In this brisk, fun ride, Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman tells the stories of how he rose to the top of the charts with The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, married a Mormon, and launched an obsessive quest when his beloved Gretsch guitar disappeared.
Nobody tells stories like Randy Bachman. The Canadian rock legend, who co-founded The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has a perfectly pitched sense of humour and an ear for the telling detail that makes listeners lean in. In Takin’ Care of Business, director Tyler Measom crafts a brisk, fun ride through the stories of how Bachman catapulted into the rock star life, married a Mormon, and fell dangerously in love with a vintage Gretsch guitar.
As Bachman tells these tales, Measom illustrates with previously unseen footage from the ’70s and ’80s, and counterpoints from the people who know the man best, including his son Tal Bachman, who had his own pop hit in the late ’90s with “She’s So High”. What emerges is a portrait of a man who balances the wild excesses of chart-topping fame with wry, Prairie humour. He recounts how The Guess Who’s megahit “American Woman” began with trying to tune a broken guitar string. In fact, that orange 1957 Gretsch keeps cropping up as Bachman’s muse and talisman. So when it goes missing on tour, he is shattered.
It’s here that ’ Care of Business becomes a story of mystery and obsession. Bachman buys every similar guitar he can find. He thinks he spots his lost love in a Thompson Twins music video. And then, in the midst of health challenges and COVID lockdowns, he gets a lifeline to the Gretsch, halfway across the world.
Even if you know Bachman’s work well, it makes for a terrific story. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Screenings
Roy Thomson Hall
Scotiabank 11
TIFF Lightbox 1