Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Four Wheel Drive CD Track Listing

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Bachman-Turner Overdrive Four Wheel Drive (1975)
Originally Released May 1975\nCD Edition Released July 3, 1989\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Four Wheel Drive album is most often overlooked, mainly because all of the attention was focused on the singable "na na na naa"'s of one of B.T.O.'s biggest hits in "Hey You." But the rest of the album is made up of the band's lunch-pail rock & roll sound, combining ample amounts of factory-made blues to street-dirty guitar rock. Although it can't really hold a candle to Not Fragile, B.T.O.'s best album, there's still a fair amount of well-played radio rock to hold Four Wheel Drive up. "Hey You" gave B.T.O. their second last Top 40 hit, peaking at number 21 and reaching number five in Canada, but tracks like "Flat Broke Love," "She's Keeping Time," and "Don't Let the Blues Get You Down" are attractive arena rock efforts with both Bachman's Randy and Robbie sounding like they're still involved wholeheartedly. "Lowland Fling" and "Quick Change Artist" may be the album's weakest attempts, but, on a grander scale, Four Wheel Drive eventually became the last solid endeavor by the group. Tim Bachman left after Bachman-Turner Overdrive II to try his luck at producing, and, in 1977, Randy Bachman went off to do some solo work, leading up to his formation of the band Ironhorse. B.T.O. fell apart after this, and the albums that followed contained little if any of their accustomed, belt-driven rock & roll. Best of all, Four Wheel Drive doesn't offer up any changes or surprises, and an expected eight tracks of guitar-based rock is truly what you get. -- Mike DeGagne\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nVery underrated album, December 11, 2002 \nBy Mark R. Van Wagenen "viagracat" (Elgin, Illinois USA)\nYes, I'm yet another 40-something guy who still thinks BTO rocked, well, most of the time anyway. Forget about the kids who diss the band (and anything '70s) because of stinkers like "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" heard on lame oldies stations. If you're one of those people, dig a little deeper into this band's music and you may lighten up a bit. They were actually quite good overall. "Four Wheel Drive", which I think was BTO's second-best album, borrows more than a little bit from their first self-titled album, which was their best. They both have good, staight-ahead, blue-collar-type rock, complete with great guitar riffs, C F Turner's snarling vocals (Randy Bachman does handle some of the numbers, with less satisfying results), and are without the piffle seen on the two intervening albums; in other words, sell-out tunes like "Takin' Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" are absent. "Four Wheel Drive"s best tracks are the title track, "She's Keepin Time", "Quick Change Artist" and for something a little different, "Lowland Fling". Nothing fancy here, but that's OK. You want BTO, start with this one and the first album. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNot their best, but 5 stars anyway!, September 28, 2002 \nBy Mark Lahren (Bismarck, North Dakota USA)\nI'll admit right off that my review is likely to be biased, but I'll try not to be. This album was the very first record album I ever owned, and as a 15 year-old in 1975, I saved a long time for it. I absolutely LOVED it at the time, playing it so much I literally wore it out and had to buy another. My second and third-ever albums were also by BTO, with the fourth being Brave Belt II (BTO before they were BTO--c'mon somebody, release it on CD please--it's the only reason I still have my turntable hooked up). All my musical taste in the years following were heavily influenced by this powerhouse group, and this album in particular.\nI have since grown a bit musically and realize that this album, while definitive BTO, was not their best. That honor goes to "Head On" for its more sophisticated and laid-back sound. The self-titled original album was first-rate also. "Four Wheel Drive" was their heaviest-sounding album by far. All songs on it were meant to be played loud. Listening to it now in my 'old age' can be tiresome due to its unrelenting sonic boom factor. Most of these songs were recordings that were rejected from their "Not Fragile" sessions. The album "Four Wheel Drive" came about because the band was under contract to release another album, but they had been touring heavily and had not had time to write any new songs. Thus, these 'left-overs' were pulled out and made into and album. This doesn't mean they are any less for it. I myself think it is every bit as good as "Not Fragile". All that said, if you're just starting your BTO collection, I'd recommend starting with the first album first. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nPrime Purveyors of Boogie Rifferama, September 20, 2002 \nBy Clark Paull "(Sleepin' with the TV on)" (Murder City)\nWhile BTO may not have invented the power chord, they certainly perfected it or, at the very least, brought it to an art form. Following on the heels of their masterpiece "Not Fragile" (if you can apply the term "masterpiece" to a bunch of guys only concerned with overamplified boogie), "Four Wheel Drive" came close, very close, to equaling the heights of sonic bombast our neighbors to the north unleashed on that album. While the first two BTO albums were serviceable examples of authentic 70's chug, this album finds the band hitting its stride, both in terms of writing and playing. With its Twin Towers of Tonnage, Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, as always commandeering the assault on your inner ear, songs like the title track, "Hey You," "Quick Change Artist," and "Lowland Fling" hammer home our heroes' raison detre: plug in, turn up, and leave your cerebral cortex at the door. In terms of pure old school escapism, it's nice to have CD's like this that you can zap with a laser beam and be instantly transported back to high school. Underrated and unqualifyingly recommended... \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOne of, if not THE BEST BTO album..., June 2, 2002 \nBy Steverino (Austin, TX)\nWhatever it is that you read negatively about this album, blow it off... This is HARD CRUNCHING, HARD DRIVING music from a band who never got the recognition they deserved. With so much fluff coming out on the radio in the early 70's, these guys kicked MAJOR A**. C.F. Turner's vocals are more preferred than Randy Bachman's, but Randy's were O.K. too. "She's A Devil" and "Lowland Fling" are my faves on this album. This music just can't be duplicated today. Part of the reason they didn't get the respect is that they were overshadowed by bands like Zeppelin and Floyd at the time, and never had a chance to shine. \n\nThey had the perfect combination of talent and naivete that makes for a powerful musical experience. Their not being "full of themselves" was most certainly what made them shine. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNO REASON TO PAY FIFTY BUCKS..., November 25, 2005 \nBy BOB (LOS ANGELES, CA)\n...when only two of this album's eight tracks do not appear on the remastered, 2005, excellent 2CD "GOLD" compilation. \n\nThe two missing FOUR WHEEL DRIVE tracks are "She's A Devil" and "Lowland Fling". If you listen to the sound bites above, you'll realize both are throw-away tracks. \n\nSo, why spend $50 for an unremastered, OOP disc, when you can buy a fantastic-sounding, 35-song collection for 1/3 the price? \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nBTO at their best, June 29, 2001 \nBy Steven (Littleton, Co United States)\nNot Fragile, Four Wheel Drive, and Head ON were three albums that shaped my musical life. Hard Rockin', Straight Foward, Heavy duty Rock, with less screeching that heavy metal. Rock the way it should be. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nFour Wheel Drive, August 22, 2000 \nBy A Customer\nA great album that came out while I was stationed in San Diego in the Navy in 1975. A good follow up to the extremely popular "Not Fragile" but not quite as good. I love the title cut as well as the hit "Hey You" with Randy Bachman's vocals. But the vocals of C.F. Turner really carry this one on songs like the title cut and "She's a Devil" and "Flat Broke Love." Great stuff from the BEST of 70's rock! No Gimmicks.. No Tricks Just straight ahead full power rock and roll.. BTO \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGood, made in the frenzied period following "Not Fragile", November 4, 1999 \nBy A Customer\nBTO was an international hit band when this album came out - the follow-up to "Not Fragile." Fred Turner shines, and Robin Bachman's drumming propels the songs along. Not quite as powerful as "Not Fragile", still the cuts "Four Wheel Drive", "Flat Broke Love", and a couple of others are well worth a listen. BTO Rocks! \n\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: Randy Bachman \n\nAlbum Notes\nBachman-Turner Overdrive: Randy Bachman (vocals, guitar); C.F. Turner (vocals, bass); Blair Thornton (guitar, background vocals); Rob Bachman (drums, percussion, background vocals)\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nWhen it sells its soul to a formula, rock dies. Or so the argument goes: The music went into hibernation when the wild heroes of early rock 'n' roll were replaced by the groomed idols of American Bandstand, the challenging innovators of progressive rock by the hackneyed boogie bands of the modern ballroom circuit.\n\nIn both instances, the eccentric vitality essential to rock gave way, under commercial pressures, to a predictable mix of familiar ingredients that insured popularity, but deprived the music of its cutting edge. Without the galvanizing grace of spontaneity, rock becomes a mere diversion: If you're after transcendence, a formulized record is no path to bliss.\n\nWhile this understanding of rock is too pat, it does help to explain the feeling, current among critics, that the music has lost its creative drive. Few writers have a kind word for any of the most popular bands of the Seventies, apart from such cerebral favorites as Steely Dan and Roxy Music. If they listen at all, it's only to grimace at the studied commercial moves, or to reprimand the empty world view a song like "Listen to the Music" seems to represent.\n\nStill, corn-belt boogie has its fans and they number in the millions. To take three timely examples, consider ZZ Top, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Doobie Brothers. Stylistic differences apart, these bands have in common a large concert following, particularly in the Midwest, and an ability to sell albums (BTO has had two, and the Doobies three LPs go platinum, selling one million units plus). The two facts are not unrelated: In the crowded marketplace of the Seventies, the surest way to build a band's popularity is to hit the road whenever a new album is released and push for an AM hit. BTO and the Doobies both play the game with consummate skill.\n\nOdd band out in this trio is ZZ Top, a power blues band from Texas that is still building to the superstar status of BTO and the Doobies. Their third LP, Tres Hombres, surprised everyone by hanging on the charts for a year and a half, and eventually going gold (selling more than 500,000 units) and this from a pedestrian trio of musicians playing the most bare-boned variety of boozy blues imaginable. Fandango, their newest offering, includes one side of live material that makes their success all the more inexplicable, by featuring nine minutes of tomfoolery titled "Backdoor Medley," wherein the band simulates burping cows (which may not be so odd: An automotive executive recently claimed that belching cattle are a major source of air pollution).\n\nThe ZZ formula runs something like this: Take a B.B. King blues lick, speed it up and amplify to a dull roar, overdub a gruff vocal and then garnish with a touch of maracas, tambourine or hand clapping. The percussive sweetening is this band's distinctive contribution to the genre, but even that is a move borrowed from Andrew Oldham's production of the early Rolling Stones (just listen to one of ZZ's strongest cuts, "Francene" on Rio Grande Mud). Even worse, the group has trouble filling the formula consistently. Their best bet on Fandango is "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings," but with a title like that, it's hard to put down any money at all.\n\nOn the other hand, if a band tours often enough, and hits the formula occasionally, they may sustain a career despite the odds. Formulas, you see, have wonderful properties: They are reassuring and immediately accessible, because we've heard it all before. If the audience can identify a band with a formula, they're halfway home, no matter how infrequently they succeed in making the formula really work.\n\nBut let Randy Bachman of BTO explain the logic of formulas: "When the kids come to our concerts or buy our records they know what to expect . . . It all comes pretty automatic. They want simple rock music and we give it to them ... Oh yeah, if we'd been popular playing country rock, we'd still be doing it now."\n\nWell, there's a little more to it than that but in the case of BTO, not much. For these kingpins of porkchop professionalism, following a formula means emulating the Rolling Stones, the Who and Creedence Clearwater Revival, only simplifying their sound and serving it up without a trace of distinguishing vision. This can be called, accurately enough, pandering to an audience, but at least BTO, unlike ZZ Top, know how to wring the last dollop of dollars from their chosen formula.\n\nUnfortunately, the golden sponge has dried up on Four Wheel Drive, the band's fourth outing. The familiar licks all appear on schedule, but the band's almost palpable boredom vitiates the visceral energy hard rock is supposedly all about. Compared with such predecessors as "Let It Ride" and "Takin' Care of Business," "Hey You," BTO's new single, sounds downright arthritic. Which raises the perennial question: Can a Mormon sing the blues?\n\nOr, more accurately, how long can a band run on borrowed steam? The flaw in Bachman's argument is that people will not continue to buy yesterday's papers forever. Which is to say that formulas have a way of becoming obsolete; and rock bands generally survive only when they prove capable of forging an original style.\n\nThat brings us to the Doobie Brothers, for among these three bands, they alone have demonstrated a measure of originality. Taking their bearings from the electric rock of Moby Grape and the acoustic drivel of Crosby, Stills and Banana, this San Jose guitar band quickly coined a trademark riff, the springy guitar line that launched "Listen to the Music." (This one was so catchy that soul star Clarence Carter wangled a single, "I'm the Midnight Special," out of the same lick: Such is the life cycle of a formula.)\n\nAs it happens, the "Listen to the Music" riff was good for three singles, with "Long Train Runnin'" and "China Grove" cashing in on the sound. But at least it was a Doobie sound: Nobody else had quite achieved the same blend of close harmonies, semifunky rhythm guitar and lyrics populated with hints of harmless Americana.\n\nMoreover, because the Doobie Brothers obviously care about music as well as business (during their concerts, they use as a huge backdrop whatever album contains the song they are playing), they are continuing to develop their style. Unlike BTO, they know that you can't run standing still.\n\nStampede, the band's fifth LP, shows the result of such concern. One cut, a remake of Kim Weston's Holland-Dozier-Holland hit "Take Me in Your Arms," accomplishes the unprecedented feat of making a Bay Area rock band sound soulful. Even better, the song, despite Tom Johnston's Marvin Gaye-ish vocal and all the Motown trimmings (baritone sax on the bottom, darting strings on the top), ends up sounding like no one so much as the Doobie Brothers.\n\nOther standout cuts include "Music Man," arranged by Curtis Mayfield, and "Sweet Maxine," a more calculated variant on the Doobie style. By drawing upon artists like Mayfield and Holland-Dozier-Holland, as well as by adding guitarist Jeff Baxter (ex-Steely Dan) to their lineup, the Doobies have beefed up their attack and given it a sharper edge; in so doing, they have broadened their style, which becomes increasingly distinctive with each album.\n\nBut a style does not a vision make--or at least not a challenging vision. Lyrically, this band still seems plagued by the spirit of groovy vibrations that made "Listen to the Music" an endurance test for casehardened cynics. "Neal's Fandango" bumbles along to couplets like "On the hills above Santa Cruz/In the place where I spent my youth," which doesn't even rhyme, much less scintillate.\n\nAnd that, I suppose, is the ultimate limit that most of the rock bands of the Seventies have yet to break through: Certainly neither ZZ Top nor Bachman-Turner Overdrive nor the Doobie Brothers have made a compelling statement that demands our attention in the way that records by Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and Dylan have in the past.\n\nOn the other hand, I do not mean to dismiss the second-level rock bands altogether. Great rock can be as much a product of circumstance and accident as it is of individual creativity and vision.\n\nTake the case of "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," BTO's smash single from last year. This track has been described as everything from a Who cop -- the stuttering vocal recalls "My Generation"--to a Lou Reed steal--the changes suggest "Sweet Jane." Actually, as Randy Bachman tells it--"that song is a joke," an accident that just happened to work. And work it does: Opening with a loping guitar figure, Bachman tears through the track, sputtering out the lyrics; when the band tackles a stock of "power riffs" on the break, Bachman's vocal keeps the cut above water, navigating an explosive stream of clich

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