The Guess Who - American Woman / Share the land - Hybrid SACD

UK Import

The Guess Who are one of the few legendary classic rock bands that have stood the test of time for many decades. Their music penned mostly by founders Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are compositions that are played all over, every hour, every day, thanks to the undying love and support of their fans worldwide.

After a string of non-stop hit singles and chart albums, The Guess Who finally achieved their biggest album yet with the mega classic American Woman. This amazing album captured the music industry by storm and featured several smash #1 singles and solid album tracks, keeping this album in the top of the album charts for over a year.

Side One features the classic title # 1 rocker American Woman. For a song originally intended as a jam in the studio, the quartet of Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Jim Kale and Gary Peterson soon put the world on its ear with this brash and bold commentary. Quickly rising to the top of the music charts, this tune would set the album up for its success which would go on now for over forty years.

Their next super smash No Time would again make the band more music history as it landed in the top ten and showed the guitar technique of Randy Bachman which would serve as a precursor to the heavy metal sound he would later achieve with Bachman Turner Overdrive. The brilliant vocals of Burton Cummings and the three part harmony from the rest of the band made this musical manna in the summer of 1969.

Radio would serve them another number one as programmers soon found the B-Side of the American Woman 45 equally appealing as No Sugar Tonight would become another significant chapter in this Canadian supergroup’s history.

More heavy hitters like When Friends Fall Out and Proper Stranger, the progressive ballad Talisman and the powerful blues shuffle of 969 (The Oldest Man) truly made the American Woman album one of the most important albums of the seventies and has continued to earn accolades into the new millennium with praise from new artists who have gone on to cover a number of tunes from this watershed release.

Share the Land Review by Bruce Eder

Recorded in the immediate aftermath of lead guitarist Randy Bachman's departure from the group, Share the Land was a better album than anyone could rightfully have expected, and it was the biggest selling original album in their entire output, appearing in the wake of "American Woman" and lofted into the Top 20 (with a lot of advance orders) with a pair of hits of its own. The music ranges from the catchy, anthem-like title tune to proto-metal excursions, with coherent digressions into blues and country ("Comin' Down Off the Money Bag"/"Song of the Dog"). Burton Cummings is in excellent voice on the lead vocals, and the other members provide some of the finest harmonies ever heard on a Guess Who album, on "Do You Miss Me Darlin'" and "Three More Days." The new double lead guitar team of Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw gave the band a greater range than they'd ever had, moving freely in various rock and blues idioms, and the rhythm section was as solid as ever. That having been said, however, the music hasn't necessarily aged well (or, perhaps, those who've achieved a maturity level beyond age 18 have aged past it) -- listening to details such as Winter's shouts of "Freedom!" and "Paint me a picture" on "Three More Days," one can't escape the thought that at least half of this album not only wasn't aimed at the overachieving end of the high school and college populations, but was aggressively not aimed at them. And from here on, beyond whatever virtuosity the members brought to their sound, it seemed as though the group was working from formula rather than inspiration.