Happy Canada Day!
I'm writing this while listening to the Toronto Blue Jays game on TV. They're not doing so well at the moment. But I'm trying to keep things Canadian today, so even if I turn the game off, or once it's over, I'll then spin at least a few records by some of my favourite Canadian musicians.
I plan to play maybe one side each of some of the records, since I don't have a ton of time on my hands. First up, I'll put on A Million Vacations, a proper summertime album by Max Webster. This 1979 release, the band's fourth, spawned their biggest hit thus far in their career, Let Go the Line. But the record is packed with bright, fun music... like Paradise Skies, Night Flights, the title track, Rascal Houdi, and Research (At Beach Resorts). Such nostalgic memories attached to this stuff, of teenaged me cranking up my Vacations 8-track tape on the family stereo when everyone else left the house.
Then I think I'll pop on the Love Crimes album by Harlequin. This record contains some of their biggest radio hits, Innocence, Love On the Rocks, and Thinking of You. Ah, I remember seeing these guys play at my high school when I was just getting to know the blossoming Canadian rock music scene.
All The Best From Prism is jammed with a fine selection of their pop-rock gems, including Spaceship Superstar, Take Me to the Kaptin, It's Over, Armageddon, Young & Restless... so many more. I recall a friend in my neighbourhood who had just gotten his first home stereo system. He had bought a pile of records to start out with, and he invited me over for a listening session. Armageddon was among the tunes I heard that day.
David Wilcox was a hoot when I saw him perform at a dingy old bar on the outskirts of my hometown back in the mid-80's. I believe it was a New Year's Eve, too, so the suds were flowing... heavily. His Out of the Woods album boasts some of his many terrific barroom bluesy-rock tunes, such as Do the Bearcat, Hot Hot Papa, Bad Apple, and That Hypnotizin' Boogie. Oh yeah.
Now that I think about it, of the handful of records pictured above, I've seen all but three of those artists perform live. The exceptions are The Stampeders, B.T.O., and Prism. But I've seen Max, Harlequin, Teenage Head (those three at my high school... and Max and solo Mitchell many times more later), Saga and Triumph a couple times each, and Wilcox, as mentioned before.
Man, so much great music came out of Canada during the 70's and 80's. Why was that? Was there something in the water? All I know is that since I couldn't have been a teen during Beatlemania, this was the next best thing... Canada, and even the province of Ontario in particular, spawned so many amazing artists and albums. The songwriting was primo, backed up by better than average musicianship, and exciting live shows.
By the way, I know I left out the most obvious band here... Rush. But like I said, that's so obvious. I talk about them a lot in my blog, and we all know they were the greatest Canadian music artists of all time, right? That acknowledged, I just thought today I'd put the spotlight on some other great musicians, maybe not quite as big and famous as Rush, but just as deserving of attention. If you haven't already, check out some of the albums mentioned and pictured above.
I've got a bunch of other records (not to mention even more CDs) by homegrown artists, including prog rockers FM, prog thrashers Voivod, Burton Cummings, Loverboy, and even some non-rock like jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, folk legend Gordon Lightfoot, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, and yes, even a little something by country-pop singer Anne Murray (hey, it was like 50 cents in a thrift shop, so why not?). Oh, and a comedy album by SCTV creations, Bob and Doug McKenzie (with Rush's Geddy Lee making an appearance).
So today... all Canadians must break out the patio lanterns, raise up your lager or ale (or a soda if you're the designated driver), do your rock'n'roll duty, and salute this great nation.
Cheers!
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