Doug Yule had no right to put
the Velvet Underground name on the U.K. album
Squeeze; half of
Creedence Clearwater Revival and a fifth of
the Cars is not
Creedence or
the Cars. Veteran bassist
Jim Kale certainly has paid his dues. But 1971's
Brave Belt with
Chad Allen and
Randy Bachman had more of a right to use the name than
Kale and
Don McDougal,
McDougal having joined the band in 1972 when
Kale left! That being said, how does this album rate on its own? Well,
Burton Cummings and
Randy Bachman wrote the hits, and sustained a career beyond
the Guess Who. Live, this band was a competent cover act (with even more changing faces), but tunes like "C'Mon Little Mama," "Raising Hell on the Prairies," "It's Getting Pretty Bad," even a melody like "That's the Moment," they simply miss the mark. This is a great example of how important the creative force of a star, an egomaniac with great ideas and tons of attitude, is to the construction of important art. This is as much
the Guess Who as a bottle of cola is a box of Cheerios. And when you go to the supermarket to buy Cheerios you expect to get what you want. If you splashed
All This for a Song, new album by one of the guitarists for
the Guess Who and their original bass player, you would get high marks for accuracy.
Kurt Winter, one of
Randy Bachman's replacements, co-wrote three tunes with
McDougal,
Kale, and drummer
Vance Masters, one being the title track "All This for a Song," but it is more like "All the kings horses, didn't
the Kingsmen go through this?" In June of 1983,
Garry Peterson,
Jim Kale,
Burton Cummings, and
Randy Bachman recorded, with producer
Jack Richardson, an album called Reunion which was sold on TV. There are touching liner notes by
Bachman, who performs on tunes made famous by his replacements. Now that is legitimate
Guess Who music. This is a tough listen, important only because it documents a couple of members of a band in flux.