Randy+bachman

Ben Davies called Bachman-Turner Overdrive's first album a "fusion of Lynyrd Skynyrd-style Southern/trucker rock and ZZ Top's anthemic arena rock," and with their logo imprinted in a big metallic gear which looks like it inspired James Cameron's Terminator trademark, Randy Bachman, his brothers Tim and Robbie, and C.F. Turner dish out a methodical mix of plodding hard dirges…

Two discs, 31 tracks – that's a lotta Bachman-Turner Overdrive even for some die-hard fans – but that's what Anthology offers, complete with remastered sound, liner notes, and a handful of rarities, including the previously unreleased "Stayed Awake All Night" and four "quad mixes." These rarities aren't enticing for anybody but hardcore followers and, really, most listeners will be better served by Greatest Hits, which contains all the radio hits…

Eleven years after their 1973 eponymous debut on Mercury, Randy Bachman brings brother Tim Bachman, C.F. Turner, and original Chad Allan/Guess Who drummer Garry Peterson together for this very decent set, also self-titled Bachman-Turner Overdrive, on a Mercury subsidiary, Nashville's Compleat Records…

Released when Mercury Records was still located in Chicago, IL, back in 1973, the second album from Bachman-Turner Overdrive was the first to break through in a big way. First the hit single "Let It Ride" went Top 25 circa March of 1974, then the anthem "Taking Care of Business" went Top 15 the summer of that year. By October they would top the charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" from the follow-up LP, 1974's Not Fragile, but their seven chart songs were all made possible by this album and these two songs, "Let It Ride" and "Takin' Care of Business," in particular. "Let It Ride" features one of C.F. Turner's best vocals; keeping that gargle-with-Draino diesel sound down to a minimum, the song has two major guitar riffs, one a strum, the other from Led Zeppelin's 1970 "Immigrant Song," an inverted mutation of Randy Bachman's own "American Woman" riff which also hit in 1970. That "Takin' Care of Business," which was written solely by Randy Bachman and contains his vocals, as well as the Turner/Bachman co-write "Let It Ride" are light years ahead of the other six songs on this album is an understatement…

Released when Mercury Records was still located in Chicago, IL, back in 1973, the second album from Bachman-Turner Overdrive was the first to break through in a big way. First the hit single "Let It Ride" went Top 25 circa March of 1974, then the anthem "Taking Care of Business" went Top 15 the summer of that year. By October they would top the charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" from the follow-up LP, 1974's Not Fragile, but their seven chart songs were all made possible by this album and these two songs, "Let It Ride" and "Takin' Care of Business," in particular. "Let It Ride" features one of C.F. Turner's best vocals; keeping that gargle-with-Draino diesel sound down to a minimum, the song has two major guitar riffs, one a strum, the other from Led Zeppelin's 1970 "Immigrant Song," an inverted mutation of Randy Bachman's own "American Woman" riff which also hit in 1970.

Released when Mercury Records was still located in Chicago, IL, back in 1973, the second album from Bachman-Turner Overdrive was the first to break through in a big way. First the hit single "Let It Ride" went Top 25 circa March of 1974, then the anthem "Taking Care of Business" went Top 15 the summer of that year. By October they would top the charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" from the follow-up LP, 1974's Not Fragile, but their seven chart songs were all made possible by this album and these two songs, "Let It Ride" and "Takin' Care of Business," in particular.

The ultimate meat-and-potatoes rock band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive hardly changed the face of rock & roll with their output, but the everyman approach that shone through in their hits in the early '70s, which include the classic rock radio staples "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," "Roll on Down the Highway," "Let It Ride," and the extra-ubiquitous "Takin' Care of Business," makes BTO somewhat of a guilty pleasure for many…

Freeways was the final Randy Bachman album of the first BTO era, released in 1977 after their first of many "greatest-hits" collections put much of their chart activity in a tidy package on 1976's Best of B.T.O. (So Far)…