May 24, 2024 • 19 mins
David McPherson is a Canadian author based in Waterloo Ontario. He is a regular magazine contributor to Canadian musician, Exclaim! etc., and along with his previous book the legendary Horseshoe tavern: a complete history, he's recently published 101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts.
Based on his extensive knowledge of Canadian pop music, I figured he would make a great guest on my Pop Trivia series. And I was right about that!
https://www.instagram.com/mcphersoncomm/?hl=en
https://buymeacoffee.com/tsolobandq
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tommy-solo-s-famous-friends--4318572/support.
Based on his extensive knowledge of Canadian pop music, I figured he would make a great guest on my Pop Trivia series. And I was right about that!
https://www.instagram.com/mcphersoncomm/?hl=en
https://buymeacoffee.com/tsolobandq
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tommy-solo-s-famous-friends--4318572/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:24):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends.This is another edition of Pop Trivia,
and today I'm pleased to have withme entertainment journalist, author and magazine contributor
David McPherson. Welcome to the show, David, Thanks for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.Well, it's my pleasure as well.
So you are quoted in your booksas saying that music is the elixir of
(00:47):
life, and that's very much myphilosophy as well. I always say music
is the doctor. And you cansee I've got my prescriptions around me here
Editor's note. In the video versionof this that you can find on YouTube,
you can see my array of musicalinstruments in my studio. Now back
to the show. So today inPop Trivia, I'm going to hit you
(01:10):
with a topic, person, ora place and then we'll see what you
can tell us about that. Sohitting the ground running, why don't we
start with Blue Rodeo? What canyou tell us about Blue Rodeo? Yeah,
I mean, anyone who loves Canadianmusic and has followed it for the
last, you know, thirty plusyears, it'd be hard not to know
who Blue Rodeo is. Their storyhas been well documented. I mean,
(01:34):
they began kind of on the QueenStreet West scene in Toronto back in the
early mid nineteen eighties, and they'restill going strong and been touring, you
know, cross Canada and filling arenasever since. But one kind of fun
fact that a lot of people mightnot know about Blue Rodeo is that they
also were featured in a Hollywood movieand had their kind of five minutes of
(01:59):
fame, if you will, ona movie set back in I think it
was the early nineteen nineties when theyappeared as the bar band and the movie
Postcards from the Edge, and kindof the backstory how this came about.
It was kind of fascinating that thelead actress in that movie ended up.
(02:20):
Of course, I kind of havea little forgetful of who it is.
I should know. Was it MerylStreet. Meryl Street, I knew she
was really famous. So Meryl Streetbasically was filming another movie in New York,
and it happened she was being driveninto the city every day and her
driver played a Blue Rodeo record andshe fell in love. And so when
(02:45):
it came time to make this newmovie and they were looking for a band,
they had all these tapes and everything, and she told the director,
I know the perfect band because shehad remembered hearing Blue Rodeo and thought they'd
be a good match. And so, you know, Blue Rodeo to the
Blue gets this call for Meryl Streetwanting them to do an audition, and
(03:05):
so at the old Diamond Club inToronto they had this audition for Meryl Street
and yeah, next thing you know, they were flying out to Hollywood on
set as part of this movie.Very cool. Speaking of old pubs,
I know you've written a few books. This one that we're talking about today
and pulling things from is one hundredand one fascinating facts about Canadian music.
(03:28):
But you've also written a book aboutthe Horseshoe Tavern. So do you have
any tales about that spot? Oh? Well, definitely. I mean that
was my first book, The RealLabor of Love. I was fortunate to
write it kind of at the timewith the seventy a tenivers three of this
beloved dive bar if you will,But a beautiful dive bar is what I
(03:50):
wrote in my book. That hasbeen right at the corner Queen and Spadina
for you know, now over seventyfive years. But there's so many tales.
I back when this book came outin twenty seventeen. You know,
my publisher given at the title theLegendary Horseshoe Tavern a complete history, and
like you know, and there's nosuch thing as a complete history. And
(04:12):
of course, as soon as Iput the final words down and it was
published and sent off and people startedto read it, I got inundated with
lots of emails and texts and thingsto people saying, oh did you include
this? Or why did didn't youinclude this story? But the same token.
I think through my research I wasable to uncover a lot of pretty
fascinating stories about the Horseshoe Tavern,and I mean for those who aren't quite
(04:38):
aware of its history. For me, the most interesting part of it is
its early history that I really learnedabout the country artists that played there.
Some might know that samp and TomConnors was kind of a regular there and
it became his kind of home awayfrom home when he arrived in Toronto,
and he really kept bugging the owner, Jack Starr, that he wanted to
(05:00):
play there, and ended up heholds the record that well, I don't
think will ever be beaten for playingthe venue like twenty five consecutive nights.
Wow, So down at itself ispretty fascinating. But earlier than that,
just even how music came about atthe Horseshoe, I think is a really
cool story. Basically, Jack Star, he was an entrepreneur, more in
(05:25):
the textile clothing business, and hesurprised his family one day, came home
and told him that he bought thistavern and they were like, what the
heck? You know, what's thisall about? But I guess he wanted
to expand and try something new,and he saw the opportunity. I think,
you know, the new liquor licenseswere coming in around that time,
(05:46):
nineteen forty six forty seven when theHorseshoe opened, But originally it was just
a drinking hole and the place togo. You could even go and get
a prime rib and food. Buteventually because of a lot of the clientele
there that were from the East coast, a lot of people from the Maritimes
had kind of headed west and cometo Toronto looking for work back then.
(06:09):
And one day Jack's walking through thebar and these people say, Jack,
you should get some music in here, and he goes, okay, sure.
You know, he always loved tolisten to his customers, and he
said what kind and they said country, of course, so he took him
up on it. But next thingyou know, the Horseshoe Tavern became National
North and like all the big bigstars from the Grand Old Opry were rolling
(06:32):
into town like Loretta Lynn and ErnestTubb and Charlie Pride and little Jimmy Dickens
and far and Young like, oh, the names go on and on.
It's the Carter family. So tome, that was the biggest surprise.
I didn't realize that early early historyof how the Horseshoe Tavern initially I was
(06:53):
known as a country bar where allthese top stars would play. That's interesting.
I didn't know the history, butI've been into the Horseshoe a few
times back in the eighties and theywere either rock bands, rock and roll
bands, or pop bands playing there. But it definitely looked like a typical
country bar to me. Moving onfrom the bars for a minute, I
(07:15):
understand you also have a story aroundSantana. Yeah, Santana, that's one.
It's kind of interesting. I wastalking to Linda Manzer, who's one
of Canada's more well known luciers,who is someone who makes and builds guitars.
And this is a really cool storyshe shared with me that early in
(07:36):
her career, like her career asan owner entrepreneur really hadn't started yet at
the time. She was kind ofdoing her apprentice and learning the trade,
you know, with some other peopleout in Vancouver. But she was traveling
out to see friends and it justhappened that these friends that she was with
were living on the property that Santanaowned and kind of the Holly Hills,
(08:00):
I think it was more outside SanFrancisco, and you know, she got
to hang out there for a whileand Santana he didn't know necessarily that she
was a guitar maker, but herfriends did. And after she returned home,
basically she gets this note from herfriends saying, hey, we'd love
you to build this guitar for Santanathat we can give it to him for
(08:24):
Christmas. And so, you know, how can you turn down that opportunity
or when you're just trying to startout in you know, your new career.
So yeah, she said about Lindadid all this research, she told
me, finding out what Santana wasinto some of his hobbies or things that
he enjoyed and tried to incorporate someof that into the guitar. And you
(08:46):
know, basically long story shorts.She sent this guitar off and it was
apparently well received, and she didn'treally know too much until one day she
opened up a Guitar Player magazine andthere's a quote from Santana that mentioned,
oh, I've got this beautiful newguitar that I've been playing that was designed
(09:07):
or built for me from Linda Manser. And so Linda said that basically started
her career. You know, onequote or a couple of sentences in a
magazine. Little serendipity, a littleluck, and you never know. And
we'll be right back after this.I was about to say, talk about
(09:41):
serendipity man being in the right placeat the right time and catching such a
lucky break. That's awesome. Stickingwith Canadian artists for a minute, what
can you tell me about Anne Marie? Yeah, Anne Marie. I mean
it's when I was doing some eventswith this new book, the one hundred
and one Fascinating Canadian Music. Idid a lot of trivia events myself and
(10:01):
one of the trivia questions I includedwas who's won the most Juno Awards,
And that in itself, for thosewho might think The Weekend or Drake or
Celine Dion, any of these othersmight have the record, Anne Murray actually
still holds the record for most Juno'sone and I think a lot of that
(10:22):
comes down to just how dominant shewas in that early nineteen seventies period,
starting with Snowbird, really, andthat in itself is the pretty amazing story.
For those who don't know, Imean Snowbird, I remember hearing it
as a kid growing up. Myparents had the record, and it's been
covered like I don't know how manytimes by how many different artists and so
(10:46):
many different genres. But it wasnumber one, and it was a song
written by Gene McClelland, whose famousEast Coast songwriter. His daughter Catherine is
still very active and an award winningsongwriter of her own today. But what
you were leading at, and whatI think I mentioned in my book,
the fun fact about Snowbird is oneof those examples. There's been quite a
(11:09):
few of them over the years,but this one that had such success back
in the nineteen seventies, the heydayof vinyl. It was all about singles
and the whole idea of a single. We had an A side and a
B side, and usually the recordcompany would decide what that lead a side
single would be, and you know, send it off to all the radio
(11:31):
stations and get them to play it. Well, this is one example where
someone flipped over the record. Snowbirdwas the B side, and it suddenly
got played and caught on. Sothat song was everywhere. I remember a
man everywhere. Yeah, it was, And I'm right now I'm wearing my
Stampeder's teacher And it's maybe not sucha little secret. But Ronnie King,
(11:56):
who's recently passed and may he restin peace, was a huge fan Anne
Marie, and I remember him postingthings on social media about how much and
liked him more than the other guys. Yeah, she was everywhere, and
she's still active in the music businessas well. Burton Cummings mm hmm.
You have a story or two abouthim, Yeah, I mean, burd
(12:18):
I think that's just another another oneof those examples where I'm always fascinated how
songs are written and developed, andkind of like that story of Snowbird.
How songs kind of either hit ordon't hit and have a life of their
own really. And for Burning Cummings, we all know one of the founders
(12:39):
of the Guests who went on toa great solo career as well, and
he's still out there performing. I'mlooking forward to hearing him sing in a
few weeks. It's part of theGordon Lightfoot tribute that they're having at Massey
Hall. But going back many manyyears, one of my favorite guests who
songs was No Sugar Tonight, NewMother Nature, and that's one of those
(13:01):
interesting what they call in a waylike two songs for the price of one,
if you will right where I guessit just happened that Key and Randy
Bachman would often co write together andthey'd bring different ideas, and this is
one where they each had written thissong. Bachman it was No Sugar Tonight
and for Cummings it was New MotherNature, and they felt that it was
(13:24):
in similar keys and everything that theycould work together. So they basically brought
those songs together. But when Ichat out with Burden about the origins of
this song, the one amusing thing, I mean, it wasn't so funny
I guess for him at the time. But it goes back again to the
idea of the A side B side. Initially, because the song would have
(13:46):
been too long for radio, theymade them an A and a B side
those two songs, and the recordcompany decided that Bachman's his version, the
No Sugar Tonight, would be theA side, and so Bachman said initially
he was a little hippie that hedidn't get the royalties because that you know,
that song got a lot more,but he said it ended up all
(14:09):
working out in the end. Therewas another band I guess that preferred his
version and covered it, and theend of the day, the two songs
together worked so well. And it'sa staple of Canadian classic rock that I
know I wore out listening to backwhen I first discovered it in high school,
that's for sure. Yeah, nokidding. And once again another act
(14:31):
that was everywhere back in the day. Now going back to I think it
was nineteen seventy, the Transcontinental PopFestival. What can you tell us about
that? Well, that one haskind of become more known as Festival Express,
and it basically was the concept was, let's have concerts in different places
(14:54):
across Canada and the artist will alltravel between the venues on a train.
Sounds great in theory, but youcan imagine the logistics back in the day,
and then also the stories of thedebauchery and everything that occurred when you
get I mean the people involved inthis were the band and Janis Joplin and
(15:18):
the Dead, there's several others andit was basically one big party. And
of course you know a lot ofthese cities there were security issues too because
it was back in the old hippiedays where there was a bit of that
fight sometimes where the hippie stot theyshould get everything for free, right,
like you think of Woodstock and howit ended up becoming this free festival,
(15:41):
and so there was that same idea. They didn't care that these promoters and
these artists needed to make money.I guess it was like, you know,
free love, free music. Soyou know, there was a few
issues where like Toronto with the securitythat they kind of had to keep them
at bay, and I think toappease them the artists, some of them
(16:02):
performed like a separate little show ina nearby park and then even one of
the venues they were like they'd seenwhat was happening, so they decided they
didn't want any part of it.One of the cities, so I think
it was the Winnipeg or Calgary thatat the last minute got filled in as
one of the other stops. Butyeah, there's a famous story. I
(16:22):
mean, there's a great documentary thatwas made about this you can look up.
But the one famous story is abouthow they stopped en route through the
Prairies in some small town at theLCBO and basically just bought the place out,
you know, because they were outof liquor to continue on the party.
Oh boy. Yeah. And speakingof videos that you can look up,
(16:47):
you mentioned Burton Cummings and Gordon Lightfootand the same breath. Burton Cummings
does a really hilarious impression of GordonLightfoot, and I encourage people to look
that up on YouTube. Wow,there's some pretty interesting facts there, and
I do encourage everybody to quote andpick up a copy of one hundred and
one fascinating Canadian music facts. AndI understand your books are available on your
(17:08):
website, is that right? Moreso, I mean they're available anywhere,
but yeah, I mean your localindie bookseller, Amazon, and to go
anywhere you can buy a book.Basically, I always say support your local
bookstore if you have one, andthen from there you can go Indigo or
Amazon and find it for sure.Very cool. Yeah, you mentioned back
(17:29):
in the day, in the nineteenseventy seventy one that people wanted music for
free. Wow, imagine that musicfor free? Yeah, nothing changes,
but everything changes. Well, listen, David, I don't want to take
up your whole day. I knowthat you've got more writing to do,
so I want to thank you somuch for taking the time out of your
day to do this with me,And until next time, cheers. Tommy
(17:56):
Solo's Famous Friends is a one manproduction, meaning that I've done all the
work, including recording, editing,guest acquisition, etc. And hey,
here's some news. We've just recentlyjoined forces with five to one nine magazine,
so you can check out my interviewsthere as well. The theme song
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(18:21):
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We really appreciate it. You canfind me on Facebook and Instagram,
and until next time, cheers,
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends.This is another edition of Pop Trivia,
and today I'm pleased to have withme entertainment journalist, author and magazine contributor
David McPherson. Welcome to the show, David, Thanks for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.Well, it's my pleasure as well.
So you are quoted in your booksas saying that music is the elixir of
(00:47):
life, and that's very much myphilosophy as well. I always say music
is the doctor. And you cansee I've got my prescriptions around me here
Editor's note. In the video versionof this that you can find on YouTube,
you can see my array of musicalinstruments in my studio. Now back
to the show. So today inPop Trivia, I'm going to hit you
(01:10):
with a topic, person, ora place and then we'll see what you
can tell us about that. Sohitting the ground running, why don't we
start with Blue Rodeo? What canyou tell us about Blue Rodeo? Yeah,
I mean, anyone who loves Canadianmusic and has followed it for the
last, you know, thirty plusyears, it'd be hard not to know
who Blue Rodeo is. Their storyhas been well documented. I mean,
(01:34):
they began kind of on the QueenStreet West scene in Toronto back in the
early mid nineteen eighties, and they'restill going strong and been touring, you
know, cross Canada and filling arenasever since. But one kind of fun
fact that a lot of people mightnot know about Blue Rodeo is that they
also were featured in a Hollywood movieand had their kind of five minutes of
(01:59):
fame, if you will, ona movie set back in I think it
was the early nineteen nineties when theyappeared as the bar band and the movie
Postcards from the Edge, and kindof the backstory how this came about.
It was kind of fascinating that thelead actress in that movie ended up.
(02:20):
Of course, I kind of havea little forgetful of who it is.
I should know. Was it MerylStreet. Meryl Street, I knew she
was really famous. So Meryl Streetbasically was filming another movie in New York,
and it happened she was being driveninto the city every day and her
driver played a Blue Rodeo record andshe fell in love. And so when
(02:45):
it came time to make this newmovie and they were looking for a band,
they had all these tapes and everything, and she told the director,
I know the perfect band because shehad remembered hearing Blue Rodeo and thought they'd
be a good match. And so, you know, Blue Rodeo to the
Blue gets this call for Meryl Streetwanting them to do an audition, and
(03:05):
so at the old Diamond Club inToronto they had this audition for Meryl Street
and yeah, next thing you know, they were flying out to Hollywood on
set as part of this movie.Very cool. Speaking of old pubs,
I know you've written a few books. This one that we're talking about today
and pulling things from is one hundredand one fascinating facts about Canadian music.
(03:28):
But you've also written a book aboutthe Horseshoe Tavern. So do you have
any tales about that spot? Oh? Well, definitely. I mean that
was my first book, The RealLabor of Love. I was fortunate to
write it kind of at the timewith the seventy a tenivers three of this
beloved dive bar if you will,But a beautiful dive bar is what I
(03:50):
wrote in my book. That hasbeen right at the corner Queen and Spadina
for you know, now over seventyfive years. But there's so many tales.
I back when this book came outin twenty seventeen. You know,
my publisher given at the title theLegendary Horseshoe Tavern a complete history, and
like you know, and there's nosuch thing as a complete history. And
(04:12):
of course, as soon as Iput the final words down and it was
published and sent off and people startedto read it, I got inundated with
lots of emails and texts and thingsto people saying, oh did you include
this? Or why did didn't youinclude this story? But the same token.
I think through my research I wasable to uncover a lot of pretty
fascinating stories about the Horseshoe Tavern,and I mean for those who aren't quite
(04:38):
aware of its history. For me, the most interesting part of it is
its early history that I really learnedabout the country artists that played there.
Some might know that samp and TomConnors was kind of a regular there and
it became his kind of home awayfrom home when he arrived in Toronto,
and he really kept bugging the owner, Jack Starr, that he wanted to
(05:00):
play there, and ended up heholds the record that well, I don't
think will ever be beaten for playingthe venue like twenty five consecutive nights.
Wow, So down at itself ispretty fascinating. But earlier than that,
just even how music came about atthe Horseshoe, I think is a really
cool story. Basically, Jack Star, he was an entrepreneur, more in
(05:25):
the textile clothing business, and hesurprised his family one day, came home
and told him that he bought thistavern and they were like, what the
heck? You know, what's thisall about? But I guess he wanted
to expand and try something new,and he saw the opportunity. I think,
you know, the new liquor licenseswere coming in around that time,
(05:46):
nineteen forty six forty seven when theHorseshoe opened, But originally it was just
a drinking hole and the place togo. You could even go and get
a prime rib and food. Buteventually because of a lot of the clientele
there that were from the East coast, a lot of people from the Maritimes
had kind of headed west and cometo Toronto looking for work back then.
(06:09):
And one day Jack's walking through thebar and these people say, Jack,
you should get some music in here, and he goes, okay, sure.
You know, he always loved tolisten to his customers, and he
said what kind and they said country, of course, so he took him
up on it. But next thingyou know, the Horseshoe Tavern became National
North and like all the big bigstars from the Grand Old Opry were rolling
(06:32):
into town like Loretta Lynn and ErnestTubb and Charlie Pride and little Jimmy Dickens
and far and Young like, oh, the names go on and on.
It's the Carter family. So tome, that was the biggest surprise.
I didn't realize that early early historyof how the Horseshoe Tavern initially I was
(06:53):
known as a country bar where allthese top stars would play. That's interesting.
I didn't know the history, butI've been into the Horseshoe a few
times back in the eighties and theywere either rock bands, rock and roll
bands, or pop bands playing there. But it definitely looked like a typical
country bar to me. Moving onfrom the bars for a minute, I
(07:15):
understand you also have a story aroundSantana. Yeah, Santana, that's one.
It's kind of interesting. I wastalking to Linda Manzer, who's one
of Canada's more well known luciers,who is someone who makes and builds guitars.
And this is a really cool storyshe shared with me that early in
(07:36):
her career, like her career asan owner entrepreneur really hadn't started yet at
the time. She was kind ofdoing her apprentice and learning the trade,
you know, with some other peopleout in Vancouver. But she was traveling
out to see friends and it justhappened that these friends that she was with
were living on the property that Santanaowned and kind of the Holly Hills,
(08:00):
I think it was more outside SanFrancisco, and you know, she got
to hang out there for a whileand Santana he didn't know necessarily that she
was a guitar maker, but herfriends did. And after she returned home,
basically she gets this note from herfriends saying, hey, we'd love
you to build this guitar for Santanathat we can give it to him for
(08:24):
Christmas. And so, you know, how can you turn down that opportunity
or when you're just trying to startout in you know, your new career.
So yeah, she said about Lindadid all this research, she told
me, finding out what Santana wasinto some of his hobbies or things that
he enjoyed and tried to incorporate someof that into the guitar. And you
(08:46):
know, basically long story shorts.She sent this guitar off and it was
apparently well received, and she didn'treally know too much until one day she
opened up a Guitar Player magazine andthere's a quote from Santana that mentioned,
oh, I've got this beautiful newguitar that I've been playing that was designed
(09:07):
or built for me from Linda Manser. And so Linda said that basically started
her career. You know, onequote or a couple of sentences in a
magazine. Little serendipity, a littleluck, and you never know. And
we'll be right back after this.I was about to say, talk about
(09:41):
serendipity man being in the right placeat the right time and catching such a
lucky break. That's awesome. Stickingwith Canadian artists for a minute, what
can you tell me about Anne Marie? Yeah, Anne Marie. I mean
it's when I was doing some eventswith this new book, the one hundred
and one Fascinating Canadian Music. Idid a lot of trivia events myself and
(10:01):
one of the trivia questions I includedwas who's won the most Juno Awards,
And that in itself, for thosewho might think The Weekend or Drake or
Celine Dion, any of these othersmight have the record, Anne Murray actually
still holds the record for most Juno'sone and I think a lot of that
(10:22):
comes down to just how dominant shewas in that early nineteen seventies period,
starting with Snowbird, really, andthat in itself is the pretty amazing story.
For those who don't know, Imean Snowbird, I remember hearing it
as a kid growing up. Myparents had the record, and it's been
covered like I don't know how manytimes by how many different artists and so
(10:46):
many different genres. But it wasnumber one, and it was a song
written by Gene McClelland, whose famousEast Coast songwriter. His daughter Catherine is
still very active and an award winningsongwriter of her own today. But what
you were leading at, and whatI think I mentioned in my book,
the fun fact about Snowbird is oneof those examples. There's been quite a
(11:09):
few of them over the years,but this one that had such success back
in the nineteen seventies, the heydayof vinyl. It was all about singles
and the whole idea of a single. We had an A side and a
B side, and usually the recordcompany would decide what that lead a side
single would be, and you know, send it off to all the radio
(11:31):
stations and get them to play it. Well, this is one example where
someone flipped over the record. Snowbirdwas the B side, and it suddenly
got played and caught on. Sothat song was everywhere. I remember a
man everywhere. Yeah, it was, And I'm right now I'm wearing my
Stampeder's teacher And it's maybe not sucha little secret. But Ronnie King,
(11:56):
who's recently passed and may he restin peace, was a huge fan Anne
Marie, and I remember him postingthings on social media about how much and
liked him more than the other guys. Yeah, she was everywhere, and
she's still active in the music businessas well. Burton Cummings mm hmm.
You have a story or two abouthim, Yeah, I mean, burd
(12:18):
I think that's just another another oneof those examples where I'm always fascinated how
songs are written and developed, andkind of like that story of Snowbird.
How songs kind of either hit ordon't hit and have a life of their
own really. And for Burning Cummings, we all know one of the founders
(12:39):
of the Guests who went on toa great solo career as well, and
he's still out there performing. I'mlooking forward to hearing him sing in a
few weeks. It's part of theGordon Lightfoot tribute that they're having at Massey
Hall. But going back many manyyears, one of my favorite guests who
songs was No Sugar Tonight, NewMother Nature, and that's one of those
(13:01):
interesting what they call in a waylike two songs for the price of one,
if you will right where I guessit just happened that Key and Randy
Bachman would often co write together andthey'd bring different ideas, and this is
one where they each had written thissong. Bachman it was No Sugar Tonight
and for Cummings it was New MotherNature, and they felt that it was
(13:24):
in similar keys and everything that theycould work together. So they basically brought
those songs together. But when Ichat out with Burden about the origins of
this song, the one amusing thing, I mean, it wasn't so funny
I guess for him at the time. But it goes back again to the
idea of the A side B side. Initially, because the song would have
(13:46):
been too long for radio, theymade them an A and a B side
those two songs, and the recordcompany decided that Bachman's his version, the
No Sugar Tonight, would be theA side, and so Bachman said initially
he was a little hippie that hedidn't get the royalties because that you know,
that song got a lot more,but he said it ended up all
(14:09):
working out in the end. Therewas another band I guess that preferred his
version and covered it, and theend of the day, the two songs
together worked so well. And it'sa staple of Canadian classic rock that I
know I wore out listening to backwhen I first discovered it in high school,
that's for sure. Yeah, nokidding. And once again another act
(14:31):
that was everywhere back in the day. Now going back to I think it
was nineteen seventy, the Transcontinental PopFestival. What can you tell us about
that? Well, that one haskind of become more known as Festival Express,
and it basically was the concept was, let's have concerts in different places
(14:54):
across Canada and the artist will alltravel between the venues on a train.
Sounds great in theory, but youcan imagine the logistics back in the day,
and then also the stories of thedebauchery and everything that occurred when you
get I mean the people involved inthis were the band and Janis Joplin and
(15:18):
the Dead, there's several others andit was basically one big party. And
of course you know a lot ofthese cities there were security issues too because
it was back in the old hippiedays where there was a bit of that
fight sometimes where the hippie stot theyshould get everything for free, right,
like you think of Woodstock and howit ended up becoming this free festival,
(15:41):
and so there was that same idea. They didn't care that these promoters and
these artists needed to make money.I guess it was like, you know,
free love, free music. Soyou know, there was a few
issues where like Toronto with the securitythat they kind of had to keep them
at bay, and I think toappease them the artists, some of them
(16:02):
performed like a separate little show ina nearby park and then even one of
the venues they were like they'd seenwhat was happening, so they decided they
didn't want any part of it.One of the cities, so I think
it was the Winnipeg or Calgary thatat the last minute got filled in as
one of the other stops. Butyeah, there's a famous story. I
(16:22):
mean, there's a great documentary thatwas made about this you can look up.
But the one famous story is abouthow they stopped en route through the
Prairies in some small town at theLCBO and basically just bought the place out,
you know, because they were outof liquor to continue on the party.
Oh boy. Yeah. And speakingof videos that you can look up,
(16:47):
you mentioned Burton Cummings and Gordon Lightfootand the same breath. Burton Cummings
does a really hilarious impression of GordonLightfoot, and I encourage people to look
that up on YouTube. Wow,there's some pretty interesting facts there, and
I do encourage everybody to quote andpick up a copy of one hundred and
one fascinating Canadian music facts. AndI understand your books are available on your
(17:08):
website, is that right? Moreso, I mean they're available anywhere,
but yeah, I mean your localindie bookseller, Amazon, and to go
anywhere you can buy a book.Basically, I always say support your local
bookstore if you have one, andthen from there you can go Indigo or
Amazon and find it for sure.Very cool. Yeah, you mentioned back
(17:29):
in the day, in the nineteenseventy seventy one that people wanted music for
free. Wow, imagine that musicfor free? Yeah, nothing changes,
but everything changes. Well, listen, David, I don't want to take
up your whole day. I knowthat you've got more writing to do,
so I want to thank you somuch for taking the time out of your
day to do this with me,And until next time, cheers. Tommy
(17:56):
Solo's Famous Friends is a one manproduction, meaning that I've done all the
work, including recording, editing,guest acquisition, etc. And hey,
here's some news. We've just recentlyjoined forces with five to one nine magazine,
so you can check out my interviewsthere as well. The theme song
for Tommy Solo's Famous Friends is aclip from my original composition The Burn.
(18:21):
All rights reserved. If you enjoythe show and you'd like to help us
keep it going, why don't youclick on the buy me a Coffee link
in the show notes, hit thelike button, subscribe, all that stuff.
We really appreciate it. You canfind me on Facebook and Instagram,
and until next time, cheers,
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