{The Guess Who]The Most Important Albums in Music History and WHY? : The Book Series Album Share the Land~The Guess Who at #83

charliefreak1 (47)in #writing • 7 years ago

The Album Cover

Back Cover

A PREVIEW INTO THE BOOK

TRACK 8 - THREE MORE DAYS

"You can't find all the answers if you're always standing in the rain," Burton Cummings, Three More Days

The massively under-rated Three More Days closed the album and was a very crucial song to the record, perhaps the album's most important track. If you haven’t given this song the attention it deserves, then you’ve missed out on why Share the Land is part of this very reserved list. Share the Land had its huge radio hits in Bus Rider, Hand Me Down World and the title track…it had its “period” pieces in Do You Miss Me Darlin’? and Hang On to Your Life…and it had genre defying tracks like Moan For You Joe and “Money Bag”/Song of the Dog. Then came, Three More Days, which wasn’t simply another extended Sixties “jam”, it was a very well thought out track with lyrical questions that were at the heart of our existence as human beings…with answers that busted apart the illusions of “great societies” and revealed the TRUTH of what lays behind our hijacked reality! And this was a “heartless”, hit singles band???

CANADIAN SOWN AND GROWN

The song was a great R&B track, played by outstanding musicians who could really groove...the Guess Who rehearsed these songs so much that they were able to play "past perfection" and really loosen up once they got to the point of "nailing" a song. If you listen attentively to Three More Days, the band wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere…they displayed patience, something lost on most Rock bands. You really have to give it up for The Guess Who’s rhythm sections over the years (with Bachman and yes, even without), because the guys they brought into the band always possessed great chops, and were very selfless players that could really feed off of one another. And inside of the funky groove they laid down on Three More Days, was a set of lyrics that went to the HEART of who we are and why we are here…something that "Pop" bands seldom enquired about! The song was based around the concept of “three days” in the life of the narrator. “Three days to get it on, three days to get it off and three more days to die…three days to build it up, three days to tear it down and three more days to die…” So what were these three days that Cummings wrote about…Monday, Wednesday and Friday? No, the three days in question that dominate the thinking of MOST modern men are the past, the present, and the future! And the sad reality of our now almost pathetic lives is that if you can’t figure out this riddle of the “three days”, then you are doomed to die “six feet down”, looking up and asking anyone and everyone, WHY?

It has never ceased to amaze me, even as a child, why school wasn’t about learning our most important, fundamental truths…or at least talking about them? Because it seems to me that if we are constantly “in the dark” over the basic questions of “who am I, what am I here for and what is the meaning or purpose to life, then we are perpetually feeling lost and alone. Again, who benefits from the masses feeling this way? Small, hidden & powerful groups, that’s who! Our disconnection from God exists because our reality of perpetually not-knowing the answers to these elemental questions leaves us in a state of DIS-EASE, or Fear, and anytime we enter into this condition our Egos take over…and our Egos will listen to any lie, pay any price, to maintain control of the ship versus being relegated back into the nothingness that it comes from.

The human ego is our “false self”…it may look and sound like we are present and in control, but we are not. The human ego is a construct of our minds that only forms in desperate times when we are too afraid of being in the now because we are trusting that our immediate future will be a disaster…thus, we run away and hide, abandon our post as captain of the ship…and in this state, our unconscious programming takes over. Where do our unconscious programs come from, you ask? Sadly, from all aspects of society, but most predominately from schools, parents, television, movies and our interactions with agencies of the government. Which is precisely why society wants to keep us CLOSE to being in a perpetual state of Fear, because we then live at least 95% of our wakening time in an UNCONSCIOUS state, running off of programs that have been “installed”, literally, into our brains from the bullshit that we are told to believe at every turn!

julielefebure.com

All of the above explains why the world “out there”, outside of our true selves, is upside down, a complete cluster-fuck…because we have been tricked, from birth, into “abandoning our posts” and giving the control over our lives to small, but powerful groups that constantly tell us and remind us that WE NEED THEM! This is why Hollywood absolutely destroys the concept of community or family in just about every movie that they produce! This is why Hollywood serves us up another “Hero” every chance they can get…because “superheroes” remind us that we are stupid and weak and only the “special ones” can save us; thus, when we return home from the movies or watching TV, we constantly look OUTSIDE of ourselves to find the answers…some movie or TV star, an athlete, Dr. Phil, The Simpsons, Oprah...and of course, the government and our politicians. THEY have the answers, they should be trusted because they are the ones who are on TV, or in the movies…famous people…and this is precisely why most of us constantly FAIL in our lives…because the only answers that pertain to each of us, reside inside each of us and are never found looking “outwards”, and that especially includes the search for God.

Not the "religious" God who is always pissed off about something…the one that sits back and allows all this murder, torture, bigotry, child/elderly abuse and massive disparity to exist because he loves us! Not the God that sends us to hell for eternity if we commit any of his ten sins (which forgets to mention things like child abuse, rape, sacrifices, etc.), but allows a child to die of unnatural causes every four seconds on this Earth…not that God. I am talking about the vibrational energy that created everything and thus, resides inside of everything. The God that does NOT judge, take sides or pick favorite countries (sorry America). The God that Loves us so much that we were given complete control over our realities through the gift of Free Will...meaning that even if we don't believe God exists or that God doesn't care about us, we are still LOVED! That God. And the ONLY WAY to discover who we are, why we are here, what life is about and who or what is God, is achieved by going within ourselves, controlling our breathing so that we can manifest a meditation, eliminating all of the white-noise "out there", and embracing the Peace, Silence and Tranquility that exists inside each of us. It is there, and only there, that we can come, face-to-face, with our creator. And it is there every question is answered and everything is revealed. And yet, how many have ever been taught this...by anyone, including by so-called religious figures??? Why is it that we live within a world where NOTHING about what is inside of us is ever taught to us, other than through organized religion? Why is the physical realm, what we can see, hear, taste, touch and smell, the only thing taught to us as reality? Why aren't we taught to Meditate, or at least to be conscious of our breathing patterns and how to control our emotions through breathing? The reason is very simple...we are lied to from birth, so that we are disconnected from God, kept alone "out there", where we feel small, weak and vulnerable...instead of large, strong and secure, constantly connected to God in the moment! Because small, weak and vulnerable people, like most of us, will NOT question our reality...we will accept it...we will accept a life where we grow up in limitation and Fear so that we are always living in trepidation of our past, which keeps us worrying about the future and therefore always disconnected from living in the moment. And why is this such a big deal? Because the moment is ALL THAT EXISTS!!! Time is an illusion. A man-made construct by the status quo to keep us feeling trapped and alone. The past and/or future simply can never occur if the moment exists. If there is a moment, then that moment is the ONLY POSSIBLE reflection of time! And this is the background and basis to the Guess Who's song, Three More Days!

Burton Cummings had the courage to expose this massive societal con game; and by doing so, he provided us with THE ANSWER (searching inside of ourselves) by posing endless questions to society, none of which were (are) ever answered, resulting in no other place for us to turn to than ourselves! In fact, society is one large rhetorical question, a reality where nothing is ever designed to be answered, at least not with the truth...

Meet my lady every morning half past nine when the bells begin to ring
Looking out the window down the road and I see the same damn thing
Three days to get it on and three days to get it off and three more days to die
And I'm six feet down and I'm asking the good Lord up in heaven
Why? Why? Why?

The first verse referenced Love being restricted, whether in the form of school bells ringing or work bells, the Lovers were not free to meet when they wanted to; rather they could only “look out the window, down the road, and see the same damn thing”…restriction, which didn’t match with the vibration of Love, because Love is abundance, joy and happiness…freedom. Everyday was the same thing, “three days to get it on” (the now), “three days to get it off” (as in ‘off your mind’, the past) “and three more days to die” (life ending from worrying about the future in perpetual uncertainty). The narrator was “six feet down” because he already had one foot in the grave…he was a slave to Fear and uncertainty, just like the character “Neo” from The Matrix…and in that state all he could do was to look up and ask the “good Lord in heaven…why? why? why?” Again, “why?” because society never gives us any answers, or the skills to find the answers ourselves…we are only taught that “life’s a bitch and then you die…now shut up, watch TV and do your homework/go to work".

Haven’t you ever wondered why nothing that is considered “legitimate” in our society as a source for help (religion, doctors/medicine, the psychiatric arts, schools) ever solves or cures anything? Are you aware that something as innocuous as cannabis (growing peacefully and naturally in the ground, without any help from mankind) is widely known to heal the human body at a miraculous rate? If you haven’t, ask yourself this question…why is Cannabis considered a “category one” illegal drug when it is natural and beneficial for health, and prescription drugs (most of which ARE narcotics) are legal and never solve a thing, rather they treat side-effects while creating more? Apply your ability to critically think, and like Sherlock Holmes would, deduce what is the only possible explanation for this upside-down reality (even though you might think it hard to believe or “conspiratorial” in nature)...

You can't find all the answers if you're always standing in the rain
And once the chance comes by it just might not come round again
Three days to build it up, three days to tear it down and three more days to die
And I'm still six feet down still wonderin', prayin' and asking
Why? Why? Why?

The second verse addressed vibrational energy, “you can’t find all the answers if you’re always standing in the rain”. “Standing in the rain” was a metaphor for constantly choosing to remain in a negative, depressed state, which always leads to more restriction; thus, “the chance comes by” and we miss it because we are not ready for the opportunity. We doom ourselves to receive only more of the same…restriction. Cummings also addressed the consequences of “doing nothing” as some opportunities may never “come round again”. Which led the narrator back to the “three days”…restricted in the now, trying to forget the past, and worrying about the future, with one foot in the grave, “still wonderin’, prayin’ and asking why? why? why?”

We gotta have a reason, you know it
Mmm, we gotta have a reason, you know it, you know it
Ohh, we gotta have a reason, you know it
Hey, we gotta have a reason, you know it, you know it, you know it, you know it

During the bridge, Cummings brilliantly addressed the false notion in society that “we gotta have a reason, you know it”, a permission slip to do something/anything. Now think about this stunning lie…what does this false narrative promote??? Waiting, waiting for a reason or “sign” to do something, which intrinsically promotes restriction and doubt; and it’s incredible that we buy into this utter bullshit because deep down inside all of us (that part of us where the child lives and never dies) we KNOW that the best things in life “just happen”, without any plans, permits or reasons…we think about something, and then we do it! This is truly how all experiences in the moment occur…through thought…and when we wait for a reason, or doubt, we are giving over the control of our thought process to some entity “out there”! And please remember this…nothing in the “out there” (not even our loved ones) can ever fully satisfy what is inside of us, because NO ONE besides God and ourselves (which truly reside within) knows what lies at the heart of our thoughts! When we “hand over” this control, we are essentially no longer free and WE make ourselves “victims” of the system, which simply leads to bickering, finger pointing and NOTHING getting done to improve US! When we “stop short” of our fullest thoughts and expressions out of Fear that someone “out there” will be angry with us, or we might be “breaking some law”, we are POLICING ourselves…and what we really don’t see in those moments is that we are opening our own prison cells, and locking ourselves up (which to a large degree, determines what we will experience next, and ensures the continuation of dominance by the Status Quo)!

A highly sarcastic reference to living in a so-called, free nation...beware of Mother Nature...

Freedom, paint me a picture!
Freedom, oh, paint me a picture!
Freedom (Freedom), paint me a picture, show it to me
Freedom, paint me a picture
Freedom (Freedom), paint me a picture, show it to me right now
Freedom (Freedom), paint me a picture, show it to me
Where are you, freedom?

Between the first bridge to the second, Kurt Winter played a guitar solo (likely played directly into the mixing board and edited, or through a Leslie speaker) that was truly free form guitar…more like a series of vibrational sounds than a series of chords. This really helped to accentuate the message(s) found in the two bridges…one, that we are being lied to about needing a reason to do anything, and two, that freedom isn’t something found “out there” (where everyone has an idea, but no one has an answer), it’s a state of being that can only be achieved by the individual searching INSIDE him or herself. The psychedelic sounds from the guitar were a hint from the band that our own answers lay inside of us.

“Individualism regards humans—every human—as independent, sovereign entities who possess an inalienable right to their own lives, a right derived from their nature as rational beings. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among humans, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights—and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members…do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a human who says: ‘I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense.’ An individualist is a human who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of humans—their own and those of others. An individualist is a human who says: ‘I will not run anyone’s life—nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone—nor sacrifice anyone to myself.’”
Ayn Rand

The second bridge was a response to the helplessness found in the first bridge (“we gotta have a reason” to do something). When we choose to live in the “out there” we are trapped inside prisons designed by someone else’s beliefs and ideals; thus, we don’t even have an idea of what freedom looks like…hence the lines above (being SCREAMED out by Cummings), “freedom, paint me a picture…show it to me…where are you freedom?” And this state of being is CRUCIAL if any of us are ever going to wake up to our individual brilliance…screaming out these demands and questions leads us to a point of no return…to a rabbit hole where there is no going back…and the deeper we fall, the more we learn about the lies that have been perpetrated to trap us, and the answer(s) that set us free! I simply cannot state enough how brilliant these two verses are, this is some of the most important, inspired music EVER created within any genre!

Cumming’s anger over his own ignorance to the most important aspect of his own life, dovetailed perfectly into Winter’s wah-wah guitar solo; where he banged off chords angrily in the beginning, subsiding into a more introspective guitar figure (replicating the process inside each of us where we are angry at first, morphing into a state of awareness and then the search for truth), which led right into Cumming’s flute solo that defined the introspective search for truth! Listen carefully for how the rhythm section (Peterson’s drum licks, Kale’s bass line, and Cumming’s electric piano) “joined in” for this search for personal truth. All of their figures immediately dropped out of any pre-formed structure from earlier in the song…in actuality, they were all “free-forming” their performances together, staying in time with each other, which further drove home the song’s theme of going within to find truth…just a brilliant concept and execution by the entire band.

During Cumming’s flute solo he stayed with the song’s principal melody (while foreshadowing the figures that would make up his vocal outro), which allowed the band playing behind him to explore their instruments (a search for truth) and transform their performances to the forefront of the solo. This was not only extremely creative in nature, but it demonstrated the kind of selflessness and sharing that the song, Share the Land was all about.

Meet the lady every morning half past nine when the bells begin to ring,
Looking out the window down the road and I seeing the same damn thing,
Three days to get it on, three days to get it off and three more days to die,
And I'm six feet down and I'm asking the good Lord up in heaven
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why?
I wanna know, why?
Oh, can you tell me?
You know I really wanna know it, can you tell me?
Do you know the answer?
You know what I’m lookin’ for
You know I really wanna know it, can you show it?
I wanna know it, can you show it to me?
Can you show it, I wanna know it, can you show it?
Really wanna know it, can you show it, I wanna know it, can you show it?
Can you show me, can you show me, show me?
I really wanna know, I really wanna know
And I don’t know where I’m going?
Don’t know what I’m doing, don’t know what I’m doing?
Don’t know why I’m doing a thing, don’t know why I’m doing a thing?
Don’t know why I’m going the places I’m going
Don’t know why I’m going, anything I’m doing, I don’t know why?
Have you got any answers for sale, got any answers for sale?
Do you know the things that I’m talkin’ about, am I makin’ any sense at all?
Am I just wastin’ time askin’ you?
Do you know what I’m talking about?
Can you feel somebody talkin’ to you?

After repeating the song’s first verse of restriction the band segued into the outro by repeating the “whys?”, this time with even more passion and more beautiful harmonies, which drove home the point that asking why is an important, sacred and holy process because it leads us to TRUTH, which will provide us with freedom! Over top of these gorgeous harmonies of “why?” was Cummings vocal outro (a technique used a lot on the album), which focused on society and how it was (and is) always void of answers. But this time (different from Bus Rider, Hand Me Down World, and even earlier in this song with the “freedom” bridge) Cummings vocals weren’t shouting or angry…they were now thoughtful, sensitive, even prudent. Which perfectly mimicked the process that we all go through when we experience the discovery of introspective truth. We begin to “forgive others for their trespasses” and accept personal responsibility for own actions and choices. We grow in our awareness of God and God's Truth, which is Love. Anger is a response to Fear (necessary in the beginning to “kickstart” us from our slumber), but once we accept God's Love as our own personal truth, then anger no longer has any place…it is replaced with forgiving and introspection where I promise you, only Love resides.

And one final, but integral point to the song. During this incredible outro, listen carefully to Cumming's final 6 lines,

Don’t know why I’m going, anything I’m doing, I don’t know why?
Have you got any answers for sale, got any answers for sale?
Do you know the things that I’m talkin’ about, am I makin’ any sense at all?
Am I just wastin’ time askin’ you?
Do you know what I’m talking about?
Can you feel somebody talkin’ to you?

In these first two lines Cummings demonstrated, with BRUTAL HONESTY, exactly how confused, frustrated, jaded and angry he was at not knowing ANYTHING OF REAL IMPORTANCE in his own life! So much so, he was prepared to "pay" for the answers, a state of desperation, "I'll give/do anything for the truth...just gimme some truth"! But it was the final four lines that defined not only the song (and its importance), but Burton Cummings as both an artist and a human being. You don't think that songwriters take their craft seriously? You don't think that MESSAGES are trying to be sent from the songwriter to the listener? Listen to Cumming's phrases, "Do you know the things that I am talkin' about, am I makin' any sense at all? Am I just wastin' time askin' you? Can you feel somebody talkin' to you". If you still can't conceive what Cummings was saying/asking the listener, then let me help...to paraphrase, Cummings was saying to anyone that would listen that these questions, these songs, are REALLY IMPORTANT, so are you getting it, understanding it...or am I just wasting time? Don't you feel that somebody (namely, Burton Cummings) is trying to communicate with you? That this song, this album, is NOT just about "the hits" and AM Radio airtime. What are we doing with ourselves upon this beautiful Earth? Getting up early five days a week just to slave away for someone else's profit, so that we can try and enjoy 2 days off? What? Question, "How long does this last?", Answer, "Till you fucking die"!
(Steve Hughes, Comedian! check him out on Youtube, five on two off!)

What are we doing being constantly distracted away from living in the only "time" possible (the moment), for a reality of constantly worrying about the future and the past? And why do we have one leg in our own graves, looking up to heaven and asking the good Lord, "why"? At the very least, please honor this song, this band, this songwriter and start asking yourself these questions...always ask the question, "WHY?".