The Foote Files: The Guess Who
(CBS 11) - Guess Who.
No, that is not a rhetorical question!
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was one of the early Canadian bands to be commercially successful in the U.S.
Two of the members that you will recognize are Randy Bachman (who later formed Bachman –Turner Overdrive in 1970) and Burton Cummings.
From 1965 to 1974, the group charted 14 times on Billboard but only had one #1 hit in 1970 with "American Woman", which held that position for three weeks and on the chart as a whole for fourteen weeks, longer than any of their other songs.
In the summer of 1971, the group released "Albert Flasher." The song was already being played in Canada and it was never on any of their studio albums at that time. When you hear it, it was written more for keyboard than anything else, with percussion and guitars in the background. Written by Burton Cummings and produced by Jack Richardson, running 2:18 on the RCA Victor label, the lyrics go like this:
I was a workshop owner in the gulch for the people
And I offered myself to the world
I was a workshop owner
I was a workshop owner
I was a diesel fixer, fixed a diesel, diesel fixed me
What a weasel
And baby was a workshop owner
Baby was a workshop owner
Baby and me were ripe for the pickin'
That was the day we ran into Albert Flasher
The song reached #13 in Canada, #28 in Austrailia, and #29 in the U.S.
Enjoy this version perfomed by the group in 2004 in their home town of Winnepeg during a cross-Canadian tour!
