ALBUM OF THE WEEK #20 - BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE (BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE II) (1973)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Side One:

1. Blown

2. Welcome Home

3. Stonegates

4. Let It Ride

Side Two:

5. Give It Time

6. Tramp

7. I Don't Have To Hide

8. Takin' Care Of Business

Sticking with my current theme of albums that I spun quite often at some point in my life, we explore the second album from BTO titled Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. We also stay somewhat topical since Bachman & Turner was featured in my last
edition of the New Music Corner. This is one of the first albums I ever
discovered. My sister had the vinly and when I got interested in
listening to music, she let me listen to it (along with Bad Company's
Run With The Pack). Man, I played these albums all the time. Truth be
told, I spun this one on side two much more often than side one, but
listening to this now, I should have spun side one more often.

The album itself reached number 4 on the Pop Albums Chart while containing two singles, the instantly recognizable Takin' Care Of Business and the edited version of Let It Ride. Both songs are
outstanding and drove the album over the platinum mark in sales. For
side one, the best songs are Welcome Home and Let It Ride. Welcome Home
is one of those tunes that really seems like three songs in one. It
starts out sort of laid back and acoustic. Just a happy-go-lucky song.
Then each chorus gets really heavy. I love songs like this, and this one
is no exception. The third part would be a little country styled boogie
to close the song. Let It Ride has a superb opening riff with the
acoustic and electric guitar together. Fred Turner handles the vocals on
this song and I think his voice is awesome. The song in general has a
driving beat and some great guitar playing. The little breakdown section
is cool as well. The other two songs on side one aren't bad, just my
least favorite on the album. However, the guitar playing on Stonegates
is outstanding.

I also like the opening riff on side two with the song Give It Time. It's another great song, and by this time you can definitely classify BTO II as a great guitar album. Okay, so maybe it's a little repetitive
at the end, but Give It Time is a hidden gem in my opinion. My favorite
song on the album is up next. Tramp just makes me happy. It has a simple
but great riff and vocals are performed by Randy Bachman (he also sings
Takin' Care of Business). For some reason, I can see ZZ Top's famous
choreographed dance move from one side to the other working perfectly
for this song. The start of I Don't Have To Hide sounds like it's by a
Southern Rock band. It has a repeating beat that sounds like the drums
you would hear in old Western movies when the Indians were about to
attack. This would be my least favorite song on side two, but it's still
okay. The album closes with the big hit Takin' Care Of Business. What a
great song. I love the piano work, which was performed by some dude
named Norman Durkee. There's more excellent guitar and again, this song
is just fun. It's a great album closer.

Hidden Gem Award - Easy. I give it to Tramp.

So there's a look at early BTO. I hope you enjoyed it. By the way, the album art is nothing to write home about. It's still in print and Amazon has it for 7 bucks new, or a couple of bucks used.

***Click here if you want to listen to BTO II***

[Scott]

That was a really nice listen. It has been like forever since Ive heard anything from this album. I never owned this one either, but my brother did. I gotta say Blown and Welcome Home are my hidden treasures. Loved them!

I went back and picked though the Bachman and Turner a bit after the NMC post and I like it more each time I hear it, but its still not sticking. Maybe if I try one more time after listening to this it may help... hmmm....

[RJhog (Admin)]

It really is true that the first music you listen to and the stuff you listen to in your formative years really always remains your favorite music. It's no different for me. This album, the Bad Company album I mentioned, along with pretty much anything Kiss did in the 70's and early 80's really do it for me.

I'm trying to think back about my Sister's music collection at the time, but nothing else comes to mind other than her stack of 45's. But none of those stand out. When she got a little older and got married, her husband had some cool stuff. I specifically remember the Doobie Brother's Greatest Hits and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gold & Platinum, which to this day, is one of my favorite gatefold albums. I love the stick people drawing inside the cover, and the track listing is friggin' awesome. For some reason, I've never purchased this on CD, probably because I have all the music otherwise and the CD just doesn't have the same affect on me (artwork wise).

I'll stop rambling now.

Oh yeah, my sis had Ted Nugent's Free For All as well, which remains my favorite Nugent release to this day.

[Scott]

Im the youngest, so I know where your coming from. My oldest brother is 9 years older than me, he wasn't much into music, but he always was playing Tommy James and the Shondells in his car stereo. I still like that stuff...

My other brother was into music big though. He liked the heavier side of music. I remember bands like Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, Uriah Heep, early Kansas, and Pre-Crystal Ball Styx (Think Serpent is Rising), those types of bands were huge for me.

My sister on the other hand was more melodic, I don't remember a lot about her collection except for a lot of the Little River Bands stuff. Their first one and the follow up titled Diamantina Cocktail are still big for me. She turned country later, and I could never go there, don't get me wrong I like some country, just not very much of it, and modern country is just awful.

So my second oldest brother was the biggest influence on me.

My first purchase was Fleetwood Mac-Self titled and Bob Seger's Night Moves. Both still get lots of play in my various forms of players.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Another place I got a lot of my musical development at was my cousin's house. This particular family of cousins was 4 brothers. The oldest was about 5-6 years older than me and got married early, so he wasn't really in the picture. But of the other 3, one was 2 years older (which was totally cool 'cause he could drive before I could) and one was my age.

We spent so many summer nights out in their "shop", otherwise known as a detached garage, listening to Van Halen, Styx, Jefferson Starship, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and, of course, Kiss. Albums that I have a specific memory of one of those cousins owning were:

Jefferson Starship - Modern Times
The Tubes - The Completion Backward Principle (my title may be off here)
Foreigner - specifically the debut and Head Games
Pink Floyd - The Wall (the cousin that was 2 yrs older owned this, but I never liked it for some reason)
Kiss - everything to that point
Styx - Pieces Of Eight
Bob Seger - Against The Wind
AC/DC - Back In Black
Blackfoot - Strikes
Van Halen - the debut, II, Women And Children First, Fair Warning and Diver Down

...and so forth and so on.

Those were absolutely some of the best times of my life.

[Niels (Mod)]

Hmmm, it was'nt bad, but it was not an album, that I'm going to rush out and buy. I liked the last number "Takin' care of business" the best.

My oldest sister (who's dead now) had the BTO-album "Not Fragile", and it was some of the earliest heavy rock, I heard, when I was around 10 years old.

She also introduced me to Queen's "A night at the Opera" about a year later. My other sister was into disco and soul, but some of that music don't sound as bad nowadays as it did then, fx. Bee Gees.

[Scott]

We all grew up with Disco and Soul and I suspect we all have some in our collections. For me Earth Wind and Fire have always been extraordinary to listen to, their stuff holds up quite strongly! And for the most part, The Bee Gees have a really strong catalog as well. Main Course is a fantastic album for example!

[Jon]

This is the first time I've heard this whole album, must admit I have never bough a studio album from BTO. Do have a nice compilation set, but this album is pretty good. Don't think I would buy it though, the songs I wanted (especially "Welcome Home") are on the disc I have so I'm set.

Nice pick though Rjhog, solid album from beginning to end.