Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Stu Jeffries Returns: Toronto Mike'd #430

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

Mike catches up with Boom 97.3 morning show host Stu Jeffries before he kicks out the jams....

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to episode 430 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, ATM Canada, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, and our newest sponsor, Buckle buckle b-u-k-l i'm mike from torontomike.com and joining me to kick out the jams is boom 97.3 morning show host stew jeffries the crowd's going wild welcome back stew thank you. Thank you. You know what? Since I was last here, you have gotten big time, my friend. Just by the list of sponsors alone. Tell me more. Tell me more.
Starting point is 00:01:10 People are clamoring to get on the Toronto Mike bandwagon. I love it. I love it. You know what? It all turned on episode 153. I'm just kind of stuck in neutral. Right. Then I have Stu Jeffries on for episode one.
Starting point is 00:01:24 I got to say, though, that episode, that's a long time ago now, 153. I'm just thinking back years ago. Right. One of my favorite episodes of all time. Well, thanks. It was great to be here. This is such a great, this is a blast. And I feel like I'm, I don't know, I feel like I'm on a cool talk show, you know, and I'm going worldwide.
Starting point is 00:01:45 I like it. Well, you are worldwide. I know. I feel good. Yes, absolutely. Now, what I liked about your episode 153, now, today we're going to catch up and kick out the jams. I can't wait to do that.
Starting point is 00:01:54 But in episode 153, that was like a real talk personified because you're a very honest man who wears his heart on his sleeve. Like, it's refreshing. Oh, thank you. I think you cried a few times in who wears his heart on his sleeve. Like, it's refreshing. Oh, thank you. I think you cried a few times in that episode. Yeah, yeah. That is not unusual. If that happens,
Starting point is 00:02:11 there was a time where I tried to stop it, and then I thought, no, you know what? I'm not going to anymore. If it's coming, it's coming. I can't stop it. No, and I'm going to try a few Barbara Walters tricks today
Starting point is 00:02:20 to get it to come, because, you know, people love it. I'm thinking that was the reason everyone loved 153, because it was so raw and honest. But I'm going to come because, you know, people love it. I'm thinking that was the reason everyone loved 153 because it was so raw and honest. But I'm going to read the... If people are now listening, because believe it or not, there are more listeners today than I had back then. So there's people who maybe haven't heard
Starting point is 00:02:36 episode 153. So I'm going to read the description I wrote at the time. In this 153rd episode, Mike chats with radio personality and television host Stu Jeffries about good rocking tonight, switchback, acting crazy, his work with Colleen Rusholm at Country 93.5, and Easy Rock and his very cool story of rebirth at Boom. Right. Are you still reborn? How are things going at
Starting point is 00:03:06 boom uh they are um you know this is like not all manner of wood but they they're going tremendously well i think um i didn't expect it to even go this well i want it to do well obviously but it has um exceeded my expectations but of course anybody that has done this in the past knows that this is very tenuous so you know i don't want to jinx it with anything, but let's just say I'm very happy. And there's some law of physics at play too. What goes up must come down. I don't know. I learned that at a very young age. And I don't know if that applies to radio, but the fact is you've been like up for a very long time. And, you know, we talked and we're not going to redo episode 153 because it's all there if anyone wants to go back and listen. But you kind of got, I don you know, we talked, and we're not going to redo episode 153 because it's all there
Starting point is 00:03:45 if anyone wants to go back and listen. But you kind of got, I don't know, I remember you were on with Colleen and then you were off. And then, you know, I know Humble Howard comes in a couple of times to take over. But at the end of the day, you're kind of like a one-man show doing mornings at Boom and the ratings start to take off. And you guys are, let's say, you're kicking ass. Thank you, yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:06 It's amazing. It is amazing, and especially with so many multi-person shows in the market and so many really good multi-person shows in the market, you think a single-person show that's music-intensive, what are the chances? And just when the opportunity was given to me, it was presented as, look, we don't want to have a typical morning show. We want, we see a lot of high energy, a lot of song requests and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:04:31 And I remember thinking, I don't hear it, but okay. And then it just kind of evolved into, it became mine in about two years where I start to feel, I've started to feel unbelievably, uh, comfortable in a, and not in a cocky way, just comfortable. And I can, I can feel this now. I kind of feel where it's going and being by myself, you rely on the people that call in to talk to you. You rely on the stories that you tell and you rely on hopefully your skill, uh, and what you've learned over the years to get you through. And as imagine I leave now, you're talking by yourself, Mike. It's sort of like, who am I talking to and what am I going to do about it? And how can I possibly relate to somebody I can't see?
Starting point is 00:05:11 And it, I don't know. It just, I don't know how it happened. I can't really describe it, but if I could put it in a bottle, I'd be a rich guy. I think it has a lot to do with you being empowered to be you. You really are you on the show. And later we're going to talk about a very specific example where you're kind of allowed to be yourself. And it just works.
Starting point is 00:05:31 It resonates with listeners. But before I proceed, I'm looking at you now. I haven't seen you in a few years. And you are a lucky man because you were able to rock the mullet back in the day. Yes. I was watching some good rocking tonight earlier. Yes. Yep. You killed that mullet back in the day i was watching some good rocking tonight earlier yep you you killed that mullet thank you it was amazing thank you i was proud of it but you're also rocking the bold and beautiful look like how can you be such a lucky
Starting point is 00:05:55 son of a bitch thank you you're very very kind thank you so much and i want to if i if i can and i'm not going to drop the hair thing but yes yes, I am. But I want to go where you said something about being me. And I, and I feel like if I, I don't want to forget to say this. I was also in a very fortunate situation to have people that supported me that let me do that. You know what I mean? It's one thing to say, I have an idea. I'd like to do this, but you've got a lot of hoops to jump through. And they may, they may say, nah, you know, it's not really a format. It's not really what we're looking for. I was really lucky in working with people that let me do me and let me be me. And it worked.
Starting point is 00:06:28 And that's good. And shortly, I'll share a story where you got a program director jumping on Reddit to kind of like... I'm telling you. I actually read that quote. We're going to talk about that later. But first, I want to give a shout out to somebody. So who was on? I think at some point, somebody came on and I promised my friend Murray I would say hi to Murray.
Starting point is 00:06:48 Murray was a big fan. Murray, by the way, is a big fan of Corey Hart, like to the extreme. Yep. I accidentally leaked to Murray one day that because I know for a fact that Corey listens to Toronto Mic'd. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:07:01 I don't know if Brian Adams listens to Toronto Mic'd. I highly doubt it. But I know Corey does. And this made Murray very happy, but I promise Murray, because Murray is a massive Stu Jeffries fan from forever. Murray, good on you.
Starting point is 00:07:13 Thank you. Murray's a good boy. He coaches at George Bell Hockey Arena. Oh, Murray. I've got a coach. Yeah, me too, buddy. I know what you're going through.
Starting point is 00:07:21 Yeah, Murray's a great guy. And so to Murray, and if I ever have plumbing problems, I call Murray. Murray's a plumber, and he comes in very handy. Good to know. Shout out to Murray. I promised him on the Stu Jeffries episode I would say hi to Murray. Murray's a good guy. So I brought up, I did bring
Starting point is 00:07:36 up Corey Hart and Brian Adams. Good excuse to play this. Okay. Because this jam is perfect on headphones because it's got the whole back yeah back and forth on it yeah yeah i like it i'm asking to ask you if you had any role to play in the um the corey hart brian adams feud like going back do you know about this feeling what role did you play in this yeah none i you know what i remember i remember talking about the night what did they call it the night the music home. That was the Juno Awards that were at the O'Keeffe Center, I think. And it was billed to be a battle between Adams and Tom Cochran, I think. So I got to go back even more.
Starting point is 00:08:22 fueled and I don't remember ever really getting on board with it. I remember he got asked a million times about what do you think about Bryan Adams and you could tell there were points where he was like, really? I gotta answer that. Bryan's talented. What do you want me to say? He's doing his thing and I'm doing my thing. And if you ask me, they're two totally different
Starting point is 00:08:38 artists. Like totally different. Very, very different. But they did come up around the same time. Early 80s, they're both coming up. They're both kind of like young and handsome and Canada's putting Canada both coming up. They're both kind of like young and handsome. Right, right. Canada's putting Canada on the map. They're both producing hits. Right, yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:51 So I can see why you'd want to produce like a rivalry. Yeah, yeah. But I don't know. I think they both handled it well. And if you were to ask Adams about it, Adams, who is, you know, he's not exactly forthcoming in interviews. If you were to ask him about it, though, he would give you that look of disdain and say, you've got to be kidding me.
Starting point is 00:09:09 Like, I don't think he ever saw it or even gave it a second thought. All right. So you're denying a role in this fabricated feud. Yeah, unless, of course, you found some clip. No, I didn't. By the way, you and Corey, there's lots of clips. Yeah, yeah. I love Corey.
Starting point is 00:09:23 I was going to say, are're still in touch with Corey. Yeah. There was a time where he would, we would phone each other on our birthdays. He was born on, I think, May 31st. And I was born on May 10th. And he would phone me on my birthday. I'd phone him on his.
Starting point is 00:09:35 Wow. That lasted a couple of years or so. And then we kind of sort of fell out of touch. And then, but Corey went to do his own thing. And recently got back in touch when he came to town for the gay pride parade and um and that was about two three years ago came into the studio and it was just so good to see him again and talk about when you said me i'm one lucky son of a bitch in terms of growing old and what's
Starting point is 00:09:56 happening cory is cory's still a stud man cory's just such a good looking guy and still wears his heart on his sleeve all the time too. I love him. No pun intended on the heart. No, no. Uh, okay.
Starting point is 00:10:09 I would say that, uh, you're absolutely right. Like, and, and Corey, I don't know how old he is now in his fifties, I guess.
Starting point is 00:10:14 Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah,
Starting point is 00:10:17 he's, uh, taking good care of himself and he's, he's suddenly back in the limelight, like with the, uh, the June award, he's going in the Canadian hall of fame.
Starting point is 00:10:25 Right. So I know he came to town and he's got a new new album and he's sort of like he kind of you know he went off to like paradise or whatever to raise his kids or whatever he's like and now i think he's decided to come back well i think i don't know if it was billed as a farewell concert but he did that huge uh show at the bell center um i think it was some five hours long or something of just digging into the catalog and performing live once again. And I wonder if that wouldn't, I don't know this for sure, but I wonder if that didn't give him the, a little bit of the bug thinking, man, I miss this.
Starting point is 00:10:54 This is so much fun. And maybe I will go back in the studio. I bet he's got, I bet Corey has buckets of songs that, you know, we'll never hear that he works on all the time. And I haven't heard the new album, but I can't wait to. I'm sure it's going to be great. He's been active with helping other artists like Patrick Waugh's son, which is kind of
Starting point is 00:11:12 funny. It's just crazy. Canadians were all linked in some really bizarre way to hockey. It'll always come back to hockey. And did Corey ever write a song about you? Because Steve Anthony came on this show and was very proud to proclaim that he is the boy in the box. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:11:27 I never heard that before. I don't know if Corey ever wrote a song for me. I want to know if Corey's written a song. He should. Probably It Ain't Enough. Maybe that was for me. Maybe it was. Maybe it was.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Well, I don't know. I don't know. I've played a Corey, but there's an equal opportunity rule. I need to play just a little bit of Brian. Oh, nice. I go back of Brian. I need to play just a little bit of Brian. Oh, nice. I go back with Brian.
Starting point is 00:11:47 I'm a early Brian guy. Me too. You want it. You got it to me is my favorite album ever. That's when it was sort of Brian was saying, and the original title for that was going to be jokingly. Brian said, Brian Adams hasn't heard of you either.
Starting point is 00:11:59 And I loved it. And that album is so full of attitude and raw rock. Like I love that album. Yeah. So Brian versus Corey, to be continued. Again, Brian would roll his eyes. No, there's nothing to that. I'm sure Corey would too.
Starting point is 00:12:20 How much do they let you talk on the, I know you play a lot of music on Boom, but what would be the longest amount of time do they let you talk on the, I know you play a lot of music on Boom, but what would be the longest amount of time they'd let you talk? There's no real set time given. It's sort of, you know how many songs an hour you want to get in, and if, perchance, you're not going to get that
Starting point is 00:12:35 number in, whatever you have to say had better be worth it, because nothing's more powerful than that, right? Right. But there's no real, it's never been, hey, listen, that break was 2 minutes and 15 seconds, and you know you've got to be finished at 1.45. Like, there's none real it's never been. Hey, listen, that break was two minutes and 15 seconds. And, you know, you've got to be finished at one forty five. Like there's none of that. It's there's a there's a lot of freedom allowed there. I'm guessing that's a little maybe rare nowadays to have that kind of.
Starting point is 00:12:55 I think so. But I you know, I think that. But you're Stu damn Jeffries. No, no, no. I just think that if you I'm getting to this point, Mike, where I'm listening I'm listening to shows and you can tell right away which ones are being worked on and which ones aren't, right? You can tell right away which ones are mailed in and which ones are, oh, well, what are we going to do next? Right. And I find as, just as a listener, I don't want that in my show. I don't ever want somebody to tune in and go, huh, you know what I mean? to tune in and go, huh? You know what I mean? And I, so if I'm given the time, I'm going to make the most of the time. That's it. And, and if, if it doesn't, and I have a standard that I want to meet and if it doesn't meet my standard, then I'm not doing it. So what do you think of this new trend that you got a, somebody in a broadcast booth talking very little, but actually like
Starting point is 00:13:38 going out to several markets, like this seems to be the new move. Yeah. I, you know, of course, as a, just as a broadcaster, you know, I don't like it, but I, you know, what companies run the way the companies are going to run. And if it's going to affect the bottom line somehow, I guess I, you know, I understand it. I, I sort of weep for, um, you know, the talent I weep for the people that are really good at what they do that may not get an opportunity to show what they do. I kind of get sad for local markets too that are going to be without maybe their favorites. But then on the other hand, I think got to work harder now. Got to work harder than ever before to prove that,
Starting point is 00:14:18 no, you can't get rid of me. You know, I'm important to where I broadcast and here's why I'm important. And the better you are, I think the better your chances are. Okay, since you were last here, you were working for NuCap. NuCap now is owned by Stingray. Stingray, right. So Stingray is like your new boss, I guess, at the very top.
Starting point is 00:14:38 And is anything, any changes since that? Have you noticed anything different? Not at all. No, no. It's why I mess with something that's working, right? Yeah, well also too, I kind of look forward to... I haven't really delved into everything that Stingray has.
Starting point is 00:14:51 Apparently, their karaoke game is strong. I'm serious. It's super strong. And I want to... I have yet to really sort of immerse myself into all of that. But to be honest with you, when the takeover took place, it was really just another day at the office.
Starting point is 00:15:06 I suspect that's because they looked at everything and said, don't mess with what's working here. I suppose. You've got T107 adding stuff to their playlist to kind of try to get back
Starting point is 00:15:18 some of those guys who left for boom. It's happening now. Yeah, and I mean, it will always be competitive. And this is the Toronto market, right? it will always be competitive and that's this is the toronto market right it will always be that and always be competitive i do like if if in fact it is true where they look at at boom say and say well no we're not going to touch this is working
Starting point is 00:15:32 that makes me feel good of course because you know that what you're doing is is on the right track so because i mean in alberta in rural alberta i should point out not the big cities but in rural alberta they've got i think they just moved to syndicate the morning show. Like 14 different, I think 14 different cities have the same morning show. Do you envision a future where this whole country gets to do Jeffries in the morning? Boy, what a fine day for radio that would be. No, I, you know i i say this with all the honesty in my heart and soul i hope it never comes to that syndication um is i mean i mean it's ask anybody that's syndicated they're having the time of their lives right now and i suppose it pays really well but there's a certain disconnect that happens when people know you're not in that market right and i i don't know that doesn't
Starting point is 00:16:23 appeal to me at all you need to talk talk about the icy drive into the office. Yeah, yeah. And your walk through St. Lawrence Market, whatever. But I mean, there's a certain amount of, hey, he's talking about where I went yesterday. Or hey, he's talking about something that I felt yesterday or whatever. And there's a certain, you know, people know,
Starting point is 00:16:42 listeners know when you're either there or you're not there. And I'd rather be there. And I think that's especially important for the morning drive show. Like, that's a key slot. You want it live and local. Yes, for sure. All right.
Starting point is 00:16:54 You mentioned, yeah, there's more sponsors. I don't know how many were here when you were last on, but the first sponsor on board to this show was Great Lakes Brewery. Right. I'm pleased to tell you they're still making sure every guest gets a six-pack of fresh craft beer. God bless you, Great Lakes Brewery.
Starting point is 00:17:11 Thank you so much. I love this. This is such a nice little gift to sit down to. That's why you're back, isn't it? That's right. It was the beer. Enjoy Great Lakes Brewery. They're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. 99.9% of all Great Lakes Brewery. They're a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario.
Starting point is 00:17:31 That's how you know it's super fresh. I mean, ridiculously fresh. So enjoy that. I know you love your Great Lakes beer. I will. Also, since you were last here, there's a new sponsor, Palma Pasta. They want you to have a large meat lasagna to take home. So enjoy that
Starting point is 00:17:46 from Palma Pasta. Bring it. Nice, Mike. Nice. No, listen, I make it worth your time. I know, it's great. You're a busy man.
Starting point is 00:17:52 If I want Stu Jeffries, I got to make sure. You got a beer and food. That's right. So what is this? February 7th. Okay, because Valentine's Day is coming up.
Starting point is 00:17:59 What Palma Pasta has, and it's pretty cool, is they have these heart-shaped ravioli. Nice. So go to Palma Pasta. Go to palmapasta.com to find out. They're in Mississauga and Oakville.
Starting point is 00:18:13 And pick yourself up some heart-shaped ravioli for Valentine's Day. It's tasty and it's romantic, right? Nothing says love like food. Best way to a person's heart is through the stomach. That's exactly correct. Exactly correct. Let's thank Buckle. I mentioned Buckle as the newest sponsor.
Starting point is 00:18:31 B-U-K-L dot C-O. If you need any work done on your automobile at all, if your car needs any servicing done, go to B-U-K-L dot C-O. Enter your car's make and model and year and what you need done. And you get instant quotes from shops in your area. You can book the appointment right away.
Starting point is 00:18:51 Then all you got to do, Stu, is you got to bring your car in to get it serviced. Then you just drive away. You're automatically charged because this is a seamless service. So check it out. Buckle dot C-O. B-U-K-L dot C-O. And I want to thank Paytm. They're going to give everybody listening $10 right now.
Starting point is 00:19:09 All you have to do is this. Paytm is an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. So go to paytm.ca, download the app, and when you make that first bill payment, use the promo code TRONOMIKE, that's all one word, and you get $10 in Paytm cash. I use it to pay all my bills and give it a shot. It's free, no surcharges, just super convenient. And they reward
Starting point is 00:19:31 you for doing something you have to do anyways. So do that. Now I'm going to, oh, remember the time. I keep forgetting. I have a wonderful little stinger for this? All right. This song's too long for Boom, right? Right, yeah. It might be just a little too long. Oh, and as a teaser, I'll let everyone know now.
Starting point is 00:19:53 We're going to kick out the jams, and I have nine of the ten loaded up in my soundboard. Oh, great. One jam I'm going to play outside the soundboard because it's too long
Starting point is 00:20:00 for my soundboard. If a song is longer than eight, that's a software limitation, but there's no other soundboard on the market I like as much as this. So it's not too often
Starting point is 00:20:11 I get a jam to kick out that's more than 10 minutes, but we're going to kick out a song you could never play on Boom, right? That's way too long. What's the longest you could do? What, the Elton John song?
Starting point is 00:20:19 Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. Spoiler alert. I don't think there's anything too long to play. I mean, we'll play Stairway to Heaven. We'll play... Well, Bohemian Rhapsody for sure.
Starting point is 00:20:30 That's six minutes or something? Six minutes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. As long as it's a hit, we're on it. Would you play Freebird, the live version? Freebird. I don't know. I bet Jeff has probably played that at night for sure.
Starting point is 00:20:42 The Freebird live version. I think that goes on for three days. That's a fun jam to kick out. It goes on for a long time. It's worth it though. All right. Now I want to tell you what was happening. I've been waiting for this one to come up. I'm just going to find in my notes. Don't screw this up. But I've been waiting. I do this thing where I go back 10, 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. What was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on this day? 40 years ago, what was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on this day? And I've been waiting for this guy to come up, and I thought it's perfect for you. Because on this day, 30 years ago, this was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100.
Starting point is 00:21:21 Wow. When I'm with you. Wow. 30 years ago? Crazy. 1989. So this had a dual life, right? This one had a dual life. So you know the story.
Starting point is 00:21:33 Good. You're probably better to tell it than me. But yeah. What do you know about this story? Because it came up in a recent episode of Toronto Mic'd with Mark Weisblot from 1236. Right. We talked about this. Because it's kind of
Starting point is 00:21:45 interesting that this could even happen back then. But tell what you know. I was working in Regina at the time in the 80s. So this is what, 81 I think maybe? Something like that. I don't think, is it that old at the time? I don't know. Maybe it's a little late. But I'll remember Sheriff came out with an album and the first single from the album was You Remind Me.
Starting point is 00:22:01 And it was a rocker and it was a really great track. And then this was released as a second single. And it got sort of moderate play and it's a nice ballad and everybody kind of liked it. And I remember it went into our Canadian recurrent category, so we played it. But then it disappeared off the face of the earth. And some years later, what I heard was somebody in Phoenix. I don't know if that's true or not. They're in a music library.
Starting point is 00:22:21 They see the song. They put it on the turntable. They go, hey, this is pretty good. And then they start playing it and then the ball starts rolling is that right yeah that essentially in 1989 that's the equivalent of going viral right like yeah it picks it up and everyone was like hey that's that's great but here it is yeah this is and the thing is when this song hit number one 30 years ago the band had broken was long broken up right that was Sheriff and from the ashes of Sheriff
Starting point is 00:22:45 you get a couple of bands though you get Alias right More Than Words was their big song More Than Words
Starting point is 00:22:52 yeah yeah and then Frozen Ghost Frozen Ghost absolutely so yeah I mean I don't know how you push
Starting point is 00:22:59 I mean it's funny because nowadays it's like you know you push a single or whatever but back then some DJ discovered an old song
Starting point is 00:23:04 and it became a hit again isn't that crazy yeah yeah and there was no incentive really you know, you push a single or whatever. But back then, some DJ discovered an old song and it became a hit again. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was no incentive really for the label to push the single because the band had broken up. Right, yeah, exactly. Now, and I heard to add to this, and I don't know if it's true or not, that Freddie Kirchhe was like driving a Purolator truck or something like that. Yeah, in Mississauga.
Starting point is 00:23:20 Yeah, okay, and he hears it on the radio and it's like, okay, we're back. I mean, that to me is the most, that's movie stuff. That is movie stuff. You see that as the end of the movie. Forget Bohemian Rhapsody. Yeah, yeah. We need to do the Sheriff movie. The Sheriff movie, exactly.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Absolutely, and I think, I don't know if it's him, but someone ended up playing with the Cranberries, like with Dolores O'Riordan with the Cranberries. Oh, no kidding. Because she married a guy who either owned the Perlator or worked at the Perlator place where, yeah, you're totally correct
Starting point is 00:23:51 in that there's a movie here. Yeah, I think it's a great, I see the end already of driving in the truck and hearing it and then everything starts over again. Like, I love that. It's like, wait a minute,
Starting point is 00:23:59 turn it up, turn it up. Yeah, exactly. That's me. That's us. That's right. We got to get the band back together. And they're like, nah, we don't want to get back together.
Starting point is 00:24:06 That's the only sad. If they could get back together at the end of the movie, we'd have to rewrite that. Yes. Yeah, we'd rewrite it. Remember the Time is brought to you by Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. They've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for over 30 years. You might remember the watch repair outlets in Sears. Well, those were Fast Time. Like I said, 30 years, but Sears disappeared,
Starting point is 00:24:27 and Fast Time realized we need to open our own outlets now. So they've opened a bunch of different locations. They have a new one in Richmond Hill. Go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com to find out where they are. And if you go in and you mention you heard about them on Toronto Mike's, you get the longest note. You hear this note? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:44 This one goes on forever. Isn't it the Guinness or no? I don't know. It should be. It's in the Canadian Guinness. Oh yeah, Great Lakes doesn't like it when we talk about Guinness. Oh, sorry. Guinness books. Sorry, Great Lakes. I close every episode with a song
Starting point is 00:25:00 by Lois of the Low, and in that song, there's a reference to drinking Guinness from a tin. And Great Lakes, they jokingly, can we get them to, because they're friends of the show, there's a reference to drinking Guinness from a tin. And Great Lakes, they jokingly, can we get them to, because they're friends of the show, can we get them
Starting point is 00:25:08 to re-record it? Drinking Great Lakes from a tin. I don't have the courage to ask for that one. Hey, Ron, can we do that? We'll see.
Starting point is 00:25:17 We'll see. I have a big announcement regarding Lois Lelow coming soon. So stay tuned for that. So I was going to say that if you want 15% off any regular price battery installation, just mention that you going to say that if you want 15% off any regular price
Starting point is 00:25:25 battery installation, just mention that you heard about them on Toronto Mike's 15% off. They don't do that for anybody, but they do it for me. I demanded it. So yeah, get your watch repaired, repairs and jewelry repairs done at fasttimewatchrepair.com. All right. I've been teasing this story before we kick out the jams. I could do a whole, you know, 90 minutes with you before the jams come in, but we were just teasing it. There's let me, oh heck, I've been teasing this story before we kick out the jams. I could do a whole 90 minutes with you before the jams come in. But I was teasing it. Oh, heck, I'm going to stop teasing it, and I'm going to play it. Ah, yes.
Starting point is 00:25:53 Sweet Caroline. Do you know this song, Stu? I am quite familiar with it, yes. Now, this is a story that could be a movie, perhaps. I don't know if it'll be as successful as our Sheriff movie, but it... Where it began. Wow. Okay, so what...
Starting point is 00:26:08 How did this begin? When did you start singing along to this song on the air at Boom? I can't recall. I think... It feels like
Starting point is 00:26:17 not that long ago, but it might have been as long as a couple of years ago, and it was... I can't even remember the reason. I just remember
Starting point is 00:26:24 watching Fenway Park during the seventh inning stretch when they did that. And I remember thinking, that is so fun. That is so cool. And then I thought, yeah, why not? So when the song came on, I thought just for fun and I opened up the mic. So he's still singing and this is taboo in radio land.
Starting point is 00:26:40 You do not do this. While the artist is singing, you don't talk. But I said, who's into a sing-along here? You know how this goes. I'll do Sweet Caroline, you do ba-ba-ba, we'll have a laugh. And then I got off mic, and I went way to the back of the room and started screaming to this song. So I'm way back going, ba-ba-ba.
Starting point is 00:26:57 And then I got, after the song was over, the phones, like, I mean, exploded. I'd never seen anything like it. And what was funny was for every three people that said, that was so much fun, you made my day, there was one person that went, shut up. Of course. And I love that because it was so, it's really,
Starting point is 00:27:17 whenever it's played now, it's 80-20. So 80% of the people are just digging it and having a laugh. They're now sending in videos to the station of them singing along in their car, so it's great. And then there's the 20% that say, you need to shut up. I'm not surprised by that ratio because there's going to be some people, they just have a hard and fast rule against it. Like somehow this is sacrilegious. And I get it. And you know, for this, we've discussed this at the station at length.
Starting point is 00:27:39 And believe me, I drop this tomorrow. It's not a big deal for me. It's fun, right? I love it and it's fun, but I'm not super passionate about, I am going to stand behind Sweet Caroline and I'm going to do this. If you want to fire me,
Starting point is 00:27:50 well, then I'm going to go down fighting. It's like, no, if you want me to stop, I'll stop. But hearing the joy that it brings people in something this simple is what, to me, radio is all about, is that it actually touches you. This reaches out and grabs you and makes you happy. So that's what we're supposed to do.
Starting point is 00:28:08 We reach out and grab you. And if that's what it takes, then fine, I'll do it forever. But again, if they keep going, Stu, you got to stop, I will stop. I think if you're going to do this, this is the song to do it to. This is the song people sing. Sure.
Starting point is 00:28:21 And as many have said too, Mike, this song is a thousand years old. You have a copy of it somewhere. If you want to listen to it without the guy screaming in the background, you can do it anytime you like. And again, you're not on the mic. No. Yes. And Neil Diamond himself said
Starting point is 00:28:38 about this song, he said, this song became yours as in the audiences a million years ago. And I am happy to give it to you. You do with this song became yours as in the audiences a million years ago, and I am happy to give it to you. You do with this song whatever you want, and if it makes you feel good doing that, then by all means do it, please. And that's probably, I would guess you probably
Starting point is 00:28:53 were doing that except you were muted. I could see that the song plays, you might be doing that with the mic muted. For sure. And then one day you just sort of said, what if I unmute myself? And the result, and again, great word, fascinating, because it's amazing how something so simple
Starting point is 00:29:10 and really so silly resonates so much with people. I love that. Maybe this is the B story in our alias sheriff Frozen Ghost story. That's right. The Sweet Caroline story. It could be the Stu Jeffries opening up the mic for Sweet Caroline.
Starting point is 00:29:24 Okay, how often will you play it? Okay, I would think, and I'm just the guy who listens to radio, never worked in radio, but I would think that you've got their attention with this. Yeah, some people hate it, but they have passion one way or the other.
Starting point is 00:29:36 And the majority of people probably love it because, again, this is Stu being Stu. It's real. And it's not like you're doing it to every song you're playing. No, exactly. And the request for it daily. I today even as i left there's always at least there's at least a dozen tweets and a dozen texts every day saying are you going to do it today and it
Starting point is 00:29:53 doesn't happen all the time uh and it happens in it no you gotta do it every day now this is your signature move but no you know what that would i think would kill it what i love is that it just it appears and i love that so it could be there could be a seven day stretch where it doesn't happen and then it could happen every second day for a bit and then disappear again. But it's always in a different hour and a different time. How long are you on the air? When do you start your shift? 5.30 to 9.
Starting point is 00:30:16 No, sorry, wait. What am I? 5 to 9.30. Sorry, that's it. 5 to 9.30. Right. Okay. So what is that? How many hours does that do? Is that four and a half hours? Four and a half, yeah. That's a lot, right? Yeah. But it's like, I think it's about average. So you play it once a day. It's going to be in a different spot every day. It becomes sort of like an Easter egg.
Starting point is 00:30:31 Right, for sure. But then it's also kind of, you know, it loses a little bit of its power, I think, if you're bludgeoning people with it, right? So I mentioned your PD. Would you like to shout out your program director? Troy McCallum, sure. Yeah, so Troy, somebody on Reddit took video of their radio for the audio.
Starting point is 00:30:50 Yeah, yeah. And I couldn't pull it off of Reddit because it wasn't on YouTube. Anyway, I didn't get the audio. But it's you singing along to Sweet Caroline, so we can imagine. And they basically are like, this is horrible. Or something negative. Yes. And your program, I'm going to read a bit of what Troy wrote on Reddit.
Starting point is 00:31:05 He introduces himself and he goes, when Stu first started doing this, I was all, WTF is he doing? The old school radio guy in me scratched his head and thought, that's bad radio. Then I realized
Starting point is 00:31:22 it for what it was. A morning radio guy having fun breaking the rules, being different, difference in all caps and relating to the thousands of people that do the same thing when they hear the song. By the way, have you ever been to a Neil Diamond concert?
Starting point is 00:31:37 Then the audience chimed in and they loved it. Well 97.3% of them did. I see what you did there. So it is what it is. If you don't like it, don't listen. If you do, sing along.
Starting point is 00:31:50 Also, it's not like you can't find this 50-year-old song on its own somewhere and listen to it however you like. Kudos to Stu. So that's nice that he likes what you did. And at first, he probably had that reflex action. You're right. The old school Rio guy is like, that's a cardinal sin. That's heartbreaking. And everybody said, I mean, Troy was one of them that said, you know, maybe it's not something
Starting point is 00:32:09 that we do all the time. And I was perfectly fine with that as well. And, but first of all, Troy is a great example. Again, Michael, what I was saying at the top, and this is not blowing smoke up anybody's rear. This is just, that's a classic example of them letting me be me. And, and we had a discussion with it. So Troy would say,
Starting point is 00:32:25 um, you know, maybe not every, so don't do it all the time. And then when I didn't do it, it became when it was on my show and it wasn't done. Then it was what's the matter with Stu? Why aren't we hearing the song?
Starting point is 00:32:35 Like the, the response. And again, for something so simple and so silly and yet so fun, it really, really resonates to the point where people don't get it. They get kind of upset. And I think that that, that to me is like, talk about a turnaround. It puts a smile on, it really, really resonates to the point where people don't get it. They get kind of upset. And I think that that, to me, is like, talk about a turnaround.
Starting point is 00:32:48 It puts a smile on, you know, it's the morning, right? Yes. The city's chaotic. Yes. It's morning. And you're stuck in traffic. And all of a sudden, some goofball is doing this. I mean, why not?
Starting point is 00:32:58 Sing along. Beautiful. Very good. Now, Basement Dweller wants me to say that he really appreciated it last fall when you made an on-air plea for the ending of gun violence in Toronto. Right. He said it was definitely one of the most honest, bravest, and heartfelt messages ever delivered
Starting point is 00:33:13 as part of a morning radio show. That's kind. Thanks, he says. That's very kind, yeah. Thank you. Matthew Carrick writes in to say that you will always be the guy from Acting Crazy for him. We talked about Acting Crazy
Starting point is 00:33:27 in your first appearance. But to me, I have to say, I know, in fact, I don't even remember Terry David Mulligan on Good Rockin' tonight. I think I missed that. He was there for a couple years, right?
Starting point is 00:33:37 Yeah. I remember when Terry started, 83, I think, or something. A year and a half, I think he was there. And then you took over Good Rockin' tonight and you were the host
Starting point is 00:33:44 until they ended it, what, early 90s? Early 90s, yeah. It was, I think he was there. And then you took over Good Rockin' Tonight and you were the host until they ended it, what? Early 90s? Early 90s, yeah. It was, I think, one of the last shows on CBC, and I'm not sure what it's been like since then, but one of the last variety shows on CBC the last 10 seasons. That's actually 10 seasons of anything right now is unheard of, so that was pretty cool.
Starting point is 00:34:00 Yeah, absolutely, and that's where I was introduced to Stu. Yeah, I love that show, Good Rockin' tonight. VHSing it. I wanted to watch it later. I could keep up. And people in remote areas in this country will always say, that was my lifeline to Canadian music and to the state of music and state of videos at the time. And that to me,
Starting point is 00:34:32 and they tell me that now, and I'm like, wow. I wouldn't even have given that a second thought then, but now it just, it feels great. Earlier I alluded to Mark Weisblatt from 1236, and I told him you were coming on, and he wanted me,
Starting point is 00:34:44 so this is not Good Rockin' tonight. This is another show. I'll play it, and hopefully you'll recognize it, and we can talk. Sure. What is that? I'll forgive you if you don't know,
Starting point is 00:35:12 because I would say it would be your competition, I would say. Okay. Let's just hear the voice. I need to talk to him. Tonight on Friday Night Videos. Brand new videos from Billy Joel. Right. Cheap Joel. Right. And Cheap Trick.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Right. Def Leppard. John Cougar. Madness. A video vote between Robert Plant and ZZ Top. With a free Friday Night Videos t-shirt given away every 15 seconds during the voting. Classic videos from Tom Petty and Santana. A private reel on Loverboy,
Starting point is 00:35:45 plus Elvis Costello, Peter Schilling, Peter Gabriel, Olivia Newton-John, and The Pretenders. There's a snapshot into the 80s, eh? If you had to design something for Stranger Things or something, the sound 80s, there you go right there. That is perfect. And I remember I loved that show when it first came on. And I have a vivid memory of racing home from wherever I was so I could see Michael Jackson's thriller.
Starting point is 00:36:11 I watched it on Friday Night Videos. That might be the last thing I can remember being an event television. You got to get there to see this stuff because they were always featuring something new. And that was an NBC show. And that voice we heard at the end, that's a guy named Nick Michaels. Oh, okay. And he just recently passed away. Oh, did he?
Starting point is 00:36:28 Oh, sorry to hear that. Just to bum us out a little bit. But yeah, so thanks Mark Wiseblood for tipping me off to, not good rocking tonight, but that was like NBC's statement at the whole thing. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:38 For sure. And Linda, she wants me to ask you what, it's kind of a big question, but you don't, you know, but it's what drew you to radio and what keeps you in radio? That's a great question's kind of a big question, but you don't, you know, but it's what drew you to radio and what keeps you in radio? That's a great question. It's a big one. What drew me was, and I've spoken to this before, I was a, when I was a kid, I have this vivid memory of, and I've described it before too, of my mother in the kitchen preparing us breakfast,
Starting point is 00:37:03 single mom, we were four kids. So we're at the breakfast table and on the bread box, which would be to my left, I can still see it now when I eat at the table, a very small black transistor radio sat on the bread box. And she listened, this is Winnipeg, and she listened to CJOB, which is now a talk station. At that time, I think it was still talk, but they also did music in the morning. Pardon me. And I remember being fascinated at the voice coming out of the box and that that voice was part of our morning routine i couldn't articulate it then but i remember being fascinated by wow here's a dude we're just letting into our place and i don't know him uh and also i remember thinking i don't maybe you thought this too or maybe i'm the only
Starting point is 00:37:39 one uh that they had bands in the studio and after one song was played they'd usher the band out and then another one would come in like i think how did, how did they do? I think that's just you, Stu. I don't remember having that. But I remember being so fascinated by the medium. And I thought, and then I got, I used to get sick a lot when I was a kid. I get bronchitis and I had, I would be away from school for weeks at a time. And I would not leave my bed that I shared with my older brother, a bedroom that I shared with my older brother. I wouldn't leave my bed. His was across the way and he had a radio. I would go over to his bed, sit on it, turn the radio on and listen all day.
Starting point is 00:38:11 And I'd make my own charts and I'd have my own favorite DJs. And I loved it. And I always thought though that that was for special people, that you could not get a job doing. There's no way. And when I found out that you could get a job doing it, then I was all over it. And that's, so what drew me to it was the magic of it. And in a pre-internet universe, because nowadays, I got a two-year-old, okay?
Starting point is 00:38:33 The two-year-old will pop, go to YouTube Kids on a tablet and watch like her show there. Yeah, yeah. Like in a pre-internet universe, which you and I can remember fondly. Yeah. Radio was magic. Radio was magic.
Starting point is 00:38:45 And it's so hard to describe the feeling that how this thing in front of you becomes a best friend, right? Like, it's weird. But if you spend a lot of time with it, those DJs, you know them. You don't know them, but you know them. And the songs, you know all the songs. And sometimes when you're not feeling your best, you get a song and you think the DJ knew that I wasn't doing well.
Starting point is 00:39:08 Or the DJ knew that I loved this song and that's why it's on. And so I wanted to be that DJ. And then to be able to do that and bring that magic to somebody else. And now more than ever, and again, because I'm allowed to do, to be me, I feel like the opportunity to connect is wasted if all that comes out is blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? I always feel that if over an intro of a song that all I've given you is the weather that I failed, like I want to connect, right?
Starting point is 00:39:35 It sounds like you want to share your personality. Yeah. Just be, or just be, thank you for letting me be a part of this. Now let me, let me contribute. Like, let me earn my keep. Let me give you something that you can use or that you can relate to, make you happy, sad, whatever, but allow me because you've allowed me and let me help out. I'm of the opinion that there are others in this market with the same passion for radio and the
Starting point is 00:39:59 same ideas you have there that you've expressed there. But I'm of the opinion that in a lot of, at a lot of radio stations and a lot of radio shows, they're simply not allowed to show their personality. I guess. Yeah. You know what I, and I, yeah, it's so easy for me to, it's so easy for me to say this, I'm allowed to be me. And I realize how unbelievably lucky I am. how unbelievably lucky I am. But I think on the other side of that is that I can give, or I feel like I'm giving something.
Starting point is 00:40:30 You know what I mean? Like, thank you for trusting me. I won't let you down. Here's what I want to do. And you hear this all the time that people say, look, my boss just wants me to read liners over stuff.
Starting point is 00:40:40 But you know what? Then as, who is a Snoop Dogg, dog said if you're going to be a fry cook then be the best fry cook there is right right so if i say to you mike sorry man all you're doing is liners then damn it be the best liner reader there is like be the most creative take every opportunity you can to show and listen let's go back to that reddit uh thing one of the responses was from a pd at the bottom which i'll never forget saying, if that was one of my announcers, I'd show him the door. And I remember thinking, okay, fair enough. But what have you done? You've taken away something silly and you fired somebody for being just a little bit fun and creative, which you want all your announcers to be in the first
Starting point is 00:41:19 place. Cause that's what you tell us every single goddamn meeting we're in. And yet you don't give us the opportunity. I think it's the onus is on us, the announcer to show every single goddamn meeting we're in. And yet, you don't give us the opportunity. I think the onus is on us, the announcer, to show that, hey, we're worth taking a chance on. Because what we have to say is important. Give me a chance to do it, and I'll prove it. Propertyinthe6.com Well said, Stu. You know, what part of the GTA?
Starting point is 00:41:46 I'm at Bayview Amore. I'm a Leasite. Leasite Deer Park, something like that. Well, here in the West End, everyone's excited because the Galleria Mall. You know the Galleria Mall? The Galleria, yeah. At Dufferin and DuPont.
Starting point is 00:41:57 Yeah. Well, they're going to total that thing and build this like condos, I guess. A new development is coming soon and we're like a week away like i'm all into the gallery mall because i worked there for five years as a teenager i worked at the grocery store there and i'll you know it was a food city then it was a price chopper today it's a fresh coat but uh psr brokerage that's where brian gerstein from property in the six uh property in the six.com works they have the exclusive rights to sell
Starting point is 00:42:26 this new development so I'm told and I'm going to be first to get this info he's going to text it to me in the meeting in which it's revealed I'm going to get details about this gallery mall redevelopment in one week and I'm going to share it here and I'm like I'm not even in the market for a condo like I can't go to a condo but I'm excited
Starting point is 00:42:42 I'm excited so what do you know? So if you want Brian to let you know the details right after he lets me know the details, you can call or text Brian at 416-873-0292. Or you can contact him through propertyinthesix.com. Again, Brian Gerstein is a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. Oh, and if my listeners want to all chip in with the Patreon so I could buy, just for fun, maybe I'll build a studio there. That's an idea I just had. Make sure you buy it through Brian. That's all I ask. So, are you ready, Stu Jeffries?
Starting point is 00:43:20 Yes. To kick out the jam? I am ready. Kick them. Ah, best song ever. I feel like talking over this is a sin. It's not sweet, Caroline, is what you're telling me. No, no, exactly. I have loved this song since the very first time I heard it in 79,
Starting point is 00:43:53 and I will never, God, I'll never forget it. Changed my, kind of changed the way I listen to mainstream music, and I am firmly implanted in mainstream music. And I'm not embarrassed by that at all. I love it. I think writing a good pop song takes a talent. Anybody who says, who wrote that piece of crap? And you're like, hey, go ahead, sit back and write one, pal.
Starting point is 00:44:14 You go ahead. You go try and write one. But this one changed, I think, Top 40 radio at the time. It was so different, and it was longer than any other song. And the guitar from Mark Knopfler is exceptional and at the end, if you don't crank it and do air guitar to it,
Starting point is 00:44:32 you're missing out on a life experience. I wish I had video cameras in here. Note to self, get a GoPro in here. Oh, so good. And when I gave you my songs that I love, they're in no particular order, but boy, this one really flirts with the top. It sounds like I should have played this last.
Starting point is 00:44:49 No, no. Because I actually... Really cool. Okay. Maybe during one of the songs, I'll mute us and I'll ask you which one you want me to close with. Because I'm playing them in the order you sent them. Please. You know what?
Starting point is 00:45:00 That's fine. Whatever. Because they were in no particular order to begin with. So that's good. Now, I'm of an age. I think I'm a little younger than you, and what was huge when I was growing up was Brothers in Arms. Right. I mean, it was everywhere because they had all the much music play.
Starting point is 00:45:14 Right. It was everywhere. And I championed this band from, as early as I can remember, my first job was in Yorkton, and they would play, this was in Recurrent by that time and I would play it almost every night and get hell for it but I'd tell everybody, you have to listen to this album it's amazing, and then they followed that up
Starting point is 00:45:34 with Communique, which had Lady Rider on it that was released as a single, but that was it sounded so much like this that people thought that they were just sort of a one hit wonder or, you know, they had a formula but god, both those albums were amazing. And then Making Movies came out and I thought,
Starting point is 00:45:47 if you people aren't listening to Dire Straits now, you're missing everything. That had Romeo and Juliet and Tunnel of Love and Skate Away and then Love Over Gold and then it was
Starting point is 00:45:55 one after another. And by the time Brothers in Arms came around, I'm like, yeah, where have you been? I've experienced this where you're big on a band from the get-go,
Starting point is 00:46:04 but they're kind of like your hidden secret. Even though this song got a lot of radio play, don't get me wrong. But when they do have that one album that sort of blows up and is massive, you're sort of, not that you resent that now everyone's discovered them, but you're kind of like you have to share them now. You're exactly right. And I felt that way too. When people say, yeah, I love Walk of Life and Money for Nothing,
Starting point is 00:46:23 and you're like, okay, you don't know anything but yes you don't want to share but then you kind of do and you're glad that they're around what i hope that when people heard brothers in arms i really hope they went to the back catalog after that because it's just and you know what having said that i hate people like me that talk like that it's like yeah listen i like what i like i don't have to go back and dig into old stuff old man but i don't know there's something about what these guys do. The early stuff is just amazing. And Mark, still playing now.
Starting point is 00:46:50 And there's a show I saw a little while ago called Five Guitars or Seven Guitars. And it was a bass player show. And he was talking about the guitars that Mark used and the effect they had on his life. And every time he picks one up and starts picking, you're like, oh, my God, you're amazing. And have you had the pleasure of meeting him? Yes. Interviewed him once, Good Rockin', and it was during the Brothers in Arms tour, or
Starting point is 00:47:12 on every street tour, I can't remember. And he was amazing. And I remember asking him about the pros and cons of success. And he said, well, there are no cons. It's all pro. He said, I recommend success to everybody. And he said, it just aff're all no cons. It's all pro. He said, I recommend success to everybody. And he said, it just affords you to be able to do what you want to do.
Starting point is 00:47:30 And I remember he spoke with such honesty and such coolness. And for a guy, like when you're thinking cool, you don't think Mark Knopfler, right? I mean, you know, Mark, he's a great guitar player. But in terms of cool, you're thinking Springsteen up there. You're not thinking Knopfler. And he looks like somebody's there. You're not thinking Knopfler. He looks like somebody's dad, your neighbor. But the way he talks is just he may be one of the coolest guys I've ever
Starting point is 00:47:50 met in music. On that album, Brothers in Arms, there's a song, Brothers in Arms, which was really used effectively in one of my favorite West Wing episodes. Ah, yes. There was a great West Wing episode and that song comes on. But that's a great jam, too.
Starting point is 00:48:05 But yeah, this is a talented band. And now, now he closes it out with guitar that is, what not only wasn't done then on Top 40 Radio, I don't think has been equal. Like, check this out. Come on.
Starting point is 00:48:57 Come on. Isn't that awesome? That still gives me chills. I love that. Does it bring you back to 79? Yeah, it sure does. Yeah, even the first time I heard it, God, I'll never forget.
Starting point is 00:49:06 I go, what is this? And just cranked it. It was so good. Let's kick out another one. Let's crank out another one. Venus and Mars and Rock Show, McCartney. I don't know if you've seen it or not, the Wings Over America tour.
Starting point is 00:49:26 There's a DVD out, and it was just recently re-released and re-mixed and all of that stuff. And he opens with this song and then cranks it into rock show after that. And it's, to me, I don't know, it's Paul being Paul and classic Paul,
Starting point is 00:49:42 pop, rock, and fun. And I don't know something about him and his band I think Wings got dissed so much back then and they shouldn't have because it was a good band Green lights, green lights Strawberry wine A good friend of mine
Starting point is 00:49:58 Follows the stars Venus and Mars Are alright Tonight Listen to him go up and down that bass. Man. You remember the show Pop-Up Video, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You should do an episode. You should do one morning on Boom.
Starting point is 00:51:04 Do pop-up audio. Do the little bubble sounds? Yeah, you just pop up with fun facts and listen to this. Or when he turns, it's like, now I need to hear. Right, but let me tell you something. This goes right back to Sweet Caroline. Can you imagine? I mean, if I started talking over a song right now, I'd be crucified.
Starting point is 00:51:21 Okay, then once a week you come here and we do it here. Yes, exactly. That's right. But yeah, sprinkle all the fun facts or any observations you throw at. I would love to. I love hearing your voiceover in the song. Oh, yeah, thanks. And I could, from start to finish, talk about this.
Starting point is 00:51:35 And this is McCartney having fun. Like, this is just silly Paul McCartney in a classic rock environment. Like, I don't know. Nobody does it better than Paul. And you mentioned the, you know, the band is probably underappreciated. There's only one reason for that. They were following up the Beatles.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Following up the Beatles. And I think, you know, Paul was actually, quite a few years ago now, he talked about it. I think it was during when he re-released At the Speed of Sound. It was remixed. They're a band on the run. And he said, I'm listening to our songs
Starting point is 00:52:05 and we had a pretty good band back then. So even Paul, I think, didn't really believe that they were all that great. I mean, talk about a hit machine. Like this guy. If you sat down with this guy right now
Starting point is 00:52:17 and he said, what's going on in your life? And you said, my shirt's wrinkled. He will have a song. And my shirt is wrinkled. Yeah, so he'll have a song in an hour and a half, right?
Starting point is 00:52:25 And it, just what a talent. a song. Am I sure it is Wrinkled? Yeah, so he'll have a song in an hour and a half, right? And just what a talent. Great song. He's going to make it one day. I have high hopes. Yeah, right. Not a flash in the pan, that guy. Now on this, this is the single one that was released to radio. On the actual Venus and Mars album,
Starting point is 00:52:48 it breaks down into a piano sort of riff at the end, and he does a little talking in the background. It's got a cool little jam on it, too. Love it. Oh, I should have got that. No, no, it's okay, man. Let you down, man. I'm leaving now.
Starting point is 00:52:59 Thanks. Okay, from Paul McCartney to another young upstart, obscure musician. Let's check out your next jam. Oh, Bowie, yeah. To me, forever and ever, my all-time favorite Bowie song, and there's no question.
Starting point is 00:53:16 I would put this, Diamond Dogs. You know, after that, I guess it's a toss-up, maybe Suffragette City. But this song, I know all the words to, front to back, play air sax too, and Bowie is just never better. We pulled in just behind the fridge He lays her down, he frowns
Starting point is 00:53:39 Tell you my life's a funny thing Am I still too young? He kissed the girl in the bed This song makes me miss him a lot, right? I hear this and I go, man, miss you so much. So talented and so many different sounds and always constantly evolving. Evolving and changing. I'm sure he was the first guy to go, you know what? Today I'm going to be Ziggy Stardust.
Starting point is 00:54:26 Do you know what I mean? I'm going to assume the role of this other dude and I'm going to write songs as if this other dude was writing them. And also so innovative and unbelievably confident. You watch any performance of his and he is just so in the moment and so it's like there's nobody else present i know what i'm doing i am i am in
Starting point is 00:54:47 control and watch and listen always master i forgot to ask you if mccartney but i meant to ask you if you ever met paul mccartney oh i did actually anybody that follows me on um on any social media knows that i posted a picture of me and paul several times uh It was on the My Brave Face tour. I got to interview him in Montreal. And he was as delightful as you could imagine. And I remember going over questions to ask him. And my producer said, well, obviously, we've got to talk about the Beatles. And I remember going, yeah,
Starting point is 00:55:17 but he's had to do that all his life. Like, I don't want to be the, you know, like, I don't want to be that guy. And so I asked him this one question right at the beginning. I can't even remember what it was but he not only answered the question he took me through his entire musical history including the beatles in the answer and it was like yeah i know what i'm it was like of course you know what you're doing you're paul mccartney but it was just an incredible answer that summed up everything he's so good at it those are the
Starting point is 00:55:40 best subjects uh you just yeah beautiful yeah it's beautiful I hear nothing but great things about McCartney. But now I need to ask you about this guy, David Bowie. Have you ever met him? Yeah, I met him and talked to him when he was with Tin Machine. And it was Soupy Sales' son. Was he also in the band, I think? Soupy Sales. Yeah, Soupy Sales' son.
Starting point is 00:55:59 I know that reference because I used to listen to a lot of Howard Stern, and he would talk about listening to Soupy Sales. Soupy Sales, yeah, yeah. And I think it was his I can't remember. It must have been his son, grandson. I don't know. And unfortunately, it wasn't a great interview. They were both very... It was their last stop
Starting point is 00:56:14 on the tour in Vancouver and they were both I don't know what the word is. Out of gas? Yeah, out of gas and giddy and very inside jokey. They were laughing amongst each other. Every question that got asked, they would snicker. And it wasn't, you know, it was like, oh, man. And it was disappointing because that was another,
Starting point is 00:56:30 there was another great example of don't meet your heroes, you know, because sometimes you may get disappointed. And although I would never go as far as to say Bowie was, you know, bad, it was just they clearly were not into it. And I'm disappointed because I wish they were so that I could tell him how much I freaking love him. Listen, as a guy who's, what, you're episode 430, so I've interviewed a few people now, and I can tell you the best interview would be
Starting point is 00:56:53 a McCartney who gets it and knows how to play along and just go. And then the most difficult interviews are when people, like in that instance of Bowie, where they're not into it, they don't really want to be there at thatie, where they just, they're not into it, they don't want to, they don't really want to be there at that time. And they kind of have to be there, and it's like, oh.
Starting point is 00:57:10 And then it's, well, here's the thing, if I didn't want to be here, or wasn't feeling well, or couldn't do it, I would say, I'm not coming, let's make it another time, right? And it's sort of like, if you are committed then, then you've got to put your best foot forward. I don't care. You can't tell me your record company's making you do it, right? You've got to do it.
Starting point is 00:57:31 This really is a particularly, I would say, accessible to Bowie track. Yeah, yeah. Extremely easy to like. Easy to like, you know, five and a half minutes long,
Starting point is 00:57:40 540, something like that. I mean, you know, again, not super radio friendly, but you'll hear it on any classic rock station with their song. It's such a great song. Now, Stu, I know you've been talking for many, many hours already today, but you're going to do a lot more talking. I'm going to leave my soundboard.
Starting point is 00:58:09 We're going to play the long jam. And I think I was checking it out. We had a good six and a half minutes before the lyrics kick in. So here, let me switch over. This is exciting. You can't do this on radio. This is the inside baseball stuff that podcasting can do. Nice.
Starting point is 00:58:25 But here, let me get her started over here. All right, so this track is from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and it is from Side One, first cut on Side One from Elton John. And it's called Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding. and it's called Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding. Funeral for a Friend is actually
Starting point is 00:58:50 an unbelievably unusual way to start out an album as epic as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is, I think, anyway. My sister bought this. My sister's no longer with us and whenever I hear this,
Starting point is 00:58:59 anything from this album but particularly this track, I think of her. Do you remember the old Lloyd's stereo systems? You know, they used to call them Floyd's? Yes, yes. You know, I think of her. Do you remember the old Lloyd stereo systems? You know, they used to call them Floyds. Yes, yes. You know, where you'd have everything built into one, dust cover, turntable,
Starting point is 00:59:10 and then you'd have the two switches, the treble and bass. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was hers. She bought it with money she saved up from her job. And it was the first record player we had in the house. And we would all use it, much to her dismay. But she would always have a new album to play. And she put this
Starting point is 00:59:25 on and just cranked the volume and i remember sitting in a chair at a comic book in my hand it was a superman comic book and i remember i was kind of reading being annoyed that the music was too loud and then i saw her sitting in the chair saw the turntable spin around with the needle on and i looked back up at her and she was in ecstasy she had she was ready to dig on this album because she loved elton john so much and so she was gone and i remember what that music is taking her away so i remember closing the comic book and again i couldn't articulate this at the time i could only remember looking back and then just listening to this whole thing and when it launches into love lies bleeding Bleeding, it's like Elton saying,
Starting point is 01:00:07 I'm going to mess with you for a little bit. I got something I want to say. And he said it through this piece. And then he said, and now let the album begin. And when Love Lies Bleeding comes in and it rocks in, it's just like, whoa. And you wonder how did it come from this piece? But just listen to this sort of mood of this and try and imagine somebody getting lost in anticipation of what they're about to hear. That was my sister and listening to this album. Now he sets you up I never really found out who the funeral was for And this is really weird
Starting point is 01:01:17 I don't want to know, you know I have an image of this playing at my sister's funeral You know what I mean? Like it just, it's for, I think it's for anybody that you really love that's passed. And then again, the way he, it's like I want to say this through the music and then I'm going to rock you out.
Starting point is 01:01:38 It's just, it's classic Elton John and I want to believe that it was intentional. I want to believe that this was the whole plan coming in. But check this out as he starts with a very low keyboard and bass here, low piano and bass. Check this out. Thank you. And I don't know if this is part of the song, but it sounds to me it started very moody and melancholy, and now this is a celebration of life part of it, right? And he wraps it up by slowing it down and then rocking it out. You know those old New Orleans grieving parades they would have in the street when they start slow
Starting point is 01:03:02 and then kind of pick it up, you know what I mean? Of course. Yeah, this reminds me of that sort of thing. And here we go. We'll be right back. Yeah, it just says to me, okay, good. I'm finished mourning, now let's rock. This is Love Lies Bleeding. So good. The roses in the window box
Starting point is 01:04:21 are tilled to one side Everything about this house window box until you do one side Everything about this house was born to grow and die Oh it doesn't seem a year ago
Starting point is 01:04:34 to this very day You said I'm sorry honey if I don't change the pace I can't face another day. And love lies bleeding in my hand.
Starting point is 01:04:52 Oh, it kills me to think I'm with you with another man. I was playing rock and roll, you were just a fan. When my guitar human heart just sort of split the band. Isn't that great? Firstly, I'm very sorry about the loss of your sister. Oh, thank you. That was a couple of years ago now, but thank you. Same. And yeah, I could see getting lost in that too.
Starting point is 01:05:28 You put on the headphones and you're gone. And you're gone. And it became my mission when she got this album and she despised the fact that I would play her record. She hated it. But when she was gone or in bed or whatever, I'd be up late, I had the headphones on, and I made it my mission to learn the words
Starting point is 01:05:44 to every song on this album. And whenever I hear this song, I still get the chills, and I also kind of get the feeling that she's kind of checking up on me, and I love that. It's kind of like her way of saying, put my records down, don't play it, but I miss you, you know? Man, I love how you speak to that magic again of music,
Starting point is 01:06:03 where it can take you back to a certain time or help you can remember somebody in your life. Like it's. It's all about time and place. Right. And I think that's what I, you know, and this isn't a plug for my station. It's the format that I work in is all that. It's all time and place. Right.
Starting point is 01:06:21 For me, for a person my age, the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but particularly the 70s, I hear songs from there and I go, wow, and I am back in that spot, right? And this to me too, Elton John is so, in this era, is so completely messed up. Like, it's so messed up. You know, God knows what he's drinking and God knows what he's taking, but the music that comes out of the pain that he was going through is just, oh, my God. And you know that when Can You Feel the Love Tonight came out and the Circle of Life, that he was happy. And when you're happy, you write happy songs.
Starting point is 01:06:56 That's good. But part of me misses the Elton John here where the pain is so intense. I got to get it out through the music, right? Like, wow. And lyrically, Bernie Taupin is not, Bernie Taupin is way beyond everybody else here at Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. He's writing a lot of stuff that I don't even think he knows about where it came from. And it's so intense. Have you ever met Elton?
Starting point is 01:07:18 No. And I'd love to. I would love it. It would never happen, but I'd love an hour and a half with Elton John. And what I would do is I'd say, can I play you this stuff that really had an effect on me in my life, you know? And I feel like now I'm at the age
Starting point is 01:07:34 where I don't care about where you're from and where the idea for this song comes from. I'm at the age now where I want to say, this song meant so much to me. Please tell me about what it means to you. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:07:48 And thank you for writing stuff that grabbed my heartstring and ripped it out. Thank you for that. But you're evidence that sometimes not knowing is what makes it yours. This is your song because you hear this and you think of your sister. Elton may have written it about something else but you don't know
Starting point is 01:08:08 because you apply it to your own life and it's amazing. And you know what? Speaking of Elton John, he once said that Crocodile Rock was just a piece
Starting point is 01:08:16 of disposable pop and I remember thinking, don't do that. I remember when I first heard that song and I loved it and when I learned the words, I would sing it to myself
Starting point is 01:08:24 and pretend I was in concert. You know what I mean? Don't do that. that song and I loved it. And when I learned the words, I would sing it to myself and pretend I was in concert. You know what I mean? Like, don't do that. That song means something to me. So right. That song's been kicked out by other jam kickers on this show. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 01:08:34 So good. Like, don't call it. Don't give it that name. I hate that. Man, you can when he sings, too, you can feel it, man. He is feeling it. Sorry it's so long. No, it was worth it because you got to hear your story behind it.
Starting point is 01:08:55 That's the idea of Kick Out the Jams. It's not to hear the song so much as it's to hear why that song matters to you. I'm really glad you found it. Thank you. That's awesome. you found it. Thank you. That's awesome. I found it and I said, if it was anyone else, I'd find a radio editor or something, or I'd cut out the funeral for a friend part.
Starting point is 01:09:11 And I said, no, this is Stu freaking Treffery. We're playing all 11 minutes and eight seconds. It's awesome. Thank you, Mike. That's a good cut. Such a good song. I think Elton, if I remember correctly, he went to Jamaica to do this album and they wanted to be in someplace tropical
Starting point is 01:09:36 for whatever reason, or someplace away from England so they could just concentrate on the music. And he said, I remember walking into the studio and there was one microphone kind of not plugged in and there was an amplifier in the other corner. There was no board set up. There was nothing. And he said, I remember walking into the studio and there was one microphone kind of not plugged in and there was an amplifier in the other corner. There was no board set up. There was nothing. And he said, I remember thinking, uh-oh.
Starting point is 01:09:50 And they were not ready for them. And I don't know if the whole album was completed in Jamaica, but there was a song on that album called Jamaica Jerk Off. And I think that that was an Elton saying, we're never coming back again. That's a great story. I heard a very similar story about Paul McCartney and the band. And Band on the Run? Band on the Run. Yeah, now what I heard, and I never really found out
Starting point is 01:10:08 if this is true or not, but I heard as he was about to go to, what, Montserrat, Africa? I forget. I think it was Africa, wasn't it? I can't remember. But as he's about to leave, his drummer says,
Starting point is 01:10:18 I'm not coming. And he's like, what? We're going to record? He goes, no, I'm not coming anymore. So the drums on Band on the Run is McCartney playing drums, and they're all very very very basic but he said i always wanted a chance to play so here was my opportunity that that song is epic like yeah you know i put that right up there with like meatloaf's paradise by the dashboard oh yeah so epic yeah yeah yeah it's
Starting point is 01:10:36 like i always those kind of songs i mean green day did one uh jesus of suburbia right but those kind of songs i always say they're like three or four or five songs mashed into one. Yeah, yeah. And what I love too about those songs that become epic, you wonder what they were going through at the time.
Starting point is 01:10:50 Like, could you imagine a sort of like, well, we need, like how many times do you hear an artist say, well, we needed filler for the album that we were coming in?
Starting point is 01:10:55 That song becomes a monster hit. Here's what I always think about those kinds of songs. And we all know those kinds of songs. I always think, how do you resist
Starting point is 01:11:03 the temptation to make them different songs? You have now five, that band on the run is like, we have five good Paul McCartney songs. Right, you're right, exactly. And how do you decide? But you know what?
Starting point is 01:11:13 And how do you separate yourself? What if I wrote something that I think is brilliant and the rest of the band thinks sucks, but I'm so close to it and I can't see it, I'm blind because I think it's so awesome. You know, who becomes the person
Starting point is 01:11:24 that says, no, you're terrible. Well, speaking of Paul McCartney. Ah, okay, good. With the Beatles and Andrew Bird can sing. I put this one in because it reminds me of the Beatles cartoon that was on TV. I know that you got everything
Starting point is 01:11:40 you want and your bird can sing but you don't get me. Listen to the harmonies on this song. It's vintage Beatles. And it's Lennon at his best too It's early Beatles But it's Lennon at his sarcastic best And he's got a little bit of bitterness To this one
Starting point is 01:12:13 When your prized possessions start to wear you down I love it Great line You have to wonder how The Beatles and Beach Boys Inspired each other Like reciprocally Because like I mean
Starting point is 01:12:23 The Beach Boys That's probably your best harmonies ever yeah and we all know that Pet Sounds inspires Sgt. Pepper but I wonder how much like it goes both ways like how much a song like this inspires the Beach Boys for sure
Starting point is 01:12:37 and I wonder how much emphasis is put on harmonies these days you know I mean it's magic when it happens And what I love too about the Beatles I mean obviously it's been said a million times before But why not one more They're meant for each other
Starting point is 01:12:54 The way they sing they were meant for each other Their voices found each other I firmly believe that Which is why it's such a perfect storm Yes Because it's all organic and authentic And they're in school together and they're friends. Yes. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:08 And why all of a sudden, why George? You know, why Ringo? Like, why, why, why? And then they all sing together and it's like, oh my God, you guys are brilliant. So tell me a little bit about this cartoon. The Beatles cartoon, I only have vague memories of it. I was probably maybe only six years old, six or seven when it was on TV. But for whatever reason, I remember the cartoon.
Starting point is 01:13:30 They did a cartoon video in the cartoon for this song, and it was a bird flying all over the place. And I remember loving the caricatures of the Beatles and the way they drew them in that cartoon. And so whenever I think of the Beatles cartoon, and they probably did all their hits, that's the only song I remember. And your bird can sing, but I love it. That jam's a little bit shorter than the Elton John. Yeah, I thought I'd make up for it with the 12-minuteer. The average is coming down. So I'm looking at your list.
Starting point is 01:13:52 Okay, we've had Dire Straits, we've had Wings, we've had Bowie, we've had Elton John, we've had the Beatles now. So it's time for another obscure indie band out of England here. Ah, Stones. Indie band. Oh, okay. Yeah, let's hear it. Ah, Stones. This is Mick's ode to 1970s New York City.
Starting point is 01:14:10 It's called Shattered. And it is... I'll tell you... I've got to hear it first. I want to hear him sing for a bit here. Still surviving on the streets. Look at me. I'm a tatter.
Starting point is 01:14:24 I'm a shatter Listen to the dirtiness of the music. Like it's dirty. My thoughts are so alarming And my lover's never charming Life's just a cocktail party on the street Big apple, paper, dress, true Laughter bags, arrested traffic
Starting point is 01:14:39 Some kind of fashion Now he loses it a bit. Laughter, joy, and loneliness Saxon, saxon, saxon, saxon Look at me Now he loses it a bit. I can't give it away on 7th Avenue. And New York in the 70s, especially mid-70s, it was just a terrible place. I mean, it's like crime-ridden, filthy, not a great place to be. And he sums it up in 3 minutes and 42 seconds in this song.
Starting point is 01:15:19 It's so good. There's a line at the end. Go ahead, bite the big apple, go ahead bite the big apple don't mind the maggots and it's just so perfect and keith like i i don't know keith charlie they're playing so dirty right now it this song if you close your eyes you see dirty new york city i mean it's it's really well done and jaggers passion he's just this sucks, and I'm so upset. Speaking of this era in New York City, did you ever watch that HBO show Vinyl? Vinyl. Wasn't on long enough for me. Hey, one season and that was it. And boy, was that perfect.
Starting point is 01:15:54 And Mick's son is, of course, one of the stars of the show. Yeah, one and done on that one. Too bad. Yeah, because that had potential. But it did get a little bit weird, but it had potential, yeah. It is definitely a bit weird. But I'm okay with weird. I like weird.
Starting point is 01:16:12 Now, he does this thing, too, at the end where he's just finished screaming and basically messing on the town. And then this very quiet, what say? And that's one of my favorite parts of the song. It's just sort of the end here. It's after his brain's a bit battered, spilling all over Manhattan. And he gives this, what's it say? Here we go. Check it out very calm. He just finishes screaming.
Starting point is 01:17:14 Sorry, guys, can't hear you well. I love that stuff. It reminds me of that Gimme Shelter when Mary Clayton kind of does her part and he's like, whoo! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's that tag from Charlie White. That drum part of Charlie White's there, so we're wrapping it up.
Starting point is 01:17:34 We're wrapping it up. It's so good. Ah, what a great song. I'm being told we need a little CanCon, so let's check out another couple of jams that might fulfill our obligations. Trooper. Now, full disclosure,
Starting point is 01:18:00 Ray McGuire and I are pals, lead singer for this band and every time I see him I say why can't you do this song when you play it give you to listen to it for a second and then I'll get back to you I've been waiting for something to fit that despair Holding my breath and jumping for air You know someone just told me that life isn't fair But I don't think I know what it means
Starting point is 01:18:35 Laugh from the moon Right to you Laugh from the moon Ray will say We don't do that song live Because of those harmonies He said that's really intense It's hard to recreate Really intense This I think was on the flip side Of the promo copy of
Starting point is 01:18:59 Raise a Little Health I think And it's from the Thickest Thieves album And it's the first one there First cut on side one And pardon me This was As a kid health i think um and it's from the thickest thieves album and it's the first one there uh first cut on side one and pardon me this was as a kid i loved trooper the fact that i got to meet them through good rocking tonight later on in my life was just meant everything to me because i
Starting point is 01:19:15 love them this is such a good band and they are sometimes grouped in with other bands that they have no business being grouped into like the lover boysoverboys and the Prisms and all good bands. But Trooper was different. The stuff they wrote about was different. And this is a great lament to being on the road and how you get on stage, you don't even know where you are. You forget the words. You got dirty clothes. You just want to go home.
Starting point is 01:19:37 Check this breakdown. One of my favorite vocal parts coming up here right now before Smitty goes into a guitar solo that is just awesome. Check this scream out. Dude, do you believe in miracles? Oh, yeah. So, you see my meter miracles? Oh, yeah. Okay. So, you see my meter here? Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:31 It's been burned out for four years. Okay. Oh, it's lit up. I'm not joking. So, for four years, the light in there has stopped working. For four years. That's a long time for a podcast, okay? That's awesome. But I don't want to replace this whole board because of a light being burnt out there, right?
Starting point is 01:20:45 Because it's fully functional. I brought some kind of magic with me. What can I tell you? Something happened during this episode and I don't know it could disappear in two seconds but right now
Starting point is 01:20:53 that meter is working again and it's so much easier to do the live engineering of that because I have to read here the waveform or listen. I taught myself to do all that which you would know about because you are
Starting point is 01:21:06 a one-man show at the old boom, right? You're doing everything, right? That is nice to make sure I don't live in the red or whatever. That's awesome. Trooper, awesome. I got some CanCon. Beautiful. Yeah, the sad thing about Trooper for me is that they don't do new stuff anymore
Starting point is 01:21:24 because I think that they're still quite capable of coming up with some really great, not only radio friendly music, but just great music. knock them dead kid and uh and get thick as thieves and and even um flying colors and listen to some of the stuff that they get into that is just it never never got airplay but they're more than let me tell you there's so much more than three dressed up as a nine all good songs here for a good time great song boys in the bright white sports car the stuff you know them for dig a little deeper you won't be sorry let's kick out another can con classic another one that i was bound and determined to learn all the words to uh the very first time i heard it and i remember it stirred me and i don't know why i know what the song was about had no idea but when he starts singing i get chilled The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Starting point is 01:22:26 At the big lake they call Gitche Gume The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy Now, you know, Gordon Lightfoot and everybody knows this song, for sure. The record of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I had a pleasure of talking with Gordon, and it was a few years ago while I was doing CMT Central with Colleen Rushome. And we had a chance to I think I had him for about 45 minutes. And I remember being super nervous because he was or at least back in the day, Gordon Lightfoot was aloof and and was not very media friendly.
Starting point is 01:23:04 And by his own admission, he said, this is a record company idea. You are Gordon Lightfoot. Remember, this is, you talked about the show Vinyl. This is when the record labels would call in all the shots, right? Like, I mean, yeah, we're going to sign you, but we're going to tell you everything that you need to do and that's all there is to it.
Starting point is 01:23:19 So, Gordon, it was sort of like, okay, you're a great singer-songwriter, yeah, it's all good, but you are going to be now unaccessible. So whenever somebody does talk to you, you'll speak in one-word answers, you'll be grumpy, you'll be whatever. And if I'm not mistaken, I'm sure Avril Lavigne
Starting point is 01:23:34 was told to do that as well. This is the kind of image we're trying to create. And he told me that in the interview. He says, yeah, you know, that's what they wanted, so that's what I was at the time. It wasn't very easy to talk to. In talking with him then, he was very forthcoming and fascinating. And he talked about this song, basically one take, if you can imagine. So he had all the lyrics ready, he had everything good to go, and it was, let's go in the studio and let's do it. And he said,
Starting point is 01:24:00 yeah, it was pretty much one take. And you're like, okay, five minutes and 15 seconds and an epic story, and you're pretty much one take. Wow. Yeah. And you're like, okay, five minutes and 15 seconds and an epic story. And you're telling me one take. And although he didn't say it, this is the part of me that wants to believe this. Some things are meant to be written. Some things are meant to be recorded. And this song is that powerful that it needed that, right? And there's a line in this song which is coming up, which I told him.
Starting point is 01:24:20 And it's still, when the song first first came on the radio that my kids heard it I said you have to listen to this song it's all about a shipwreck and a tragedy at sea and this line came up and I wanted to say the line but I couldn't because I got choked up
Starting point is 01:24:35 and I still do when I think of it but it is so it takes you this is another great example of music and how it takes you to a place. You are all of a sudden, at least I was,
Starting point is 01:24:49 you are transported back in time to this actual wreck. And me saying the line, I'm not going to, when it comes up, I'll of course shut up. But I can't say it because first of all,
Starting point is 01:25:00 I can't get it out without getting choked up and I can't do it justice. It's just after this line where he says, when the lights went out, came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Then he delivers this line that is, again, I can't say it, but he can sing it. Does anyone know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes to hours That line.
Starting point is 01:25:36 Like, I am now in the water. And I am, I'm dying, right? And within a few words, he captures that to, I, like, you know, look, it's still, this song is a thousand years old, and my, the hair on my arms go up, I get the chills, it's, tell me anybody that can write a line like that.
Starting point is 01:25:59 Like, I mean, or deliver a line like that, and with such subtlety, and yet such power i'm and i don't ever want to know that i'm reading too much into it i don't ever want to know how that line came to be uh but uh it's again the power of music he has specifically described the enormity of the tragedy and at hand and That's poetry. Yeah, and in such a beautiful, sad, tragic, powerful moment. Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours? Like that is like... Can I ask you, because you were able to say it there,
Starting point is 01:26:38 is that because you can remove yourself from the line as if you're just... It's amazing. There's certain things I can't say without crying, but I can go into out of body and almost read them as if I'm not really taking in the words. I'm just saying the words. I find I can do it. If I put it in a different context, I can do it.
Starting point is 01:26:54 Yeah, yeah. I need to put it in a different context or become another person. I know. I totally relate to that. Somebody asked me to describe why I thought Puff the Magic Dragon was the saddest song ever written.
Starting point is 01:27:04 And I said, well, you just listen to it. And then when I try and explain it, I can't do it. But then I can become somebody else and read the lyrics and then I'm okay. Well, I think maybe because you're a very emotional guy too, but maybe there's certain scenes in movies that make you cry where you can't even think about the scene or describe the scene. Have you heard the commercials for Dear Evan Hansen? It's just a kid singing, I'm not tap, tap, tapping on the glass. I have to turn it down in the scene. Have you heard the commercials for Dear Evan Hansen? It's just a kid singing,
Starting point is 01:27:26 I'm not tap, tap, tapping on the glass. I have to turn it down in the studio. I don't even know what Dear Evan Hansen is about, but that song, it makes me cry. And my son has seen it already on Broadway in New York. And he said, we're going to see it when it comes to Toronto. And he said, you're going to be a mess. So I'm like, okay, let's go.
Starting point is 01:27:41 Bring a tissue. Yeah. I did, you know what, Gordon Lightfoot, too, back to the interview with him. He was one of the very first, and I think the only time, one of the only times, certainly, that I thanked him for the music. And he seemed really humbled by that. And I just shook his hand and I said, thank you. Because I don't know if you know how much joy your music has brought to me. And oh, by the way, I just read he's recording another album and he jokes. He says, if I'm still walking around, I'm going to do the album. And then
Starting point is 01:28:13 he's going to start a tour in Sacramento in like a couple of months or something. So he's still going. I think since they announced his death, I think he's been... Yes. Yeah. The news of my death is greatly exaggerated. Apparently he was like, yeah. The news of my death is greatly exaggerated. Apparently he was like, yeah, he was driving along in the bridal path or something and he heard on the radio that he had passed away.
Starting point is 01:28:30 That he had passed away, Which is kind of a neat story there. No. But he's a living legend. Yeah. You know, we've lost,
Starting point is 01:28:36 recently we've lost some living legends in this country. We lost, for example, we lost Leonard Cohen. Yeah. We lost Gore Downey. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:28:42 And I mean, hopefully Neil Young lives forever. Hopefully Joni Mitchell lives forever. But, you know, you got to put Gordon Lightfoot right Downey. And I mean, hopefully Neil Young lives forever, hopefully Joni Mitchell lives forever, but you know, you gotta put Gordon Lightfoot right up there. Oh God, yeah. I mean, he belongs right at the top. And all you need to do is listen to that song.
Starting point is 01:28:56 Even one of his favorites that he says he loves the melody to is If You Could Read My Mind. He said it's still one of my favorites to sing. Can you imagine how many times he's done that? Or then just listen, get a snapshot into what backstage was like for those artists in Sundown. You listen to Sundown,
Starting point is 01:29:10 and it's like, it's some really, really good stuff. And yeah, the songwriters of that era, I love that they're still doing it today. I'd love to hear some new stuff from Joni Mitchell. You know, that would,
Starting point is 01:29:21 and, and, I don't know. I could listen to this stuff for hours. Neil still created new music, which is great,
Starting point is 01:29:28 but I just want to point out something happened in this episode that we had for a moment, like a light on in here that my main meter was back
Starting point is 01:29:34 because it died again. And it was, it's been dead for years. That's so weird. And it just came back to life during
Starting point is 01:29:39 our episode and I record a lot. Right. So, well, I think what you need to do is have me here whenever
Starting point is 01:29:43 you've got broken equipment and we'll just do a show. It's almost like there's some kind of strange magic going. Right. So, well, I think what you need to do is have me here whenever you've got broken equipment and we'll just do a show. We'll just do a show. It's almost like there's some kind of strange magic going on here. Ah, nicely done. Electric Light Orchestra makes my list and I just picked one song. I could pick a thousand.
Starting point is 01:29:58 But strange magic is pretty. They are, Jeff Lynn talked when he went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about when he first learned about harmonies. I'll tell you that story, but let's have a listen. You're
Starting point is 01:30:11 sailing softly through the sun In a broken stone-waged dome You fly so high I guess So So Beatles-esque. And, you know, by his own admission, he loved the Beatles. He told this story in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Starting point is 01:30:53 how he first discovered harmonies. He was walking with his dad down the street, and there was a pipe. We saw a pipe in the ground or whatever. And his dad said, sing into the pipe. And so he sang into the pipe, and he heard his voice come back to him. And he said, and that was the first time I discovered harmonies,
Starting point is 01:31:07 and I thought, this is the most beautiful thing ever. So it's funny how these, and that catalyst was probably, you know, that was the moment that sent him on the way to where he was going, even just as a little kid. And he, there's another guy I've never had the pleasure of speaking with, but hope to someday. He's coming to Toronto again in August, and I've never even seen them live.
Starting point is 01:31:26 Their albums, A New World Record and Out of the Blue will always be my favorites. The orchestration in these songs is great. The creativity is amazing. And just how radio embraced them and still to this day does. I hear
Starting point is 01:31:41 Sweet Talkin' Woman, Livin' Thing, Mr. Blue Sky, and How It Fits in Guardians of the Galaxy is just brilliant, right? That's an epic song, you know? Yeah, so timeless. So timeless. And great voice.
Starting point is 01:31:55 I love what he did with the Traveling Wilburys. Yeah. Jeff Flynn's a genius. I love him. He's got that Breakfast in America kind of feel and sound. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:10 Super tramp. Who's singing breakfast? Who's album is that? And this is, it's really trippy too, right? Like, you know, it's got a 60s vibe to it. Like it,
Starting point is 01:32:19 he's so good. Definitely Beatles influence for sure. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:27 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:29 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:30 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:31 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:31 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:32 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:32 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.. Yeah. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a good. I'm a I propose to I'll talk to Troy about this at Boom but I propose maybe one hour a week
Starting point is 01:32:58 where you're allowed to do pop-up audio yeah it'd be fun it'd be fun so once you get it rolling I can't shut up. That's the problem. Listen to that la-la-la-la-la in the background on top of other. It's so pretty. It's so well done. Strange magic. Strange magic.
Starting point is 01:33:30 Strange magic. Got a strange magic. Got a strange magic. No, I got recommend a new world record. That's the one with telephone line on it. But boy, there's some really, really good stuff on there too. If you haven't got deep, if somebody said, I have never heard ELO before, what do you recommend?
Starting point is 01:34:07 Get a new world record first. Can you believe we're about to kick out our final jam? No. Final jam coming up. In case I forget to remind you at the end, if you're looking to kill or enjoy 90 minutes or so,
Starting point is 01:34:20 Colleen Rushelm kicked out the jams and you might enjoy that one. I think there's some, some stew love in that episode. Anytime Colleen kicks out the jams, and you might enjoy that one. I think there's some stew love in that episode. Anytime Colleen kicks out the jams is worth listening to. Let's kick out our final jam. Ah, yeah. Straight up rock and roll.
Starting point is 01:34:40 I'm going to make a very brave, bold statement here, but I'm getting older and I don't care. One of the greatest debut albums of the rock era belongs to Foreigner. I would climb any mountain Sail across the stormy sea
Starting point is 01:34:58 If that's what it takes me baby To show how much you mean to me. So I hear this band and I think of the glory days of FM when they were really starting to come into their own. And the CRTC started relaxing their really ridiculous rules. And then jocks were just taking albums and throwing on three, four cuts from an album, right? And this...
Starting point is 01:35:26 This one gave us Feels Like The First Time, Cold As Ice, and then there are songs on this that need to be played over and over again. If you're starting an underground FM station today, you grab that album and you play tracks like Headknocker, The Ballad, Fool For You Anyway. Oh man, I can't even think of titles right now,
Starting point is 01:35:53 but it's so deep in its rock and roll, like it's so good. And Lou Gramm, young, you know, hungry, Mick Jones, writing great stuff. Neil Gramm's Ballad on Fool For You Anyway, and Lou Graham's ballad is, you can tell his voice is at its youngest and its purest.
Starting point is 01:36:11 And this whole album is just from start to finish is great. But Feels Like The First Time is the first cut. And what I love about it is, I love an album where you put on side one, cut one, and it grabs your attention right away. Like it's like, and you know you're about to be rocked out. It's so good.
Starting point is 01:36:28 And kids today will never really appreciate that, like that whole physical media notion of size. No, and I wonder. It leads offside, too. You know, and I wonder, I mean, who knows if they care or not, and that's cool. The way they, you know, they'll remember downloading. They want a song, and all all they got to do is download.
Starting point is 01:36:45 You and I remember wanting a song. We had to get off our asses and go to the store and get it. Right? I think the biggest difference of today's generation is they cherry pick songs like based on like they cherry pick singles or whatever. Sure. But having said that, my kids still anticipate new albums dropping by their favorite hip hop artists and they will be, at midnight they'll download
Starting point is 01:37:06 the whole thing. I'm so glad you said that. Mine do that too. I think they're there, it's just a different experience, right? But, you know, God, as I say to my wife whenever we're talking about how much screen time they're getting and how much time they're spending on their phones and listening to music, I said, if you gave me one of those
Starting point is 01:37:22 things when I was a kid, there's no way I'm giving it back. Like, no way. And then you tell me that with this, all I have to do is hit this button and I get whatever song I want. Come on. Well, I remember, you know, we used to make these mixes on cassette tapes and it was a lot of work and effort and you had a time limit. And now you don't have to. But maybe we appreciated it more because it was a big pain in the ass to do that. Exactly. And also, you know, that was our way of putting all of our favorites together. But I mean, if you gave me an easier way back then, I would have scooped it up, right?
Starting point is 01:37:53 Stu, that was as good, if not better, than I hoped it would be. Oh, thank you, Mike. It's all in the host, man. It's all in the host. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. Well, you would know. You're the host of the most.
Starting point is 01:38:04 Thank you. Thanks for doing that. Thanks for kicking out the jams. Thanks for singing along to Sweet Caroline. And please don't stop being Stu. Thanks, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 430th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Stu, you're at Stu Jeffries?
Starting point is 01:38:21 I'm at Stu Jeffries on Twitter, yep. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. Palma Pasta. It's deadline day, by the way, for the Raptors. So I got to go find out if the Raptors have landed Anthony Davis, as if that's going to happen. But we're going to find out soon.
Starting point is 01:38:38 Keep dreaming. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time Watch. Sorry, Fast Time WJR. And PayTM is at PayTM Canada. See you all next week. from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in
Starting point is 01:39:08 Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold but the snow warms me today

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