[direwolf74]

I hear you about 'belabouring' - but I disagree, dammit!

I see the Hip's basic approach to Canadiana as no different from the approach most good American songwriters (think Dylan, Steve Earle, etc.) have taken to their own local/national references. It's just part of good storytelling, to provide particularity for verisimilitude. What's different is not the approach, but rather the context. Canadians aren't used to hearing their places, history, etc., named in popular music (or, arguably, pop culture in general). So we react by hearing them as 'special' winks and nods to 'us' - extra goodies thrown in just to reinforce the link between band and fan-base, rather than a normal part of the creative process.

It doesn't matter who has heard of the town of Bobcageyon. It's not Gord's job to worry about listener ignorance. The rhyme is irresistible and the rural setting is absolutely central to the song. That's what counts. 'Thompson Girl' is about lovers snowed in for the winter. So sure, it could have been some other location, but it had to be somewhere northern (obviously). These aren't incidental references. But even if they are, I still dispute that they are purely thrown in 'for the fans.' I prefer to think of GD's writing as having more integrity than that - that he puts in the Canadiana because he likes it, that that's what's on his mind, and that it serves the song in some coherent way.

The Sarnia reference makes little sense in the context of the song, and yet is accorded pride of place by the song's title and its role in the refrain. It's really the first time I've felt that the reference was wholly calculated to fulfill the Hip's de rigeur CanCon requirement: in short, that it's pandering. And the song would have more impact on its own terms - quite apart from pandering to Canadians' need to feel special - if it had stuck to its original theme IMHO.

Great post. However I'm gonna disagree with your conclusion on the Sarnia reference. Personally what I get from the song is that Sarnia is either the town where he met the woman in the song, or that the town plays a sentimental role in the relationship somehow. "You're in my heart, and in my pocket, and in my eyes, in my blood. Sarnia, you're on my mind." When he thinks of the woman, he also thinks of the town. The two are intertwined. I love the reference myself, and I think it really works well in the context of the lyrics...at least the way I perceive them. Gord changed it for a reason. Knowing the way he writes, I highly doubt it was simply for fan service. Just my two cents.