Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

:clap:

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

CTV will stream the memorial at 7.
CP24 TV will air it live @ 7...
Rogers TV Toronto will have coverage of the tribute starting at 7 p.m. ET (cable 10/63 in Toronto).

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

The PM's wife was at the private funearl yesterday and gave the family a Canadian Flag that flew atop The Peace Tower in Ottawa the day Tom died...

http://www.680news.com/2013/03/13/dr...blic-memorial/

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/03/13...hillbilly-dude

Buffery

To us kids, Stompin' Tom Connors was this crazy hillbilly dude

By Steve Buffery,Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 06:16 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 06:52 PM EDT

•Fans pay tribute to Stompin’ Tom Connors
•A Canadian night with Stompin' Tom

TORONTO - I like to tell people that me and the boys in the old neighbourhood heard The Hockey Song long before anyone else.

Back in the late ’60s, we played road hockey pretty well every night on Firestone Rd. out in the wilds of central Etobicoke, but we couldn’t play in front of my place because there was always a truck or two parked beside the curb, either Stompin’ Tom Connors’ pickup, or his pal Stevedore Steve’s, who was also a singer from the east coast. (Anyone remember Lester the Lobster?)

So we had to play a bit up the street. Still, at times when we were banging around the tennis ball and pretending to be Dave Keon or Mike Walton, we could hear Tom in the basement of the Chapman’s house, singing his songs, and getting ready for his next gig at the Horseshoe Tavern.

Stompin’ Tom was a fixture in our neighbourhood, though back in the day, of course, nobody knew he would become a Canadian icon and The Hockey Song would be played in arenas around the world.

To us, he was this crazy hillbilly dude who lived with the family across the street from the east coast, the Chapmans, and drove around in his customized pickup truck. They said Stompin’ Tom smoked four packs a day and loved his beer. Yeah, well there was no doubt about that. Every Saturday, Tom would load up his truck with empties and wave $100 in the air (a $100 bill was a pretty big thing in the 1960s) and announce to neighbourhood kids: “Kiss it goodbye boys, it’s all goin’ on beer.”

Back then, everybody knew everybody else on the street (for better or worse) and many a time Tom would sing at one of the neighbour’s houses, including our joint, though the old man wasn’t a huge fan of Stompin’ Tom’s brand of Canadiana country.

Once, when Tom was singing in the living room, and all the neighbours were hootin’ and hollerin’ and jumpin’ around (when you write about Stompin’ Tom, I’ve discovered, you have to use a lot of apostrophes), the old man was sitting beside his record player waiting to put on one of his jazz albums (and bring everybody crashing down). Finally, when Tom finished one of his songs, the old man yelled (so everyone could hear): “When is that hick going to stop warbling so we can put on some REAL music!” Everybody laughed, even Tom.

Another time — and it might have been the same night as the “real music” crack — Tom was singing and stompin’ away with my younger sister Meaghan sitting on his lap. Part way through a song, poor Meag, who apparently had been force-fed by half the neighbourhood during the shindig, turned green and then heaved all over Tom. The old man later suggested that it was as honest a music review as he had ever seen. Stompin’ Tom later wrote a song called “Firestone Ave.” about a party on our street, though apparently never recorded it.

My friend, David Scott, who lived down the street, posted a story on Facebook after Tom’s passing was announced last Thursday about how Tom sang in front of their house once and stomped and sang so loudly, the neighbours called the cops.

“(But) when they arrived they told the neighbours to shut up and go home,” David wrote. “(The cops) loved him.”

Years later, when Stompin’ Tom played at Massey Hall, Meag and my mom and some friends went to see him play and they all had a nice reunion afterwards. That was the thing with Stompin’ Tom. He was one of us. Nobody was a prouder Canadian. We knew that even then.

The Hockey Song didn’t appear on an album until 1973, but me and the boys like to think we heard it long before that, while we were playing road hockey on Firestone Rd. and Tom was in the Chapman’s basement, singing and stompin’ away.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

Wonderful 680 link and other interesting new posts, char!

I hope ron enjoyed the event. Lovely send off to a longtime pal.

I was running behind today but did drive through rural roads of Halton Hills eastbound and along #7 south of Peterbrough...smiling

Last month i was looking up at the tall Peace Tower flag ...on a very cold Ottawa's day

Great flag gesture. Seems like Tom was bypassed for Pope selection and has gone directly to fan Sainthood....

Saint Tom, from Saint John :)

.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...hen_party.html

i dont know if young children also attended... or if Bidini actually swore in full

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

very much appreciated, Char!:)

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

the whole memorial is @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=WWv-TwYQe-0

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

The era has ended but the Legend lives on.

Wednesday morning began with an early rise and out onto the highway to get settled in Peterborough Town to ensure a pass through the doors of the Peterborough Memorial Centre.

This is one gig I don't want miss.

As it turned out there was plenty of room in the arena and no one got left out in the cold. That wouldn't be Tom's way of doing things.

There was quite a line up and it was a cold day in Peterborough but things went along quite orderly and there were donation boxes at the door.

My choice of seating was upstairs in the high area right of the stage with amazing view where I could catch the show as well see the workings going on behind the stage.

Believe me, if there was ever an emotional blowout, this gig is at the very top.

Can you imaging a guy planning his own funeral celebration?

Mounted Police Officers, decked out in full uniform wheeling Tom's casket onto the stage?

That's Stompin' Tom Connors.

With the media coverage available here there's little more needed to be told about the turn of events of the evening.

To witness a stoic Lena Connors place the legendary hat of her beloved husband on his casket and their Son, Tom Jr. delivering an epic non scripted speech toward the end is what I mean with that reference "emotional blowout."

There was no shortage of tears in that arena believe me.

Those performers would have to have risen above to find their inner strength in order to fulfill their mandate that evening.

The good thing about where I was seated there was a beer stand close by and knowing Tom that would have been a pre requisite included in the planning.

This "Moosehead's" for you Tom!

Rest in peace old friend.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

Glad you could make it RJ - it looked like a wonderful time despite the reason for it. Tom would have been very happy to know how well it all went..

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

outside the Horseshoe.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

Thanks so much Char.

So many wonderful memories here.

I'm gonna' make it a point to go to the Horseshoe Tavern when we move to Toronto next month and have a "Moosehead" (if they have it there) in Tom's memory. It will be a very special event for me.

Let me know if anyone can connect and we'll share some stories.

But like many of Tom's friends have shared stories along the way, I want to share the best one I had with Tom and it was the very first time I got an invite to his place, although I had known him for a while at this point.

He was there with his family to greet my family and I when we arrived and I was quite excited.

The Connor's home is located in a beautiful setting and I asked Tom to show me around which he gladly and proudly obliged.

I could see there was a treehouse which he had built for Tom Jr. and friends, and of course my kids just loved that. Lots of open space to run and play.

There was also a pond on the property where a paddle boat was available for the kids to ride in and in the winter they played hockey there.

My big highlight that day was meeting the family dog named "King" which was a pure bred Newfoundlander and it was the biggest Newfoundland dog I'd ever seen. I just loved that dog and I think the dog sensed it!
It probably weighed as much as I did.

King was kept in a huge area which had to be fenced in because Tom didn't want him getting out and crossing the busy road. I think King had a girl friend across the way he was anxious to visit.

As we walked on and away from the area where King was I could hear him making short "yelping" sounds which made me look back and seeing that sad face I just had to go back and give him another big hug!

So on we go and back down to connect with the other friends arriving for a fun day.

I recall it being a beautiful Ontario summer's day and my kids were anxious to go out in the paddle boat with Tom Jr. so I was on the dock getting the life jackets secured on the kids before putting them in the boat; when bang!

Out of the blue I didn't know what hit me but around my waist were these two web footed paws and I very quickly was being thrust toward to the end of the dock looking into about eight feet of water with that dog wrapped onto me.

King had broken out of his area and obviously had taken a liking to me and wasn't about to let go. I had visions of being down there in eight feet of water with that web footed Newfoundlander wrapped around me and not about to let go any time soon!

To the rescue comes Tom just a' stompin'.

He unraveled that dog post haste and I recall he seemed a tad embarrassed and I was too of course being at his place for the first time.

He scolded King and took him back to the "doghouse."

Off to the sideline was "Big Joe Mufferlaw" laughing so hysterically that he nearly collapsed and fell into the pond himself.

Big Joe never let me forget that one I'll tell ya!

Apart from being the most unsatisfying act of eroticism I would ever encounter, that would have to be at the top of my Stompin' Tom stories.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

Wonderful and 'goofy' story!

The man in the pond is a Newfie

...make that two Newfoundlanders

Big Joe and Tom should be tuning up about now

Cheers, Ron (get ALL your stories on paper)

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

LOLOL!!! omigawd I can just see it...That dog had to weigh as much or more than you RJ! THose Newfs run 130-160 pounds... good grief....There's a song in that story for sure!

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

"The King and I"

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

April 10 2013 @ the @HorseshoeTavern A TRIBUTE TO STOMPIN TOM CONNORS! Lineup Details TBA. No Cover

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

oh, the one Tom planned himself was so perfect (minus a segment or two perhaps) and a wonderful ending ...well, i certainly thought Mark Laforme's 'I am the Wind' was quite rich and moving

the modest non-commercial Cogeco broadcast is repeated for a few weeks still

Hugh's has had Tom tributes before and I imagine they will live on

there were other STC tributes that week ...North Bay, Maritimes, etc

celebrating him can go on forever but i say they should now leave it alone

that all said, whatever's fine with the family is of course, fine with the country:) thanks for the scoop, as always... nothing gets by our leader:kiss:

I like to remember the Shoe as it was...ie) earthy country (pre-renos/rock/punk)


btw, maybe nervy Bidini will crash Gord's 75th and be able to coax him out of his decade of songwriting exhale! :cool:

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

comic:

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

nice shout out on 22 Minutes last night: http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videos/c...pin-tom-1.html

Hopefully they'll put it up on YouTube..

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

that was funny, and touching

wait! ...we have white smoke... a new stompin tom



lol

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

i still can't find it on youtube.... and this is an earlier one, i suppose:whistle:

http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videos/c...ompin-tom.html

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...ticle10179356/

Ken Dryden on why we stand on guard for Stompin’ Tom and Don Cherry

I left Toronto early, and parked across the road from the arena. I stayed in my car to read, and soon began to watch. People walked by me in twos or fives, it seemed – a husband and wife; a family – almost all in blue jeans, almost no one alone. They crossed the road and, the arena not yet opened, joined a line that already extended along the length of the building, ran across its parking lot, and was beginning to snake down a sidewalk on Roger Neilson Way. It was cold; the snow whipped horizontally across the open spaces. The ceremonial service for Stompin’ Tom Connors at the Peterborough Memorial Centre was still more than three hours away.

Nearly an hour later, as I walked toward the arena, a woman in her late 50s approached me. She was from Edmonton, she said. She had flown overnight; her brother, who was with her, had picked her up in Toronto. I met two guys, also in their late 50s, from Vancouver. They had done the same and were going back the next day. They could have spent their money going to Mexico, one of them said, but those memories and stories would last only a few weeks. Besides, he said, this would be the last Stompin’ Tom concert they’d ever see.

During the concert, when a town name was mentioned, from one darkened part of the arena or another there would be a cheer. That was their town; they had come. Tillsonburg, Sudbury, Huntsville, even Skinners Pond itself. From mines and fields, bars and hockey rinks they had come. More cheers. From love and life gone bad; above all, from a gritty, unabashed pride in Canada. They had all come.

It was, as Stompin’ Tom’s family and friends wanted, a celebration – of Tom, his life, and Canada.

I had seen this crowd before, in Iqaluit, Whitehorse and Shaunavon, Sask. It was when CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada and Don Cherry were there. The excitement was over the top, through the roof, unimaginable. The great Hockey Night in Canada had come to their town. Their kids were being showcased; their stories were being told across the country. They mattered. Former NHL stars were in their midst, wandering their streets and arenas as if they were locals themselves. But it wouldn’t have mattered more if the Great One himself had been there. Nothing was really anything until Don Cherry arrived.

The people loved him. They cheered, they whistled. They laughed at his clothes and bluster. They nodded agreement at his lessons and homilies. They burst with pride at anything and everything Canadian he evoked. He is a hugely controversial figure. All those things he says about European players, women, and the French. His “rock ’em sock ’em” message in a time of concussions and change, that intimidates and overwhelms any other HNIC message, that discourages other ways of playing, that allows other countries to advance faster than Canada has. All this may be mostly true. But all this is missing their point.

Don Cherry is about being full-out, no holding back. He’s about loving, hating; loyalty, friendship, teamship. He’s about heart-on-your-sleeve, tattoo-on-your-backside patriotism. He’s about saying, doing – wearing – whatever he wants. He’s about noticing the little guy that no one else notices. He’s about thumbing his nose at smart-dressing bosses – CBC, NHL. He’s the lunch-pail star who doesn’t look like a star or talk like a star. He’s the star his fans would want to be. And to them he’s not just about hockey. He might be all wrong about hockey. It’s all this other stuff. That’s why they love him. That is their point.

Tom and Don can be polarizing figures. They are what they are.There is no arm’s-length irony about them. They bear-hug everything. Good-bad, black-white, nuance is for the convictionless. And in their straight-between-the-eyes patriotism, they have come to monopolize so many of the symbols of Canada – the land, hard work, hockey, winter, arenas, bars, the military – leaving little room for those who feel just as strongly but who express their feelings differently. Many have come to resent them for this. In resenting them, they dismiss Tom and Don as simplistic and out of touch. In turn, Tom and Don have seen their critics as smug and soft.

Yet, a few decades ago, when Canadian hockey and Canadian music were being abandoned by many as too rough and unsophisticated, Tom and Don were reminding people about – were in their faces about – an essence that is Canada and Canadian that needs always to be expressed.

Stompin’ Tom Connors and Don Cherry met only a few times, not often enough to be friends. But Don was a fan of Tom’s; and Tom was a fan of Don’s. And Tom’s fans – those 5,000 Canadians in that rink in Peterborough – are Don’s fans; Don’s fans are Tom’s fans.

Even to those who think differently, Tom and Don matter.

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77
 

details about concert: http://www.collectiveconcerts.com/event/247531/

Re: Stompin' Tom has died at 77