BTO The Story behind Ain’t
Randy Bauchman
BTO The Story behind Ain’t
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Radio Austin
“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” is one of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s (BTO) biggest hits, but it actually started off as a joke.
“Ain’t” was written by founding member Randy Bachman as the lead single from BTO’s third studio album, Not Fragile, released in 1974. The song was primed for success thanks to the band’s wildly popular previous single, “Takin’ Care of Business.”
BTO’s founding member, Randy Bachman, wrote “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” solo. In the song, he poked fun at then-manager and brother Gary Bachman’s speech impediment. Despite its non-serious origins, the song continued to build on BTO’s success and became a fan favorite. Below, we explore the meaning behind “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
Listen to the lyrics, “You go girl”, YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET …..
Meaning Behind the Lyrics of Ain’t
Though the song drew comparisons to The Who’s “My Generation” for its similar guitar riffs and vocal stuttering, Bachman asserts that it was written as a joke for Gary. In fact, BTO wasn’t even planning on releasing it, as they were only going to send a private copy to Gary.
“He had a speech impediment,” Bachman is quoted as saying in Fred Bronson’s 1988 book, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. “We thought, just for fun… we’d take this song and I’d stutter and we’d send it to him. He’ll have the only copy in the world of this song by BTO.”
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The band was already in the thick of recording Not Fragile when Bachman had an instrumental tune that he ended up putting lyrics to. “It was basically just an instrumental and I was fooling around,” he continues. “I wrote the lyrics, out of the blue, and stuttered them through.”
Randy Bachman was musically inspired by guitarist Dave Mason of Traffic, especially his song “Only You Know and I Know,” along with the Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music.”
“I copped those jangling rhythms, changed the chords and then added some power chords of my own,” Bachman explained of his process, according to Louder Sound. “I had a work in progress, in two parts: a great rhythm and a heavy riff.”
As for the lyrics, Bachman says they weren’t particularly inspired, noting that the song came to him “by accident.”
Randy Bauchman
“The words just flowed out without thought. I met a Devil woman, and she took my heart away – that sounded good,” he describes. “Then for the chorus, I copied the way he’d say: You ain’t seen n-n-nothing yet, and also the way he stumbled on f-f-forget, and the way he said b-b-b baby. I liked it as an idea but I was never going to finish it off…I sang the storyline off the cuff.
My first wife used to say to me, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’
YOU GO GIRL !!
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The Devil woman was my wife. Then when I sang, she said I had it coming to me and I wanted it that way, I was riffing.”
Last updated 01/24/2023