The Guess Who – American Woman

Well let me start this thing off by saying Happy New Year! About a week ago, I decided to start this blog in an attempt to waste a little less time doing nothing and to waste it instead on talking about music. Specifically, we’re going to be talking about an entire album every day. There are no real guidelines on how I am wanting to present these entries, so the style may change from time to time. The only rule is one album, every day.

Since the idea is kind of new and exciting to me, I thought my first entry should be an album that, though something of a classic, is at least new and exciting to me. That album is American Woman by one of Canada’s finest 1970’s exports: The Guess Who.

American Woman, stay away from me

I was quite surprised, upon first hearing this album, that it doesn’t start the way you might think. The only song I, like so many people, had ever heard by The Guess Who was the version of “American Woman” the way it is heard in films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (the proper version, not the disgraceful Lenny Kravitz butchering of such, though both are present in the film). However, instead of the song starting with those recognizable electric guitar chords and Burton Cumming’s “UHH” (the audial equivalent of a pelvic thrust), it actually starts out with a really mellow acoustic blues riff and some crooning. Burton even makes sure you know what exact nationality of woman he’s expelling by spelling out “A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N” before the song breaks into its more recognizable state.

Indeed the “prologue” of the song (which is revisited after the final track as an epilogue) shows that this is a rock album with class. The meaning behind the lyrics is unmistakable, this guy really does want the American woman to get away!

No time left for you, on my way to better things

The theme of a dude really not wanting people around him is continued in the second song, a seemingly psychedelic-inspired tune that could belong to any 60’s/70’s record. No Time is a solid track, it does everything it can to remind you that the year is 1970 and the singer really has no time, he probably spent all his time repeating the line “no time” about a million times at the song’s end. Who knows how long he kept going with this, because the song fades out while he’s still going.

Artificial flowers cannot die for life within them is illusion

Just when you think The Guess Who has no more time for you, they slow the album way down to play a slow, melancholy acoustic tune called “Talisman”. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, because for one, it’s a definite change from the mood the album established some minutes ago, and for two, it’s got an excellent acoustic duet going throughout. The lyrics are either very poetic or pretentious, I still haven’t decided which. By the time I am nearing a conclusion on this matter, a wonderful piano melody comes in to finish the song off, and I realize it doesn’t really matter, the song is good, so why think about it so hard?

No sugar tonight in my coffee, no sugar tonight in my tea

After the mellow acoustic break, we go straight back into rockin’ with the 2-for-1 song “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature”. I can’t really remember a time when I’ve heard two songs put together as a medley without ever having existed separately beforehand, but it may be nothing new. Either way, this song impresses me just based on how well the two melodies blend together, and indeed the lyrics of both songs are layered on top of each other after each song has run its course. Then, after all of this takes place, the band brings it home with a chorus of “Da da doo da da”s, which is not only acceptable, but adequate.

“969 (The Oldest Man)”

One thing I have read about The Guess Who is that they utilized a lot of styles for American Woman. I didn’t have to read that, because it is evidenced right in the middle of the album with a blues instrumental that suddenly turns into a jazz instrumental, complete with jazz flute solos! I’m not sure why they titled it after Noah’s granddad, but such is the way with instrumentals.

So nice to be home again, where I belong

“When Friends Fall Out” is one of those songs that isn’t terribly interesting by its own merit, but so many parts of it remind me of other songs that I can’t help but listen every time. Particularly the vocal melody on the chorus reminds me of an obscure They Might Be Giants song called “Miniature Sidewalk Whirlwind”. If I were terribly educated about music, I’d be able to tell you exactly why that is, but as it stands, you’ll just have to take my word for it and use your imagination.

I’ve got a place, have you been there? What time of day can you meet me?

If indeed there comes a time when “When Friends Fall Out” starts to bring me into a state of mid-album slowdown, where I am most tempted to skip on to the next album instead of finishing what I started, there is no better track to get me right back into the game than “8:15″, it’s got the perfect driving beat and vocal melody to pick up that late-album drag-down so typical of most rock albums.  I am also fascinated by songs that have numbers in the title for a very special reason I will probably forget to explain later.

Dark day, windy city, raincoat on my shoulder

“Proper Stranger” is a song that, like a proper stranger, only sticks around for 4 minutes and then leaves again, only to be forgotten. Really though, it’s not a bad song at all, it’s got a nice groove, catchtacular riffs and some more audial pelvic-thrusting, but really it seems to serve best as a slow-down from the previous track to the final track, which is very slow indeed, but oh so worth it…

Woke up late this morning, found out my people gone away from me yeah

Ok, so clearly the singer is suffering from the type of lonliness you get when you spend the first couple of songs chasing everyone away, but oh man, what a song! It’s a slow-jam, for sure, but there’s so much harmonica and Cumming’s vocals have suddenly gone all searing and gritty, and you have to wonder if you even deserve to hear this much blues? I am not sure that you do, but nevertheless, “Humpty’s Blues” is there for you to bow in abject humility to, even as you try to decipher just what the lyrics in the last verse have to do with anything. Still, immediately after “Humpty’s Blues” the acoustic version of “American Woman” comes back in as an epilogue, and the album fades out. Rock-solid.

American Woman, gonna mess your mind

I’ve really only had this album for about 2 weeks, but it’s one of those albums I listened to about 5 times straight before daring to listen to anything else for the first couple of days. It’s really too bad that it’s not seeing a lot of circulation nowadays, I guess The Guess Who never really followed it up with anything quite as good, since the guitarist, Randy Bachman, left soon after to go start Bachman-Turner Overdrive. For this reason, I’m not too sure I’m going to explore much more Guess Who, but who knows. At least I can say I know more songs by them than just “American Woman”, though that one deserves its classic status (though it certainly doesn’t deserve that terrible Lenny Kravitz remake, I just had to say it again).

Well, this has been my first day talking about albums, hope to see you again tomorrow!