So Long, Bannatyne

The Guess Who | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: ICONOCLASSIC
• ASIN: B002TCRQ90
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,107 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Rain Dance

2. She Might Have Been a Nice Girl

3. Goin' Little Crazy

4. Fiddlin'

5. Pain Train

6. One Divided

7. Grey Day

8. Life in the Bloodstream

9. One Man Army

10. Sour Suite

11. So Long, Bannatyne

12. Albert Flasher [*]

13. Broken [*]

Editorial Reviews

Recorded in a two-week stint in June of 1971, So Long, Bannatyne was the Guess Who s first album following the departure of guitarist Randy Bachman, who left the band after 1970 s commercially successful Share the Land. Produced by Jack Richardson, the new album, with new guitarists Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw on board, opened well with Rain Dance and the perceptive She Might Have Been a Nice Girl, but then fell into a kind of disjointed, dispirited, and rather exhausted-sounding mishmash of underdeveloped songs. The album was reissued in the digital era with the March 1971 single Albert Flasher b/w Broken included as bonus tracks, which lifted things considerably, allowing the sequence to end as strongly as it begins. In retrospect, So Long, Bannatyne wasn t a disaster, but it didn t move the band forward either, and it still seems, all these years later, like an underrealized release that s short on memorable songs. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A ++++++ For ICONOCLASSIC !!!!, January 27, 2010

By 

Lance Lazewski (Buffalo, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: So Long, Bannatyne (Audio CD)

Superb job by Iconoclassic Records in the remastering of both this & Rockin'. Unlike Rockin', the original Canadian CD reissue wasn't bad but the 2nd time around with the "2 for 1" releases in 2004, So Long Bannatyne was awful (along with all the other titles !!!) Whoever did that remastering, ATTENTION: This is how its done !!!!! I was around 12 when Bannatyne was originally released & I've probably listened to it a thousand times, but now its like I'm hearing it for the first time ! There seems to be things that were burried in the mix I can now hear. Acoustic guitar parts that were barely audible are now up front !

This was viewed by many as sort of a strange follow up to the very successful "Share the Land". A few very unusual songs BUT there are also a few gems. I do agree that it would have been a much stronger LP if "Albert Flasher" & "Broken" were originally included (they are now as bonus tracks).

Anyway, if you want to hear "So Long Bannatyne" at its best, this version is it !!! Also, great liner notes & artwork, true to the original.

ICONOCLASSIC records, if your listening: ARTIFICIAL PARADISE, Please !!!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If I could have only one Guess Who album..., April 2, 2010

By 

JESSE R. MC Glown "derosierjr" (Enterprise, AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: So Long, Bannatyne (Audio CD)

...So Long, Bannatyne would likely be it. I'd owned a cassette tape of this recording thirty five years ago. I'd forgotten just how good this music is! Classic Guess Who...tightly woven instrumentals, meticulous harmonies...and a couple of memorable hits interspersed. All the elements that made for a Guess Who album are here, including the welcome addition of two classic hits that have "hung in limbo" throughout the decades ( originally released as singles ): Albert Flasher and Broken...the perfect complement to an already great album. Goin' A Little Crazy, along with One Man Army, epitomize The Guess Who. Bands simply don't record excursions like these anymore.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bless Their Beaver Teeth!, January 27, 2010

By 

John C. Onyun (Kensington, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: So Long, Bannatyne (Audio CD)

Wow, Iconoclassic Records comes through again!

First off, The Guess Who could PLAY. (I believe Neil Young rated Randy Bachman

as his most-influencial guitarist. Randy is gone by this album, but the dual-guitar attack by Winter-Leskiw here is superb).

The boys' 5th studio album for RCA is not their best, but a fine album nonetheless.

I have always loved about 80% of this album....the long, Zappa-like Goin' A Little Crazy I find semi-hard to listen to. The rest of the album is either pure joy (Rain Dance, Pain Train, the title track) or solid pop/rock. She Might Have Been A Nice Girl is a gorgeous, hidden ballad I had overlooked for many years.

The inclusion of the Albert Flasher single is welcome-- to me in the early 70s this was a re-birth of an unabashed Jerry Lee Lewis piano-rocker, although as an aging boomer I prefer the b-side Broken, now: a fine, soulful lyric and subtle power pop flash to boot.

Again, the expanded liner notes are worth the price of admission; the sound is lean and clean--nice, tight bass, but everything sounding natural--remastered by Vic Anesini as were Wheatfiel Soul and Rockin'.

A MUST for Guess Who fans. PLEASE, someone remaster a definitive American Woman and Share The Land---the two standout albums by this great Canadian band!