Monday, March 31, 2014

JUNO WHO WON AWARDS THIS YEAR?



All of the JUNO awards have been handed out.  Congrats to big winners Arcade Fire, Serena Ryder plus Tegan and Sara.  It’s a good thing Justin Bieber wasn’t in Winnipeg to personally accept his JUNO Fan Choice Award or he would have heard that loud chorus of ‘boos’ coming from the prairie crowd. 
If you were watching the telecast, you saw Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield introduce Bachman-Turner Overdrive into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this year.  So, in honour of BTO’s honour, this week’s quiz is all about the Winnipeg band.  Pretty simple really, so let’s start ‘takin’ care of business’. 

QUESTIONS

1.  Prior to Bachman-Turner Overdrive but after The Guess Who, Randy Bachman formed another band that eventually morphed into BTO.  What was the name of this band?  Was it:  a. Brown Belt  b. Brave Belt  c. Black Belt  d. Belt Up        
      
2.  Randy Bachman sang lead vocals on BTO’s 1974 # 1 hit, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.  On one of his early takes, Randy stuttered during the choruses.  He’d planned to send a copy of this version to his brother who stuttered and later re-record the vocals without stuttering.  What is the name of Randy’s brother who stuttered?  a. Robbie  b. Joe  c. Gary  d. Tim                    
                
3.  During the late night recording session in Seattle for “Takin’ Care of Business”, there was a delivery person who brought in food for a session in another studio.  He popped into Randy’s session and heard “Takin’ Care of Business”.  The delivery guy said the song needed a piano.  Randy said ‘OK, go ahead and play it.’  The guy wrote the chord changes down, walked into the studio, played his piano part in ONE take, then left and that became the hit version.  What fast food was the piano playing delivery man delivering?  Was it:  a. Chinese food  b. Chicken Wings  c. Hamburgers  d. Pizza           

4.  Before BTO, there was The Guess Who.  And before The Guess Who, they went by several names.  Which of the following names did they use? a. Al and the Silvertones   b. Chad Allan and the Reflections  c. Chad Allan and the Expressions  d. all of them                   
    
5.  In the world of rock management, this man is a bona-fide legend.  His company is based in Vancouver and besides BTO, he’s also managed Bryan Adams, Anne Murray and Michael Buble.  Randy Bachman thanked him during his JUNO Hall of Fame acceptance speech and he was shown on camera sitting in the audience.  So who is he?  Is he:  a. Sam Feldman         b. Red Robinson  c. Bruce Allen  d. Dan Plouffe

ANSWERS

1.  The answer is b. Brave Belt, which initially featured Randy’s brother Robbie as well as former Guess Who lead singer Chad Allan.  Chad stayed for the debut album, “Brave Belt I” but left soon after.  Fred Turner had been brought in to play bass on tour and took over vocals for the “Brave Belt II” album and Randy’s brother Tim Bachman was added as a second guitarist.  Manager Bruce Allen convinced Randy to change the name of the band and they settled on Bachman-Turner Overdrive (the Overdrive came from the title of a trucker’s magazine).  I think you can guess where the Bachman and Turner part came from.       

2.  c. Gary is the correct answer.  When Randy later tried to re-do the vocal for “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” without stuttering, it didn’t work at all, so he left it alone.  A Mercury Records executive heard the original stuttering version and told the band that they had to include it on their album “Not Fragile” as it was definitely a hit.  Randy reluctantly agreed.  Later, when the executive wanted to release the song as a single, Bachman initially refused, but eventually agreed.  The song went to # 1 on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart in November of 1974.  Ironically, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” knocked off Stevie Wonders # 1, “You Haven’t Done Nothin’”.  The BTO song also went to # 1 in Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark and South Africa.       
    
3.  It was d. pizza.  The delivery guy was actually a trained musician moonlighting as a pizza delivery guy to make money.  His name is Norman Durkee and he went on to become musical director for Bette Midler and Barry Manilow.  In order to pay him for the session, Randy had to call around to various pizza places until he found the guy who delivered the pizza that night.  In 2011, “Takin’ Care of Business” was the most licensed song in Sony Music’s catalogue.  It was used as a theme song for several years in commercials for Office Depot, OfficeMax and K-Mart.  The title came from Vancouver radio DJ Daryl B. who regularly used to say “‘We’re takin’ care of business.”  Randy Bachman was listening one night and thought that would make a great title for a song.      

4.  The correct answer is d. all of them.  The band started out as Al and the Silvertones, then became Chad Allan and The Reflections by 1962.  By the time they recorded “Shakin’ All Over” in 1965, they’d become Chad Allan and The Expressions, because there was an American group called The Reflections who had a hit called “(Just Like) Romeo and Julier”.  Chad Allan and The Expressions record company, Quality Records, thought the group sounded British on “Shakin’ All Over” (It had previously been a hit in England for Johnny Kidd and the Pirates), so they sent out white labeled 45 singles with the name ‘Guess Who?” on them.  That name stuck.          
    
5.  c. Bruce Allen is the name we were looking for.  Bruce has had (and continues to have) an illustrious career, managing major Canadian performers.  In 1985, he co-ordinated (and wrangled) many Canadian stars into recording “Tears Are Not Enough” for African famine relief.  That same year, industry magazines The Record and Billboard (in the U.S.) named Bruce ‘Manager of the Year’.  In 2008, he was only the second Canadian manager to receive the ‘Honour Role’ award from the Music Managers Forum in Canada.  His client list includes veteran singer/songwriter Jann Arden as well as Bryan Adams, Anne Murray, Michael Buble and producer Bob Rock.  Bruce has a reputation for ‘telling it like it is’ and ‘shooting from the lip’ and for over 16 years, Bruce has made his opinions known on various radio stations in Vancouver.  Currently he can be heard on News/Talk AM980, CKNW.    

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