Skydiggers

Reminder the good ol’ Skydiggers have their annual xmas concert coming up - it’s tradition. This year it’s at Danforth Music Hall Dec 21.

Simply Saucer

Dance The Mutation.

Kanada

The Perth County Conspiracy travelled to East Germany in 1975 for the fifth Festival of Political Songs which was held in East Berlin. The album was released in Canada as “PCCDNEGDR (Perth County Conspiracy Does Not Exist German Democratic Republic) Break out to Berlin” and was also released as “Kanada” in East Germany with a pic of the band on the cover.

Bobcaygeon Songs

The little town of Bobcaygeon ON (population 3525) has no less than 3 songs attributed.

The Tragically Hip sang about Bobcaygeon on their 1998 album Phantom Power:

Here is Bev Marie’s “There’s A Little Town” released as a 45 in 1971:

In 1972 Robert Armes released the rare out of print LP “Songs for Icarus” which contained the track Bobcaygeon:

As an addendum, the lyrics from the Tragically Hip song contain the lines:

That night in Toronto 
With its checkerboard floors 
Riding on horseback 
And keepin' order restored
'Til the men, they couldn't hang 
Stepped to the mic and sang
And their voices rang
With that Aryan twang

Which is a reference to the night when “The Men They Couldn’t Hang” played “The Ghosts of Cable Street” live at the Horseshoe Tavern.

So here’s a version of that too - TMTCH were one helluva band.

Bobcaygeon by The Tragically Hip won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000.

Physical Chemistry

That time we drank 100% pure ethanol in the lab.

Mike Porter, me, Christina Kraml, Janet Beardall.

Anne & Gene

Anne covering Gene - it doesn’t get any better than this. 1972 Beat Club. Fantastic.

Canada Fitness Plan

Everybody get in shape!

Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox at Massey Hall in 1984.

En Tournée

Harmonium’s double album En Tournée contains a live performance of their third album L’heptade - recorded in Vancouver on June 20, 1977. Highly recommended - Quebec prog at its finest. The track below is Chanson Noire.

Leland Sklar on Bob Carpenter

Legendary American bassist and session musician Leland Sklar talks about his involvement with Bob Carpenter’s sole LP “Silent Passage” - one of the finest records ever pressed in Canada. There’s some really interesting information on Bob and his music - one anecdote describes Bob playing at the farewell party for the Festival Express tour.

"After the final Festival at Calgary, a young guitarist mysteriously showed up at the York Hotel where the farewell party was taking place," Rolling Stone's correspondent wrote, "and with the deep and painful voice of some Ancient Mariner performed songs of unbelievable dignity. No one knew his name. He said: 'It doesn't matter the kind of music I play. Your mind sort of melts and becomes that one place of beautiful bliss which is the only place to be.'"

Also recommended is Ed Och’s essay on Bob which can be found here.

Bob Carpenter was born March 12, 1945 on a reservation near North Bay ON and died in 1995.

Alexis "Rose" Radlin

Dig enough in the crates and every now and then a gem surfaces.

Alexis “Rose” Radlin was a singer and songwriter - she grew up in Windsor ON and moved to Vancouver BC to pursue a music career. She signed a deal with Mushroom records and released “Alexis” in 1975 which led to her nomination for the female vocalist of the year Juno award (along with Patsy Gallant, Susan Jacks, Cathy Young and the winner Anne Murray). She wrote all the songs on the first LP except “Canada, You're A Lady” which she co-wrote with John Patrick Caldwell of Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck fame.

In 1978 she released her second LP (also called “Alexis”) on the Radio Canada International Transcription label which in my opinion isn’t quite as strong as her first. She apparently released a third album called “Fishing for Sanity” but I can find nothing about it.

Here is “War Baby’s Lament” which kicks off side 2 from her first album:

Alexis provided 3 songs (About Lies, Baby Talk, and Dragonfly And Kites) for the 1979 movie “Stone Cold Dead” which was set in Toronto with Richard Crenna, Paul Williams, Belinda Montgomery (who sings “About Lies” in a seedy bar) and a young Michael Ironside who gets shot early on. It’s a sleazy fun movie (TV Guide rated it 1 star out of 5).

In 1980, she appeared on the CBC Video Album which was hosted by Carole Pope and featured Alexis Radlin, Sandy Crawley, JoAnn Brooks, B.B. Gabor, Kevin Staples, Triple Feature, New Wave Rockers and Gas. It’s below - Alexis appears around the 6:22 mark.

In her career, she appeared in concert with Leon Redbone, Downchild Blues Band, Muddy Waters, Long John Baldry, David Clayton-Thomas, Alice Cooper, Dizzie Gillespie, Olivia Newton John and many others. An exceptional voice; it’s a real shame she didn’t get more exposure.

Alexis Radlin passed away February 28, 2001.

Like A Dribbling Fram

Race Marbles

Toronto DJ Garry Ferrier over at CHUM-AM issued a string of demented hits as a promotional device for the station - his goofy 'Ringo-Deer' (on Capitol) skated along both the Christmas season and Beatlemania to a comfy #7 on the CHUM charts in last week of 1964. In December 1965 with Dylan having plugged in his guitar and caused a storm with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, Ferrier unleashed his own send-up of 'Like a Rolling Stone'. As the fictitious studio band Race Marbles, he recorded the nonsensical spoof 'Like a Dribbling Fram', a mostly-forgotten top-40 song that was resurrected in the early eighties as the closer to the original Pebbles Vol. 3 - the Acid Gallery only to slip back into the dustbin of forgotten gems once more.

The Carnival

Doot Doot Doo Doo!

The Carnival were born from the ashes of The Flying Dutchman Drum And Bugle Corp and consisted of Tim Hallman (Piano), Don Pellow (Organ), Bill Wells (Bass), Bob Brownscombe (Guitar) and Mike T. Oberle (Drums).

The band settled in Kitchener-Waterloo as The Trendsetters and won the audition to become Robbie Lane’s backing band for the 'It's Happening' TV show, by which point they’d changed names to The Carnival. They were working towards releasing an album (tentatively titled 'Keil Heil Kelly') but split up before it could be completed. They ultimately released 3 singles for Columbia in 1968 of which “Doot Doot Doo Doo” is top pick.

The Youngbloods

The Youngbloods played the Riverboat in 1965 - from top to bottom are Jerry Corbitt, Joe Bauer, Lowell (Banana) Levinger and Jesse Colin Young.

Stormy Clovers

The Stormy Clovers were Ray Purdue, Susan Jains, Pat (Graham) Patterson and D.D. Fraser.

The following from CBC television is the Stormy Clover’s covering Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne in 1966:

Nunavut Day

Happy Nunavut Day.

Photo courtesy of CBC.

British Modbeats

If someone were ranking the top Canadian album covers, this would have to make the list (pants!). Don't be fooled by their name, these guys were from St. Catherine's, Ontario. The LP is really not very good; their version of “Somebody Help Me” is probably the best track on the album.

Upon A Once Time

The singer-songwriter known as Huckle was born Kelly Cavanagh in 1954 and grew up in Montreal and Toronto. He moved west to Gabriola Island in 1973 and adopted the name Huckle where he helped organize two western tours by Perth County Conspiracy (DNE), performing the warmup act for some of the shows. In spring 1974 on the first of the tours a live recording was made of eleven original Huckle songs with Gary McKeehan engineering - nine songs were recorded live after soundcheck for Perth County's Vancouver concert at Pender Auditorium March 1974. The band included Huckle (vocals, guitar, mandolin) with Richard Keelan (guitar, vocals), Michael Butler (bass), George Koumantaros (congas), Paul Gellman (vocals, fiddle, guitar), and Wende Sinclair (vocals, bamboo flute). Two more songs were recorded live on stage at Gabriola Hall the next night. These tracks became Huckle's first album release "Upon a Once Time". 500 copies were pressed and mostly sold off the stage at concerts. One of the very first "indie" records, it has now become rare vinyl and sells for a lot more than it did when it was new ($3).

The track below is “Beyonder (The Hymn)” and it’s pure lovely.

Computerized Meal Plans

The attempt to computerize meal planning dates back to at least 1971.

“If you think it’s tough stretching your dollars these days…”

Let the computer plan your family menus - the article from the Toronto Star 1971-01-05 lists mouthwatering recipes like “Sweet and Sour Pork and Vegetables”, “Meatball Soup Pot” and a “Fish Fry” - all brought to you by the wonders of technology.

Plus a sale at Holt Renfrew, Town Shoes and Fashion Council!