So why is The Guess Who’s Wheatfield Soul on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
A good guide to whether you’re going to groove with Wheatfield Soul is if you can get down with “Pink Wine Sparkles In The Glass.”
It’s very late ‘60s, and by that I mean trippy and a little bit strange and offbeat in a dig the heaviness way, mixing The Guess Who’s melodic hard rock sound with hints of Captain Beefheart weirdness and The Doors’ psychedelic blues rock vibe. I think it’s pretty great, and it’s to the song’s credit that it gets in and gets out* at just over two minutes.
* “Friends of Mine,” a bizarro epic journey of more than ten minutes in duration… gets in but doesn’t get out nearly as quickly. Check it out if you’re up for a quest to connect the molecules to the light.
“These Eyes,” arguably The Guess Who’s best known song aside from “American Woman,” is a gorgeous pop rock number that perfectly features Burton Cummings’ lead vocals.
For similar reasons, I enjoy “I Found Her In A Star” even more than “These Eyes,” which bridges 1960s pop with psychedelic rock rather splendidly.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with The Guess Who’s Wheatfield Soul
Superbad is one of my favorite movies of all time. I don’t mean that as in, “I think Superbad is a really funny movie.” It is a really funny movie, of course – crazy hilarious, even – but I really believe that Superbad is a perfect movie.
It’s a story with a clear mission from a plot standpoint (some high school nerds/knuckleheads need to obtain booze for the Big Party) while under the surface it’s a wonderful story about friendships and growing up. And as mentioned, Superbad is also deeply and consistently hilarious, with some of the funniest writing and performances that I’ve ever seen in a movie.
Through a series of unfortunate events, young heroes Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) find themselves trapped at a party – a party they were hoping to leverage to get the booze for the Big Party – with some super scary dudes to contend with. Older dudes.
For reasons (read = booze plus weed), some of those dudes believe that Evan is related to a friend of theirs. This guy has been known to sing, so they therefore intimidate young Evan into singing.
And what does the heroic Evan bust out with, a cappella style?
A song by The Guess Who: “These Eyes.”
Some stats & info about The Guess Who – Wheatfield Soul
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Canadian Bands, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 2.5 out of 5 stars(!?)
- When was Wheatfield Soul released? 1969
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #456 out of 1,000
The Guess Who’s Wheatfield Soul on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Guess Who’s Wheatfield Soul that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
These eyes cry every night for you.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.