Rare & Hard-To-Find Audio CDs (series)

Greatest Hits Live

Description by OLDIES.com:

Bachman-Turner Overdrive's King Biscuit Flower Hour was recorded in 1974 at the peak of the band's popularity, and it features solid live versions of such staples as "Let It Ride," "Roll On Down the Highway," "Takin' Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seem Nothing Yet."

Product Description:

Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Randy Bachman (vocals, guitar, bass); Blair Thornton, C.F. Turner (guitar); Robbie Bachman (drums).

Recorded live in Chicago, Illinois on March 8, 1974. Includes liner notes by Bruce Pilato.

Recorded at the peak of the band's commercial success in 1974, this live set proves that inside the stadium behemoth Bachman-Turner Overdrive had become was a great garage band trying to desperately to get out. Their studio albums may have been slick as any L.A. product of the period, but, as glimpsed here, the band's sloppy but agreeable two guitar attack, and Randy Bachman's endearingly whiney lead vocals, all but scream beer-soaked late night jams at some smoky dive in suburbia.

All the hits are here in endearingly ragged versions. The album's highpoint however has to be the intro to the most overtly garage-like song of the set, "Slow Down Boogie," in which while exhorting the audience to raise their hands in the air, make some noise, etc., bassist Fred Turner actually manages to use the word "boogie" seven times. There's also the bonus of a 1998 Bachman interview that provides some droll anecdotes about the genesis of the band.