Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - TOAST 18: Toronto Mike'd #1285
Episode Date: July 2, 2023In this 18th episode of Toast, Mike is joined by Rob Preuss and Bob Willette as they kick out quintessential Canadian songs. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pa...sta, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.
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Just Toast
I'm gonna think about it some
F-O-T-M's
Do you know what time it is?
It's
One, two, one
Toast time
Toast
Featuring Stu Stone, Cam Gordon
And Toronto Mike
That's Toast
Oh yeah, Just Toast Cam Gordon and Toronto Mike. That's toast. Oh, yeah.
Just toast.
I'm not going to change that. I kind of like how that's
the classic intro.
And it also
it's fun to pretend you're like super
temporary, even though you're
This is our 18th episode.
Well, it's not your 18th.
But it might be your 6th.
I never let it run this long.
Okay, welcome to episode 1,285 of Toronto Mic'd.
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1921.
Joining me today for this
18th episode of Toast
is Rob
Pruce and Bob
Ouellette. Good morning.
Good morning. And it is morning.
Morning.
This is our first ever toast recording in the morning.
And quite literally, this is the first time I ate toast just before you guys.
I just ate toast.
That's nice.
What kind of bread was it?
It's like a whole wheat bread.
And I put a little honey on it.
Yeah.
And I was just eating that.
And here we are.
Here we are.
Recording toast right after I ate some toast.
I got to say,
I love the food.
I love toast.
Yep.
I love toast.
I don't know.
Who doesn't love toast?
Toast is great.
It's versatile.
There's so many things
you can do with it.
Oh my gosh.
You know what I love?
Humble Howard told me once
he didn't own a toaster
because he would never make toast.
I think I could live on toast.
What were you going to say, Bob?
I love a toasted tomato sandwich.
And I'm a meat eater, but
a toasted tomato sandwich,
one of my favorite things to have
ever since I was a kid. Toast works with everything, though.
You can put sweet things on it. You dip it
with egg. All the
things. This is riveting radio.
Bob, isn't this
the new radio?
People want to hear about your
affection, what you think of toast. You're absolutely right. I mean, at Radio Days North America, a. The new radio. People want to hear about your affection,
what you think of toes. No, you're absolutely right.
I mean, at Radio Days North America,
aka Canadian Music Week,
which I came by right during,
or on the Friday after that.
Right, because you guys were just here.
The big talk was all about how personality
and really having great personalities
is what's going to make the difference
between just your Spotify's and radio.
So they want to hear,
what is Rob Proust doing with his toes?
It's true.
The problem is radio just doesn't know
how to invest in it anymore.
There's no farm system.
There's no one coming up.
There's no future stars
because no one who has any talent
would choose radio in 2023.
Well, not no one.
I was just going to see how you react to that.
Most people would choose a different
industry. But isn't a podcast
literally the new version of radio in
some ways? A lot of ways, absolutely.
You get real personality.
Except better. Okay, so
happy Canada Day to you guys.
Happy Canada Day. Canada Day weekend.
Yes. Yeah, we actually, just so people know,
we were going to do this like Friday.
Friday originally, yeah.
And then it kind of was going to be maybe Thursday,
but Thursday was out, and then it was going to be Saturday,
but then, Rob, you had some obligations yesterday.
What the hell were you doing yesterday?
Yeah, celebrating Burlington's 150th birthday
and Canada's 156th, I think, or 156th.
Yeah.
So Burlington's birthday is the same as Canada's 100th birthday. Happy birthday, Burlington. 56th, I think, or 57th. So Burlington's birthday
is the same as Canada's birthday?
Well, they fudged it
a little tiny bit
to make it work on the weekend.
And I believe that
the actual date
of the incorporation
is, I think,
maybe in September.
That's a lot of fudging.
It's a little fudging.
But they were like,
it's Canada Day.
We're going to put it
all together anyway.
So because it was already,
they already do a big celebration
for Canada Day anyways.
So you're the most famous person from Burlington?
Absolutely not.
Oh my God, no.
I'm at the bottom of the list.
No, Gord Depp.
Yeah, Gord Sandy Horns from Burlington.
But other than Spoons members, who are the most famous Burlingtoners?
Yeah, we're going to have to Google that one.
Let's say Jim Carrey.
He's from Burlington?
Uh-huh.
I mean, he lived in Burlington.
He went to school with Gord and Sandy and Derek. Did you know that, Bob? Uh-huh. I mean, he lived in Burlington. He went to school with Gordon,
Sandy,
and Derek.
Did you know that,
Bob? I thought he was like
above us,
like Newmarket or something.
Well,
he's from a bunch
of different areas,
but he spent time
growing up in Burlington
for sure
because he went to
Aldershot High School
with this booty.
Hey,
breaking news.
Brother Neil is reporting
that the audio
is particularly good
on this live stream today
and it might be
because I did make
some tweaks to uh
obs which is uh hand so sometimes i use a different service this time it's obs i actually
stuck a uh slice of toast in the top left corner of the live sounds better yeah so yeah live.toronto
mike.com is where we're live it It is the morning of July 2nd.
It's like right now, it's like 11, 16 or so.
And that's because Rob Pruce was a little bit late.
Why were you late?
Is it because of what you did yesterday?
No, just rainy traffic.
And I underestimated the travel time because I looked last night and it was like,
oh, it's going to be 29 minutes.
And then this morning it was like 37 minutes.
So, sorry.
So who was on this bill yesterday?
It was me. I started, they started they started with a whole event with the burlington mayor and she was giving awards
burlington has its own mayor oh yeah oh man yeah is it a full-time job yeah of course take or did
they do it on the side no no it's a full-time job yep Yep. She was giving out awards. She brought out some old mayors to do some speeching.
And she was saying hello to...
There was like the Burlington Teen Tour Band performed,
which is a 100-year-old institution in Canada,
representing Canada around the world in the world of marching bands.
And they were amazing.
The weather couldn't have been better, too.
It could have been better, but it didn't rain.
Yeah.
So it was perfect.
Nice. And who else was there? Were have been better, but it didn't rain. Yeah. So it was perfect. Nice.
And who else was it?
Were you hosting?
No, I wasn't hosting.
This guy from CHCH TV, Bubba O'Neill was the host.
Okay, he's an FOTM.
Yeah.
I got to listen to his episode.
He was the coolest guy ever.
He's coming back to kick out the jams, and we were DMing about him doing that.
He said to me, he goes, Mike, I used to co-host a show of Mark Hebbshire on CHCH.
He said, I listened to the Hebbsion Sports finale,
and it pissed me off, and he wants to talk about it.
No way.
So Bubba O'Neill is going to come on and talk about why he was so upset
with the finale of Hebbsion Sports.
Wow.
I met him for the first time.
He's a good guy.
He's a big CFL guy.
He's a big CFL booster.
So he was the host for the whole event.
So then I went out and played around 6
o'clock to start off the evening of music.
Did you play Mr. Dress Up's theme song?
You know I did! Yes. One of my favorite
one of my, well, okay, you go first.
No, I was going to say, I love your t-shirt that you
are wearing, so we'll see it in the picture.
And just since we last recorded Toast,
which wasn't very long ago, I did a live
recording from Myseum with
Ed Conley. That episode was killer.
Thank you.
And I had just been there before you did the episode.
Yeah, well, yes, which I mentioned.
Yes, that's right.
You had just literally just been there.
And you're wearing a Mr. Dress-Up shirt,
so continue to tell me about what you played.
I achieved three aims that I didn't know I was going to have for this event,
was that I played in Spencer Smith Park in Burlington,
which is where they do the Sound of Music Festival every year.
It's a big deal. I played the Sound of Park in Burlington, which is where they do the Sound of Music Festival every year. It's a big deal.
I played the Sound of Music.
Oh, nice.
Because nobody's ever played Thus the Hills or Life.
Right.
So the first thing I got up there was like,
I got to play this thing because I've always wanted to
because this is where it happens, but nobody's done this.
Nobody calls it that.
Yeah, so I played Sound of Music.
I think Finger Eleven would do a really good job
with the Sound of Music because they're Burlingtonians.
Exactly.
That might be up next to the
spoons. I think you're right. Rainbow butt
monkey monkeys might be number one. So
I played the sound of music. I played
Mr. Dress up and I said to people
this song is literally like the
second to O Canada. This is one
of the greatest themes in Canada. So I
played Mr. Dress up. Why aren't you kicking it out today? Because
I will just tell the listenership right now
that we're kicking out quintessential Canadian jams,
but I don't see that song
on your list.
It's Above and Beyond
because it's not really a pop song.
Wait, what do you mean?
Well, I mean, it's a TV...
We're saving it for...
What are you saving it for?
Like, what do you mean
Above and Beyond?
Like, this is the Canada Day
episode of Toast.
But I was thinking of songs,
like pop songs,
like radio songs.
Mr. Dress Up is a TV theme
because then I could have done
Mr. Dress Up, Friendly Giant,
and like Polka Dot Door.
Or, yeah, or you could have even done
the theme to Degrassi Jr. Hot.
Yeah, or theme to Party Game,
or the hilarious House of Frightens.
You could have.
That's what I should have.
Everybody wants something.
That's what we should have done, the zit remedy.
Yeah, but you know what?
I was always, every time I have like Pat on,
or who is it, Caitlin Ryan came on,
there's no studio version of that song.
Like you have to rip it from the episode.
The zit remedy.
You get it for like 30 seconds.
It's always like the shittiest
fidelity.
Here's a song. I'm just going to
play it in the background.
This could have been kicked out by somebody
as a quintessential
Canadian song.
We'll give it a moment here
and we'll get back to Rob.
Oh yeah, for sure.
If you ask any girl
from the parish around
what pleases her most
from her head to her toes
she'll say I'm not sure
that it's business of yours
but I do like to waltz
with the log rye
for he goes purling down and down like water.
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly.
It's burling down and down like water.
A log driver's waltz pleases girls.
See, that hits like maple syrup in the veins.
That is as Canadian as it gets.
Love it.
There's a lot of things that are as Canadian as it gets.
NFB, right? National Film Awards.
That's it.
Do you want to tell us what else you played?
Give us a whole fucking itinerary.
I had Sandy Horn playing with me
from The Spoons.
She's an FOTM.
She's a real FOTM.
What do you mean by that? Did she talk about me?
No, I mean a real serious...
Nothing I can't tell you
I mean most things
oh my goodness
Sammy Horn
I have a fantastic drummer
named Juice Cadis
who's from Toronto
who plays with Platinum Blonde
oh
and he did my last
Moonshine Oakville gig as well
and he's amazing
and then I had a couple of friends
a friend named Tim Park
from Burlington
who played
and a friend from Hamilton
named Jim Witter
who played and sang as well
and so we just did
a bunch of Spoon songs.
Amazing.
Honeymoon Suite, we did,
we played a great Boys Brigade deep cut.
What's it called?
I forgot the name.
Anyways.
If it's a deep cut of Boys Brigade,
I'm not going to know it.
It was their hit.
Oh, it's not a deep cut then.
No, why?
Because there is a big hit for Boys Brigade.
Do I have to Google this?
No, I can't.
The name just left my head.
Oh, I know.
It's Boys Brigade is... It wasn't melody. Passion No, I can't. The name just left my head. Oh, I know.
Boys Brigade is... It wasn't melody.
Passion of Love.
Passion of Love.
Yeah, that's it.
So my drummer, Juice, sang it.
It was unbelievable.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Why'd you call it a deep cut?
I don't know.
Because it was Boys Brigade.
Not a lot of people know Boys Brigade.
Yeah.
It's a deep...
But that's the one they know.
Yeah.
It's like a deep 1984 cut.
If you're of a certain age.
So I played for just...
All this talking leads to that I just played for about an hour.
And then the next band that came to play was Silverstein.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Not Silverchair.
Nope.
No, Silverstein's been
around a long time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're from Burlington.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
They played about an hour
and then the final band
to play, Finger Eleven.
Finger Eleven did play.
Yeah, they did play.
And they played
until 10 o'clock
and then there was
a beautiful fireworks display
that went on for like
20 minutes of fireworks.
It was unbelievable.
How was your Canada Day
Bob Willett?
We ended up, we were home most of the day.
We had some people over.
I smoked a bunch of meat.
Nice. Not cigarettes. No.
I did not smoke cigarettes. Was that before the recording?
I asked you if you smoked cigarettes? Yeah, I think it was before.
Because I heard your voice in the headphones. That's right.
And it sounded like you smoked cigarettes. Your pause before
meat was good though. I smoked a bunch of
meat. And yeah, we did we had some people over and then we went much sounded like you smoked cigarettes. Your pause before meat was good, though. I smoked a bunch of... Meat.
And yeah, we had some people over,
and then we went much like... Is it Spencer Park?
Spencer Smith Park.
I went up to Stan Wadlow Park.
Spoiler alert.
Spoiler alert.
Stan Wadlow Park up in East York,
which is about a 20-minute walk north of where I live,
and they had some bands going on, too,
and then at 10 o'clock they had fireworks.
Nice.
However, it was only five minutes.
It was very short.
Wow.
Very good, but very short.
Bullshit.
That was a little bit, yeah.
You know, took my eight year old up there
at 10 o'clock at night.
And it was a little.
I would check the citizenship of the guy
who put the fireworks display together
because Canadians need lots of fireworks.
Five minutes is not enough. Five minutes is not enough.
Five minutes was not enough.
Maybe it was smoky enough out there.
I was surprised the city went up.
I'm the same with myself using my smoker box on my Broil King and thinking, I probably
shouldn't be doing this.
Yeah, but the air quality was already fucked anyways.
It was already bad anyway.
It was already shit.
Is this Snowbird?
Nobody's kicking out Snowbird?
Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.
That's right.
No one's kicking out Snowbird. No out to Ridley Funeral. That's right. No one's kicking out Snowbird.
So, yeah, I had some conversations this week.
I had a friend from Newfoundland in on Thursday, went to the Blue Jay game.
And I had a big conversation in my backyard, in my shed, about quintessential Canadian jams.
And this obviously came up.
And then we got into the conversation, not to go ahead, but what does quintessential really mean?
Yeah, we'll get into that.
Yeah, yeah.
But this one, everybody said this.
How do you feel when you hear this?
Let's give it 30 seconds here.
What I love forever is untrue
And if I could, you know
That I would fly away with you
Yeah, if I could, you know
That I would fly Away with you
What do you say about
Snowbird by Anne Murray?
What can you say?
It's the, like,
that is a quintessential
Canadian song.
How come you didn't kick it out?
Because
There's too many.
It was too obvious.
We could do like three
hours of quintessence of Canadian songs. This is the first time that we've
emailed. You emailed and said this is the hardest one
ever. I knew it would be. It was exciting
but it's like one of those things where you have to
make a choice but you can't make a choice.
I made a Facebook post
like three or four years ago and off the top of my
head on a Canada Day I said these are my favorite
Canadian songs. I just started listening off all the songs
and it never ended and then like a year later I saw it again. I said, these are my favorite Canadian songs. And I just started listening off all the songs and it never ended. And then like a year
later, I saw it again. I was like, oh, I have to add these songs.
And it would change over and over, but
there is definitely like a hundred songs that
I would say are my quintessential Canadian songs.
And it just goes for your whole life. This is for
all of us. Nova Heart. Nova Heart's a
quintessential Canadian jam, as is Romantic
Traffic. I mean,
I would put them on my list because they're my songs.
And in fact, I did that. I was like, these are my songs
but I still love them. So what are you going to do? It just happens to be
a song that I was a part of.
But there's just so many great Canadian
songs from the rock to the
pop. Oh, rock, pop, everything. Country as
well. There's some great country.
So Snowbird came out in
71? 71.
Do you remember hearing...
That crossed over to everything, right? It was on radio. You heard that on CK. For sure, like, do you remember hearing, like, that crossed over to everything,
right?
It was on radio.
You heard that on CK.
For sure.
Yeah,
that was everywhere.
Like,
I think part of the beauty
of,
for me in my life
is that I've,
I'm so old,
but I have such early memories
of listening to music
that like,
from the late 60s
and the early 70s,
as little as I was.
Sort of like Mark Weisblatt
will come over
and he'll be talking about like,
oh,
I remember when this
1967 song came out.
And now I'll do the math on his age and realize like he's remembering things
from before he was born.
Exactly.
Negative two.
But my memories have popped from like ages four to five and onwards.
Then it just never ended, you know?
So I see a chart from 68, 69, 70.
And I'm like, I remember hearing these songs because it gave me a feeling.
And I think this has to do with the Canadian music as well.
There's something about the fact that...
We're going to get into it, Bruce.
Absolutely.
Hey, so Bob Ouellette, Mr. Similar Vintage, East End Mike.
Yep.
Why is no one kicking out any Sloan today?
Well, it's good to.
I find it interesting you chose this.
Well, you know, why?
Because of the line.
Oh, because I know
I'm going to be living
in Canada
I know that I'll be living
here in Canada
that's in the song
so I'll tell you
here's my
it's quite essential
oh I think this is it
hold on
no they already did the line
oh they already did it
yeah it's like in the opening
right
so Sloan's an interesting band
for me personally
I never owned any Sloan
in the 90s
really
not even twice removed
no didn't own any of it but then when I go see them
I know every song
And I'm a huge, I realize I'm a huge fan
I just never, because they were on the radio
so much, they were on the Edge
Edge 102 as it was
in the mid to late 90s
They were on all the time
So I knew them, but I never owned them
I saw them at a gig
It was Sloan and I Mother Earth.
It was a corporate gig. And Sloan
killed it. They were great.
And I realized I didn't own any Sloan.
I Mother Earth, I owned Dig
and Scenery and Fish. I owned both of them.
And I was like, I actually like Sloan
better. But I owned the I Mother Earth.
It's shocking to me that you never
owned Sloan. I own
so many Sloan seasons. One chord to another. Oh, they're amazing me that you never owned Sloan. I don't. I own so many Sloan CDs.
One chord to another. Oh, they're
amazing. But I've never owned it.
Yeah, Underwhelmed would haunt me
like I dreamt about Underwhelmed.
I love that song so much.
It's odd that I never... Get the hell out of my basement.
I know. It's very odd. I'll try not
to hit my head on the way out. Oh, yeah. So, everybody,
Bob Willett, who's been over
what? About 20 times? Not quite. Okay. You've been over many times. Yes. And you count them up. And I hit my head on the way out. Oh, yeah. So everybody, Bob Ouellette, who's been over what? About 20 times?
Not quite.
Okay.
You've been over many times
and you count them up.
And I hit my head.
Yeah.
Double digits for sure.
You smashed your head
and I just said to you guys.
I didn't smash it.
You were literally saying it.
You did.
Watch your boom.
Watch your head
and then you go,
oh, there should be a sticker
or something.
And then you're staring
at the sticker that says,
check your head.
Yeah.
I was busy looking
at where I was going to sit
and get comfortable. Yeah. Anyhow. Hey, Rob rob pruse uh midtown gourd wants you to know he is 1965
vintage that's me too yeah that's why he wants you to know okay cool leslie uh would like everyone
to know that she's making some toast right now on homemade sourdough bread which sounds amazing
leslie i'm biking over right after this recording because I want some.
Brother Niels is pointing out that
Stu Jeffries was kicking out some
Canadian jams yesterday and he's
we're pretty sure there's some spoons in there.
Midtown Gourd
said he saw a bunch of people going to
Stan Wadlow. Am I saying
right? Stan Wadlow Park. That's an East York
place, right? Yep. Okay.
And he says a lot of places actually did cancel fireworks due to the smoke issue.
Ah, there's already...
I mean...
Are you going to make it worse?
You should have seen the smoke pile for 20 minutes of fireworks in Burlington.
It was unbelievable.
Burlington?
Sorry.
Very important to shout out the live streamers here.
Yes.
Cam Brio says, what?
Silverstein?
Hold on.
Where else?
And Finger11?
He goes, they weren't even promoted
ahead of time no that was the whole
point so the secret so we
first started planning this thing like five months ago
I was contacted by a woman who was
organizing it from the Burlington Council
and she said the whole thing is that we want to
they wanted to make it not
as largely anticipated as the
Sound of Music Festival because that kicks in
a whole level of security
and event coordinating that they didn't really want to do.
They wanted to keep it feeling more like...
You guys are always overthinking things in Burlington.
Always, but that's why we do what we do.
That's what they did.
So they didn't advertise at all.
The only thing they really advertised was
it was going to say Rob Pruce and Friends.
I saw you post about it.
So the one thing was they said it's going to be
Rob Pruce and Friends starting at six o'clock
with some surprises through the evening right but then
yesterday they actually announced that it was gonna be this is the last wow yeah so but by the
end like the finger 11 crowd you know leading to the fireworks at 10 was huge so it was fun
tobias vaughn i want to shout out first yyz gourd is here so hello to yyz gourd he's a good gourd
and uh tobias vaughn makes a good point here.
And I think we might want to consider it since you guys will actually be back in July.
We'll talk about that later.
But this is actually the June episode.
And the June episode was the May episode.
It was the May episode June.
But he points out, and I love it.
He goes, Canadian TV themes should be its own show.
It sure should.
I'm in.
I'm in.
Dan Jay says good morning to everybody.
And by the way,
YYZ Gord, who I already said hello to,
I will just say he had some lovely fried toast in Ottawa this morning.
From sea to shining sea. I like it when
you cut the hole in the toast and put an egg in the
middle. Some people call it a toad in the hole.
We should be eating toast right now.
We could crunch it like we opened the beer.
You should have had toast.
By the way, it's 1130. Do you want a breakfast beer? I would get you a beer. I can run up, join a song, and we opened the beer. Oh, yeah. Okay, so by the way, it's 1130.
Like if you want it.
Do you want a breakfast beer?
I would get you a beer.
I can run up during a song and get you a beer.
I assumed we were going to have a breakfast beer.
Yeah, I'll get you a beer.
Okay, so I'm actually, so yeah, I'm going to get a beer.
So thank you, Great Lakes Beer, for sending over the fresh craft beer for us.
Thank you to Palma Pasta for your continued support.
I don't know if you can buy toast at Palma Pasta, but you can get something toasted there.
It's delicious. Garlic bread. That's toast? buy toast at Palma Pasta, but you can get something toasted there. It's delicious.
Garlic bread.
That's toast?
That's like Italian toast.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay, I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
And shout out to The Moment Lab.
I'm happy to introduce
anyone listening to Matt
and Jared at The Moment Lab.
They're PR specialists
and they can help you
with your PR strategy
and they're great
at what they do
and people you know and love
are using The Moment Lab.
I've already shouted out Ridley Funeral Home,
but I'll just point out
that the most recent episode of Life's Undertaking,
Brad and I were at Lakeshore Arts
with an artist that they,
what do you call it when you fund an artist?
You commission an artist?
Commission, yeah.
Right, okay.
So Ridley Funeral Home
was commissioning art about grieving
this wonderful young artist
who's going to a very prestigious school
in New York City, Rob.
Something Cooper?
Cooper Union.
Yes, Cooper Union.
Her name is Dessa and we did a live
recording with her at Lakeshore Arts.
People should listen to it because it was
wonderful and they're doing great things at
Ridley Funeral Home. I just dropped
the June Memorial episode
courtesy of Ridley Funeral.. I just dropped the June Memorial episode, courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home.
I dropped that yesterday.
I also dropped an episode in the feed.
I had a wonderful person on named Andy, but just before that, I had an episode I dropped
with the name of somebody who I'm kicking out today.
So I'm not going to spoil it in case you haven't heard it, but it will go back.
Like when you hear me kick out a certain artist, go back and listen to the episode named for this artist.
It's just a few days ago.
I enjoyed your Life's Undertaking episode
when you were thanking...
What's his name?
Life's Undertaking?
His name is Brad Jones.
I'm sorry, Brad.
It's okay.
I'll fix this in post.
Everything's leaving my head.
I'll fix it in post.
Fix it in post.
But you were thanking him for your birthday,
or your anniversary.
Oh, yes. He paid for my... That was a very nice episode you were thanking him for your birthday or your anniversary. Oh, yes.
He paid for my...
That was a very nice episode
you did with him, though.
Thank you.
That was cool.
Okay, thank you.
I'm going to make sure he knows.
And your Joni Mitchell episode was...
That's the spoiler!
Oh, I'm sorry.
I just went to such great length.
Yeah, but...
But you can now...
It's fine.
Can I compliment you on it now?
Yes, I'm going to kick off
some Joni Mitchell.
Go ahead.
But that was a really neat
little thing you just stuck in there
for like a 15-minute episode.
It actually took me less time
to record that episode from scratch
because it wasn't even scripting
and speaking and editing and dropping.
Less time than it takes
to consume that 15 minute episode.
I know.
Because I don't listen to the music
in real time, right?
So I drop it in.
Oh, right, right, right.
So it was fantastic.
I think I put it together
in like 12 minutes
and the whole thing's 15
and people seem to love it.
And I might do more of that through the summer.
Cause I get these ideas and I go downstairs and I cook it up.
Just do them because you can just do it.
That should be the slogan for Toronto.
Mike,
just do it.
Let's shout out the new mayor of Toronto.
I know this is a Burlington guy and he now lives in New York,
but Bob and I live in Toronto.
Bob,
we have a new mayor.
Yes.
Congratulations to Olivia.
Do you think she's listening right now?
She might be.
You never know. Maybe she's having some toast right now? She might be. You never know.
Maybe she's having some toast.
Maybe.
And maybe she's at live.torontomic.com.
You don't have to log in, right?
Maybe she's there right now.
So did I see Mike Layton on the stage with her?
Did I see Jack's son?
Probably.
Yeah.
And I actually, FOTM Jeff Merrick at one time dated Sarah Layton, who was Jack's daughter.
They actually lived together at one point.
And I got to know the Laytons.
And Mike used to come out to the Zen Lounge, actually,
on Friday nights, the odd time Mike Layton would be there,
who was a former city...
I don't think he's a city councilor anymore.
And they always spoke very highly of Olivia.
I've never actually met Olivia,
but congratulations to her.
Very happy for her.
It's interesting you mentioned
the Merrick connection to the Laytons
because I had Richard Underhill on the program.
That was a good episode.
Thank you.
Richard Underhill is the Shuffle Demons guy,
but they were very involved in Jack Layton
and Olivia Chow when they were MPs.
And just every tweet I said about Richard Underhill was liked
right away by Jeff Merrick.
So that whole, he's still like tapped
in and loving that scene.
Even though he's all Stovall, he's still a
left-wing communist.
We prefer socialists.
Yeah, no, I'm communist.
By the way, there were a bunch of music.
I had Simon Law on.
That was a good episode too.
I spent all my time listening to Toronto White. Apparently, that Law on. That was a good episode too. Thank you.
Rob, love it.
I spent all my time listening to Toronto White.
Apparently,
that's all you do
is listen to Toronto White.
Do you not listen
to any other podcast?
Before I get to
the first Canadian Jam,
I have to shout someone out
who listens to every episode
and is current
and I have to tell you
a little story on that.
This is important.
But I do want to say
that I had on,
who did I have on?
I had on Simon Law
from Soul to Soul.
Right.
And then I had on Living Colour's own Vernon Reed.
It was like back to back to back.
Shuffle Demons.
You do with the international rock stars
or international music stars with the Soul to Soul
and the Living Colour.
Look at you.
I've gone international.
And at least one of them was in the basement.
So you have to guess which one.
Okay.
So catch up on your Toronto mic.
Rosie was the original co-host of toronto mic we're going back now uh 11 years okay rosie ferguson is her name she acts now like you see her in things she's just always acting and
she's doing background on some um who's superwoman what's the Superwoman? YouTube star. YouTube star.
Superwoman.
I believe she's from Scarborough.
You don't know her name.
This is terrible.
Should I go to the live stream?
Someone's probably yelling at me.
No, they're not.
I'm on it right now.
Man.
I think they're just as confused as we are.
No, come on.
What are you saying?
There's a famous...
Lily Singh.
Oh.
Okay. Why do you call her Superwoman a famous... Lily Singh. Oh. Okay.
Why do you call her Superwoman?
Isn't she Superwoman?
Am I crazy?
Doesn't Lily Singh have a nickname?
But Lily Singh, isn't she a host of a show now?
I think that show might be gone now.
Superwoman is like her nickname, okay?
Okay, you're right.
Superwoman.
This is actually how I originally knew her, was as Superwoman.
Okay, so Lily Singh is in a show.
Rosie's in it.
There's some extra there who hears her voice
and goes up to her and says,
are you Rosie?
And then Rosie says, yes.
And then this person,
who I'm going to name in a minute,
says, are you Rosie from Toronto Mike?
And she goes, yes.
And this person said that they have listened
since episode one.
Never miss an episode.
They love it.
He was particularly touched by the Mike Stafford episode.
And I want to shout out this person.
I couldn't remember Lilly Singh's name,
but I will not forget the name Mike Fitzpatrick,
who I'm told lives across from Dimitri's in the condo.
Shout out to Mike Fitzpatrick.
I believe he's a hundred percenter, as they say on the show.
That's nice.
He's a good FOTM.
Good FOTM.
And it's 1,285 episodes.
Yes.
All right.
And another happening yesterday on Canada Day,
before we get to the Canada Day jams,
is that Twitter broke for me.
I was just going to ask you about that.
How are you guys doing with the Twitter?
Do you care?
Do you notice?
Did you notice?
I can't.
I must have hit some cap that they put in.
For whatever reason, there was a cap on how many tweets you could see.
Yeah.
Because I don't pay, I guess.
I have a smaller cap.
And I hit the cap like just right away.
And I already hit it today.
I can't even read my own tweets.
Really?
I can't even go to my own profile and see my tweets.
It says I hit some cap.
And to me, that's a non-functioning app.
And I don't have time for non-functioning apps.
Fuck that.
No, I don't.
Twitter is one of the things I check, but it's not a mainstay for me.
I haven't ever reached the limit.
I don't even know there could be.
I don't think there was
a limit until recently
because when you were
talking about it yesterday,
I saw the things
you were writing about it
and then I went to look
and I saw a lot of people
saying the same thing.
It sounds like
they have imposed
these limits all of a sudden
depending on whether
you've paid or not.
There's a lot of theories
out there.
One is that they didn't
pay their Google hosting fee
or something.
Which the deal was over
at the end of June.
So on July 1st,
they simply didn't have the,
uh,
yeah,
the servers or whatever to handle the load.
It's so weird.
There's a lot of theories out there,
but it's just dumb,
right?
Like,
I mean,
to me,
it's like,
how do we take our super users and force them to spend less time on this site?
Yeah.
And I got so mad.
Okay.
So as you guys might know,
there was a not so secret,
uh,
FOTM DM group on Twitter.
I had a moment of like, fuck this Twitter.
And I uprooted the whole group out of Twitter.
So it was like forcing a bunch of FOTMs onto Twitter
to participate in this exciting chat.
And now it's a WhatsApp group.
Like I literally yanked it from one billionaire
and I handed it to another.
But it functions.
Yeah.
I mean, the functioning is the important part
because like if they're imposing...
Thank you.
I mean, if people want to blame Elon Musk,
so if he's at the top of the chain
and he's making decisions,
then he's an idiot too, right?
And I'm sorry that he is like trying to lose people
from this thing by like trying to get people to pay for it
and make it worse.
I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know how anybody's going to,
I mean.
Nobody cares.
Like people are going to eventually
just not care anymore.
Well, that's what happened to me.
I realized I don't care anymore.
Like I love this app
for a long time,
but you know,
now we're in the post-Cam Gordon era.
Right.
And it always had like,
it wasn't feeling as good
and it was already,
you know,
because Elon's an idiot,
but it still functions.
So it's like,
as long as it functions, I can't find an alternative as good, it was already, you know, because Elon's an idiot, but it still functions. So I was like, as long as it functions,
I can't find an alternative
as good,
but I could find
an alternative as good
for the DM group.
For that.
So that's moved
and I'm just waiting
to see what happens
when they make
Blue Sky available.
We'll see.
Anyway,
fuck Twitter.
Two days in a row now,
it hasn't worked for me
and that pisses me off.
And shout out to Cambrio
who just says,
shout out to Andy.
That was the episode,
A-N-D-I, Andy. Trans Rights. there's a whole trans rights episode of toronto mic with andy that you should
check out cool and dan jay i want to say uh wish him well in his recovery from stomach surgery
because he's recovering from stomach surgery and now all he can have is a melba toast so he is
trying to enjoy some that's not toast yeah yeah. Yeah. No, that's not toast, right?
That's just the brand name.
Okay, let's get to some fucking jams.
This was a tough one.
Checking my notes.
Sad to see Fred Van Vliet go,
but anyone who heard Hebsey on Sports
knows I thought the Raptors
should sell everything
that wasn't nailed down
like before the deadline.
Like sell everything.
This is not a team
that was going to win.
Like just get something
for these parts and then maybe get a better lottery pick.. This is not a team that was going to win. Like just get something for these parts
and then maybe get a better lottery pick.
And they decided not to do that.
They even added to the deadline.
I'm not saying I know more than Masai.
I obviously do not.
But we got nothing for Fred Van.
He's gone.
We got nothing.
Good for him for getting what he got though.
Holy moly.
The list of guys that he's getting paid more than
is ridiculous.
I saw that.
And I mean, I'm glad the Raptors didn't give him what he wanted getting paid more than is ridiculous. I saw that. And I mean,
I'm glad the Raptors didn't give him what he wanted.
Cause like,
what is he getting?
40 million or something like that?
He's max,
right?
Like he's getting league max.
All right.
So we're going to get to the,
this is not it because I'm going to ask Rob to kick out his first jam.
I'm just,
when I was running down our nine jams and I have a few bonus jams,
whatever,
but glaring omissions,, left, and center.
Oh, for sure. Of course.
And then I was thinking, how are we not
kicking out this?
Even if it was the Neil Young version, then you can kill
two birds with one stone or whatever.
But there will be no
four strong wins in today's
episode of Toast. I don't know about
you, gentlemen,
but I tried to go a little bit off book
because of Snowbird, Four Strong Winds,
Harvest Moon, or Harvest.
But then these people get Hanson.
Do you know what that means?
Hanson.
Yes, I know.
But I'll say I didn't include any Tragically Hip,
even though I know I could have.
I could have named any number of Tragically Hip songs.
Of course.
But then now we have an episode of Queen of Central Canadian Jams
without any Tragically Hip.
There will be no Tragically Hip.
We already said no Sloan.
There will be no Neil Young.
No Anne-Marie.
No Anne-Marie.
What the fuck are we doing?
We're too cool for school.
I don't know.
We're trying too hard to be cool.
Well, the fundamental problem is there's too many choices.
Yes.
And so to narrow it down in some way, at a certain point, I just have to go, I just need to choose.
Throw a dart.
Yeah.
So literally, when I sent you my three choices, I had already made a list of like 12 or 13.
And I was like, I think I'll narrow it down to these.
And then finally, I was like, fuck it.
I'll just give you these three.
And they're still not my top choices,
but I love them
with all of my Canadian heart.
And I,
yeah.
Sorry.
Go ahead,
Mike,
you were about to.
Rob,
I was going to ask Rob Pruce
if he's ready to kick out Jam 1.
So you finish your thought
and then we'll get into the actual jam.
Oh no,
I was just going to say,
I kind of went the same way.
I was,
I could,
I could kick out a Tragically Hip song,
a Neil Young song
and like,
oh, let your backbone slide. I was thinking about, that was on my list. I could kick out a Tragically Hip song, a Neil Young song, and like, um...
Let your backbone slide.
That was on my list.
That was on my list. But no, I could do
the hockey song.
We could have done that.
And the Shuffle Demons have a great version
of the hockey song. Oh, I did not know that.
You should listen, Richard Underhill.
I know, I should listen as much as Rob Bruce listens.
Exactly.
I love Rob Bruce for a reason, okay?
All right.
Now, speaking of Rob Pruce, let's get to it.
We wasted enough time.
Rob Pruce, are you ready to kick out your quintessential Canadian jam?
Are you playing him in the order I sent him?
Yeah.
Then this beautiful opening should speak for itself.
Maybe.
Is this the right one?
No.
Wow. Wow. Sitting stoned alone in my backyard
Asking myself why should I work so hard
Sitting dreaming about the days to come
Half undressed just soaking up the sun
Sitting here I hope I don't get fried We'll be right back. Sunny days. Oh, sunny, sunny, sunny days.
Ain't nothing better in the world, you know,
than lying in the sun with your radio.
That says it all.
Lying in the sun with your radio?
Nothing better.
Talk to me, Rob Proust, about lighthouses.
Sunny days.
You know, this is one of these songs from my childhood.
I was like six or seven years old when this was on the radio.
And so for the rest of my life, I associate this song with summertime.
And it's like a Canadian feeling to me.
I don't know why.
Even living in Canada all my life,
when this song would be played at the start of summertime,
and you're like, oh, it's Canadian summer.
It feels like a Molson Golden commercial.
Molson Goldson. mean yeah for sure and it's it's the sound of the early 70s the sound of pop music in canada with the horns yeah and it's just a feel-good kind of a song and like lighthouse
was like canada's uh chicago exactly yes totally yes for sure totally cam gordon likes to play this
game where it's like take the big american thing and what's the canadian Yes, for sure. Totally. Cam Gordon likes to play this game where it's like, take the big American thing and what's
the Canadian equivalent?
Yeah, for sure.
But then you get beautiful songs like this that are like timeless, fun, like just feel
good songs.
All right.
So I'm going to bring this back to a station that Bob will let you work at here.
Can you guys tell me how this band ties to CFNY?
Somebody from Lighthouse was on the air at CFNY.
I think a little on the air for sure, but also was in like sales, I want to say.
Skip Prokop.
Oh, okay.
Drummer Skip Prokop, yeah.
And yeah, drummer Skip Prokop.
He's a founding member of Lighthouse.
Definitely worked at CFNY.
Like I said, I think he was in sales and he had a show on, I think.
I believe he's the lead singer of this
song as well, actually. Oh, really?
Yeah. Nice. I like drummers who sing.
I know. How come you sound unsure, though?
Because I'm not 100% sure.
I'm 90% sure.
But also, the piano, the opening
was inspired by Count Basie, which you can sort of...
I thought Oscar Peterson had that vibe.
Paul Hoffert playing piano.
Very nice.
Very nice.
And this song is everywhere
because CanCon rules, right?
Yeah.
This would have come out...
What do you have to say
about CanCon rules?
Well, we could talk for hours.
That's his expertise.
Yes.
This was 72.
72.
So that's the year
actually they started
the whole Maple, or the idea of maple
is where that where it started anything pre or at least where i don't know when maple came in i
think 86 or but yeah prior to 72 all you had to be is the artist that's it interesting but that
and you just had to live here right yeah that's in that episode that was the heart thing heart
thing yeah heart and uh rick james has a bunch of stuff that's can con yeah um cool yeah
um do you think and i think i i think this is true like we appreciate again talk about canadian
quintessentially canadian yeah we appreciate that summer feeling because some are so fleeting here
maybe that's why i don't know i never thought like a hundred percent bob it means more to us
because we know like for the 12 weeks if we're lucky we get summer
we have like we just soak it up like it's a like a drug because because we love winter because
we're canadian as well but you're right when the when the weather changes we're like oh my god this
is amazing which is why you why do we live here this is why we love summer songs and it's a nice
way to that's there's a nice way to kick off the all the jams there and i have a bonus jam here that i'm going to tie in here so that was lighthouse's sunny days that was
a big hit that was even a top that was a top i think top 40 hit on the billboard hot 100 i have
to go check where it peaked but that was a big hit for lighthouse and i mentioned skip pro cop
worked in radio he was at cfny for a spell and let's listen to this for a moment
sky don't just stop
i was wondering if you could help me i would like two sky dogs please
some sky nuts a sky pop and a couple of those Skyperkers.
But it says right here on my ticket, Skybox!
Straight up these stairs, sir.
Whoa, this is too high for a Skybox.
Went to the Dome on a summer day
to catch the game and watch the Jays.
Bottom of the first, we were ready to play.
It was down the pipe and he swung away.
It was going, it was going, it was pop, pow.
Jumped to my feet and I started to howl.
I yelled, hey Jays, let's play ball.
Then he smacked it so hard, he smacked it through the wall.
Okay.
Jays.
It's another great season with the Jay's again
Soaking up the sun
This is a
One of those Variety Village
Charity CDs
That I actually have a few in my
Drawer here
I love these things
In like the late 80s, early 90s
And this song was called
Sunny Jay's
So obviously named after
Although not a cover
Right
So I would say FOTMs like Captain Phil Evans had a role in this production.
But this is, yeah, I don't know what they credited it to, the 102 Singers or something.
Mr. Goolhead.
So Bob Ouellette, Rob, you might know this, but Bob Ouellette was the producer for Humble and Fred.
The last CFNY producer, right?
No, the last producer on Terrestrial Radio.
I didn't produce them on CFNY.
I was an associate producer on CFNY.
Okay, so were you producer on Mojo?
Yes.
Okay, okay.
And I was producer on Mixed 99.9, yeah.
My condolences, okay.
R.I.P.
R.I.P.
R.I.P. my crew.
This is Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred doing his goo head. I have never heard this. R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. my crew. This is Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred doing his goo head.
I have never heard this.
I've heard so many.
I partook in many Humble and Fred parody song.
I have never heard this in my life.
That's crazy.
Yeah, this is goo head, for goodness sake.
I know.
I was wondering if you could help me.
It's a long song.
This breaks all the humble and Fred rules for parody songs,
which was like no more than a minute and a half.
Like no more.
Wow.
I noticed I see the CD.
I've seen this.
Oh,
it was credited to CF and wise Fred Patterson and the 102 crew.
Yeah, amazing.
It's on this one, actually.
Yeah, it's on this, too.
That's how good it is.
It made two CDs here.
Okay, so we're off to a roaring start.
I love hearing references to Sky Dome.
Always.
That makes me think of Summer in the City.
Hot times! I'm not a Canadian. Oh, I think at makes me think of Summer in the City. Hot times.
I'm not a Canadian.
Oh, I think at least one member of that band is Canadian.
Summer in the City.
Okay.
We're going to let this song take us into Bob's first jam.
You ready, Bob?
I think I should actually...
Say something?
Yeah.
So this song, 99.9% of you do not know this song.
What? This is a... But I think you do not know this song. What?
This is a,
but I think it's a quintessential song.
So it is,
should I,
should I,
I'm going to say,
you know what?
Here's the thing.
This is a song by a Canadian singer songwriter
by the name of Sean Sage,
who happens to own Vital Planet,
the health food store up here on Lakeshore,
right here in Etobicoke.
I know it very well.
That's a new Toronto institution.
Yes.
Vital Planet. He owns it. I went to's a new Toronto institution. Yes, Vital Planet.
He owns it.
I went to high school with this guy
and he has two albums.
He's with a band now called The Creamers
and they gig around out here.
But here's the thing.
When I was thinking about
what is to be quintessentially Canadian,
quintessentially Canadian song,
there are so many talented singer-songwriters
who gig around the city.
There's a whole singer-songwriter scene
throughout the Danforth.
Blair Packham.
All these wonderful places
where you can see these people do this.
And this particular,
this is off his album called Misadventures in Song.
And this song is actually about
what we used to do in high school.
And it's called Stan Wadlow Park.
Oh, wow.
And that's where you were last night. And that's where you were last night.
And that's where I was last night.
And it is about doing shrooms.
Oh, cool.
It's very cool.
We'll make it to the morning.
We'll see the light.
Because there's magic in these mushrooms.
And they're working right.
Let's go and get crazy
Under starlit sky
Cause it looks like it's a good night
To be young and high
Stan Wadlow Park is empty
Just me and my friends with me
Our pockets full of beers
As we head down the stairs
To the Don Valley
Cause that's where we'll be
Tripping out tonight
By the way, I'll get our bucket of beer
right after this.
Yeah, yeah.
We're walking Lots of shit we're talking We all get our bucket of beer right after this. Yeah, yeah. It's exactly what we need We'll make it to the morning
How recent is this recording?
He did it in about 15 years ago.
Yeah, it's been around, yeah.
All his music's available on Spotify.
That's really cool.
It's timeless, though.
It is, yeah.
It reminds me of the great Sean Sage.
S-H-A-W-N Sage. So here's the thing. I invited him to come do it live. Oh, though. It is. Yeah. It reminds me of the great Sean Sage. S-H-A-W-N Sage.
So here's the thing.
I invited him to come do it live.
Oh, cool.
Like it would be the first time that somebody would kick out a jam live.
Amazing.
And he was too nervous.
He had better things to do.
No, he was too nervous.
He was like, I'm too much of a spaz.
That's because the guy from The Spoons, you should have said just me and you.
That's true.
It's true.
Once you tell him the keyboard is from The Spoons.
That's right.
And I like the sound, though.
It reminds me of like The Grateful Dead and the Flaming Lips.
That's my next.
Yeah, I hear a bit of Flaming Lips in there.
Sure.
His voice reminds me of, when they came out, the Glorious Sons lead singer.
So his first album was called One of the Good Guys.
Cool.
And he's got a song called Marijuana and Alcohol on there, which is also a very quintessential Canadian jam.
Wait a minute. So the guy who's all about the shrooms, he's all about the pot, and he's got a song called Marijuana and Alcohol on there, which is also a very quintessential Canadian gem. Wait a minute, so the guy who's all about
the shrooms, he's all about the pot
and he's got the health food store.
Love it. You need to balance
your life to keep him.
And that is all like herbs.
Herbal, yeah, exactly. It's all natural.
Bob and I were talking about mushrooms earlier.
All those mushrooms sprouted at the bottom of my tree.
And then you called them magic mushrooms
and I talked about,
was it Babar's dad or Babar?
Who died in Babar from eating the poisonous mushroom?
I don't know.
Did this at all?
No.
My,
my wife's family watched Babar or Babar more than I did.
It wasn't part of my world really.
Is it Babar or Babar?
I don't know.
Babar.
Babar.
Babar.
I watched a lot of Babar.
And I remember I was very afraid of him.
I've never done shrooms.
It's Conan O'Brien and Conan the Barbarian.
Yes, that's true.
Right.
You've never done shrooms?
Babar.
Oh, you've never done it because of Babar.
Because I can't touch.
Mushrooms scare me.
Even to this day, I'm ordering pizza.
I typically, I might eat the pizza if they're on there, but I don't ever choose mushrooms because they killed,
I think it was Babar's dad.
It could have been his uncle, though.
So you should try shrooms.
They're fun.
They're a commitment, though.
And not just on pizza.
Let's do it together.
Next toast.
Oh, can you imagine?
Mushrooms on toast?
No.
No, toast on mushrooms.
Toast on mushrooms.
We would literally do toast on mushrooms. We would have to do it outside.
You would not want to be in this little space
on shrooms. You'd want to get out of here.
You'll take care of me, right, Bob? Sure, I'll hold you.
Peace and love, though, to
1236's own Mark Weisblatt,
who has joined us at live.torontomichael.com.
Finally. What, just now?
Yeah, he's just, I think he was
a little late. Okay, well, better late than never.
He's probably finishing his toast. Exactly. Better late than never. Well, better late than never finishing his toast. Exactly.
Better late than never.
Okay.
So here's what we're going to do.
I'm going to start my jam and then I'm going to get a beer from the fridge.
Uh,
I want to know from both of you.
I want to know if you can,
you can drink earlier than that.
You tell me,
do you want a lager,
an ale or an IPA?
Each of you give me an answer.
I will take the lager,
please.
Lager.
Pale ale.
Okay.
That's a,
the Canuck, right?
You know why?
Because Canadian can't, yes.
It has been said that Canada is the only country in the world
that knows how to live without an identity.
This beer doesn't help much with that.
From the fiercely irresponsible and stereotypical image
on the front of the can
to the sickly American-style beer inside,
we really made a mess of things.
What have we done?
Sorry.
I like that.
Are you ready for my first quintessential Canadian jam?
Yep.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage, and make a northwest
passage to the sea.
Westward from the Davis Strait is there it was said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones
And a long forgotten lonely cairn of stones
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wide and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea
Three centuries thereafter
I take passage over land.
In the footsteps of brave council, where is sea?
Northwest Passage, Stan Rogers.
Okay, gentlemen, we're going to pop these Great Lakes beers on the microphone.
Same time?
Yeah, let's do it.
Coordinated attack.
You ready?
Five, four, three, two, one. microphone. Same time? Yeah, let's do it. Coordinated attack. You ready?
5,
4, 3,
2, 1.
Happy Canada Day!
Alright, cheers to you guys.
Cheers.
I deem this a quintessential Canadian jam.
Okay, let's talk about it.
Did you notice it's acapella?
Yes.
Reminds me of Barrett's Privateer.
Yes, okay.
Which gets played frequently on Toronto Mike's
because every time a Maritimer comes on,
I play Barrett's Privateer.
Especially Keegan Matheson.
You don't know?
Oh, you'll have to put Barrett's Privateer.
All right, so we'll do it as a bonus, Chandler.
But that's one of Keegan-Matt.
It's number one, his favorite song of all time
because it reminds him of Nova Scotia, where he's from.
If you heard it, you'd know it.
Dave Trafford, F-O-T-M, Dave Trafford.
Who you're related to via marriage.
Yeah, does a killer version of Barrett's Privateers.
Wow.
Yeah.
Anyhow, but that's what the acapella reminds me of.
All right,
so I'm going to quickly
set this up
and then I'm going to tell you
a little more about Stan Rogers.
What do you guys know
about Stan Rogers?
I know very little.
I know very little
except that he's
a quintessential Canadian.
Yeah.
I mean, fundamentally,
that's sort of like my knowledge
and every time I hear
this kind of music of his.
Well, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home
because he died very young.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you that story
in just a moment here as I load up
Barrett's Privateers as a bonus
jam. Love it.
And I gotta say, I love this acapella
Northwest Passage. It's moving.
And make a
Northwest Passage to
the sea. How many voices
are there? It's a lot. 27.
Yeah.
So this is the history of early explorers
who were trying to discover a route across Canada
to the Pacific Ocean.
This is especially Sir John Franklin
who lost his life in the quest for the Northwest Passage.
So great history lesson in here,
you know, references to the Fraser River
and the Beaufort Sea and the Davis Strait.
But Stan Rogers died in a Air Canada fire.
So on a flight, Flight 797,
there was a fire.
This is on the ground at the Greater Cincinnati Airport.
And Stan Rogers, who gave us this song and the song I'm playing next for Keegan Matheson.
Stan Rogers was only 33 years old.
So we'll go right out of this.
I got a live version of Barrett's Privateer.
Here's Gordon. go right out of this. I got a live version of Barrett's Privateer. I'll show it to you.
Oh, the year was 1778
How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now
A letter of mark came from
the king to the scummiest vessel
I've ever seen
God damn them all
I was told we'd cruise the seas
for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears.
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett's privateers.
Oh, well, said Barrett, cried the town, how I wish I was in Sherbrooke now.
For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who would make for him the antelope's crew.
God damn them all.
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold.
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears.
Now I'm a broken man on Halifax Pier, the last of Barrett's privateers.
The antelope's crew.
Okay, so this is great.
You know it now?
Yes.
Do you recognize it?
Okay, yeah. The trick, the joke is now? Yes. Do you recognize it? Okay, yeah.
The trick, the joke is,
like if you're in Toronto or whatever
and you just do the first line,
Maritimers will answer.
Like you can tell who's a Maritimer
by if they scream out the rest.
And again, Keegan Matheson kicked it out.
It's fantastic.
So the song, Northwest Passage,
it appeared on the Stan Rogers album that was titled Northwest Passage. He appeared on the Stan Rogers album
that was titled Northwest Passage.
He released it in 1981.
Wow.
And if you listened to CBC Radio's 50 Tracks,
they did that back in 2005.
So that was a while ago now,
but this was ranked number four.
I'm going to entertain you
with the three songs that were ranked ahead of this song,
none of which are being
kicked out today. Are you ready?
Neil Young's Heart
of Gold. We're not kicking out
even though it's wonderful.
FOTM's on this one.
Bare Naked Ladies, If I Had
a Million Dollars.
I asked my
friend Sean to come on. I also reached
out to Steven because I was going to do Brian Wilson
or what a good boy.
I love what a good boy.
And he's in Europe with his family.
He lives in New York State anyway.
But I was going to get him to zoom in
as a surprise.
I talked to Cynthia, his manager,
and she said he normally would do it no problem
because he loves being in FOTM.
Yeah, and Cynthia's sweet too.
She's wonderful.
She's been helpful.
Yeah, she's really helpful.
And so anyways, I tried.
I tried very hard, but now Barenaked Ladies are not on my list.
Even beyond the fact that a few Barenaked Ladies on that song are FOTMs, but in the
chorus that's singing along,
if I had a million, Blair Packham's in there.
Oh, yeah.
So shout out to Blair Packham.
Okay.
The other song that ranked higher than this one on the CBC 50 tracks
they did in 2005 was a song we played earlier,
Ian and Sylvia's Four Strong Winds.
We could have just also taken those two Oh, What a Feeling compilations.
That's quintessential.
There's two of them, and they're both four-disc.
Paddy O' Lanterns.
They're both four-disc compilations.
Oh, What a Feeling, yeah, that's what they call that.
What's interesting, you said this was released in 1981,
but it sounds so timeless.
It's almost like he recorded this song
that was 100 years old.
Well, that's what I mean.
Yeah, the Northern Passage.
I would have never said, if somebody said, what year is this from?
I would have said 60, 70 something, honestly.
I would have never guessed.
But also, it gives me the feeling of a Gordon Lightfoot song as well.
Yes.
Storytelling is just such a beautiful Canadian songwriting thing.
Did you like my shirt yesterday, guys?
My Gordon shirt?
Yeah, I did like your shirt.
You wore that for Canada Day. You wore that for Canada Day.
I wore that for Canada Day.
Or was it for YYZ or for Midtown?
Sure, all the Gords.
All the Gords.
For Gordon Martinow?
Gordon Martinow.
Gordon Depp.
Gordon Shumway.
Gordon Stelic.
Gordon Shumway's not Canadian, though.
All the Gords listed on the first
Bare Naked Ladies album, right?
Yeah.
And you open their up and they're all in it.
They're all listed, yeah.
What are we doing now?
Just a fun little cover I discovered.
This is The Real mackenzie's which
is a band i'm not familiar with but a canadian uh punky rocky thing and they uh they did a cover of
northwest passage i thought i would share with you i'll also tell you that uh when peter zowski
shout out to uh great canadian peter zowski and shout out to ridley funeral home when he was uh
he was the host of Morningside of course
and he asked Canadians to pick an
alternative national anthem
and the overwhelming choice of his listeners
on CBC
was Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers
quintessential Canadian
jam if you ask
me
alright I will now take questions i'm just kidding okay now we're back to oh you know
what i'm glad we're kicking out this song for rob pruse because i met a member of this song
while i am a member of this band i only had a few sips of this fucking beer here. I met a member of this band
while I was watching Rob Pruse perform live in Oakville
alongside FOTM Canada Kev.
Canada Kev, shout out to you, buddy.
He's probably on the shrooms right now.
Are you guys ready for Rob Pruse's second jam?
Can't wait.
Wow.
70s heavy.
Is this a 70?
What year is this?
Did you do any homework, Rob?
Yeah, but I'm saving it.
Oh, okay.
He's got,
he's got his notes and everything.
Shout out to 1150.
Toronto. Wow.
You wanna in Toronto.
I'm in Toronto. time. It won't last unless we just one call. Like a bunch of
lunatics, we'll act our way fast on.
She will be rocking
till our strength is gone.
Yeah, this
be girls all.
And I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and, yeah. I also have, these guys are doing the tour right now. Do you want to have them on the show?
Because I have a friend
who's a publicist for them right now.
Look, I'd have Bob Willett on the fucking show.
I'll have them on the show, sure.
I'm serious.
Yeah?
Sure.
But in person, though.
Unless you're Vernon fucking Reed.
That's it.
All right, Rob Proust,
talk to me about Switching to Glide.
And I want to hear what you say
because it's two songs in one.
Yeah, this is still part one.
And he just referenced part two,
but it hasn't started yet.
You're like a conductor.
You can tell me to bring it up or whatever.
Yeah, here it comes.
Not yet.
But he did just say
Switching the Glass.
You can hear this
on 96.3 Big FM a lot.
For sure.
But it builds and builds
into the next,
like,
I forgot how much it builds
into the next section.
Well, it's kind of a long song, right?
What do you think it is?
Bohemian Rhapsody?
Sort of.
Without the opera.
And it's two songs,
but it only counts as one can con.
I know.
It's like that Green Day song.
The jaded.
Yeah.
You can't separate them.
And Queen, right?
Queen has that too.
We will rock you.
We will rock you.
Yeah.
Where does this beat go on?
Sounds good in the cans, right?
It does, right?
Stereo.
That guy on the left, he's like freaking out.
That guy right there.
That guy right there.
Now he's over on the right.
That guy?
And that guy?
It's like the Isley Brothers shout.
You know?
Yes.
But now it keeps going.
Wait a minute.
And this song sounds like it's wrapping up.
We're only halfway done.
No, here we go.
Part two begins.
Part two's better than part one, I think.
It's the buildup.
Yeah.
It's leading in.
Here it comes.
Here it comes.
Are there keys there?
Oh It's like a march
This is where now
The song begins
Tuesday point of view
Tuesday point of view
Kitchen
There you go
Switching to bike There you go. There you go.
Oh. Wow. Look at those magic figures. I like it. The air keyboard's over here. I'm turning it up, I'm turning it down Oh Wow
The air keyboards over here
That's right
I love that
Switching to vibe
Switching to vibe
Switching to vibe
Switching to vibe Switching to vibe
It's 1980.
80, is it?
Yeah.
So this is...
It's a very transitional sound.
This song is like...
You thought it was a 70s song, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But then part two comes in
and the synthesizers kick in
and it leads into the 80s.
I really believe this is that time.
This is the Kings, by the way, right?
The Kings from Oakville, Vancouver.
Nice.
Yeah.
I wanted to ask you before we go.
Do you have a keytar?
I know, but I played one once on stage.
Did you play one once?
Worst thing I ever did.
Oh, really?
Sorry.
You're playing air keys?
Explain to me.
I'm sorry, Bob. This is serious. How can you be from Vancouver and Oakville? Explain explain to me. I'm sorry, Bob.
This is serious.
How can you be from Vancouver and Oakville?
Explain it to me.
I don't know.
Somebody lived there and then moved to Oakville.
Because even Wiki has decided to say this sentence.
The Kings were formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Oakville, Ontario.
There was no Zoom back then, so what the hell?
I don't know.
Okay.
I thought you might know because you know everything.
Well, I know the guy you met
from the band, Mr. Zero.
I met Mr. Zero.
In Oakville,
because he's lived in Oakville forever.
So that's why I've always assumed
that they were from Oakville.
Well, they are technically from Oakville.
That's a thing.
But they're also from Vancouver.
But they are an Oakville band.
Yeah.
So this song is 1980.
Yeah.
Oh, listen to the silence. It's's nice i like the silence um to me
it's a quintessential canadian song as far as that trend that early 80s kind of new wave thing
and it was a sort of a hit in america as well like in in pockets around the country and i feel like
it's one of the songs that it's the same thing it speaks to people of the early 80s and that sound
but i was looking when i was doing my research it said that it only reached 59 in canada to me it feels like a bigger
hit and maybe it was a bigger hit here in southern ontario you're from burlington right home of 1150
ckoc from hamilton this was hamilton right that this would be a monster oh yeah monster jam on
that top 40 station peaked but it was on the u.s charts it got to number 43 apparently that was the peak almost top 40 but in chicago like alone it was it was a hit it was a huge hit on
all the stations so but it's i don't know i just love this song can i share a story that's not my
story and i'll shout out whose story it is about the kings yeah uh fotm craig venn you've had craig
venn on absolutely craig venn formerly known as lobster
boy he was the producer of uh derringer i worked with him at 94.9 the rock and he did he does the
morning show there still with uh with with mike luck uh he told me this story with the kings
that uh i think when they opened dundas square somewhere around like so q107 had the street
level studio there uh at the old hard rock cafe. And he tells the story of the Kings.
This is his story.
But he's like, they come out, they're playing it,
but maybe not the open.
And they open with Switch and Glide and with-
The beat goes on.
Yes, the beat goes on and Switch and Glide.
And Craig's like, oh shit.
They're like, they're bringing it right at the beginning.
And then they played it again at the end. They played played it twice well we used to play nova heart we used
to play nova heart two times would you yeah we did in the old days yeah like when you had nothing
like were you new like or like you talk about like when no no i mean no i mean it was when it was on
the radio really yeah you just made me remember that but you acknowledge how cheesy i've never
seen a band do that yeah yeah i've heard bands doing it, but I've never witnessed it.
One of the coolest things I ever saw
was the Killers at ACC.
All the house lights on.
All the house lights on. They
walk out on the stage and open with Mr.
Brightside. Come on now. That's cool.
I get chills. Look at my hair.
The arms of my hair is standing.
It was one of the most craziest things I've ever
seen somebody do. I think you too
did something like that
at Maple Leaf Gardens
one time too.
And people are running
to their seats
because they opened
with Bright Side
and so playing Nova Heart 2,
I've never seen a band do it.
That happens quite a bit,
I think.
If you have a couple
of big, big jams,
a monster jam
in your catalog,
you open with one,
you close with the other.
Yeah, I know.
Open with one,
close with the other.
So they close
with Somebody Told Me
or whatever,
but that's fine.
But in the days when you don't have a lot of hits and yet you're kind of, I know. Open with one, close with the other. So they close with Somebody Told Me or whatever. That's fine. But in the days
when you don't have a lot of hits
and yet you're kind of...
You want to get them early.
You get them early.
You want to hook them early.
We never started with Nova Heart
but there was...
Somebody told me
that you have a girlfriend.
Did you ever...
Did you help with set lists?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, we would all
sort of collaborate.
But there was definitely a time
and I totally forgot
until right now
there was some times
that we would come out
and be like
we gotta
we're gonna do
fuck it let's just do
Nova Heart again
you know
and also we had
the drum machine
so we had to have
some preparation
with our drum machine
on a reel-to-reel as well
because that was
our old school technology
right
so we'd have to
like pick a song
we'd put it
at the end of the tape again
but my
you used a reel-to-reel
for your drum machine
yeah in the old days
we couldn't program there was no it wasn't as programmable like a Moog or-reel for your drum machine yeah in the old days we couldn't program
there was no
it wasn't as programmable
like a Moog or something
it was a Roland drum machine
a Roland
when we were in this
this is off topic
we're getting
into the weeds
we're getting into the weeds here
we're deep into the subject
of the matter
I love that
yeah we're deep diving
but yeah we
we did like Depeche Mode
if you see early Depeche Mode
it would be the guys
that their synthesizers
with a reel-to-reel
in the middle of the stage
that was their drummer
and so we started to do that but our drummer Derek played along as well right so I am early depeche mode it would be the guys that they're synthesizers with a reel-to-reel in the middle of the stage that was their drummer and so we started to do that but our drummer
derek played along as well yeah right so i am seeing depeche mode in november nice amazing now
speaking of uh bands opening with their big jam uh tobias vaughn points out that jethro tull would
open with aqualung oh cool is that a hit yeah come. It's an early 70s hit. You know, come on. Didn't they win the Grammy for best heavy metal band?
That's right, yeah.
Jets Rotel's just not a part of my world.
No, no.
They have a flute in the band, right?
Isn't that the whole thing?
Ian Anderson.
Jim Brio is asking
if I'm going to wear a collared shirt
to Cam Gordon's wedding.
And this is on Friday, by the way.
Oh, nice.
And the answer is actually yes.
I would wear a collared shirt to a wedding
because I wouldn't want to embarrass the bride and groom or whatever.
So I won't bike in it.
I'll bring it.
I don't know.
I won't bring it.
I will not wear a tie.
What about a suit jacket?
Nope.
I'm going to wear a collared shirt,
a button-up collared shirt that should be clean,
and then I'm going to wear a nice pair of pants.
A button-up or a button-down?
Button-up.
Well, it depends.
It goes both ways, Bob. Come on. No, but wait. A button-down? A button- button up or a button down? A button up. Well, it depends. It goes both ways, Bob.
Come on.
No, but wait.
A button down?
A button down shirt or a button up shirt?
What do you call it?
I call it a button up shirt because I go up.
I start at the bottom and I work my way up.
You do not.
Actually, you know what?
Do you button from the bottom?
I'm not sure what I do.
That's how it's last for me.
Okay.
No, you know what?
When you put a shirt on,
if you're putting a button down,
button up, you don't...
You start at the top.
Okay, I would like to take another shot at it
because it's been so long
since I've buttoned anything.
I do start at the top.
Thank you.
So I leave the first one.
If you start at the bottom,
you're a serial killer or something.
Do you call it a button down shirt?
Is it a button...
I would call it a button down.
It's a collared shirt.
But also,
but a button down shirt,
I think is the one
where they have the buttons
on the collar.
Right.
Lipstick on your collar.
What happened to those quintessential Canadian songs?
Yeah, let's go.
You said we'll do a tight 90.
That's what he said when I got here.
He's like, oh, we'll just do a tight 90.
We're close.
This is mine.
One, two.
One, two, three, four.
There's no Neil Young.
Nope.
There's no Tragically Hip.
Nope.
There's no Sloan.
But you have to have.
But there will be Blue Rodeo, people.
I hear FOTM Jim Cuddy.
I picked this one.
I love it.
I picked this one.
I love it.
They met in a hurricane Standing in the shelter
Out of the rain
She tucked a note into his hand
Later on they took his car
Drove on down where the beaches are
He wrote her name
in the sand.
Never even
let go of her hand.
Oh, in the Toronto My Calendar right now is
Bob Wiseman is in the calendar.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
Wow.
This song, the recording is so good.
Like, I feel like I'm in the room with them.
It's so beautiful.
Yeah, I don't know who produced this.
I don't know who produced this.
Keillor's harmonies, just insane.
Love the Keillor harmonies. Love Keillor's Keillor's harmonies just insane love the Keillor harmonies love Keillor
on these songs
this line's my favorite
they produced it themselves
oh really
wow produced it themselves. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Wow. Blue Rodeos, five days in May.
You're right.
We're missing some major Canadian bands.
I wanted to include these guys
but this is very Neil Young-esque
especially this part
so a couple things
I wanted to point out
how Canadian we are
when it comes to our music
how many of our great bands have two singers
The Band
Barenaked Ladies
Sloan
yeah
guess who
like all the
all with multiple
lead singers
it's so
it's so Canadian
of us
we'll have more than
one lead singer
different hits with
different singers
yes
different hits with
different singers
yeah
which is
like I mean
obviously the Beatles
yeah
but beyond that
find me like another
like find me another
international band. It's
very Canadian. Cars.
Oh, yeah. Well, they have one song.
Rick O'Cossack and the guy who did Drive.
Ben Orr. There you go.
Shout out to Ridley Funeral for both of them.
And they produced the fucking Weezer.
That's right.
Weezer's playing Bud Stage on Tuesday night.
Yeah, my brother's going.
My nephew's going.
It's a whole thing.
I want to go now. So 1987, I was 11 years old, and Try comes out.
And I remember seeing it on Much Music all the time.
It was about Much Music.
Go!
Yeah.
And that was what Blue Rodeo was to me, was just Try.
For sure.
In 87, and for many years.
Yep.
Until the early 2000s, when the Humble and Fred show.
2000s?
Yeah.
You missed like Diamond Mine?
All of it.
I didn't.
Oh, I love that.
Blue Rodeo was not part of my life.
Okay.
Until I go to Mix 9999 and they played a ton of Blue Rodeo.
Sure, of course.
And I get there and the first weekend was like a Blue Rodeo winning weekend or something.
And I listened and I was like,, my God, these guys got amazing.
It's really great.
Yeah, beautiful songs.
So I get to know them, and Blue Rodeo's greatest hits is, again, we've talked about this before.
I am not too embarrassed to admit a lot of the music that I've come to love is through greatest hits compilations.
They're the best.
Yeah.
So got to know them, and I think this is a quintessentially Canadian song. I're the best. Yeah. So got to know them and I wanted to,
I think this is a quintessentially Canadian song.
I could have done
Lost Together.
I could have done any,
like so many.
Bad Timing is one
of my favorites.
Oh my gosh.
But I wanted to share
that because I got to do
what I think is one
of the most Canadian things
I've ever done in my life,
which was stand on the stage
at Massey Hall
and quote unquote introduce Blue Rodeo.
Wow.
Yeah, when I was at Mixed 1999.
That's a big deal.
Because Brother Bill got to use Sloan
and it's like forever mine.
Ladies and gentlemen, Sloan!
I have a story about that too.
That's a story I need too.
I'll tell you.
I brought my mom.
We are in the middle mezzanine.
But right before I'm talking to our friends at Warner Music with Steve Cody and Ken Green is the shout out to Ken Green.
Good guy.
He's like a radio rep for he's the one pushing all the music to us radio people.
And he's like, bingo, brother.
Come on, let's go.
He's like, come beat me down.
Hulk Hogan.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
That's the way he talks
and he says uh do you want to come he goes i can't you can't intro the band but when the
opener leaves the stage you can come out say hey i'm big above from the humble french show here's
what's going on and in a few minutes blue rodeo i'm like i will definitely do that well so i got
to stand on i could still it's burned into memory. I wish I was standing on the stage at Massey Hall.
Nervous as hell.
Yes, of course.
Saying,
hey, I'm making a ball
for the home run project.
And saying,
in like 15 minutes,
Blue Rodeo.
Yeah.
It was one of my,
yeah.
So that was.
You had that view.
Yes.
I got to see it.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
That was amazing.
This band is amazing,
by the way.
So glad you're kicking
out Blue Rodeo.
I think this is a tremendous band.
So good.
The great combo of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keeler.
Keeler's so dark.
The jam stuff in there.
They're just a cool fucking band.
Yeah, everything.
And this is a great song with a confusing title, of course,
because you're kicking out...
Five Days in May, and the album is called...
And the album's called Five Days in July.
Yeah, that's right.
But I did...
Everybody, I need to now tell you
that there is a wonderful
conversation with Jim Cuddy
in the Toronto Mike Archive
live at the Woodshed.
I went to him. That's right. Didn't you bike across town
with all your shit? Yeah. River...
Riverdale?
Riverdale near the East End.
Where the Archies live.
Yeah, where Archie is.
It was a long way to bring my gear
but I wasn't going to zoom with
fucking Jim Cuddy no disrespect
I wanted to do it in person
Jim's such a good guy
in the east
remember a few years ago there was the horrible Danforth shootings
and a young woman died
and there was a
very grassroots gathering in a park near my house and
Jim showed up and played.
Yeah.
Like, like just him and a guitar.
Just like he had heard.
He seemed like a neat guy.
Yeah.
Um, it's quickly the Sloan story.
Yeah.
So, um, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Sloan.
And they go into good and everyone.
Good and everyone.
Oh, cool.
Right.
So that's brother
bill neil morrison song yes so i am with 94.9 the rock a couple years ago and there sloan is pay is
playing uh the band shell at the cne yes for free okay and uh you go if you go to cne you get to see
them for free i had just interviewed the trans canada highwaymen oh cool which yeah i was the
first person to interview all four of them at once.
Wow.
Can you name the four?
Oh, of course.
They're all FOTM.
Moe Berg, Stephen Page, Odds Guy.
Craig.
Yeah.
Northy.
Craig Northy and Chris Murphy.
So I went to their studio.
I went to Sloan's rehearsal space and interviewed the four of them.
So I knew Chris a little bit.
So I go backstage
and I was like,
yes,
so I'm back there
talking to the guys
and I was like,
you know,
I got to do the
Brother Bill thing
and they're like,
okay.
And so I did.
I got to stand on stage
and I said,
ladies and gentlemen,
would you please welcome to the stage
Sloan?
And they opened with that song.
Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. I was like, thank you please welcome to the stage Sloan! And they opened with that song! Amazing.
Amazing.
Thank you again.
Much love to Brother Bill because famously, because I promoted
the hell out of it, he was finally going to be
in studio and we had in
the end of May. Yeah, what happened?
His mom passed away.
That's right. I did know that.
Sad news for Bill. We're thinking of you, brother. Oh, that's right. I didn't know that. Sad news for Bill.
We're thinking of you, brother.
And yeah, we'll have to reschedule his visit.
Yeah.
That was like my second time.
The new wave, right?
Yes.
That was PPM.
Oh, right.
See, I think I did my first episode with you.
That was the series I missed because I did resurrect Toast.
Progressive Melodies.
Obviously, we're doing it right now.
But Progressive Melodies, Progressive Past of Modern Melodies. That's right. obviously we're doing it right now, but progressive melodies, progressive melodies, progressive past of modern melodies.
That's right.
Was one of the things that died when Cam tapped out,
Cam Gordon.
I mean,
not Cambrielle.
So I never did bring back progressive past of modern melodies,
but we should bring it back.
Yeah.
We brought back toast.
Yeah.
I couldn't live without toast.
And here we are.
Look,
there's me and brother Bill right there.
I said our vaudevillian act of sideburns and goatees didn't work out. I couldn't live without toast, and here we are. Look, there's me and Brother Bill right there.
I said our vaudevillian act of sideburns and goatees didn't work out.
Were you like 18 in that picture?
No, that's... I'm probably 20.
I'm probably like 26, 27.
That's a good picture.
26, 27, Brother Bill and I.
I was a friend, and then...
Yep.
Oh, here we go.
Is this you?
This is my second jam.
Quintessential Canadian jam.
So you started with Stan Rogers and you went to Gordon Lightfoot.
Are you quintessentially Canadian?
Yeah, he's like, he's really, I love it.
Unabashedly.
I like a little history in my music.
I love it.
I love it.
And don't worry, I won't play all 18 minutes of this thing. And when the young man's fancy heart turned
I'll come back because it's just relentless.
It's like nautical disaster style.
It just waves against you.
He's a storyteller.
So, the late, great Gordon Lightfoot.
At this time in his career,
he looks to me exactly like Chris Pratt.
Yeah, I can see that.
It's the cover of this album.
This is Canadian Real.
And this is here.
This is it.
Anyway, I really dig this song.
I really dig this song.
Yeah, okay.
So we're going to get to that because absolutely.
So shout out to future President of the
United States, Chris Pratt. I think there's
no doubt about it. I have no doubt in my mind. Really?
I have no doubt in my mind. I think Dwayne Johnson will be
President before. I don't know.
He literally married a Schwarzenegger.
I think
Chris Pratt will be President of the United States one day.
But, you know, who knows? Okay.
Who knows? We may mark this moment in time.
Yeah, maybe we'll come back to this. That's right.
I can't be the first.
Okay.
Once he married the Schwarzenegger, I said, oh, I see what's going on here.
Okay.
Okay.
This is a, like, again, a story song, much like the Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers.
So this is Gordon Lightfoot, and it comes out in 1967.
Did you know, guys, this is a big fun fact.
You ready?
It comes out in 1967.
Did you know, guys, this is a big fun fact.
You ready?
This song that we're listening to right now,
Canadian Railroad Trilogy, was commissioned.
There's that word again.
Commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
a.k.a. the CBC,
to celebrate the Canadian Centennial in 1967.
They paid him to make this song?
Yep. Wow, that's about as Canadian as you can get.
CBC commissioned this song from young Gordon Lightfoot
With a bunch of red $50 bills
With the Mounties all in a circle in the back
God damn CBC
They should defund them they're commissioning songs like this that live forever
We should triple the fucking funding
Jesus
You know that because when Pierre Pauly went off
Oh that's a free market just do the news or whatever
Almost the next day CTV is like
CRTC,
can we stop doing news?
Can we not do news?
Yeah.
Can we just not do that now?
Triple,
quadruple the funding
to the fucking CBC
with a nice mandate.
Blanket this fucking
country in news.
Yeah.
Can we not do the news?
Of all the things
that deepfired.
So they spend money
to make this,
to ask Gordon
to write the song.
Yeah.
That's what you do
as an artist.
You commission things.
Okay.
Much like Brad Jones was commissioning Dessa for the grieving work there at the Lakeshore Arts. song yeah that's what you do of art is you commission things okay much like brad jones
was commissioning dessa for the greeting work there at the lakeshore arts so this story if you
haven't heard it's a great song it describes the building of the trans canada canadian pacific
railway the cpr and it was completed in 1885. Anyways, this is the...
It merged with the Kansas City Southern Railway,
and it's like now the Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
It's quite interesting.
But I'm going to play a little fun fact.
So shout out to Gord Lightfoot.
Actually, before I...
Maybe what I'll do is before I bring this down
and bring in a little fun fact,
I can tell you that Gord
re-recorded this track
for his 1975 compilation album
Gord's Gold.
Nice.
Yeah, version number two.
Right, it's got full orchestration.
Oh, okay.
So, same song, but more fuller.
It's fatter.
It's fatter.
It's fatter.
I played a tribute to Gord yesterday.
What did you play?
We played Carefree Highway.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So I saw the year that he was inducted
into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
at Canadian Music Week.
He was at the Royal York,
Fairmont Royal York was the big gala dinner.
Yeah.
And it's full of radio and music people.
And normally you cannot get people to shut up at this.
It's like the hosts have the hardest time.
Gord comes out on stage.
You could hear a pin drop.
He played three songs acoustic.
And it was amazing.
Everybody's like, it's fucking Gord.
You shut your goddamn mouth.
Wow.
I almost don't want to truncate it,
but I did say a tight 90.
We're going to do a tight two hours.
I'm changing it to two hours.
Tight two hours.
Happy Canada Day, guys.
It's about as Canadian as it gets.
Yes.
You're hitting us right over the head with it, aren't you?
You're like maple syrup and beavers.
Beaver tail.
Right.
Toast.
He said toast.
He said toast.
I heard toast.
He said toast.
That one breakfast beer goes right to your head, eh?
Jeez.
Fun fact, I was on a Zoom this morning So I've already had a full day
I had a Zoom with Ben Mulroney this morning
Wow
I met Ben when he was very young
Like a child
Like yeah, when his dad was prime minister probably
I played at 2466 Drive
Nice
Get out
For the prime minister
Yeah
Was it like a Canada Day thing?
It was a benefit.
It was like a charity thing
with Jeff Hislop.
Functioning special
which ties back to the museum.
Oh, so you were playing for him
and he was doing like...
They were doing a fundraiser
like a ballet.
Not national ballet.
It was a fundraiser thing
and Jeff sang songs
and I played for him.
For the Prime Minister
and his wife and the kids.
Just a typical day
in the life of Rob.
Yeah, it's just a Rob.
You know, whatever.
24 Sussex, you know.
I can't believe
I wasted my time
with Stu and Cam
all these years.
They'll be back.
Here we go.
Too silent
to be real.
That was guitar.
I know.
What are you doing?
What's your bone?
Come on.
We're all too young for this nostalgia, though, unfortunately.
I'm not.
1967?
Yeah.
How old were you in 1967?
I was two.
Almost two.
I was pushing two.
Pushing two? I'm pushing to. Pushing to.
I'm pushing to.
This is another, so we mentioned Canadian Railroad Trilogy was for Canada's centennial in 1967.
A lot of shit happened for that 100th birthday party of Canada in 1967,
including this jam, which if you are of a certain age,
I think you're too young to be very honest with you, Rob Bruce,
but if you're of a certain age, I think you're too young to be very honest with you, Rob Bruce, but if you're of a certain age,
I think this jam would hit you
right in the nostalgia feels
because I think they force fed this down
the throat of a lot of students in 1967.
This is Canada, the
Centennial song. But I think it's one of those songs
once it started in 67, every
year it came back. So
by the time I was 4, 5, 6, 7, whatever.
This was weeded out by the time Bob and I were old.
I did.
Was it really?
I've never heard this in my life.
What?
No.
Oh, for God's sake.
Yeah.
You guys.
Not that much younger.
I'm only 10 years, but I've never, I don't know it.
Aren't you two like three years?
No, you just had a birthday.
What did you turn?
Me, 49.
Next year.
Next year.
Big one.
We're having a big celebration next year.
We're at Great Lakes Beer.
FOTM 50. Yeah. TMLX.
Who's in the East End with the Great Lakes Beer truck? Troy. Oh, okay.
Troy's an East Yorker.
He parks by my kid's school
all the time. Troy's an East Ender,
and he was buds with Brad
Bradford. Is Brad Bradford your counselor?
Unfortunately.
So I'm curious. Okay.
So we talked. Olivia Chow won that election.
Anna Bailao came
in a strong second.
And then everyone else is in the wake.
Mark Saunders, we all laughed at that at the end.
Okay. So by the way, Anna Bailao
FOTM. Yes, I know.
I don't know if Rob knows
because he's in New York. He's not following.
It doesn't matter to him.
But Brad Bradford came on.
He's an FOTM.
And I got to say this.
I listen to Brad Bradford.
I enjoyed my hour with Brad.
I'm sure he's a good guy, but I don't like his politics.
And I don't care for his...
He would...
Like Anna Balao, if you ask me, would be more of the same.
We would have the same mayor that we've had since Rob Ford.
If it was Anna Balao or if it was Brad Bradford. These people would be the same as John we've had since Rob Ford. If it was Anabalo or if it was Brad Bradford.
These people would be the same as John Tory.
Yes, 100%.
100% without a doubt.
That's my opinion.
That's just like my opinion, man.
I've got a dude
I've got to bring it out. I have a dude picture
around the corner. Big Lebowski.
Rob Pruess, any words
before your final jam
in this quintessential Canadian episode?
I feel like you and I
are the start and the end
of the quintessential sounds of Canada
because you're playing
Stan Rogers and Gordon Lightfoot
and I'm playing these kind of songs.
And I think they sort of go together
to represent...
Yes.
You can talk over your jam.
That's all I got.
You can hit the post.
That says it all.
Did you ever work in radio, Ron?
Nope.
Only just visiting radio stations.
I haven't worked in radio either.
Can you believe it?
No.
Let's see if Bob wants to hit the post.
He kicked this out on The Rock, right?
No, I wouldn't have played this on The Rock.
We played it on 96.3 Big FM in Kingston.
It's been number one, four out of the five books I've been there.
Really?
Yeah.
And you didn't hit the post.
I wasn't trying.
I'm not on the air anyway.
It's not allowed.
It's a union shop.
Not allowed on the air.
Management.
Well, that's bullshit.
I miss being on air.
That's why I come here.
I'm going to make some calls.
I'm going to make some calls. That's why I come here. I'm going to make some calls. I'm going to make some calls.
That's why I come here.
Take some calls.
Here, let's listen to this.
The lines are open.
Yeah, because no one's heard this song in a long time.
That's right.
But it's quintessential.
Shout out to Elvis Presley.
Ah, TCB.
With that lightning bolt.
Yeah.
On the plane, right?
And shout out to Barb Poluskowicz.
And apparently Randy Bachman started trying to write the song when he was still in the Guess Who.
And Burton Cummings was like, I'm embarrassed. Talk to us then about this quintessential Canadian jam.
Taking Care of Business by BTL.
Bachman, Turner, Overdrive.
1974.
Almost 50 years old.
That's the year I was born.
Yeah.
So this is why this is a good song.
74 was a great year for music.
Shout out to Richard Nixon.
Yeah.
Wow.
Music, music, music, not politics.
I believe that's the year he was.
I am not a crook.
I am not a crook I am not a crook
you're a regular
rich little
see the year you were born
I have a memory of seeing
Richard Nixon on television
and my grandmother
like saying Robbie
who remembers me
in like two three years
no I was nine
I was eight
but he left the White House
I was at my grandma's house
and she's like
Robbie this is
you're gonna remember this
it'll be in history books
one day
so
do you know his middle name
Richard Milhouse
correct
because it's from
the show to the Simpsons.
It's a Simpsons character.
BTO.
This jam, I feel,
is one of the few jams
I would actually,
because I like hearing songs
over and over again.
This is when you don't.
This is when you don't.
You would turn it off.
Shut her down.
I'm just saying,
this song is overexposed.
Yeah, it is.
It's just too much.
Yeah.
But it's Canada. Yeah. It's quint too much. Yeah, but it's Canada.
It's quintessentially Canadian.
I'm shitting on your quintessential Canadian tune.
I don't mind.
I don't mind at all.
All right, tell me about Turner for a minute.
We all know Bachman, okay?
Fred Turner?
Guess who?
Yeah.
It's Tina Turner, strangely enough.
No, I'm kidding.
Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.
Who was Fred Turner?
Am I asking you tough questions?
Yeah, I don't know.
Okay, okay. I don't know. Okay, okay.
I don't know.
Tell me what you've got.
BTO.
So it started off with the name was White Collar Worker.
Those were the original lyrics.
Speaking of collared shirts.
Yeah, exactly.
And Randy had played it over and over and kept trying to jam.
And apparently one night at a club, he decided to take the lead vocal.
And they were like, this is going to work. And they played the song over and over and over. And the and apparently one night at a club he decided to take the lead vocal and they were like this is going to work
and they played the song
over and over and over
and the audience was
doing the sing along
and they were like
okay this is good
so they were just
jamming it out
jamming it out
oh cool
they had no more songs
and they were like
let's do this song
and so he realized
we should record this
and capture this
he was just a guy
in Winnipeg
who was like
in a bunch of bands
I'm talking about
Fred Turner now
who went by they credited him as CF Turner for Charles Frederick Turner I remember that name just a guy in winnipeg who was uh like in a bunch of bands i'm talking about fred turner now who
went by they credited him as cf turner for charles frederick turner i remember that name on the record
credit cf turner yeah but he uh i guess what happened was randy bachman went to his friend
neil young and asked him for some advice for his new band and turn Turner was asked to join the band Brave Belt. I remember that.
In 1971.
And that's what,
so Brave Belt is the reason that there's a Turner BTO.
Randy Bachman had a show,
the Vinyl Underground.
Vinyl Tap.
Vinyl Tap, right, yeah.
I had a t-shirt for many years.
On CBC.
And then we picked it up at Chorus for a while.
Yeah.
Not now.
But I don't know
if Randy's in the best of health.
But he's touring with his son.
Oh, is he touring?
With Tal.
I believe they tour together.
I think I read that.
I saw him play in New York
like maybe five or six years.
But I think
there's an active tour
with Randy and Tal.
I don't.
Am I wrong?
Like this year?
I have to,
I'll Google it
during this great jam.
It's almost done and there's
you know
Randy for years
told the famous story
about the piano player
on the song
and his story
became sort of
apocryphal
he was like
a guy was delivering pizza
and he was in the studio
and he heard the song
through the door
and said
you guys need a piano
in the song
and he played the piano
and it was it
and it was done
and that's like
the old wives tale
that he told for years
which was a cool story but apparently the guy his name was norman durkee
who played piano on the song he was a like a really uh accomplished pianist like doing sessions
next door oh okay and but he did say why don't you let me throw some piano down so they literally
played it a few times and he played and so for me this song when i was nine years old it was the
first rock and roll song that i played when I was in my first band.
And I got a blister on my finger doing a glissando down the piano.
Because you were doing it so much.
I was trying to play the song.
I was so excited to be playing the song in real life.
And I went like on the song and I bled on the piano.
There you go.
A little blood, sweat, and tears.
That's right.
And Canadian.
Another Canadian.
Canadian content.
I could have been.
Absolutely.
They didn't make the list.
Spinning Wheel.
What goes up?
Spinning Wheel.
When I Die.
That's a great song.
When I Die is a great song.
Well, when we do
Next Canada Day
when we have our toast
sequel.
When you listen to music now, Rob,
do you,
and there's no piano or keys,
do you sometimes go,
I could hear,
like if you hear a song,
do you ever like go,
like that guy who was like, oh, in the studio. But like when you, if you hear something on the hear like if you hear a song do you ever like go like like that guy
who's like oh yeah in the studio but like when you if you hear something on the like whatever
somebody say could you ever picture something in it i could if i had to yeah but but sometimes i
appreciate not hearing keyboards okay like i've i guess because like work right well no but because
i love the sound of guitars too okay like i mean i love you know rock and roll songs yeah with no
keyboards right as well just as much.
So just listening is good enough.
But your friend's song that you played, the first song, your first choice,
I could hear keyboards in that. There was no
keyboards in that.
No.
I mean, it's produced here.
I told Sean to come.
Sean, where are you?
Shout out to Vital Planet.
Now, breaking news, Leslie
won a contest on
Chum FM by
being able to
finish the
lyrics to
Taking Care
of Business.
Bachman and
Bachman performed
as recently in
Brampton at the
Rose Brampton
Theatre.
Oh cool.
They performed
on March 24th
2023.
Okay so this
year.
So I don't know
I hope he's doing
all right.
I don't know I
had heard but
if he was you know what
if he's
because there's a bunch of times
we're supposed to get
some new episodes
and we didn't
but maybe it was just
because he was touring
who knows
who knows
good selection
because that is a monster
Canadian jam
I'm sorry you don't
I know
it's a great jam
I might have played it
on your show before
maybe that's why I'm sick of it
you keep playing it
okay
you know
I think about Canada,
right?
Very diverse country.
I mean,
you know,
this room right now
is full of white faces.
Yeah,
we're like middle-aged
white dudes here,
but...
Pasty white faces
everywhere I look
in this basement right now,
but that's not the Canada
I know.
And I'm glad Bob,
thank you,
Bob,
for kicking out a jam
that doesn't belong
to a pasty white Canadian.
No, that's kind of my point.
You're ruining my.
Oh my God.
You want to kick it?
No, do it.
All right.
That is not it.
Oh my God.
Okay, well,
I thought that was the Troubadour version.
No?
No.
Just like the one from the first.
This is not it.
No, this is not it.
All right.
No, this is the World Cup version. Okay, I got lied to on YouTube. is not it. No, this is not it. All right. No, this is the World Cup version.
Okay.
I got lied to on YouTube.
Okay.
Don't yell at me.
Hold on here.
This is important.
Yeah.
I want the original.
Not the Coca-Cola.
You want the Chubidor version.
You want the Chubidor version.
Yeah.
This is not it.
Hold on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ignore it.
Just don't listen.
I listened to this on the way in today.
Oh, really?
Uh-huh.
Like the album or the... No, just the song. Oh, it was on. And I was thinking about it. So don't listen to it. I listened to this on the way in today. Oh, really? Uh-huh. Like the album or the...
No, just the song.
Oh, it was on.
And I was thinking about it.
So this is really cool.
Talk about anything you want while I get myself shit.
So this is K-Nan.
And this got optioned.
It became the official World Cup song at one point.
K-Nan, of course, is a Somali immigrant to Canada.
And his uncle was a poet in Somalia.
Yeah.
His life is a true Canadian life, if you ask me.
He came to Canada, and English is his second language.
And he's become this amazing rapper, singer, performer.
And I know FOTM Jarvis Church is producing a new album with him.
That's good news.
Jarvis Church gets a shout out on Troubadour
on the album because he helped
K-9 out. K-9 had his
first album with the dusty
putted philosopher.
Very good by the way.
I know you love Take a Minute.
Take a Minute is on the second album.
Yeah, on Troubadour. Take a Minute is one of, yeah, I've kicked it out.
I think I've kicked that out on here, haven't I?
Yeah.
K-Nan's got a really interesting story.
You know, he kind of felt like he was blackballed at one point.
So he did the Troubadour and then he did the album that followed it up.
And he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he basically called out Universal Music for,
because he had, yeah, he got called.
They were saying, you know, if you just used more relatable stories and more relatable
names, essentially more white names, and which if you listen to the song that he did with
Nelly Furtado, it's really kind of like a watered down version of a K-9 song.
And he kind of hates it.
Wow.
And so he wrote this full, that's it.
Even that. That's better. Yeah full That's it Even that That's better
Yeah that's it
You're playing dope
Both
You're still
It's like a train wreck
Of all train wrecks
Shout out to KDX Brewery
One breakfast beer
Here we go
There we go. There we go. Learn from these streets, it can be bleak. Accept no defeat, surrender, retreat.
So we struggle then, fighting to each.
And we wonder when, when we'll be free.
So we patiently wait for that fateful day.
It's not far away, but for now we say.
When I get older, I will be stronger.
They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag. And then it goes back, and then it goes back. I like the Troubadour version better too, Bob.
I do, I do.
But I will say,
because I got a nine-year-old
who's obsessed with soccer
and I hear that other version all the time.
That other version,
that World Cup 2010
is what Troubadour is. And there's also the version with all the time. That other version, that World Cup 2010 is what...
And there's also the version with all the Canadian pop stars.
Like Bieber.
There's a version with Bieber.
Bieber at the end.
Yes.
That was big.
That was for Haiti.
That's right, really, for Haiti.
But the SEO has been ruined by this Coca-Cola version
or the South Africa World Cup version.
That the Troubadour version has been kind of buried.
I had to go hunting for it, but here it is.
Yeah, this is really cool.
Yes.
This is the album version.
Yeah, yeah.
So when this album came out,
is it 07?
08?
I was the program director for 1039 Proud FM,
for the gay radio station in Toronto.
And I got serviceiced to the album
by Chris Garcia
of Universal Music.
Yeah.
And I listened to the album.
They were pushing
a different song.
I can't remember
as the first single.
And I listened
to the whole album.
I'm like,
oh my God,
this album is so,
honestly,
I would put this album
as one of my top
10 favorite albums
of all time.
ABCs.
ABCs.
There you go.
Yes.
And I was like,
that's not going to fly.
I'm proud. I heard Waving Flag. Yes. And I was like, that's not going to fly. I'm proud.
I heard Wave and Flag.
Yeah.
And I was like, how good is this for the LGBTQ community?
Like, Wave and Flag?
Let's wave our flag.
Yeah.
So I can say with pretty much with like very good certainty, I programmed the radio station
that played this song first on the radio in Canada.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's an amazing claim. That's amazing. Yeah. I played it. As soon as I heard it, I'm like, station that played this song first on the radio in Canada. Yeah. Yeah. That's an amazing claim.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I played it.
As soon as I heard it, I'm like, we're adding this.
And Universal Music got mad at me.
They're like, it's not the single yet.
We have plans.
I'm like, I don't care.
This is what I'm playing.
ABC's, by the way, fun fact, featured Chub Rock.
Yes.
Okay.
And I know you love Take a Minute, and I'm here to second that.
Take a Minute is a wonderful song.
Yes, and that album right there.
I'll be listening tomorrow.
Yeah, no, it's an amazing album
from beginning to end.
There's some great features on this.
Kirk Hammett from Metallica
has got a feature.
Kirk is Filipino descent, right?
Yes.
I have to shout that out every time.
There you go.
Shout out to the Filipinos.
And there's an actress
who is Filipino descent
who was my guest
on Toronto Mic'd last
week, Isabel.
Ready for this? You know what her last name is? I'm almost going to faint.
Rob, catch me. I'm fainting.
Kanaan.
Wow, what a connection.
She taught me. You do a
pause between the two A's, but
her name is Kanaan.
And we just listened to Kanaan, and this artist's name is...
Except instead of the
apostrophe in Kanaan,
you would put an A,
and it would be the exact same last name
as this Filipina actress
Kanaan. There, continue. I can't
believe that. He's a very smart
man, Kanaan is, and his
lyrics are unbelievable. There's also
Damien Marley's featured on
this album wow and uh yeah oh maroon five guy um adam levine adam levine is featured on yeah it's
a it's a great album but so you can see the progression of from his first album to this album
yeah uh which i saw him do uh at the phoenix concert theater so that was amazing and uh and
then the third album comes out and he just, he hated it. He hated the pressure
that he got from the label
and he wrote that,
you can still find the op-ed,
you can New York Times op-ed.
I gotta find that for sure.
Yeah,
and he basically just said,
I can't be what they need me to be
and it's,
how long has it,
it's been 15 years
since he's released anything.
Really?
But I,
yeah,
it's like he's blackballed.
But it's interesting
because like I told you,
I was listening to this song
on the way in today,
driving,
because I was thinking about
what we call quintessential Canadian
songs. So when I played
actually in 2017 for
Canada's Sesquicentennial
150? That is Sesquicentennial.
That is Sesquicentennial. Because I remember in 1984,
I played for the Sesquicentennial in the softball,
the Renny Park Softball League, and that's because Toronto
turned 150 in 1984. So in 2017,
I did a gig
at Spencer Smith Park
in Burlington
with the Burlington
Symphony Orchestra
and I orchestrated
two spoon songs
and so Gordon
performed Nova Heart
and Romantic Traffic
and then I played
with the orchestra
and my friend
was the conductor
and I played
piano with the orchestra
and we played
like the homecoming
like Canadian stuff
but Wave and Flag
was one
we played theme
from Hockey Night in Canada Wave and Flag was one of them and i was like what is this song i
don't really know this song so and i think it's one of those things for me living in new york
there were certain cultural things that i sort of missed so getting to know the song at that time i
thought this was something that and you're not a soccer fan and i'm not really a soccer fan it's
everywhere no so i sort of missed nine-year-old soccer fans know this song yeah yeah and he i mean this is a quintessentially canadian yes story yeah and a totally quintessentially
canadian song yeah because again this guy's english is his second language amazing and he
wrote this unbelievable album it's just phenomenal so i thought i had to kick this out great and again
not just a bunch of old white dudes yeah no thank No, thank you for kicking out. It's a great jam. This is Canada.
That remix that's fucking up the SEO
for the Troubadour version
is called
The Celebration Mix.
Yes.
That's the name of it.
And Will.i.am
is involved in that remix
and David Guetta.
Wow.
David Guetta.
Guetta, yep.
Not Guetta?
No.
Got to get a Guetta.
Does he know
he's saying it wrong?
He's sure.
I nailed Anabalow.
Yeah.
Okay, I can nail David Guetta.
It's David Guetta.
Okay. And yeah, so I highly recommend David Guetta. It's David Guetta. Okay.
And yeah,
so I highly recommend
if you haven't listened
to that album,
listen to it.
I'd be listening.
It's very,
very smart hip hop.
It's just,
and it's great pop music.
Wow.
We have one more jam to go.
Yes,
let's do it.
Let me see how close
we were to our tight 90 today.
It's going to be a tight.
We're at 145 right now.
Oh,
not bad.
It just feels longer.
Yeah,
it's a tight 100.
That's because you're bored. Okay. Because it's a nice Sunday and you want to get your ass out tight. Oh, not bad. We're going to be about two hours. Oh, it's not that bad. It just feels longer. Yeah, it's a tight hundred. That's because you're bored.
Okay.
Because it's a nice Sunday
and you want to get your ass out there.
I don't know.
Is it nice it was raining earlier?
Oh, I don't know.
I don't know.
We're in a basement with no windows.
I have no idea.
Well, that's the thing.
We're in the south.
Oh, what do you mean we had a tornado?
I had no idea.
Okay.
So I teased I would play some Joni Mitchell
and I released an episode earlier this week
called Joni.
You can find it in the Toronto Mike feed.
You should be subscribed.
Okay.
Let us listen to the Joni Mitchell song.
I'm kicking out to you on this Canada Day episode of Toast. Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star and I said
Constantly in the darkness. Where's that at? If you want me, I'll be in the bar. In a blue TV screen light I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh, I would still be on my feet I have a guttural emotional reaction to this song.
So bear with me, gentlemen.
Okay, Case of You by Joni Mitchell.
This is on Blue.
Blue came out in June 1971.
Joni Mitchell wrote this song.
Joni Mitchell produced this song in its entirety.
I understand the great James Taylor can be heard playing some guitar parts in this song.
Shout out to Sweet Baby James, which is essentially why my firstborn's name is James.
Because I love that song so much.
Okay.
This song may have been inspired by Joni Mitchell's relationship with Graham Nash.
It all comes back to Neil Young when I think about it, actually.
It all finds a way.
In 2011, Joni Mitchell was voted the number one female artist.
And this song, this song, A Case of You, was voted the number one female song by listeners of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.
Wow.
This is a quintessential Canadian song,
not just because it's one of our greatest singer-songwriters who should be appreciated while we still have her.
But I can say the same about Neil Young.
I can say that about Neil Young.
We've now lost Leonard Cohen.
We've lost Gordon Lightfoot.
We still have Joni.
But that great line we heard earlier,
the map of canada canada
in 2021 this was listed as the number 26 song on rolling stone's top 500 best songs of all time
okay so 500 best songs of all time in 2021 which is only a couple years ago. Rolling Stone says this song, Case of You by Joni Mitchell
is number 26. Wow.
That's cool.
Can you cue up Prince's version?
Have you heard Prince's version?
Are you new here, Rob Pruce? Don't you think
I have Prince's version? He's ready to go.
I'm going to let Joni finish
and I'm going to roll into Prince.
The key difference being that Joni Mitchell
spells you Y-O-U.
Yeah.
And of course, Prince spells U with just the letter U.
So Joni will take us home and then we'll hear some Prince.
And then I have another fun bonus jam for us Gen Xers here. I'm a lonely painter
I'm a lonely painter I live in a box of paints
I used to be frightened by the death
And drawn to those ones that weren't afraid
Remember you told me love was touching souls
Surely you touched mine and part of you was
I mean from time to time these lines
In my bloodline, holy wine
You're so bitter, so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you all day.
I'd still be on my feet.
I'd still be on my feet.
Who am I to judge Prince?
Yeah.
But he does skip that great Canadian.
I was just thinking the same thing.
I thought, is he going to talk about drawing a map of Canada?
No, he skips that.
He starts it later in the song.
What did this appear on?
Was this on an album or was this a...
He did a covers album in the 2000s.
And he just used to play this song live all the time.
Oh, okay.
Once he started doing his solo concerts.
How many times have you seen Prince live, Rob Bruce? I saw him on the Purple Rain tour first time. Once he started doing his solo concerts. How many times have you seen Prince live, Rob Bruce?
I saw him on the Purple Rain tour first
time. I went to Buffalo
Memorial Auditorium and saw him with Sheila E
opening. I
saw him on the Love Sexy tour in
Toronto. I like to say I met him
but basically
he was standing at a table where I was standing
and I turned around and he was right
there and I said, it was a great show tonight, and he said, thanks.
And then I turned back.
Did you look him in the eyes?
Yeah.
You're not allowed to do that, you know.
I know, but I did.
Maybe that's why when I turned back in, he was gone.
He was gone, just like in Purple Rain.
By the way, in my life, I've never been told, don't look somebody in the eyes.
But if ever in my life somebody says, don't look someone in the eyes, I'm going to stare
them in the fucking eyeballs.
Like that, I'm just going to stare in their eyes right can you imagine the audacity i know there's so many
stories in the eyes yeah no i don't have like we're all human beings on this planet we're all
here for a short time i have no patience for don't look me in the eye but the best thing about prince
and joni mitchell that the connection for me was that i never really started deeply listening to
joni mitchell until I heard that Prince loved her.
Oh, wow.
And then it was like in the late 80s
into the 90s
and I read an interview
and they said,
who was like your biggest influence?
And he said, Joni Mitchell.
And I was like, what?
Joni Mitchell?
And then it occurred to me
that I should go back
and that was when I started going back
and really listening to the whole discography.
Woo, let's appreciate Joni while we have her
because we don't have Prince anymore
She just did a show the other day
Was it Red Rocks?
No, I can't remember where it was
With Brandi Carlile
Yes, who I love
Brandi Carlile is insane as well
She's so talented
They brought her out
She's in good form
It's good to hear
A little bit of this.
Not Prince, but this one does have the Canada verse.
So let's listen here.
You can tell me who you think it is.
It's Jewel.
It's Jewel.
It's not Jewel?
Totally sounded like Jewel there.
It did.
Jewel sounds like her.
Oh, it's Tori Amos.
Oh, there you go.
It's a new TV screen light.
I drum up Canada.
Oh, Canada.
With your face sketched on it twice
I had the biggest crush on Tori Amos.
It was ridiculous.
I thought she was the...
I was just like, who is this magical creature?
Wow, okay.
She's amazing.
I don't want to creep in.
All right, this is about Joni Mitchell,
quintessential Canadian jams.
How was it,
guys?
Do we feel
we've celebrated
this wonderful
country?
Well, we've
scratched the
surface.
I mean, really,
we're on the ice.
Yeah, where's
the Dream Warriors?
Well, there was
no Neil Young
and no Tragically
Hip on this list,
which I think are
like two glaring
omissions.
We played too much
Tragically Hip on this show.
We played a ton of Tragically Hip on this show.
We've done entire episodes
of Tragically Hip. I know you have.
So you are correct.
It's hard not to
include... Or you know what?
I considered Gord Downie's solo stuff
off Coke Machine Glow.
I'm a big fan of that. But you only get three
songs, right? No, exactly.
That's the limitation.
I think we're
very fortunate to be from this fine country.
It is not perfect, but
it's better than most.
And we got a lot of work to do and a lot of...
Do you ever feel how lucky you are? Like, we could have
been born anywhere. We had no say in the matter.
And think about it. We were born in...
You're Burlington?
Burlington, yeah. But we were born in the... We were born in, you're Burlington? Burlington, yeah. Okay, but we were born in the, for Bob.
We were born in Toronto, Ontario.
Yep, St. Mike's Hospital.
Yeah, St. Joe is here.
Joseph Brand.
Toronto, okay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Like, we won the sperm lottery.
And the egg, too.
Yeah.
You know, they're both there.
I give credit to the sperm.
Yeah, because you're a middle-aged white man.
But let's appreciate the guys who come here.
My dad is from Germany.
Yeah.
He moved to Canada, and then, you know, it's like...
There you are.
We are made up of people from around the world,
and this is what makes us who we are.
I think about...
So, because I'm like an eighth or ninth generation Canadian.
Like, my family, we're loyalists.
I can do that on my mom's side, yeah.
Yeah, on my...
I can go back.
I don't know about knowing.
Yeah, like the 1780s.
Yeah.
Wow.
William Lyon Mackenzie. Yeah, like the 1780s where we were, yeah. William Lyon McKenzie
in your family.
Yeah,
like honestly,
like I have,
like they go,
like they were like
Pennsylvania Dutch
on one side
and yeah.
But I think about
my grandfather
on my mom,
on my,
on my,
on my mom's side.
Yeah.
He's from rural Ontario,
like north of Napanee area
and he should have been
conscripted.
He should have been drafted
but because they had a farm, his dad like applied because they needed him to keep the farm running.
So imagine if he had to go to World War...
I might not exist.
You know what I mean?
If he went to World War II, I might not exist.
It's just a little thing.
His father kept him from going to the war to keep the farm going.
And it was one of those things.
But yes, we are very fortunate.
I love this country.
A little sick of the traffic in the city,
but you know.
Get a bike, Bobby.
But this is why we got all the good music.
While you're stuck in traffic,
you're playing the music.
Oh, like you said,
this country is far from perfect,
but it is better than most
and I'm proud to be here.
Yep.
I'd say maybe Denmark.
I don't know where else.
I don't know.
Yes, one of those, like Norway or Sweden or Finland or apparently Sweden especially.
But you get like, what, eight weeks holidays when you start working?
That's pretty good.
Tori Amos taking us home.
Happy Canada Day.
Happy Canada Day.
Happy Canada Day.
2023.
Thanks for having us again.
Yes.
Oh, we should.
Oh, we'll talk after what we're going to do for the next one.
We'll make a plan.
Yeah.
On July 10th,
a gentleman named Simon Head,
who directed the new Lowest of the Low documentary,
is going to be in the studio along with FOTM Andrew Stokely,
who's going to kick out his 10 favorite Lowest of the Low songs of all time.
And we're going to talk about the band,
and we're going to talk about their legacy,
and we're going to talk about the documentary, and we're going to talk about their legacy, and we're going to talk about the documentary, and that's happening
July 10th.
I was waiting for
applause, maybe.
Well done.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you,
Bob Ouellette. Continued
great work in the city of
Kingston, which is an important city great work in the city of Kingston,
which is an important city with regards to the history of this country and
Confederacy. First capital. First capital in Canada.
First capital of Canada.
Kingston, Ontario.
Continued success. Still low on the Danforth
though, you know.
But you're saving radio in Kingston.
Doing my best. You're doing a great job. Doing my best.
And Rob Pruce.
Yes. Sounds like you kicked ass
and took names last night in the
Burlington... Hey, I'm going to be playing in Ottawa
at the end of the month. I'm doing a gig
in Ottawa July 22nd at Bar Robo.
Nice.
Maybe I'll make the drive from Kingston. It's not that far.
Maybe Bob and I will do a road trip. There you go.
It's not that far. Get up and sing a song with me.
Imagine a road trip. It's me, Bob Ouellette,
Cam Gordon, and Stu Stone, and we head to Ottawa.
Come on.
That sounds like a movie.
I'd bring you all on stage.
Oh.
Yeah, because...
Well, Stu apparently signed some multi-picture deal of Hollywood Sweets.
So maybe he'll bring his cameras, and we'll record that.
Do you guys have an idea for what you want to talk about the next host?
I had an idea.
I don't know if you've done it though.
Only because I have a couple in mind.
The best songs
with a sax solo.
We did it.
You did it already?
Not the best sax solo, but a song with a sax solo.
Okay, but that's what we...
If it's like this... Careless Whisperer. I knew but that's what we did. Oh, you already did it? So the songs like this, if it's like this,
Wham! Careless Whisperer. I knew you were going to do that.
Bruce Springsteen.
What's the big one
with the fucking sax solo?
Not the river.
What's the fucking one with the river? Okay, so you've already done it.
Never mind. I thought it was going to be fun. Alright, never mind.
We did do sax songs. Did we do instrumentals
ever? Instrumentals? Yeah, we did.
Songs About Words is how Cam likes to talk about it.
Songs without words.
We'll talk right afterwards.
Thanks for being here
for the 18th episode of Toast Canal Vote.
I don't think it works that way.
But regardless, thanks for being here.
I have a couple of words to say.
And that brings us to the end of our
1285th show
now here's where it gets awkward because you can follow me on
Twitter at Toronto Mike
I'm doing some promo
tweets but I can't read your stuff
unless you reply to me I can see replies
I just can't see tweets that aren't
replies it's kind of fucked up over there
the DM group is now on
WhatsApp. If you think you belong there,
send me an email, mike at torontomike.com.
But I am on Twitter
as at torontomike. Bob is still
there as at bobwillette.
And of course, the great Rob Pruce is at
robprucex.
Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at
Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at
Palma Pasta.
Moneris is actually at Moneris.
But I just remembered that Moneris did a three-month deal when they dropped the new season,
and they're actually not sponsoring July's episodes.
But shout them out anyways because they're good people.
And I will say, if you would like to sponsor July episodes of Toronto Mic'd,
hit me up because there's an opening.
Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada.
The moment lab or at the moment lab and Ridley funeral home are at Ridley F H
see you all next week when I'm going into my calendar right now to find out
what's going on. When I speak with, oh, this is very
interesting, Bob. My next
guest is Carrie Oliver,
the face of the Shopping Channel
and daughter
of Fergie
Oliver. There's no
in there. It's two syllables.
Fergie and Catherine. So right.
And that's her parents. Yeah.
I know. Isn't that amazing?
Okay.
So Carrie Oliver and then my quarterly with Ed Keenan. We'll talk about the election and everything.
See you all then. Thank you.