The Guess Who - Canned Wheat (1969)

1. No Time
2. Minstrel Boy
3. Laughing
4. Undun
5. 6. A.M. Or Nearer
6. Old Joe
7. Of A Dropping Pin
8. Key
9. Fair Warning
10. Species Hawk *
11. Silver Bird *

Best Song: No Time

The Guess Who. A band that can both wake a person out of a coma with their bashing rockers, and yet still calm the most unbalanced person down with their gentle and mellow ballads (due in large part to lead singer’s Burton Cummings diversity in vocal styles) put out one of the most overlooked gems from the 1960’s. Coming out at the end of the decade, it would be released just as their attack on the American charts began.

Beginning with a ferocious bang, this first version “No Time” is superior to the hit single version later placed on their “American Woman” album. Once again, Cummings goes from gentle to maniacal, and back to gentle again almost instantly. Lyrics telling his lover that their time with each other just about to expire, this would be ideal on a “I just broke up with my significant other” soundtrack. Randy Bachman’s exceptional guitar solo was questionably missing from the later version.

On the surface, these guys wouldn’t appear as a group that would be jazz influenced, but the jazzy riffs on both “Undun” and “ 6 A.M. or Nearer” compliment their sound perfectly. Both songs contain very hypnotic flute solos, and a fittingly smooth approach by Cumming’s. It's as if had they done an album full of these types of numbers, it could've been the greatest Jazz-Rock album of its generation. The group were also coming into their own as songwriters as well, as demonstrated on the tear inducing “Minstrel Boy” and the piano driven “Old Joe” “Minstrel Boy” contains some of the saddest lyrics of its time, while “Old Joe” is about a man who has been mentally abused by an “angry, bitter world” and how us, the listeners, can figure out how to help this troubled young man.

           

The A-Side of “Undun”, “Laughing” is another tear inducing ballad, but at some times rhythmically uplifting (the chorus always puts a smile on my face because of this, even with the melancholy lyrics.) I always have a hard time figuring out which side of the single is better, and supposedly the DJs did too, with some of them mistakenly thinking “Undun” was actually the A-Side. Both sides hit the top 30, a not too often feat, barring some double A-Sided tracks. The 2 others, “Key” with its overly long drum solo, could’ve been cut a few minutes shorter, but is saved by great biblical lyrics and Burton's’s gentle delivery, he really does sound like a prophet on here. “Of A Dropping Pin”, has an interesting guitar riff, but I think I’ve heard it before. The two bonus tracks shouldn’t be overlooked either; “Species Hawk” is a downright rocker, rarely found on this album. And “Silver Bird”, with its soaring vocals, shines with all of the beauty in the world.

           

With interesting little musical interludes connecting a good amount of the songs, this is a vintage “Guess Who” sound. Put it on a rainy day, and just sit back and escape into this magic.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5