The Accidental Origin of the Hit Song ‘American Woman’

The song “American Woman” by The Guess Who wasn't ever supposed to happen. It wasn't planned, staged or pre-meditated. But you all know the iconic riff. Sometimes all it takes for a hit song to form is an accident, a bit of luck and a whole lot of inspiration. For Randy Bachman and The Guess Who, that's exactly what happened.

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[BadfingerBoogieBarb]

That's only half of the story. A fan in the audience recorded the show. He came backstage after the show and played them the recording. It was when they heard the jam on the tape, that they realized there was something there.

[grf]

Love the story. Bachman deserves credit for the riff but Burton Cummings is the hero. Making a song off the cuff takes real talent.

[markstahle]

That curling rink in Waterloo, Ontario is Glenbriar Curling Rink, which is now Glenbriar Home Hardware on 262 Weber Street North. There is a plaque on the outer wall of the building commemorating The Guess Who event in Canadian music History.

[robertlegace]

I've watched this video 20 times. It never gets old. 🎸

[FLUXXEUS]

the beauty of creation is that inspiration can come from anywhere, music as a whole is one of the greatest creations of humanity 🤘

[schalazeal]

Thank God for that weird officer and the broken guitar!

[frankterrebrood]

A great story on a monumental rock and roll song. The song "American Woman" ranks right up there with "Satisfaction" "Light my fire" "London Calling" ect... as far as I'm concerned.

[philipleanza]

The rift was important but it was Burton Cummings lead vocals that was the driving force behind this song becoming popular.

[colinmoore]

Very similar to the origin of "Rumble" by Link Wray, which was also improvised on the spot.

[diannepymble-ward]

American Woman was just played on our local radio station in Byron Bay Australia, it’s always been one of my favourites, so I did a Google search to hear about the song’s origin and got to hear it again. Win win. 🎉

[jamesbrucks]

Kind of like when The Doors were waiting for Jim Morrison to show up at a L.A concert. The band was just filling in time on stage and just jamming waiting for Jim Morrison's flight to arrive. He just walked on stage and from the top of hid head started to sing L.A Woman. It was a lucky thing that performance had been recorded.

[JLZero]

Whoa, whoa, whoa ... a group of CANADIAN lads should get drifted to Vietnam, a US conflict?! Hope the guy was just screwing around with them, cuz that doesn’t sound legal at all!

[halon]

Glenbriar Home hardware in Waterloo Ontario has a sign that says all this.

[hamiltongoldbug]

I don't think they were in North Dakota at the Canadian border because it's over 24 hours driving time to get to Waterloo travelling through Canada. I believe they were in either Windsor or Port Huron trying to cross. It's a really cool story though!

[NeilRossHistoryComedyPoetry]

Wow, I thought I knew this story but had never heard the green card/draft aspect -- I think all I knew was that Randy broke a string and Burton started imrovising lyrics. Makes a profound and iconic song even more profound and iconic! For me, at least. Thanks for this.

[TheMedicineMan_]

Funny that he says it was staunchly anti war song but almost every story that my uncle has told me from Vietnam has included the fact that they used to LOVE blasting this song through their mic system in his tank every time they would get into intense fire fights… anytime we listen to this song, he stills feels the adrenaline boost/high from getting opened up on by NVA troops with AKs and RPGs in Cambodia..

[lynnalborough]

It actually doesn't matter because its still bloody AWESOME in this day AND age ...

[CemeteryDriver]

still cant believe that song was birthed in my hometown

[johngreco]

Actually, the curling rink was located in Scarborough, Ontario... a place called The Broome & Stone... not Kitchener.. Burton Cummings version is correct

[johngreco]

Actually, the curling rink was a place called The Broome & Stone, located in Scarborough (not Waterloo). It was located in the corner of Midland and Lawrence Avenue.