Hearing the classic-rock hits \u201cThese Eyes\u201d and \u201cAmerican Woman\u201d for the first time, many of us would be hard-pressed to guess they were both by the same band. While the first sounds like the kind of British Invasion ballad that would bring teenage fans to tears, the latter evokes the raw power and borderline banshee vocals of early Led Zeppelin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burton Cummings, the chameleonic singer, songwriter and keyboardist of the Guess Who, will play those signature songs on his current \u201c60th Anniversary Hits Tour.\u201d Fans are also likely to hear Guess Who favorites like \u201cNo Time,\u201d \u201cLaughing,\u201d \u201cClap for the Wolfman,\u201d \u201cHand Me Down World,\u201d \u201cShare the Land\u201d and lots more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to the band\u2019s fondness for British rock, Cummings recalls how he and guitarist\/co-writer Randy Bachman were glued to their radios as kids growing up in Winnipeg, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would get up at nine every Sunday morning to hear \u2018Deno Corrie Presents Music From Around the World,\u2019\u201d said Cummings of the Winnipeg radio personality who\u2019s credited with being the first deejay to play a Beatles song (\u201cPlease Please Me\u201d) on North American radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe would hear stuff by Cliff Richards & The Shadows from England. We\u2019d hear Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, who were also from England,\u201d he said. \u201cThe radio was what encouraged us to become songwriters.\u201d The Guess Who even went on to record a cover of Johnny Kidd\u2019s \u201cShakin\u2019 All Over,\u201d which topped the Canadian charts and reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it turns out, Cummings\u2019 American tour is only one of his reasons for Cummings and his fans to celebrate these days. Another is the release of A Few Good Moments<\/em>, his first solo album in 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While many musicians who\u2019ve been at it as long as him can\u2019t hold a candle to their past accomplishments, Cummings\u2019 songwriting and vocal abilities remain undiminished on the 17-song release. Granted, he doesn\u2019t use his \u201cAmerican Woman\u201d voice much these days, but Cummings and his current bandmates have been playing together for more than a decade and have no problem pulling it off live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fall 2023 also saw the reissue of Cummings\u2019 past solo albums on CD and vinyl. Among them is the eponymous 1976 debut album that included the Top 10 single \u201cStand Tall,\u201d which was kept from the No. 1 position on Billboard\u2019s Adult Contemporary chart by the Captain and Tennille\u2019s \u201cMuskrat Love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other good news, Cummings and Bachman have regained control of The Guess Who trademark after settling a protracted dispute with the band\u2019s other surviving members, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their lawsuit, filed in 2023, claimed that Kale obtained the trademark in 1986 without their knowledge or consent. It also alleged that they\u2019d continued to perform as The Guess Who, even after Kale retired in 2016 and Peterson rarely performed with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the complaint, Cummings and Bachman refer to their former bandmates not as THE DEFENDANTS, which is standard practice, but as THE COVER BAND. It\u2019s a nice jibe, but Cummings says it wasn\u2019t about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe just got tired of these people pretending they were the guys that cut the records,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, they would go to meet-and-greet parties with copies of our albums in their hands. It was silly. So this is not about satisfaction and revenge or anything. This is simply about what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So now that the two bandleaders can tour as The Guess Who, they will reunite to perform on the Rock Legends tour next February. Time will tell if this leads to a more lasting reunion of The Guess Who\u2019s main band members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRandy\u2019s very into the Bachman Turner Overdrive legacy, and he\u2019s out there with his son Tal,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cAnd I have my own band, so I\u2019ve got my own way to rock. It may happen and it may not. We\u2019ll see what the future brings. But in the meantime, I\u2019m very happy with my band and my new album.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Either way, Cummings won\u2019t be able to leave the stage without performing \u201cAmerican Woman.\u201d The band\u2019s biggest hit, it also caused controversy with the lyrics that he had first improvised onstage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had been touring the states a lot on the strength of \u2018These Eyes\u2019 and \u2018Laughing,\u2019\u201d Cummings recalled, \u201cWe would play five cities a week, and we noticed how the American girls seemed like they were more in a hurry to grow up, to wear more makeup and wear sexier clothes than the girls back in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we were playing two shows, and they\u2019d start the second show without me. But when I heard Randy playing that riff, I just ran out onstage and started making up whatever came out of my head. And so I\u2019m looking out at the crowd and I\u2019m thinking \u2018Canadian woman, I prefer you,\u2019 but what came out of my head was \u2018American Woman, stay away from me.\u2019 It was never meant to be political.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could think of it as a Canadian answer song to the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cCalifornia Girls,\u201d although those \u201cI don\u2019t need your war machines \/ I don\u2019t need your ghetto scenes\u201d lines did stand out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose were me just trying to make things rhyme on the spot, like one of those Bob Dylan moments, you know, stream of consciousness,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cThe Vietnam War was at a bad point of escalation right then, so that\u2019s what came out. And all those factors combined made it a No. 1 record. Very strange, very sweet. I\u2019ll tell you this much, man, we sure didn\u2019t see it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as Cummings continues to perform his many hits and material from A Few Good Moments<\/em>, he is delighted by the responses he\u2019s getting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things that every singer hopes to hear is that they still sound like they did on the records,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s been my goal for decades. I\u2019m 77, and people are still telling me, \u2018Hey man, you still sound like the Burton I grew up on.\u2019 And I\u2019m really happy to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burton Cummings plays at 7:30pm on Aug 29 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Tickets: $67-$383. mountainwinery.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Singer, songwriter and keyboardist of the Guess Who, Burton Cummings will play signature songs on his current \u201c60th Anniversary Hits Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20183770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[34],"tags":[20444,20445,4572],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n