Bachman Turner Overdrive was Canada's biggest classic rock export. In one year they peaked with a #1 album on Billboard, a pair of #1 singles and performed in front of millions. In the last 30 years however; BTO has seen diminished sales, deleted titles, departed namesakes and "reunion" shows in front of dozens. These days they're more likely to show up in popular culture as a punch line. In Bruce McDonald's excellent film "Highway 61", one of his flawed character's is the frontman for a BTO cover band that also plays "Meetallica and Gun and Rose". In their heyday, both frontmen were somewhat heavy-duty giving creedence to their nick "Bachman Turner Overweight"... Anyhow...Bachman Turner OverDRIVE formed in 1972 under the auspices of Randy Bachman. He tinkered with the band by adding brothers and firing brothers until settling on the classic line-up of Bachman-Turner-Thornton-Bachman. Thinking that anagram was a little too complicated..Randy settled on BTO with the "Overdrive" reference coming from the bible of 18 wheeler's magazines.
Their first album failed to do much of anything anywhere. The second had a couple of top 20 singles and slid up the charts nicely winding out 1974 with a top 5 finish. They quickly ramped up, tuned up and loaded up for their 3rd. At the time, progressive rock of the day was becoming a little too overblown. To compensate, Bachman came up a 4 chord wonder that was decidedly not Yes, ELP, or King Crimson. It was un-progressive rock. Yes had "Fragile"....Bachman Turner Overdrive had "Not Fragile"...and arena had its rock... On the strength of "Not Fragile" BTO became a worldwide sensation and played to sold-out crowds all over the world. Coincidentally; their development happened right alongside mine. My first concert experience was in 1975 when BTO played the Colisseum in Edmonton. By the way, I was the 12 year old kid in the hawaiian print polyester shirt snacking on a smuggled Dairy Queen brazier in the nosebleed section. And if you were the girl sitting next to me....sorry for the onion breath...
A couple of years ago, HDS Laboratories got a hold of the original "Not Fragile" tapes and remastered them for high definition surround. Just so we're clear...that's BTO in 5.1 HDS. Now then, you need a dts decoder in your dvd to play this disc. If you put it in your cheap tabletop Wurlitzer it goes "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...BLIP...SCREE".... Anyways; on first listen that sinister bass line on the title track is ground-pounding fun. Guitar parts are neatly split between the front and rear channels and drums beat all around room. The jazzy "Rock is my life and this is my song" has a nice depth to it that fills the room. It quickly leads into a power chord segment that grinds between the front and rears. And then from the "just because you can...it doesn't mean you should department"...the engineers decided to isolate an incidental guitar fill on "Roll on Down the Highway". In the front channels, a rhythm and bass guitar chug along like a locomotive when out of the rears you get a single guitar going "plinka-plinka". As an aside, I didn't know a guitar could go "plinka-plinka". Anyhow, with isolation comes undue attention. I find myself unnecessarily drawn to that incidental sound. That same effect returns with "You ain't Seen Nothin' Yet"...only this time, its a sequestered tambourine going "shagga-lagga-shagga-laggal-lag"....oh stop it already... On the other hand, the engineer isolates Frank Towbridges' slide guitar on "Blue Moanin'. In the end, the slide guitar sparkles in stereo across the rear channels AND it helps the listener to better appreciate just what the hell Randy Bachman is blasting away on rhythm. So in spite of a couple of slight annoyances, its a pretty good transfer. Later on, the engineer pulls a rotational effect on "Free Wheelin'". The section begins with power chords flashing between the front and rear channels followed by a lone lead dipping between the left and right front channels and then he sonically spins the whole soundscape 90 degrees effectively transporting the listener from their couch to the drum stool. Hey I wouldn't have believed it either...but I was madly flaying away on the air drums at the time and the spin gave me a taste of stagefright. Deeper in; "Second hand" has a left-laned lead guitar speed around the room paying particular attention to each of the 4 corners. And on the last track, it's flat-out 5.1 boogie..it had me replicating Arlo Guthrie's crazy Woodstock dance...in my wheelchair...like some kind of a wheeling-spinning-whirling-dervish... All in all...this DTS transfer of Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Not Fragile" is great cement-headed fun specially deconstructed for all us punters out there. There you have it...my time's done...think I'll get me that brazier now...
