http://www.thestar.com/travel/northa...lebrate-canada
The Juno Awards, honouring the best in Canadian music, will be held in Toronto this weekend. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the best travel-related songs with a Canadian theme. When the geography isn’t in the title, we’ve added the general location in parentheses. Got other suggestions or things we missed? Drop us a line at
travel@thestar.ca.
Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon – The Guess Who
Sudbury Saturday Night – Stompin’ Tom Connors
Evangeline – The Band (The Maritimes)
Four Strong Winds – Ian Tyson (Alberta)
Wheat Kings – The Tragically Hip (Manitoba and Saskatchewan)
Alberta Bound – Gordon Lightfoot
416/905 – Maestro Fresh Wes
Montreal – Blue Rodeo
Bobcaygeon – The Tragically Hip
Glace Bay Blues – The Guess Who
One Great City – The Weakerthans (Winnipeg)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot (The Great Lakes)
Three Pistols – Tragically Hip (Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park)
Escarpment Blues – Sarah Harmer (Niagara)
Spoonful of Sugar – Matt Mays (Montreal)
The Old Black Rum – Great Big Sea (George Street, St. John’s)
Helpless – Neil Young (you don’t have to ask, do you?)
Acadian Driftwood – The Band
English Bay – Blue Rodeo (again, you’re asking?)
(If you like that list, you might want to check this one out too.)
AND:
http://www.thestar.com/travel/articl...n-travel-songs
Published On Thu Mar 31 2011EmailPrint
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Several of our readers felt a Gordon Lightfoot song about the Canadian railroad should have made our pre-Juno Awards list.
Kate LeBlanc file photo/Toronto Star
Re: Best road tunes that celebrate Canada, March 24, 2011
Last week, in advance of the Juno Awards, we listed some of our favourite road tunes that reference Canada’s cities and geographical landmarks. Apparently, you thought we left out a few. Quite a number of people chastised us for failing to mention Hamilton-born folk singer Stan Rogers and for leaving out “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane. What can we say? Our iTunes collection needs some new downloads.
Here are a selection of your responses:
“I read your article ‘Best Road Tunes’ with enthusiasm. Thanks for that. I hope to download them onto a CD (legally, of course) and present copies to my family and friends in England. These songs really capture The Canadian Spirit. Bravo has been running an excellent show on the Toronto music scene 1955-75. It brought back many memories especially seeing Neil Young in his youth. This song [Ambulance Blues] concerns his memories of ‘T.O.’ Some of the stanzas are a bit obscure but it captures a strong sense of time and place and also reflects Young’s own emotional complexities at the time. I do hope you will have a ‘Part 2’ list soon. I was disappointed to see that Toronto was not included in your list!” —Nicholas Mitchell, Toronto
“How about ‘Lakeside Park’ by Rush? Not sure if it’s Toronto, or a park in the Niagara region actually named ‘Lakeside Park.’ With a line like ‘everyone would gather on the 24th of May, sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display,’ I’d say it’s pretty patriotic.” — Jeannette Goulin, Toronto
[Editor’s note: Lakeside Park references a park in St. Catherines, where drummer Neil Peart spent some time as a kid.]
“How could you not include ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ by Gordon Lightfoot? It’s the railroad! That’s what defined Canada!” — Dan Sideen
“Fun article! I thought of these additions: Skydiggers – ‘November in Ontario’; Sloan – ‘The Rest of My life’ ( I know I’ll be living it in Canada); Kathleen Edwards – ‘Oh Canada.’” — Linda McIlwain
“Your column was great and I realize you can’t capture all the ‘best road tunes’ in one small article but how could you miss ‘Life is a Highway’ by Tom Cochrane? . . . he mentions Vancouver. And also Bruce Cockburn’s ‘The Coldest Night of the Year’ — he mentions Yonge Street and Scarborough — a true Toronto song! And don’t forget Gino Vanelli’s ‘I Just Want to Stop’ . . . When I think of those nights in Montreal. . . . And my favourite Canadian band, The Barenaked Ladies, with their song ‘One Week.’ The last words of the song are ‘Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie.’ It refers to an annual soccer tournament held for charity at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough. And also Barenaked Ladies song ‘Hello City’ is about Halifax.” — Shelley Barnett
“Some other suggestions: ‘Donkey Riding’ by Great Big Sea (Quebec, Miramichi, Fortune Bay). ‘Poutine’ by The Dreadnoughts (obvious from the title, but still Rimouski, Repentigny, Chicoutimi, Lac Megantic, etc.). ‘Western Skies’ by Blue Rodeo (mentions Queen Street in Toronto, but compares it unfavourably to . . . well, western skies. Duh.). ‘Your Ex-Lover is Dead’ by Stars (I know, I know, this one is a stretch, but this is such a great song that I had to mention it. The image of two ex-lovers travelling in a taxi across Montreal’s Pont Champlain in silence, with the guy struggling to remember the woman’s name . . . brilliant.)” — Alex Lofthouse, Toronto
“You missed a great song called ‘Moody Manitoba Morning’ [by Rick Neufeld]. For those of us who grew up in small Prairie towns in Canada this song says it all.” — Orry Kirby
“Check the many songs of Stan Rogers regarding songs of Canada — there are many that reference towns, cities and sites of Canada.” — Alvin Tilk
“I’d add Joel Plaskett’s ‘Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’’ to that list: ‘The yellow lines are glowing, Oh, highway roll me home.’ It’s a beauty, eh?” — Andrew Patriarche
“While your picks are great, we feel you missed a couple of no brainers: Northwest Passage – Stan Rogers; Life is a Highway – Tom Cochrane.” — Jim Hair, Toronto