Bill’s Personal Choices: Canada’s top 50 singles.
On the CBC’s list:
There are some great songs on the list, but “Four Strong Winds” as number 1??!! “Snowbird”, that bland, vacuous, treacly, schmaltz at #19? “Life is a Highway”? Tell me, do you think anyone else ever thought of the highway as a metaphor for life? Or flogged “all night long” as a chorus? “Summer of ’69”? An embarrassing rehash of Bob Seger’s most obvious lyrics.
There was an obvious, alarming tendency to prostrate us all before the gods of international popular acceptance. So Sarah McLachlan had to be on the list, even though it’s hard to think of a single song by her that was so outstanding that it deserved to finish ahead of, say, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” written by Bruce Cockburn and performed by the Bare Naked Ladies. Or even fluff like Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, which I can’t believe even she herself took seriously…. (“Court and Spark” would have been a far more interesting choice.) And where, in heaven’s name, are the Northern Pikes and Crash Test Dummies? Oh– I get it. Didn’t have any U.S. hits.
If you think “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is so great (#6), tell me, when was the last time you actually listened to it?
And all those factories and businesses that the railroad brought to Canada– “for the good of us all”?
It could have been worse. Celine Dionne and Walter Ostenak did not make the list, though Paul Anka did.
My number one is Neil Young’s “Helpless”, because it captures that resigned Canadian acceptance of over-arching doom, and its shadings of hopes and dreams– so Un-American in it’s denial of personal control. And it has one of the greatest lines ever, in Canadian music: “In my mind, I still need a place to go; all my changes were there”.
“If I had a Million Dollars”– is it a novelty tune like “Hockey Song”? Maybe. But it’s also wittier and funnier and quintessentially Canadian– who else would buy Kraft Dinner with their million dollars?
Bill’s Highly Disputable List of Top Canadian Popular Songs. Not quite 50 yet…
No, “Snowbird” does not make the list.
| Rank | Song | Artist |
| 1 | Suzanne [1966] | Leonard Cohen |
| 1.1 | Helpless | Neil Young |
| 2 | Famous Blue Raincoat | Leonard Cohen |
| 4 | Early Morning Rain | Gordon Lightfoot |
| 4.1 | That’s What you Get for Lovin’ Me | Gordon Lightfoot. |
| 5 | Cowgirl in the Sand | Neil Young |
| 6 | Echo Beach | Martha & the Muffins |
| 7 | Lovers in a Dangerous Time | Bruce Cockburn. |
| 8 | Venice is Sinking | Spirit of the West |
| 9 | Old Man | Neil Young |
| 9.5 | The Weight | the Band |
| 10 | Both Sides Now | Joni Mitchell |
| 11 | Heart of Gold | Neil Young |
| 12 | Barrett’s Privateers | Stan Rogers |
| 12.5 | Superman’s Song | Crash Test Dummies |
| 12.75 | Dream Away | Northern Pikes |
| 13 | Court and Spark | Joni Mitchell |
| 14 | Tears of Rage | the Band |
| 14.1 | Where Evil Grows | Poppy Family |
| 14.2 | American Woman | The Guess Who |
| 15 | You Were on my Mind | Ian & Sylvia |
| 15.5 | Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm | Crash Test Dummies |
| 16 | Montreal | Blue Rodeo |
| 17 | Stage Fright | The Band |
| 19 | Born to be Wild | Steppenwolf |
| 20 | First We Take Manhattan | Leonard Cohen |
| 21 | Down by the River | Neil Young |
| 22 | Hallelujah | Leonard Cohen |
| 23 | Wake Up | Arcade Fire |
| 24 | Scared | Tragically Hip |
| 25 | Old Man | Neil Young |
| 26 | Hey Hey, My My | Neil Young |
| 27 | Home for a Rest | Spirit of the West |
| 28 | Carrie | Joni Mitchell |
| 29 | If I Had a Million Dollars | Bare Naked Ladies |
| 30 | What a Good Boy | Bare Naked Ladies |
| 31 | Tokyo | Bruce Cockburn |
| 32 | Universal Soldier | Buffy Ste. Marie |
| 33 | Tell Me Why | Neil Young |
| 34 | Raised on Robbery | Joni Mitchell |
| 35 | 1234 | Leslie Feist |
| 36 | Take This Longing | Leonard Cohen |
| 37 | Which Way You Goin’ Billy | Poppy Family |
| 40 | Sh-Boom [1955] | the Crew Cuts |
| 41 | Superman’s Song | Crash Test Dummies |
| 42 | Woodstock | Joni Mitchell |
| 43 | So Long Marianne | Leonard Cohen |
| 44 | For Free | Joni Mitchell |
| 45 | A Man Needs a Maid | Neil Young |
| 46 | Heart Like a Wheel | Kate and Anna McGarrigle |
| 47 | Complainte Pour Ste-Catherine | McGarrigle Sisters |
| 48 | Black Day in July | Gordon Lightfoot |
| 49 | Come Calling | Cowboy Junkies |
| 50 | Come all Ye Fair and Precious Ladies | Rankin Family |
Absolutely positively never ever going to make my list: K. D. Lang’s awful, overwrought delivery of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, the pinnacle of self-serving, claustrophobic, look-at-me-sing-oh-god-I’m-so-humble-I-can’t- believe-it-narcissism. Her rendition robs the lyrics of every ounce of meaning and context and it’s a performance calibrated for people with a shallow understanding of “she tied you to her kitchen chair/she broke your throne and she cut your hair”, a vague sense of titillation, and a conviction that the louder, more ostentatious voice, the deeper the meaning.
And that goes double for Rufus Wainwright’s whiney, weaselly cover. And shame on “Shrek” for trivializing the whole thing by putting into a cartoon about a troll that farts.
Check John Cale’s version for a corrective.