Several members of The Guess Who, notably Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman (of Bachman–Turner Overdrive), have also found considerable success outside the band. The band was inducted into The Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1987.
"American Woman" is a song by Canadian rock band The Guess Who, first released in February 1970 on the album of the same name and later in March as a single, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.The song has been covered by many rock artists, including Lenny Kravitz, Krokus, and The Butthole Surfers. It was also featured in Sam Mendes's movie American Beauty.
The song's lyrics have been the matter of some debate, often interpreted as an attack on U.S. politics (especially the draft). Jim Kale, the group's bassist and the song's co-author, explained his take on the lyrics:
“ The popular misconception was that it was a chauvinistic tune, which was anything but the case. The fact was, we came from a very strait-laced, conservative, laid-back country, and all of a sudden, there we were in Chicago, Detroit, New York — all these horrendously large places with their big city problems.
After that one particularly grinding tour, it was just a real treat to go home and see the girls we had grown up with. Also, the war was going on, and that was terribly unpopular. We didn't have a draft system in Canada, and we were grateful for that. A lot of people called it anti-American, but it wasn't really. We weren't anti-anything. John Lennon once said that the meanings of all songs come after they are recorded. Someone else has to interpret them.
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