Those of you who know me well, know that I have made a minor obsession about Canada in the last two years. I have struggled to know what makes her tick, how the music and media of her artists inform her place in the world, and what it can teach us Southerners (in the sense of south of the 49th Parallel).
But I’m more of a musician than a politician, so I’ll make this post about music I think that would be a worthwhile playlist for Canada Day—formerly known as Dominion Day.
1) Secord’s Warning / Tanglefoot / Captured Alive / Borealis BCD-157CD
A good reminder that people can be heroic on both sides of a war.
2) Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald / Gordon Lightfoot / Summertime Dream / Reprise (and subsequent releases on CD)
Not strictly a Canadian song in content, but arguably Lightfoot’s song embodies the best in Canadian songwriting.
3) A Case of You / Joni Mitchell / Blue / Reprise (and subsequent releases on CD)
For the sheer loneliness and passion, and for drawing a map of Canada.
4) Possession / Sarah McLachlan / Fumbling Towards Ecstacy / Arista
Like Mitchell, a master of describing both love and pain.
5) Canadian Pacific / Hank Snow / Greatest Hits Volume 1 / RCA Victor tape
After being everywhere, for making the traveler’s journey universal.
6) Helmethead / Great Big Sea / Something Beautiful / Zoe
Because every Canadian playlist should have a hockey song.
7) Snowbird / Anne Murray / Snowbird / Capitol (and various reissues)
Another timeless classic.
8. At the 100th Meridian / Tragically Hip / Fully Completely / MCA
Loved this song the first time I heard it on Due South. A contemporary look at surviving the times in which we live, while holding on to our dreams.
9) Henry Martin / Figgy Duff / Retrospective 1974-1993 /
Amber-EMI
Another song I heard from Due South. The group was one of the early Celtic rockers.
10) Chanson des Menteries / La Bottine Souriante/ La Traversée de Atlantique / Green Linnet
In the spirit of biculturalism, and plus the fact that they are just really too good not to listen to. Vive la difference!
I’ll leave you with some quotes about Canada I’ve found from various sources:
“I guess Canada is a nice country. I’ve never thought much about it. (Anon. Cal-State student).
“I’m not an American! I am a Canadian. I come from a “nice”, thoroughly unrealistic country” (Matthew Fisher).
“The great themes of Canadian history are as follows: Keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear” (Will Ferguson).
“God Bless America, but God help Canada to put up with them!” (Anonymous).
“Canada is a place of infinite promise. We like the people, and if one ever had to emigrate, this would be the destination, not the U.S.A. The hills, lakes and forests make it a place of peace and repose of the mind, such as one never finds in the U.S.A.” (John Maynard Keynes).
“If you don’t believe your country should come before yourself, you can better serve your country by livin’ someplace else” (Stompin’ Tom Connors, who wrote the Hockey Song).
“I wouldn’t let someone take my Canadian citizenship from me for anything” (Jim Kale of the Guess Who).
“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind” (John Diefenbaker (From the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960)).
“Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We’re different people from you and we’re different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States” (Pierre Trudeau).
“A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe” (Pierre Burton, historian).
“Canada is one of the planet’s most comfortable, and caring, societies. The United Nations Human Development Index cited the country as the most desirable place in the world to live. This year a World Bank study named Canada the globe’s second wealthiest society after Australia” (Time Magazine).
“We’ll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us” (Andy Barrie).
Happy Birthday Canada, you True North, strong and free. Don’t be afraid to offer tough love to your friends, and remember that you’ve earned a place on the world stage.
Artist: Northern Pikes
