Review:

on 2011-02-20 CharlesMartel Said:

Named after guitarist Randy Bachman and Bassist C.F. Turner, who were founding members of the band (not surprisingly), Bachman Turner Overdrive were Canada's answer to a stomping rock tradition which had spread across the USA in the first half of the seventies. There was nothing sophisticated about this - it was pure and simple bar-room rock and roll delivered with little flair in wide-flares. If ever there was a band whose amps' volume dials went up to eleven, Bachman Turner Overdrive were it. And to add to the aura of forgettable unmistakeability, most of the members of the band were built like half a side of a house, so if anything kicked off down the dance house, the boys in the band could presumably double as bouncers as well as providing the entertainment.

Perhaps because of their predictability, Bachman Turner Overdrive was a band who never really took off in my view. They seemed to be part of that Canadian crop which, until Rush, were just mimics of their contemporaries across the border or across the pond. They never really developed their own distinctive sound and would always be seen, in the UK at least, as being just another standard rock outfit from somewhere in North America. However, in view of the occasional good listen amongst their output, a compilation was a must for me. Yet even this is slightly disappointing. It just goes to prove that this was a band who had one chance to rise above mediocrity and took it. Apart from that one moment, they really contributed nothing musically to the canon of musical experience.

That moment is the classic song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", still worth listening to and without which any album of Bachman Turner Overdrive would be incomplete. In the list of great one hit wonders this one surely ranks up there with the greatest of them all. The first time I heard it, it accompanied a video of powerboats crashing through the waves and the two fitted together perfectly. Even today, in the car with a clear road ahead of me, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" provides one of the best musical experiences, combining time, place and sound, in one harmonious whole.

There are one or two other tracks on "The Best of B.T.O. (So Far)" which are okay but that is about it. The opening track, "Roll on Down the Highway" is a formulaic top-down, pedal on the floor sort of driving anthem, the kind of thing which others have done after them and with more style. "Takin' Care of Business" is the sort of thing you would play if your fanbase was drawn from working class males who earned their money driving trucks or building high rises. And just to make sure the point is well and truly rammed home, you could always put in a six minute paean to the working man and call it "Blue Collar". Bruce Spingsteen would have been proud of you, boys.

The rest of this compilation is pretty poor reflecting I suppose the reputation the band hand for being overly derivative. "Hey You" was a follow up to "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" but nowhere near the same league. "Lookin' out for No. 1" is a strangely laid back almost lounge jazzy kind of song while, just in case you haven't had your fill of driving anthems, "Let It Ride" gets thrown in to satisfy your appetite for the long stretch of open road.

I have not heard the whole album at one go in a long time until recently and I have to say it is still disappointing as a whole piece of work. It represents an era which, in most of the world has still gone, though I am sure still persists in that bar at the truckstop just off Route 66 outside Gallup, New Mexico. Still, if you have to be remembered for something, there can be no better fitting tribute than "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet".
Rating: 5/10