Canned Wheat (1969)
American Woman (1970)
The Hits Albums
Since we just re-upped a bunch of Guess Who and Burton Cummings, and discussed these guys in comments, it seemed appropriate to post a couple of the band’s first, hit making records (since we already posted all their later, stoned albums). These two have some of the band’s biggest hits, “Laughing,” “Undun,” “American Woman,” “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature” and both versions of “No Time,” originally issued on Canned Wheat, but later revamped, re-recorded and trimmed of two minutes for American Woman (and American radio). As focused as composers Cummings and Randy Bachman were on hit-making, there’s still some weirdness here, like Burt’s throat-shredding blues workout, “Humpty’s Blues,” and the 11-minute “The Key.” These are both 21st Century re-issues with a measly three bonus tracks between them but, despite the stylistic diversions, you can’t go wrong with these early Guess Who’s. Amazon’s got both of these HERE and HERE.
CANNED WHEAT
No Time (5:38)
Minstrel Boy (3:19)
Laughing (3:03)
Undun (4:18)
6 A.M. Or Nearer (5:25)
Old Joe (2:58)
Of A Dropping Pin (3:42)
Key (11:17)
Fair Warning (1:50)
Species Hawk (3:33) - Bonus Track
Silver Bird (2:41) - Bonus Track
AMERICAN WOMAN
American Woman (5:11)
No Time (3:50)
Talisman (5:10)
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature (4:55)
969 (The Oldest Man) (3:00)
When Friends Fall Out (3:04)
8:15 (3:31)
Proper Stranger (4:06)
Humpty’s Blues/American Woman (Epilogue) (6:12)
Got To Find Another Way (2:51) - Bonus Track
11 Comments
Get them both HERE
“No Time” was a real wonder at that anti-SARS benefit in Toronto, Bachman with that sound, blown up airfield huge and pumped out over a half million folks baking in the sun. Only Angus of AC/DC topped that tone that day. I’m not much of a fan of AC/DC but I’m a big enough fan of guitar to admit that.
It’s a solid tune, no doubt.
GW may have been struggling for cool points among the critics, but I maintain that the subversive Wes Montgomery licks in “Undun” were the quintessence of cool in a 1970 AM radio record rotation…
Dead on.
Thanks for reminding me about the “American Woman” album – my sister’s been bugging me about finding that for her. There were more than a few really good songs on that LP!
A lot of people call it their best. It was certainly their biggest.
I’ve met Burton a couple of times, the last time at SuperBoy’s at Main and Landsdowne. http://burgerclubwinnipeg.blogspot.com/2011/09/super-boys-415.html
You can follow Burton on FB at http://www.facebook.com/officialburtoncummings
Where I live, Burton, Randy and the boys (and Neil) are gods.
Go Jets Go.
As they should be.
Anyone know where I can find “Wheatfield Soul”?
I have owned American Woman since first release and love the album. One of my favorite tunes being Talisman. I was knocked out when they performe this live duringthe Runnin back Thru Canada tour.
I ingored a lot of the post Bachman albums for a while (prob’ly due to ‘overhearing’ them during my record store gigs). But at the ame time, I was able to buy most of them in the latter 70s cheaply as overruns.
Thanx for the opportunity to re-discover some of these!
Al