The Guess Who – This Time Long Ago – Non-Album Tracks (1967-1968)

Note that I first posted this album back in 2018. This is a drastically different version. Originally, this album dealt with the years 1965 to 1968. But I reassessed the band's earliest years and found enough material for a 1965 and 1966 stray tracks album, and also enough to add to this one so that it only deals with the years 1967 and 1968. I think this is still a very solid album, and it holds together better musically, since it's from a more narrow time period when styles were rapidly changing.

You can find the earlier stray tracks album I made here:

 

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-guess-who-its-my-pride-various.html

 

The Guess Who put out three albums from 1965 to 1966, while the band's name changed several times and they also changed lead singers. Despite having some hits, especially in their native country of Canada, they didn't release any albums in 1967 or 1968. Instead, they put out singles while staying busy being the house band for a Canadian TV show called "Let's Go." Five of the songs here are either the A- or B-Sides to singles. 

 

Three more songs come from an album called "A Wild Pair." This was a weird album because half of it contains Guess Who songs and the other half contain songs from the Staccatos, another Canadian band that would later find more success under the name "Five Man Electrical Band." The Guess Who had a rare opportunity to work with an orchestra for this album, so most of the songs have prominent strings on them. I only included three out of the five songs that the Guess Who did, as I think the other two aren't that good.

Another three songs come from an archival compilation called "This Time Long Ago." (I really should have called this album something else to avoid confusion with that one, but oh well.) One, "Miss Felicity Grey," is a studio outtake, and two others, "Sitar Saga" and "Shadow Cross the Shadows," were performed live on the "Let's Go" TV show mentioned above. They sound just as good as studio outtakes, especially since there wasn't an audience.

 

Most of the songs here are originals, though a notable exception is a cover of Neil Young's "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" from a time when Young wasn't very well known.

 

I think this album shows that the Guess Who could have easily released a strong album from 1967 or 1968 without having to resort to cover versions. It's a shame they didn't.

 

There are two bonus tracks here, "Of a Dropping Pin" and "When Friends Fall Out." They're perfectly fine recordings. Each was the A-side to a single in 1968. The reason that they're only bonus tracks is because the band put different versions of these songs on later albums. "Of a Dropping Pin" was on "Canned Wheat" in 1969 and "When Friends Fall Out" was on "American Woman" in 1970. These single versions aren't that different from the album versions, but they aren't the same, so I figured they were worth including at least as bonus tracks.

This album is 34 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

 

01 This Time Long Ago (Guess Who)

02 There's No Getting Away from You (Guess Who)
03 Miss Felicity Grey (Guess Who)
04 Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Guess Who)
05 If You Don't Want Me (Guess Who)
06 Mr. Nothin' (Guess Who)
07 Heygoode Hardy (Guess Who)
08 I Need Your Company (Guess Who)
09 Guess Who Blues (Guess Who)
10 Sitar Saga [Instrumental] (Guess Who)
11 Shadow Cross the Shadows (Guess Who)

 

Of a Dropping Pin [Single Version] (Guess Who)

When Friends Fall Out [Single Version] (Guess Who)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15119170/TGuessW_1967-1968_ThisTmeLongAgo_atse.zip.html

Note that the album cover shown here was made by PJ of the Albums I Wish Existed website. When I revised the song list, I made some changes to the cover to allow the center photo to be larger.