Randy Bachman rocks a Gibson Les Paul during a recent show at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Before he found fame with the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), guitarist...
Randy Bachman rocks a Gibson Les Paul during a recent show at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada.
Before he found fame with the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), guitarist Randy Bachman cut his teeth playing in cover bands around his Canadian home town of Winnipeg. This was where his lifelong admiration of George Harrison crystallized.
“I was always the George Harrison guy in every band I was in,” Bachman says. “The drummers in those bands got to sing Ringo’s songs and I was always delegated to sing George’s songs.”
Many decades down the road, Bachman decided to relive that experience on his new album, By George, By Bachman, a collection of 11 songs written by George Harrison with one track, “Between Two Mountains,” that Bachman wrote as a tribute to the former Beatle, who passed away in 2001. Had he lived, Harrison would have turned 75 this year, and Bachman celebrates his own 75th birthday this September 27. So the timing seemed ideal to Bachman, who takes a very freehanded approach to Harrison’s compositions on the disc, departing markedly from the original chord progressions, melodies and grooves. But he feels that Harrison would have approved.
“In four or five short years, the Beatles took us from ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ to ‘I Am the Walrus,’ ” Bachman says. “Every single they released was really different from any of their previous hits. They took you on a journey. Because of that, I felt it would be okay to take some of George’s songs in a bunch of different stylistic directions. I’ve had my own songs covered by everyone from Lenny Kravitz to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At first, I’d say, ‘Why?’ But after a while, I realized they had to reinvent the songs in order to be