Considering Burton has been apart of my listening rotation since my birth and I've grown up a fan of his musical musings I'm a little excited to hear and see a new released of him live. He's one of the very few artists that I can without malice say a live recording is going to be good. He's a solid performer and a great actually lets go there he's an absolutely brilliant singer on a live stage.The Massey Hall release is a classic run through of all things Burton related and the playlist is undeniably awesome. You can't find songs better than the material that has been included on this album because some of these songs are the greatest rock or pop tunes in the history of music. Sure there are some that we roll our eyes at and that's fine but when you get to a songs like "These Eyes" which is in the top ten or twenty of greatest musical compositions in music my statement is easily proven as an absolute truth.
The album opens with "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" that still has all the charming charisma and shine it had back in 1970 when I was only two years old and I'm positive my parents were cranking up and rocking the house to daily with it. This version has Burton singing it a little lower in key but the presence of his voice and the songs incredible melody dances in my ears and I can't help but sing a long with huge Canadian pride.
The album progresses along through some more Guess Who classics to the Burton Cummings ballad "Stand Tall" that is not only a slice of pure songwriting genius it's probably Burton's single greatest solo hit single. In 2012 at 65 years old you get this guy singing as if he's half or less his age. He sounds great and hits the notes and keeps the melody. A very impressive reading of one his very best moments on vinyl. A few more songs and we get to the Randy Bachman jazz number from 1969 "Undun" a song I wasn't big as a kid but once I grew into a teenager this song really began to come into focus for me and I couldn't get enough of Gary's drumming and Randy's soloing on the original which was really killer stuff especially for me being into drums.
Burton does up "I'm Scared" that the band just hits perfectly here it sounds almost exactly like the album release and Mr. Cummings sounds once again as good he did back in 1977 when the song was originally released on his debut solo album. His duck out of the cold being lost in New York a story I had the personal experience of hearing in total one night while he was sitting on the sofa in our living-room. See my mother dated one of his best friends from childhood and road managers back in the 80's for the better part of a decade. Another reason why I'm such a fanboi of him, I'm sure is that personal connection. Come to think of it I wonder if Marty still works with him today? Anyway back to the music!
The reading of "These Eyes" is a still top flight on the Massey Hall album but I've heard him hit this one out of the park live a few times that I've captured in my memory that will never be touched so this time around as good as it is there are better ones out there. The most overplayed Guess Who track "American Woman" rips it up near the end of this excellent live album. Burton's voice is still the only voice that sounds right singing this song and it's been covered by Kravitz and Krokus to varying degrees of success. I don't care for the Kravitz version and I've never heard anyone do it better the man that wrote it and here on this album it still kicks the ass of all the covers by others.
My one complaint here is that there is no "Bus Rider" and a complete absence of his two rocking solo hits "Your Backyard" along with "My Own Way To Rock" as well as missing is the 80's classic "Fine State Of Affairs" which could have replaced easily "Timeless Love", "Guns Guns Guns" and "Above The Ground" plus he could have finally pulled "Fame Junkie" from obscurity or even his minor hit "Love Dreams" from the excellent 1984 album Heart. Again I'm a huge fan so I can always want for more or different tunes from such a large back catalog of great material.
In the end this is a less spirited version of Burton Cummings given his advanced age but he still has it and the crowds that show up are getting a great performance from a legend. Now only if those moron's and idiots at the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame would induct someone deserving instead these wastes of space like the Beastie Boys and Run DMC who aren't even rock and or roll and didn't come close to earning those spots like the talent that was known collectively as the Guess Who!
