Canada Day Jukebox and Open Thread

I’m not a huge fan of vulgar displays of nationalism, but I’ll certainly enjoy a party and a day off, so let Canada Day roll!

Bryan Adams is the quintessential Canadian rock star, and for Canadians of a certain generation, Summer of ’69 is a second (and probably better) national anthem. But Run to You is probably a better song:

Another quintessentially Canadian song is BTO’s Takin’ Care of Business. So I present you with the godfathers of Canadian punk, DOA:

Many of you might know Sarah McLachlan best for Lillith Fair. I’ve never been to Lillith Fair, and I’ve never been a huge fan of Sara McLachlan, but Possession kicked a bit of ass:

“Coming of age” in the ’90s, the biggest band in Canada was easily The Tragically Hip. Though 50 Mission Cap* and Bobcaygeon have more of an aura of Canadiana, Naughtical Disaster is far superior.

(Sadly the clip of them on Saturday Night Live has been pulled. When they were invited, it was a major coup in Canada… though the two songs they played weren’t among their best known, thus it was a bit of a disappointment for many.)

The band that may have (if only in their heads) taken over from The Hip as the biggest Canadian band is Sloan. They broke with Underwhelmed which probably remained their best single (among many great singles), but another song from the Smeared album, I am the Cancer, is my favourite (and bonus points for having a member of Jale on the track):

A few years ago, I got into a bit of a thing with OG Scott Payne. He was reviewing some hippy event and disparaged Stars while praising Library Voices. I could see the latter, but the former was unacceptable.

Neil Young is pretty much the prodigal godfather of Canadian pop music. We love him, but almost his entire career was made up of trying to make people think he was American. Oh well. He still put out some good stuff.

And a bonus:

Finally, as a tribute to the special relationship between Canada, the U.S. and Britain, here’s Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds covering WHAM!

I’m not posting any Rush.

*Gord Downie introduces the song as “Flag on your knapsack”. “50 Mission Cap” is an American Military thing, and he decided that such an American name wasn’t really appropriate. When Canadian kids travel – especially through Europe – they put the Maple Leaf on their backpack so the locals will know… well… that they’re not Americans. Sure, you may not like that, but the conventional wisdom is that they’ll get treated better.