01-20-2007, 06:39 PM
Although I'm going to the Peterborough show and not this one I thought I would share it.
Canadian rawk celebrates the working class
Jan 19, 2007
It is appropriate that two of Canada's greatest "blue collar rock" bands are playing a factory town's hockey arena.
The working classes claimed the Tragically Hip as their own 20 years ago. On this leg of their World Container tour, Kingston's finest will have the proletarian rock of Guelph's Constantines opening on Jan. 31 at the GM Centre in Oshawa. It's gonna be some rock 'n roll show. Topped only if the kings of Hoser Rock BTO were on the bill.
But that's a curious description, blue collar. Music has no collar. The mythical rocker is running from the soul-sapping 9 to 5. The Rawk is lifestyle, it's not a chore. Work is what fans do. Right?
Not so in the Great Land of Cancon Rawk where we attempt to debunk the American myth. Work is as vital a component as style or talent. Although two Canadians have won the TV RockStar Search the concept is probably anathema to musicians here.
Singer/guitarist Steve Lambke of the Constantines and Baby Eagle says on the phone from Toronto that there is a humbleness and down-to-earth quality to his band, they are not trying to be rock stars.
The Rock N Roll mostly sings of the outsider, for any outsider, outside of anything. It's the prime residence of hipster who lives between the here and now. It's the ideal platform for the broken-hearted. It's where we look for the lost.
When the rock 'n roller does deal with labour it is usually to point a finger at the abuses, the dangers or to flip a finger at the boss man. Rush covered Summertime Blues, the rant of a kid who can't get time off. On Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy, "We are the navvies who work upon the railway/ Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun/ Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey/ Bendin' our old backs til the long days are done."
The Cowboy Junkies lead off Trinity Sessions with Mining For Gold ... "Can't you feel the rock dust in your lungs/ It will cut down a miner while he is still young".
The drudgery of earning a wage is best captured on the Rheostatics's Whale Music. On their opener Self Serve Gas Station, Martin Tielli sings "... and I just pump gas every weekday night/ until the sun comes up like missiles... to my brain/ you never said this would be hell." Or again on Horses of Melville, a track about factory closure... "we threw our masks into a pile/ the trucks pulled away for good."
Compare that to the Constantines song Soon Enough from their third disc Tournament Of Hearts (curling reference not heard since Hamilton's Dik Van Dykes.) The chorus on the wonderful country-frilled track is "Soon enough work and love will make a man out of you." That is kith and kin to D.O.A. covering John Lennon's Working Class Hero as a tribute when the ex-Beatle was shot down. A working class hero is something to be celebrated.
The Rheos' Horses reflects a fear in every one-horse town, that is when the company moves away or changes ownership, what happens to identity then. Who are you if not what you do?
Tune in next Friday for more musings on The Hip and the Constantines.
William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:wmacg@yahoo.com">wmacg@yahoo.com</a><!-- e -->.
Canadian rawk celebrates the working class
Jan 19, 2007
It is appropriate that two of Canada's greatest "blue collar rock" bands are playing a factory town's hockey arena.
The working classes claimed the Tragically Hip as their own 20 years ago. On this leg of their World Container tour, Kingston's finest will have the proletarian rock of Guelph's Constantines opening on Jan. 31 at the GM Centre in Oshawa. It's gonna be some rock 'n roll show. Topped only if the kings of Hoser Rock BTO were on the bill.
But that's a curious description, blue collar. Music has no collar. The mythical rocker is running from the soul-sapping 9 to 5. The Rawk is lifestyle, it's not a chore. Work is what fans do. Right?
Not so in the Great Land of Cancon Rawk where we attempt to debunk the American myth. Work is as vital a component as style or talent. Although two Canadians have won the TV RockStar Search the concept is probably anathema to musicians here.
Singer/guitarist Steve Lambke of the Constantines and Baby Eagle says on the phone from Toronto that there is a humbleness and down-to-earth quality to his band, they are not trying to be rock stars.
The Rock N Roll mostly sings of the outsider, for any outsider, outside of anything. It's the prime residence of hipster who lives between the here and now. It's the ideal platform for the broken-hearted. It's where we look for the lost.
When the rock 'n roller does deal with labour it is usually to point a finger at the abuses, the dangers or to flip a finger at the boss man. Rush covered Summertime Blues, the rant of a kid who can't get time off. On Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy, "We are the navvies who work upon the railway/ Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun/ Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey/ Bendin' our old backs til the long days are done."
The Cowboy Junkies lead off Trinity Sessions with Mining For Gold ... "Can't you feel the rock dust in your lungs/ It will cut down a miner while he is still young".
The drudgery of earning a wage is best captured on the Rheostatics's Whale Music. On their opener Self Serve Gas Station, Martin Tielli sings "... and I just pump gas every weekday night/ until the sun comes up like missiles... to my brain/ you never said this would be hell." Or again on Horses of Melville, a track about factory closure... "we threw our masks into a pile/ the trucks pulled away for good."
Compare that to the Constantines song Soon Enough from their third disc Tournament Of Hearts (curling reference not heard since Hamilton's Dik Van Dykes.) The chorus on the wonderful country-frilled track is "Soon enough work and love will make a man out of you." That is kith and kin to D.O.A. covering John Lennon's Working Class Hero as a tribute when the ex-Beatle was shot down. A working class hero is something to be celebrated.
The Rheos' Horses reflects a fear in every one-horse town, that is when the company moves away or changes ownership, what happens to identity then. Who are you if not what you do?
Tune in next Friday for more musings on The Hip and the Constantines.
William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:wmacg@yahoo.com">wmacg@yahoo.com</a><!-- e -->.