We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Canada was a fertile ground for successful artists in America in the late 60’s-early 1970’s. Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were among those working the singer-songwriter vein while the Guess Who led the way on the charts.
You can certainly tell that the band April Wine had been listening to Burton Cummings-Randy Bachman and Kurt Peterson as they put out their second LP ” On Record” in 1972.
The crunchy riffs mixed in with some clean solo lines from guitarists Myles Goodwyn & David Henman lead the way. Jim Clench on bass and Richard Henman on drums are solid and the production quality is pretty darn good. (the engineer on the project, Terry Brown, would go on to work with another Canadian outfit, Rush).
There is lots to like in the original tunes…my faves include “Drop Your Guns”, ‘Refuge” and “Carry On”. But, the cuts that got the most play were covers…
They actually had a hit with “You Could Have Been A Lady”, originally done by Hot Chocolate”. Another cut that got airplay was their version of the Elton John-Bernie Taupin song “Bad Side Of The Moon”.
Here are the originals….
Goodwin took over the group which led to personnel changes but the band was able to out together a nice career. This is a worthy piece of their catalog.
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