Canada Day Rocks

In honour of Canada Day (July 1st), here is a smattering of videos of some good (according to me) songs by some good Canadian bands.

First up, April Wine (from Montreal) likes to rock in quite a lovely setting. Most of their songs remind me of summer because that's when I used to visit my cousins near Montreal. Needless to say, their music was heavily played on CHOM FM. 

Meanwhile, Haywire (from New Brunswick) likes to dance (at least in this song). I actually have the 45 of this song. If you don't know what that is, google 45 rpm.

I still find this song to be rather sexy.

Got to see these guys do their last show (supposedly) at a bar just north of Toronto back in ... 1983? Also a song that reminds me of summer. They're from Trawna.

Honeymoon Suite. Ahhh, Honeymoon Suite - denizens of Ontario Place. I lost count of all the times we would go see them in the summers of the early '80s - back when the stage was round and moved around so that everyone could see the band. Please to enjoy the crappy video quality (well, they are from Niagara Falls) of this great song:

If you clicked on the Ontario Place link above and saw a familiar song title, it would be this:

Random facts. I was in Grade 12 when this came out. The real Echo Beach is near Sudbury, Ontario.

Another band that frequented Ontario Place with Honeymoon Suite (and eventually the keyboard player became a member of the Suite) - The Spoons (from Burlington, Ontario). This is one of my favourite songs of all time. (I have many of those.)

I really wanted to show this live video. Why is it that some urls for videos just aren't recognized by the youtube widget in blogger?

And here we have our Kings of Rock'n'Roll from Thornhill, Ontario:

You know a band is great when most of their music stands the test of time.

Now here is one of the most amazing Canadian songs set to a video of U.S. navy fighter jets. If you're in a chair that spins around, I dare you not to get the urge to fling your arms out and spin around while listening to ... FM. Phasors on Stun:

See, this is the part where I would have inserted the Don't Walk Past video by Blue Peter, but I could only get it on the blog if it had its own post. I thought it would fit nicely after FM. Oh well.

Nous avons deux langues officielles en Canada. Faut que je représente le français au moins avec un chanson (ou deux, ou ...)

I just love the guitar in this song.

My favourite francophone artist is Jean Leloup. I love this guy. He can't be pinned down to a definite musical style - he changes things up so often. To me, his music is like poetry, revealing great truths. To like his music, you have to be open to it, open to change. He doesn't call himself a musician - he calls himself a guy who plays the guitar. This is a live recording of Je Joue de la Guitare:

Here's another live recording. This one is a very old song (and it's sung in English):

One of his more profound songs - Le Dôme:

I could post more of his music, but I should stop. Three is enough. For now.

Another artist I really like is DJ Champion. Just as he became superhot, he found out he had lymphoma. Luckily, he's been in remission for a couple of years now. This is a video of two of his big songs.

Since it's very late, I'm going to give you a really fun song. This is my ultimate summer song. Even when this song plays in the dead of winter, I imagine myself rolling down the windows and just blasting this song out. 

Max Webster was a great band. AWESOME band. If you've never heard of them, or barely know about them, check out some of their other songs. Great, great tunes.

I hope your Canada Day rocks!

I'll have to do another post because there are a lot of other songs/artists to include. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment.