Bachman writes catchier riffs, but stories still good

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This article was published 10/09/2011 (5467 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap Stories

By Randy Bachman

Penguin Canada, page count, $32

LET’S get it said early, and be done with it. Borrowing from Lennon and McCartney, Randy Bachman’s new book, based on his popular CBC Radio music program, Vinyl Tap, could have been called “I Me Mine.”

Those looking for unbiased rock trivia or history might be better served using Google. Even in a chapter devoted to encounters with famous musicians, Bachman can’t resist noting: “I’ve met many of my heroes or artists I respect as influences and I’m often surprised that they know who I am.”

But although many, especially here in Winnipeg, somehow begrudge Bachman his success — almost 50 years of it now — he’s earned his right to talk about himself, and frankly he’s got some good stories.

With a reputation as driven and straitlaced, the former Guess Who guitarist nevertheless comes across on his radio show as a funny and fun guy, and it’s the same in the book.

Referring to the band that earned him the fame and the royalties on which he has lived these past decades, he notes, “BTO weren’t wimps or pretty boys. We looked like mountain men in furs, fringe, flannel, and long beards. We were the Radisson and Groseilliers [Google them] of rock… the lumberjack rockers from Canada who’ll blow the windshield out of your car.”

In a tenuous balance between hero-worship and name-dropping, Bachman refers often to another rock giant with Winnipeg roots, Neil Young. It is clear that he holds Young in no small esteem, and Young has gone on record calling himself a mere “axe-man” compared to Bachman the guitar wizard.

With humble but not humiliating self-deprecation, Randy notes, comparing BTO to Young, that the “difference was that while Neil looked frail with a 28-inch waist, we were size 38, soon to become 48.”

The book is made up of 10 very conversational chapters, each presumably corresponding to an episode or two of Vinyl Tap (which CBC Radio One been airing on Saturday evenings since 2005) and each ending with “My Picks,” a list of songs that might have been played in the on-air discussion.

A high point of the book is the series of lists with which it closes, “Randy’s Favourites.” “Randy’s Favourite Cowbell Songs” hearkens to a famous Saturday Night Live sketch, and “Randy’s 10 Favourite Rock ‘n’ Roll Mondegreens” lists misheard or misunderstood lyrics.

While Randy Bachman has an undeniable gift for writing riffs, hooks and catchy phrases, his prowess with prose is less developed. This, of course, can be forgiven up to a point, but this is still a book, after all.

Many of the stories he relates have been told before, in his massive 2000 autobiography, Randy Bachman: Takin’ Care of Business, co-written with Winnipeg rock historian John Einarson.

That said, for those interested in Bachman, or in rock history, this is an easy enough read and the black-and-white pictures are fun.

If it doesn’t turn one on to the radio show, certainly it might prompt an aging adolescent to hit the MTS Centre on Sept. 24 to see Bachman & Turner.

Winnipeg physician Ted St. Godard wants to be a rocker when he grows up.