Thursday, June 04, 2009

Confessions of a Guess Who Fan

From their 1971 album So Long, Bannatyne, The Guess Who respond to their detractors in the rock press with the hilarious "One Man Army."

You know what to do -- just click on the play button below and enjoy.





As you'll hear, the song's succinct hard rock chorus -- "One man army...have you shot somebody down?" -- alternates with lounge jazz (sort of) nonsense verses sung by Burton Cummings in the cheesiest Frito Bandito accent you can possibly imagine. And don't miss the spoken word interlude, in which Cummings and co-author/guitarist Kurt Winter play two Chicanos in a mens room dissing the crappy band onstage while peeing.

God, I love these guys.

Oh, and if for whatever reason the download thingie on the divShare link doesn't work, just e-mail me etc etc.

4 comments:

Mister Pleasant said...

Great cut. Burton Cummings was quite the ivory pounder, and as much as I liked Bachman's early work with the Guess Who, I think Winter played rings around him.

The spoken parts remind me of the hilarious "...Burt" conversation on Rockin'.

I love 'em too. Thanks to the Guess Who, I have forgiven Canada for inflicting Geddy Lee on us.

steve simels said...

The "Burt" routine is one of my all time favorites, as are the two songs make up the rest of that little mini-suite, "Heaven Only Moved Once" and "Don't You Want Me?".

I think Rockin is their masterpiece, actually; a criminally underrated album.

TMink said...

This is a hoot! I had not heard any of this before, I need to get beyond the greatest hits package. I have been eyeing their first album a lot too. So many records, so little disposable cash!

Trey

Mister Pleasant said...

Agreed - Rockin' is a classic. There is nothing quite like dropping the needle on side one, hearing the ambient noise for a few seconds before that crushing twin guitar riff kicks in.