Canuck torture?

Sssssssshhhhhhh! I'm in denial ...

 

Whatever happened to Alannah Myles?

 

There's a question I never thought necessary to ask ...

 

Playing the Ontario bar circuit last I heard, but that was almost 10 years ago when she came to one of the dives in my hometown so she may have downgraded to church socials and nursing homes by now.

Which would be kind of appropriate since those people who were or became teenagers while the subject of "Black Velvet" was enjoying his first hit record (1954) are all officially senior citizens as of this year.

 

Back in my music mag days in 1987 or so we were at some show at the Diamond in Toronto and Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde was there. I remember when those guys were a Police clone band and now they thought they were king shit, especially Holmes with his fake Brit accent and his Rod Stewart hair.

I'd had a few and was introduced to him by some record company hack and, remembering how ridiculous he looked on the cover of their debut album - with a roll of quarters jammed in his spandex - I asked him if he had change for a buck. The look on his face indicated I wasn't the first guy to ask him that.

JJ, I'd add the immortal Kim Mitchell to your list of Canadian rock gods of the 80s. You know summer had arrived when Mitchell came to your neck of the woods for an outdoor show. Good, good memories there.

And "Soul City" by the Partland Brothers - one of the all-time great Canadian summer songs - still sounds great 20 years later.

And JJ, thanks for bringing up The Trouble With Tracy, probably the greatest Canadian sitcom not named King of Kensington. Steve Weston was one of the greats.

 

You're right. I think it came out the same year as "Kiss You When It's Dangerous" by Ottawa band Eight Seconds, which was famous for about that length of time (no BYH pun intended). But the song is still a favourite of mine.

You know we're gonna drive JR crazy with our obscure Canpop references -- KonKan, anyone?

 

Trouble with Tracy?

My lord, even by CBC standards, that show was an abomination.

And this just in....the Mother Corp is yanking the re-runs of Mr. Dressup.

Oh, and musically speaking, I was always a big fan of Lighthouse.

 

As I recall, "The Trouble With Tracy" was an in-house production at CFTO, meaning the Bassetts and not the CBC were to blame.

It's too bad they're yanking the late, great Ernie Coombs off the air. I didn't like it when the same thing happened to Bob Homme and "The Friendly Giant." I once toured the CBC broadcast museum at their building on Front Street and spent about an hour watching "Friendly Giant" reruns. And when I left I didn't feel like I'd wasted any of that time.

Regarding Lighthouse, I remember thinking as a kid that "Sunny Days" was a Paul McCartney song because it sounded so much like him and also because it was basically a lyrical rip-off of "Good Day Sunshine." But I thought "Sky High" by Jigsaw was him too, so what do I know?

 

I remember KonKan. My brother had a 12-incher of their big single whatever it was.

Speaking of obscure Canuck rock, I heard Klaatu on XM online the other day. Remember the big rumour way back when that they were actually the reunited Beatles?

Nash the Slash anyone?

 

You're right. It was CTV.

"One Fine Morning" was their best tune, IMO.

Saw them perform a few times, once at U of Western Ontario as the opening act for Sha Na Na.

And who can forget Kensington Market?

 

"Obscure Canadian rock" reminds me of a B.C. group called Stonebolt which had a hit record in the late '70s called "I Will Still Love You," a pretty ballad.

One day in the early '90s, CFTR played it on the air as kind of a joke. I recognized it (having eight older siblings, I grew up surrounded by the music of the '60s and '70s) but apparently few if any other listeners did and the phones lit right up. They wound up playing it again for a while as a current hit.

I guess that was back when there was still such a thing as Top 40 radio and a station could still play a record on its own without having to first clear it with a high-priced "consultant." Back when radio, without any input from record companies, could revive should've-beens like "Red Red Wine" and "When I'm With You" and watch them sail to the top of the charts, where they ought to have been upon their first releases five or 10 years earlier.

Those were the days.

 

They were pretty good. "I Would Be The One" is still an awesome song.

How about the Ugly Ducklings ("Gaslight") and the assorted groups of David Clayton-Thomas before he took off for New York and Blood, Sweat and Tears. He had two simply amazing songs back in the mid '60s -- "Walk That Walk" and "Brainwashed." The latter song wouldn't be at all out of place on today's airwaves.