Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best rock music autobiographies, August 6, 2002
Randy Bachman, guitarist with the Guess Who, Brave Belt and Bachman Turner Overdrive, delivers with a candid look at his life and career, all the way from his beginnings on the north side of Winnipeg Manitoba. His chapters detailing the early years of the groups he was in, and the whole atmosphere of the early 60's is excellent. One gets images of Saturday night at the community centre with all the young bands in town competing against one another. The tale moves on to sudden success, followed by the introduction of Burton Cummings into the Guess Who, and the several years of struggling.The huge success of the Guess Who in the late 60's runs the gamut from the thrill of hearing their song on American radio, to the major breakthroughs, and then the downside of the firing/resignation of Bachman from the group, one of the more controversial moments in Canadian rock and roll history. Bachman started over with his own band called Brave Belt, and in many ways he was back to square one. These chapters are interesting to read, as it was the low point of his career, but one in which the seeds of BTO were planted. After a few tough years, one enjoys Randy's comeback and triumph, with the title song becoming another national anthem in Canada almost. Throughout it all, Randy touches on the business end of music a great deal, and his day to day life with his family over the years. The volatile love/hate relationship with Burton Cummings is featured prominently as well. Now that the group is on an endless "greatest hits" tour, it seems that the hatchet has been finally been buried, whether it be out of making peace or raking in the nostalgia dollars. Enjoy this book, it's a page turner for the Randy Bachman fan especially.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Many Wonderful Nuggets!, April 10, 2005
Normally I don't read books on pop culture but, having been a big fan of the Guess Who and BTO in my youth, I picked this one up, flipped to a random page and began reading. Within moments I was laughing out loud! Life truly is stranger than fiction!
Randy reveals how crucially important steps in his music career came about in quircky ways you would never ever expect... truly fascinating.
He relates stories of his adventures with a wide cross section of well-known musical personalities from the past several decades. It was such a pleasure to repeatedly turn the page and learn of his involvement with yet another of my teen musical heroes.
One of the very best stories is when, after peaking, BTO was invited to open for Van Halen on a long tour. As the crowd filled the arena for the first concert, they began chanting "BTO, BTO...". The rest of the story is great! I'll let you read the book to learn what happened next!
Not the best written book of all time but who cares. I greatly appreciate what the author has done.
The picture presented of Randy as a person is, unfortunately, incomplete in that his first wife, and the mother of most of his children, declined to contribute to this book. My take is that Randy has always placed his own career and interests *far* above those of his family, particularly in his earlier years. While this has wonderfully benefitted his millions of fans, others have paid the price.
This book taught me a lot about life.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
long overdue artist gets his due, October 27, 2001
At last, a detailed, readable biography of a man whose music career spans close to 40 years! Randy Bachman and John Einarson team up to provide a detailed and entertaining chronicle of a huge part of rock history, one that has been long overlooked. Randy Bachman's credentials are quite impressive, and as a founding member of rock legends The Guess Who, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has contributed many songs that will be forever inbedded in the minds of music lovers. A good deteailed look into the Canadian music scene of the 1960's adds a very descriptive view of a time far away and far more innocent. A bit long, the book could have been shortened a little, but overall, a great job and great read on a man, overlooked for far too long. Highly reccomended.
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