Randy Bachman by Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories Page A
Authors: Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories
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walked along, people parted like waves, stepping aside to let them through. They were walking shoulder to shoulder and coming straight towards me. So I nonchalantly crossed over to the other side of the street, trying to avoid them, and they did the same, still bearing down on me. The three guys are getting closer and closer, giving me the eye. I could feel a confrontation coming.
Suddenly this battered little brown car pulls up in front of them. Itâs got dents in the front fender, a blue door, and the back window is all smashed like a spiderâs web held together by duct tape. This little woman steps out and starts yelling at one of these tough guys. The other two scatter; they donât want anything to do with this. Sheâs ragging on this one guy who doesnât appear so tough now as heâs standing there being chewed out by a tiny woman. He no longer looks menacing; he looks embarrassed by this woman tearing a strip off him.
âYouâre nothing but a no-good bum!â sheâs yelling. âYou left me at home with the kids again. Youâre supposed to be looking for a job and here you are with your buddies checking out the girls.â
So he sheepishly goes around to the passenger-side door. Finally she says to him as heâs getting in the car, âAnd baby, when you get home you ainât gettinâ no sugar tonight. â
I wrote âNo Sugar Tonightâ as part of a unique collaboration. It was our producer Jack Richardsonâs idea to combine my song with a Burton Cummings song, so we got âNo Sugar Tonight/ New Mother Nature.â But when it came time to pick a B-side for âAmerican Woman,â Jack chose to chop Burtonâs song off and release âNo Sugar Tonightâ as a separate track. When âAmerican Womanâ started sliding from the charts, deejays flipped it over to find another hit. The Billboard record book shows that âAmerican Woman/No Sugar Tonightâ are the longest and shortest songs (double A-sides) to reach #1 in the charts.
My Picks
âHIS GIRLâ by the Guess Who
âHUNG UPSIDE DOWNâ by the Buffalo Springfield
âLAUGHINGâ by the Guess Who
âNO SUGAR TONIGHTâ by the Guess Who
âNO TIMEâ by the Guess Who
âPRETTY BLUE EYESâ (bad version) by the Guess Who
âPRETTY BLUE EYESâ (good version) by the Guess Who
âSHAKINâ ALL OVERâ by the Guess Who
âTHESE EYESâ by the Guess Who
âTHIS TIME LONG AGOâ by the Guess Who
âTRIBUTE TO BUDDY HOLLYâ by Chad Allan and the Reflections
âUNDUNâ by the Guess Who
Randyâs Guitar Shoppe
If thereâs one thing I know about, itâs guitars. I have several hundred of them. Keith Richards is rumoured to have eighteen hundred guitars. Back in the early 60s the Winnipeg Piano Co. at the corner of Portage Avenue and Edmonton Street in downtown Winnipeg was a great place for guitars. On the main floor were the pianos, sheet music, and all that stuff. But when you descended the stairs to the basement, thatâs where they had all the electric guitars on the wallâbrand-new Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretschesâand amplifiers on the floor. Guys like me, Fred Turner, Neil Young, and other local guitarists would stare at these beautiful guitars and dream of playing them. The sales clerks there were very supportive of young kids like me wanting to buy guitars. When Fred Turner was maybe fifteen years old he went to Winnipeg Piano and got a guitar and amplifier, but when his dad wouldnât co-sign the contract for the payments, the store clerk let him keep the stuff, telling him, âI think youâll play this. Just come in whenever you have a few dollars.â If it hadnât been for that sales clerk, Fred likely would never have played guitar.
My first electric guitar was a Silvertone model from the Simpsons-Sears catalogue. It was $35, a lot of money
Suddenly this battered little brown car pulls up in front of them. Itâs got dents in the front fender, a blue door, and the back window is all smashed like a spiderâs web held together by duct tape. This little woman steps out and starts yelling at one of these tough guys. The other two scatter; they donât want anything to do with this. Sheâs ragging on this one guy who doesnât appear so tough now as heâs standing there being chewed out by a tiny woman. He no longer looks menacing; he looks embarrassed by this woman tearing a strip off him.
âYouâre nothing but a no-good bum!â sheâs yelling. âYou left me at home with the kids again. Youâre supposed to be looking for a job and here you are with your buddies checking out the girls.â
So he sheepishly goes around to the passenger-side door. Finally she says to him as heâs getting in the car, âAnd baby, when you get home you ainât gettinâ no sugar tonight. â
I wrote âNo Sugar Tonightâ as part of a unique collaboration. It was our producer Jack Richardsonâs idea to combine my song with a Burton Cummings song, so we got âNo Sugar Tonight/ New Mother Nature.â But when it came time to pick a B-side for âAmerican Woman,â Jack chose to chop Burtonâs song off and release âNo Sugar Tonightâ as a separate track. When âAmerican Womanâ started sliding from the charts, deejays flipped it over to find another hit. The Billboard record book shows that âAmerican Woman/No Sugar Tonightâ are the longest and shortest songs (double A-sides) to reach #1 in the charts.
My Picks
âHIS GIRLâ by the Guess Who
âHUNG UPSIDE DOWNâ by the Buffalo Springfield
âLAUGHINGâ by the Guess Who
âNO SUGAR TONIGHTâ by the Guess Who
âNO TIMEâ by the Guess Who
âPRETTY BLUE EYESâ (bad version) by the Guess Who
âPRETTY BLUE EYESâ (good version) by the Guess Who
âSHAKINâ ALL OVERâ by the Guess Who
âTHESE EYESâ by the Guess Who
âTHIS TIME LONG AGOâ by the Guess Who
âTRIBUTE TO BUDDY HOLLYâ by Chad Allan and the Reflections
âUNDUNâ by the Guess Who
Randyâs Guitar Shoppe
If thereâs one thing I know about, itâs guitars. I have several hundred of them. Keith Richards is rumoured to have eighteen hundred guitars. Back in the early 60s the Winnipeg Piano Co. at the corner of Portage Avenue and Edmonton Street in downtown Winnipeg was a great place for guitars. On the main floor were the pianos, sheet music, and all that stuff. But when you descended the stairs to the basement, thatâs where they had all the electric guitars on the wallâbrand-new Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretschesâand amplifiers on the floor. Guys like me, Fred Turner, Neil Young, and other local guitarists would stare at these beautiful guitars and dream of playing them. The sales clerks there were very supportive of young kids like me wanting to buy guitars. When Fred Turner was maybe fifteen years old he went to Winnipeg Piano and got a guitar and amplifier, but when his dad wouldnât co-sign the contract for the payments, the store clerk let him keep the stuff, telling him, âI think youâll play this. Just come in whenever you have a few dollars.â If it hadnât been for that sales clerk, Fred likely would never have played guitar.
My first electric guitar was a Silvertone model from the Simpsons-Sears catalogue. It was $35, a lot of money
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