Old men, in the bar-room, guitars for, um, guitars... rollin' down the highway anthems... type of thing. Marvellous, isn't it? Well, actually, yes, it is, rather. And for those who thought that Bachman Turner Overdrive - Homer Simpson's second favourite band, let's not forget - were just a one-hit wonder, well, frankly, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Formed by guitarist/singer Randy Bachman, a former member of The Guess Who, and augmented by his brothers Robbie (drums) and Tim (guitar), and bassist C F 'Fred' Turner, BTO took their name from truckers' magazine Overdrive and laid out their boozy, bluesy stall over the course of two self-titled albums in 1973 and '74.
The first flopped, but the second was massively successful in the USA, as the Overdrive followed in the footsteps of fellow
Canadians The Band and successfully sold American music back to their nearest neighbours. They soldiered on through line-up changes, a split and a bizarre reformation in the '80s when two groups claiming BTO lineage were on the go simultaneously, but their best work was always going to be behind them.
This compilation collates 17 tracks from the '73 - '75 heyday, with the obvious singles shored up by some fine boogie rock essays, including the preposterously titled but nevertheless quite grand 'Rock Is My Life And This Is My Song'. And while you may have to be part of Overdrive magazine's target demographic to fully appreciate cuts like 'Roll On Down The Highway', 'Four Wheel Drive' or 'Shotgun Rider', you can still have plenty of fun pretending that's who you are. They let us rock - and we salute them. Marvellous.
