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)."
