Canadian Content Report
A whole whack of squibs about 11 1968-1995 songs from the Great White North
True story: My sister Emily in Michigan and her husband Jeff have the unusual travel goal of wanting to visit every NHL arena in Canada without actually attending any hockey games in them. A few months ago Emily told me that they were therefore planning to see Triumph (sort of a Double A ball version of Rush) at Winnipeg Jets homebase the Canada Life Centre, to which I immediately replied, “You know what’d be really cool? If April Wine opened for them!” To which Emily immediately screamed “THEY ARE!!!” I swear I’m not making this up. The concert happened May 5 (Cinco de Mayo across a different border), and Emily later told me they had a great time and she was amazingly surprised to recognize as many songs by April Wine as by Triumph — including one, “I Like to Rock” from 1980, she always assumed was by Sammy Hagar!
Otherwise, since writing the condescending tidbits below (for a Toronto alt weekly no less), I’ve become a moderate fan of both Bruce Cockburn’s and Chilliwack’s catalogs. Also wound up owning two whole April Wine LPs, and one by Trooper!
Uh, Rough Trade’s singer was a *woman*, which makes the lyrics about “she makes me cream my jeans” a lot more eventful, especially on the radio in 1980 (the song made the top 10 up here).