1973 JUNO awards-AUDIO- Gordon and Anne Murray chat
 

AUDIO at:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/gordo...eath-1.4074672

In this 1973 candid conversation between Lightfoot and Murray, who had just won the male performer and female performer of the year awards at the Juno awards, they discuss making it Canada, merit, the CRTC, the need for the Junos and more. 4:52

"I prefer to make it on my own merit and I don't believe the government should regulate the arts," Gordon Lightfoot tells Anne Murray in an archival clip.

Lightfoot and Murray had just won the 1973 Juno Awards for male and female artist of the year, respectively, and in this candid conversation, captured by CBC Radio's The Entertainers as part of its Juno Awards broadcast, the pair reflect on whether the CRTC should control how much Canadian music was played on the airwaves.

"David Clayton-Thomas … got his chops in L.A., we got ours at home, Joni Mitchell got hers in L.A., Neil [Young] got his in L.A., you and I made it at home and then we started branching out into the other countries," Lightfoot says. "But it wasn't because of the government ruling that we did that, and therefore that's what takes the magnificence from the occasion, is the fact that it is a government-regulated thing."
his was early days for the Juno Awards, as well as the Canadian music industry at large, and during the ceremony that night, artists seemed to display a degree of surprise that a music industry, per se, even existed. In fact, 1973 was the very first year the awards were broadcast on CBC Radio, followed two years later with the first televised presentation of the awards on CBC in 1975. In 2018, the Juno Awards will come full circle and be broadcast once again on CBC.

In 1973, Lightfoot and Murray, who with Stompin' Tom Connors made up the holy trinity of Canadian music at the time, found themselves in a strange place. Both artists had already won multiple awards from the young organization that would officially become the Junos, but they had worked hard and made it on their own — now the industry was finally catching up, benefiting a new generation of artists.

During the conversation, Murray tended to agree with Lightfoot, although she takes a far less cynical approach, commenting that "what has happened is that production has increased, quality production has increased, everything has gotten better as a result of whatever's happened."
The one thing they could both agree on completely, however, was exposure.

"Well, you and I always seem to be singled out," Murray says. "I remembered seeing an article in Time magazine talking about you and talking about me and saying something about AM music in Canada, this is Anne Murray, and what was it you said about getting overexposed? That got so much mileage, that particular quote of yours."

"I said I thought they were playing me to death," Lightfoot replies.

"Right, well I'm inclined to agree with that," Murray says. "I think they were playing both of us to death."

Listen to the full candid conversation between the two musical giants above, courtesy of The Entertainers and the CBC archives.

— Jesse Kinos-Goodin, q digital staff