special tribute to Neil Young on his 60th birthday

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Two of my favorites

Old Man, Look at Yourself
A special tribute to Neil Young on his 60th birthday

Randy Bachman
Citizen Special

Saturday, November 12, 2005




Randy Bachman recalls 40 years of making music with his childhood friend Neil Young.

In the early '60s in Winnipeg, something was happening in the high schools. Rock 'n' roll was taking over our teenage lives.

I was attending West Kildonan Collegiate in body but my spirit and soul were in daydream land, learning to play guitar. Every waking moment was spent with my little electric Silvertone from Sears, my portable record player and any records I could get.

I played in "bands" that weren't really bands for too long once the guys involved realized it took commitment, practice and giving up your social life.

A traumatic incident took place in my life when my brother Gary was forced to live outside our family home because of his personal choice of lifestyle, which I envied. He wanted to grow up fast and he did. He got a job downtown at the Grain Exchange, where he met some great musicians who played in Winnipeg's most famous band, Alan & the Silvertones. The bass player, Jim Kale, had a Fender Precision Bass Guitar and a Fender Concert Amp. I had taught Gary to play bass so we could jam, but we didn't have an amplifier and could only play community centre gigs if Gary could borrow Kale's amp.

On the other side of Winnipeg, also borrowing Kale's amp from time to time, was Neil Young. Because of this amp, I got to meet Neil.

A life-changing moment occurred when I became lead guitarist in Alan & the Silvertones. We soon changed our name to Chad Allan & the Reflections and then Chad Allan and the Expressions. In the early '60s, we travelled to Minneapolis to cut records at Kay Bank Studios. We got our records played on the local radio stations. We were hot stuff in the Peg.

Similarly, Neil drifted through local bands, and finally settled a line up as Neil Young & the Squires from Kelvin High School. In 1963, Neil Young & the Squires cut two instrumentals at CKRC, Aurora and The Sultan, and he had a taste of his music being played on radio. He soon left for Thunder Bay and then Toronto, and wound up in Los Angeles.

In 1964, when our cover version of Shakin' All Over was a No. 1 hit in Canada and we were renamed the Guess Who by George Streuth at Quality Records, we were signed to Sceptre Records in the United States. Our single went top 20 in Billboard. In 1965, we toured with the Kingsmen, Dion & the Belmonts, the Crystals, the Shirelles, Dionne Warwick, and cut the second Guess Who album, Hey Ho-What You Do To Me.

Jim Kale and I swapped stories with Neil the next time we were all in Winnipeg. Neil played us an acetate of his new band, Buffalo Springfield, which he explained was recorded on an eight-track and how you could play several different guitar parts and sing different vocal parts over and over and bounce tracks around, making an incredible sound.

Neil:

We were stunned by the sound of the vocals and guitars stacked on the eight-track recording. It was the first time I heard his voice on record singing Out of My Mind.

In 1966, Chad Allan left the Guess Who and we asked Burton Cummings to be our new singer. Buffalo Springfield had achieved cult status as the new sound of the L.A. music scene, which was mixing country, bluegrass and folk with lots of rock. Back in Winnipeg, Burton and I watched Neil and the band play For What It's Worth, on TV and were envious.

We I wrote our song No Time to sound like Buffalo Springfield after buying their second album and seeing my name on the dedications on the back of the LP cover. No Time became a big hit and just as we were sounding as close as we could to the Springfield sound, they broke broke up. The strong personalities of Neil and Stephen, which created the incredible Springfield sound, were destined to clash.

Continued Here

 

[Abbey Normal]

Neil Young is 60. Wow. He was one of my big favs back in the day.

I suppose now when he sings, "Old Man take a look at my life", he might be looking in the mirror.