Danny Kaye once musically opined (in the movie White Christmas), “The theater. The Theater. What’s happened to the Theater?” Now, he was expressing disappointment in his beloved Broadway’s movement towards artsy-fartsy choreography and away from “Chaps who did taps.” But, if he were around today and got a glimpse of what the current Great White Way had to offer, he’d be on 24-hour-a-day suicide watch.
How I Know This:
For much of my adult life, I’ve lived in the past. At least professionally. Writing and producing radio and television programs about events and people from the past – John Lennon being one. Over the years, I’ve written and produced six separate multi hour radio specials on Lennon and created one television documentary for CBC Newsword, (as it was then called).
One of the easiest ways for a band or artist to reach out to or appeal to new fans is with covers. It’s a no brainer really; you take a song that people who may have never heard you play a note, play it, and watch the reaction. The response is pretty much the same every time; a slow glimmer of recognition, a lightbulb moment (hey! I know that song), and pretty soon you have the crowd singing right along with you. It’s the ultimate inclusive force, and it’s a powerful tool for musicians. I firmly believe up and coming bands should keep a cover or two in their set list, just to draw fans into them. I, like everyone else on this planet who gives a shit about music, love a good cover tune.
In 1975, my radio listening was shifting from CHLO and the AM stations. I was being influenced by the pronouncements 
of my peers. It never occurred to me at the time that they didn’t know anything more than I did. They seemed so sure . . . like a grammar school friend who, in 9th grade, dismissed David Bowie and everything he’d done because his older sisters had told him Bowie was gay. Because this friend of mine was to play the saxophone, and — as was a lot more common in southwestern Ontario and other places in 1975 — he was proudly homophobic, he was outraged that Bowie was depicted with a sax on the cover of Pin-Ups. I still liked Bowie. I just didn’t mention that to the guy who hated him.
Canada is not exactly known for its balmy weather and towering palms, so when Canadians feel the warmth of the sun on their faces, there is a kind of joy that those who live further south below America’s Hat and and the Northern States will never experience. Sunny warm weather frees the soul, and except for hipsters and Coldplay tribute bands, the toques come off, the shorts come on, and we 
embrace the great outdoors…especially patios, our gazillion lakes, and the streets of downtown Toronto, were there is music everywhere, crowded sidewalks, and a party atmosphere like no other. Even Montreal gets a break this year. The Weather Channel says that this year in Montreal, summer falls on a Saturday….
When I was growing up in Stockton California, music was the connecting tissue between friends, and one of the most important touchstones of our daily lives. Everybody listened to the radio. Everybody went to the dances and the house parties and brought their favourite 45s to share in basement rec rooms and around the pool. Everybody had transistor radios. Everybody went to the record stores and spent their babysitting or paperboy money on the latest records. We discussed our favourite artists and songs, we debated the worth of Elvis VS Boone, Beatles VS Stones, and everything in-between. We were ravenous…and constantly on the lookout for music that touched us, made us think, made us dance, made us alive…and kept us appeased until the next release from our current heroes.
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Mad Men is back, which is great. In addition to the multilayered work of Matthew Weiner and his cohorts on the series, the accompanying history and popular culture are concomitant joys of that show; it’s fun to work out when a particular episode is set and run down the attendant details. Season 6’s opener, “The Doorway,” happens at the end of December, 1967. “Hey,” some folks said, “What about the Summer Of Love”? Having Season 5 end before it started and Season 6 starting after it was over was a deliberate choice Matthew Weiner made, and it’s not tough to see why. The Summer Of Love happened in San Francisco — miles away, both geographically and psychically, from Manhattan, Rye NY and Madison Avenue specifically. Weiner said his specific reasoning for that choice was that the come-down and “hangover” offered a richer range of dramatic possibilities than the groovalicious summer months of 1967.
UPDATE!
The link to Episode 1 of The Bobcast is now working. Scroll down….
Sorry for the inconvenience…
The Bobcast
The first episode. With Tom Wilson (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond), CMW showrunner, Greg Simpson, Director/writer/producer (The Last Pogo, The Last Pogo Jumps Again), Colin Brunton, and the Don’t Believe a Word I Say house band, Xprime.
The Bobcast Episode 1 March 18th 2013
Join us live every Monday night at Cherry Cola’s, 200 Bathurst Street just north of Queen Street West. 8 – 12. We record the Bobcast from 9:00 until 10:00.
Episode 2, with musical guest Stacey Kaniuk, eOne guru Eric Alper, and legendary radio and television producer/writer/director,Doug Thompson, takes place tomorrow,March 25th, 2013.
Please join us.
Who listens to radio?
And how?
Stan Freberg
(assisted by Sarah Vaughan and Quincy Jones) asked that question musically and comedically in 1965 for the Radio Advertising Bureau.
A simple recipe it was. Sprinkle a few hundred radio stations throughout the United States and Canada, mix with rock ‘n’ roll and stir. Stir up would be a more apt term because when the music hit the airwaves, the shit hit the fan— the music fan, that is. Not a big deal, you say? You’re probably right. In the grand scheme of things, a handful of traditionalists screaming McCarthyisms in a world already changed beyond their understanding would turn out to be flies on a horse’s ass, so to speak, and to scream them at teens plugged into a jukebox or record player at full volume was, well, laughable, but scream them they did and, as they say, the rest is history.
