Monday, April 19, 2010

Stompin' Tom Connors

Here is a man who looks and sounds a little like Popeye playing plain white country music. He's never had a great band or decent arrangements, but delivers song after song about working-class Canada with the same kind of verve and sincerity of Wilf Carter. Here's a song about getting smashed after working in a nickel mine:



Here's another about a daring man who delivers potatoes from one place to another AND SPEEDS:



I can't see too many reasons for those outside Canada to care about the man's contribution to song, but within the country he was a baffling anomaly: someone who gave enough of a shit about where he lived to write about it. Growing up I mostly heard fantasies about bigger things on the radio, the songs were of American cities and girls whether the bands were Canadian or not. It still sounds weird that he'd write about Big Joe Mufferaw - Paul Bunyan was a ripoff you Yankee bastards! - or a classy tomato from fucking LEAMINGTON. Go on, search the lyrics databases for Leamington. I dare you. And see if you can replicate the sick-making steel-guitar solo that ends that song like a mistimed punchline.

Tom's something of a cranky prick, constantly pissed off at the government for not supporting Canadian artists and at Canadian artists for following the money south. But he's Stompin' Tom, and he fucking stomps the shit out of the floor - a feature in the recordings - while he's singing about hockey and snowmobiles and tobacco picking and uranium mining.

Beats Loverboy.

17 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

Hey, if somebody's going to be beating Loverboy, let me know. Might as well be me.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

I rate for Stompin' Tom.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I rate for Stompin' Tom.

Me 2!
~

Rusty Shackleblart said...

Neil Young mentioned Canada in one of his songs once.

Substance McGravitas said...

Songs I really wanted to put in here and couldn't find were I Am the Wind, The Martin Hartwell Story, Bridge Came Tumbling Down, and his manifesto The Singer (Is the Voice of the People).

J— said...

Beats Loverboy.

Ah, but what of Triumph?

Off to listen to Stompin' Tom. Thanks.

mikey said...

Now, if only he'd cover "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" we'd be all set...

Substance McGravitas said...

Ah, but what of Triumph?

They exemplify the "Canadians singing about Americans" problem.

Substance McGravitas said...

And sadly the Edmund Fitzgerald was an American boat. Love that song though. Good bass playing.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Good first name, too.
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mervis said...

Rusty,

There is a town in north Ontario.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Beats Loverboy.

Yeah, Loverboy was working for the weekend, but Stompin' Tom was just plain working, or workin', as the case may be.

Stompin' Tom, though, is no Aldo Nova.

Substance McGravitas said...

Aldo Nova is no Prism. Make it to the chorus and you will laugh.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

That Prism was EXCELLENT. "a solar powered laser guitar" And youpeople laugh at Neil Peart's lyrics.

If you lik eStompin Tom, have you heard Johnny Dowd? Not Canadian, but the same kind of working class aesthetic. Maybe a bit dark, like the Handsome Family...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHeRVfy1904

Here he is working on anarchy with the Mekons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUA29imlVew

saw him in a little bar in Riverwest, opening for Sally Timms.

Rusty Shackleford said...

There is a town in north Ontario.

The legendary, nay mythical, feud with Skynyrd began when they started covering "Helpless" and Ronnie changed it to "north Florida." Totally true story.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Ronnie changed it to "north Florida.

whoah, that kind of sucks for the meter, doesn't it? Unless he adds syllables in that southern way.

eww, now I keep hearing barf 'n Boogie style Neil Young in my head. Thanks a lot, brain, for hating me so much.

Chuck said...

Stompin Tom has been my all-time Canadian hero since I first seen him on TV way back in the 60,s He,s a true Canadian treasure....Chuck,ont. Canada.