The Burton Cummings Episode

Sources

Special thanks to Martine from the Morris and District Centennial Museum for chatting with us for the Collecting Conversations segment!

You can listen to most of The Guess Who’s music and Burton’s solo music via Spotify, or dig through old record bins and listen to them the way they were intended.

So, there’s this guy. You used to see him around town, but he keeps moving away. His name is Burton Cummings. They named a theatre after him, and a community centre, and probably a few other things. He owns Salisbury House, got into a fight at a North End 7-Eleven, and even wrote a song or two that got played on the radio. He used to play these songs for royalty and presidents, and sometimes for kids at rec centers. Some of these songs he wrote by himself, and some he wrote with Randy Bachman, and they played in a band called The Guess Who, until they didn’t, and then the rhythm section took the name when no one was looking. So yeah, this guy moved to Moose Jaw and yelled at a dance instructor until she moved away. Now he writes poetry. Oh, and one time he bought 50 canoes and blamed it on an accounting error.

This month on One Great History, Producer Nick tells Alex and Sabrina all about Burton Cummings.

Listen to the full episode :

Subscribe to our Patreon to hear a bonus episode, talking about Burton’s only acting role in the 1982 drama Melanie.

Watch an insane short film about the time Burton was assaulted in a North End 7-Eleven, Fahrenheit 7-Eleven.