So, my Mom and Sister got together and gave me the awesome Rush Farewell to Kings 40th Anniversary Box set for Christmas. In some ways, it’s almost become a tradition that I receive something related to the Canadian trio on Christmas, as there has been something new almost every year for the last decade, but my history with the band and Canadian music goes back quite a bit further than that. I’ve been a fan and a listener of music for as far as my memory stretches; can’t play an instrument at all, but I can pick up the lyrics of just about anything that gets thrown at me and my mind is literally filled to the brim with useless music trivia, well that and science-fiction but I digress. The latest addition to my Rush collection got me thinking about how much of that musical history has been influenced by bands and artists from out northern neighbors.
Like a lot of the things I consider important and pivotal in my life, I began to become truly cognizant of the things I was listening to in the early 1980s during my teen years. Before that, I’d like this or that, but the details didn’t really concern me. I distinctly remember one night though, listening to the radio before taking a shower one night when I was probably 14 or 15 years old. It was a little black Realistic AM/FM transistor radio from Radio Shack I believe and it was my almost constant companion. And so there it played on the shelf in our tiny bathroom that evening, tuned to a new station in the Birmingham market, 95 Rock. I sat there on the old porcelain throne for a few moments preparing to hop in the shower when I heard this weird high pitched wail emanating from the tiny speaker out of nowhere. At first, I couldn’t decide if it was some kind of static interference or synthesizers as it shifted and rose and fell, then I heard guitars and drums and bass and odd timing changes before it built to and inevitable crescendo, paused and I heard “and the meek shall inherit the earth”. I found out later it was Rush’s 2112 Overture and I was hooked! It wasn’t long after that that I found out the radio station did something called the Saturday night six-pack every weekend in which they played six albums uncut from 1 am in the morning until they were done. That along with an upgrade to a Sanyo radio/cassette player with headphone jack propelled me further, as I have fond memories of lying on the couch in the wee hours with my Dad’s headphones on listening to things like Permanent Waves and A Farewell to Kings in the ensuing weeks. To this day, when I listen to certain track off those albums, I’m transported back to those magical nights of auditory bliss.
It was during the latter part of this time period that a new and subversive entity took hold of my brain, MTV. Mere words cannot convey the effect Music Television had on my young psyche. It put faces and ideas to the songs I’d already been listening to anyway and of course, there was Rush with Tom Sawyer and Limelight in heavy rotation. There were other bands too though, and though it didn’t really register at the time, they were also from the Great White North. These too would impact the musical landscape of my youth.
There was one band in particular called Loverboy that spoke to me deeply. Their song ‘Turn Me Loose’ became almost an anthem to an internal rebellious nature I tried to keep well hidden. “I was born to run, I was born to dream, the craziest boy you ever seen”, how could those words not speak directly to my soul? Loverboy wound up being the second concert I ever attended and they brought along another Canadian band as their opening act, Zebra. As the months went by, and certainly by no intent to seek out and listen to Canadian bands, I nonetheless became a fan of another power trio in the Rush mold called Triumph. Then there was April Wine and Saga as well. Bryan Adams and Glass Tiger come to mind and now looking back with the clarity and knowledge of age, older artists and songs I’ve enjoyed like ‘American Woman’ by the Guess Who and ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ by Gordon Lightfoot all came to my Alabama ears from Canada too. And how’s this for an obscure Canadian pop gem, ‘My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)’ by Chillwack? A favorite thanks to Casey Kasem and the American Top 40.
Canadian music has even made me laugh out loud on occasion. That would be in the instance of Bob and Doug MacKenzie’s ‘hit single’ ‘Take Off to the Great White North’ which is where this post gets its name. Bob and Doug were fictional Canadian brothers on the old SCTV sketch comedy television show and when they decided to make a record, complete with a hit single, they hired none other than Geddy Lee, the lead singer and bassist of Rush, to provide vocals. It, and the whole album is hilarious and worth looking up on YouTube or iTunes. Check it out if you can, it’s a beauty way to go!
Thanks again for reading and please comment with your own music memories, Canadian or otherwise. See you soon!
