Randy Bachman: Takin' Care of Business

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and the editor of Newsletter
of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and
Documentation Centres.

Randy Bachman helped put Canadian rock music on the international map as
a member of The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO) in the late
1960s and 1970s. This book is his autobiography, told mostly in
Bachman’s own words. Writer-journalist John Einarson provides the
story, commentary, and extracts from interviews with Bachman’s family,
fellow musicians, and associates in the music industry.

The most engaging part deals with the early years. Born in 1943,
Bachman paints a vivid and touching portrait of his childhood in the
Winnipeg suburb of West Kildonan, including the social conditions that
allowed bands to flourish. As a teenager, Bachman was strongly
influenced by his informal studies with legendary jazz guitarist Lenny
Breau. Bachman’s celebrated collaboration with Burton Cummings
resulted in a string of hits that ultimately sent The Guess Who to the
top of the charts. But his aggressively conservative lifestyle following
his conversion to Mormonism put Bachman at odds with his colleagues’
embrace of the drug culture. In 1970, he left the band and soon formed
Brave Belt (later called BTO), for which he penned his signature song,
“Takin’ Care of Business,” that again conquered the hit parade.
Space is also accorded to recordings, the music business, Bachman’s
work as a producer for the Vancouver rock band Trooper, and nostalgia
tours of the reunited Guess Who.

The narrative loses some momentum as Bachman struggles with personal
and professional conflicts, including an acrimonious divorce. Still, one
cannot help admiring the tenacity of purpose that has sustained him.
Black-and-white reproductions of photographs accompany the presentation,
but unfortunately there is no index or bibliography.