This album should have been called "10 Approximately," as it is hard to get a real handle on the comings and goings of
the Guess Who and which albums they include in that "ten" number at any place in time since their vague inception. Is
The Best of the Guess Who or
Shakin' All Over with
Chad Allan part of the intended legacy? This band was so in flux that the addition of
Bill Wallace here signaled yet another major change; founding member
Jim Kale would re-join drummer
Garry Peterson in 1979 with their
All This for a Song album after
Burton Cummings,
Peterson, longtime engineer
Brian Christian, and producer
Jack Richardson played the string out up to 1975's
Power in the Music and
Flavours albums. The music here is excellent, though, with
Burton Cummings showing the yin to the yang of
Bachman-Turner Overdrive's first release this same year, 1973.
Randy Bachman took the hard edge with him, and
Cummings is allowed to go into an
Elton John piano ballad area. "Lie Down" hints that
Tumbleweed Connection may have been playing on
Cummings' turntable, and often. The boogie-woogie of "Musicione," the only song written by the five members of this ensemble, is about as far as the piano-centered group stretches. But this is
Cummings in total control, and the album is consistently good despite his tendency toward self-indulgence.
Jack Richardson's guiding hand does not get enough credit for keeping this crew on the straight and narrow. "Glamour Boy" is a brilliant poke at the glam of
T. Rex,
Mott the Hoople, and RCA's own labelmates for
the Guess Who,
Lou Reed and
David Bowie. It is the only song on this album to be included on
The Best of the Guess Who, Vol. 2. Though
Cummings dominates this outing, writing and co-writing the majority of the tunes, the
Bachman replacements have adjusted to the post-
Bachman era, one example being "Cardboard Empire" by bassist
Bill Wallace and guitarist
Kurt Winter, which shows real style. On that particular tune, a
Jefferson Airplane-like hook and
Cummings' voice are joined by stunning guitar solos. Something totally out of place, though, is the inclusion of a remake of "Miss Frizzy," a rare
Bachman/
Cummings co-write from the abandoned follow-up to the
American Woman album, eventually released on the 1976 compilation
The Way They Were. It's shorter and features a more dominant piano than the 1970 original. This "Miss Frizzy" is nice, though the original band version has more charm and shows why Euclid's axiom is, once again, so appropriate: "The whole is equal to the sum of all the parts and is greater than any of the parts." Play this next to
Bachman-Turner Overdrive II to see how the personalities truly went their separate ways.
#10 is one of
Cummings' most personal albums, a far cry from the previous outing,
Artificial Paradise, which had him contributing to only four of the ten tracks. The singer gave
Don McDougal,
Winter, and
Wallace the chance to spread their wings on that recording, their work between 1970's
Share the Land and 1974's
Road Food at a very mellow point here on
#10. "Take It off My Shoulders," like "Lie Down," is straight from
Elton John's
Tumbleweed Connection phase. This band's home was Top 40 radio, and though
Live at the Paramount got FM airplay, programmers unjustifiably considered them too unhip for the underground. This is where
Burton Cummings really needed to slam home more great 45 RPMs.