Posted on 01/12/2023 11:21:36 PM PST by blueplum
Robbie Bachman, a co-founding member and drummer for Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died at the age of 69.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive singer Randy Bachman announced the death of his brother and bandmate in a social media post. “Another sad departure. The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad & brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine and we rocked the world together.”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s core lineup consisted of Randy and Robbie Bachman and Fred Turner. During their peak in the 1970s, the band released several blockbuster albums...
There’s certainly any number of candidates for number three.
But his great music lives on.
Thank you Robbie.
Living on overdrive takes a lot out of you.
I guess these come in 3’s, Jeff Beck, Bachman, Presley?
I've always heard celebrity deaths happen, in threes.
Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, and Randy Bachmann.
Do we count Lisa Marie Pressley as 3?
I would vote no. She had no real impact on music.
We are all dying off. Make right with Jesus.
We used to see those two-headed drivers all the time. Now everybody has gone to bucket seats with a gear shift in between. I liked it better when the gear shift was on the steering wheel.
I love that story!
Everything happened naturally. Nothing was planned. People took a chance and reached out, only to become fast friends while being themselves.
I like it when things happen like that.
A few years back, I ended up spending a night in the hotel right in between the Twin Towers...it was an interesting night.
Around 1985 my buddy and I were going down to the Bahamas, and we landed at Kennedy in New York and had to go over to the Pan Am terminal that was far away, and our plane came in late from Boston, but we rushed over and thought we might make it. So, we were sweating and running, humping our bags but we had a chance.
But when we got to the terminal, it was surrounded by scummy union a-holes on strike, and we had to fight our way through the crowd. We got to the boarding area just as they were closing the door, and they refused to let us on.
Boy, was I pissed.
While we were standing there arguing, two women and a another couple from our flight came running up, and it ended up all six of us were now stranded in New York.
We decided to band together and approach the airline as a group, hoping to find an alternative flight down. No dice.
“Well, we have a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, and you can get a flight to Miami...” or “We do have a flight to Topeka, and you can get a flight to North Carolina...”
You get the idea. We were stuck. All we could do was wait for a flight the next day.
As we started discussing what we were going to do until tomorrow, my buddy and I were both complete strangers to New York (and tight on money) so we thought we might just sleep in the airport.
The guy who was with his girlfriend or wife said he thought he could find a place for us all to stay, and since we were clueless, we thought we would stick around with them. We got into a cab, and when the cab stopped, we were at the hotel right between the two towers.
We were wearing shorts and t-shirts, and when we walked into the lobby, they had actual real trees in huge pots, it was very plush, and people were in three piece suits and we even saw one guy with a briefcase chained to his wrist.
I thought there was no way in Hell we could afford this, but the guy said “Trust me...I know a guy”. So he went up to the desk, and there was arguing and raised voices, and finally he came back and said “I got two rooms!” It was $75 each, which even then was far below what the rooms were being offered for.
So, we dropped our bags off, and the guy said “Hey, I know a good place to eat...” so we again got into cabs and got out in what I presumed was Chinatown. We went in, and when we ordered, he ordered for everyone in Mandarin...
I remember thinking “Who the hell is this guy???”
After dinner, we picked up alcohol, went back to the rooms and partied it up in one of the rooms. (My buddy and I were sharing a room with the two women)
The next morning, we got on the plane, went down to the Bahamas, and never saw them again. I did have the guy’s address, so I sent him Christmas Cards for a few years, but eventually I got one back that said “Addressee not found”.
You know, sometimes crazy things happen when you travel, and they almost always are never fun except for the telling to others after the fact. But that experience made that a memorable trip, and made me remember that things that are bad on the surface can sometimes lead to good things...:)
It did. Randy was in both bands. He left Guess Who and founded BTO.
I like listening Randy and Tal Bachman breakdown the Beatles songs on the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM.
That would have made a good movie, with actors like Burt Lancaster as the mysterious guy with all the connections, co stars people like
Jack Lemon and Charles Grodin.
Throw in a female character like Jayne Mansfield to play some rich man’s “Niece” as potent eye candy.
I may indeed write a short story about that...:)
When I retire and take a course on writing, and they ask us to choose a subject!
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