All Over Town

You know how it is when a song just hits that sweet spot of rock and roll attitude mixed with a little bit of heartbreak, the kind of track that gets the Zoo Freaks nodding along and maybe remembering some old times out on the road. Right now the Zoo Crew is spinning “All Over Town” by April Wine, that hard-charging number from their 1981 album The Nature of the Beast, and it still packs a punch with those searing guitar riffs and Myles Goodwyn’s voice cutting through like he means every word. The song tells the story of a guy who’s a bit ticked off that his old girlfriend is running around like she owns the world, the talk of the town, the best of the girls, and everybody wants some action. She’s walked right out of his heart and the word is going around, but he admits she’s so neat, so cute, so fine, and in the end he figures there’s no reason they still can’t be friends after everything they’ve been through. It’s classic April Wine, that mix of tough rock and a touch of vulnerability that always connected with the crowds.

There’s a neat little story behind how Myles wrote the thing. In his autobiography he talked about hearing “My Sharona” by The Knack and getting impressed by how such a simple octave motif could turn into such a catchy riff. So he did something similar, walking it from A down to F and back up to G, and pretty much had “All Over Town” knocked out in about fifteen minutes. That’s the kind of thing that happens when a songwriter has the knack, and Myles always did. Brian Greenway, the longtime guitarist who joined the band back in 1977, has talked in interviews about the guitar harmonies that show up on songs like this one and “Sign of the Gypsy Queen.” He said it wasn’t something they planned out intentionally; they just had three guitars in the band and figured, hey, let’s do it that way. It was a bit of the flavor of the day, like what Queen was doing or Molly Hatchet with their guitar army, and it worked out great for the live shows where they could layer those harmony solos. Greenway also noted how the album had a nice range, from hard rockers like “All Over Town” and “Crash and Burn” to the big ballad “Just Between You and Me.” The band themselves would have rather led with a rocker like this one so folks would know there was variety on the record, but the label went with the ballad first and it got them on stations that might not have played the harder stuff. Either way, The Nature of the Beast went platinum in the States and double platinum in Canada, and that 1981 tour was their biggest yet, hitting Canada, the US, and Europe, with a couple of nights at the Hammersmith Odeon in London where this song fit right in the middle of the set when the crowd was ready to move.

April Wine came together back in 1969 up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, specifically around Waverley. The original lineup was Myles Goodwyn on vocals and guitar, brothers David and Ritchie Henman on guitar and drums, and their cousin Jim Henman on bass and vocals. They’d all been kicking around in local bands, and David came up with the name April Wine because it just had a ring to it and didn’t mean anything in particular, which was the point so they wouldn’t get boxed into one style. Halifax didn’t offer much for recording or big gigs, so they sent a demo tape down to Aquarius Records in Montreal. What came back was a nicely worded rejection that closed with something like if you’re ever in town, look us up. The guys took that as an invitation, piled into their van with their gear and about a hundred bucks, and showed up at the Aquarius offices on April 1, 1970. The managers were surprised to see them but liked what they heard and signed the band. They recorded their self-titled debut in 1971, which had a Canadian hit in “Fast Train,” and things started rolling from there. Jim Henman left after that and Jim Clench came in on bass, then the Henman brothers moved on and Gary Moffet and Jerry Mercer joined. By the time of albums like Stand Back in 1975, which was the first Canadian band record to sell over a hundred thousand copies, and The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazy the next year, the first Canadian album certified platinum on release, they were a force. Greenway joined for the harder edge that carried them through First Glance, Harder... Faster, and into The Nature of the Beast. Myles was the main songwriter and the only consistent member through the years, writing pretty much all the key tracks, and the band sold millions of albums while becoming Canadian rock royalty with induction into the Music Hall of Fame and other honors. They’ve kept going with new members like Marc Parent on vocals and guitar, still playing those classics for the fans who remember when the songs first hit the airwaves.

You can check out more on the band over at the April Wine official website, or follow along on their official Facebook page, Instagram, and X account. There’s also a solid Facebook group for the fans called April Wine where the Winos share stories and memories. And of course you can always catch the Zoo Crew spinning more deep cuts and classics right here on THE ZOO.