Great Unknown Songs #5 – Bachman Turner Overdrive ” Down To The Line”

One of the most underrated classic rock bands, The canadians from BTO (Bachman Turner Overdrive) remain still unknown to the mainstream rock and roll currently. Even with most remembered classics like “You Are not Seen Nothing Yet” and “Takin Care Of Business”, many other great songs were forgotten in the 70’s and 80’s.

One of them is “Down To The Line” from the 1975 album Head On.

The song was written by Randy Bachman, with Kim Fowley, Mark Anthony and Vincent Furnier (better known as Alice Cooper). It was first recorded by Canadian rock group Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO) as a non-album single and released in November 1975, just ahead of their December 1975 album Head On.

The original single credits only Randy Bachman as the song’s composer. Mark Anthony and Kim Fowley later sued Bachman over the chorus riff of “Down to the Line”, which is identical to the main riff in the Alice Cooper song “Escape”, composed by Fowley, Anthony and Cooper for the Welcome to My Nightmare album. As a result of the lawsuit, settled out of court, the three additional writing credits were added to Bachman’s on subsequent releases of “Down to the Line” (compilation albums and re-issues of Head On).