By the time the Guess Who released American Woman in the spring of 1970, the band had established a near-constant presence in Top 40 radio. Singles such as “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” and “Undun” had solidified the Canadian group’s reputation as masters of the three-minute pop song. But the band longed for something more, and with American Woman, they got it. Sporting a heavier vibe and tackling weightier themes, the album helped give the Guess Who credibility among their harder rocking peers.
“We always wanted to have a harder sound,” says guitarist Randy Bachman, who, along with keyboardist and lead singer Burton Cummings, wrote most of the material for the album. “We fought like mad not to have ‘These Eyes’ released as our first single, because we didn’t want to be viewed as a ballad band. But when ‘These Eyes’ became a million seller, the record company asked us to write another song like that. When ‘Laughing’ came out, we were very fortunate that radio programmers flipped it over and started playing ‘Undun,’ which was the B-side. That song helped bridge a gap for us, and put us into a whole new arena.”
The first single from American Woman was “No Time,” a song fueled by Bachman’s psychedelic guitar lines and Cummings’ harmony-laden vocals. Released before the album was completed, the song peaked at No. 5 on the charts, creating anticipation for the forthcoming LP. When American Woman hit record stores, however, it was the title track that created the biggest stir. Crafted around a heavy guitar riff worked up by Bachman during a concert jam, and a menacing vocal by Cummings, the song was a scathing attack on what was happening in America at the time.
“A lot of people thought ‘American Woman’ was addressing the woman on the street,” explains Bachman, “but it wasn’t at all. The band had witnessed all the desolation going on in America, where there were hardly any young men in any of the towns we went to. They had all been drafted. We would see 18-year-old guys at the airports, with their buzz cuts and their uniforms, with their fathers telling them how proud they were, and their mothers and sisters in tears. It was heartbreaking. So instead of singing ‘Uncle Sam, stay away from me,’ or ‘Richard Nixon, stay away from me,’ it was ‘American woman.’ RCA actually released a piece of promotion that showed a New York alley filled with litter, and at the back of the alley was the Statue of Liberty, holding up the torch. Fortunately, by the time radio and the government understood that the song was an anti-war song, it had already reached No. 1.”
Following the explosive one-two punch of the title track and “No Time,” American Woman settles into an eclectic mix that showcases the growing maturation of Bachman and Cummings as songwriters. “Talisman” features Cummings singing the words to a poem he had written two years earlier, as Bachman provides classical-style accompaniment on acoustic guitar. “969” finds Bachman rocking out on a blues instrumental that’s augmented by a jazzy break played on the flute. But it’s the “combination” track, “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature,” that shines most brightly. A melding of two distinct songs into a “round,” of sorts, the composition remains a favorite on classic rock radio.
“Burton and I often brought pieces of songs to one another,” explains Bachman. “We would write great half-songs, which is what most co-writers do. Or maybe you write a third, and your partner writes a third, and then you work on the last third together. In this instance, I brought Burton what I thought was a really weird song. It was in F#, which is a really strange key for the guitar. I played it for him, and he was like, ‘Hey that’s a complete song.’ Then Burton told me he had a song written in F#, which was also weird, to have a piano-based song in that key.”
Bachman continues: “Somehow, at that point, I got the idea that we should play both songs together. I started singing ‘No Sugar Tonight,’ and as I finished each line, Burton would answer me. It was just one of those magical things. We decided to do one of the songs, and then do the other, and then overlap them. The idea was that it would be like the Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life,’ where you have two different parts, in different tempos.”
Nearly four decades on, several songs from American Woman remain part of the classic rock lexicon. The title track, in particular, continues to have a ubiquitous presence in radio and film. Thanks to Lenny Kravitz, who scored a No. 1 hit with his 1999 reworking of the track, the Guess Who’s reputation soared at the turn of the decade. For Bachman, the fact that Kravitz introduced the song to a younger generation of listeners is especially gratifying. (This hilarious clip from Superbad didn't hurt their popularity either.)
“There must be eight or 10 versions of ‘American Woman’ out there, that are basically rehashes with heavier screaming and heavier guitar playing,” Bachman says. “I tend to get tired of those versions after two or three listens. But Lenny Kravitz reinvented the song, and I never get tired of listening to it. He put in a little hip-hop beat, and vocal harmonies, and he re-made the guitar solo. I think his version is great. He took it to a whole new generation of kids.”