In the 1970s, Bachman-Turner Overdrive were known for high-driving songs such as “Takin’ Care of Business” and “Roll on Down the Highway,” but one of their road-themed songs was inspired by a real-life driving incident.
The song, “Let It Ride,” appeared on the album Bachman–Turner Overdrive II. Written by Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, the guitar-driven song featured a thumping drum groove and a hook-driven chorus that made it a road trip favorite. “Let It Ride” peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1974 and remains an anthem for the highway more than 52 years later.
“Let It Ride” was inspired after the Bachman Turner-Overdrive band members had a run-in with some truckers while driving down to New Orleans for a tour with the Doobie Brothers.
Speaking on the Vinyl Tap Show Every Song Tells a Story, Bachman recalled that he was flying down the highway when a semi-trailer pulled in front of him, and then another drove up next to him.
“They kind of have me blocked in. So I'm about to fall back, and then another one pulls in behind me,” the Canadian rocker shared. “Our license plate says friendly Manitoba. These three guys have us boxed in. They decide to go about 35 miles an hour to see how friendly the friendly Manitobans are. This goes on for like an hour and a half. We can't get out of this little box on the freeway. They won't let us out.”
“So finally, one of them takes an exit… . So we need gas. So we're going to take an exit as well,” Bachman continued. “Fred Turner and I are the big guys in BTO. We're going to have an aggressive word with this truck driver because him and his buddies were talking to each other on the CBs and laughing and playing this trick on us.”
Bachman then added that while “truckers are usually big guys … when this guy got out of his truck, he looked like a refrigerator with a head stuck on top.”
“Fred Turner and I decided we wouldn't be as aggressive as we thought we were going to be,” he cracked. “We looked up at this guy and said, ‘Excuse me, sir.’ This guy's like 6'6. ‘Excuse me, sir. You're driving very carelessly, and you had us boxed in there.' And he said, ‘Oh, we're just testing you friendly Manitobans and you really nice Canadians to see how nice you are. It's no big deal. Why don't you just let it ride?’”
The BTO bandmates liked the sound of the “let it ride” phrase, and the rest is history.
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The album version of “Let It Ride” runs nearly four-and-a-half minutes, while the single cuts out at 3:33. Bachman once told Classic Rock Revisited the shorter version of the song was essential for radio airplay.
“It is hard to get something into that magical three and a half minutes, which means that it will get played on the radio,” he said. “If your song is short enough, then they might put it in between commercials. The reality is that you have to make something that is short and sweet and is a commercial for your band. …’Let It Ride’ on the album has a long thing in the middle like the Allman Brothers. That was edited out of the single because if we didn’t edit it down, then they would not have played it on the radio.”
Related: 1972 Road-Trip Anthem, Written by Rock Legends, Was Inspired by an Iconic TV Theme
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