Most Canadian song

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.

Sounds like he should’ve spend more time among immigrants.

I was listening to Love Junk by The Pursuit of Happiness in preparation for the Todd Rundgren poll (he produced it). I hadn't heard the whole album, but the four singles were all over MuchMusic at the time. I was imagining an alternate reality where Moe Berg became a Gord Downiesque Canadian hero.

*spent

xp

thread made me remember how funny it was that Sloan's "Twice Removed" topped "best Canadian album of all time" list(s?) around 2000. I looked up this song and it turns out they put out a video on the occasion of the reissue. What a cute time.

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

"To me you seem giant" i bet that's about Canada

xp I just kinda dig that song's vibe and how he clearly meant Heard someone say, not Saw. It's just yknow, Canadian or whatever

Love “Penpals”! “Underwhelmed” might be my vote for most Canadian Sloan track though....

I dig it too, and my response was mostly in jest, but it did get me thinking about how the only people I know who follow hockey are, to quote Stephen Harper, ‘old stock Canadians’.

It's definitely the most Sloan Sloan track

I was listening to Love Junk by The Pursuit of Happiness in preparation for the Todd Rundgren poll (he produced it). I hadn't heard the whole album, but the four singles were all over MuchMusic at the time. I was imagining an alternate reality where Moe Berg became a Gord Downiesque Canadian hero.

I really didn't get what he meant by "had her hands around him and she's been giving it a beating" in Grade 6. I realized when watching recently that Berg even mimed it in the video.

https://i.imgur.com/bfgB4G9.png

a part of me died when they stopped making this in 09

the only "malt liquor" product sold in Nfld

I may or may not have had one of those without realizing it.

do tell

(i realized i also got married that year...hmm)

Tbf, watching now, he may just be shaking his fist for emphasis.xps

Nothing exciting, but I’m pretty sure it made its way into one of my teenage binges and I only took stock of it the morning after.

It's true, though, that Moe was pushing sexual boundaries in 80s CanRock.

Isn't part of the point in "Fireworks" that the protagonist's worldview was limited and provincial before meeting the love interest?

You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr...

...Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish
When you don't let the nation get in your way...

i have only ever shouted along to this song holding Extra Old Stock, you're blowing my mind

Gord Downie singing about his "grip" on Bobby Orr has different connotations than The Pursuit of Happiness.

I just post old Canadian stuff here because it's convenient--I'm not really making grand "most Canadian" claims for these songs (although, if you're of a certain age, they resonate).

As I've pointed out before, I'm a non-fan (and one-time hater) who loves "Fireworks." Besides the significance of that goal, what makes the Bobby Orr line so perfect is "I never saw someone say that before." It's like Bo Diddley's "you should've heard just what I seen," the way it scrambles up senses.

"Canadian Railroad Trilogy", come on

Some of the early posts aren't loading, so here's Stompin' Tom Connors's "Sudbury Saturday Night" in case it hasn't shown up already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl751CDdRZI

Kim Barlow's "Humminah" (wish it were easier to find online) captures northern isolation well: "We rolled around in the snow beside Lucky Lake / I built him a table out of lumber to try and make me like him better."

The joker in me wants to nominate “So. central Rain”

Not with that pronunciation of "sorry", it's not!

"Fireworks" is kind of brilliant imo in relating the central relationship to iconic national/historical events like the Hockey Summit, Cold War, and National Fitness Program, but ultimately expressing cynical ambivalence with regards to nationalism - the marriage to the woman who doesn't give a fuck about hockey is the "one thing" that "doesn't have to go away". That might actually make it the most Canadian song?

idk if it's "the most Canadian song" but this is definitely the most Canadian stanza

Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish?
When you don't let the nation get in your way
No ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything?

Kind of hits the nail on the head

The most Canadian stanza is also the most un-Québécois. Checks out.

the opening line of "problem bears" by the tragically hip is "writing a song about lake memphremagog" which feels the most canadian to me

i see the hip were summoned yesterday as well

"fireworks" a very good choice

That’s Anglo imperialist talk, like when people claim poutine is Canadian. Lake Memphrémagog is in Quebec (and, well, Vermont).

(Not being serious btw.)

I feel a "most" Canadian song has to do a lot of work reconciling the rural with the urban (Margaret Atwood probably has a record review somewhere about this). Like Martha and the Muffins' "You Sold the Cottage".

If we’re going to seriously answer the question only bilingual songs should qualify imo. So far most answers would in fact satisfy the staunchest of Québécois sovereignists because they imply an almost complete disconnect between Quebec and the ROC.

Kind of how the Hip never meant shit to the overwhelming majority of francophones here.

Gowan covering Harmonium?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZk8skMY0U

Btw pom I have an Albertan friend who would argue equally strongly that all these answers are 'Eastern' chauvinism.

Sure, but I think it’s fair to argue that there are fewer cultural differences between Alberta and other parts of Canada than between Quebec and the ROC due to the language barrier. I don’t have a horse in this race btw, I just think the question is more complicated than first meets the eye and the answers that have been offered so far betray a very specific conception of Canadianness that provides a great deal of grist for the separatist mill.

there are fewer cultural differences between Alberta and other parts of Canada than between Quebec and the ROC

Haha you tell them that!

There's also the issue that many francophone artists don't see themselves as Canadian and would reject that characterization. You end up with this sort of CBC tokenism that doesn't satisfy either side. But OK, "Complainte pour Ste. Catherine" by Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

If I were to address the thread topic specifically, and not just post old stuff I hear on the radio, I'd go with some obvious picks: Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds," Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" (he has more definitively Canadian songs, but my second criteria would be that I love or at least like the song), Neil Young's "Helpless" or "Journey Through the Past." "Fireworks" would be a reasonable pick. I can't think of a Guess Who song that qualifies--"Runnin' Back to Saskatoon" is the first thing that comes to mind, and that's good but not good enough. The Demics' "New York City" actually gets at something very Canadian, wanting to light out for somewhere else.

There's also the issue that many francophone artists don't see themselves as Canadian and would reject that characterization. You end up with this sort of CBC tokenism that doesn't satisfy either side.

Absolutely, which perhaps points towards the impossibility of reconciliation?

Hey, I posted a solid federalist effort at cross-solitude outreach and it went unremarked!

Precisely!

Tbf I can’t think of a single national designation that isn’t bursting at the seams with irreconcilable contradictions. Like, what is Americanness, really?

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.