From Tom Cuddy …
“We drove 300 miles to see you —
and you weren’t even onstage!”
Randy Bachman on the fake Guess
Who — and how he reclaimed the band and the name
Source: GuitarPlayer - https://share.google/yIPRCiyFNGoQvaODR
Well, this fills in a few blanks as to how Jim Kale ended up
with The Guess Who name in the first place.
(I thought he just copyrighted or trademarked it himself after the band split up when he learned it was available! But apparently had the full consent of the band, including both Randy and Burton! I don't think anyone ever thought he would capitalize on that for the next 30 years ... but apparently, that's exactly what happened!!!)
From the article:
How did Jim Kale, who played
bass in the Guess Who and was fired in the early ’70s, end up controlling the
name in the late ’70s?
Well, the phone rings one
Saturday morning, and it’s Jim Kale. He tells me and Burton, “I’m calling to
say goodbye. I’m going to jail. We just got audited by the IRS, and our
accountant didn’t pay our back taxes.” He owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jim says, “If you’ll let me use
the Guess Who name, they’ll put me on the road and I can pay back half the
money.”
We told him he could use it. But
we didn’t know he was going to trademark it, patent it and keep using it for
decades. At the time we didn’t oppose it, but we also didn’t know he’d
registered a trademark. Nobody told us.
-- Randy Bachman
Interesting, too, that the current set list is heavy on
material from the first three Guess Who albums …
That’s because those are the only ones Randy Bachman and
Burton Cummings made together.
Bachman left shortly after the “American Woman” album was
recorded … and showed up with Bachman-Turner Overdrive a few years later. Meanwhile, Burton Cummings continued on,
fronting The Guess Who for several more years ... and had nine more Top 40 Hits after Bachman
departed. (They only had six while they
were still together: “These Eyes,”
“Laughing,” “Undun,” “No Time” and “American Woman.”)
While several Bachman-Turner songs are included in the new live set list, Burton’s biggest solo hit, “Stand Tall” (#5, 1976), is not (which
really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either!)
Still, it’s going to be a GREAT show … and I can’t wait to
see it! (kk)
The new Cockroaches (Rolling
Stones) record released last Saturday was selling for $10 but only 1000 were made.
Omaha and KC had them but only a couple per store. Look what ebay wants
already:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/178041506343?_skw=rolling+stones+2026&itmmeta=01KP440MYR1CT8TCV62EQWZ80Q&hash=item297419ca27:g:k~gAAeSwI3Zp2vMx&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xB%2FjWOmasg8WLn76iRaRdA0wZJAAJV3Ay0XGv5AeMm1mtJ1s7HvyF5ALUlI6Z4bK%2Bhs6mf9dzy1y5J0MgoiPR%2B4z0ti7P%2BDtYjRID5KzDg43E5sQPKFGTveh%2FqfbSILR81iBKjoaWtY70CKt7WCISz0wFmy2zXCunDj3g7Rb41NoyAWJ7rrNV7KYbw%2F1LiZa9eL7t73mqpcMVzaszssfrJUA1R9KGF9AHLLLRSCsjl3QqI7FhCmRJ8fH9R8LlXeaZRnr46gVWyea4y4n0%2BF0jkjlbNETGrbVFhTca8Zb8G8KA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8LPgoSxZw
Clark Besch
Yeah, 1000 numbered copies were pressed and even if you
followed the coordinates to find out which stores actually had copies for sale,
odds are they only had one or two at most.
Naturally, the price spiked IMMEDIATELY and will only continue to go up
due to the extreme rarity of this item.
It's a shame that it isn’t a very good recording! The Stones have certainly done better! Makes me think that the very best tracks were collected for their "Hackney Diamonds" album a couple of years ago. (kk)
Hi Kent,
I have to take exception to your
comments about Linda Creed and her being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall
of Fame.
Linda was WAY more than just a
background singer. As a songwriter, she was behind some of the most
iconic soul hits of the 1970s, including many by The Stylistics. She was
even inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.
Here's just a sample of hits
that she co-wrote (most with songwriting partner Thom Bell):
You Make Me Feel Brand New; Betcha
By Golly, Wow; Break Up To Make Up; You Are Everything; I'm Stone In Love With
You; The Rubberband Man; The Greatest Love Of All
Not bad considering she died at
the young age of 37.
Paul Haney
Although I personally would have never even considered Linda
Creed Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame material … no great surprise here as I don’t
agree with MOST of their selections over the past 30 years … what I object to
more is the seemingly random “rank and order” in which these selections are being made.
The fact that she’s in The Songwriters Hall Of Fame seems
much more apropos since she didn’t really achieve any rock credo as an artist
herself. Yes, Linda Creed co-wrote several
hits for The Stylistics, yet The Stylistics themselves aren’t even in The Rock
And Roll Hall Of Fame, so I’m not sure how that’s considered a factor as to her worthiness. And even if one were to argue she belongs in “The
Songwriters Wing,” does she belong there ahead of Paul Anka, who’s written timeless,
real rock-and-roll-era songs like “Diana,” “You Are My Destiny,” “Lonely Boy,” “Put
Your Head On My Shoulder” and “Puppy Love,” all hit songs that he also recorded
and that DEFINED this era of rock and roll?
(He also wrote “My Way” for Frank Sinatra and “She’s A Lady” for Tom
Jones as well as The Tonight Show Theme, along with literally HUNDREDS of
others … yet he’s never even made the ballot.)
How about Neil Sedaka, who we lost this past year … he had
25 Top 40 Hits, all written by himself, including more timeless classics like “Breaking
Up Is Hard To Do,” “Calendar Girl,” “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen,” “Laughter
In The Rain” and “Bad Blood” and had hits with ALL of these tunes. (Oh yeah, he also wrote songs that were big
hits for other artists, including 1975’s biggest record of the year, “Love Will
Keep Us Together” for The Captain and Tennille.)
How about Connie Francis, who also left us last year? Along with Brenda Lee, she DEFINED the
original golden rock and roll era as one of the top two female artists of the
decade … yet Brenda Lee’s in and Connie has never even been nominated. (The Rock Hall seems to have a history of inducting artists after they've passed away rather than during their lifetime when they could actually be there to receive and appreciate the honor of induction.)
Or The Guess Who? At
their peak, The Guess Who were outselling all other Canadian acts COMBINED …
and they gave us TRUE rock and roll classics like “American Woman,” “These
Eyes,” “No Time” and “Undun,” all written by (since we’re talking songwriter
justification here) Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings. Why have THEY been ignored every year since their first year of eligibility?
I guess I’m just looking for a little rhyme or reason here
as to why they keep overlooking legitimate, Rock Hall-worthy artists in favor of
the more obscure, less-deserving artists that The Rock Hall seems intent on shoving
ahead of them every year.
The original credo of The Hall was to honor artists who helped
pave the way with inventive and new ways of growing the ART of rock and roll
and taking it in new directions. Look at
the list of inductees over the past thirty years and for every one you (or
anyone else) can argue justifies induction based on this criteria, I can
probably name three, four or five others that don’t even come close. (How does an artist make a universal impact worthy of such an honor when 9 out of 10 people on the street couldn’t name or hum a single song they
recorded???) Something's wrong here with this logic ... and they're not living up to their responsibility.
Even the Fan Vote is a misnomer ... The New Edition (nowhere NEAR worthy of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in my opinion) won the fan vote this year ... yet were not on the list of 2026 inductees. Seriously, what's the point of voting?
Please understand that my issue is not with Linda Creed … it’s with the whole
on-going process of recognizing Grade Three Tier artists over all the Grade One
and Two Tier artists that haven’t been so honored. As a result, artists like Paul Anka, Neil
Sedaka, Connie Francis, The Guess Who, Tommy James, Freddy Cannon, Three Dog
Night, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Paul Revere and the Raiders and so
many others continue to wait their turn. I guess we’ll just continue to wait (not so)
patiently on the sidelines until SOMEBODY steps up and agrees that there's been a misuse of power. (For God’s sake, it took them 40 years to induct Ed Sullivan!) kk
Thank you for all your Fun
Comments about my "Alleged" Teaser Production around joining
the "New WKRP in Cincinnati!"
It triggered a long lost buried
memory for me when oldest Son, Craig, reached out to me with;
"Hey, Dad! I remember a
Family Story about you pitching an idea of a radio station sitcom before
"WKRP in Cincinnati" became a sitcom! Is that true?!"
Well, yeah, it is.
Allan Burns was a legendary
television writer and producer who, in partnership with James L. Brooks, co-created "The
Mary Tyler Moore Show" sitcom in 1970 about the misadventures of a
Television Station's Newsroom. In 1976 during its run, I
created and proposed a compatible sitcom concept and submitted
it to them that was based on a radio station. My story idea
began with a relatively unknown radio station switching their unsuccessful
programming to a Top 40 music presentation and the show being a "spinoff"
of the MTM TV show that would ultimately stand on its own.
In 1978, toward the end of that
two year period that followed my submission and unbeknownst to me,
Hugh Wilson, who was also a successful TV writer and
producer synonymous with comedy, saw his latest sitcom that he had
developed during that time about a struggling AM radio station
transitioning to a rock-and-roll format, "WKRP in
Cincinnati," premiered on National Television. The connection between
him, Burns and Brooks, to whom I had originally sent my proposal, is Hugh
Wilson has explicitly credited Allan Burns and James L. Brooks as his career
mentors so they knew each other quite well.
Funnily enough, and these
all were Funny Guys, I thought "WKRP" was a Great Show.
Overall, it stayed reasonably true to the realities, workings and
challenges of a real radio station. Their story lines were often based on or
inspired by real radio stations and their staff members' personalities and
experiences. The most famous episode is probably the Thanksgiving
"Turkey Drop" which was based on a real-life, disastrous radio
promotion!
As far as my foray into
Television Sitcoms, I happily just sit at home, far away from Hollywood,
and watch a carefully selected number of sitcoms from the latest crop of TV
comedies, make judgements on their relatability and entertainment values
and decry the overuse and unnecessary use of annoying laugh tracks.
All pretty Funny, huh!
CB (NOT Cincinnati Bound)
Rock Cellar ran a couple of interesting articles the other
day …
First, in honor of Tax Day (April 15th), they
took a look at the classic Beatles’ track “Taxman,” a George Harrison-penned
tune that kicked off their “Revolver” album.
(It came in at #1291 on our list of THE TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC
ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME)
They even ran a parody by Weird Al Yankovic which I had
never heard before called “Pac-Man,” which wasn’t released until his now
out-of-print “Squeeze Box” album a few years ago. (You can hear the track here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5z58BS5eo0
They also announced a brand new special 10 Year Anniversary
release of The Monkees’ LP “Good Times.”
Now being released as a 2-CD Set, the new tracks will
include the previously unreleased tracks “Terrifying,” “Me & Magdalena”
(Version 2), “A Better World,” “Love’s What I Want” along with complete instrumental
versions of all of the original “Good Times” album tracks: “Good Times,” “You Bring The Summer,” “She
Makes Me Laugh,” “Our Own World,” “Gotta Give It Time,” “Me & Magdalena,” “Whatever’s
Right,” “Love To Love,” “Little Girl,” “Birth Of An Accidental Hipster,” “Wasn’t
Born To Follow,” “I Know What I Know” and “I Was There (And I’m Told I Had A
Good Time)”
The album when originally released ten years ago was a real
bright spot in The Monkees’ career. Micky
Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were all actively involved with finishing
up these tracks … and even an old Davy Jones vocal was pulled from the archives
to make it a true “reunion” LP.
Definitely looking forward to this one! (The disc arrives on May 29th.)
Meanwhile, Micky is still out promoting his “60 Years Of The
Monkees” tour, coming soon to a theater near you! (kk)
April 16th (TONIGHT!) in Vienna, VA at The Barns
April 18th- Tarrytown, NY - Tarrytown Music Hall
April 19th – Huntington, NY – The Paramount Theatre
May 7th -Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Theater
May 9th -Dallas, TX – The Majestic Theatre, Dallas
May 11th – Austin, TX – The Paramount Theatre, Austin
May 13th – San Antonio, TX – The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
May 15th – Gulfport, MS - Island View Casino
May 24th – Jeffersonville, IN - Abbey Road on the River
June 26th – Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live, Orlando
June 28th – Clearwater, FL - Capitol Theatre
June 30th and July 2nd – Atlanta, GA –
The City Winery, Atlanta
July 4th – Ellisville, MS – Jones College
July 9th – Kettering, OH - Fraze Pavilion
July 11th – Lakeside, OH - Hoover Auditorium
July 19th – Napa, CA – The Uptown Theatre
September 12th – Los Angeles, CA - The United Theater on Broadway
September 29th – Myrtle Beach, SC – The Greg
Rowles Legacy Theatre
October 1st – Hopewell, VA - The Historic Beacon
Theatre
October 3rd – Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Music Box
October 15th – Greenburg, PA - The Palace Theatre
October 17th – North Tonawanda, NY – The Riviera Theatre and Performing Arts
Center
November 1st – Joliet, IL – The Rialto Square
Theatre
November 4th – Shipshewana, IN – The Blue Gate Performing
Arts Center
November 6th – Northfield, OH - MGM Northfield Park – Center
Stage
November 8th – Des Moines, IA - Hoyt Sherman
Place
November 11th – Milwaukee, WI – The Pabst Theater
November 13th – St. Charles, MO - Family Arena
[be sure to check Micky’s website as new dates are being
added all the time!]
https://mickydolenz.com/
From Frank B …
THE NATIONAL R & B MUSIC
SOCIETY, INC.
kk …
The Atlantic City Walk Of Fame
-- Class Of 2026 …
TAVARES + SISTER SLEDGE + MELBA
MOORE + BILLY PAUL + ROY AYERS + BLACK IVORY
Ceremony Is Monday, April 26.
2026 / 1 PM / Brighton Park -- 1801 Boardwalk / Free Admission
FB
I found a bunch of 8-track tapes that I'd love to
contribute to my growing list of items to get rid of.
Attached is a pic of one particularly interesting tape. I
guess it's a bootleg!
Timmy
Yep, definitely a bootleg!!!
We had a few responses regarding interest in surveys,
collectibles, etc. … but everybody wants to see a list (and I’m in no position
to organize things right now as we’re concentrating on cleaning house … but it
makes sense)
We’ll touch base if anybody who’s expressed an interest in
another week or so …
Out of town the next two weekends.
Thanks, All! (kk)
As asked in Forgotten
Hits!
>>>Shouldn't The Kent Kotal
Action Figure Be ... "DANCING???"
(Frank B)
Nope … kk don’t dance! (kk)
Well, he does now …
CB ( which stands for
"Choreographer Boy!" )
Yikes!!! Now that’s
just frickin’ scary!!! (kk)
Yes … and frickin’ FUNNY,
too!!! (CB)
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