55 Years Later- The Guess Who Reign Victorious With ‘American Woman’

Implausible as it may sound, the Guess Who were among the most prominent Canadian artists–including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Gordon Lightfoot–who had a sizable influence on the pop/rock music of the early Seventies. With the hindsight of fifty-five years, it’s clear each artist’s impact has, in its way, continued far beyond that era, and the Winnipeg group’s is no less so than the others, at least as depicted on its third album, American Woman. 

The Guess Who’s music was/is as naturally commercial as the band is deceptively versatile. Those dual virtues are the source of the durability of the album in the fifty-five years since it came out. That dynamic reflects the record’s mainstream/underground popularity at the time of its original release: it appealed to both the AM and FM radio audiences of the time.

That’s hardly a surprise given the arrangement and production of, for instance, the title song. Before the predictable but infectious electric riff kicks in, the cut begins with an overtly blues-derived acoustic intro, so the foundational progression that follows decidedly hammers home the lyrics’ thinly disguised diatribe (against its southern neighbor in general or just a single individual therefrom?). Fortunately, Burton Cummings’ frenetic lead singing carries a trace of tongue in cheek. 

Fuzz-drenched electric guitar from co-titular leader Randy Bachman (eventually of the Overdrive with his siblings and Fred Turner) dominates the similarly-dismissive “No Time.” Meanwhile, the tradeoffs between Cummings’ harangue of lead vocal and sweeter group harmonies formulate an adequate tension/release dynamic.

The pretensions of another acoustic-dominated interlude in the form of “Talisman” starkly contrast to the third hit from the LP. Cummings’ bright, ringing piano playing at the end of the forthright, emotive “No Sugar Tonight New Mother Nature” performance adds instrumental diversity that further complements Randy Bachman’s guitar playing in all its forms. 

The latter’s fretboard work also distinguishes “969 The Oldest Man.” A cut sans vocal that, in hindsight, stands as an overt statement that the Guess Who refused to embrace the confining classification of ‘singles band.’ Accordingly, the move to pair and interpolate “No Sugar Tonight”/”New Mother Nature”–two separate songs composed separately by Bachman and Cummings, respectively–isn’t any mere production touch. On the contrary, it is a pragmatic use of resources by a savvy team of collaborators, including long-time studio supervisor Jack Richardson. 

Likewise, the title tune is reappeared in acoustic form at the end of the album. Renamed “Epilogue,” that addition ameliorates the self-indulgent “Humpty’s Blues” and extended retrospect suggests it would’ve been far better to close the album with the catchy pure pop of “Got To Find A Way” (a bonus inclusion on the 2000 expanded reissue).

It didn’t require the hindsight of over a half-century to fully comprehend the Guess Who, who were not innovators of the highest order. Nevertheless, American Woman does stipulate how, for the better part of their career, the quartet made honestly intelligent rock and roll pop like “Proper Stranger” years after the issue of this album (notwithstanding the abject novelty of ’74’s “Clap For The Wolfman”). 

The group underwent numerous personnel changes in the wake of Bachman’s departure to form Overdrive with Fred Turner) and although the Guess Who split up formally in 1975, there was a significant reunion tour in the early 2000s. In the wake of multiple prior reunions spearheaded by its two chief composers and titular leaders, a 2024 legal settlement granted Bachman and Cummings practical control of the band name, thus ensuring the ongoing integrity of the group and its continuing influence. 

As a result, aside from revisitations such as Lenny Kravitz’s 1999 cover “American Woman,” the most memorable work of the Guess Who themselves endures untainted.