http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Toront...22243-sun.html

Sun, February 6, 2005


Hall of Famers

By JANE STEVENSON, TORONTO SUN




THE GUESS WHO's Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings can't exactly say what the magic ingredient is behind their songwriting partnership, which dates back some 40 years. But the duo -- who will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame on Tuesday night at a gala ceremony in Toronto -- say whatever it is, the sum is greater than its parts.

"There's an undeniable force that you can't buy. It happens," Bachman, 61, said down the line from his home on Saltspring Island, B.C.

"It happened with McCartney and Lennon, Jagger and Richards, Bacharach and David, Rogers and Hammerstein, on and on and on. That happens with Burton and I. We don't know what it is. But as mad as we can get at each other -- 'cause we're like brothers, in a way, you love each other but you get mad at each other -- when we get together on stage, he has told me he sings better, I've told him I play better.

"We want to please each other. It comes from the songwriting. Sitting there and bringing these little dreams of songs together, hoping he will like it. He's bringing something, hoping I will like it."

Added Cummings, 58, during a recent stopover in Toronto:

"I think we bring out each other's better points. I guess it's yin and yang. We kind of bounce off each other very, very well. We always enjoyed getting together and writing. We were kind of a perfect match for each other, 'cause he played guitar and I played piano and we would come to each other with pieces. I would have a song that would be half-finished and he would know exactly where to take it, and vice-versa. And we traded pieces for years and years. It was never one of those deals where we worked days and days on any song. It was always very quick. And I always thought those were the best songs -- the ones that came quickly."

Bachman and Cummings are part of the 2005 CSHF induction class that honours seven songwriters and 22 songs.

A lot of their Guess Who material will take centre stage on Tuesday night at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre's John Bassett Theatre, with the gala to be broadcast live on CBC Radio One starting at 8.

The duo will perform No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, while an all-star band featuring Tom Cochrane, Three Days Grace, Ian Thornley, Jeff Healey and Margo Timmins will sing American Woman and No Time. Jacksoul is scheduled to perform These Eyes.

Particularly exciting for Bachman and Cummings is the fact that Canadian folk legend Gordon Lightfoot is presenting them with their awards.

Cummings said he was only about 18 or 19 in 1967 when he and Bachman saw Lightfoot play a small coffee house in Montreal.

"He came out and did a 90-minute set of all his own material, and Randy and I were sitting next to each other and we kept nudging each other in the ribs with our elbows, saying, 'You know what, man? Someday we're going to be able to do that,' because at that time we were still mainly a cover band. We were just fledgling songwriters, and here was this guy -- a Canadian -- and he came out and did this whole 90-minute show of his own material. It was a huge inspiration to us. I'll never forget that night, 'cause it really was an eye-opener. Like, we should be trying harder to do original material."

The duo was so moved they wrote Lightfoot, the B-side to the 1969 single, These Eyes.

Bachman also lauded Lightfoot as a songwriting inspiration, but he got important advice even earlier.

"Way, way, back when I was 15 and learning guitar from (jazz guitarist) Lenny Breau, trying to do all the stuff he was doing, (I said), 'I can't get this.' And he said, 'There will always be a younger, faster guitar player. But if you can write good songs, you'll be up there with them. A good song is a good song.' "

What are their best songs, in their opinion? Cummings picked The Guess Who classic No Time. Bachman named a trio: The Guess Who's American Woman and Undun and BTO's Takin' Care Of Business.

"The songwriting is my main thing I do in life and do well," Bachman said. "I'm constantly training at it and working at it to improve and trying different genres, because the song is the currency of the music business."

Added Cummings: "The fact that they're still playing our songs, decades later, I guess we did something that meant something to somebody or we wouldn't be getting this (honour)."

quote:Originally posted by charlene:
Particularly exciting for Bachman and Cummings is the fact that Canadian folk legend Gordon Lightfoot is presenting them with their awards.

Cummings said he was only about 18 or 19 in 1967 when he and Bachman saw Lightfoot play a small coffee house in Montreal.



Ah yes the legendary New Penelope coffee house.
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfo...lopeposter.jpg
As you can see Gord performed there on four evenings in May 1967, after he had apparently
performed at the Expo 67 Worlds Fair site. And I caught the final show on Sunday May 21st
You can verify that that date was a Sunday in 1967 by using the nifty Javascript calculator that I found at:- http://cornish-family.netfirms.com/findday.htm
that will show the actual day for every date since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in England in 1752
(before the Bostionians drunk too much tea!!)
Now I wonder if those two...who? don't guess just read the above were there that same evening??
Possibly as that was certainly one of the most inspiring events in my life also
quote:
It was a huge inspiration to us. I'll never forget that night,

me neither!!
John Fowles
A one night stand.So who's standing??

Ah, to get Canadian TV what a dream come true that would be.

lol, your average Canuck would describe CBC programming as a nightmare, brink

btw, this is on radio only...you can listen on internet, no?

wow, Burton really has that anecdote well memorized http://www.corfid.com/ubb/wink.gif

link to recording of show to come!
Edmund recorded it for me!

cool! then there's no sense paraphrasing anything, but he was in fine spirits and you had to be happy for him to be amongst many old friends, would love to have been backstage http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

i still tape off of radio lots...i used a 110 minutes metal tape and figured i'd start it after 10 minutes so i could catch the who 2 hour show...but they went over by 15 minutes, lol...i'll have to catch that bit on Sunday replay

i don't understand why they make VCR's that you have timers so that you can tape while you're away but NOT on tape decks!?!?!...there's a heck of a lot better stuff on radio that i'd like to tape than on tv...

same goes for those cordless phone that have a page button on the recharger so you can locate it when it's lost or buried around the house....but why dont' have they have a page button for cellphone too?!?!?...they are even smaller and harder to find...you can try call the cell # to locate it but that assumes you left it ON and that it hasn't run out of power...ok, i must be losing my mind, where's the page button? lol

I loved Lightfoot's speech -- he must have written it himself, right? Someone here once wrote that they told him everyone remembers where they were when they first heard Lightfoot, so it was especially funny when he said he still remembers where he was when he first heard "Stand Tall"...and then a loaded pause before he moved on...even I (a female) figured that one out http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

lol, bj...yeah, and i was so glad that he went on longer (and he sounded so comfortable, like he was adressing friends in a living room http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif) than i thought and was on a great role but then someone must have given him the 'slit sign' and he brought the intro to a sudden end, agh...