enforcement, they managed to provoke a peaceful party and turn it into a riot. This would not normally be an event that would be remembered even a year later, let alone nearly sixty years later, but Sunset Strip was the centre of the American rock music world in the period, and of the broader youth entertainment field. Among those arrested at the riot, for example, were Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda, neither of whom were huge stars at the time, but who were making cheap B-movies with Roger Corman for American International Pictures. Among the cheap exploitation films that American International Pictures made around this time was one based on the riots, though neither Nicholson, Fonda, or Corman were involved. Riot on Sunset Strip was released in cinemas only four months after the riots, and it had a theme song by Dewey Martin's old colleagues The Standells, which is now regarded as a classic of garage rock: [Excerpt: The Standells, "Riot on Sunset Strip"] The riots got referenced in a lot of other songs, as well. The Mothers of Invention's second album, Absolutely Free, contains the song "Plastic People" which includes this section: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Plastic People"] And the Monkees track "Daily Nightly", written by Michael Nesmith, was always claimed by Nesmith to be an impressionistic portrait of the riots, though the psychedelic lyrics sound to me more like they're talking about drug use and street-walking sex workers than anything to do with the riots: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "Daily Nightly"] But the song about the riots that would have the most lasting effect on popular culture was the one that Steve Stills wrote that night. Although how much he actually wrote, at least of the music, is somewhat open to question. Earlier that month, Buffalo Springfield had spent some time in San Francisco. They hadn't enjoyed the experience -- as an LA band, they were thought of as a bunch of Hollywood posers by most of the San Francisco scene, with the exception of one band, Moby Grape -- a band who, like them had three guitarist/singer/songwriters, and with whom they got on very well. Indeed, they got on rather better with Moby Grape than they were getting on with each other at this point, because Young and Stills would regularly get into arguments, and every time their argument seemed to be settling down, Dewey Martin would manage to say the wrong thing and get Stills riled up again -- Martin was doing a lot of speed at this point and unable to stop talking, even when it would have been politic to do so. There was even some talk while they were in San Francisco of the bands doing a trade -- Young and Pete Lewis of Moby Grape swapping places -- though that came to nothing. But Stills, according to both Richard Davis and Pete Lewis, had been truly impressed by two Moby Grape songs. One of them was a song called "On the Other Side", which Moby Grape never recorded, but which apparently had a chorus that went "Stop, can't you hear the music ringing in your ear, right before you go, telling you the way is clear," with the group all pausing after the word "Stop". The other was a song called "Murder in my Heart for the Judge": [Excerpt: Moby Grape, "Murder in my Heart for the Judge"] The song Stills wrote had a huge amount of melodic influence from that song, and quite a bit from “On the Other Side”, though he apparently didn't notice until after the record came out, at which point he apologised to Moby Grape. Stills wasn't massively impressed with the song he'd written, and went to Stone and Greene's office to play it for them, saying "I'll play it, for what it's worth". They liked the song and booked a studio to get the song recorded and rush-released, though according to Neil Young neither Stone nor Greene were actually present at the session, and the song was recorded on December the fifth, while some outbursts of rioting were still happening, and released on December the twenty-third. [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "For What it's Worth"] The song didn't have a title when they recorded it, or so Stills thought, but when he mentioned this to Greene and Stone afterwards, they said "Of course it does. You said, 'I'm going to play the song, 'For What It's Worth'" So that became the title, although Ahmet Ertegun didn't like the idea of releasing a single with a title that wasn't in the lyric, so the early pressings of the single had "Stop, Hey, What's That Sound?" in brackets after the title. The song became a big hit, and there's a story told by David Crosby that doesn't line up correctly, but which might shed some light on why. According to Crosby, "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" got its first airplay because Crosby had played members of Buffalo Springfield a tape he'd been given of the unreleased Beatles track "A Day in the Life", and they'd told their gangster manager-producers about it. Those manager-producers had then hired a sex worker to have sex with Crosby and steal the tape, which they'd then traded to a radio station in return for airplay. That timeline doesn't work, unless the sex worker involved was also a time traveller, because "A Day in the Life" wasn't even recorded until January 1967 while "Clancy" came out in August 1966, and there'd been two other singles released between then and January 1967. But it *might* be the case that that's what happened with "For What It's Worth", which was released in the last week of December 1966, and didn't really start to do well on the charts for a couple of months. Right after recording the song, the group went to play a residency in New York, of which Ahmet Ertegun said “When they performed there, man, there was no band I ever heard that had the electricity of that group. That was the most exciting group I've ever seen, bar none. It was just mind-boggling.” During that residency they were joined on stage at various points by Mitch Ryder, Odetta, and Otis Redding. While in New York, the group also recorded "Mr. Soul", a song that Young had originally written as a folk song about his experiences with epilepsy, the nature of the soul, and dealing with fame. However, he'd noticed a similarity to "Satisfaction" and decided to lean into it. The track as finally released was heavily overdubbed by Young a few months later, but after it was released he decided he preferred the original take, which by then only existed as a scratchy acetate, which got released on a box set in 2001: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Mr. Soul (original version)"] Everyone has a different story of how the session for that track went -- at least one version of the story has Otis Redding turning up for the session and saying he wanted to record the song himself, as his follow-up to his version of "Satisfaction", but Young being angry at the idea. According to other versions of the story, Greene and Stills got into a physical fight, with Greene having to be given some of the valium Young was taking for his epilepsy to calm him down. "For What it's Worth" was doing well enough on the charts that the album was recalled, and reissued with "For What It's Worth" replacing Stills' song "Baby Don't Scold", but soon disaster struck the band. Bruce Palmer was arrested on drugs charges, and was deported back to Canada just as the song started to rise through the charts. The group needed a new bass player, fast. For a lipsynch appearance on local TV they got Richard Davis to mime the part, and then they got in Ken Forssi, the bass player from Love, for a couple of gigs. They next brought in Ken Koblun, the bass player from the Squires, but he didn't fit in with the rest of the group. The next replacement was Jim Fielder. Fielder was a friend of the group, and knew the material -- he'd subbed for Palmer a few times in 1966 when Palmer had been locked up after less serious busts. And to give some idea of how small a scene the LA scene was, when Buffalo Springfield asked him to become their bass player, he was playing rhythm guitar for the Mothers of Invention, while Billy Mundi was on drums, and had played on their second, as yet unreleased, album, Absolutely Free: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Call any Vegetable"] And before joining the Mothers, Fielder and Mundi had also played together with Van Dyke Parks, who had served his own short stint as a Mother of Invention already, backing Tim Buckley on Buckley's first album: [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Aren't You the Girl?"] And the arrangements on that album were by Jack Nitzsche, who would soon become a very close collaborator with Young. "For What it's Worth" kept rising up the charts. Even though it had been inspired by a very local issue, the lyrics were vague enough that people in other situations could apply it to themselves, and it soon became regarded as an anti-war protest anthem -- something Stills did nothing to discourage, as the band were all opposed to the war. The band were also starting to collaborate with other people. When Stills bought a new house, he couldn't move in to it for a while, and so Peter Tork invited him to stay at his house. The two got on so well that Tork invited Stills to produce the next Monkees album -- only to find that Michael Nesmith had already asked Chip Douglas to do it. The group started work on a new album, provisionally titled "Stampede", but sessions didn't get much further than Stills' song "Bluebird" before trouble arose between Young and Stills. The root of the argument seems to have been around the number of songs each got on the album. With Richie Furay also writing, Young was worried that given the others' attitudes to his songwriting, he might get as few as two songs on the album. And Young and Stills were arguing over which song should be the next single, with Young wanting "Mr. Soul" to be the A-side, while Stills wanted "Bluebird" -- Stills making the reasonable case that they'd released two Neil Young songs as singles and gone nowhere, and then they'd released one of Stills', and it had become a massive hit. "Bluebird" was eventually chosen as the A-side, with "Mr. Soul" as the B-side: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Bluebird"] The "Bluebird" session was another fraught one. Fielder had not yet joined the band, and session player Bobby West subbed on bass. Neil Young had recently started hanging out with Jack Nitzsche, and the two were getting very close and working on music together. Young had impressed Nitzsche not just with his songwriting but with his arrogance -- he'd played Nitzsche his latest song, "Expecting to Fly", and Nitzsche had said halfway through "That's a great song", and Young had shushed him and told him to listen, not interrupt. Nitzsche, who had a monstrous ego himself and was also used to working with people like Phil Spector, the Rolling Stones and Sonny Bono, none of them known for a lack of faith in their own abilities, was impressed. Shortly after that, Stills had asked Nitzsch