The Guess Who - Running Back to Saskatoon

I have written on a couple occasions about music beloved within Canada’s boarders that is largely overlooked outside of the great white north. The most interesting reviews I have written about this subject revolved around the Tragically Hip, which is the best example of this phenomena. I have thus dubbed the Tragically Hip, the most Canadian band of all time. The only counter argument anyone offered up was the Guess Who.

The Guess Who are a really good pick to represent Canadian classic rock. While they are a very good band, they are even more so, a very Canadian band.

I have heard multiple different versions of the origins story of the Guess Who’s name, so my confidence in getting it right is a little lacking, but I will try nonetheless. Formed by Chad Allan in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the original name of the band included his name and they quickly ran a gambit of various names soon there after:

- “Allan and the Silvertones”
- “Chad Allan and the Reflections”
- “Bob Ashley and the Reflections”
- “Chad Allan and the Expressions”
- “The You Know Who Group”
- “The Wonder Who?”
- And finally: “The Guess Who”

Changing the name to “Bob Ashley” after the keyboard player, I believe was done as a gaff. They dropped the “Reflections” because there was some kind of trouble, copyright or legal maybe, with an active rock band in the US called “The Reflection” and so they had to change it to “Expressions.” But then Chad Ashley left the group, and Burton Cummings took over as lead singer. The gaffs of silly names returned and they happened to be calling themselves “The Guess Who” when they finally hit it big with their fourth album “Wheatfield Soul” and their hit single “These Eyes.”

I think that is how it happened.

Today’s conversation is about being Canadian, and The Guess Who are Canada’s first notable big rock band, so by default they represent the nation in a significant way. Hence the Guess Who are a great choice for the most Canadian group ever.

The question I wish to ponder is, what is the Guess Who’s most Canadian song? Most of their songs are good rock songs about the things we can all relate to, but they do have at least one song that stands out to me as uniquely very Canadian and that is “Running Back to Saskatoon.”

What makes “Running Back to Saskatoon” so potently Canadian, I think is pretty obvious, it is a song about returning home to the province of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is one of Canada’s ten provinces, and a running joke is that nothing ever happens there. Geographically Saskatchewan is little more than a flat expansion of farmland. Driving through Saskatchewan on the Trans Canada Highway is considered by Canadians as an extremely boring endeavour. The city of Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan with a population of approximately two-hundred and fifty thousand people. It is a small city in the prairies that few outside of Canada know about. Singing a song about Saskatoon is an extremely Canadian thing to do. But it does not end there.

The Guess list out other obscure Canadian municipalities describing their travels back to Saskatoon. The chorus starts by listing three towns in Saskatchewan, and soon there after four more relatively unknown Canadian municipalities.

“Moose Jaw, Broadview, Moosomin too,
Running back to Saskatoon.
Red Deer, Terrace, Hanna, Medicine Hat.
Sing another prairie tune.
Sing another prairie tune.”

Yes. Those are all places in Canada. We have a town called Moose Jaw.

I Have been to Red Deer and Medicine Hat several times. Red Deer is the stop gap city between Calgary and Edmonton. I used to visit both Red Deer and Medicine Hat for wrestling tournaments when I was young. The only town I am not very familiar with is Terrace, a small town in Northern British Columbia.

All these little places throughout the prairies are Canadian gems, and there is a low chance of anyone outside of Canada having ever heard of them. The average American might think the Guess who were saying a bunch of gibberish, but I suspect they would figure it out pretty quickly if they decided to think about it.

“This tune is home grown,
Don't come from Hong Kong.”

There is a very large Chinese population in Canada, I can attest to this fact in Calgary, but as I understand it, Vancouver has a very influential population base originating from Hong Kong, so maybe the inclusion of that Southeast Asian metropolis, is used as a choice comparison for that reason, and not just because it is foreign and for it’s impressive size. I feel that this line is a self acknowledgement of the Guess Who’s blatant embrace about how Canadian this song is. Just a home-grown song about Canada, not giant China, not our neighbour the USA, just singing about the parries of central Canada.

The point is, how Canadian can you get? Cause it does not get much more Canadian than singing about Saskatoon.

Not unlike my last review of UFO’s “Only You Can Rock Me,” I am much more familiar with live versions of “Running Back to Saskatoon” than the studio version, so much so, I am not sure I have ever heard a studio version. I am no longer convinced there even is a studio version. From what I understand the Guess Who first performed the song live and it appeared on live albums after becoming a popular live track.

“Running Back to Saskatoon” is a simple song, a nice catchy tune meant to charm more than impress. Maybe that is why The Guess Who never bothered to record a studio version, and that is absolutely why it became a cult classic for live performances. Quirky and fun “Running Back to Saskatoon” is a nice little song about a humble little place, which is just like a slice of Canada.