These
two images create bittersweet feelings
within my psyche. "Clock On the
Wall" was the summer of 1966. A lot
of airplay in Winnipeg, and it was my
first lead vocal on a Guess Who single.
By the time Clock was released, Chad was
long gone. I was singing
everything. I was 18. The guys
and Bob Burns (group's manager then) all
"encouraged" or shall I say "strongly
suggested" that I try and be Eric Burdon
for "Clock". I was too young, voice
wasn't rough enough, and I hadn't really
lived enough to be giving those words any
authentic clout.
It was another Randy song, pretty good
too. He was always writing, right
from the earliest records they cut, long
before I was ever in the group.
"Stop Teasing Me" got a lot of airplay in
Winnipeg and it was another Randy
song. "Clock" hung around quite a
while for a hit single in those days, and
at least in Winnipeg, it hung around on
the air till the kids went back to
school. A huge life changer for
me. That was my voice on the radio
now, a record that could definitely be
called a local "hit single".
But it never fared outside Winnipeg, other
than a slight spark in Vancouver, and that
was all due to our old friend Daryl
Burlingham who had moved out west from
Winnipeg and was on C-Fun Radio. So
it came and went and we continued
on. I think the next single was "And
She's Mine" which was another "untruth"
cause Chad was long gone, yet it was his
voice on the record, and I was forced to
sing it on stage and imitate him the best
I could. And as if all that weren't
bad enough from my standpoint, the cover
picture of the album had Bruce Decker up
in the tree with us, when he'd never even
done one vocal or guitar note on the
entire album. Wasn't even in
Minneapolis with us.
That first summer I was in the band, it
was all smoke and mirrors. Things
were "not what they seemed". Poor
Bruce was "terminated" at the end of the
grueling summer tour of 1966. I
couldn't really do much about it, as Kale,
Bachman, and Peterson had sort of decided
that that was what was happening.
At that point, I was "encouraged" to learn
enough guitar to switch to rhythm for the
all-guitar songs. And that was what
happened. A couple of the older guys
liked the fact that the money would be
split only four ways instead of
five. Yikes. I'm not totally
sold that all the guys had music in mind
at the absolute forefront of things
sometimes. Yikes.
When "Clock" came out we were still with
Quality. By the time "No Getting
Away" came out, we'd been to England,
failed miserably, returned home and
somehow, we were still on Quality.
"No Getting Away" was a VERY good Randy
song, one of the best he ever wrote by
himself, I always thought. (Because
of some bullshit contractual thing, Randy
used the name "Spencer Charles" as the
writer listed on the single.) This time,
they wanted me to be Gene Pitney, so I did
my best 19 year old Gene Pitney. The
best I could without going all Rich Little
and making it an "imitation".
Stopped just short of Gene Pitney,
probably settled in around Billy Joe
Royal.
The A side of "No Getting Away" was "This
Time Long Ago", a song written by two
English guys in London. We recorded
it as part of the "deal" to get into the
studio at all. When we first arrived
in London in February of 1967, we thought
we were on our way. Swinging London,
at the time when the Beatles and Stones
and Manfred Mann and the Kinks and the
Searchers and all of them actually went
out to pubs and stood among the mere
mortals.
I was drinking a delicious brown ale one
night at a club called the Bag o' Nails,
playing a slot machine, having a great
time. There was a guy with very long
hair playing the machine next to me for
quite a while. I never really looked
up, but when I eventually did, I saw that
it was Bill Wyman. Just having a
pint and playing a slot at the Bag 'o
Nails. I never forgot that.
It's not the same today, anywhere in the
world. Celebrity and all that that
entails has changed. It has morphed
into fame for the sake of fame
itself. Often times, fame has
absolutely nothing to do with having
accomplished ANYTHING ... I've seen it in
my own little corner of the galaxy, where
sometimes "just being around people" isn't
quite enough. Even after they've
known you for quite a while, they still
need to have thousands more
pictures. We're a strange lot, we
upright primates.
The blue single on the right makes me sad
… "recorded in England" … yeah … at a time
when we didn't even have enough money for
plane tickets home to Winnipeg. I
was 19 and we were semi stranded in
England … and broke … yikes. When
our little Winnipeg world came crashing
down over there in swingin' sixties
London, we eventually limped back home to
the prairies, beaten down a huge few
notches. I was so ashamed.
Crushed career wise, but personally
ashamed.
I lied a bit to my Mother and Grandmother
when we first came home, and actually sang
my Mom "Felicity Gray" and "This Time Long
Ago", the two songs by the British writers
that we'd "agreed" to do, just to get in
to the studio. I was pretending that
"things had gone great" when in fact, the
band was very close to folding. Then
somehow we got hired to do "Let's Go" the
local, Winnipeg, once a week music hop
show, and that turn of events in and of
itself saved the Guess Who. I don't
think we could have gone on much longer
with single after single failing to do
anything big.
The visual here ... the old Quality label
on the left, that red and white visual
that meant that you were in Canada, and
you had actually "made a record".
And then, on the right, Wow ... an actual
American release ... Fontana ... and it
says right there "recorded in
England". Another failure. But
Randy sure wrote a good song. I
guess I shouldn't really have "affected"
my voice on it so much but at the time,
Randy and Bob Burns actually encouraged me
to do it. I was 19 and
unexperienced. For a long time I
sort of "did what I was told". Still
pretty young among seasoned guys who'd
actually toured with Dion and The Turtles
and people like that.
These two images are from lifetimes ago …
Hope your night is peaceful …
BLC - 2017
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