.Guess
Who's Playing Seniors' Homes?
By John Mackie ~ CanWest News Service: Vancouver
Sun ~ December 10, 2005
Ian Lindsay, CanWest News Service
Chad Allan, former member of Canadian rock greats
the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive,
performs for seniors at Marpole Family Place in Vancouver.
He now makes his living with such performances.
VANCOUVER - Chad Allan, Canadian rock 'n' roll legend,
straps on the accordion his parents gave him in the early '60s and starts
to play It's a Long Way To Tipperary.
It may seem a bit odd that the original singer for both
the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive would open a show with a music
hall song made popular by British soldiers in the First World War, but
it goes over well with the 20 people in the audience at the Marpole Place
for Seniors in Vancouver.
That's right. Chad Allan, the voice on the garage rock
classic Shakin' All Over, is now playing seniors' homes.
But he doesn't seem to mind. At 62, with snow-white hair,
he's not that far away from senior status himself. He admits it was a bit
weird when he first started playing for seniors, but he discovered it's
spiritually rewarding, although not all that lucrative.
"Not so long ago I played Tsawwassen and this woman came
up to me and said, 'Chad, thank you very much,''' he relates.
"I said 'What for?' She said `My mother hasn't sung or
laughed in a year. And today she's singing, she's laughing. Thank you for
that.'
"It's interesting. Music has a way ... you could have
the sickest person, mentally distant, not talking, but when the music starts,
it brings back memories and the words. They start singing, the words come
back. It's really quite amazing to see.''
He's right. When he starts to softly sing Bye Bye Blackbird
at Marpole, the seniors pick it up and start to sing along. He picks up
the tempo with a medley of the Beer Barrel Polka and The Pennsylvania
Polka, which gets everyone clapping. An accordion version of Jambalaya
by
Hank Williams incites a couple of people to get up dancing.
For a seniors gig, it's rather musically sophisticated.
After he switches to piano, he does a lovely version of Floyd Cramer's
instrumental hit from the '60s, Last Date. Later he does a beautiful
instrumental rendition of Henry Mancini's Moon River. He even shows
off some of his rock 'n' roll roots on rollicking versions of Big Joe Turner's
Flip, Flop and Fly, Ray Charles' What'd I Say, and Jerry
Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire.
It may seem a bit much to do Ray Charles or Jerry Lee
Lewis at a seniors centre, but he finds it goes down well. Besides, you
don't want to do all ancient songs.
"When I go into certain care homes and do a lot of 1920s
stuff, early stuff, I have people come up to me and say, `Listen Chad,
these songs are really nice, but they're kind of old for these people now,'''
he said.
"Even the seniors I'm playing for find those songs kind
of old for them. So we're looking at (songs from the) late '30s into the
'40s and '50s now. As the population matures, now I can do the Beatles.
I could probably even do a Rolling Stones song for some of them and it'd
be OK. Certainly Jerry Lee Lewis works.''
The audience at Marpole Place seems to like whatever he
plays.
"Oh it was great,'' said Gladys Butler, 95. "I'm listening
to one and I think, 'Oh, that's beautiful.' Then the next one comes on
and it's just as beautiful.''
"I like him, he's a nice guy,'' said Margaret Robbins,
87. "He sings lots of songs we know.''
Asked if she knew Chad was a famous rock 'n' roll singer,
Robbins replied: "No, really?''
She was told he was in a band called the Guess Who. They
had a song called Shakin' All Over.
"He's quite the boy,'' she said. "I like something old.''
Allan has been playing seniors facilities on and off for
years, but now it's his main source of income. His period of rock 'n' roll
fame did not make him rich: he quit both the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner
Overdrive (then called Brave Belt) before either had any sustained success.
Hence he now lives in a small rented apartment in Vancouver instead of
a mansion.
Making more money would have been nice, but it doesn't
seem to bother him that both bands he co-founded became wildly successful
after he left.
Besides, there are physical reasons he quit. He basically
blew his voice in the Guess Who by going out and screaming loud rock 'n'
roll for years on end.
Forty years later, his voice is still shot. When he sings,
it's in a strained whisper. Even his speaking voice sounds frail.
"I consider it a miracle right now that I can even speak,
never mind sing,'' admits Allan, who grew up in Winnipeg's East Kildonan
area and who has lived in Vancouver since 1977.
"What really really did it to my voice is we had no monitor
speakers (onstage), you couldn't really hear yourself singing. In order
to hear yourself you'd push yourself, push your throat and push and push.
I'd end up blowing my throat.
"Every weekend we'd be playing rock 'n' roll and by the
time Sunday morning came after the jobs I was just wasted. My voice was
just shot. Then I'd recuperate from Monday to Thursday or Friday, when
we'd play again.''
Unfortunately, he compounded the problem a decade ago.
"I had this crazy accident, actually. I was trying to
heal my throat and swallowed this big hunk of honey on a spoon and I choked
on it. That really did it to my throat. After that incident my voice was
just shot. I was emotionally, psychologically, vocally shot. I became a
bit of a hermit, actually. I was living with my parents at the time and
playing restaurants and things.''
His hermit stage ended when he met and married his wife,
Christine, in 1999. But the gigs dwindled as he got older. He used to play
restaurants and teach songwriting at Vancouver's Kwantlen University College,
but now he only does seniors' shows.
Still, he considers himself lucky that he's always been
able to make his living from music.
He was born Allen Kowbel, but tired of his friends calling
him "cow bell'' he adapted the stage name Chad Allan after '50s singer
Chad Mitchell. He had a number of successful bands in Winnipeg, but really
began to click when guitarist Randy Bachman joined his group the Silvertones.
"He was a really great singer, had great phrasing,'' recalls
Bachman from his home on Salt Spring Island.
"He sang the Paul McCartney songs, the Cliff Richard songs,
the Bobby Vee songs.''
Allan and the Silvertones became Chad Allan and the Reflections
and then Chad Allan and the Expressions. Their uncanny ability to replicate
the hits of the day made them the top band in Winnipeg. When girl groups
became popular, they added a female singer, Carol West, to sing a few songs.
Which sparks one of Bachman's favourite memories of Allan.
"Carol West wanted to sing The Locomotion by Little
Eva, which starts out 'da-da,' with saxes,'' Bachman said.
"We didn't have saxes, so we had the idea to amplify Chad
Allan playing the accordion, because the bass notes on the accordion have
that air moving through them. But Chad was embarrassed to play accordion
onstage. So we got a big cardboard box and wrote on it 'Locomotion Machine.'
You couldn't see the accordion, and we hung a mike over the top.
"The audience is looking at this thing that has printed
on the side in crayon, 'Locomotion Machine.' And Chad starts up the accordion
- da-da-da! - and she sang The Locomotion. Nobody knew that in this
box was an accordion.''
Chad Allan and the Expressions scored a hit around North
America with
Shakin' All Over in 1965. The problem was, no one knew
them as Chad Allan and the Expressions. The original radio station copies
of Shakin' All Over read Guess Who? with no band name, and DJs were
supposed to "guess who'' it was. So everyone called them the Guess Who,
and it stuck.
Allan quit the Guess Who in 1966 because of the problems
with his voice and because he hated travelling. Ironically, a year later
he became host of the Let's Go show on CBC, singing the hits of the day
with the Guess Who as his backing band. After Randy Bachman left the Guess
Who in 1970, Allan and Bachman formed Brave Belt, which recorded two albums
before Allan quit again.
Last spring when the Juno Awards were held in Winnipeg,
longtime Guess Who associate Marty Kramer had the idea of getting the original
band back together for a show, with all the proceeds going to Allan. Everybody
agreed to do it, but all the venues in Winnipeg were booked for Juno-related
shows and the gig never happened.
"I don't know if I was up to it vocally anyway,'' said
Allan, who hasn't been to Winnipeg since the Shakin' All Over rock 'n'
roll reunion concert in 1987.
Allan has thought about reproducing some colourful Guess
Who posters he collected from the band's early years, but his dad, Bill
Kowbel, recently died and he has put the idea on hold.
He also would rather keep the focus of this article away
from his storied history, and towards his seniors' gigs.
"There's all kinds of budget cuts in those areas,'' he
said.
"Generally they're lacking in money, there's a lot of
volunteers and this and that. So I personally would like to focus on that,
the seniors thing. Let people know there is a need there for people to
help out, and for money. That area needs help, it's largely neglected by
the government as far as funding and stuff. I think I would rather keep
it focused on that.''
When the good Lord gave out humble pie, Chad Allan had
seconds.
There were five members in Chad Allan and the Expressions
when they recorded their breakthrough hit, Shakin' All Over. Where
are they now?
Chad Allan (vocals, rhythm guitar) lives in Vancouver
and makes a living playing music at seniors homes.
Randy Bachman (lead guitar) lives on Saltspring
Island and continues to make records and tour, both solo and with Allan's
replacement in the Guess Who, Burton Cummings. He also has a CBC radio
show, Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap. Bachman bought the Guess Who's early material
off Selkirk Communications several years ago and has been reissuing Guess
Who CDs on his own label.
Jim Kale (bass) still lives in Winnipeg. After
the Guess Who broke up in 1975, he copyrighted the name and has gone on
tour as the Guess Who with a variety of sidemen. Health problems forced
him to bow out of the Bachman-Cummings Guess Who reunion in 2001, but he
still received a cut of the gate because he owns the band name.
Gary Peterson (drums) lives in Greensboro, N.C..
The only band member that lasted from the Chad Allan era to the end of
the Burton Cummings era, Peterson now plays with Kale in the latest version
of the Guess Who, sans Bachman and Cummings.
Bob Ashley (keyboards) is missing in action. Longtime
Guess Who associate Marty Kramer said Ashley was last heard from playing
piano in the touring version of Phantom of the Opera about a decade ago.
He was living in Calgary at the time, but when Kramer tried to find him
for a proposed reunion of the original band, he was nowhere to be found.
If you know where Ashley is, e-mail suzanne@randybachman.com.
Vancouver Sun
Chad Allan with his former band The Guess Who, circa
1967-68.
From left to right:
Burton Cummings, Jim Kale, Gary Peterson, Chad Allan,
Randy Bachman.
Chad Allan's greatest hits, and misses:
Shakin' All Over, the Guess Who, 1965. A cover of an English
hit by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Notable for Bachman's classic guitar
line and Allan's great rock 'n' roll screams. Made it to number 22 in the
Billboard charts in the U.S., an unheard of feat for a Canadian band in
1965.
Stop Teasing Me, the Guess Who, 1965. The Guess Who were known
for doing spot-on covers of the hits of the day, and on this Bachman song,
the band sounds exactly like the Beatles. Exactly.
Hey Ho (What You Do To Me), the Guess Who, 1965. A rollicking
number recorded in New York and co-written by R&B greats Nickolas Ashford
and Valerie Simpson.
Hurting Each Other, the Guess Who, 1965. Written by Peter Udell
and Gary Geld, this melodic ballad was later a big hit for the Carpenters.
But the Guess Who did it first, and Allan's understated vocal was perfect
for the lyric.
Rock 'n'Roll Band, Brave Belt, 1971. After reuniting with Bachman,
Allan wrote and recorded this laid back, funky country-rock song.
Dunrobin's Gone, Brave Belt, 1972. Dunrobin's Gone is arguably
Chad Allan's finest recording, a stirring lament for a lost love. Dunrobin
is a street name from Allan's old Winnipeg neighbourhood, East Kildonan.
It was a minor hit, but Allan had already left the band by the time it
was released. It was co-written with Barry Erickson, another ex-Winnipegger
living in Vancouver. The last time Allan saw Erickson, he was a window
washer.
Another Way Out, Brave Belt, 1972. Sublime pop with a brilliant
production by Bachman. Lyrically it's similar to the Guess Who hit Undun.
Movie, Chad Allan, 1973. After leaving Brave Belt, Allan recorded
a solo album, Sequel, for GRT records. This moody piano ballad was the
highlight.
John Mackie
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