Guess Who Played The White House In 1970 (?)

 

Guess which five of these people are in The Guess Who?

  

Remember when it was an honour to receive an invitation to visit the White House and meet the President of the United States? Recently, it's been a polarizing question about the political/personal statement it insinuated by meeting the current President and his personal baggage, for obvious reasons. We usually associate sports teams that won national championships (NFL, NBA, NHL MLB etc.) with visiting the White House, but this was extended to a Canadian rock band, The Guess Who in 1970. This event coincided with a visit from (then) Price Charles and his sister Anne to the White House and the band performed on the front lawn as a personal request from President Nixon's youngest daughter, Tricia Nixon, who was a Guess Who fan. Ironically, the band was riding the success of their #1 North American hit, American Woman, but was told not to play it, which was weird and bizarre.   

 

The Winnipeg Free Press reported on the event. “I had mixed emotions about the White House,” Cummings reflected years later. “It was strange. All the guests were white, all the military aids were white in full military dress, and all the people serving food were black. It seemed terribly racist. And the way the White House was landscaped it kind of looked like you were in Alabama in the 1840s before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It left a bad taste in my mouth. They wanted a Commonwealth act when Charles and Anne went there. We were the token Commonwealthers.” The contradiction inherent in the Guess Who’s appearance at the Nixon White House was not lost on guitarist, Greg Leskiw. “Here was one of the most hated politicians of the hippie generation and your subculture tells you this guy is bad,” he mused. “Then someone says, ‘Do you want to play the White House?’ But we all wanted to do it because it was something very few people get to do.”

 

This is a recording I didn't know anything about until recently, but I thought the concept and dynamics were good timing. This weekend is the Juno Awards (that I rarely watch), which honours and awards the "best" of Canadain music. Winnipeg's, Guess Who have been honoured numerous times and are a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and have an upcoming tour with the reunited, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman that will take them through Canada and the US from May to August. See them while you still can!

Enjoy!

 

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share! 

 

 

The Guess Who
White House
Washington, DC
July 17th 1970

Conversion = SBD>?>CDR Trade>EAC>Wav>Flac 

Sound Quality approx  7 out of 10 
samples to be provided 
sorry no artwork 
A Bargain Basement Tape Production 

Setlist

01. Bus Rider
02. Undun
03. We're Comin' To Dine
04. Close Up The Honky Tonks
05. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
06. These Eyes
07. Hand Me Down World
08. Share The Land
09. No Time

The Guess Who- 1970-07-17  Washington, DC FLAC. rar