Customer Reviews

Share the Land

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shortly after the American Woman sessions, there was a nasty confrontation between the four members of the group. Cummings, Peterson, and bassist Jim Kale accused Bachman of trying to manipulate the group for his own personal gains, eventually deciding to kick Bachman out of the band. Phone calls were placed to Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw--at the time, two of the hottest guitarists on the Canadian music scene. Winter was more of a ballsy, blues-based guitarist, while Leskiw had more of a laid-back country/jazz feel to his playing. Although they had already recorded some tracks with Bachman, they decided to scrap everything and start from scratch with the new lineup. The result was the diverse, yet highly successful album, Share the Land. The band traveled to Hawaii for a couple weeks to put the finishing touches on the tracks, and then went to Chicago to do the final recording.

Looking at the songs on Share the Land, it's no wonder that five of the album's eight original tracks made it to the band's greatest hits collection, The Best of The Guess Who. There's not a band cut to be found. The hits speak for themselves, but the rest of the songs easily stand up on their own as well. "Moan For You Joe" features some tasty guitar work from Leskiw, and he contributes some fine pickin' on "Coming Down Off the Money Bag." "Three More Days" is a nine-minute workout, similar to what Traffic was doing at the time, and featuring Cummings' only flute solo on the record. As if the album wasn't good enough on its own, Share the Land now has two bonus tracks. The first of which, "Palmyra," is a great song that should've been released in the first place. Based on a riff similar to "No Time," this is easily the best of the bonus tracks on these two CDs.

It's great to see these albums finally getting the treatment they deserve. Aside from the minor production problems mentioned above, the folks at Buddah have done a great job with the recent reissues from The Guess Who. The sound quality has been superb (far surpassing the original vinyl), and the packaging has been outstanding (with new liner notes, photos, and bonus tracks). All they need to do now is release the rest of the band's RCA catalog.

Am I the only one that thinks "Three More Days" is a masterpiece?! It's easily their best song, maybe tied with "American Woman." But this song is unbeleivable, it has powerful lyrics and vocals, along with a great guitar/flute jam. I can't believe no one has shared my views about this song, when I first heard it I was astounded. As for the rest of the album, I like the whole second side: "Hang On To Your Life," "Coming Down off the Money Bag/Song of the Dog." And the title track is pleasing, but I'm only 16, so some of the tracks are a little too old for me. But I have the vinyl of this album and side two is one of my favorites.

I agree with the reviewer below who thinks "Three More Days" is brilliant. Quite simply, this is one of the great rock albums with Kurt Winters (now deceased) having some of his greatest guitar moments.

A very good Guess Who disc indeed. The remastering is great and it really brings out a richness to the already full production. Drums are full in the mix with exciting right to left panning. Guitars are big and crisp. Bass is punchy. Piano is right on.

If I had to pick the best 5 songs on the CD, these are the titles I'd choose:

Bus Rider (great lead guitar riff)
Do You Miss Me Darlin'? (excellent vocal coda near the end)
Hand Me Down World
Share The Land
Palmyra

The bonus track "Palmyra" is especially pleasing.

Great CD for a Sunday drive through a sunny small town with cornfields and strawberry patches. Overall B+ and recommended.

On the heels of their number one hit and breakout, American Woman, founding member and songwriter, Randy Bachman left the band to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive. He was replaced by Kurt Winter and together with lead singer Burton Cummings, they fashioned the most socially conscious album of the band's career. Songs like "Hand Me Down World", "Hang On To Your Life", "Bus Rider", "Coming Down Off The Moneybag" & "Moan For You Joe" all deal with the state of the world in 1970. The title track is the best song on the album and it has an anthem-like sound with Mr. Cummings laying it out there.

Sure! Randy's gone,,,but this album is (possibly) the best recorded effort by the group. It is much earthier than previous works. There is no "American Woman," but there is "Bus Rider," and "Hand Me Down World," and "Share the Land." Kurt Winter rocks the world every once in a while. Of course, there is the 2nd side of the album: "Three More Days" is killer stuff! This is the greatest (and purest) "rock" the Guess Who ever recorded.

I Had this one on vinyl back when it was released and thought to myself, can they top "American Woman" which was their best selling album to this point(and still is I believe)and really think that this one was superior to "American Woman" in many ways. I loved "Hand Me Down World", "Hang On To Your Life" And "Bus Rider" plus the title track had hit single written all over it. Later I got the CD (with the bonus tracks) but personally rating just the album, it was far better then "American Woman" in the way it was put together. This had better songs even though the later had a couple of my all time favorites "American Woman" and "No Time (Single Version). If you can find this one at a good price, grab it, if not, well, look around, it is worth the hunt.

Drop by my website Google it "Judemac Forever"

Buddah reissued to my knowledge 4 Guess who Albums Canned Wheat,American Women,Share the land and Live at the Paramount and in every case they improved what was already a very good product greatly,The re-mastering was outstanding and the bonus track always well chosen,Since that time RCA has taked over subsequent reissues and compilation and in all respects RCA did an inferior job then Buddah,Looks like RCA dropped the ball again with the Guess Who Buddah was doing great why did RCA have to dick with it?As for the CD itself I think its the best Guess Who release ever(with all due respect to Randy Bachman)I really wanted to give it four and a half stars(I don't believe in five stars nothing is perfect even something great like this)There isn't one cut thats not above average(The Jim Morrison imitation at the end of Hang on to your life they could have skipped though) Burton's vocals were incredible and Kurt Winter Guitar was searing.Also a bonus track Palmyra was one of Randy's best guitar work while with Guess who.Had Randy stayed and the band released Palmyra I could have seen it being a hit and getting FM play.For fans who only know the hits get this CD you will be pleasently surprised

My husband loves collecting these music CD's of albums he grew up listening to and I enjoy his selections very much.

Thank you

Three more days is great, and so is the rest. They dont have a bad song.