Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers, homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators. Builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life, from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: Ladies and gentlemen, step right on up. It's showtime. Welcome to the pulse podcast. And here comes Peter, a mystery man wrapped in an enigma served with a side of fries. He's Peter McCully. 

Peter McCully: And he's a guy who laughs at people who say nothing is impossible because he does nothing all day. It's Dave Graham. On this episode, Brian Wiese of Qualicum Beach as he addressed the haggis for Robbie Burns Day. 

Brian Wiese: I used to escort my mother to the Robbie Burns Supper at Qualicum Beach for years, after my dad passed away. So, when they were looking for the next person to get it done, I said, I'll do that. I'm pretty sure that they thought that was pretty crazy. Some guy that does not have a Scottish accent can pull it off. 

Dave Graham: Randy Bachman and BTO are gearing up to get back on the road. Yes, they are going to roll on down the highway.I couldn't resist. As they kick off their Back in Overdrive tour, going coast to coast and starting in Victoria in April. 

Randy Bachman: I feel very fortunate to be going on tour with BTO. And I'm really grateful for the fans who basically are sending us a set list. They're sending stuff saying, We traveled so many miles to see you many years ago, and you never did this song. You never did that song. And I'm saying, OK, which show are you coming to? Because we can't do them all. We've got seven albums to play. And we put a lot more BTO songs into the sets. We still do a little tribute to the guest soup, but basically it's jammed full for BTO fans of the BTO stuff. So I'm really looking forward to it. We're having fun learning these songs. 

Dave Graham: Randy Bachman in conversation with Peter McCully in minutes. 

Peter McCully: Congratulations to Linda Adams of Parksville, the winner of a 25 gift certificate from Thrifty Foods in Where's the Tickle Trunk Contest. 

Dave Graham: The clue was, they're not worth anything as currency, but you'll find them on the beaches of Parksville, Qualicum Beach.

Instead of a tickle trunk, maybe we could just say you'll have a treasure chest full of these. The answer being, sand dollars. Okay, let's set up our next winner here. Peter, what's the next clue? 

Peter McCully: The next clue, Dave, is the Tickle Trunk rests in a building that 100 years ago was where kids went to learn the three R's. Now this place still offers classes, but they might be in color mixing or sketching. Upstairs is a piano that was donated by a famous figure from the world of hockey. That's where you'll find the Tickle Trunk, and in it is a 25 gift certificate for a smile card from Thrifty Foods. 

Dave Graham: Send us your guesses. Correct answers go into the draw. Email your answer to contest at thepulsecommunity. ca. You can also check the website and our Facebook page for clues and winners. 

Oceanside CWeed: Oceanside Cweed, that little pot shop, is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store. Since April 2022, Cweed is under new ownership. With a product expert at the helm, that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry. Cweed is a legacy in the making, with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community minded seaweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19 plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm Weekends and holidays, 9am to 7pm.  Visit the online store at seaweedoceanside.ca. 

Peter McCully: Future guests for the Pulse Community Podcast include Jeremy Perkins of the award winning French Press Coffee Roasters in Parksville and Qualicum Beach. Jeremy will talk all things coffee, as well as change Dave's world with just a couple of cups of special brews. We're also going to be spending some time with a man known for making friends wherever he goes. Valdi as upcoming performance dates on Vancouver Island, and he'll be joining the Pulse community podcast very soon. 

Dave Graham: And soon Valentine's Day, you know, when I was still dating the lady who later became my wife and then still later became my ex, I forgot Valentine's Day on a couple of vacations. I had to go to considerable lengths to recover from those events. You know, one of those times involved baking a cake that literally took three days to prepare. But that's a story I can't get into just now. What we'd like to do is hear your Valentine's Day story. If you have a special way to celebrate, or you have memories of one that stand out, please tell us about it through our Speak to Us link. You can literally leave us a voice message, or if preferred, just send a text. Click on the Speak to Us link to join the conversation. 

Peter McCully: Dave, people from around the world last week gathered to honor a man who was a poet and a songwriter, Robert Burns. He's the guy who wrote that little ditty sung at New Year's. Auld Lang Syne. His dinners have presented the opportunity to eat haggis for millions. 

Dave Graham: And on that note, Marilyn, who's in the green room? 

Marilyn: In the green room is Brian Wiese of Qualicum Beach. Brian has been giving the Address to the Haggis at Robbie Burns dinners in the area for years. 

Peter McCully: Brian, how did you even get started or even interested in addressing the haggis for Robbie Burns Day?

Brian Wiese: I used to escort my mother to the Robbie Burns Supper at Qualicum Beach for years, after my dad passed away. I had the joy and pleasure of watching Tom Waller do the Address to Haggis for a number of years. We became close friends. Then after him, Malcolm McKenzie again, for a number of years, did the Address, and we were also close friends.

Not too many people do it, so when they're looking for the next person to get it done, I said, I'll do that. I'm pretty sure that they thought that was pretty crazy that some guy that does not have a Scottish accent can pull it off. They asked me to audition once. I never did. But what happened was I had an opportunity to do it in Parkesville before I did it in Qualcomm and it had rave reviews.

Well, you don't know when I'm doing that and when you hear it is I'm quite animated. I'm bouncing around quite a bit, doing a bunch of different things. It's a lot of fun. I'm not sure how much longer I'll do it, but I think this is fifth or sixth year, and I'm still enjoying it, so no end in sight. 

Peter McCully: Okay, Brian, we're all ready.

We'll follow along with our Scottish Canadian dictionaries. 

Brian Wiese: Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace, As lang ‘s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill. In time o’ need, While thro’ your pores the dews distil, Like amber bead.

His knife see Rustic-labour dight, An’ cut ye up wi’ ready slight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive: Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve, Are bent like drums; Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, Bethankit hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout, Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew, Wi’ perfect sconner, Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view, On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither’d rash, His spindle shank a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash, O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He’ll make it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms, an’ heads will sned, Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware, That jaups in luggies; But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer, Gie her a Haggis!

Dave Graham: Peter, your last name is McCully, mine is Graham. Both solid Scottish names. But don't call us Scotch. That's a drink. And besides, we're Canadian. And we'll be right back. 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca. 

Dave Graham: Peter, you're a little green today.

Peter McCully: Yes, Dave, I think I have a little bit of a haggis hangover. It might have been the drambui gravy. 

Dave Graham: I want to jump in here to offer a reminder about a parallel project we have to the Pulse community. It offers a little entertaining time out for the little ones and maybe their caregivers too. We present stories for kids. It's Skookum Kid Stories. Delightful original stories about a boy named Peter and his pet Eskimo dog, Gracie. They may be fishing on Cameron Lake or dealing with puppy training. Ooh, puppy training. Somehow they will find adventure. Follow along with stories of Peter and Gracie as narrated by Peter McCully.

Peter McCully: And then there's Captain Dave and his stories of adventure aboard the Mellow Submarine. You'll find those Pulse podcasts and Skookum Kid stories on thepulsecommunity. ca. SkookumKids. com, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, and YouTube. If you're interested in joining our growing family of sponsors for The Pulse Community and Skookum Kids Stories podcasts, please let us know. You can email peter at thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers, homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122.  

Dave Graham: We want to welcome Windsor Plywood to the Pulse Community Podcast and thank them for their support of programming about the people and places and stories of Mid Vancouver Island.

Down Island in Victoria come April 1st, and this is no joke. Backman Turner Overdrive will launch a cross country tour. Now here's a group that landed almost a dozen top 40 hits in Canada in the 1970s. I mean, they were huge! And they represented Canada on stages around the world like no one had done before. And on that note, I am excited to check in with our manager of guest relations to see if our next guest is ready. Marilyn, who is in the green room? 

Marilyn: Randy Bachman has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice as a member of the Guess Who and BTO, Bachman Turner Overdrive. BTO is out on the road with dates throughout Canada in 2025, starting with Victoria April 1st. Randy Bachman joins the Pulse podcast from the green room. 

Peter McCully: Thanks for being with us today, Randy. 

Randy Bachman: My pleasure. Nice to be with you. BTO is kicking off a cross Canada tour in Victoria in just a couple of months, April 1st, I believe. It's the back and overdrive tour. April Wine is the opening act. And when I run over the various hits in my head, it sounds like a great night. BTO, April Wine. 

Randy Bachman: Yeah, they've got a good 10 or 12 hits. We've got a good 12 or 15 hits. The head pins are on some of our dates as well. And they've got a good, I don't know, five, six, seven, eight hits. So it's going to be an evening of incredible 70s classic rock for those who are attending. And to get it all at once, all in one show, I've got to say it's pretty incredible to be going coast to coast, starting in Victoria and ending, we're in Peggy's Cove six weeks later or something like that. It's going to be amazing. 

Peter McCully: You've hit all the right buttons for me because I grew up in Nova Scotia and I remember April Wine in the early days and of course, Backman Turner Overdrive as well. BTO's music's been used in numerous films, TV shows, commercials. I was watching TV the other night. I heard Taking Care of Business twice in two different commercials. It's even been used Yeah, it's even been used on The Simpsons where you made an appearance. Do you have a favorite use of a BTO song in popular media? 

Randy Bachman: I think really the greatest one was Taking Care of Business and it was Office Depot. I don't drink, I've never drank, I've never done drugs. I got an offer from a couple of beer companies to use Taking Care of Business as a beer commercial.

I'd say, no, I don't want my music to be used to make guys get drunk and then kill each other on the road. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and all that kind of stuff. And so I refused that. It was like millions of dollars and people said I was crazy to refuse that money. And they even said, no, this is for our non alcoholic beer.

And I'd say, I don't care. It's still Schlitz or Budweiser. It's still beer. So I turned that down. And then after turning that down, somebody said to me, something better will come along. And then I get a call from Office Depot, which is taking care of your business and school business and home business.

And they make the deal with Richard Bagelman, who started Office Depot. It runs for, I don't know, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years, till somebody in his family got married and they married the guy who did Dilbert, that cartoon, and they left TCB behind and they went with Dilbert and totally flunked and failed their whole thing. But that was a good association for me was Office Depot. 

Peter McCully: Taking care of business has become such an anthem. Perhaps you could walk us through how that song came together, particularly the story behind the famous guitar riff. 

Randy Bachman: In the mid 60s, we had a hit record called Shake On All Over. We got invited to New York in 65 to be on the Kingsman Louis tour.

And the reason we did is we were on Scepter Records. The Kingsmen are also on Scepter Records or a branch of Scepter, which was called Wand Records that was owned by Florence Greenberg. She was a Jewish lady, a great entrepreneur. She managed the Shirelles. She wrote Soldier Boy for the Shirelles. She managed Dionne Warwick.

She had all these people on her label and she had least shaken all over from Quality Records in Toronto. Put it out in the states. It was top 20 in Billboard We got asked to go there and then when we go there we go to Deceptor Studios And they want us to record an album her son Stanley Greenberg is the engineer Burt Bacharach and Hal David are coming to the studio every day and pitching songs to Dionne Warwick who's there Asher and Simpson are coming pitching songs And we get to be really good friends.

And they're engineers, Phil Ramone, in his studio, and Stanley Greenberg, in the Scepter Studios. The Beatles paperback writer came out, which I loved because it was a day in the life of a guy, just like Johnny B. Goode. And I wanted to write a song about a day in the life of a guy. I was sick of writing these eyes, and those kind of ballads.

I wanted to write a song about a guy, whether he was a garbage, Collector or whatever he did and I said to Stanley Greenberg I want to write a song about you and it's going to copy paperback writer And why do you leave the studio every day at 10 o'clock? I take the train home Don't you live here in new york?

He said no. I live outside of new york Stanley your mother owns this building. There's three four wishes. He shows the studio the publishing the managers there There's apartments there. He said no i'm on my own and he was blind But look, so how do you get home? He said, I take the train home. I said, you gotta be kidding.

I said, when you go home tonight, I'll go with you. Where do we go? We said grand central station. I said, wow, I'd never been there. And he said, don't try to help me. I've done this my whole life. So how do you get there? So I count steps. So this was amazing for me. I had no affiliation with anybody who was vision impaired before.

I leave at 10 o'clock with him and he's got a white cane and he goes and he's don't talk to me because he's counting steps. He's walking and he's tapping. Counts like 300 steps, 350 steps. He stops. There's a tweet tweet which means you can cross and there's like A green light that you can walk. So he walks across, counts another 250 steps.

I'm walking beside him, amazed. We end up at Grand Central Station. It's fantastic. There's nobody on the streets. It's 10.15 at night, it's empty. Everyone's in the Broadway shows, or they're in Madison Square Gardens. In 15 minutes, when the game is over in Madison Square Gardens, and they Theaters are, it's the world's fair parking lot right in the streets, but there's nothing going on.

So Stanley, there's nothing to write about. There's nothing to write about. I wanted to write about what's going on when you're going home. I wanted to call the song White Collar Worker, because every day to work, he's wearing a white button down shirt, a tweed jacket, and a tie and everything. And I said, why do you dress this way?

He said, I want to look like George Martin. He's the world's greatest producer. Okay, I want to write a song. I'm gonna call it white collar work because you wear this button down white collar shirt every day But I have nothing to write about I said, so I'm going home. When do you come in? I take the 815 into the city And I go, oh, and?

It's weird. All the girls are like, I smell perfume and hairspray. They're all trying to look pretty because we all take the train in. We land at Grand Central. They all go out and work at Mutual of New York. And they're all looking pretty. And then I walk to work by 9 and I start my job to get my pay. And I go, okay.

They get up in the morning for the alarm clocks. I write that down. I go, wow, this is great. And it's called White Collar Worker. So when I've done the verses, which are the same as the verses of Taking Care of Business, I go to my big hook, which is White Collar Worker and it goes, White Collar Worker, just like Paperback Rider.

The whole song dies at that moment. I played for Burton Cummings, he says, forget it, we'll never do that, we'll get sued by the Beatles. I start Brave Belt, they don't want to do the song. Brave Belt 1, Brave Belt 2 comes, Brave Belt 3 comes up, still doesn't come up, they don't want to do this song. We're going to a gig one night in Vancouver, across the bridge to North Vancouver, and Daryl B., who's a friend of ours, Daryl Birmingham from Winnipeg, is on C Fun Radio going, Daryl B. on C Fun Radio, we're taking care of business. And I go, wow. What a great song title, Taking Care of Business. I write it down. My songwriting kit in my car is a smashed crayon and a McDonald's napkin. I write down, Taking Care of Business, so don't forget it.

Because if you don't write down your dream, you'll forget it. And I get to the gig that night, and we've been playing this club six nights a week. 5, 15 minute sets a night, starting at 7, ending at 1. Fred Turner says, I can't sing anymore, you're gonna sing. So I had to sing the last set, and I'm not a singer.

I had Fred and Burton Cummings, the two of the greatest singers in Canada. I only sang like a relief song once in a while, or sang harmony, or sang the high Brian Wilson part in Beach Boys songs. So suddenly I have to sing a song or two. So I pull out a Bob Dylan song, It Goes Nowhere. I pull out Oye Como Va, which we don't know any Spanish, but nobody in Vancouver knows any Spanish, so we're phonetically singing Oye Como Va, Benitmo, just to get to the solo and everyone's dancing.

And while they're up dancing to Oye Como Va, and I'm going to, I'm thinking, what are you going to do next? Because it's the last set and the club owner wants everybody i'm drinking they turn up the heat They give you popcorn and pretzels. You're thirsty. You buy more beer more rounds and that's why the existence to sell booze What am I going to do next?

I've got to end this song and a light comes on the other side of my brain that says This is your big chance for white collar worker Every band has passed on it for six years Do it now and put it in taking care of business instead of white collar worker, and this is going on in my head. I'm playing Carlos the guitar solo as the original white collar worker had maybe 10 or 11 chords.

It was full of chords, but I can't tell them the chords. So when I'm all done, Oye Como Va, I turn to say three chords. C B flat now follow me and sing in the hook. And they go, what? And I start to play the guitar thing and we get to the hook the second time they start to sing it And I answer them amazingly they sing taking care of business and I sing every day taking care of business every way Taking care of business, It's all mine taking care of business and working overtime work out and then boom The crowd goes crazy because there's this thing in the air That this is being given to us by the gods of song, right? Just like when I wrote American Woman on stage in Kitchener I play the riff and the audience goes what that and I keep playing the riff And there's an excitement that's coming as people are making up and jamming to the riff But we did the song that night the audience loved it and we went a couple of weeks later to record it And Fred said he didn't want to sing it.

He wanted me to sing a real song. I stopped doing the Bob Dylan song and the Oya Como Va. So I sang that song in the studio in one take, because it was just an album cut. And I'm Fred's relief pitcher, so to speak. And when we do the song, it's one o'clock in the morning. I just, I sing it once. Cause it's like, it's a throwaway song.

There's a knock at the door of the studio. This is in Seattle. And I opened the door and there's a guy standing there, he's about six foot four, big black frizzy beard, black frizzy hair, wearing an army hat, army suit, and he's holding three pizzas. And I say, yeah. He says, you guys ordered pizza. I say, no, there's Studio A, Studio B down the hall, Steve Miller, and Studio C is Jerry Goldsmith doing war.

So no, they probably ordered the pizza. We're going home. We've been here since 10 in the morning. It's not one o'clock the next morning. And so he says, okay. And we're putting on our coats. He comes back, open the door. He's standing there again. I said, yeah, did you get rid of the pizza? He says, yeah, I got rid of it down the hall.

I said, can we help you? He's standing there. He said, I don't really deliver pizza all the time. Just the end of the month when I can't pay my rent. I'm really a piano player. I've been listening to this song through the door. It sounds really great. I could use a piano. I said, yeah, I thought I could use a piano too.

I know a little Richard and Elton John. They're in LA right now at the Grammy awards. I might get them to play. And he said, I'm a piano player. Give me a shot. I said, what? I said, we're going home and we're really tired. Please give me a break. Give me a break. I said, okay. We threw a mic in the piano. He played it once.

I was going to erase it the next day. They had our label flew in the next day. Charlie Fosch came in from Chicago to hear the album, and I said to the engineer, don't play the piano track. We hadn't even heard it back. The guy just played it and we went home. So halfway through the song the engineer pushes up the control and in comes the piano and Charlie Fosch goes, what is that?

Piano, that is amazing because Mr. Elton John owns FM radio and AM radio because of the piano. All you guys are the same. You and ZZ and the Doobie brothers and Allman brothers. You're all guitar, bass, and drums. So I have a keyboard in there. We'll get you much more real estate on top 40 radio. You'll get top 40 airplane.

You're going to love it. So we backed the singer and play the whole thing with the piano. And he says, by the way, he was playing the piano. And I said, I have no idea. A guy who delivered pizza here. Said he wanted a break to give a shot and I had him play it. And he had gone home, I don't know who he is.

Where'd you get the pizza from? I said, I don't know, we didn't order the pizza. So I go down the hall to Steve Miller and nobody knows where the pizza came from. So I go to the lady at the front of the studio. I say, look, here's the yellow pages. You start at Antonio's, I'll start halfway through at Mario's.

Go in all the Italian places within two or three blocks of the studio and see if they have a pizza guy that delivered pizza here. And he looks like Fidel Castro. What? I said, yes, you've got a big frizzy black beard, black hair. And he's wearing an army suit. That's what Castro looked like at the time. So I get lucky and I get this guy.

His name is Norman Durkee and that's the piano here on Taking Care of Business. It was a big break for him. He went on to be Bette Midler's musical director on her first North American tour. And when I toured with Ringo Starr in 95 as part of the All Star Band. One of our last gigs was at the Greek Theater in L.A. The Greek Theater is where the L. A. Philharmonic rehearse and play. The piano player for the Philharmonic was Norman Yerkes. I got to meet him there again. So it was really a great turnaround, and he's passed away since then, but he lives on forever in that song. 

BTO: Taking Care of Business

Peter McCully: Was there something in the water in Winnipeg in the 1960s because Randy Bachman, Chad Allen, Burton Cummings, Neil Young and others were all honing their craft in Winnipeg? Correct. 

Randy Bachman: You gotta remember Colin James came through Winnipeg, Tom Cochran, it was like all the Ontario bands basically come through Toronto, right?

That's their gateway to the world. But you look at who came out of Winnipeg. Absolutely amazing. Gordie Johnson from Big Sugar. Everybody came through Winnipeg. That was like the keyhole from the west to the east, which everybody wanted to get to Toronto. I think it's many things. It's where Winnipeg was, the middle of nowhere, like the middle of North America, the middle of flatland, and it was the top of the Great Plains.

At night, this is way before FM radio, you had AM radio and at night because of the Great Plains and the cloud atmosphere in bed at night, I would get WLS in Chicago, WNOE in New Orleans, another station in St. Louis and be hearing all this incredible music you never heard in Winnipeg, it was all blues and rhythm and blues like from Chicago, you're hearing Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy when they were 20 year old guys and they were like, The Hendrixes of their time.

And then a lot of great country music coming up as well. I had a little, what's it called, a rocket radio? It looked like a little rocket. It had no speaker, no dials, nothing. Just a little rocket with a nose on top, but when you ground it into the ground, and you pulled up the top of the rocket ship, and it would be like a radio dial.

And all it had was a little output. You put one headphone in your ear, a little earphone in, pretend you're going to sleep. Your parents think you're going to sleep. You have this thing in your ear. You have this little rocket radio under your bed and you pull it up until you get ws in chicago You listen all night long me You call neil young and go listen on your radio go up like three little ticks and you'll get ws And if you go up five, you'll get three new orleans and he would call me back and say Yeah, there's a great station here and here and pull it up and listen to that.

So we all listen to the same stuff And it was like this was our secret plus we also had stuff coming from england from cliff richard and the shadows And then the early beatles, so we did music that was very not canadian Canadian music and then it was pretty thick and country, right? It was like the beaumarks clap your hands and all that kind of stuff Suddenly we were rock and rolling and mixing blues and country and everything together and out of that comes the guess who in buffalo springfield and fred turner is there in a band and he becomes part of bto and 60s was wonderful in winnipeg because The drinking age was 21.

So when you had a high school dance, we as a band could not play a nightclub in Winnipeg. We played the high school dances. So everybody who's 21 and wants a good band, they come to your high school dances. Normally a high school dance would have 150 people. In Winnipeg you'd have 6 and 7 and 800. They'd be all older people, 22, even older coming because the bands were there rocking.

We have two or three bands playing a night. So there were like a hundred bands going on in Winnipeg from 61, 62, 63, like all playing gigs all the time. And the money was incredible and it really fueled us. And then plus, having the bad weather. You get smart enough to say, I'm not gonna play hockey anymore outdoors.

We're gonna play rock and roll inside. And you, you insulate your garage to go in your basement. Your parents let you use your basement. Because my parents knew where I was all the time. They knew where my brothers were all the time. Instead of being out in the street where he now, why doesn't he come home?

We're in the basement making a racket. And we made a living outta making that racket and everybody was the same. 

Peter McCully: I loved your reference to the Rocket Radio when I was a youngster, we used to listen to W. A. B. C. in the evening on a crystal radio set that I got from a Simpson Sears catalog. Yeah, yeah. Great music.

I understand that your son Tal is a member of the current BTO lineup. You've two been pretty busy, you recorded an album a couple of years ago. I also enjoyed the YouTube channel that you had live going during the pandemic. 

Randy Bachman: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. 

Peter McCully: You would play for an hour, like you just take some lyrics and sit down and do different takes on songs and some songs you've never even done before.

Randy Bachman: What happened was, nobody knew how long COVID was going to last. Coco, who is now his wife, had her own salon in Victoria doing hair and nails and she was also doing makeup for movies. They shoot a lot of Hallmark movies in Victoria because of the weather. She called me up and said, you're just starting a movie, we're shut down for two weeks.

I got three sound guys and three camera guys, they were being paid for two weeks. Why don't you and Tal do a YouTube? I said, I don't want to do a YouTube. What are you going to do? Just do a Wayne's World. It doesn't have to be serious. You can just goof around. And I said, okay, Tal, you bring five songs that you know that I have only heard but I've never played to.

Because I was 25 when he was born, right? There's two decades between us. And I'll bring five or six songs. I would bring Chuck Berry, Elvis. The Beatles, he would bring Queen, Sweet, Duran and Van Halen, stuff that I'd only heard, but had never played. And we would sit there and he'd say, okay, here's a song.

And we would try to play together and we'd have the wrong chords, the wrong key. We'd try to sing it. It was a train wreck. We did one. I said, this is so terrible. I'm so embarrassed. And then we started to get email from fans saying, this is incredible because we know that everything we hear on the radio, you guys have done 30 times.

You've made a perfect solo, a perfect this and that. And to see you actually making mistakes. We actually sit there with our family, with guitars and play along with you and make the same mistakes. And it's great to show your humanness and that you do make mistakes. So we did that for almost a whole year and it became a real fun thing for us.

And we literally would try to stump each other and we call it the train wreck and really make a train wreck. And we didn't have to try that hard. 

Peter McCully: It was a lot of fun. I've been going back over some of the archive editions. There's quite a few of them up there and it's a lot of fun. Yeah. I understand Coco is heading out on the road with the latest BTO lineup. That's your daughter in law who's a drummer. 

Randy Bachman: Yeah. Yeah, so it's a big change and it's gonna be quite fantastic When we start to do the train wreck thing, she closed her business and they moved in with me I had double pneumonia and whooping cough and cancer had to go through chemo. I needed a nurse She said look, I'll be your nurse.

I have a great big giant house So they moved in the house and they've been here ever since they live in half the house I live in the other half we share the studio the kitchen everything else It's a great living arrangement, and she's become my personal nurse through that whole thing, and then just because we're here, and you probably saw it on our Friday night train wreck, she started playing drums on a little wooden box and a drum set.

She would set up the mic and the camera. And get it going to see, jump in. She would come in and jump in. So as a one man army, she did all of this stuff. She arranged it all. She did the posting, the YouTube, the camera, the sound, play drums, did the editing if we needed editing and stuff like that. So she inherited through evolution and necessity.

And great love and caring, this position in the family band, and it's like Leonard Skinner. The music lives on. 

Peter McCully: And you were telling me a story just before we started rolling here to record about how she has memorized how to play left handed. 

Randy Bachman: It's amazing, all the drum rolls. When she plays drums, it really sounds like BTO because it's my brother Robby, he and I played together.

He learned to play backwards. I used to make him listen to Ringo Starr, who's a left handed drummer, playing right handed drums. All his drum rolls go the wrong way. So Robbie would play that way, even though he was right handed. So his solo, instead of going high to low, go backwards sometimes. People thought it was weird, and so did I, but listening to it now, part of my guitar solo, I would take a little breather where I'm changing position, he would do this weird drum roll, and it became such a part of my solo, in Rollin Down the Highway and some of the other songs.

That was a normal guy just doing straight time. It's not right. It's like playing with a drum machine Having Coco kind of channel him and she has memorized everything he's done and we got his old drum set and everything It's just like having Robbie there on drums. It's really amazing My brother Robbie was 10 years younger than me.

And when I was trying to cut an album in Winnipeg He was still in grade 11. He didn't even have a drum set But he liked to play drums. If you remember growing up you had oatmeal in a big round box with a quaker on it. We would get those round boxes and I'd cut them in half and make different sides and tape them up so he would have three or four of those pots and pans and wooden spoons and he'd be playing drums to music I'm listening to.

The Beatles, Chuck Berry, all that kind of stuff. And I couldn't find a drummer when I left the Guess Who. And I'm trying to start a new band and I said, look, I'll get you a set of drums and you just need to play like Ringo Starr. So listen to all this Beatles stuff. So he listened to it all. Gary Peterson, who was the drummer in the Guess Who, loaned me his first.

Set of drums, which we took to the studio and Robbie played them. A couple years later, we evolved from Barry Belton to Bachman Turner Overdrive. We got Fred Turner in the band, and then Robbie was the drummer right out of grade 11. But he had this style of drumming that he and I grew up with him learning to play that way.

So when I would do a solo, and there'd be a little space, then he would answer me, kind of like call and response kind of thing. And that showed up in a lot of solos and guys like Jim Valance, who's a great drummer, who Brian Adams is co writer and produced many great music. See Robbie back is one of my favorite drummers.

I'm going, well, why? He's just like a kid who played on oatmeal boxes. No, he plays really great stuff. He plays different stuff than anybody else. So Robbie didn't know rudiments like guys doing press rolls or mama data kind of things. He just played. And obviously besides Ringo, I got him to listen to John Bonham, Charlie Watts, and Keith Moon.

So you put all that together, and you listen to Ringo, and you're listening a lot to Creedence, which the drummer's a lot like Ringo, just straight kind of mersey beat. You get a really solid heavy drum, and there was a time we were just a trio, it was me and Lee Guitar, Fred on bass, and Robbie on drums.

And I would go away Monday to Thursday to try to get a record deal to LA or New York. They would stay home in Winnipeg, and just rehearse bass and drums. And I would get them to play every Creedence song, every Beatles song, and start recording with a kick drum, right? So you get a really good solid foundation, and once you get that, you put anything else on top.

So that's how we did it. I would leave them in Calgary, in the winter. We couldn't afford a hotel. They camped. We went to closed KOA grounds, put newspaper and cardboard on the snow, set up a tent, and I'd go to L. A. because we couldn't all afford to go to L. A. And I would come back to Calgary, play a gig, drive to Saskatoon or Regina, camp in the snow.

We had fishing rods. We would stop in B. C. and fish, and have a little barbecue we would eat in the van. It's like survival of the fittest. We really went through rock and roll hell just to rock out and be a band. 

Peter McCully: You can hear BTO's influences in countless rock bands that followed your musical trail. Which artists have told you that your music influenced them and which one of those might have surprised you the most? 

Randy Bachman: Some bands that became supreme metal bands, Metallica, Megadeth, the Goo Goo Dolls. They used to all do BTO stuff in their set. They're like in Ontario, or they live in Buffalo or something, they'd hear the music across the border, and they would all play that stuff.

And then bands like, in England, Little Thin Lizzy, and the Scorpions in Germany, and Slade, and bands all over the world who, their first album was Not Fragile, the third album. Because that's the one that went multi platinum and had, you ain't seen nothing yet on. We had the momentum from BTO1 and BTO2 that had taken care of business and let it ride on.

And we were like pumping out singles and album. That was a great era when you put her in an album and sold us an album. And then you had singles that went on the radio. You sold singles. It was really a great era, which was like, I don't know, 71 to 78. Then disco came in and everything ended. 

Peter McCully: You were the host of vinyl tap for almost 20 years, which started out as a.

CBC show and it seems to me like a very natural progression of your storytelling because the well is deep as you've just mentioned and you Always seem to have a great nugget every week I think one of my favorites was when you met Van Morrison in London when you and Burton Cummings helped him out 

Randy Bachman: We have seen Van Morrison a couple of times and we had been in England in 67 We came back and went to do upbeat which is a American bandstand kind of show in Cleveland So you go to Detroit you cross the bridge you go over to Cleveland you do this thing on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock They have a band on just like American bandstand and kids are dancing Because it was Cleveland and television it went to Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, all the other little cities in Pennsylvania and in New York City.

A lot of people saw you and even if you're a Toronto band, you'd drive down to Cleveland and play upbeat because you'd get a lot of gigs over the border. It was much easier to cross the border back then to go and play in Utica, New York or Buffalo or Rochester. It was really, you just drove over and said, we're going to play a gig.

That's the way that developed. It was an amazing four days in Cleveland. We're playing the Cleveland Art Institute, which is an art school. We're sharing a dressing room with the new yard birds. Who had broken up and Jimmy Page had pulled them together because they had gigs in the States and they had their hit songs And so we're sharing a classroom, which is our dressing room and I'm right next to Jimmy Page We're changing our shirts and I've got a Rickenbacker guitar and he's got his telly and he says can I play your Rickenbacker?

And I say sure and I play his telly and then we do our set and he does his set with the Yardbirds At that time he said I'm this is my last gig with these guys. I want to start a new band I don't know what we're going to be called. It's going to be a rock and roll blues band. And so after that, we go and do upbeats the next day.

And Van Morrison's there. And so they would tape like four upbeats and play them every single Saturday. So you only have to go there one Saturday a month, just like they do wheel of fortune and jeopardy. They tape them all at once while the studio's together. So we're there and there's a whole bunch of dressing rooms and Burton and I have already done the show and we go by this dressing room and we hear sobbing.

And the door's a little bit open, so we tap the door and look inside, and there's this little guy. And it's Van Morrison. And he's little, he's 5'2 or 3 Bert and I are 6'2 guys. And so there's this little guy there, and he's sitting there like in a heap, and he's like sobbing. Excuse me, Van, Mr. Morrison.

Don't call me Mr. Morrison, call me Van. What's wrong? Can we help you? He says, I have the number one song in the world, Brown Eyed Girl. It's number one on Billboard. I have no money. I'm broke. The airline lost my luggage. I don't have a guitar. I have no clothes. I've got to go in and sing Brown Eyed Girl in 20 minutes.

I said, okay, here's a guitar, I gave him a Yamaha guitar. Burton had this white shirt with black spots on it, we called it his Dalmatian shirt. Burton gave Van Morrison the shirt. And he wore Burton's shirt and sang Brown Eyed Girl, and he played my guitar. And after the show, we said, Look, just keep them. You got another gig tonight. Keep the guitar and keep the shirt. And he did. That was pretty cool. 

Peter McCully: Randy, you've got a great musical collaboration going with your son Tal, as we mentioned. There was an album a couple of years ago. 

Randy Bachman: Well, we've got an album that Tal and I did called Bachman and Bachman that has not been released yet as part of the soundtrack of the documentary that's coming out where I got my Gretsch guitar back after 47 years of it being stolen.

So that's being in the final stages of editing right now. We played it at TIFF in late, I guess, September, and it was the audience favorite and TIFF is now since it was played at the Newport, Nashville and Salt Lake and with the audience's favorite. So they're getting funding now, except LA has exploded.

So that's delayed because of the fires, but it'll be being finished up and it'll be out on Netflix something like that very soon. And in that talent, I went to Seattle and cut an album that we wrote. Specifically in COVID, because we thought everything was over. This is the last thing we're writing. It was a writing about the world and about surviving and about how important family is and all this kind of stuff.

And so there's some really great songs in there that will be coming out soon when the movie comes out. And then we went to Japan to get my guitar, because that's where it was found. We went there, we got BTO Live in Japan tapes. 18 songs in 1976 when BTO played the Budokan. They were given to me, I'm now mixing them.

We were hot in 1976. We had done a European tour. We were the number one band and album in the world with Not Fragile and Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. And TCB, and Let It Ride, and Hey You, and all the other songs. And so we had toured America with Bob Seger, and we went to England and toured with Slade and Thin Lizzy, went to Germany with Scorpion, and went to Japan and played.

By the time we got to Japan, with the end of a 90 day tour, we were like Led Zeppelin. We would play our song on stage in the middle. I would go into a little Diversion or a side trail and robbie and fred would follow me on bass and guitar and we would jam the song was very incredible And so for me to hear this i'm mixing it now And hopefully we're going to make a deal with the universal music again mca music I said look here's bto live in japan double vinyl Let's make it this great vinyl and let's put it out and we're working on a new bto album and fred's still in winnipeg He recently lost his wife for many years He and I are writing songs and he's singing them, and if we play the Winnipeg gig in April, he might just come out and sing a song or two, we're counting on that.

And they're naming a bridge in Winnipeg after us, the Disraeli Overpass, they're now calling it the Baccarin Turner Overpass, and so they're naming the bridge there after us, and the next day we play there. And the day we play there is actually my brother Gary's birthday, and he passed away in the last couple years from COVID, and he had a heart issue.

I feel very fortunate to be going on tour. With BTO and I'm really grateful for the fans who basically are sending us a set list We traveled so many miles to see you many years ago, and you never did this song. You never did that song. And I'm saying, OK, which show are you coming to? Because we can't do them all.

We've got seven albums to play. And we put a lot more BTO songs into the set. We still do a little tribute to the guests, too. Like a little three song medley in the front end, and a little three song medley in the back end. But basically, it's jammed full, for BTO fans, of the BTO stuff. So I'm really looking forward to it.

We're having fun learning these songs. And a lot of times the fans grab on to two or three songs. But that's your hits. And you end up playing those. And the other album cuts, which were very important at the time, they get left behind. But fans somehow like them in certain cities and certain places.

Certain songs get airplay because the DJ likes them, the people like them, they phone in the radio station. And so we're doing a lot of songs by request that the fans have never ever heard of. We've never even played on stage. And to play them now and going, wow, we were pretty good. Wow, that was a pretty good song.

When you're hot, the label just wants to put out more and more albums. They don't care how you're diluting yourself or prostituting yourself. They just want it out there. Made a lot of mistakes, but out of those mistakes came a lot of great things and I'm celebrating the great things. I'm in the business now of feel good.

It felt good when you're doing it before now. It really feels good That you're looking in the audience and you see a teenager somebody in their 20s or 30s and somebody in their 40s or 40s the Grandfather and the father and the son they all know your songs And they all have a different Memory of the songs.

It's really quite an amazing phenomenon. 

Peter McCully: I was going to ask you about that. It must be fun to look out into the audience and see young people discovering. 

Randy Bachman: It really is. And in the last four or five months, we were on tour like late last year. I was fortunate enough to go and see Neil Young. Who's my old friend from Winnipeg in Toronto at the amphitheater there with crazy horse.

It was phenomenal. Two days later, me and Tal went to New York. I was selling one of my guitars to auctioned in New York. Went to see the Stones in New York. It was amazing. To see Mick Jagger and the eternal Keith Richards on guitar. And Ron Wood. These guys are in their 80s. All Crazy Horse were in their 80s.

Out there rockin and rollin I feel very fortunate. I'm in that same age group. And to be able to get out there and rock and roll, like you're 20 or 30 again, is quite incredible. And your audience. There's your same age guys are still there and their kids when you listen to a radio station now, it's quite amazing There's so much of it.

Now. There's 60s classic rock 70s 80s in it's in decades But tell song she's so high has bridged three different gaps So when he does that on stage with us as part of bto the crowd goes crazy They don't realize that was my son that had that hit i'm even playing guitar on that record with him 

Peter McCully: Randy, thanks for your time today. We're really looking forward to seeing BTO Back in overdrive. 

Randy Bachman: Great. We'll see you soon. 

Dave Graham: Randy Bachman, a full on Canada grade A rock star. How cool is that? You know, when he started 1970s, this was fresh off the success of the Guess Who? He could not find a record deal. He got rejected two dozen times before finally signing a contract, which just goes to show, there's probably a lesson in there about perseverance and focus and setting goals, but it just goes to show that record companies often did not know what they were doing.

Peter McCully: Dave, the Pulse Community Podcast is at its best when we have two way communication and we're interested in hearing your Valentine's Day stories. How do you celebrate? Have you a memory to share about one Valentine's Day in particular? Click on the link labeled speak to us in the story notes and literally do so or text us if that's more appealing. And this might be a question we'll be asking the next time we take our show on the road. Yes, be on the lookout for the Peter and Dave Roadshow as we connect with you, the Pulse community. We're going to learn how to cook crickets at various locations in the weeks to come. 

Dave Graham: Okay, Peter, Let's head down to the cafeteria and see what special Mabel has for us today.

Peter McCully: I hear she's been learning to cook using insects. You know that when prepared properly. Crickets taste like bacon. 

Dave Graham: So what do you want on your pizza? 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.