I’ve been deep into music since shortly after my 14th birthday. Three quarters of my life has been spent doing something I love. A lot. The side benefit has been that I’ve been able to create music as well. As much as any computer whiz with software can create “music” these days, I came about my (cough cough) talent honestly.
Songwriters are a gifted breed. They’re poets that think in three dimensions. It isn’t enough to be able to put pen to paper and Chaucer their ideas onto papyrus. They have to lift those words from this black and white template and insert them into music from which a melody rises and falls.
We are a species of adapters. We build on what we’ve learned before (we also forget about what we’ve learned before because we’ve got the retention skills of a black Labrador retriever chasing a stick in a field of grass, but that’s a blog for another time). The greatest inventions, the greatest works of art and specifically, the greatest music has come about from nicking, stealing, re-shaping and regurgitating what our forefathers have wrought.
Happy February DBAWIS! It’s been a great start to 2014 so far, aside from a few blips here and there. More than anything it’s shaping up to be an exciting year for music, but new and familiar, and you know how excited music gets me.
For those of you not in Canada, not into music or just not on twitter, the 2014 Juno Award nominations were announced this week. That’s Grammy in Canadian for all of you unfamiliar with the national canuck music awards. And like with any award show, with nominations come controversy, and this year’s Juno picks were not without their fair share. Take a gander at the nominee list here, while I will mosey on down the page to ruminate on a particularly contentious nomination.
History will not be kind to the memory of 2013. It was a year of meanness and spite from people in power, and a deepening of resentment towards politicians, as the ever present 
surveillance and social media exposed every little thing people never wanted known. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing … a lot of knowledge is Facebook.
Last weekend I made the rounds doing promotion for my book – The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia – to radio station CFRB and the cable TV show ‘On Da Grine TV’ during what was a particularly heavy media week in Toronto. The Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing promoting upcoming Hollywood fair and its glitterati. Had I been able to afford a publicist I’m sure they would have dissuaded me from trying to promote a music book during a movie festival. But I don’t have a publicist so I sallied forth and guess what? The festival had no effect on getting me media coverage.
Yesterday I was driving home from work, and listening to the intrepid Mr. Rich Terfry(aka Buck 65) on CBC Radio 2, and as usual, the velvety voiced radio host had many music related facts to impart upon his listening audience. The most memorable, one and the most shocking to me anyway, was a story that has been circulating about Robin Thicke and Marvin Gaye. One was accusing the other of song thievery, but you may be just as surprised as I was to hear who was doing the accusing, and the subsequent suing.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 