Facebook friend number 3,000, c’mon down!
The top 100 Canadian singles: my take
The best Canadian single ever.
I love Top Ten lists, and Top One Hundred lists are even better.
This list is pretty good, but I have edited it, because – well – I know better. The numbers you see refer to are Bob Mesereau’s original ranking. The ones that are absolutely brilliant picks, in my opinion, are 1, 5, 23, 32 (yay, Moe!), 36, 55, 62 (in particular), 80 and 90. Putting The Demics on there is a stroke of genius, but it should’ve been number one, of course. (Here it is, if you want to hear it again, which you do.) Missing: DOA (“Disco Sucks”), Young Canadians (“Hawaii”), Modernettes (“Barbara”), Viletones (“Possibilities”), the Forgotten Rebels (“Surfin’ On Heroin”), and – if you ask my daughter – maybe even these teenage jerks.
On the stinker list, anything by Bryan Adams, Bruce Cockburn or Celine Dion is a source of enduring national shame. We should revoke their citizenship. Better yet, throw them in Millhaven.
Anyway. The ones where I agree with their inclusion – that is, The Good List – although not always their ranking:
1. The Guess Who — “American Woman”
2. Neil Young — “Heart of Gold”
3. The Band — “The Weight”
5. Leonard Cohen — “Hallelujah”
6. Steppenwolf — “Born to Be Wild”
7. Gordon Lightfoot — “If You Could Read My Mind”
8. Bachman Turner Overdrive — “Takin’ Care of Business”
9. Ian and Sylvia — “Four Strong Winds”
11. Joni Mitchell — “Big Yellow Taxi” / “Woodstock”
12. Rush — “Tom Sawyer”
13. Blue Rodeo — “Try”
14. Tragically Hip — “New Orleans is Sinking”
15. Gordon Lightfoot — “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
16. Leonard Cohen — “Suzanne”
18. The Guess Who — “These Eyes”
19. Gordon Lightfoot — “Sundown”
20. Sloan — “Underwhelmed”
21. The Band — “Up on Cripple Creek” / “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
22. Maestro Fresh Wes — “Let Your Backbone Slide”
23. The Diodes — “Tired of Waking Up Tired”
25. Rush — “The Spirit of Radio”
26. Rough Trade — “High School Confidential”
27. Martha and the Muffins — “Echo Beach”
28. Stampeders — “Sweet City Woman”
29. Arcade Fire — “Wake Up”
32. The Pursuit Of Happiness — “I’m an Adult Now”
33. Ugly Ducklings — “Nothin’ “
34. Sloan — “Coax Me”
35. Rush — “Closer to the Heart”
36. Teenage Head — “Picture My Face”
37. Guess Who — “Shakin’ All Over”
38. Five Man Electrical Band — “Signs”
39. Blue Rodeo — “Lost Together”
50. Terry Jacks — “Seasons in the Sun”
52. Neil Young — “Cinnamon Girl”
53. Alanis Morissette — “You Oughta Know”
54. Feist — “1234”
55. Arcade Fire — “Rebellion (Lies)”
56. k.d. lang — “Constant Craving”
57. Neil Young — “Rockin’ in the Free World”
60. Tragically Hip — “Bobcaygeon”
62. The Demics — “New York City”
64. Tragically Hip — “Ahead by a Century”
65. Blue Rodeo — “Five Days in May”
66. Hank Snow — “I’m Moving On”
72. The Kings —“This Beat Goes on/Switchin’ to Glide”
73. Neil Young — “Old Man” / “Needle and the Damage Done”
80. Teenage Head — “Let’s Shake”/ “Somethin’ On My Mind”
86. Stompin’ Tom Connors — “The Hockey Song”
87. Tragically Hip — “Wheat Kings”
90. New Pornographers — “Letter from an Occupant”
91. Guess Who — “No Time”
93. Neil Young — “Hey Hey My My”
94. Paul Anka — “Diana”
95. Daniel Lanois — “The Maker”
96. The Spoons — “Nova Heart”
The Stinker List, the things that make us ashamed that these people are in some way Canadian and/or only got airplay because of CanCon, and we don’t know who they are and don’t really care to:
4. Bryan Adams — “Summer of ’69”
10. Anne Murray — “Snowbird”
17. Tom Cochrane — “Life is a Highway”
25. Crowbar — “Oh What a Feeling”
30. Barenaked Ladies — “If I Had $1,000,000”
31. Robert Charlebois — “Lindberg”
40. Ron Hynes — “Sonny’s Dream”
41. Men Without Hats — “The Safety Dance”
42. Rheostatics — “Claire”
43. Lighthouse — “One Fine Morning”
44. A Foot In Coldwater — “(Make Me Do) Anything You Want”
45. Corey Hart — “Sunglasses At Night”
46. Loverboy — “Working For The Weekend”
47. Trooper — “Raise A Little Hell”
48. Parachute Club — “Rise Up”
49. Alannah Myles — “Black Velvet”
51. Malajube — “Montreal -40C”
58. Michel Pagliaro — “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”
59. Bruce Cockburn — “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”
61. Joni Mitchell — “A Case of You” / “California”
63. Bryan Adams — “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”
67. Harmonium — “Pour un instant”
70. Celine Dion — “My Heart Will Go On”
71. k-os — “Crabbuckit”
74. Jean Leloup — “1990”
78. Bruce Cockburn — “Wondering Where the Lions Are”
79. April Wine — “You Could Have Been a Lady”
81. Joni Mitchell — “Help Me”
82. Trooper — “We’re Here For A Good Time”
83. Lighthouse — “Sunny Days”
84. Jean-Pierre Ferland — “Le petit roi”
85. Bryan Adams — “Cuts Like A Knife”
88. Gilles Vigneault — “Mon pays”
89. Spirit of The West — “Home For a Rest”
92. Mashmakhan — “As the Years Go By”
97. Beau Dommage — “La complainte du phoque en Alaska”
98. Ron Sexsmith — “Secret Heart”
99. Bryan Adams — “Run to You”
100. Wintersleep — “Weighty Ghost”
I’m a Facebook Whale, times three
I’m three friends short of three thousand. I planned this momentous event to coincide with the weekend that Social Network opened.
FB page here. 3,000th customer gets…oh, Christ, I don’t know.
How much does Rogers suck?
They call me. They say I owe them money. I show them how I do not. The “customer service” moron says he has to check with someone. “I will be back in half a second,” he says.
I wait 22 minutes. I hang up.
Anyone else despise them like I do? Comments are open. Tell your Rogers horror stories. I want to hurt them.
You never get nervous anymore
Tokyo Police Club, popster popstar pride of Teedot. Every time they come on the car hi-fi, my daughter stops me. “I know, Dad, I know,” she says, eyes rolling. “They’re from Toronto. I know.”
(And if you look carefully, you can see a portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the corner, above drummer Greg Alsop. How Canadian is that?)
Tim Hudak’s staff search for “typical” Ontario family
…whilst typical Ontario families aren’t searching, particularly, for Tim.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 1:43 PM
Subject: Fwd: Party Needs a Hand
———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Subject: Party Needs a Hand
To:
Hi all – on October 6, from 11:30 AM till noon, the leader wants to visit a
typical Toronto family in their home with media in tow. The idea is either to
find a young couple with preschool children or a senior couple. Whether they
talk about all day kindergarten or a seniors issue or whatever will depend on
who they are.
Do you have anyone that you can recommend. We obviously want them to be
supporters, but not title holders. (i.e. we don’t want a past candidate,
riding president).
We don’t have a lot of time, so I would appreciate any ideas that you may have
as soon as possible.
I also appreciate your confidence in this matter.
Cheers,
DR
Media blah blah blah
Shorter version: “We may be subsidiaries of very powerful, unelected, super-rich corporations, but we like to propagate the mythology that we are the vox populi, the grubby and populist voice of the lumpen, without whom democracy would fail. And we are unadulterated hypocrites, naturally, because we pillory politicians all the time for being prejudiced and/or non-factual, but when we are prejudiced and/or non-factual, well, that’s okay, because we are The Media, and the rules that everybody else has to observe, most days, don’t apply to us. Because we are the media.”
And so they do expensive and silly redesigns, thinking it’s about form, when the problem is – and always has been – content. And, you know, honesty.
Blah Blah blah. They’ll never change.
Glib and Frail’s toy newspaper redesign
Me: Oh, look! It’s cute! It’s a starter paper!
Unidentified person in Starbucks line: The Canadian Tire flyer people called. They want their look back.
