No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature by The Guess Who

       By combining two unfinished pieces The Beatles created the 1967 song A Day In The Life.  They were connected together by a forty piece orchestra and the Timothy Leary inspired statement "I love to turn you on".  The song is considered a masterpiece and perhaps the band's finest moment.  Overlooked because of the story told in the song is how it directly and indirectly influenced music that other bands were creating.        A couple of years after A Day In The Life was released, a band from the Winnipeg prairie called The Guess Who, led by singer Burton Cummings and guitar player Randy Bachman, were starting to have quite a bit of commercial success.  In 1969, two years after Sgt. Pepper, they released an album called Wheatfield Soul which featured These Eyes as it's lead off.  The song became their first international hit.  It featured some nice violin work which was possibly influenced by the Beatles Eleanor Rigby.  A bit deeper on the album there are songs that have obvious Beatle's influence.  One of them, Maple Fudge, has a similar chord structure to Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite and a vocal style somewhat reminiscent of When I'm 64.
       In 1970 TGW released the American Woman album and it was quite possibly the best of their career.  This record contained the songs No Time, American Woman, and the fabulous No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.  Initially No Sugar Tonight gained radio airplay without New Mother Nature but eventually it was no longer possible to play the song on the radio without both pieces. Similar to A Day In The Life, No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature smartly combined two very different tunes to make one great number.
       The first half of the song was the unfinished Randy Bachman composition No Sugar Tonight.  It has been interpreted to be about drug addiction.  "Sugar" might be comparative to cocaine or heroin and not having it will lead an addict to dark places.  The second verse describes lovers who can't quite get it together.  Again this would seem to be about an addict unable to score a fix.  Another interpretation could be about depression and the desire for love.  Sometimes it's hard to say what lyrics mean because they are often written to evoke a mood or are created to fit a tune and syllable pattern.  In the chorus they emphasize having no sugar tonight for coffee, tea, or to "run with me".  All three of those could be about not having drugs or love.  Bachman has said the "no sugar tonight' line came about after he heard an angry woman tell her man he wouldn't be getting any sugar tonight.  That is an obvious sex reference which tends to favor the depression/desire interpretation but the drug addiction explanation seems to fit the text better.

It's the new Mother Nature

       The second half of the song was also an unfinished piece written by Burton Cummings.  At the beginning of this movement, is a verse about a man who's drug dealer, named Jocko, willingly sells him drugs, probably marijuana.  The verse also includes the word "trippin" and the idea of "leaving them all behind".  Like the Beatles line "I'd love to turn you on" this was probably influenced by Timothy Leery who advised people to "Tune in, turn on, and drop out" by using LSD.  Later in the song Cummings makes multiple drug references with the imagery of a room filled with marijuana smoke but also an available "bag of goodies" which might mean psychedelics.      
        While the lyrics are syntax ear candy the true brilliance of the song can be found in it's structure.  Like A Day In The Life it has two distinct parts.  Both use a repeating G# F# chord progression but each has a distinctly different tune.  Near the end of the song Cummings neatly sings both parts together, hits the chorus, then fades with the Dant, a nana (sugar) section.  The song is cool and mysterious and a bit reminiscent of the Zombie's She's Not There.
      An earlier incarnation of the band was called Chad Allen & The Expressions.  They had a minor hit in 1965 with a cover of  the song Shakin' All Over.  To try and increase interest in the band the record company put Guess who(?) on the singles' label instead of the real band name.  After that they were unable to shake off the new moniker.  So despite popular opinion, the origins of the name The Guess Who was not a fallacious attempt to co-opt the name and therefore record sales from The Who.
Please give a listen to:

        No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature