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(More customer reviews)One of Canada's greatest successes in the rock music world has had a checkered history. After founding member Randy Bachman (who co-wrote all the early monster hits) was kicked out in 1970, the band soldiered on under Burton Cummings' leadership and with a variety of mostly very good guitarists. By the time the group broke up in 1975, though, the focus was gone and so were the hits.
If the story ended there it would have been okay. Trouble is, some of the minor members re-formed the Guess Who and proceeded, over the ensuing years, to turn the band into a second-rate nostalgia act. Cummings and Bachman did return for a full-scale reunion in 1984 (resulting in a live album that's never come out on CD) but old feuds kept it from going anywhere.
It was a two-song reuinion for the 1999 Commonwealth Games in Winnipeg that started the ball rolling again. And this time it appears Cummings and Bachman have managed to leave their bad feelings in the past. The result has been several very lucrative and well-received tours, the first producing this live album. The sound is excellent, the performances tight, energetic and polished. The 14-minute version of American Woman (echoing the version on 1972's Live At The Paramount) is downright spectacular, and Bachman proves again and again that his guitar skills are as impressive now as 25 years ago. What's truly interesting for serious fans are the BTO tracks -- especially the unplugged versions of Lookin' Out For #1 and Let It Ride.
On the other hand, serious fans will be disappointed by the lack of non-hits. The Guess Who's catalogue is chock-a-block with cool obscurities like Dreams, Hoedown Time, When Friends Fall Out and dozens more. The only obscurity included here is Talisman, from the American Woman album. The tour which produced this package had the band doing two other songs -- Star Baby and Road Food (a fabulous obscurity) -- but they were dropped halfway through and for some reason didn't make this recording. Too bad.
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