''Share the Land'' is the seventh studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rock band

The Guess Who The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1965. The band originated in 1962 and achieved an international hit single with a cover of "Shakin' All Over" in 1965 under the name Chad Allan and the Expressions. After c ...

, released in October 1970. It was their first album following the departure of

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...

, and the band brought in two new guitarists,

Kurt Winter Kurt Frank Winter (April 2, 1946 – December 14, 1997) was a Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of The Guess Who. Biography Winter was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He attended Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute. John Ei ...

and

Greg Leskiw Gregory Leskiw (born 5 August 1946) is a Canadian guitarist best known for playing guitar with the Guess Who from 1970 to 1972. History Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba and raised in Shilo, Leskiw's father was a jazz guitarist who t ...

. The album was another international success for the band, reaching number seven in Canada and number fourteen in the US, and spawned three hit singles in the

title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title. Title track may al ...

, "

Hand Me Down World "Hand Me Down World" is song written by Kurt Winter, performed and released in 1970 by The Guess Who, for whom Winter served as lead guitarist from 1970 to 1974 and 1977 to 1978. It reached #10 in Canada, #17 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and #6 ...

" and " Hang On to Your Life".

Release history

In addition to the usual 2 channel

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

version a 4 channel

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

mix was released by RCA on the

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

format. The album was first released on CD by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

in 1994, ''Share the Land'' was remastered and released on CD by

Buddha Records Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundi ...

in 2000, including two bonus tracks from post-''

American Woman "American Woman" is a song by Canadian rock band the Guess Who, released January 1970, from the album of the same name. It was later released in March 1970 as a single backed with "No Sugar Tonight", and it reached number one for three weeks ...

'' 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. In 2019 the album was reissued again in the UK by

Dutton Vocalion Dutton Vocalion specialises in re-issuing on CD music recorded between the 1920s and 1970s, and in issuing albums of modern digital recordings. It was established by British recording and re-mastering engineer Michael J. Dutton. Dutton Laborator ...

on the

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

format. This disc is a 2 albums on 1 disc compilation which also contains the 1970 Guess Who album ''

''. The Dutton Vocalion release contains the complete stereo and quad versions of both albums.

About the album

The album's music primarily consists of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

. 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 Psalm 22 of the Book of Psalms (the hind of the dawn) or My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? is a psalm in the Bible. The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the ...

excerpt that closes the album version) make up an entire side of the 1971 greatest hits compilation, ''

The Best of The Guess Who ''The Best of The Guess Who'' is the fourth compilation album by the Canadian group The Guess Who. It was originally released by RCA Records in April 1971 and contains recordings made between 1968 and 1970. The album reached number 12 on the '' ...

''. "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 A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

, but The Guess Who recorded them before Brother had ever been into a studio. On the

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 ''Relix'', originally and occasionally later ''Dead Relix'', is a magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music. The magazine was launched in 1974 as a handmade newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concert ...

, Burton Cummings was asked about the cover and stated:

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 The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
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 AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

says "Recorded in the immediate aftermath of lead guitarist

'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.

Track listing

All songs written by

Burton Cummings Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for leading The Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career. Cummings has ...

and

except noted. ;Side one # "Bus Rider" (Winter) – 2:57 # "Do You Miss Me Darlin'?" – 3:55 # "

" (Winter) – 3:26 # "Moan for You Joe" (Cummings,

) – 2:39 # " Share the Land" (Cummings) – 3:53 ;Side two #

" Hang On to Your Life" – 4:09 # "Coming Down Off the Money Bag" / "Song of the Dog" (Leskiw, Cummings) – 3:54 # "Three More Days" – 8:55 ;2000 Buddha re-issue bonus tracks #

"Palmyra" (Bachman, Cummings) – 5:44 # "The Answer" (Bachman, Cummings) – 4:05 ;2016 Iconoclassic re-issue bonus tracks #

"Runnin' Down the Street" (Kale, Peterson) – 4:20 #"Hang On to Your Life" (Single Version) – 3:25 #"Moan for You Joe" (Take 3) (Cummings, Leskiw) – 2:24

Personnel

;The Guess Who *

– lead vocals, keyboards, flute on "Three More Days" *

– lead guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocal on "Bus Rider" *

– rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Coming Down Off the Money Bag" *

Jim Kale Michael James Kale (born August 11, 1943) is a retired Canadian musician, best known as the original bassist for the rock band The Guess Who. He also served in the band Scrubbaloe Caine. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of F ...

– bass, backing vocals *

Garry Peterson The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1965. The band originated in 1962 and achieved an international hit single with a cover of "Shakin' All Over" in 1965 under the name Chad Allan and the Expressions. After c ...

– drums, backing vocals, glockenspiel on "Do You Miss Me Darlin'" ;Production *Brian Christian - engineer * Jack Richardson - producerThe Guess Who, ''Shre the Land'' Credits
Retrieved March 17, 2015

Charts

Album Singles

References

{{Authority control 1970 albums The Guess Who albums Albums produced by Jack Richardson (record producer) RCA Victor albums Buddah Records albums