Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023), "Seven Islands Suite"

No, this isn't turning into a music blog. It's that every week lately seems to bring news of the death of a musician I've loved. I'm 77, so it's not surprising that many of the musical idols of my younger days,  of whom a good number were ten or so years older than me, are now reaching their actuarial expiry dates.

I loved Gordon Lightfoot both for the quality of his songs and for the fact that his voice was in a range I could handle. I've told this story before. In conversation with Lester Bangs of beloved memory, who disdained any music that wasn't a "full frontal assault", I confessed to liking Lightfoot. Lester gave a dismissive "Hmph!" He said something like, "I know Gord. Do you know what he does when he's trying to write a song and needs inspiration? He goes to a hardware store and stares at the labels on cans of paint." That night, when I got home to my apartment, I pulled out my Lightfoot albums and scanned the song titles for color imagery. None there. 

The video is of Lightfoot doing my favorite of his songs, "Seven Islands Suite", at Massey Hall, Toronto, in 1974.    

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), "Suzanne" solo and with Judy Collins

Leonard Cohen, songwriter, singer, novelist, and poet--probably best known for those talents, in that order--died today at 82. Was he Canada's Bob Dylan? Their careers ran roughly in parallel, and there were similarities in their talents, but also differences in their works. Dylan's lyrics and music have their roots in American traditions running from Walt Whitman to blues hollers and Appalachian ballads. Cohen's seemed to me to stem from French symbolist and English romantic poetry, with perhaps a touch of Jewish mysticism. He observed the Sabbath along with, late in life, becoming a Zen monk.

The first song of his I knew was "Suzanne", written for his friend Suzanne Verdal, a dancer who lived in a warehouse made into a studio on the bank of the St. Lawrence River. In the clip above, he sings it solo, after a spoken introduction in which he tells how he was cheated out of his rights to it.


The first version of "Suzanne" I knew was by Judy Collins, from her album In My Life. It was played on WBCN, Boston's first "underground" album oriented rock FM station in my delirious spring of 1968 when, as a Florida resident of many years, I had endured my first Massachusetts winter and, being helplessly but hopelessly in love, saw the earth come again to life. I was fortunate to find the clip above, in which Leonard and Judy joined in the song.

Erratum and addendum: when I wrote this, I assumed that the song "Suzanne" was about Suzanne Elrod, mother of Cohen's two children.  Thanks to my friend Stephen Crews Wylder, I now know that it was about Suzanne Verdal, a friend from before he met Elrod, and I've corrected the post above to reflect this. Stephen gave a link to this NPR piece, which tells of the origin of "Suzanne", explains that the reference to "tea and oranges" is to Bigelow's "Constant Comment" tea, and tells the story of the tea's origin. By coincidence, the agency where I've been working keeps a supply of Bigelow teas in the break room, and of late I've become fond of Constant Comment. There's more about Cohen and Verdal here.

TBT: Leonard Cohen, "Bird on a Wire."

Leonard Cohen, the Bard of Montreal, turned 81 this week. He is a poet, songwriter, singer, and novelist (Beautiful Losers). I first knew of him from listening to Judy Collins sing his "Suzanne" on WBCN in Boston during my law school years. It almost made me want to be Canadian.

 
The clip above shows him doing one of his most popular songs, "Bird on a Wire," and a favorite of mine, live in concert in London.

Neil Young sings Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds." Happy Canada Day!

One great Canadian singer and songwriter performs a song by another, with some help from Willie Nelson.

Goodbye, Levon Helm

An Arkansas boy, Levon Helm joined up with fellow Razorback Ronnie Hawkins and followed him to Canada where, with the addition of some Canadian musicians, they became Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, and spread the gospel of rock 'n' roll in the Great Frozen North. Later, sans Hawkins, they became Dylan's backup band. Then they became The Band, makers of so much sublime music. The clip above, thanks to PBS, shows Levon drumming and singing with a group called the Midnight Ramblers on the classic Band song "The Weight" sometime not too long ago. Levon died today at 71, from "complications of cancer."

Be Good Tanyas

In response to my Country and Northern post, Sheryl Robinson, better known to Fray veterans as Dawn Coyote, asked why I hadn't mentioned the Be Good Tanyas. My first thought was that I don't think of them as "country", but, as I noted at the close of my post, it's a thin line between "country" and "folk". I do like this Vancouver based group of three women, shown in the clip above--the only one I can find that shows them in live performance--doing "Scattered Leaves", a song I hadn't heard before, with bass and drum backing. I like them despite Frazey Ford's singing, as a critic once wrote of Natalie Merchant, "in English as if she'd grown up speaking some Polynesian language."

Here they do "Oh, Susannah", probably as classic a "country" song as there is.

For a more contemporary country sound, here they do Townes van Zandt's "Waitin' Around to Die."

They do blues, too. Here's their cover of Josh White's (or is it their cover of Dylan's cover) of "In My Time of Dying."

Country & Northern

A few days ago a friend, whose judgment I respect, posted this on Facebook:

I am more than a little bit tired of Canadian pop stars because they are seriously wack. When was the last time Canada sent us a decent musical artist???? Think back. WAY back. It was Corey Hart or maybe early Bryan Adams. Everything since then? WACK.

I could've responded with Arcade Fire as a counter-example, but instead chose Kathleen Edwards doing her hockey song, "You Get the Glory, I Make the Dough." My friend's response was:

And Claude Scales, in the time that I've known you I've found that you have SUPERB taste in music, but this Kathleen Edwards? She lost me at the "I'm a Ford Tempo, you're a Ma[s]erati..." No. Just, no. I'm a purist; I like my country music sung by folks below the Mason Dixon line.

Well, being an Air Force brat, I spent much of my childhood and youth below the Mason Dixon line, but my earliest memories of country music were from the radio at my grandmother's in Pennsylvania, or on the road across Ohio on the way to my father's family home in Indiana.

And, yes, as I learned later in life, there was country music north of the border as well. One of the most admired country music stars of the 1950s and '60s, Hank Snow, was born and raised in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Geologically speaking Nova Scotia is part of Appalachia; it would seem to be culturally as well.

The clip above, thanks to Charlie Dahan, shows Hank, with Chubby Wise on fiddle, Eddie Noack on rhythm guitar, and I'm not sure who on bass or on steel, doing "I'm Moving On."

I can't give up on Ottawa's favorite daughter, Kathleen Edwards, either. Here she is (courtesy of building55), doing what I think is a first-rate country-rock song, "Change the Sheets," at Stephen Talkhouse, Amagansett, Long Island, July 17, 2010.

k.d. lang (she spells her name in all lowercase) is from the high plains of eastern Alberta, and her songs sound as expansive as that wide-open country. Listen to "Big, Big Love," courtesy of TheLangChannel.

I could go on, but I'll close with "Early Morning Rain," a song that touches on many country music themes: getting drunk, riding freight trains, longing for an absent lover. It's performed here by Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker, who begin with some talk about the breakup of their long marriage and musical partnership, which hasn't affected their friendship or ability to sing together. They're joined on the last verse by the song's author, Gordon Lightfoot (forgive me, Lester Bangs). Ian and Sylvia, and Lightfoot, are usually classified as "folk" musicians, but, heck, it's a fine line.

I walked down there and ended up
In one of them coffee-houses on the block
Got on the stage to sing and play
Man there said, “Come back some other day
You sound like a hillbilly
We want folk singers here”

--Bob Dylan, "Talkin' New York"

Are McGill University scientists good dancers? Watch this video--if you do, you'll support cancer research.

Cancer researchers at McGill University in Montreal strut their stuff. For every hit on this video, Medicom will make a donation to support their work. Enjoy, and thanks to Stacey Mankoff for the link.

Can Kathleen Edwards make me a hockey fan?

My sports acculturation took place in Florida in the 1950s and '60s, so hockey wasn't part of it. The Tampa Tribune sports pages had short pieces about the exploits of teams with odd names like Maple Leafs (Didn't they know the plural of leaf is leaves?) and Red Wings, but they were there for the benefit of snowbird vacationers and retirees. I've been to two hockey games in my life. The first was in 1970, when I was a junior lawyer at a New York City firm visiting a client in Buffalo and got taken to a Sabres-Bruins game in which Bobby Orr set some record (a friend who knows hockey suggested it was probably "scoring by a defenseman"). The other was a Rangers-Senators game at the Garden in the 1980s, about which I remember nothing except that I'm pretty sure Ottawa won. I did learn a little about the rules of hockey from watching Slap Shot.

Kathleen Edwards is a Canadian singer I got to know, and like very much, through the good offices of Eliot Wagner. Her video of "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" (clip above), including her attempt to imitate the Hanson Brothers, gives me a whole new perspective on the game. I'll lace up your skates anytime, Kathleen.

Beef on weck at a Montreal style Jewish deli in Brooklyn?

Beef on weck (pronounced "wick") is a sandwich I got to know early in my career, when I was making frequent trips to Buffalo to visit a client there. It's sliced roast beef au jus with horseradish served on a kummelweck roll. I loved the way the intense flavors of the caraway ("kummel") seeds and coarse-grained salt on the roll, and the touch of horseradish, complemented the richness of the rare beef. At the time (early 1970s) I was also introduced to the spicy chicken wing, accompanied by celery and bleu cheese dressing. While I found the wings delightful, if I'd been asked which Buffalo specialty would take the nation by storm, I'd have bet on beef on weck, which also seems to be the sentimental favorite of many Buffalonians.

Until a few days ago, I'd never had beef on weck more than seventy or so miles from Buffalo, so I was surprised to see it listed on the menu of Mile End, a Montreal style Jewish delicatessen not far from where I live in Brooklyn which has been quite a hit with local foodies (at least those of the non-vegan sort). I had to give it a try.

The sandwich, as presented (see photo) was much as I knew it. It could've been from the place near the intersection of Main Street and Transit Road, about a quarter mile from our friends' house, where I usually get my beef on weck fix these days. One bite, though, told me I was far from the Niagara Frontier. A tipoff was on the menu. Mile End's version uses something definitely non-Buffalonian: wagyū beef. I'd never had this much-hyped Japanese style (I presume Mile End's wagyū comes from domestic cattle, probably cross-bred wagyū and angus) beef. It was as tender as its reputation has it, but, to me, the texture was a little too soft and smooth. It seemed a bit wan and short on flavor. The jus, however, was very tasty, and made up for the flavor deficiency. The other ingredients were superb. The roll was softer than usual (like the beef), but not unpleasantly so. It had a rich, slightly sweet taste, and the caraway and sea salt were delightful flavor bombs. This being a Jewish deli, horseradish was not an option in a dainty cup on the side. It was served in the sandwich, in just the right dosage.

All in all, a good sandwich, and evidently popular, as I heard two other customers order it in the short time I was at the deli. My only suggestion is to forget the wagyū and go to a purebred angus beef with more flavor and a more toothsome texture. Wagyū seems an attempt to yuppify a quintessentially blue-collar treat; a (dare I say?) inauthentic touch.

As to how a Buffalo specialty got on the menu of a Montreal deli in Brooklyn I can only guess. Buffalo's well known economic troubles have made it lose population for many years, creating a Buffalonian diaspora that has resulted in beef on weck being offered in places like Wilmington, North Carolina. (Update: thanks to Dan Williams, I now know that it's available in my old home town, Tampa.) Perhaps some expat Buffalonians made it to Montreal and started a beef on weck craze there. More likely, I think, is that many western New Yorkers favor the Adirondack region of New York, a little to the south of Montreal, as a vacation spot. This may have spurred a demand for beef on weck there, and Montrealais visiting the area may have tried and liked it. My quick web search for beef on weck in that part of the state didn't yield any results, but it did resolve one question: why it is that hot dogs with chili, which in western New York are called Texas hots, are called Michigans in the north country. As the linked Wikipedia entry states, the popularity of these in northern New York spread northward to Quebec, so it's possible the same thing happened with beef on weck.

If you want to try making your own beef on weck almost from scratch (you don't have to bake your own rolls), Bobby Flay has a recipe.

Some music for International Women's Day: Marshall Chapman and Sue Foley

In celebration of International Women's Day, here are selections from two of my favorite women singers.


I've had the pleasure of knowing Marshall Chapman for some years, and wrote a long post about her here. I also posted a clip of her singing "I Love Everybody" with the late Tim Krekel and his band here. In addition to being a superb singer and songwriter, she is the author of two books, the autobiography Goodbye Little Rock and Roller and They Came to Nashville (the linked post also has a clip of her doing "Going Away Party" as part of the same set with Danny Flowers at Nashville's Loveless Cafe that includes "I Love Everybody" in the clip above). She also writes a regular column (the linked clip includes another song, and has a very funny ending) for NashvilleArts magazine. Check out Marshall's website, tallgirl.com.


This being International Women's Day, I've gone north of the border to include a clip by the Canadian blues singer Sue Foley, who shares her surname with my wife. I've posted this clip before, but her woman's version of Slim Harpo's "King Bee" is well worth repeating.

Arcade Fire: "Born on a Train"

My daughter turned me on to this group, and this song, which was easy, considering my love of trains. Since Arcade Fire are Canadian, I thought of this shot I got of the nose of a Canadian Pacific loco as we passed a freight train while riding south on Amtrak's Adirondack a couple of years ago:


Now, note the General Electric logo on the lower part of the loco's nose. Somehow, The GE (as my wife, a Lynn, Massachusetts native, calls it) got my e-mail address (probably by searching for train buffs) and sent me a link to a nice corporate propaganda piece on how their products are helping to make railroads more efficient. To which I put on my shill hat and say, "Hooray! More trains, less fewer trucks", thereby offending both the Teamsters and residents of Chicago suburbs.

Sue Foley, "Queen Bee".

Here's the Canadian blues singer (part of a proud tradition going back at least forty years, to Ian Tyson doing "Flies in the Bottle") Sue Foley doing "Queen Bee", her version of Slim Harpo's "King Bee", which was also covered by Pink Floyd and the Stones.

Thanks to shadowknowz for the clip.

Update: On the subject of Pink Floyd, I've just learned of the death two days ago of founding member and keyboardist Richard Wright. R.I.P. (Scroll down the linked page to find a video clip of Wright and former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour doing a chilling version of "Comfortably Numb".)

Some Stan Rogers for Dawn Coyote.

Dawn replied to my New Year's shout-outs, noting that my post on lake ships made her think of the song "The Mary Ellen Carter", as performed by Stan Rogers.


Here's Stan again, singing "Make and Break Harbour," from his first album, Fogarty's Cove, with a montage of fishing scenes:


Finally, here's a CBC piece showing the icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier sailing in arctic waters, to the accompaniment of Stan's song, "Northwest Passage":