Welcome to a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello and good tidings to you. I hope you’ve been enjoying a terrific week.
I want to get straight into our guest today because he’s a man with a whole lot to say. As lead singer for Canadian rock and roll superstars The Guess Who, Burton Cummings is a rare artist who transcends time, genres and generations with a body of work that continues to resonate with fans of all ages. Burton’s voice has been rated amongst the finest in rock music and today he continues at the top of his game as a performer, singer, songwriter, poet and recording artist.
Shall we meet him? Let’s do it. Hello Sandy. Yes Burton, how lovely to meet you.
What an amazing life story you have to tell. Well I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve been on the radio now for over 50 years and not everyone gets that in their career.
The luckiest thing I can think of is that these these songs have never gone away and with a lot of people they’ll have maybe one or two or three very successful songs and they’ll last a few years and then you never hear them again. I’m still hearing my voice on the radio all the time. The first big one, These Eyes, was 1968 so that’s way over 50 years.
I have never taken it lightly. Yeah What do you think to yourself when you hear yourself on the radio 50 years later? I think back to when I was in my first band. We had big dreams but I wouldn’t have foreseen myself when I was 18, 19 years old.
I didn’t foresee myself still out in front of thousands of people at age 75. Can we rewind back to those early days and take us for a walk through your life coming back up to present day because I know that you were born and raised in Winnipeg and you dropped out of school at age 17 wanting to be a musician. Who were you so influenced by that you were so certain that that’s all you wanted to do? Well I kind of weaseled my way into a band that was being performed by my best friend in high school.
I had learned a few things a couple of Ritchie Valens songs and Walk Right In by the Rooftop Singers and I learned all these chords on piano so I could tell the guys the chords and we ended up learning a few songs that day and before too long I was in the band and I was the lead singer and I was basically arranging the music. We played for a long time for nothing. We played for months before we ever got paid so it was not a luxurious life at all.
You know the Beatles were around and that influenced everybody so we just thought okay we’re going to set our sights as high as we can and that’s what we did. So you’d been tinkering around on the piano. How did you know you actually had a good voice? I didn’t really but I had sung in the church choir for two or three years and when I was in grade 10 they had an audition for Trial by Jury, the Gilbert and Stullen operetta and I got the lead tenor role.
The following year went and auditioned for HMS Pinafore. Once more I got the lead role but I was still glued to the radio. I was listening to Elvis Presley and Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.
Fats and Jerry Lee and Little Richard were piano players. They were my idol. I liked the piano players that sang so from a very early age I was hooked on it.
Were you self-taught on the piano or did you actually have formal lessons? Oh no I had lessons. My mother started me on piano lessons when I was about five or six so I learned the mathematics of music from the Royal Conservatory courses in Canada but I didn’t ever want to end up playing music that had been written a hundred years ago. I wanted to be like the Beatles and even before the Beatles I always loved the good singers.
The Temptations, Smokey Robinson. So I was I guess you would call a student of poppies. Were you ever going to be anything else after school or all your teenage life you knew you wanted to make music your profession? Well I was a fairly good photographer.
I got myself a really good Nikon camera when I was a teenager and I thought I had a bit of a gift for that but everybody that gets a good camera thinks they have a gift for photography. I probably would have ended up being a writer for possibly for a newspaper. I have one book of poetry released already.
The second book of poetry is in production right now and so I’ve always had a penchant for writing you know for creating but there’s nothing like being on in front of a crowd and getting applause. There’s not there’s no feeling like that in the world so I think I chose what I really wanted to do. I was a workshop owner in the guns for the people and I offered myself to the world.
Describe that feeling. Give us a sense of what that’s like. It’s hard to describe but I would liken it to being plugged into a socket in the wall.
There’s definitely an energy that you feel coming at you from the crowd and to me it doesn’t matter if it’s 20,000 or 2,000 or 400 people. It’s all the same. Once there’s 10 people it doesn’t change.
To me it’s what you put out on stage. That’s really why I’m up there. So does that feeling become addictive? Very much.
Very much so and you know the two-year layoff for COVID was terrible. Not only was there no work but you can’t lay around for a couple years and then get up and start hitting your notes as if nothing has changed. If you’ve never been on a stage in front of several thousand people all cheering for you directly, it’s very hard to describe but I wouldn’t trade it for anything, honestly.
I bet you wouldn’t. Just stepping back again, you mentioned the band you were in as a teenager. I know that you just turned 18 when you were with Chad Allen and The Expressions.
Is that the band you referred to earlier? No, no. I was in the band called The Devrons before I ever was phoned by The Guess Who. The Guess Who called me before my 18th birthday and they were already the biggest band in Canada.
So it was a bit of a Cinderella story for me to go from being, you know, we were a pretty good local band, The Devrons. These guys in The Guess Who, they were cutting records. They had toured with Dion DiMucci.
They had toured with The Turtles. They had played with people like Dionne Warwick and they toured with the Kingsmen that did Louie Louie. I mean, these were legendary things to me as a little kid in Winnipeg and then I was going to be joining this band that had actually played all over the United States.
So it was a pretty big deal for me and it was very overwhelming the morning I got that phone call because I wasn’t prepared for anything like that. Shaken all over Just the way you say goodnight to me Brings a feeling on inside of me Quivers down my backbone I got the shivers in my thigh bones I got the shivers in my knee bones Shaken all over They weren’t called The Guess Who at that time, were they? They were Chad Allen and the Expressions. They were in the process of changing the name.
They were originally Chad Allen and the Expressions and then what happened in New York City, Scepter Records, their label, they released Shaken all over. Now this was in 1965 at the height of the British music invasion, right? The height of Beatlemania days. So Scepter Records thought they would try a promotion gimmick.
They just put the record out. It didn’t say Chad Allen and the Expressions. It didn’t say anything.
It said Shakin all over, Guess Who? with a question mark. And oddly enough, I guess the publicity gimmick worked because the record was a hit record. It zoomed up the charts in Billboard and the manager at the time thought, well, let’s just change the name of the group to The Guess Who.
And that’s how it happened. It was a fluke and it was a promotion gimmick that once the record took off, they decided to keep that name. So you’re playing with the Deverons, you’re singing out front of them and all of a sudden one day you get a call from someone in The Guess Who, which as you said is a band already in Canada.
What happens? How did you react? I wasn’t quite ready for that. I wasn’t quite emotionally prepared. They wanted me to come down to their manager’s office who had an office at the local television station.
And I was assuming this was to help the Deverons out, get a recording career going. So I went down there, of course, with my hopes very high. I wasn’t ready for what they asked me when I walked into the office.
They asked me if I would like to join their band. I was 17 years old and I was a bit cocky. I pulled a joke on them.
I said, yeah, you know what, guys, I’d love to, but the Beatles phoned me last week. So I’ll see you later. And I left the room and I let about 30 seconds go by.
And then I went back in and I said, are you guys actually serious? Are you asking me to join your band? And yeah, from there it happened. And Chad Allen was still there as the lead singer, but he left a couple of months later. So all of a sudden I’m freshly turned 18 and I’m the front man for The Guess Who, who are known all over Canada.
Oh, baby, I just love your kissing. Now I know what I’ve been missing. Oh, baby, I can see now.
I just want to love all of me. I want to tell you what you do to me. I want to tell you what you do to me.
Hey-oh, la-la-le-oh, you know, you know that I love you so. Hey-oh, la-la-le-oh, you know, you know that I love you so. Oh, baby, I just love how you tease me.
I get a funny feeling when you squeeze me. Oh, baby, I found out now just what love’s all about. I want to tell you what you do to me.
Were the Demerons mad at you? You? Yes, I think it was a tough thing because, you know, we were all school buddies with big dreams. When I left, they basically folded and the fan club was furious with me because they had a very sophisticated fan club. It would be hard for you to imagine, but Winnipeg was the rock and roll capital of Canada at that time.
There were 100 bands working every weekend. We’re only talking about 380,000 people, maybe 400,000 people to have 100 bands working. And I was part of that scene.
And when they found out Chad Allen wanted to go back to university, they started looking around. Oh, who can we get? Because they didn’t want to quit. So I was just in the right place at the right time.
I filled the bill for what they needed. You know, it’s like a Cinderella thing. It really is.
But now, before I go any further, let me say this. It wasn’t all roses after I joined. Hang on a minute.
You’ve just joined Canada’s most famous band. You’re 18 years old and all your dreams have come true. What could possibly be wrong? Stay tuned to find out.
This is a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. It was 1968 and the Guess Who were on the precipice to score an unprecedented string of international hit singles and albums including American Woman, These Eyes, No Time, No Sugar Tonight, Clap for the Wolfman, Albert Flasher and many others, all either written or co-written by Burton Cummings.
By 1970, the Guess Who had sold more records than the entire Canadian music industry combined. So what could have been the issue, Burton? Sixty-six was brutally hard. We were doing four hours a night and I was doing all the singing, one hour on, ten minutes off, one hour on, ten minutes off.
That summer we played 60 shows in two months. Sixty-seven we went to England to try and make it through the back door. That was brutally unsuccessful.
Sixty-eight, by then we were doing weekly television. But that’s what saved the band. But we had tough years before These Eyes.
And then when These Eyes hit, everything changed. It was our first gold record. We had about 11 or 12 singles before These Eyes, all of which bombed miserably.
And then These Eyes took off and everything changed and our lives were different after that. These eyes cry every night for you These arms long to hold you again The hurtin’s on me, yeah I will never be free No, my baby, no, no You gave a promise to me, yeah You broke it You broke it Oh, no These eyes watched you bring my world to an end This heart could not accept and pretend The hurtin’s on me, yeah I will never be free No, no, no You took the vow with me, yeah You spoke it You spoke it, baby I think you’re being very humble, though, when you said you were in the right place at the right time. And if there were more than 100 working bands there in Winnipeg and so many more through Canada, they must have selected you very carefully.
They saw the talent. Well, a very special thing happened. About four months before that magic phone call, Jerry and the Pacemakers came to Winnipeg, our hometown.
It was a hockey arena. It was sold out right to the rafters. So the Deverons got to open the show.
Then it was the Guess Who with Chad Allen. And then it was Jerry and the Pacemakers. So Randy and the other guys in the Guess Who, they were there that night, and they watched us because we went on before them, the Deverons.
And I guess I must have been pretty good or I must have done something that they liked because they basically said they made their decision that night. And this was in August. I never got that phone call till December.
They watched how I performed in front of the huge crowd and how I sang and how I kind of was the band leader. And they thought, OK, that’s the guy for us. She’s my lover I want her back again She’s my lover Love just seems don’t know when She’s my lover I want her back again Yeah, yeah, yeah, now Baby, baby I need you by my side I need you, baby To keep me satisfied Baby, baby I need your lovin’ so bad Were you writing for the band? Yes, once I joined the Guess Who, I was writing with Randy.
Randy thought I was a bit of a songwriter and he helped me out a little bit. And then we started hanging out together, showing each other pieces. We each would write unfinished songs but bring the pieces together.
And that’s how these eyes happened and that’s how laughing happened. I should laugh But I cry Because your love Has passed me by You took me by surprise You didn’t realize That I was waiting Time goes slowly But you carry on And now the best years Have come and gone You took me by surprise I didn’t realize That you were lying Baby, baby You should do what you do Baby, baby You should do You took away everything I had to put the lid on me Baby, baby You should do You took away everything I had to put the lid on me We had pieces and we would meet at my place. You know, I hadn’t even left home yet.
I was still living at home with my mother and grandmother. This is how young I was. And Randy would come over with his guitar.
We would sit at my mother’s piano and trade pieces. And hopefully, after a couple hours there would be a couple new songs there. They were very rough, rugged days but still very exciting.
We were trying to create our own future by writing great songs. I bet your mother and grandmother were beside themselves with excitement, were they? Well, my mother couldn’t believe it. My mother was very supportive.
You know, when I dropped out of high school I didn’t tell her that I was going to drop out of school. I just did it one day. And when she came home from work that night she was pretty upset.
But she always supported the fact that I was working already. And she thought, you know, I’ll give my son a chance to chase his dream. So we get to about 1970 when you really hit it big internationally with the album American Woman.
Yeah. Well, you know, we had been touring the States already on the strength of Bees Eyes and Laughing, which were both pretty big records. And we were doing a show back in Canada after touring the States for quite a bit.
We went back in Canada and we were doing two shows. And between shows I was outside and this is the exact story of how it happened. I’ve read, you know, Randy tells one story, Jim Cato tells one story and everybody’s got their own story.
I’m the guy that made the song up. So I’m telling you the truth. Okay.
I was outside between shows. There was a guy that had some old Gene Vincent records. And I’m a huge Gene Vincent fan.
Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. They were some of the original bad boys of rock and roll. Bebop.
I was trying to strike up a deal to barter some of these records away from this kid and I’m outside the curling rink and all of a sudden I hear the guys had gone on without me and Randy was just playing some riff I said to this guy listen and we’ll talk about the records later I’m supposed to be on stage I ran in and Randy had by this time had Jim and Gary playing along with the riff I walk up on stage and this chugging is going on and I’m thinking wow this is pretty cool it’s chugging right along so I just started making stuff up and more or less I was just trying to make things line but here’s what I was thinking and this is where the the line came from American woman stay away from me we had been touring the states and it always seemed to me as a young guy that the girls were trying to grow up faster in the states they wore more makeup at a younger age they were trying to dress a little more sensuously at a younger age and after seeing this for a while in the states then we came back to Canada and it didn’t seem to me like the girls were trying to grow up quite as fast so guys are playing this rhythm and I’m thinking to myself Canadian woman I prefer you but what came out of my mouth was American woman stay away from me I was never thinking politically there was no political inference to the song but here’s the thing this was 1970 the Vietnam war was at a tremendously bad point of escalation and when those lines came out American woman stay away from me and then I was just trying to make things rhyme I don’t need your war machines I don’t need your ghetto seeds I was just trying to make things rhyme colored lights can hypnotize sparkle someone else’s eyes made all that up on stage in front of that crowd and somehow we got a hold of a cassette tape of that jam later and we decided to make a record out of it it was totally ad-libbed 90 percent of those lyrics I made up on stage in front of a crowd and I always to this day I I kind of think yeah that wasn’t bad for one of those Bob Dylan stream of consciousness moments everybody thought I was angry and I hated the American girls it’s not true no I was never anti-American it was just one of those hit records that got so big we couldn’t believe it it was number one in billboard for three weeks two things I want to ask you about that all the touring that you were doing everywhere and seeing all these girls with their makeup on and their sensual clothes does that suggest that you hadn’t become hypnotized by the bright lights and the drugs and the sex and rock and roll I was always a little bit dazzled by show business you know I was dazzled by the response we got in the devrons before I was ever in the gas tube we had a fan club that treated us like the Beatles one time three or four of the girls came over to my mother’s house and stole the bird bell out of the backyard another time they came in the middle of the night with screwdrivers we lived at 152 Bannerman they unscrewed the numbers and took the 152 and I mean this was Beatles kind of stuff this was the stuff they would do at John Lennon’s house in England but I mean this was this had translated to Winnipeg they were magical times they really were but you didn’t answer my question though did you remain kind of more clean living than a lot of the rock and rollers that were out there on the road at the same time well I got that phone call from the guess who I was still so young I hadn’t really thought about moving out yet during that year and a half with the guess who I mean we traveled all over so it wasn’t as though I hadn’t traveled I did start traveling pretty young I think we missed it don’t give me no hand-me-down love don’t give me no hand-me-down world got one already anybody here see the long distance cheer for the notion I think we missed it anybody here see the sky weeping tears for the ocean Burton Cummings this show a breath of fresh air I always reach out to listeners and ask them if there’s somebody special that they’d like to hear from you’ve been requested by a bass player actually a guy called Warren who lives in a Carrington here in Victoria and I’d asked Warren is there a special question that you’d like to ask Burton Cummings and the one question he came back to me with was being Canadian how hard was it to break into the American scene in the first place listen even to this day Canadians have trouble breaking into the United States there there have been a whole slew of Canadian acts that have had tremendous success in Canada but that success hasn’t drifted across the border for us it was very very difficult we just kept getting knocked down and getting back up again that’s what it was well seems like getting knocked down and getting right back up again was definitely the way to go the Guess Who soon became the first ever Canadian band to achieve a number one single in the US
This is a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. During their most successful period, the Guess Who released 11 studio albums, all of which reached the charts in Canada, Australia and the US.
The band scored 14 top 40 hit singles, two of which made it to number one in the States. It was at the height of their success that guitarist Randy Backman decided to leave the group and not long after this, the Guess Who called it quits. Randy was at that point a devout Mormon, quite religious, and the other three of us were more party boys, you know.
We were young guys in a rock and roll band, travelling around. Not dopers, but certainly we liked to drink and stay up late and make noise. Randy didn’t want any of that.
You know, we had already finished another album to follow American Woman, and things were just so uncomfortable, we scrapped that album. To be honest, we moved on with Kurt and Greg, and we did Share the Land, and that became the biggest album ever for the Guess Who, much bigger than American Woman had been. Have you been around? Have you done your share of coming down? On different things that people do Have you been aware You got brothers and sisters who care About what’s gonna happen to you any year from now Maybe I’ll be there to shake your hand Maybe I’ll be there to share the land That they’ll be giving away when we all live together We’re talking about together now Maybe I’ll be there to shake your hand Maybe I’ll be there to share the land That they’ll be giving away when we all live together We’re talking about together now Share the Land became one of those songs that we would do at pop festivals.
It became like an anthem. I didn’t see that coming. I wrote it very fast, so there you go.
You disbanded in 1975. Why? By that point, we had a guitarist named Dominic Troiano who leaned more towards jazz. He wasn’t the same kind of musician.
We were all weaned on AM radio and three-minute songs, and Troiano wanted to do all this fusion music. He almost resented the fact that he had to play the hit records. I don’t think he liked the hit stingles very much.
Lonely deep inside Find a corner Where I can hide Silent footsteps Crowding me Sudden darkness But I can see No sugar tonight I need my coffee No sugar tonight I need my tea No sugar to stand beside me No sugar to run with me Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da In the silence Of her mind Quiet movements Where I can find Grabbing for me With her eyes Now I’m falling From her skies No sugar tonight I need my coffee No sugar tonight I need my tea No sugar to stand beside me No sugar to run with me Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da After about a year and a half of that, I was very uncomfortable and I thought, you know what, while I’m still not too old, I’m going to give it a shot as a solo artist. And that’s what I did. And my first single went gold.
Stand Tall. It was a huge record. I didn’t see that coming, but I’m still very grateful to this day.
How confident were you going out as a soloist? I wasn’t confident at all. I was terrified. But I had seen our old friend Neil Young, who came from Winnipeg, too.
We all knew each other when we were teenagers. Neil Young had been with Buffalo Springfield and they had tremendous success. And then Buffalo Springfield broke up and Neil went on on his own.
And I saw those first two solo albums of his and I thought to myself, maybe a bit arrogantly, Neil can do this, so can I. And I will tell you this, in all honesty, it’s a lot harder than people think. The solo artist life, when things are great, you get all the accolades, yes. But when things aren’t good, you take all the slush yourself.
Never been this blue Never knew the meaning of a heartache But then again I never lost a love before No Somewhere down the road Maybe all those years will find some meaning I just can’t think about them now Or live them out anymore I was terrified at first, but between the first two solo albums, I got pretty quickly established as a solo guy. And I had a manager at the time who was managing Alice Cooper. He put me on tour with Alice Cooper, 20,000 people a night.
It was a pretty quick way for me to reach a lot of people. I think you need luck. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m the greatest thing in the world, but I’m a fairly decent singer.
The best thing that people tell me is you don’t sound like anybody else. And that, I think, is something that every singer would love to hear. But, you know, I’ve never stopped crying.
I said I’m scared, Lord I’m scared, I’m terrified Never been much on the radio But I’ve shown up when I do call I’m scared, Lordy, Lord I’m shaken, I’m petrified Never been much on religion But I’ve shown up to spell that on my knees I heard the choir singing Something about good will turning in And even though I’m sleeping in heaven You did have a short reunion tour with the Classic Guess Who line-up in 83. Then you had a bit of an extended break from recording during that time. Then there was a tour from 2000 to 2003 where I think you played the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history, no surprise.
In 2006, you and Randy started a new duo project backed by the Canadian rock band The Carpet Frogs. And you’d lost the use of the name The Guess Who at that stage, hadn’t you? Yeah, you hear about this all the time. You know, Steve Perry has trouble with the guys from Journey.
John Fogerty went through hell. It’s not an uncommon story, Sandy. Yes, I realise that.
There is a fake band out there and none of the guys that were on the records, they call themselves The Guess Who. And I have to fight that, you know, because some people think I’m still with the band and some people think that Backman is still with the band, but whatever. I’m just grateful for what I have and I don’t spend as much time thinking about what I don’t have.
Fight for the woman You’re gonna reach your record high Clap for the woman You’re gonna dig in Till the day you die Clap for the woman You’re gonna reach your record high Yes, gracious Clap for the woman You’re gonna dig in Till the day you die Duran Duran and the Duke of Earl They were friends of mine I was on my moonlight drive I snuggled in, said, baby, just one kiss She said, no, no, no Romance ain’t keeping me alive I said, hey, babe, do you wanna coo, coo, coo She said, ah, ah, ah So I was left out in the cold I said, you’re what I’ve been dreaming of She said, I don’t want to know Oh, you know, she was digging the cabin Clap for the woman You’re gonna reach your record high Yes, baby, I got Dr. Love Burton, which is your favourite Guess Who song? Which do you like to sing the best? You know what, I am very partial to No Time It was a harder song than Laughing or Undone or These Eyes It’s a pretty good rock and roll record It’s a true example of co-writing because Randy had that guitar riff You’re gonna… And then Randy started singing No time left for you And I started singing over that On my way to better things And the next thing we knew couldn’t have been more than about an hour The song was finished And I heard it the other day on the radio here in Canada And I gotta tell you, it still sounded good to me It didn’t sound as old as it is Yeah, there’s something about all of those songs, isn’t there? They just have not dated And they’ll still be around for the next 50 or 100 years for future generations because they still sound so fresh No time left for you On my way to better things No time left for you I’ll find myself some wings No time left for you Distant roads are calling on me No time left for you Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da No time for a gentle rain No time for my watch and chain No time for revolving doors No time for the killing for No time for the killing for There’s no time left for you No time left for you I’ll find myself some wings No time left for you Distant roads are calling on me No time left for you Gayden, Gayden, Gayden, Gayden, Gayden Just before I let you go, Burton Cummings tell me about your poetry writing You said that you’re about to publish your second book of poetry Yes, I always wrote little limerick and silly poems in school but I never really thought I would write a book of poetry until three or four years ago when the first one came out I gathered up a bunch of poems I had written over a period of about eight years We put it out and I got rave reviews from professors and English teachers and fans, particularly the people that I’ve always loved my lyrics They love the poetry It’s pretty serious stuff It’s not fluff It’s the old style poetry that we learned in school way, way back in the 1950s It’s a throwback to old style poetry The first one was called The Writings of B.L. Cummings and this is called The Writings of B.L. Cummings 2 But these are not poems that can be set to music Some of it’s blank verse Some of it’s poetry Some of it is silly limerick but it’s all tailored to making the words dance I try and make the words dance I try and make the words stand up on their own It’s not like writing lyrics for a song These things I write in the poetry books they have to stand on their own in the mind, the silent mind of whoever the reading is A lot of people listening to this obviously can’t see you unless they have a look at this interview on YouTube but for somebody who is 76 years old you really look 20 years younger What’s your secret there? I don’t know That’s a pretty big compliment People do tell me all the time that I don’t look my age You don’t So whatever that is Put it this way, Sandy I haven’t exactly lived the life of a Buddhist monk I was in a rock and roll band for years and sometimes I make the joke that I didn’t even go to sleep until I was 40 You know I crammed a lot in Part of it might be I’ve been religious about vitamins since the 1970s and I always take my vitamins just a multivitamin and some vitamin E So maybe that’s it I’m pretty clean and maybe that answers your question You know Well, whatever it is you’re doing fabulously Long may it continue, Burton Cummings Thank you very much, Sandy It was a pleasure talking to you and I hope people will find this enjoyable and I do hope to be coming to Australia before too long Oh, baby, any day That you’re gone away It’s a beautiful day.