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May 4, 2020 4:32 pm  #1


Has It Really Been 50 Years?

This Saturday May 9th marks the 50th anniversary of the Guess Who's American Woman spending the first of its three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

 

May 4, 2020 5:27 pm  #2


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

I think most people here know the story of how this song came to be (or in this case, came to be saved) but if you haven't, it's an absolutely incredible tale. It's all because of a kid with a tape machine that the song exists at all. Burton Cummings himself revealed the background in an interview a few years ago. You can read the whole thing here but the key paragraphs are below:

“It was jammed onstage one night in Mississauga, Ontario, we were playing at a club called the Broom & Stone which was actually a curling rink and doing two shows that night. I guess we hadn’t gotten that big yet.

"Between the two shows, I was outside bartering with this kid, he had some old Gene Vincent records that I wanted to get for my collection and tried to strike-up a deal with this guy. The next thing I know, it’s time to start the second show and the other three guys have gone back onstage and I hear them start this riff … (Burton began mimicking the opening riff to “American Woman.”)

"I said to this guy … Oh my God; I’m supposed to be onstage man, I’ve got to run, I’ll see you later about these Gene Vincent records.” I run inside and run up onto the stage and just grab a microphone and started singing whatever came into my head; it was all stream of consciousness at the moment stuff … all that stuff about war machines and ghetto scenes, colored lights can hypnotize …it was all just spur- of- the- moment.

"And nobody would have ever heard it again but there happened to be a kid bootlegging the show that night. This was way back in the 60’s and he had a cassette machine, and those machines were a relatively new invention at that time. But this was 1968...We noticed this onstage as the night went on and he still kept recording.

"So we motioned to our road manager… go get that tape-go get that tape! He got the cassette tape and we listened to it later and heard this jam about American Woman stay away from me. So we actually kind of learned it from that tape, otherwise nobody would have ever heard it again. So talk about a Cinderella story. And that was a monstrous hit record for us; it was number one on Billboard for three weeks. So it was all an accident, I guess the music Gods were smiling on us. The music Gods probably sent that kid with the cassette machine."

 

May 4, 2020 6:22 pm  #3


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

I hope Randy, Burton or someone saved that cassette tape.  It's truly historic.

 

May 4, 2020 6:36 pm  #4


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

I was thinking of that, too. It would be fascinating to hear that tape, poor quality and all.

I also wonder if they gave the kid something for his trouble. They owe him a lot. Whoever he is, he's got an incredible story to tell his own offspring. If they believe him! 

 

May 4, 2020 8:23 pm  #5


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

There are several versions of the story behind the song.

The song's wiki page suggests that Burton Cummings said it happened in Scarborough where Randy Bachman said it happened in Kitchener. 

But the important part of the story, the part with the kid recording the show, seems to be consistent.

And to think some people say that bootlegging is killing music.
 

Last edited by Peter the K (May 4, 2020 8:25 pm)

 

May 7, 2020 9:32 am  #6


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

This has nothing to do with The Guess Who, but here's a similar story that's equally amazing.

Both the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners came into being in the same season and in a COVID-era when replaying old games has become a sports radio staple, the station with the rights to the club realized that no one associated with the team or the broadcaster recorded the first-ever game in 1977. As far as they knew, it was lost to history. 

Still, they managed to replay the game on Wednesday night, thanks to a long forgotten tape made by a once-young fan, who later went into radio himself. The story is at the link.

How Mariners’ 1977 ‘Maiden Voyage’ radio recording was unearthed  

Another victory for the geek secret radio tapers among us!

 

May 7, 2020 11:55 am  #7


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

RadioActive wrote:

This has nothing to do with The Guess Who, but here's a similar story that's equally amazing.

Both the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners came into being in the same season and in a COVID-era when replaying old games has become a sports radio staple, the station with the rights to the club realized that no one associated with the team or the broadcaster recorded the first-ever game in 1977. As far as they knew, it was lost to history. 

Still, they managed to replay the game on Wednesday night, thanks to a long forgotten tape made by a once-young fan, who later went into radio himself. The story is at the link.

How Mariners’ 1977 ‘Maiden Voyage’ radio recording was unearthed  

Another victory for the geek secret radio tapers among us!

Hard to believe there is no recording of that game. VCRs were just coming in then. You'd think some fan would have recorded it.
 


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

May 7, 2020 12:47 pm  #8


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

Dale Patterson wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

This has nothing to do with The Guess Who, but here's a similar story that's equally amazing.

Both the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners came into being in the same season and in a COVID-era when replaying old games has become a sports radio staple, the station with the rights to the club realized that no one associated with the team or the broadcaster recorded the first-ever game in 1977. As far as they knew, it was lost to history. 

Still, they managed to replay the game on Wednesday night, thanks to a long forgotten tape made by a once-young fan, who later went into radio himself. The story is at the link.

How Mariners’ 1977 ‘Maiden Voyage’ radio recording was unearthed  

Another victory for the geek secret radio tapers among us!

Hard to believe there is no recording of that game. VCRs were just coming in then. You'd think some fan would have recorded it. 

Don't know if the TV version exists, but I'm not sure how well that would translate to radio. Thankfully, it wasn't necessary. 

I'm sure you're familiar with the incredible tale of the Bobby Thompson home run call from the 50s ("The Giants Win The Pennant! The Giants Win The Pennant!") There have been some who say that it's apocryphal, but the story is that the only reason that Russ Hodges call - likely the most famous in baseball history - exists is because of a Brooklyn fan. 

According to the legend, the Dodger fanatic owned one of those newfangled tape recorders and put the mic close to his radio while taping the whole thing. He wanted to be able to torture his best friend - who was a Giants fan - with a recording of their loss, and he planned to play it for him over and over all winter after Brooklyn beat them. 

Fate - and Thompson - intervened and it was only after the game was over that the radio station realized they didn't have a copy of it, apparently lost forever to history. Until that kid revealed he had it. 

So the most famous call in baseball history was saved only because of a teen who hated the Giants and happened to have a tape machine. 

There have been disputes over the years about whether that's true but I sure hope it is. It's just too good not to be. 

 

Having just rewatched that video I realize, God I miss baseball!

Last edited by RadioActive (May 7, 2020 12:51 pm)

 

May 8, 2020 4:12 pm  #9


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

The CBC interviewed Burton Cummings about "American Woman" on its anniversary, and while he reiterated some of the stories about its birth, he left out the tape machine story - which is the best part!

One other aspect of the piece was interesting, though - he insists the song isn't and never was meant to be Anti-American. 

American Woman at 50: Burton Cummings reveals the real story behind the legendary song

 

May 11, 2020 9:19 am  #10


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

I recall hearing a story Burton told on radio around the time Lenny Kravitz released his version of American Woman.  Burton, at the time was in the process of buying a house for his mother.  He was at the point of trying figure out how and where the funds would come for the purchase, when he went to check the mail.  One of those pieces of mail was from the publishing company, a cheque for $250,000. royalties from Lenny's recording.  Problem solved!

 

May 12, 2020 1:17 pm  #11


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

Being a patient individual, have waited a week for someone (particularly one of the K-W lurkers) to mention that:

 - a plaque hanging in Waterloo's Home Hardware on Weber St. N., states that "in 1969 at this site then known as Glenbriar Curling Club . . .  the Guess Who wrote and performed American Woman for the first time"

 - also that while Burton Cummings states that the tune is about Cdn gals being more feminine than their American counterparts, a chap by the name of Randy Bachman has stated on the CBC (so it must be true) that the American Woman is the statue of liberty, and the song is an anti-war protest number    

Are you lurking today, Roger Ashby?

geo

 

May 12, 2020 2:20 pm  #12


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

The Broom & Stone was in fact in Scarborough; at the corner of Midland & Lawrence.  Went to see a lot of shows there; when It was in operation.

 

May 12, 2020 3:43 pm  #13


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

John D wrote:

The Broom & Stone was in fact in Scarborough; at the corner of Midland & Lawrence.  Went to see a lot of shows there; when It was in operation.

It was a good venue back in the day.

Also a location site for the Blues Brothers 2000 film.
 

 

May 13, 2020 6:55 am  #14


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

Just out of curiosity, I decided to check out the location of where the Broom And Stone once stood. Today, the four corners of Midland and Lawrence are occupied by a Burger King, TD Bank, Esso gas station and an unidentified office building with nearby condos/apartment buildings.

     Thread Starter
 

May 13, 2020 7:02 am  #15


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

mace wrote:

  the four corners of Midland and Lawrence are occupied by a Burger King, TD Bank, Esso gas station and an unidentified office building with nearby condos/apartment buildings.

Midland & Lawrence appears annually on Toronto's list of ten intersections notorious for having the highest rate of collisions.  Burton & Randy were considerably safer at Waterloo's Glenbriar curl-as-you-play facility on Weber St. N. (pronounced Weeeber in K-W, but Webbber in T.O.)      
 

Last edited by geo (May 13, 2020 7:13 am)

 

May 13, 2020 8:52 pm  #16


Re: Has It Really Been 50 Years?

You know, it was only in the past year or so that Google corrected the pronunciation of "Weber St." in their mapps app.  Shameful considering their presence in K-W.  They still need to fix "Bingeman" .