Music

A piece of Canadian rock history goes up in flames

by Richard Howard

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, The Guess Who were one of the biggest rock groups in the world with smash hits like “American Woman,” “These Eyes” and “No Sugar Tonight.” Then guitarist Randy Bachman and vocalist Burton Cummings left, leading to the band’s dissolution – after which  we saw perhaps the original instance of  the ‘they-really-should-have-let-the-name-go’ band reformation featuring neither of the main guys and some pretty wack tunes. However, in their heyday, just being associated with The Guess Who would be a claim to fame – a fact confirmed by a huge apartment building blaze on Sunday.

Turns out the vacant Winnipeg apartment building going up in flames was once the star of a Guess Who album cover. So Long, Bannatyne, released in 1971 and its title track alluded to new guitarist and songwriter Kurt Winter’s movin’ on up from the Bannatyne apartment complex to the suburbs. The cover of the album features the band crowding around a sweet, sweet Chevy and Winter’s apartment building holding court in the background.

Unsurprisingly, the building’s rock star pedigree had been largely forgotten; the apartments were actually undergoing a complete renovation when the fire broke out. But while most onlookers had no idea of the building’s significance, a few old-timers and The Guess Who diehards showed up to enlighten the uninformed and see the old girl off. While undoubtedly beating to death different variations of the album name in an attempt at witticism as the building burned. Which you’ll notice I specifically avoided, because I’m better than that.