100 Can-Pop Classics

Well, I was trying to be nice! But since you mention it, some of your song selections are mad (mad I tell you!) How could you choose THAT Lee Aaron song over say Metal Queen? She even had that one ballad that was better. BNL, you choose "The Old Apartment"? You Crazy!

You know I'm teasing - I agree with most of it, generally. 100 songs really isn't enough to cover everything good.

Question to all - does Steppenwolf count as Canadian?

Lee Aaron is the only artist on my Power Hour compilation I can't listen to. Although if forced to choose, I suppose I'd have to agree that "Metal Queen" is less painful than "Whatcha Do . . ."

Just because you can't listen to it, doesn't mean it's not a classic song (err...). I hear she's a jazz singer now, but people still request Metal Queen. Poor Lee.

Stephenwolf were indeed Canadian.
Can someone recommend a particularly good Buck 65 track? I'm serious about compiling and distributing a CD from some of this list but wouldn't know where to begin with him (them?).
As I said before:
102. Buck65 - The Cenutar
Its a him. He has another song about an xgf which is even better but the cd didnt have titles.

I forgot to mention, in the case of instrumentals...
http://www.ncra.ca/CRTC/PublicNotice/2000-14.html (what is it)
http://www.ncra.ca/CRTC/PublicNotice/1997-42.html (just interesting)

But it is Cancon if...
It is an instrumental performance of a musical composition written or composed by a Canadian.
or
It is a performance of a musical composition that a Canadian has composed for instruments only.
In which cases MAPL be dammed.

Thanks, Noodles, for your last 2 posts. I scanned the page for Buck 65 but not hard enough obviously.

scott, all I can say is only canadians would have doubts about the verifiable canadianness of a bunch of canadian musicians recording music in canada.

I was just going through my cds (looking for a Styx album.. er) and came across Zuckerbaby. Listening to it now, "Heavy" is a pretty worthy pop rock single. I don't have their album, but I also remember liking the Walton's "Nothing is colder than you".

I found a Watchmen album in there too - I don't even remember buying it! I wonder, is "Stereo" as bad as I remember?

"Stereo" was godawful. Did the Waltons do "I Like It When You Treat Me Like Dirt"? I remember liking that.

Don't know.

I'd like to note here - not everything I've nominated here equates with my favourite songs by said bands. Especially that Blue Rodeo one. I guess I'm trying to interpret 'classics' at least partially in the context of 'had impact and importance', hence why I feel like I can't ignore something as archetypal as "Try".

Incidentally, last night when I said that "The Flag" was my favourite BNL song I actually meant "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" - blame the beer!

Wait, you have a Styx album? I don't have any Styx!

You can HAVE it.

Didn't you claim "Brian Wilson" or at least someone did?

Dind't they?

dishrags - past is past
the hidden cameras - day is dawning
propagandhi - fuck the border

Yeah, I think I said "Brian Wilson". That was just because I don't think the other one was ever released as a single. I have a semi-soft spot for the Bruce Cockburn cover too. That's such a great song - Bruce's version sounds so dated though. If only the Rheos had covered it instead!

Bruce Cockburn covered "Brian Wilson"? WEIRD WITH A BEARD, man.

NOOOOOoooo I meant the BNL Bruce Cockburn cover silly!

Crap - I didn't make much sense though did I? I meant that the BNL version of "lovers in a..." is nice enough, and I really love the original, but it sounds dated, so if only the Rheos had blah blah ablahhh! Better?

I'll actually go on record here and say that I thought that BNL's cover of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" was appalling. I thought it robbed the original version of much of the sense of danger it was meant to convey by turning into a cutesy and boppy number instead.

Well, the video was a lot of that. The first half of the actual recording is pretty restrained, and is the part I like. The other reason I like it is because I never really *heard* the lyrics until it was quieted down like that, and I should also say that they're some of my favourite lyrics ever - hence the semi-soft spot.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm justifying myself to someone who picked "The Old Apartment" instead!

Because "The Old Apartment" is GREBT and you know it!

Revive in honour of Canadian Music Week! Er, sort of. Way at the top of the thread I said I was going to make a comp using some of this stuff and it's done and it's great and I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who made a suggestion here (well, let's say I can afford right now to send out about five or six). Send me an e-mail if you want one--first come, first served.

D'oh! Canada -

Track Listing:
1 - Intro
2 - New York City (Demics)
3 - From New York to L.A. (Patsy Gallant)
4 - Africa (Thundermug)
5 - Hollywood (Streetheart)
6 - Get Up, Get Out, Move On (Fludd)
7 - Bye Bye Mon Cowboy (Mitsou)
8 - Nyet Nyet Soviet (BB Gabor)
9 - Je Cherche (Les Lutins)
10 - All the Things I Wasn't (Grapes of Wrath)
11 - Beautiful Second Hand Man (Ginette Reno)
12 - Big Town Boy (Shirley Matthews)
13 - Your Daddy Don't Know (Toronto)
14 - Tonite is a Wonderful Time (April Wine)
15 - Some Sing, Some Dance (Pagliaro)
16 - Sweet Thing (Goddo)
17 - Jack Hammer (Odds)
18 - Anna (Pure)
19 - I Beg Your Pardon (Kon-Kan)
20 - Even Grable (Treble Charger)
21 - Roxy Roller (Sweeney Todd)
22 - Rain Dance (Guess Who)
23 - Trees Lounge theme (Hayden)
24 - Surfin' on Heroin (Forgotten Rebels)

(I used a lot of the suggestions so thanks everyone...there's plenty for a part 2 someday.)

I want one! I do, I do, I do! (email sent)

I can't believe we've gone this far without any mention of GINO VANELLI!

hey, and Chilliwack, Doug and the Slugs, DOA, Plumtree, Cowboy Junkies, Subhumans, Holly Cole, Kashtin...

Some of the highlights so far from CMW:
148. LeaderHosen Lucie - You Suck
149. Two Minute Miracles - Papa Was a Rodeo
150. King Cobb Steelie - Rational (I always forget just how damm good they are)

DOA, Junkies and Subhumans I thought were all mentioned.

yeh i saw king cobb steelie once a few years ago and i was duly impressed. i think whatsherface from crash vegas was doing some vocals for them that night.

(sorry - typing lowercase/one-handed because my cat is asleep on my left arm)

michelle McAdorey? (AMG to the rescue)

sleepin cats, natures space heaters.

Michelle McAdorey put out one of my favourite albums ever(Whirl, in 2000), and promptly fell of the face of the nation. Where has she gone?

The last Crash Vegas album, Aurora, is absolutely fantastic, though their first two were unremarkable. Find Aurora, though, if you can.

I thought this was going to be about pop influenced by the group Can. (I'm an American: I can't find Canada on the map.)

You just go north from Philadelphia and eventually you'll stumble across a Tim Horton's.

Thats New York state, but if your up state enough it was once Canada.

North goes on for a while, Mr. Noodles.

Since you and Guy Chadwick aren't ignoring me, any chance you could find and post the cdr of cancon I sent with The Handsome Ned one? I gotta remeber what i have to hunt down now that Im in The Big Smoke.

Killer Dwarfs in People Still Think About Them Shocker! Oh my god, they have a website even!

When I was a kid my Dad was good friends them, and they were at our house all the time. They were really nice to me, but they (and all my parents friends) had a problem with accidentally passing alcohol/drugs to children. I really thought they'd faded to obscurity. Well, I guess they have, more or less.

hold on here. how does a cd of can-pop contain 2 songs about new york and absolutely nothing about eskimos?

Well The Demics single was named #1 Canadian Single of all time by the Chart poll back in 96 or so, hopefully this is the single version without all the traffic noises on the longer album cut.
Don't know the other one though.

I actually hate that Patsy Gallant song. The melody is blatantly ripped off some old/trad. french song.

Plus, it just gives me the creeps.

Without "Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes" by Claudja Barry, this compiled list is a joke.

I nnow realized it was Salvador Dream I had mixed up Pure with in my mind. Sean did their AMG bio so he can pick a song if he remebers any that stand out.

I don't think you can omit "Vivre sur video/Living on video" by Trans-X.

BB Gabor "Nyet Nyet Soviet"
Burton 'Ric Ocasek' Cummings "Fine State of Affairs"
Subhumans "Fuck You"

TS: Dan Hill vs Joey Gregorash

What about "Come to me" by France Joli and "Babe, we're gonna love tonight" by Lime, both canadian dance/disco classics.

And I still like "No such thing" by Annette Ducharme, "Julian" by Alta Moda and "At the feet of the moon" by the Parachute Club (horrible name, though).

I really like aspects of "at the feet of the moon", but it has such glaring faults - bah. Someone ought to cover it and fix it up.

I somehow never realised that Trans-X song was CanCon. It's great though.

From the olde olde Chart Top 100 Canadian albums of all time:

1. Sloan - Twice Removed = 4.5
2. Neil Young - Harvest = 4.5
3. Joni Mitchell - Blue = 5
4. Tragically Hip - Up To Here = 4.5
5. Rheostatics - Whale Music = 3 [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
6. Tragiaclly Hip - Fully Completely - 4.5
7. Neil Young - After The Goldrush = 5
8. The Band - Music From The Big Pink = 5
9. Cowboy Junkies - Trinty Sessions = 4.5 [!!]
10. Lowest of the Low - Shakespear My Butt = 2.5 [!!!?!!!]
11. SARAH McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy = 4.5
12. Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps = 5
13. KD Lang - Ingenue = 4
14. Neil Young - Tonight's The Night = 5
15. Rush - Moving Pictures = 4.5
16. Rheostatics - Melvile = 4
17. Slow - Against The Glass = 4.5
18. Sloan - Smeared = 3 [!!!]
19. Leonard Cohen - Im Your Man = 4.5
20. Nomeansno - Wrong = 4.5

Other noteables:
21. Teenage Head - Frantic City = Not reviewed.
28. Doughboys - Whatever = 3
35. Eric's Trip - Love Tara = 3
42. Art Bergmann - Sexual Rolette = Not Even Review.
50. 13 Engines - Perpetual Motion Machine = 3
67. Circle C - S/t = 2
77. Art Bergmann - What Fresh Hell Is This = Not Reviewed
80. Hardsip Post - Somebody Spoke = 3
88. Bob Wiseman - In Her Dream: Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle = 3
90. Art Bergmann - Crawl With Me = Not reviewed
94. Art Bergmann - S/t = Not Reviewed
98. Pluto - Cool Way to Feel = Not even a release date.

Chart sez they're doing the 25 worst Canadian songs in their September issue. Here's the 5 worst(http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2004/09/0105.cfm):

1. Bootsauce "Everyone's A Winner"
It seems a touch disingenuous to declare a Hot Chocolate cover the worst Canadian song ever, but the damn thing won a Best Dance Recording Juno in '92, so if the good Juno folks can honour it, we can surely provide our own special salutation as well.

2. Alannah Myles "Black Velvet"
A favourite amongst women who try too hard to be sexy and ultimately look like twats.

3. Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"
Brad Robert's tale, sung in his obnoxious bass vocals will only get him one thing, a place on this list.

4. Barenaked Ladies "One Week"
The chorus is bad enough, but BNL really embarrass themselves with that stupid rap. "I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss?" Please.

5. Loverboy "Lovin' Every Minute Of It"
This song was so carefully calculated to appeal to the broadest range of vanilla heshers, its transparency couldn't help but backfire on the band.