Essential music
Jun. 30, 2006. 05:08 PM
The further back we went in time, the easier it was to find consensus,
which probably accounts for the omission of any song written after
1985. The panellists pushed for the inclusion of songs written after
that time, but there didn't seem to be any agreement about which of the
more recent songs were worthy. But all 10 choices are bona fide
Canadian classics.
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Huron Carol (1643)
Jean de Brébeuf
This transcendent Canadian seasonal classic was written by French
Jesuit Jean de Brébeuf in 1643, four years after construction began at
the missionary outpost Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near Midland,
Ont. The original version, "Jesous Ahatonhia," combined Huron lyrics
with the melody of the French folk song "Une Jeune Pucelle." The
familiar English translation was done by Jesse Edgar Middleton in 1926
and arranged two years later by composer Healey Willan. It has long
been a staple of youth choirs. The Toronto Children's Chorus offered a
magical rendition on the 1990 recording Dancing Day. Another fine
version can be found on Christmas With Chanticleer, released in 2001.
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Hymn to Freedom (1962)
Oscar Peterson
Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson ranks alongside Glenn Gould as one of the
greatest musicians Canada has ever produced. "Hymn to Freedom,"
inspired by U.S. civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King, is
one of Peterson's most beloved works. The inspirational,
gospel-influenced instrumental piece first appeared on the Oscar
Peterson Trio's 1962 masterpiece Night Train. "The melodic and harmonic
line is total simplicity within itself, and to my thinking, personifies
a form of Negro spiritual that might be sung in almost any of the black
churches of America," Peterson has written. The vocal version, with
words by Harriette Hamilton, has been performed by choirs around the
world, a testament to its enduring power.
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Four Strong Winds (1964)
Ian Tyson
With the eyes of the world upon him as he closed out last year's Live 8
event from Barrie, Neil Young opened his set with this indelible folk
gem, voted last year by CBC Radio One listeners as the greatest
Canadian song ever. Remarkably, the song, which appeared on the 1964
Ian and Sylvia album of the same title, is the first composition Tyson
ever wrote. Young, who recorded the song on his 1978 album Comes a
Time, also accompanied The Band in the version that appears in The Last
Waltz box set.
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Mon Pays (1964)
Gilles Vigneault
The beautifully metaphorical "Mon Pays" romanticizes winter as its
narrator's spiritual homeland. That possibly explains why the song was
recorded a couple of times by the Red Army Chorus and Dance ensemble,
although it doesn't entirely account for the adaptation of the melody
line for the Patsy Gallant disco hit "From New York to L.A." Originally
composed by Vigneault for the soundtrack of the NFB film La Neige a
fondu sur la Manicouagan, it was later adopted as an unofficial anthem
by Quebec nationalists. Vigneault has never embraced that narrow
application. "A song is a small bridge between the banks of a river,
between two people or cultures," said Vigneault during his induction
into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year.
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Suzanne (1966)
Leonard Cohen
Is there a listener who hasn't yearned to be fed tea and oranges that
come all the way from China by Suzanne at her place near the river?
"Suzanne" appeared on the singer/poet's landmark 1968 debut The Songs
of Leonard Cohen, but it had been recorded two years previously by the
popular U.S. singer Judy Collins. It is timeless.
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Canadian Railroad Trilogy (1967)
Gordon Lightfoot
Yes, there is a version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land"
adapted to Canadian place names, but no song comes closer to defining
the breadth of this country than Lightfoot's literally breathtaking
tour de force. Commissioned by the CBC for a 1967 centenary broadcast,
the song appeared on Lightfoot's album of that year, The Way I Feel.
Pierre Berton, whose books The National Dream and The Last Spike cover
the same ground, is said to have told the songwriter, "You know, Gord,
you said as much in that song as I said in my book."
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Both Sides, Now (1968)
Joni Mitchell
In the simplest terms, songs survive because singers yearn to sing
them. By the reckoning of the All Music Guide, more than 100 artists
have recorded the beautifully introspective and impressionistic "Both
Sides Now," encompassing a vast variety of styles ranging from Frank
Sinatra to Willie Nelson. The most famous cover was by Judy Collins,
who had a Top 10 hit with the song in 1968. Mitchell was inspired to
write the song while reading novelist Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain
King during a flight. "I put down the book, looked out the window and I
immediately started writing the song," Mitchell told the Los Angeles
Times a decade ago. "I had no idea the song would become as popular as
it did."
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American Woman (1970)
The Guess Who
The most instantly recognizable Canadian rock song of all time,
"American Woman" was also the first home-grown hit to make it to No.1
on the Billboard chart. If that wasn't enough to ensure the iconic
Vietnam War-era hit's enduring stature, U.S. singer Lenny Kravitz's
1999 cover gave it renewed life, with an assist to Canadian Mike Myers,
who used both versions in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. The
song still encapsulates the mixture of attraction and revulsion many of
us feel toward our bigger, flashier, more powerful southern neighbour.
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Big Yellow Taxi (1970)
Joni Mitchell
Inspired by a trip to Hawaii, Mitchell's oft-quoted signature
composition struck a chord at a time when environmentalism and urban
sprawl were increasingly becoming public concerns. While not a protest
song in the overt sense, its many allusions - paying to see trees in
a tree museum, preferring spotted apples to those sprayed with toxic
pesticides and, of course, paving paradise to put up a parking lot -
have as much or more resonance today. The song has been interpreted by
several artists, including Amy Grant, but Mitchell's own version, which
originally appeared alongside "Woodstock" on 1970's Ladies of the
Canyon, is beyond improvement.
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Hallelujah (1985)
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen has been much blessed by other singers' interpretations of his work. That is perhaps no truer than in the case of "Hallelujah," which is more revered today than when it first appeared on Various Positions, the 1985 album Cohen recorded with one of his most devoted interpreters, Jennifer Warnes.
In recent years, Rufus Wainwright and k.d. lang have worshipped at the song's spiritual altar. But it was the highly dramatic version by Jeff Buckley, recorded on his 1994 album Grace, that exposed Cohen's brilliance to a whole new generation of ears.
