Bachman goes too far in Harrison covers

Randy Bachman, founder of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, lets his imagination run away with 11 George Harrison songs on By George – By Bachman, which mostly succeeds when respecting the Quiet Beatle’s melodies, but sometimes fails to capture the grace and elegance of the originals.

If I Needed Someone has a jazzy feel, with a George Benson-like solo while there’s a flamencoish rhythm on You Like Me Too Much. I Need You gets a power-pop rebuild and Don’t Bother Me rocks out even further, like something from the Smithereens’ catalogue. On these and a few others, the original tunes are more or less intact and they’re sturdy enough to support the makeovers.

Something, however, is a supple love song meant to be about “the way she moves,” not the way she plods, and even some hot guitar solos can’t change that. On While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the instrument and the song seem way past the soft cries and closer to a complete nervous breakdown.

The album opens and closes strongly, with Bachman’s Between Two Mountains, a tribute where Lennon and McCartney are peaks overshadowing Harrison, whose patience pays off and his time to shine finally comes. But Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps were great songs from Harrison’s time in The Fab Four and, as he later sang with The Traveling Wilburys, they should be handled with care.