Working Overtime.... BTO

My introduction to BTO (condensed down from Bachman-Turner Overdrive) was somewhere in the mid-ish 70's. I was hanging out at a school friend's house at the time, and we got it into our heads to explore his older brother's record collection. At this point in my life, I didn't know much about music beyond the Beatles, Monkees and Elvis, and those only courtesy of movies and shows on TV. So the artists I saw in this stack of records were strangers to me: Alice Cooper, Rush, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, BeeGees, and so on. Oh, and BTO.

Said buddy put on a track or two from several albums, and I was very taken with the BTO that I heard. It's been a long, long time, but I am pretty sure the song I heard was Roll On Down the Highway. This was the lead-off track on the Best of BTO (So Far) album. And that was the first BTO I bought, not too long after that eye-opening listening session.

As I listen to Roll On Down the Highway at this moment, I am transported back to my early teens, into my basement corner bedroom, where I would sit on my bed with speakers blasting (a bit shrilly on my cheap first stereo) my first heavy rock'n'roll music. And BTO was among the first, that Roll On Down song my favourite, getting the most play on my wobbly turntable (with spare change taped to the tone arm to reduce skipping). Fond, fond memories. Oh, and sometimes my little brother would creep down into my cool cellar abode to partake of the spell-binding rebel music. Lucky kid - he was getting a good musical education far earlier than I did. Oh well, that's what older brothers are for, right?

One of the classic line-ups of the 70's BTO (from left):

Randy, Blair Thornton, Robbie Bachman, and Fred

Though I loved those songs, and put some serious wear and tear on that record, I never bought any of the band's studio albums. But I did play the hell out of that Best of BTO record, and later the tape, through the 70's and 80's. While in high school, I found Not Fragile in the library, and plugged in the headphones to check it out. Cool. Once CDs became a part of my collection, I made sure I added a little shiny disc copy of that same Best Of compilation. Somewhere along the line, I picked up very cheap, another comp called BTO's Greatest. There was a lot of overlap with the other disc, but there was a handful of fresh, unheard of tracks. From those two albums I assembled and burned my own slick "best of" CD. 

BTO were hairy, raucous Canadian good ol' boys, but they were also gifted musicians. Their prowess on their instruments and their knack for writing catchy radio-friendly songs cemented them a place in the history of Canadian rock music. 

Rockers like Roll on Down the Highway were plentiful in the band's catalogue, but moody, blues-jazz tracks like Blue Collar and Lookin' Out for #1 were equally well-crafted. The mesmerizing Blue Collar, with its lightly brushed percussion and soft guitar licks and sumptuous solo, was a favourite even back in the days when I appreciated screaming and booming guitars most. I was learning that variety was the spice of life.

Gimme Your Money Please was one of my favourites, too, hollering darkly funny lyrics and surging with party-hearty energy. And of course, the two biggest radio hits, still in rotation on classic rock stations, were You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (speech impediment rock at its best) and Takin' Care of Business (which we hear everywhere nowadays - sports events, amusement park rides, and TV ads, for example).

And it was a revelation to learn years ago that Randy Bachman (the "B" in BTO) had previously been a big part of that other famed Canadian band, The Guess Who (you know, American Woman and These Eyes). Bachman, along with singer-songwriter wiz-kid Burton Cummings, kept The Guess Who in the money with their collective musical talents.

Now though Bachman is the more famous name, it was a fellow Winnipeg citizen, Fred Turner (the "T" in BTO), who brought to BTO (and its forerunner Brave Belt) a rock'n'roll edge. Turner, playing bass with finesse and drive, also provided the distinctive tough, gravelly vocals to the band's sound. 

The boys scored high on the singles charts with numerous hits off their first four albums, then things went a bit sour. The band used the name Bachman-Turner Overdrive until 1977, when Bachman left to pursue solo and other collaborative work. Under the leadership of Turner, they assumed the name BTO, the acronym only, for legal reasons. BTO carried on until 1980, when they disbanded, then Turner re-joined Randy for an album under the group name Union.

Bachman got back together with his Guess Who gang for a reunion tour. Then he rejoined BTO, then quit, rejoined, quit.... he just couldn't settle down, could he? I never followed anything BTO did after the 70's, really, though I know they reunited with Randy here and there for special events and the odd tour. A rather scattered late career resume, but man, the legacy they left behind will forever be imprinted in Canuck rock textbooks.