There has always been one thing that makes this song for me - the guitar lead. Every time "American Woman" came on the radio when I was a kid, I was excited. I didn't know about any possible anti-war point the Canadian band was making. I had to hear that wild fuzzy blues/chromatic guitar part. It was innocent joy.

And then the 1990s happened to this song.

Of all damn people, Lenny Kravitz figured he could do the song one better.

He slowed the beat down to a crawl, made the drums smaller, made the rhythm guitars thinner, took everything heavy out of it and made it into elevator music. We got the vocal pushed out to the front and slathered in stadium echo, sung with adult contemporary R&B presentability where there used to be raw rock dishevelment.

And he took out that guitar lead completely.

The '90s was a time of arrogance. There was no thought that a cover version in such poor taste should be avoided. Rather, it saw regular radio and video rotation. It was during the '90s that someone felt they had the license to kill off Captain Kirk in one of the most lackluster, anticlimactic scenes ever filmed. George Clooney was allowed to star in a Batman film packaged with a slick lead single by the creatively adrift Smashing Pumpkins.

Look around and see if cultural landmarks are being defaced or destroyed with a cavalier, misplaced sense of license, and you will know if you are living in arrogant times.

But take comfort: Arrogance is always exposed in history, and accountability takes place.

I believe we are again living in arrogant times.

But the Guess Who's "American Woman" endures, while the Kravitz version has gone the way of Sam Goody.