Ah, where would we late night musicians be without Denny’s? Actually passed out in a Denny’s one night! Not because of drinking but because I’d been up for 2 days straight doing a weekend live gig and hooked up with a bunch of folks, one was a young WWF wrestler (forget his name). In talking about pro-wrestling, he mentioned he was a “bleeder” and of course, I opened my big mouth and asked him what that was. He pulled back his long blond bangs and showed a long, thin scar across his forehead and explained he would tape a small piece of razor on his thumb, then at the right time in the match, he’d pull the razor across his forehead and bleed. Now, no one knew then, but even the thought of someone bleeding made me woozy and since I was running on no sleep for 48 hours, I passed out like a boxer taking a dive. Hit the floor good and hard too.
In 1985, Bachman-Turner Overdrive reunited in a way. Randy Bachman and Fred Turner were joined by Randy’s brother Tim (an original member of BTO) and Guess Who drummer Garry Peterson to record a single studio album and go on tour as a supporting act for Van Halen. Anyway, this song was the “Taking Care of Business” rip BTO managed to do on just about every album at some point or another. Not the best song on the album, but still a toe tapper if you like BTO, and or course, I do.
httpvh://youtu.be/rU_AozJWv6I
So that explains Denny’s success…makes sense to me. 🙂
Man … my heartburn kicked in as soon as I saw the sign in panel #1. Have certainly done my share of late-nite runs, to Denny’s & others, while Driving That Train in a caravan of freaky vehicles between Dead shows. I was famous for always being able to drive, rock steady, when the show let out and we sorted out the crowd headed to the next show. Always hits the spot while eating it … but I usually have a half a day or more regret afterward.
Seen me some weirdass shit at ‘cid-O’clock in the dark of the soul over a cup of coffee and through a cloud of cigarette smoke. Yeah, I go back far enough to remember always asking for the smoking section when we poured a vanfull of psychedelic casualties into a pitstop. As much as I hate ’em, you could always use a nicotine-caffeine blast to calm the nerves of fragile minds wondering if the sun had stopped coming up forever.
Bars closed. Denny’s open. The night continues…
Yup, no in-the-trenches bar band worth it’s salt couldn’t call Denny’s or any of its brethren; IHOP, Villiage Inn, Waffle House, et al… home. God bless ’em.
Yeah Byron, “Service With a Smile” didn’t light up the charts, but hey, it was BTO! I saw them on that tour, but by themselves at one of the larger local nightclubs here – an “add on” show between dates with VH.
What I remember the most about it was standing toward the back of the club with the owner of the ticketing agency that had ticketed the show (the record store I managed at the time was one of its outlets). It was a good show, but it had been a few years since I’d seen them, & even tho Fred & Randy were always pretty good sized guys anyways, I remember being struck by how big they, & Tim & Garry Peterson had gotten – they were all huge. We’re watching the show when the pomoter walked up & joined us. When the song BTO was playing ends, the promoter shouts out “They sound great, huh!” to which the ticket guy shouts, “Yeah, but you shoulda billed ’em as Bachman Turner Overweight!”, LOL… They did sound great tho!
That ain’t no Grand Slam! Where’s the eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast, and four different kinds of jelly?
Huh that’s were I tend to end up after practice as well.
Wait! You mean there *wasn’t* a guy named “Overdrive” in that band!?
(No kidding, when I first heard the band’s name [I was about 9 or 10 and didn’t fully understand the naming conventions of Rock bands at that time] I thought that “Bachman-Turner Overdrive” was named after three guys like “Emerson, Lake and Palmer” or “Crosby, Stills & Nash” were. I was eventually gently disabused of this notion by a friend who was more knowledgeable on the subject…)