Customer Reviews

These Eyes

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

 

 

These Eyes is a good, but very brief look at eight of The Guess Who's hits. For the price this is a good introduction to the Guess Who, but many fans will want more than a mere eight songs buy the Guess Who. Still These Eyes is a good, but rather incomplete collection of the Guess Who's hits.
5 stars for the music
3 stars for the value of package/lack of songs

No classic rock collection is complete without this CD. Guess Who are one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time; their songs are original, timeless and fun.

I was a fan of the Chad Allan Guess Who (they of "Shakin' All Over" fame), but they vanished almost as soon as they arrived on the scene. So when a Canadian group called the Guess Who re-emerged a few years later, it was a cause for some excitement on my part. That excitement was pretty short lived though. I learned that Chad Allan was long gone and that vocal chores had shifted to Burton Cummings, who had the pipes and the polish, to be sure. But was it rock'n'roll?

Well, I was open to almost anything back then--IN THEORY--but somehow the "new" Guess Who left me cold. The three-chords and an attitude of the "Shakin' All Over" days had now become something a bit more..."lounge-y." It was all very commercial, and led to a slew of hits, and somehow tapped in to the emerging Zeitgeist of the '70s. Experimenalism was out, slick chic was in. It was a kinder, gentler brand of rock. Yes, you could still throw in a little social commentary ("American Woman," "New Mother Nature," and the hippie ethos of "Share the Land"), but in terms of the actual music, well, they may as well have been singing about champagne cocktails and nights on the town.

Oddly enough, I once read (maybe someone can post a response and tell me if this is true or not) that Cummings' idol was Jim(bo) Morrison. If that's true, though, maybe it does make a little sense. Morrison was a somewhat more conventional singer than his image would seem to imply. Cummings sings in about the same range, for the most part, and is actually a more agile and flexible vocalist than Morrison.

And that's what I've been noticing these past couple of weeks when I've found myself giving this bargain sampler (which I got even cheaper at a library book sale). Cummings' easy listening tendencies aren't quite as annoying to my (now)ancient years. The Guess Who was--guess what--OK after all. I'm glad I rediscovered them, on the one hand, and this CD proved a very inexpensive way to do so (and would have been even if I HAD paid full price).

That's not to say that I'm a true convert. I appreciate this music more than I did at 18 or 19. I'm hardly passionate about it now. The latter-day Guess Who was solid and solidly commercial band, with SOME aspirations to higher things--but not too many.

Put it this way: the Guess Who of the post-Cummings era may bring an occasional nostalgic tear to "These Eyes," but they'll never give me "quivers down my backbone...the shakes in my thighbone." To say nothing of the "shivers in my knee bone."

this CD album replaced a vinyl one that was in my collection that is so good, i just couldn't live without it

Track Listings
1. These Eyes
2. Undun
3. American Woman
4. Clap for the Wolfman
5. When You Touch Me
6. Old Joe
7. No Sugar Tonight
8. Share the Land

According to Wikipedia, the Guess Who had 12 top 40 hits in the US and many more in Canada, and numerous great album tracks. They weren't the Beatles or anything, but they have a solid catalog of really good music. This CD has eight songs, not all of them even among their hits. You can do better than this with one of the MANY other greatest hits sets, for only a couple more bucks.

If you're like me, you like a lot of 70's and 60's rock, but don't necessarily want to have to own every obscure little album in order to get the hits you want. I scored this little disc on a bargain rack, and even if it's a short play, it's got the basics. Most kids these days wouldn't know the difference between The Guess WHo and The Who, and this is one way to fix it. Really, people might be surprised to learn which hits were The Guess Who's. "American Woman" being perhaps the most recognizeable. But there are others: "No Sugar Tonight" and "These Eyes". The track "Share The Land" is sure a favorite of the hippy left, now making a comeback in these war-like times. I myself could have done without that snoozer, but not ever compilation is perfect.

For anyone who is new to the Guess Who, this would be a sufficient buy for someone who didn't want to make a big investment before knowing what this band was all about. American Woman is a must for any collection of Guess Who songs, and I always enjoy These Eyes. Of course there are some tunes that are missing from this disc, including my personal favorite, Albert Flasher. Buy this if you are new to the Guess Who and need a succinct introduction.

The must-have of every true rock fan's CD collection

I don't think this isn't much said for a mini retrospective greatest hits CD album. I've got a few of these songs on my 3 double single compact disc box set of "The Ultimate Collection" by Burton Cummings and The Guess Who from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada's very own rock'n roll band ever conquered the psychedelic sixties music world in history. It's definitively classic rock so take my advice do not get this one it is a huge stinker to me in my opinion. Get the box set buy it instead. It sounds much better and digitally remastered from it's original recordings from this artist. So I give it "TWO THUMBS WAY DOWN!".