Lou Reed died today. His album New York was the first cd ever bought. I have absolutely no idea how many times I've listened to it. Followed by his Magic and Loss and Velvet Underground, of course. I read once that Lou Reed had to write something like three songs a day when he was at The Factory, Andy Warhol insisted upon it. Art was work. I've always tried to approach my writing in that fashion.
I love the rawness of Lou Reed's lyrics and music. As he once said, he didn't believe in dressing-up reality. He also once famously said, "One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz." That encouraged me to try writing songs when I only knew three chords. I was lucky enough to get to see Lou Reed live twice. Once at Massey Hall and once at the Hummingbird Centre, now the Sony Centre. The Massey Hall show was the first and most memorable. What I remember most of all is how much he seemed to be enjoying it. He was doing what he loved. He stayed true. I grew-up in rural Canada and somehow Lou Reed, David Bowie and Iggy Pop were three of my favourite singers. They opened me up to a much larger world, musically and otherwise. They gave it their all and cared more about creating something, and saying something, not worrying if, or who, it offended, but didn't go out of their way to offend just for the sake of it. Though they certainly pushed boundaries. They said what they felt and what they believed. And they showed that it's okay to experiment and to learn as you go. I used to have a shirt that I got at Lou Reed's concert at Massey Hall. It had a cartoon drawing of a little boxer on it who had a light bulb for a head. The caption read, "Fighting for an idea." I loved that shirt. Someone stole it. Bastard. I could go on about Lou's music and lyrics, how they influence me, and what they meant to me over the years, but not today. Today, I just wanted to say thank you, Lou. I leave you with three songs.
When I was in my late 20′s I decided to learn to play the guitar. I had many false starts before that, even getting lessons when I was barely old enough to hold a guitar and then trying again in my late teens.
I always had an interest in, and love for, music and lyrics but very little discipline. The discipline came with age, I reckon. I started to play and then to try and write songs, just for another form of creative expression. I also found that playing helped me in my fiction writing, also. I don't know exactly how, but it did.
In 2011 I got together with long time friend George Vaughan for a musical session . George and I had been friends since we were kids, growing up in the same area and having gone to school together from elementary through post secondary at Loyalist College of Applied Arts and Technology.
George is the host of the Saturday Night Blues Review on 91X Alternative Radio, and has a tremendous voice of his own; one that I, and everyone who has heard it, felt he should be sharing with the world. There's more to the story, as there is to all good stories, but rather than me yammering on I'll just let you listen to the music. :)
Here’s a few songs—from what turned into 2 separate sessions—including a cover Thompson Twins’ Hold Me Now, and another with special guest guitarist, Darcie Kingsman (owner of Seed of Life, landscape design).
Top Photo: John Lennon and Yoko Ono visit with Canada's new prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. After talking with Trudeau for 50 minutes, John Lennon said that Trudeau was "a beautiful person" and that "If all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace." (1969)
Bottom Photo: Prime Minister Stephen Harper presents Justin Bieber with Diamond Jubilee Medal. (2012)
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn
from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent
disinclination to do so." — Douglas Adams
I love stories: reading, listening to, telling, in a book, on film, over a pint or around a campfire— whatever. I've heard some writers don't like being called storytellers, I have no problem with it. There's a long and rich tradition of storytelling that runs throughout human history. It's been shown that reading stories, especially fiction, can help deepen our empathy and compassion, which is an invaluable part of the human experience.
When nature turns sharply it's our empathy and imagination that allows us to adapt and survive. It's survival of the species after-all, not the television show Survivor, an individual can't win it all; not to give away the ending, but the reality is, on an individual basis, everybody dies. But that's a reality people tend to avoid, and stories can bring us face to face with it.
Stories bring people together, they offer us a shared experience, a common ground to pull together on when need be. The odd duck who spent all his/her time reading and listening to stories, perhaps, teaching them-self how to build a boat, isn't seen as an outcast when the waters start rising. I don't buy the notion that bigger and stronger is better . . . Neanderthals were bigger and stronger, look how it turned out
for them. I'll bet they were shite at telling stories.
But what has this got to do with music? I like to hear stories being sung, also. Today I'm posting four Canadian Stories. Stories that allow us to share in, perhaps even learn from, the struggles of our fellow human beings.
The first I felt should be Stompin' Tom Connors, since he's a legendary Canadian storyteller. In this one he's singing about picking tobacco in the fields of Tillsonburg. I choose it since Jason Leighfield, who acted in my audio play, "An Ongoing Process" which you can hear this summer as part of Festival Players''Sounding Ground' series, is from Tillsonburg, has worked in the tobacco fields and used to, occasionally, sing parts of this song in college, "My back still aches when I hear that word . . . "
Barrett's Privateers, by Stan Rogers, is a sea shanty about an ill-fate sea voyage that set out from the east coast of Canada, toward Jamaica, in search of American merchantmen and their gold.
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is another story of tragedy on the water. This time it was on the Great Lakes. The story is shared by the Americans. In fact, the story is more theirs, in a way, since the crew, that sadly perished, were Americans; many from Wisconsin, where most of my cousins live. But, Gordon Lightfoot (who was J's, in 'Just J', favourite singer/songwriter) is Canadian, and he tells the story, and does a crackin' job of it, capturing the listener so well you almost feel sea sick when you listen; and your heart aches with each of the 29 bell tolls; even though you never actually hear them. The story often ends up belonging to the one who tells it best.
Finally, I had to do a Hockey song. Though this isn't so much about hockey as a player and the story about his disappearance and discovery and how it tied into the Toronto Maple Leafs success on the ice. It's Bashin' Bill" Barilko's story, as told by Kingston, Ontario's Tragically Hip.
I've wanted to add a music section to my blog for sometime. I am, after-all, a graduate from Radio Broadcasting at Loyalist College, one of the top radio programs in the country, and music has always been a large part of my life.
Some of my main writing influences were/are lyricists, such as Leonard Cohan, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Eddie Vedder, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Roger Waters, Andy Prieboy, Stan Ridgway, Black Francis, the list is too long and is constantly being added to. The spirit of the music, with bands like the Pixies and Iggy Pop, that freedom and self-expression, even the Andy Warhol and The Factory with the Velvet Underground where Lou Reed had to write a certain number of songs per day—you take care of the quantity and the quality will come—it's work, don't forget it, has had great influence on how I approach writing, or anything creative: more emotionally raw than delicately refined. And that do it for love, even if they hate you, has, along with my faith, helped keep me going. Music has been my sin and my salvation.
However, I couldn't find a bridge from the books to the music that I felt comfortable taking. Then when redoing the blog, and considering it yet again, the Prince Edward Country Authors Festival, that I was a presenter at a couple years back, brought in Bernie Finkelstein for the launch of his new book, "True North: A Life Inside The Music Business". Bernie Finkelstein is the founder of True North Records and has worked with the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Dan Hill, The Rheostatics, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings ect. He's done a great deal for Canadian Music, and considering how Canadians in the position to support fellow Canadians often do the opposite it makes it all the more admirable.
So here it is, the beginning of a music section, starting with 3 bands that Mr. Finkelstein, who kindly autographed his book for me and told me how much he admired writers, has worked with.
First, Bruce Cockburn, who Bernie stills manages. The song I picked is Peggy's Kitchen Wall because I listened to it over and over again, on vinyl, when I was a wee lad, trying to figure out who it was that put that bullet hole in Peggy's kitchen wall. And why?
Second is The Rheostatics. The song I chose is Clair, a song that was in the great Canadian film, Whale Music. I choose it because I love the song and had a very enjoyable night at the Horseshoe Taven, in Toronto, at their show. And, the lyrics: "Purify me, purify me Claire, let me see you save a mind that isn't there . . . Liquify me, liquify these walls, let me see them gushing like Niagara falls . . . vapourize me . . . Let me see you save a soul that is impaired . . . Clarify me, Claire."
Finally, Junkhouse, which Bernie didn't work with (as far as I know) but he did work with Tom Wilson in Blackie and the Rodeo Kings; Tom Wilson's first band was Junkhouse, who had a song on the second Due South soundtrack, which was a Canadian TV program that I very much enjoyed, though I got to see more of it in Belfast, on the BBC, than I did at home in Canada. This isn't the song from the soundtrack, mind you, nor is it the first song I heard from Junkhouse, back when I was in that Radio Broadcasting course I was talking about eariler. It is non the less, on of my favourites. It's only a matter of time before we all shine . . .
They're all examples of great Canadian music. Actually, it's great music song full stop. One of the wonderful things about Canadian Music, is that for it to be Canadian Music it has to be music that has been created by a Canadian or Canadians as the case may be. I've been informed that the same can't be said for film and literature where Canadian is seen more of as a genre than a people. Enjoy.
The Rhino's, A Fantastic Place To Be , is a song that I loved in college but couldn't find it on youtube. I wanted to teach myself Movie Maker, so, I took a bunch of the winter photos that I took around the farm in 2010/11, since we didn't get much of a winter in 2011/12, and put this together.
It was just a learning project. I don't have any rights to the song; I hope they don't mind, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I always have.
Cheers.
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