"Undun" was written by Bachman after hearing Bob Dylan's "Ballad in Plain D," which included the phrase "she was easily undone." Bachman's song tells the story of a girl he had seen at a party who, after dosing herself with LSD, slipped into a coma.
But that's not it. It started with that Fetterman-and-shorts post at 5:50 a.m. In the comments, Temujin said:
Ann from Wisconsin cannot get her head around short pants, but if Ann from Wisconsin lived here along the Gulf of America, Meade would be running around in lime green shorts on a daily basis. And she'd think it was cute. Or...madness.
I said:
I'm pleased that you remember Meade's green pants, a highlight of our courtship.That link contained another link, one that went back to the comments to a January 30, 2009 post. There, we see Meade saying "Sorry for causing undo concern."
You have to read the thread to understand if that was a homophone typo or a nice pun, but at the time, I just commented "undo."
And then, texting about it just now, Meade typed "Undun."
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31 కామెంట్లు:
A forgotten great vocalist, Burton Cummings.
Agree with Wilbur - Burton Cummings is one of the best rock singers of all time.
We were just playing "name the artist" last week and I was stumped on Undun. My wife even prompted with "guess who this is?" I said Zombies.
Nice voice. I like his voice.
@bagdadbob - it does sound like “She’s Not There”.
AMDG said...
@bagdadbob - it does sound like “She’s Not There”.
Yeah, now that you mention it ...
"Give me the Guess Who. Come on, they have the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic."
I love "Undun" but I always hated The Guess Who for "American Woman." It's sexist and it's anti-American and it's bombastic in a way that's completely different from "Undun."
Always loved that song.
Speak not of Burton in the past tense for he recently performed here in Vegas. "Undun" has great, unexpected chords. Jazzy to the max.
Never knew it wasn't 'Undone'
Ann Althouse said...
I love "Undun" but I always hated The Guess Who for "American Woman." It's sexist and it's anti-American and it's bombastic in a way that's completely different from "Undun."
9/2/26, 9:59 AM
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Agree on all your points but the riff is Keith Richards worthy.
She may have lapsed into a coma, but it wasn't from LSD.
'It's sexist and it's anti-American and it's bombastic in a way that's completely different from "Undun."'
It's certainly anti-American, and I suppose bombastic, although I'm not altogether certain that means anything more than "emphatic". But sexist?
I learned from AI that Burton Cummings, who did the flute solo, had never before played the flute:
The story behind the recording is quite remarkable:
A brand-new instrument: Cummings had never played the flute before recording the track.
The saxophone connection: Bandmate Randy Bachman convinced him to try it because the fingerings for a flute are nearly identical to the saxophone, which Cummings already knew how to play.
A quick study: They bought a flute from a local music store, and Cummings learned the instrument well enough to lay down the iconic 16-bar solo that very night
Love the video. Close to watching an actual performance of a song I've never seen performed.
As for the green pants - well, I applaud Meade's bravery. Chicks dig that.
I don't know who the singer is, but his face is very punchable. Maybe its the attitude. Or the song. Or his girly hair waving in the breeze.
That is a guy, right?
I think it's a travesty that Randy Bachman himself is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, nor are either of his great bands, the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Nor do any of them have a star on the sidewalk in Hollywood.
All are in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, but whoop-de-do. Nobody cares.
That's funny, I flashed on the young woman wearing the famous lift and separate foundation and a classic '60s hairstyle. She looked a bit like a bond girl. Wow! The music definitely sounded like a bond theme.
I'm homophonic, too.
Yeah, I suppose a guy who wants to attract chicks and happens to be shorter than 6 ft tall would need to wear green pants. Prolly not OD green.
The provenance of the awesome carnival ride tune "American Woman" is an interesting story revealing the mysterious ways of the creative artist/musician.
The band was playing a gig in a small venue, something like The Troubadour in West Hollywood, I imagine. In between sets, Cummings was outside in the parking lot talking with someone while Bachman was onstage tuning up for the second set. The stage door was open and from where he stood, Cummings could see and hear Bachman playing. While doodling on the strings, Bachman stumbled on the brilliant, heavy riff that is the song's signature, playing it over and over the way a musician does when they've discovered a catchy line. Cummings became aware of the chords playing, he looked over and Bachman was signalling him to come in and start singing. Cummings immediately went in and came up with lyrics on the spot and they blew the crowd away. The band knew that they had a hit on their hands, but the next day, nobody could remember the riff or the lyrics or anything. Try as they might, they could not replicate the tune they had been playing the night before. To rediscover the song became an obsession. They even went into the studio, maybe even back to the original club to try to recreate the moment, to no avail. It took weeks if not months before the group finally worked out the song that had come to them that night in a fleeting moment of inspired musical discovery.
"Smurfs Tools Oldies Music Time Machine" or "Smurf Stools Oldies Music Time Machine"? Whenever I walk through the Enchanted Smurf Forest it's hard to avoid stepping on Smurf stool.
Note to self: the Bachman mentioned here is (to my astonishment) the same Bachman from Bachman-Turner Overdrive, which seems like a very different kind of group.
Didn't the Guess Who claim that "American Woman" wasn't anti-American, but just against a woman they knew? Of course, they would say that whether it was true or not (and how could it not be true?).
Like a lot of musicians, Bachman claimed not to be able to read music. In his case, I suspect he may have been saying that he didn't think he could read music well enough. Somebody who had been playing violin from the age of five probably had the basics down.
Bullshit that nobody came undone from LSD. Jesus, I went to New College: we were the guinea pigs for XTC, Adam, EVE, all handed out free if we "endorsed it" for non-scientist Rick Doblin and Timothy Leary and that whole crew in their last gasp in the 80's. I was so appalled that the Psychology Department was hosting Leary that he and I came to fisty-cuffies. I'd driven too many of their victims to the hospital or mental institutions, and he was a child molester. The first victim I met jumped on my back as I was walking to class, and as I was arranging for the school to pick her up, she ran into traffic on a highway, and they briefly considered prosecuting me.
I was 17.
Fuck these people. Especially fuck Rick Doblin, MAPS, and all the money the federal government gives him now to "cure PTSD," based on a study of 16 sad drug seekers.
Good song.
Ballad in Plain D has my favorite Dylan line: "Are birds from the chains of the skyway?" (Also, the album Another Side of Bob Dylan has his most beautiful and profound songs. Restless Farewell, My Back Pages, To Ramona, and Chimes of Freedom. I think it's his best album.)
* "Are birds FREE from the chains of the skyway?"
As Kermit the frog once said "Its not easy being green".
IRC, the "riddler" on batman wore green pants. And he was surrounded by chicks. So, it must be a thing.
I have always liked "American Woman." Maybe because even if it is anti-American, it's the least Canadian sounding anti-American song by Canadians ever.
"Didn't the Guess Who claim that "American Woman" wasn't anti-American, but just against a woman they knew? Of course, they would say that whether it was true or not (and how could it not be true?)."
And Jim Morrison claimed that the crystal ship was a snifter of brandy. Sure, Jim, whatever you say.
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