Four wheel drive --- Bachman-Turner Overdrive --- 1975 (Mercury)
One of Canada's biggest musical exports in the seventies, Bachman-Turner Overdrive --- or BTO as they are usually known --- are probably best known for their massive hit “You ain't seen nothing yet”, from the previous album, “Not fragile”, but I prefer this album, from 1975. It's their fourth, and it's full of classic rock gems. Even though it was rushed out in order to capitalise on the sudden, almost overnight success of “You ain't seen nothing yet”, it doesn't come across as hurried or thrown together, despite the fact it was apparently recorded in six days! And on the seventh, they rested...!
Starting off with the title track, it's a ZZ-Top-ish boogie, rockin' along at a great pace, real rock and roll, with great gruff vocals from C.F Turner (he and Randy Bachman share the vox on this album) and a slinky guitar solo from Bachman, steamhammer drumming from his younger brother Robbie. It's a real road song, and you can just imaging cruisin' down the highway with the wind in your hair as this blares out of the stereo at the heart of the seventies. Sweet! It's followed by “She's a devil”, which begins deceptively quietly, making you think this may be a ballad. It's not! After a low-key lead-in, Turner lets loose with a growling vocal performance, and Bachman rips off the guitar riffs, giving the song a kind of Deep Purple feel in places. Lovely slide guitar from the fourth member of the quartet, Blair Thornton, adds real class to the song.
“Hey you” was the most popular track from the album, released as a single and getting right to number one in Canada, just failing to make it into the top twenty south of the border, but still a big hit. This time it's Bachman who takes over the vocals, on a song much more commercially accessible, and you can see how it became a hit, with its almost pop overtones, nice jangly guitar and very West Coast feel (despite the guys being Canadian), and its absence of any “hard” rock guitar solos or growled singing, as was the forte of Turner. Bachman's voice definitely suits the radio better: it's his voice you hear on “You ain't seen nothing yet”.
We're back with Turner then for “Flat broke love”, and it's another dirty, grinding, blues rocker with heads down and no apologies to anyone, a riff almost reminscent of “Smoke on the water” running through the song. Some nice bass work on this, and then some guitar in a very Carlos Santana vein in the middle. Then it's back to the pipes of Randy Bachman for “She's keepin' time”, another grinding rocker, with some nice backing vocals, quite commercial really. Great southern boogie-style guitar solo here.
Turner takes over for “Quick change artist”, with a kind of Springsteen vibe to it, but the artist I keep coming back to with comparisons is ZZ: it's really quite amazing how similar to the Texas trio BTO can sound. No bad thing, to be sure. There's a definite celtic flavour to “Lowland fling”, with Bachman again on vocals, and some great guitar too, kind of reminds me of mid-seventies Rainbow. Oh, and yeah, this is an album with
no ballads. Not one.
Closer “Don't let the blues get you down” is another rocker, with snappy guitar and gruffly effective vocals from Turner to take the album to its conclusion. I can hear echoes of Tom Robinsons's “2,4,6,8, motorway” here, though of course it would be a few more years before that would hit the charts. Good boogie rock fun, this, and a good way to close an album that has few, if any, flaws.
TRACKLISTING
1. Four wheel drive
2. She's a devil
3. Hey you
4. Flat broke love
5. She's keepin' time
6. Quick change artist
7. Lowland fling
8. Don't let the blues get you down