What makes a great Canadian pop song?
What makes a great Canadian pop song? That’s the question pundits are wrestling with as they prepare to roll out their definitive Top 150 song lists to commemorate Canada’s sesquicentennial on Saturday.
As online debates teeter between Joni Mitchell’s “River,” Stompin’ Tom’s “Hockey Song,” Tragically Hip’s “Bobcaygeon” and 147 others, it’s worth noting that with few exceptions, most tunes championed by the Canadian public were not hits across the border.
“What about ‘Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon’ by The Guess Who?” suggested a colleague when I pointed out the discrepancy.
“Those guys were huge.”
They were huge with “American Woman,” a No. 1 Billboard smash that has roots at a Waterloo curling arena where the band improvised the song during a 1969 concert break.
“In the middle of the set, I broke a guitar string,” Randy Bachman told author Bob Mersereau.
“We took a break while I changed it. When tuning up with the new string, I started to play that opening riff. The rest of the band eventually came on stage and we jammed. Burton (Cummings) made up the lyrics on the spot. The song was born.”
But that — depending on who you believe — was a song about the band’s preference for demure Canadian women (over their crass American counterparts) or an antiwar tract that takes direct aim at the Statue of Liberty.
Pretty ballsy for a cabal of Canadian interlopers, a defiant put down of something that gained traction with its monster guitar riff.
On the other hand, it wasn’t called “Canadian Woman,” which would have been a one-way ticket to the delete bin.
And there are no references to Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Moosomin, Red Deer or Terrace, all of which were namechecked in 1972’s “Saskatoon,” which took a gamble and landed at — cough, cough — 96 on the U.S. charts. And what about ...
Tragically Hip’s “Bobcaygeon”? Didn’t chart in the U.S.
Neil Young’s “Helpless?” Didn’t chart.
Ian & Sylvia’s “Four Strong Winds?” Didn’t chart.
Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah?” Ouch — No. 59.
Why are these defiantly homegrown successes — which also include the entire song catalogues of The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo and The Rheostatics — dead on arrival in the U.S.?
“Americans aren’t as into Canadiana as we’re into Americana,” notes Craig Norris, the affable host of CBC Radio’s local Morning Edition and the provincewide “In The Key of C.”
“Maybe it shows our attitude toward the U.S. Some things are just ours. It’s OK that you don’t get it.”
Norris has been busy compiling a list of Canada’s top songs for broadcast — 5 p.m. Saturday on 89.1 FM — and is surprised by the breadth of suggestions from listeners on social media.
“Sudbury Saturday Night” (Stompin’ Tom Connors), “Ca-na-da” (Bobby Gimby), “Under A Stormy Sky” (Daniel Lanois), “Wheat Kings” (Tragically Hip), “A Case Of You” (Joni Mitchell), “Take Off ” (Bob & Doug McKenzie), “The Black Fly Song” (Wade Hemsworth), “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” (Gordon Lightfoot), “Log Driver’s Waltz” (Kate and Anna McGarrigle), “Alberta Bound” (Paul Brandt), “Working Man” (Rita MacNeil), “If A Tree Falls” (Bruce Cockburn).
A wide range of music genres and generations, with one thing in common.
“To me, it really comes down to the land,” says Norris. “I am literally talking about topographic geography. Mountains, rivers and the Canadian Shield.
“We’re territorial. There’s a pride in ownership. It’s about place.”
Which makes them of little interest, if not downright impenetrable, to anyone outside our borders.
“CA-NA-DA (One little two little three Canadians),” croon the Young Canada Singers on the ’67 Centennial smash. “We love thee (Now we are twenty million)/ CA-NADA (Four little five little six little Provinces)/ Proud and free.”
“For he goes birling down and down white water,” trill the McGarrigle sisters on “Log Driver’s Waltz.” “That’s where the log driver learns to step lightly.”
“I’ll die with the black fly a-picking my bones,” Wade Hemsworth crooned in “The Black Fly Song.” “In north On-tar-i-o-i-o, in north On-tar-i-o.”
Smart, specific, rooted in geography, they’re ours and ours alone.
But what, other than “American Woman,” has made its mark south of the border?
“Sugar Sugar,” for one, co-written by Canada’s Andy Kim, the No. 1 U.S. single of 1969.
With lyrics like “Sugar Sugar, ah honey honey/ You are my candy girl/ And you got me wanting you,” there was no room for geographic misinterpretation. And then there’s ... “Lonely Boy” (Paul Anka), “Heart of Gold” (Neil Young), “Seasons in the Sun” (Terry Jacks), “Sundown” (Gordon Lightfoot), “Heaven” (Bryan Adams), “Black Velvet” (Alannah Myles, channelling “Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell”), “My Heart Will Go On” (Celine Dion), “One Week” (Barenaked Ladies), “How You Remind Me” (Nickleback), “Girlfriend” (Avril Lavigne), “Call Me Maybe” (Carly Rae Jepsen) and five songs that involve Justin Bieber (“Despacito”/ “I’m the One”/ “Love Yourself ”/ “Sorry”/ “What Do You Mean?”).
That’s the fast track to fame: universal, nonspecific, with a cloak of cultural invisibility. But is it Canada? As the CBC Facebook string suggests, this country’s reputation as a jovial lapdog that slavishly mimics its American cousins isn’t the whole story.
What we really want — contrary to popular belief — isn’t to subvert our national identity for a condescending pat on the head.
It’s to raise an upturned middle finger and sing “Bud the Spud,” “The Hockey Song” and, yes, “Runnin’ Back to (where else?) Saskatoon.”
“I been hangin’ around grain elevators,” sings Burton Cummings in what has to be the most unpoetic lyric in music history. “I been learnin’ ‘bout food/ I been talkin’ to soil farmers/ I been workin’ on land.” Laugh if you must. With a refrain that makes the point “This tune is home grown/ Don’t come from Hong Kong,’’ this song, like all great Canadian songs, stakes its turf defiantly, clearly, without apology.
It’s the real Canada — the one not represented on American TV, film or music charts.
Give ’em hell and damn the torpedoes.
That’s the attitude we’re really celebrating. Joel Rubinoff writes about pop culture every Saturday. Email him at jrubinoff@therecord.com