Share the Land

Share the Land is the seventh studio album by Canadian rock band The Guess Who, released in October 1970. After the departure of Randy Bachman, the band brought in two new guitarists, Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw.

This article is about The Guess Who album. For their 1970 song, see Share the Land (song).
Share the Land
Studio album by
The Guess Who
Released5 October 1970
Recorded1970 at RCA's Mid-America Recording Center, Chicago, Illinois
Genre
Length33:48
LabelRCA Records
ProducerJack Richardson
The Guess Who chronology
American Woman
(1970)		 Share the Land
(1970)		 The Best of The Guess Who
(1971)
Singles from Share the Land
  1. "Hand Me Down World"
    Released: June 1970
  2. "Share the Land"
    Released: September 1970
  3. "Hang on to Your Life"
    Released: December 1970
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
The Village VoiceC+[2]

Release history

The LP's first release in 1970 was of a "new" type of vinyl "(Dynaflex)" that was extremely pliable. The record could be folded in half, and spring back to its original form, and play just as well as it did when first opened.

In addition to the usual 2 channel stereo version a 4 channel quadraphonic mix was released by RCA on the 8-track tape format. The album was first released on CD by RCA Records in 1994,[3] Share the Land was remastered and released on CD by Buddha Records in 2000, including two bonus tracks from post-American Woman sessions featuring Bachman, previously released on the 1976 collection The Way They Were. In 2015, the album was again remastered, this time by Vic Anesini at Iconoclassic Records, including bonus tracks from the time period of the album’s initial release.[4][5]

In 2019 the album was reissued again in the UK by Dutton Vocalion on the Super Audio CD format. This disc is a 2 albums on 1 disc compilation which also contains the 1970 Guess Who album American Woman. The Dutton Vocalion release contains the complete stereo and quad versions of both albums.[6]

About the album

The album's music primarily consists of rock anthems, blues and hard rock.[7][8] Five songs from the album, "Hand Me Down World", "Bus Rider", "Share the Land", "Do You Miss Me Darlin'?" and an edited single version of "Hang On to Your Life" (without the Psalm 22 excerpt that closes the album version) make up an entire side of the 1971 greatest hits compilation, The Best of The Guess Who.

"Hang On to Your Life" was written by Cummings supposedly after a bad case of sunburn, but many people believe it was written after a bad acid trip. It is an anti-drug song, and was used on commercials to promote stopping the usage of heavy drugs. At the end of the song, Psalm 22:13–15 is quoted. "Hand Me Down World" and "Bus Rider" were from Winter's band Brother, but The Guess Who recorded them before Brother had ever been into a studio. On the 8-track tape edition of the album, the song was edited to make it a bit longer in order to fill out the timing on the first channel (a few extra measures appear before each verse).

Album cover

When asked how the band knew the Indigenous man on the album's cover, they replied, "central casting". In a 2016 interview with Relix, Burton Cummings was asked about the cover and stated:[9]

Well, don’t forget that the biggest single album of The Guess Who’s career was Share The Land, which was the album that had the Chief of the American Cherokees on the cover. Everybody still thinks I’m native. I just thought that it was a great idea to do that, to put him on the cover. This guy was 81 years old, and we all scampered up a hill for the photo shoot, and he beat us to the top. This guy was crazy; snakes had bitten him something like a hundred times. This guy could bite a snake and kill it, he was 81 and had not a wrinkle on his face.

Reception

Bruce Eder of AllMusic says "Recorded in the immediate aftermath of lead guitarist Randy Bachman's departure from the group, Share the Land was a better album than anyone could rightfully have expected, and it was the biggest selling original album in their entire output, appearing in the wake of "American Woman" and lofted into the Top 20."

Share the Land peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200 in November 1970.[10]

Track listing

All songs written by Burton Cummings and Kurt Winter except noted.

Side one
  1. "Bus Rider" (Winter) – 2:57
  2. "Do You Miss Me Darlin'?" – 3:55
  3. "Hand Me Down World" (Winter) – 3:26
  4. "Moan for You Joe" (Cummings/Greg Leskiw) – 2:39
  5. "Share the Land" (Cummings) – 3:53
Side two
  1. "Hang On to Your Life" – 4:09
  2. "Coming Down Off the Money Bag" / "Song of the Dog" ((Leskiw) / (Cummings)) – 3:54
  3. "Three More Days" – 8:55
2000 Buddha re-issue bonus tracks
  1. "Palmyra" (Bachman, Cummings) – 5:44
  2. "The Answer" (Bachman, Cummings) – 4:05
2016 Iconoclassic re-issue bonus tracks
  1. "Runnin' Down the Street" (Kale/Peterson) (B-side Of Hand Me Down World) – 4:20
  2. "Hang On to Your Life" (Single Version) – 3:25
  3. "Moan for You Joe" (Take 3) (Cummings/Leskiw) – 2:24

Personnel
The Guess Who
Production

Charts

Album

Year Chart Peak Position
1970 Billboard 200 14

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1970 "Hand Me Down World" Canada 10
Australia 65
Billboard Hot 100 17
"Share the Land" Canada 2
Australia 63
Billboard Hot 100 10
1971 "Bus Rider" Australia 63
"Hang on to Your Life" Canada 5
Billboard Hot 100 43

References
  1. Share the Land at AllMusic
  2. Christgau, Robert (January 7, 1971). "Consumer Guide (15)". The Village Voice. Music section. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  3. https://www.discogs.com/Guess-Who-Share-The-Land/master/119409
  4. http://www.iconoclassicrecords.com/catalogue/guesswho/sharetheland.html
  5. https://www.discogs.com/The-Guess-Who-Share-The-Land/release/8031953
  6. The Guess Who – American Woman & Share The Land release on SACD Retrieved August 11, 2019
  7. Penthouse. Penthouse International. 1970. p. 16.
  8. Share the Land at AllMusic
  9. Burton Cummings Reflects on The Guess Who
  10. "Billboard 200, The week of November 28, 1970". Billboard.
  11. The Guess Who, Shre the Land Credits Retrieved March 17, 2015
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