Bachman-Turner Overdrive BTO

Randy Bachman was the guitarist for Canada's first hard-rock band, the Guess Who, formed several years before the term "hard-rock" was coined. When hard-rock became fashionable, they recorded three albums, Wheatfield Soul (RCA, 1969), Canned Wheat (RCA, 1969) and American Woman (RCA, 1970), that established them among the premier hard-rock acts in the world (respectively These Eyes, Undun, American Woman).

Bachman left Guess Who to launch his solo career, with Axe (RCA, 1970), and to form his own band, Brave Belt, which recorded two albums, I (1971) and II (1972). When bassist Fred Turner joined the band, the Bachman-Turner Overdrive was born. Their first album with the new name, Bachman Turner Overdrive (Mercury, 1973), offered solid boogie. II (Mercury, 1974) was heavily influenced by the Who (Takin' Care Of Business). Not Fragile (1974), their masterpiece, contains You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet and Roll On Down The Highway. After the mediocre Four Wheel Drive (1975), the band tried to reinvent itself on Head On (1976), which couples traditional numbers such as Take It Like A Man with more sophisticated pieces such as Lookin' Out For Number One. After Freeways (1977), Bachman left the band and launched a new project, Ironhorse, which released Ironhorse and Everything Is Grey. The band reunited for BTO (Compleat, 1984).



Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Taking Care Of Business lyrics

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There's a whistle up above
And people pushin', people shovin'
And the girls who try to look pretty

And if your train's on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day

And I'll be...
Taking care of business, every day
Taking care of business, every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Taking care of business. and working overtime
Work out

If it were easy as fishin'
You could be a musician
If you could make sounds loud or mellow
Get a second-hand guitar
Chances are you'll go far
If you get in with the right bunch of fellows
People see you having fun
Just a-lying in the sun
Tell them that you like it this way
It's the work that we avoid
And we're all self-employed
We love to work at nothing all day

And I'll be...
Taking care of business, every day
Taking care of business, every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime

One, two, three, four
And we be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime