A Good Year for the Outlaw

These are getting too long, this one and future critiques will be shorter. I hope.

Underrated: Bachman-Turner Overdrive

When I was voice tracking a shift for The Eagle about a year and a half ago, it was a running joke between Scott Robbins, Rick Hirschmann and me that BTO was the “Greatest Band of all time!” I used to say it, somewhat tongue in cheek, every time I played one of their tunes during my shift. I love the band’s driving style, the unforgettable guitar-riffs, the kind of straight ahead rock that makes your foot push harder on the gas pedal, and absolutely FORCES you to turn the Pioneer underdash 8-track player up to it’s loudest possible setting so the gold and black TSX-9’s in the back window can let all their power be unleashed upon the interior of your ‘68 LeMans. Ah, good times. But I digress.

Turns out I was half serious with the whole “greatest band” thing. While I acknowledge they probably weren’t the “greatest of all time”, I will say that the band is VERY underrated and among my personal favorites.  And it IS quite possible that they made on of the greatest single rock songs of all time, if not THE definitive rock anthem…”Takin’ Care of Business”.

Several of their best and most well known songs became anthems. Sports teams all over America use “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Let It Ride”, as well as the afore mentioned “TCB” to fire up fans and teams. Heck, none other than the King himself, Elvis Presley, once called the band to Memphis to ask their permission, that’s right, the King ASKED, to use “TCB” as his personal motto, and he had a medallion made with those letters that hung around his neck.

Rock and Roll was king in the 70’s, the truly great and entertaining bands ruled the earth. Many got the due they deserved, BTO didn’t, in my opinion.

Band founder Randy Bachman was previously a key cog in the Canadian band “Guess Who”, co-writing most of their big hits with Burton Cummings. Randy split and took his brothers Rob and Tim out on the road as “BraveBelt”, along with friend Chad Allen, and they had some minor Canadian success. But it wasn’t until Randy added C.F. “Fred” Turner and they changed the name to Bachman-Turner Overdrive (while reading the truckin’ magazine “Overdrive” at an all-night truck stop cafe), that they started making serious noise.  Tim Bachman was also replaced by guitarist Blair Thornton, and the lineup of Randy, Robbie on drums, Blair and Fred (doing most of the familiar growling vocals) was the band’s most successful.

 The first album, “Bachman Turner Overdrive” (1972) features as it’s best cuts couple of obscure now, but still-killer songs: The straight ahead driving rocker “Gimme Your Money, Please”, and the jazzy “Blue Collar” which features an incredibly tight and slick guitar solo from Randy Bachman.

“BTO II” (1973), with “Let It Ride” and “TCB” has it’s highs (like those two monsters) and a few that show the band wasn’t quite there yet. Then c ame “Not Fragile” (1974) featuring the band at it’s peak, and quite possibly one of the top albums of all time…not a bad cut in the bunch.

Like many bands, the label wanted more, they wanted it now, to strike while the iron was hot, and the group quickly put together “Four Wheel Drive” in 1975, which had “Hey You” as it’s signature hit, but the rest of the album wasn’t much more than rejected songs from “Not Fragile”, and it went quickly downhill from there.

They released albums with original music like “Head On”, “Freeways”, and “Rock and Roll Nights” between 1976 and 1979, with different players on occasion, but no longer achieved American chart success. Since then, many “greatest hits” packages have come out, but the best one is one I recently found called “BTO: Gold”, a two-disc set that has all the hits, plus over 25 other BTO songs from their career, including a BraveBelt cut.

Yes, the band didn’t have a long peak, and that is probably  what kept them from legendary status and getting the accolades they deserve. But for three years and three great albums, they were the best for this then-junior high kid in Minnesota.  And think about the disposable crap that is called rock today…what bands out there have even had the longevity to do THREE great albums, let alone three albums  period.