Bachman-Turner Overdrive: FOUR SIDES of HAPPY PORK

Joplin, Missouri has two highlights. The stereo equipment store is called the Insound Asylum,” and the Holiday Inn there sports the “Mickey Mantle Cocktail Louge” ’cause the Mick played for the American Association farm club there before making the big time. And if you’re ever stuck there, don’t buy a music box at the hotel gift shop. They’re all off-key.

Just like the Joplin Memorial Hall, where the scene backstage on this typically freezing winter night is strangely schizophrenic. The boys from R.E.O. Speedwagon are ducking in and out of the hallway, groupies are hustling from every corner, and beer cans lie strewn all over the place. The members of the second billed act, though, are calmly minding their own business in their little dressing room. No dope, no booze, no broads. Just two buckets of Col. Sanders (one regular, one extra crispy) and a few cases of Fresca. The band is sitting around loosening up with their practice amp, running through such personal favorites as “I Am a Rock,” “Brown Eyed Girl” and a medley of Doobie