Honouring Canada's Music Scene of 1970-80's

[Yuri]

What about the voice of Geddy Lee?
Ben Kaplan,* National Post* (August, 27th, 2009)

http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=1933709
Coutesy of CBC

Don't expect to learn about Gordon Lightfoot's love life or Trooper's backstage antics in This Beat Goes On and Rise Up!, two documentaries about the Canadian music scene in the 1970s and '80s made by the team of writer Nicholas Jennings and director Gary McGroarty. The films, which feature a combined 200 interviews and will be airing on CBC on four consecutive Thursday nights, are designed to honour Canadian songwriters, not drag them through the mud.

"When you think about Bruce Cockburn and Wondering Where the Lions Are?, you don't think about if he got drunk one night or threw anything out the window -- there's nothing there," says McGroarty, who managed the Canadian band Cano in the late-'70s and recently made a documentary with David Crosby about activism in music. "Americans haven't been celebrating songwriting for the past 10 years; it's all cult of personality. We wanted to celebrate the Canadian art of writing and recording a song."

The songs that the duo were able to round up include everything from classics by the usual subjects, records by Anne Murray, Rush, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, but also influential, forgotten favourites, singles by bands like The Viletones, Rough Trade, Leroy Sibbles and The Kings. With interviews and live footage, the filmmakers -- whose earlier documentary, 2006's Shakin' All Over, looked at Canadian folk rock in the '60s -- explain how the Canadian music industry was born.

"I want to bring Canadian music back for people who may have forgotten, or introduce it to people who may never have known," says Jennings, whose book Before the Gold Rush, about the coffee shop scene in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood during the '60s, was the impetus for the film series.

Jennings says that he's a fan of huge Canadian records like Takin' Care of Business and Hot Child in the City, but that it's the lost classics such as Willie P. Bennett's 1970s records or a Truth and Rights song from a decade later that make this project so fun.

"Canadian musicians draw inspiration from the artists from Canada who came before them," says Jennings, adding that the team intends to make two more music docs that will cover Can-rock from the '90s to today. "Artists now see themselves as part of an ongoing journey. One of the great revelations for me in making these pictures was how Canadian music is linked."

The documentaries, featuring interviews with Nash the Slash, k-os, Burton Cummings and everyone from Corey Hart to Geddy Lee, highlight the music from all across Canada, from D. O. A to Great Big Sea.

"I think Canadians, more than anybody, are known for songwriting," McGroarty says. "Who wouldn't want to celebrate that?" - This Beat Goes On premieres tonight at 9 p. m. on CBC, and continues every Thursday until Sept. 17.

(attached photo - Rush, Nash the Slash, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell)

[Yuri]

More On the Same Show:

CBC Honours Canadian Pop Music Scene of 1970's to 1980's

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1265776/

Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 08:09AM EDT (John Doyle -Globe & Mail - Arts)

"Nice day for a party, isn't it?” Oh come on now. At least some of you get the reference, right? Teenage Head?

Any journey through popular music history is personal, deeply subjective. It's bound to be, because music sets off all manner of memories. It's desperately hard to do make an objective history of two decades of music and please everybody.

So, it's 1971 or 1972. Thereabouts, anyway. I'm in my bed in Dublin and I've got a transistor radio, listening to Radio Luxemburg. Late at night the DJ is David “Kid” Jensen, who plays what's called “progressive rock.” It's worth hearing, this Jensen guy's show, because he's Canadian, as he keeps reminding listeners, and he often plays Canadian bands that nobody outside of Canada has heard of. I hear the Guess Who and Lighthouse. It's impossible to buy records by these bands in Dublin, but I know the sound, and it stays with me. Right now, I can still recall the sound of Lighthouse coming from the radio. See what I mean? It's personal.

This Beat Goes On (CBC, 9 p.m.) tries hard to be all-inclusive, but in doing so it only underlines the impossibility of covering every sound, every nuance of decades of music. It's a lot of fun, and comprehensive in a shallow manner. It's full of hits, has many misses and meanders all over the place.

The first instalment tonight covers Canadian pop music in the 1970s, from the situation of scattered acts and songwriters who were semi-successful through the CRTC's imposition of Canadian content rules on radio stations and the eventual outpouring of successful Canadian music.

The Guess Who play an important role as both Randy Bachman – a great storyteller – and Burton Cummings offer some perspective on the Canadian musical scene then. We hear about Bachman Turner Overdrive (Serena Ryder says of BTO's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet , “That song is just phenomenal.”) and the fragility of the music industry before the CRTC intervened with its content rules.

Terry Jacks and Edward Bear make an appearance. There is heavy emphasis on the blues scene in Canada and how it seemed to flourish in all regions. Don Walsh of Downchild Blues Band provides one of the best quotes when he says, “You have a hit record and the rest is geography.” He means the endless long-distance touring across Canada. Attention is paid to Dutch Mason, David Wilcox and Colin Linden. Then the emphasis switches, and not smoothly, to the singer-songwriters and the folk and country situations.

It's Gordon Lightfoot, the Good Brothers, Anne Murray and Valdy, who “springs out of the fertile West Coast like a towering redwood,” according to narrator Jian Ghomeshi. A nice bit on Kate and Anna McGarrigle reminds us that their own rendition of Heart Like a Wheel can make the hairs stand up on your neck.

The doc has a predictable TV format – we see clips of acts performing, Ghomeshi narrates the story with pith and then a musician offers a brief commentary. It's probably the only way to do such a program (it's made by Nick Jennings and Gary McGroarty) as it attempts to chronicle vast fields of an ever-changing music scene. And some of the archival footage is glorious. But in many ways the program calls out for a far more detailed narrative.

The second documentary, airing two weeks from today, covers the 1980s. There is a lot of great footage in Rise Up , too. But again, it feels scattered and unfocused. We get some coverage of the punk movement in Toronto and Vancouver, which really began in the late 1970s, and, simultaneously, much material about arena-bands such as Rush and Max Webster and the soft-rock of Dan Hill. Plus there's a brief detour into the music scene in Quebec.

The punk section is the best, with details about such bands as the Dish Rags, the Viletones, the Diodes, the Demics, Nash the Slash and Teenage Head. Someone says, “The Pointed Sticks were the best band that ever played in Vancouver.” Then there's a brief portrait of Rough Trade, followed by an odd diversion to folkies Figgy Duff.

For all its faults, a lot of people will enjoy The Beat Goes On and Rise Up , because they are anchored in nostalgia and they stir memories, as only music can do.

Imagine me in stove-pipe jeans and sneakers, a shirt with tiny collar and a skinny tie. Not some ridiculous faux-leather skinny tie bought at Le Chateau. No. The real thing, bought in London, England, two years earlier. I'm trying to enjoy Teenage Head. Some bouncer is trying to stop me from enjoying myself. Like I'm dangerous or something. I'm not. Teenage Head is dangerous, though. They make you move. Mind you, not as dangerous as Steve Leckie and the Viletones. I'm dancing. I do the Wobble and the Watusi, too. See what I mean?

(The Guess Who -with Domenic Troiano in line-up - Below)

[Yuri]

...and The CBC link to the show.
This Beat Goes On

Two-part series premiering: Thursday August 27, 2009 at 9 pm & Thursday September 3, 2009 on CBC-TV

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/docz...son/index.html

This Beat Goes On chronicles a jukebox full of Canadian classics from Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" to Troopers "Raise a Little Hell". Narrated by Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Radio's Q, the documentary is a combination of rare archival footage and candid interview clips with artists from the time such as Randy Bachman and Danny Marks, as well as interviews with current Canadian artists Serena Ryder and Sam Roberts.

The first hour focuses on the formative years: a time of shag hair, bellbottoms and chart-topping sounds of folk singers, blues artists and heavy metal rockers like Prism and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. The decade starts out on a controversial note, with a government ruling forcing radio stations to play 30 per cent Canadian content. But the ruling soon pays dividends, laying the groundwork for the incredible rock 'n roll era that was the 70s. And, the Juno Awards, launched under that name in 1971, create a star system for Canadian musicians who rock audiences and the charts from coast-to-coast.

The second hour of This Beat Goes On keeps the Canadian hit parade rocking, set to the tune of classics like Burton Cummings' "Stand Tall" and Loverboy's "Turn me Loose". The program documents Canadian music's international breakthrough in the latter half of the 70's. Solo artists like Joni Mitchell and progressive rockers such as Rush still rule but it is also a time for punk and new wave artists to push their way into the spotlight. Music sounds from around the world, including Celtic and reggae beats work their way into the Canadian mainstream. With guaranteed airtime at home, the Canadian rock revolution impacts audiences, both here and abroad.

[charlene]

and at the CBC building in Toronto the other day I ran into this little show being broadcast on a TV in the lobby by the entrance to the CBC museum: Jian's interview with Lightfoot..lol

[Yuri]

Looking Good!!!

[jj]

what did you think of the 70's segments? I've heard both positive and negative feedback (but has there ever been a CBC show that hasn't received scathing feedback from tax payers?)

[charlene]

lots of music that's not my cuppa from those days but it's part of the story..
i recorded part two but haven't watched..