Most Canadian song

Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver.

Faites votre choix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-t8W4X8Obo

funny, I came here to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofChsLBfBp0

http://youtu.be/kS138NuLRzU

I think 'This Is The Ice Age' by Martha & The Muffins has played a large role in determining what comes to my mind when I think of Canada, but I don't know much about Canada and have never been there

I don't think I've ever heard that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga9UPYNfpqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY_bhVSGKEg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IokkPlY2HOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCPYO-qzLTs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BFPt001PYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4cFMVfnCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxlEqO_MA04

Kroll's Canadian accent is p. classic.

Neil Young's "Journey Through the Past"
Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind"
Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds"
Bruce Cockburn's "Goin' Down the Road"

There are Lightfoot songs more specifically Canadian. But they're not as good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxJvrD80nJ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f389hIxZAOc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8

Good an excuse as any to post this from SCTV.

https://youtu.be/kZlrrwUIwcE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvNk52mXiU

Re: Lightfoot on SCTV... is that really Rick Moranis? That's up there with Jim Carry as Clint Eastwood. Spooky.

northwest passage

Rheostatics - Northern Wish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkcqGxtbBtQ

I thought it was "Helpless," but what do I know?

Sorry to hijack your thread, but it is kind of on-topic.

Does anyone remember a song by a popular (Canadian) band that references IGA? I thought it might've been Rheostatics, but I don't recall.

Anyway, when I first heard it, that sounded like the most Canadian thing to me at that time, even though I now realise IGA is not really Canadian.

Can't find a more suitable thread...Coming back from Toronto tonight, I was listening to one of those "'70s at seven" shows and they played something I hadn't heard for almost 50 years: "Linda, Put the Coffee On." The DJ didn't say who it was, so I was very impressed with myself for retrieving Ray Materick's name from some synapse up there. Wasn't in the Doors--checked Wikipedia and he's from Brantford (still alive), which I passed on the way home.

I don't think I hated it in 1974; I was 13, so more likely it was a complete blank. It wasn't K-Tel or Alice Cooper or the Guess Who or anything else that caught my ear back then. Sounded pretty good tonight: kind of a rough-hewn vocal falling somewhere between singer-songwriter and country crossover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzTRyD5k8t0

Something about his particular vocal timbre (plus the era, of course) makes me think that this sounds like something that could've been on Tumbleweed Connection.

The most Canadian song is bilingual, obv.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm622tnjmjM

(xpost) Canadians sometimes blatantly imitated stateside artists (cf. Joey Gregorash's CCR imitation, "Jodie"), so that's as good a guess as any as to what he may have been aiming for.

This is really puzzling: no listing for him in the The CHUM Chart Book. That's the only possible way I would know the song. It was definitely played on there, but evidently not enough to make their Top 30.

"Johnny Go" is trilingual if you count "amigos"!

I came up with an argument once for why Lawrence Gowan is the most Canadian artist: born in the UK, currently working for Americans, bilingual with an accent, overeducated and moderately progressive but blatantly commercial

successful but a bit player in international terms

He's a strange...never mind.

That's what I know.

You almost convinced me, Sund4r.

As is widely known, however, the real answer is Céline Dion.

I thought this thread was going to be about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQF5xuLrjpY

No offense if you're a fan, Sund4r, but long ago, when I was writing for Nerve in Toronto, the editor--a punk, Jesus & Mary Chain-type guy--interviewed Gowan for another publication, one that paid, after which Gowan and awakening the giant became a long-standing inside joke.

Just makes him all the more Canadian

(I do have an affection for bubblegum prog and loved his hits when I was in elementary school but wouldn't describe myself as a big fan.)

Moses Znaimer's Zoomer (ugh)station is a repository of minor Canadian hits I haven't heard for almost 50 years (see above). Coming home tonight, two back-to-back:

"Dunrobin's Gone," Brave Belt
"Passing Time," Bearfoo

Came up with the title of the first, but not the artist (I might have with some more time--it was a post-Guess Who, pre-BTO Randy Bachman band); drew a complete blank on the second (started thinking it was Elvin Bishop for some reason).

The fact that these songs got onto CHUM and other Canadian Top 40 stations, and hung around for a few weeks on their playlists and charts, precludes calling them obscure--they were a little more visible than some buried track on a Pebbles compilation. But they sure are forgotten.

Bearfoot...

When I was a kid, my mom always had CFRB AM radio on (70s MOR). The only Randy Bachman associated songs I remember them playing were the Brave Belt song you mention and Looking Out for No 1 by BTO, it gave me a distorted soft-rock picture of Randy's oeuvre.

Never heard or even heard of Bearfoot, this song might as well be from 1873 for all the current resonance it (doesn't) have.

Another old Canadian, alright...Another one from that moment I associate with the Guess Who/BTO/Brave Belt is Scrubbalo Caine's "Feelin' Good on Sunday"--the Guess Who's Jim Kale was in the band, and I saw them open for the GW at Exhibition Stadium circa 1974.

That song and band I only know because it was the theme song for Psychedelic Psunday on Q107. CFRB and Q107 are the two poles of my knowledge of pre-1980 Canrock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhEA4vGbvBs

Come on you all, it's obviously "The Rodeo Song"

Heard this the other day for the first time in ages: Steel River, Toronto band circa 1970, better known for "Ten Pound Note" and "Southbound Train." I thought at first it was Bob McBride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kW0OfXdSVI

I know the two songs you mentioned, but never heard this one. It does indeed sound most Canadian.

Dunno, the obvious missing artist here would be the Hip: I don’t love either song, but “Ahead by a Century” or “Bobcaygeon” seem like obvious picks.....

those are great and everything but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9wW9ENBPlQ

because "You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey/And I never saw someone say that before" is the most Canadian thing I've ever heard.

holy shit

absolutely voting for this in the 77, come back and fp me if I don't

i didn't think the perfect song existed.

Was Northwest Passage posted?

Because it is Northwest Passage.

Did you watch 'Income Tax' tho?

Because it is 'Income Tax'.

absolutely voting for this in the 77, come back and fp me if I don't

I never vote for tracks in the 77 but next year I will post a ballot containing only this song, come back and FP me if I don't.

Yeah it's Income Tax

Lol

Sublime guitar solo, to boot.

this is like if bill wurtz wrote a good song

Friggen A

I think the song is from 2020, unfortunately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSffz_bl6zo

year of impact! xp

acadian boy summer

Jesus that song is amazing

P'tit Belliveau record is p good!

I couldn't figure out where the best place to post this, but somehow I did not know until today that the Canadian supermarket chain No Frills put out a rap album late last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDipchuzGnI

I did know about this, wish I didn't

Someone at head office is trying to take advantage of having to buy public performance licences for their stores. I've never heard this while I've been shopping there, though; grocery shopping is basically my only exposure to the music that most people listen to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3ubZ6fu3I

I don’t think it’s going to be a title winner in this thread, but kinda want to give a shout out to the multiple songs by Maestro Fresh Wes that incorporate/sample specifically Canadian rock hits (Haywire, Guess Who, Gowan, maybe more?)

i try to avoid no frills - crap produce, the local one is owned by an infamous slumlord family - although it is the closest grocery store to me and my immediate neighbourhood is a slight food desert, but i do end up going there for necessaries once in a while, toilet roll or that sort of thing. have definitely never heard this music before.

I spoke too soon, I heard "Bag It Up" at No Frills this morning, and I realized I had heard it there before.

I never realized that Maestro's "Drop the Needle" samples "Dance Desire" by Haywire. Though I am not and never have been a Haywire fan, I always thought that it was neat the way the guitar riff and bassline play off of each other in the intro of that song.

Heard this on 740 AM yesterday on the way to Toronto. Was pretty sure I'd never heard it before--figured it had to be late '70s. Their webiste makes it easy to identify something:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mHPPZAzKMo

1979, Ottawa band. I've never even heard of them, I don't think. Made it to #79 (79 in '79) on Billboard.

I'm guessing they were a roots-rock band who heard "Lotta Love" by Nicolette Larson and figured if sax solos and strings were good enough for Neil Young, they could join in too. Unfortunately the most memorable melodic bit in the song is taken from Minnie Riperton.

The only reason I'm vaguely aware of this song was that I heard it a few months ago on the Yacht or Nyacht podcast made by the Yacht Rock guys. It just missed the boat of being classified as Yacht Rock by .5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbCPEPnE2D0

I actually like it. ("Lotta Love," yeah.) It's the kind of thing I would have hated at the time, but I hear some of those songs now, and they capture something about the era. (A lot of it still sounds as insipid as ever.) I got into the habit of calling such stuff Ronco pop before the term Yacht Rock existed.

^ Definitely a song one would only know from a late-night record collection commercial.

If you're maybe 40 or younger:

https://i.postimg.cc/bJ63qs5d/ronco.jpg

A friend was talking about this last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZnLjRi_g9o

Most Canadian album

https://i.discogs.com/yVgmOem9BReebgxs3-esVRsM5Is0bbjo_SV4bV8Bt0E/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4NzEz/OTI1LTE2OTg1MDA2/MjEtMTY4OS5qcGVn.jpeg

The Trans-Canada Highwaymen
Chris Murphy (Sloan)
Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Craig Northey (Odds)
Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies)

I've contemplated buying that, but the song selection isn't very good. Are the covers straightforward or do they camp it up?

By which I mean, I don't know which sounds less appealing: sincere versions of "Heartbeat - It's a Lovebeat" and "(I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love" or ones that are supposed to be ironic. They're just bad songs.

I've never been, but to me there's something extra Canadian about (my beloved) the Paperboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jWhmd3xxhs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnszE87otcg

and also Great Big Sea, live, with that big happy audience, in NTSC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpxnZ7kPmQ

Are the covers straightforward or do they camp it up?

Listening to samples of the Trans-Canada Highwaymen, I'd say the covers are usually affectionate without being reverent, though I definitely got a laugh out of Joni Mitchell played à la Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Haven’t listened much to them but very very happy when I first heard they were named the “Trans-Canada Highway”men— so good

Ronco-era bargain-bin dreck, but sounded pretty good on the radio today--borderline power-pop in spots, almost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwsqoTugSK8

$30 for a CD on Canadian Amazon. I'm not sure bargain-bin dreck exists anymore.

Never heard this, probably too AM radio for Q107.
Calls back to an era when boys dreamed of being Randy Bachman when they grew up.

It's not new to me--I think Q-107 did play it at one time, stretching a bit to meet Cancon requirements.

It was massively overplayed in Ottawa in the late-70s / early-80s on CHEZ106. And this was in the years before they adopted severely limited playlists.

Kismet! Stopped into the Freelton Antique Market on the way to my sister's today, and wouldn't you know it, got a vinyl copy of the Doucette album with "Mama Let Him Play." Good shape, $6--not bad.

possibly of interest?

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/559ee8eee4b0da93269a28ec/1739330285089-ZCSJPDYDV85PC1AZMW98/cold+glitter+low+res+cover.jpg?format=500w

Been out there for a while--posted about it on Facebook a year ago:

Upcoming book I'm definitely intrigriued by:

https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/.../robert.../cold-glitter

Three of us tried to figure out how you get 360 pages on Canadian Glam...My first reaction was that it'd be like writing a book on the 100 greatest Portuguese baseball players ever. (Baseball Reference tells me that MLB has seen two: Frank Thomspon, who played 12 games for Washington and Brooklyn in 1875, and Isaiah Campbell, who pitches for the Red Sox right now.)

What we came up with: Max Webster (maybe), Sweeney Todd's "Roxy Roller" (definitely), Jackie Shane (I don't think so), the Guess Who's "Glamour Boy" (nope--that was anit-glam), Teenage Head (half the back cover photo of their first album only--not their music), Streetheart (sort of), the Matt Minglewood Band (possibly--they had a song in 1979 called "Whiz Kid" that I've never heard), Rough Trade (the arty end of glam), Foxy (Bowiesque), and that was about it.

"Clearly, 360 pages is far too short for this."

Some other names that came up in the comments: Moxy, Rush, Nick Gilder, Frank Soda, Queen City Kids, Zwol, Thundermug, Goddo, the Dishes, Drastic Measures, and, suggested by myonga (for one specific song), the Stampeders--who most of time were less glam than Charlie Daniels.

Still haven't bought the book.

ah. he just did an interview on wfmu a few weeks ago, which is how i heard about it

Cold Glitter author was on The Best Show last week; don't know if/when I'll get around to the book, but I like this guy's energy.

Since there's no Max Webster thread, and they were mentioned two posts above, and it's too belated to mention on the RIP thread, I found out yesterday that the group's keyboard player Terry Watkinson died two months ago. He was the writer and singer of their very Canadian "Let Go the Line".

Caught this on the radio today--sounded just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d2Vr3gSjJs

Need Myonga Von Bontee to back me up here, but about as Canadian as it gets.