Rockin' is Greg Leskiw's last of three albums with
the Guess Who; he came onboard with Kurt Winter for
Share the Land and recorded So Long, Bannatyne as well, the two men slipping into the big shoes of
Randy Bachman. This finds
Burton Cummings in a definite '50s mode, "Running Bear" and "Nashville Sneakers" being throwbacks to another time. The album predominantly features the songwriting of
Cummings, though Kurt Winter does lend a generous hand. As an artistic statement it's all very interesting, but for a band whose bread and butter was the Top 40, this stuff tempts fate a bit too much. Along with the musical about-face, this is also the darkest
Guess Who album, featuring a black-and-white cover and a black-and-white gatefold, and when the band's not back in the past, pre-color TV, they are doing boogie-woogie like "Get Your Ribbons On" or going negative with "Guns, Guns, Guns." "Guns, Guns, Guns" does have a terrific melody (though you'll swear
Aerosmith nicked from this one as well), with
Burton Cummings showing signs of life. "Smoke Big Factory" is the only other tune next to "Heartbroken Bopper" and "Guns, Guns, Guns" that sounds truly like
the Guess Who, a good album track borrowing much from
Lou Reed's first solo album version of "Berlin." The guitars are innovative and it's too bad the album wasn't full of more of these instead of the travels back in time. The "Sea of Love"/"Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterday"/"Don't You Want Me" medley is another oddity, quasi-psychedelia meets doo wop, stranger than the
Zappa-ish "Musicione" track from
the Guess Who's
#10 LP. When you spin this right next to 1973's
Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, you can really feel what both
Bachman and
Cummings brought to the table, and despite
Bachman-Turner Overdrive's reign of hits initiated with that album, neither band achieved the heights of the first four
Guess Who albums, including the first one without
Bachman,
Share the Land.
Rockin' is a strange exercise whose best parts showed up on The Best of the Guess Who, Vol. 2. ~ Joe Viglione