Most Canadian song

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.

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.

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.