<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Surfing music sites as I do on occasion, I ran into a series of interviews done by \u2018The Professor of Rock\u2019.\u00a0 PoR\u2019s site (real name Adam Reader) has quite a back catalog and judging by the five and six digit number of views accumulated by many of his clips, he has been at it for a while.\u00a0 The one that caught my attention enough to demand I spend 20 minutes of my life watching all of it involved The Guess Who.\u00a0 When I was in high school and college, The Guess Who were making waves on the music charts and were all over the AM pop radio shows.\u00a0 Several times it was rumored they were coming to town for a concert at Northern Michigan University, but like similar rumblings about The Doors, it never came to pass.\u00a0 I did get to see Randy Bachman perform with his next mega-band Bachman Turner Overdrive (or BTO for short), but I never had the pleasure of seeing Guess Who lead singer Burton Cummings perform live.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having read and seen quite a bit about him and the Guess Who in the past, I reasoned that anybody with a handle like the \u2018Professor of Rock\u2019 would be able to pull some good stories from Cummings.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t disappointed.\u00a0 The teaser on this clip stated the PoR was going to focus on a big band of the early 1970s who \u2018accidentally\u2019 wrote a hit song on stage.\u00a0 Burton\u2019s explanation of the whole event was both funny and enlightening while filling in some holes in my knowledge about the band with unknown gems about the history of one of my favorite bands.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Dr. Rock (sorry, Professor of Rock is getting tedious to keep typing in) inquired about the hit song they accidentally wrote on stage came to be, he mentioned the \u2018parking lot\u2019 incident at the Stones and Brooms Curling Arena in Brampton, Ontario.\u00a0 Cummings complimented Dr. R for doing his research before going on to explain exactly what happened.\u00a0 Burton said they were starting to get some traction as a band but when this event took place, they were still doing two shows a night at some venues.\u00a0 During the break between shows, he was in the parking lot haggling with a guy who was selling rare 45s and albums.\u00a0 As he was trying to seal the deal on some Gene Vincent disks, he heard the rest of the band starting up back on stage.\u00a0 He told the seller, \u201cHey, I gotta go,\u201d and he dashed off to join them.\u00a0 They were playing a vamp that you will now hear going off in your head when the title of the song is revealed:\u00a0 <\/span>American Woman <\/span><\/i>(go ahead, hum it in your mind for a couple of seconds – I will wait for you).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not knowing what else to do, Burton started tossing out stream of consciousness words to match what the band was playing.\u00a0 In other words, he started singing pretty much whatever popped into his mind.\u00a0 Though he said he did tweak a few of the lyrics when they recorded the song for the album of the same name, what appears on vinyl is, as he stated, \u201cPretty close to what came out of my mouth that night.\u201d\u00a0 He chuckled because there have been many attempts to \u2018explain\u2019 the lyrics over the years, some by members of The Guess Who.\u00a0 \u201cIt is always fascinating to hear Jim (Kale) and Garry (Peterson) (the bass player and drummer on the track) explaining what they think the lyrics mean.\u00a0 [Cummings laughs] They have tried to say it was anti-war, the Statue of Liberty was the <\/span>America Woman<\/span><\/i> and all kinds of nonsense.\u201d\u00a0 There was no deeply thought out theme because Cummings tossed out the lyrics on the spot.\u00a0 The line \u201c<\/span>We don\u2019t need your war machine, we don\u2019t need your ghetto scenes” <\/span><\/i>and\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>colored lights can hypnotize, sparkle in someone else\u2019s eyes\u2019 <\/span><\/i>came out of his mouth because he told Dr R, \u201cThey rhymed!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHey Jim,\u201d Cummings added [still laughing], \u201cCare to explain the lyrics to <\/span>No Time<\/span><\/i>?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even the little guitar lick that introduces the main theme of <\/span>American Woman <\/span><\/i>was written by Cummings on keyboard, not guitar.\u00a0 \u201cListen to <\/span>New Mother Nature <\/span><\/i>on the <\/span>American Woman <\/span><\/i>album and you will hear the same lick played on keyboard.\u00a0 Randy will deny this, sometimes he\u00a0 forgets these things, but he didn\u2019t write the lick – I showed it to him on keyboard.\u00a0 It\u2019s right there and you don\u2019t even need to hunt for it.\u00a0 He talks about how he \u2018wrote\u2019 <\/span>American Woman<\/span><\/i> and he didn\u2019t even write all the guitar lines, for God\u2019s sake [laughs again].\u201d\u00a0 Burton did give Bachman credit for the little bluesy intro with the scat-like vocals that was added to the song.\u00a0 They liked it enough so the producer used it to bookend the album by tacking that part on at the end also.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cummings said there are several things that kind of point to where he got the vocal ideas from.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWe were touring the States behind <\/span>These Eyes <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Laughing<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I noticed American girls grew up faster, or seemed to visually grow up faster.\u00a0 They wore more makeup at an earlier age.\u00a0 They wore sexier clothes at an earlier age.\u00a0 Canada was a little more colloquial, is that the right word?\u00a0 Canada was a little less streamlined.\u00a0 When we came back to Canada, the girls seemed more innocent than the American girls.\u00a0 What came out of my mouth was \u2018<\/span>American Woman, stay away from me, American Woman, won\u2019t you let me be\u2019<\/span><\/i> but what I was thinking was, \u201c<\/span>Canadian Woman, I prefer you\u2019.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 That was my mind set.\u00a0 Not \u2018to hell with the Statue of Liberty, American is the great satan\u2019\u2026none of that.\u00a0 It was not political at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The song was not meant to be anti-war or a political statement, but Cummings went on to tell how it became cast in that light:\u00a0 \u201cViet Nam in 1970 was at a particularly bad point of escalation, so the American people read all that into it.\u00a0 Plus, the soldiers, they loved that.\u00a0 The soldiers who were in the trenches in Viet Nam, that was a big song for them.\u00a0 So how can I put this, it was a very happy accident [that it became such a big hit].\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t angry, I loved the United States.\u00a0 All of the music that I loved came from the States.\u00a0 I grew up in Winnipeg, sixty miles north of the border and had I been born sixty miles south, I would have been an American growing up in Bismarck, North Dakota.\u201d\u00a0 Essentially, the record buying public read what they wanted into the lyrics and the political overtones ascribed to it were \u2018nonsense\u2019 but none-the-less real to them.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To underscore the political nature of the time, then President Nixon\u2019s daughter was a big fan and thus, the Guess Who were invited to perform at the White House.\u00a0 Rumor had it the presidential family had requested them to not perform <\/span>American Woman<\/span><\/i> but Burton says that is not true.\u00a0 For some reason, their manager asked them not to and in the end, Cummings recognized they made two mistakes.\u00a0 \u201cYes, we should have played the song and no, we should not have gone to the White House to begin with.\u00a0 Our manager thought that [not playing the song] would work for us and our manager thought it would be a good idea to play the White House.\u00a0 We were crucified in <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The Nixons were not very well liked at the time and playing the White House was a big mistake.\u00a0 We got raked over the coals and Jann Wenner (the publisher of <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>) never liked us anyway so the heck with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band happened to be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the Wednesday the <\/span>Billboard Top 100<\/span><\/i> charts were released.\u00a0 They had followed <\/span>American Woman\u2019s<\/span><\/i> progress up the charts and when it jumped from No 6 to No 3;\u00a0 they thought, \u201cWell\u2026.is it possible?\u2026\u201d.\u00a0 When Bachman took the call and heard they had hit No 1, they were all in a circle jumping up and down on a hotel bed – at least until they broke it. \u201cNot only was it No 1, both sides of the record were listed and it stayed at No 1 for three weeks,\u201d Cummings told Dr. Rock.\u00a0 \u201cWhenever we went back to Winnipeg, I made sure I had a copy of <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/i> under my arm.\u00a0 I would go to the local pool hall and show my old school friends and say, \u2018Hey man, look what\u2019s No 1 in here.\u2019\u00a0 It was a big deal for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Rock professed his favorite part of the song is the outro where Cummings sings, \u201c<\/span>I\u2019m gonna leave you, go, you gotta get away, go go go\u201d <\/span><\/i>which Burton said he still sings everytime they do the song.\u00a0 \u201cWe like to do it like the record,\u201d he said, \u201cand you can see people in the audience singing along, mouthing it word for word.\u201d\u00a0 As for the \u2018cuss word at the end\u2019,<\/span><\/p>\n Cummings again explained it was <\/span>\u201cGoodbye American Woman, Goodbye American chick\u201d<\/span><\/i> which some heard as (expletive deleted).\u00a0 \u201cNo, it was \u2018chick\u2019 – of course today you might get in more trouble for using the word \u2018chick\u2019 that the other word back then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Noting there have been several notable covers done over the years, the one Cummings is the most proud of was done by Lenny Kravitz:\u00a0 \u201cLenny writes all of his own songs so the irony is, the biggest hit he has up to that point is a cover of <\/span>American Woman <\/span><\/i>[chuckles]<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>It took me a few listens to get used to his version.\u00a0 He does it slower but what I really like is the harmony vocals.\u201d\u00a0 Burton recounted Kravitz performing the song on New Year\u2019s Eve (1999 turning to 2000), \u201cLenny was doing a show broadcast for the big 2K doings and brought out a special guest star to share the vocals with him on <\/span>American Woman – <\/span><\/i>it was Prince.\u00a0 For whatever reason, it was a hit for Lenny Kravitz in a different era of history and it still makes sense.\u00a0 I am very proud of that because those are my words and to have them be relevant forty years later and to not have it be a love song makes it something very special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So where does the \u2018Bootlegger\u2019 in the title fit in?\u00a0 As previously mentioned, Cummings was late getting to the stage so he jumped in and added vocals off the top of his head to the riff the band was playing as they waited for him.\u00a0 Cassette tape players were still pretty new at that time and out in the audience, there was a young man with a box the size of a small microwave oven on his shoulders recording the show.\u00a0 The song was a one off jam and it would have been a bit of a trick for Burton to remember the lyrics he created on the spot.\u00a0 Somehow (he does not explain how) they were able to get a copy of the bootlegger\u2019s tape.\u00a0 Once they heard what they had done on stage, they thought \u2018Hey, there is a possible song there\u2019.\u00a0 It was a good thing because aside from a few lyrical tweaks, most of the song was laid down just as it had come out live the first time they played it.\u00a0 Without the bootlegger\u2019s tape, the song may have just been forgotten.\u00a0 That truly would have been a shame.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Could it be anything else but ‘American Woman’?\u00a0 A spirited live version filmed for TV with a very young Guess Who not that long after the song was created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Surfing music sites as I do on occasion, I ran into a series of interviews done by \u2018The Professor of Rock\u2019.\u00a0 PoR\u2019s site (real name Adam Reader) has quite a back catalog and judging by the five and six digit number of views accumulated by many of his clips, he has been at it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2735,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions\/2735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}