Spoons, it’s kinda funny that you didn’t mention one other popular Canadian band from the 80’s - The Spoons 
And yes, I have fond memories of all the bands you listed. The three best concerts I’ve seen were Gowan and Red Rider in the 80’s, and The Guess Who last summer.
Oh cripes, you just gave me one heck of a flashback! When I was in high school in the mid-80s, there was a program on in the afternoons that I could pick up on the TV in my bedroom that was all videos by Canadian artists. I remember seeing stuff by Platinum Blonde, M+M, Luba, Honeymoon Suite, but the weirdest I ever saw was Gowan’s animated video for “Criminal Mind.”
A criminal mind is all I,
all I ever ha-a-a-a-a-ad;
ask anyone who knows me
if I’m really so bad . . .
I am!.
featherlou wrote:
You know, I didn’t even think of that until after I posted the above. Then, of course, I remembered, and I’ve spent the last few minutes kicking myself.
The Spoons were a great band though: “Arias and Symphonies,” and “Nova Heart” are the ones I remember best. I think I still have some Spoons buried in the old LPs somewhere–maybe I should dig them out.
Thanks for jogging my memory, featherlou!
That’s too bad. If I’m correct about the proper pronunciation of Regina, I can think of some good rhymes. 
I have a hazy 70’s memory of Glaswegian rock group Nazareth’s song Vancouver Shakedown…
and yes, spoke-, you’ve got the proper pronounciation!
Hell, the Tragically Hip are the best-selling Canadian act in Canada, ever. Yes, even more than Rush or Alanis Morrissette or The Queen of Hacks herself, Sarah McLachlan.
I can name several Hip songs about Canadian places:
“Bobcaygeon” takes place in Bobcaygeon. And Toronto.
“38 Years Old” is about a prison breakout in Kingston.
“Wheat Kings” is about a guy in Saskatchewan who was wrongfully convicted of murder.
However, they’ve got no songs about, say, “Kingston, That’s My Kinda Town.” I think the reason these are few such songs is that Canadian musicians have generally only become nationally self-sufficient in the last twenty years or so; prior to that you really couldn’t be successful just in the Canadian market. At one point they had to get foreign artists to perform at the Juno Awards (our Grammies) just so people would watch. All successful Canadian musicians had to go to the States, and “I’m Goin’ To Sherbrooke” doesn’t cut it with the U.S. demographic.
That’s changed; now, many Canadian bands are weighed down with bags of money and gold records before they become popular in the U.S. The Tragically Hip, millionaires all with millions and millions of records sold, are an obvious example, but the Tea Party, 54/40, the Odds, Rheostatics, Great Big Sea et al. are not exactly living hand-to-mouth.
The thing is, nobody makes songs about cities anymore. So now we have Canadian artists successful enough to sing about Canadian cities, but who the hell writes songs about cities these days? It’s smarmy. The last really popular song about a city I can remember was Starship’s “We Built This City,” which was about S.F., and which is perhaps the worst song ever recorded. Which would explain the kibosh on city songs, I guess.
No problem, Spoons (actually, that’s where I thought you got your moniker from).
There was some country song that used to get a lot of airplay down here about “A Little Bit South of Saskatoon”. Granted, that’s not about a city as such, but about some piece of farmland near it, but we’re desperate here.
How about “Under the Bridge” (Los Angeles) by the Red Hot Chili Peppers:
Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in
The City of Angels
Lonely as I am
Together we cry
Or “Tonight, Tonight” by the Smashing Pumpkins, with the reference to the “city by the lake” (Chicago).
Or “Love Shack” by the B-52’s: “I’m headed down the Atlanta highway…”
Granted, these songs aren’t exactly paeans to the cities mentioned, but heck, at least we do mention them.
And as for us U.S.-types not being interested in songs about Canadian cities: who says? There are hit songs that mention cities in Mexico, Europe, even Asia. Why wouldn’t we buy a good song about a Canadian city?
featherlou, no. Not after the band, but after the eating utensils.
It’s a long story…
“Alberta Bound” is a pretty popular song, at least among people I know. (Yeah I know, it’s not a city, but at least its a place name in Canada.)
“Montreal” also springs to mind. Most of their songs are about Canada/Canadian life even if they don’t happen to mention a specific place name. Not to mention the fact that whenever Gordie goes on a rant, he generally mentions at least one Canadian town in there somewhere.
Also, just for an addition, Blues Traveler’s song “Canadian Rose” is about meeting a girl from Vancouver in Burlington. It’s a little unclear what Burlington they’re talking about, but one might assume it’s Burlington, Ontario.
-ellis
I sometimes sing “O Nunavut” to “O Canada.” The title is all I have, though.
This probably shouldn’t count, being a too-obvious ripoff, but a long LONG time ago I heard this on a Canadian radio station:
“This land is your land, this land is my land,
From Bona Vista to Vancouver Island,
From the Arctic Circle to the Great Lakes waters,
This land was made for you and me.”
Elvis, I remember singing that song in elementary school!
I’ve got a few:[ul]
[li]The Grapes of Wrath had a minor hit in Canada in the 80’s with Backwards Town about my hometown (and theirs) of Kelowna, BC.[/li][li]The Violent Femmes included the track, Vancouver(performed and recorded at a concert my friend attended) on their greatest hits album[/li][li]Not really about the city, but Bon Jovi’s album, Slippery When Wet was named after the shower at the No. 5 Orange strip club in Vancouver (my favourite piece of music trivia)[/li][/ul]
Blast from the past (kinda) - Tommy Hunter’s “Mississauga” - and we’re out on this end.
Is this song about two sisters named Mulva and Dolores?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by spoke- *
**
They don’t count. The song has be ABOUT the city, either positive or negative. “Under the Bridge” comes closest, but most people can’t understand what the hell Anthony Keidis is singing, anyway.
Actually, didn’t some guy do a cover of “One Night In Bangkok” a few years back? That might have come after “We Built This City.”
[QUOTE}This land is your land, this land is my land,
From Bona Vista to Vancouver Island…[/QUOTE]
Gah, I remember that one–the Canadian version of the Woody Guthrie song. We had to sing it in school, too.
Thinking of insipid patriotic songs, does anybody here (besides me) remember “Ca-na-da,” that overplayed gem from 1967? Or the film that accompanied it (these were the days before music videos obviously, but it would have qualified as one) that featured Bobby Gimby, that jeezly big trumpet, and a crew of kids mindlessly following him?
And no doubt the Ontarians will remember having to put up with this one:
A place to stand, a place to grow,
Ontari-ari-ari-ohhh!
These two songs weren’t popular in the sense they went screaming up the charts, but probably got enough airplay to.
I was hoping I could forget them someday. Guess not.