Canadian Rock?

Canada has always been rich in their folk and traditional music scene, I give you that, but we are discussing about Rock music or pop music in general. Though rock is an American artform and being half Canadian, it saddens me that the fact that when performed in English, we couldn't personalise the music the way the Brits, Mexicans or even an Israeli or some Mid Eastern country could achieve.

 

I think I know what you're getting at and you're not necessarily wrong. I think perhaps that due to our close proximity and having almost identical cultures, values, belief system, etc., that any difference between us is difficult to pinpoint.

 

Pagliaro

 

Nice one. Forgot all about him!

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush. Never heard a guy play Jimi Hendrix covers like Frank could. Amazing guitarist!

 

Painted Ship

 

I didn't.

 

This thread requires some HELIX

 

I believe most groups have someone that influences them from time to time and that may be heard on a recording or two but hard to believe that a nation of musicians would rip off their US and UK contemporaries. Ha! Ha! That's a good one.

I think Canada has had its share of great musicians some made it big others didn't.

Acts like :

The Guess Who
BTO
Gordon Lightfoot
Ian Thomas
Fludd
Everyday People
Snakeye
Beowolf

James Leroy and Denim
Anvil
The Bells
The Box
Crowbar
A Foot In Cold Water
Max Webster

Glass Tiger
Great Big Sea
Trooper
Lighthouse
The Payolas
The Pursuit of Happiness
Saga

Sweeney Todd
Teenage Head


To name some of the bands that made it big and others that didn't but had a great sound.

 

The Guess Who were definitely influenced by American rock'n'roll, but something about their sound is uniquely Canadian. Hard to put into words, though.

 

Wow! I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever see this reissued on CD. Hope Alien Shores is next.

 

Most likely it's the Canadian accents. Eh!

 

Yet to be mentioned are The Boomers




Should the lead singer sound or look familiar, it is Ian Thomas, another
Canadian great!




.............Kliph

 

I like Bachman Turner Overdrive and Rush.

 

English appears to the universal language for the popular genres of music. I don't think that non-English artists, such as Abba, Golden Earring, the Scorpions or even Canadian artists like Celine Dion and Arcade Fire would be as successful if they sang French. A lot of this is due to the language barrier of course and the fact that English speaking market is one of the largest. Even here in Canada there is an artificial but real barrier between the English speaking provinces and the French speaking of Quebec and New Brunswick. The popular and rock artists from Quebec that are successful in the English speaking markets sing in English. Same thing for jazz artists from Quebec.
I am not sure where you are going on the personalization of music when sung in English. I can't see why the English language (when sung by a Canadian) becomes an obstacle to personalizing a song when you have singer songwriters such as Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and even a part Canadian as Madonna is. I think a prime example would be The Guess Who's "American Woman" where Burton Cummings improvised the lyrics. Without calculation or revision wouldn't this be considered a natural impromptu personalization or performance? Is Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" when sung in French or in Cantonese more personal?
I don't have any rock music by Mexican or Israeli rock bands and the closest I have to Mid Eastern music would be by Niyaz, a Persian music group that is recording and releasing their material from the USA. (If you like Dead Can Dance you'd like Niyaz - try Youtube.)
In the end I would credit the personalization of music to be something that an individual artist or group of any language find within themselves and not from external influences such as language, culture or religion which are perhaps used to form the music that comes from within.
There is a lot of U.K. and Irish artists in my collection. Care to give a specific example to support and explain your viewpoint? I am not trying to be combative. Just really curious. Eh!

 

I haven't read much of what was posted.

I am first generation Canadian, my Father from England and my Mother from Northern Ireland.

Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world for land mass. However, we have a small population that is less than 1/10th than the US.

We gave the world Neil Young and 4/5ths of the Band.

I am biased but I think we are punching well above out weight class.

Canada broke the Beatles in North America but we are too polite to point that out btw.

 

It is the cultural tie that caused this. A lot of U.K. artists and groups broke out in Canada first. A lot of records were brought back by visiting Canadians visiting relations.
'Cause I'm so polite I will only add Supertramp to a very long list. Heck even the Irish Rovers had a TV program in Canada but I don't know the portion of Canadian content in that group. Canada was used as a test market quite often.

 

Canadian rock IS different from American rock - Americans don't wear touques, eh! (OK - Mike Nesmith did)

Max Webster's "Universal Juveniles" - one of my favorite albums, ever!

Right now my current and long-time favorite Canadian band - SAGA.

 

She's been laying low, but someone told me last night when I asked about her that she was going to release another album soon?

 

The man in my avatar.

 

In a certain way, half of the canadian rock music sales are *not* in this thread, which makes Canadian rock music even more unique. Sales of Québec music is really large, 40% of all sales, even if it's only about 23% of the population. An album like L'heptade has sold over 200 000 copies, Rêver Mieux over 300 000, etc...

 

Northern Pikes need to be mentioned. Look for the RL vinyl copy "Big Blue Sky". They had a half dozen or so MTV videos back in the day.



Canada's most important contribution has been the impressive folk/pop artists such as Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn.

 

Unless I missed it, I didn't see any mention of Moxy. They were great back in the mid-to-late '70s. I did find it a bit odd that they replaced Buzz Shearman (RIP) with Mike (Rynoski) Reno, who later fronted Loverboy.

 

• Jean Leloup
• Michel Pagliaro
• Beau Dommage
• Robert Charlebois
• Plume Latraverse
• Harmonium
• Daniel Bélanger
• Daniel Boucher,
• Dumas
• Karkwa
• Les Cowboys Fringants
• Malajube
• Les Colocs
• Vincent vallières
• Les Trois Accords
• Fred Fortin
• etc...

 

It's not any bias, it's objectively obvious that Canada produces a disproportionate number of successful music in many genres. Most especially in the area of pop/chart music, which I don't even like, so I'm not boasting, it's just a fact. Bearing in mind of course that for Canada, 'proportionate' would mean 1/10th as many as the US, and something in the area of 1/5th as many as the UK, etc.

For myself, I wish I listened to a bit more Canadian music, because I only listen to maybe a bit more than our population would dictate. But what can I do, I just listen to what I like, wherever it comes from. Patriotism doesn't make me dig a tune any more than I otherwise would.

As far as Canadian music not having a distinctive national character, I don't really know what to say about that since really good music is something that should transcend things like that anyway. And besides, not having an easily defined character is kind of one of this country's main characteristics these days anyway, clichés aside. Either way, there's plenty of music going on up here by any measure.