20 - Wednesday, May !1, 1994 - North Shore News

Guitar workout
breaks record

Michael Becker
RECORD REVIEW

T‘S EASY.as fishin’, you
can be a musician...”

There’s a guitarist in every
second closet around these here
parts.

By day we present ourselves
as solid corporate citizens, but
behind closed doors at night, we

are power-chording, ax-wielding .

forces of nature, inexorably dri-
ven string bending things. We
exist for the pure thrill to keep on
rawkin’ in the free world.

In 1974, the brothers
Bachman — Randy, Tim and
Robbie — along with fellow
Mormon Fred Turner, gave to the
world the Bachman-Turner
Overdrive smasharoo hit Taking
Care of Business.

Taking their cue from the King
himself — music biz corporate
tool Elvis Presley brandished this
capitalistic motto upon the belt
that graced his expandable girth
— BTO ernbraced the enterpris-
ing ethos by turning the message
on its head with an anthem for
the motivationaily challenged.

Three simple chords were
cobbled together in a sweaty
dark corner of some stage along
the trai! of Bar Band Circuit ©
Anywhere. Inane lyrics were
married to what simple music
there was.

Unabashedly blue-collar,
BTO spoke to the average Joe:
those dudes and dudettes who

- worked to make an honest buck
and at the end of the day liked
nothing better than to kick back,
pop the tab on a cool one, slap
in the eight track and crank the
volume on some righteous
rockin’ tunes. ;

Twenty years down the road,

‘BTO ts no more, but that simple
song keeps taking care of the
band members’ own business
quite nicely, thank you very
much. itis a stalwart staple of the

. closed loop play lists of classic

‘ rock-radio stations. A favored
mantra of the advertising world,
it is used to sell things on TV.

It takes up valuable head

pena

space: “I you ever pet
annoyed, look at me I’m sei
employed,-| love to work at noth-
ing all clay...” Out, out rock dev-
ils.

It’s seared into the grey mat-
ter: “...and the girls who try to
look pretty...”

lam among the walking rock
wounded. BTO owns a chunk of
my damned soul. | am destined
to “...workout, working over-
time.” Yeah, that’s it, I’m taking
care of business.

So, acquiescing tothe
inevitable, | found myself in
downtown Vancouver Saturday,
standing in a sunny sea of guiars
Jed by Randy Bachman and com-
pany in a bid to break a
Guinness book world record for
the most musicians playing one
song for the longest time.

After about the first 10 min-

66 Unabashedly.
blue-collar,
BTO spoke to
the average
Joe... 99

utes a troubling thought surfaced
— This is not possible. The rock
‘n’ roll callouses that had once
hardened the tips of my fret fin-
gers had long since softened to
adjust to the less immediately
demanding rigors of typing,

1 feared the likelihood of hav-
ing to contend with a shredded
mass of pulpy flesh when the
final A chord had faded to histo-
ry. :

! brought along a pocketfu! of
band-aids. They were not used. It
was not the rock ’n’ roll thing to
do. | toughed it out and locked
into the monster ciffing going on
about me.

trambled.in a reverberating
field of synchronous bee buzz.
A-G-D-A. A-G-D-A, Again and
again. Bachman exuded electric
pollen for the 1,320 gathered for
the Music West Guitar Marathon.

Ht was all over after 68 min-
utes and 48 seconds. We laid
waste to an earlier record set in
the U.S.

The experience contirmed the
key point of rock's essential
appeal. Any fcol can do it and
have some fun in the bargain.

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Z “ a
: NEWS photo Nell Lucente’

MORE THAN 1,300 guitarists, Including News strummers Kevin Gillles (No. 172) and Michael Becker
(No. 128) helped Randy Bachman take care of business at the Music West Guitar Marethon May 7.

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