Segarini – Wack in the Saddle Again ….

Over the course of 5 decades of playing music and recording, looking back (sometimes over my shoulder) I can see that my mission statement remained fairly static. I wanted to write music I loved, hoped other people loved it too, and learned to play musical instruments just well enough to write those songs and, knowing my own limitations, wrote simple ditties I could sing without pulling a hamstring, running out of breath, or unable to hit the high notes without scaring the cats.

During that time (after being in a few bands as a hired hand; The Jades, The Ratz, and US), I put together my own projects seven times. They all had their magic and their moments, their ups and downs, and I cherish those times and love them all. …but one will always be the favoured child, the wildest ride, and the craziest drunken uncle ….

Bob, The Wackers, the Times, and Enough Personal Opinions to Start a Fist Fight – Updated!

Back in 1971 the world was a different place. McDonald’s hamberders were made with real beef. …From cows! The realm of Dance was twerkless. Lady Ga Ga was 15 years away from being able to say goo goo let alone being able to wear a meat dress and sing with Tony Bennett. Weird booths called “Payphones” dotted the landscape, and the music that dominated radio was loud, raw, rough, and serious, lyrically mysterious, musically adventurous, and actively, proudly, out for sex and drugs, and with most of them, madly obsessed with castles, the dark arts, plinths, Roundabouts, Crazy Trains,  limousines, and being on the cover of Rolling Stone. They were rapidly replacing the “Radio Friendly” 3 minute pop songs that had dominated the airwaves since before I was born.

Bob Makes Excuses and Isn’t Very Nice at All if You Ask Me….

A Message From Bob – This is an old column, updated to serve my current situation, but fortunately, soooo on point that the majority of it sounds like I ripped it from today’s headlines.

Here’s the thing…

In the past 10 days I have quit smoking, had my apartment divested of a ton of junk, gotten a roommate, been through Bullshit hell, took a bad fall in a Dollarama and spent 2 hours sitting in an ambulance convincing the adorable EMPs or Ts or whatever the Jr. Doctors who pilot them are called, not to take me to the hospital and leave me on a gurney in a hallway for 12 hours while the doctors and nurses play Marco Polo in the cafeteria wearing hospital gowns and swim fins. I bled out enough blood to dress the crime scenes in an entire season of CSI: North York, and having been successful at avoiding Our Lady of Perpetual Agony’s pale green hallways, am now the proud owner of a broken nose (3rd time), 3 bruised ribs some little broken bones in my left hand, a painfully scraped left knee, a broken pair of sunglasses, and little or no love for an elderly Eastern European couple who caused the prattfall by considering me a crook and are incapable of knowing the number for 911 and dialing it, no matter how much you scream at them to do so while spraying blood all over their discount christmas wrapping.

Fuck it. The 2nd Installment of the Story of the Wackers will be up on Monday or Friday, and until then, you are lucky to get this. Love you. Leave me alone.

Dear Readers. Please excuse Bob from today’s Column…the Dog Ate His Homework.

Signed, My Mom

Bob shares The Story of The Wackers Part One

 

I was losing sleep writing about The Five Crazy Assholes (Our Personal Tour Name, and how we refered to ourselves more often than not), when I was gifted with a copy of the fan magazine this was originally printed in…and PLEASE, I cannot find the PM with your name on it and you deserve credit for this, even though I used the old, weathered scans of my copy when I couldn’t find yours, so get back to me and I’ll insert your well deserved credit. Okay…where was I…oh yeah, Yellowed with age and at wonky angles, I did what I could to make it presentable because you deserve to read this account because it was written by two eccentric and incredible dear friends who are no longer with us…although I keep them close to this day. More next Friday, but I need all you Wacker Friends and Fans to follow the directions at the end of the column….

Segarini: Canadian, Eh? Happy 150th Canada Day!

Have a safe and happy Canada Day…I love you all. And yes…this IS the Greatest Country in the World…even if some of us don’t know it.

Portions of this column originally appeared in FYIMusic, Cashbox Canada, and DBAWIS.

Roxanne Tellier – Bob Segarini ..the Man, the Myth, the Legend …

He calls me Mrs Parker; I call him my Robert Benchley.

But how did it all begin, you ask? Well, It all started at a small 5000 watt radio station in Fresno, California … no, wait ..that’s Ted Baxter’s story. Here’s what really happened …

Frank Gutch Jr: Part 1 of 2 Starting with Notes!

Frank Gutch Jr: Due to circumstances beyond our control, you will be getting my column in two segments this week.  I had the Notes ready to go but last night had to deal with a kidney stone the size and shape of the original Batmobile, and I am not talking the model.  I was just about to take a sharp spoon and attempt to dig it out, kidney and all, when the pain slowly subsided and I was allowed some rest. 

Segarini Runs a Rerun – Snapshots and Stories for Modern Men and Women

October.

Fall has fell, election fever has gripped Canada, the US of A is keeping warm in their tin-foil hats and bunkered down under their beds, and Toronto the Groovy is in the throes of the locally produced and fantastic Indie Week, a celebration of Indie Artists and Music, the city’s wondrous venues, and complete with a Film Fest featuring music related documentaries and Q&A’s with the people responsible for them.

Guest Columnist Bernard Perusse: The Wackers: A great Montreal band that deserved better

42 years after moving to Montreal with The Wackers and Canada becoming my home, a journalist from that beautiful city has written a piece about the band, the people, and the times I still consider to be some of the best in my life. Montreal was the reason we moved here, and I have never regretted that move once since the day I arrived with The Wackers, a supportive and understanding spouse, and a head full of dreams.

Segarini: The BobChart – Week 12

This week’s BobChart is kind of a special edition.

Many of you have sent some wonderful emails and messaged me on Facebook wanting to hear some of the music I have been fortunate enough to write and record over the years. Wanting to share some with you, I began to go through the available YouTube videos (WordPress asks for money if you want to use Mp3’s, but allows video links) and realized I had published many of them previously, so I set about to create some that NO ONE has seen. Most of the new ones in this column are just a snapshot or two so I could post the songs, but 1 or 2 are a little more filled out. Regardless, it’s just about the music anyway, so I hope you enjoy them.