Bob Mersereau
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Top 100 text working.indd 3 12/08/2007 2:22:35 PM Copyright © 2007 by Bob Mersereau. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). To contact Access Copyright, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777. Printed in Canada 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Mersereau, Bob, 1960- The top 100 Canadian albums / Bob Mersereau. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-86492-500-8 1. Popular music — Canada — Discography. 2. Music surveys — Canada. I. Title. ML3484.M574 2007 781.64’0971 C2007-904313-5 Written by Bob Mersereau Produced by Susanne Alexander and Goose Lane Editions Susanne Alexander: vocals, tambourine Julie Scriver: art direction, pianos/synthesizers, vocals Kent Fackenthall: cover and book design, drums Kathleen Doucette: logistics, banjo, pedal steel Viola Spencer: booking & financial management, guitar, harmonica Colleen Kitts: tour management & publicity, guitar, background vocals Angela Williams: artist relations & legal management, bass, background vocals Luke Gallagher: shipping and receiving, percussion, cowbell, triangle Edited and mixed by Barry Norris Proofread and engineered by Lisa Alward Album photography by Roger Smith Road crew, merchandising and vinyl management: Lloyd Hanson, Eric Hill, Kirk Lahey, Stephen May, Bob Mersereau, Ed Mullaly, Barry Norris, and Marc Perry Guitarist artwork on the cover by Michael Newell, who appears courtesy of istockphoto.com Goose Lane Editions would like to thank all the artists, labels and management that provided artwork (and music) for this project. Rock on. Goose Lane Editions acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), and the New Brunswick Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport for its publishing activities. Recorded and mixed during the summer of 2007 at Goose Lane Editions Suite 330, 500 Beaverbrook Court Fredericton, New Brunswick CANADA E3B 5X4 www.gooselane.com Top 100 text working.indd 4 12/08/2007 2:22:36 PM Introduction Bob Mersereau Fredericton, 2007 This book is a celebration of one of the most exciting era began in 1948, however, with the introduction art forms of our time, the popular music album. Most of the 33a rpm disc, which could hold over twenty Canadians read books, many enjoy films, and smaller minutes of music on each side. Now, complete numbers appreciate everything from fine art to dance performances, or a series of several songs, could be to poetry. But virtually all of us listen to music, on disc, reproduced on a single disc, still called an “album,” downloaded, live, or on radio. A great deal of Canadian a term that has survived into the digital age to describe popular music since the 1950s has appeared on records, a CD or any group of recordings released at one time, compact discs, and downloadable digital albums, yet even as digital downloads. never before has a book been devoted to ranking, and Will the album exist for much longer? It’s true that honouring, the best albums produced by the country’s the physical album is struggling. CDs have suffered a artists. serious decline with the advent of downloading, both When I realized no such book existed, I found that legal and illegal. According to the Canadian Recording shocking. There are certainly books on the best US or Industry Association, sales of CDs, music DVDs, and British albums of all time; others look at all albums, and other physical pieces of music fell a whopping 35 per Canadian artists are always well represented. But many cent during the first quarter of 2007 compared with the great Canadian albums go unheralded beyond our same period of 2006. Since 1999, the music industry borders, so I felt it was high time to focus specifically workforce has fallen by 50 per cent — indeed, several on this major piece of Canadian culture. of the jurors in this book have been laid off just since The term “album” first came into popular use in I contacted them for their opinions. In Canada, the the 1930s, when record companies started packaging album’s most symbolic blow perhaps came with the collections of 78 rpm recordings in books that closure of Sam The Record Man on Yonge Street in resembled photograph albums. The modern album Toronto in June 2007. THE TOP 100 CANADIAN A L B U M S Top 100 text working.indd 7 12/08/2007 2:22:37 PM Yet most recording artists still think in terms of and people who just like to be entertained. So, rather albums, preferring to release a body of songs rather than use a small jury, I chose to compile a big one, than one at a time. There might be no connection with the idea that the more people were involved, the between the individual songs, except that they come more representative it would be of the entire country. from the same time period or from the same sessions. I wanted people who knew a lot about music, so that And as long as the creators of the art say it exists, their choices would not be limited to the few albums they’ll find ways to get it to the consumer. It’s the with which they were familiar. Having worked in both business that’s changing — and judging by the number public and private broadcasting and in print journalism, of albums on this Top 100 list that have been released I have met many people connected with music on a since 2000, plenty of new artists have no intention of professional level or as devoted volunteers supporting moving away from the concept. musicians and musical events. There’s a big industry in In preparing the book, I asked many people Canada working around the music world, filled with all what they thought of celebrating Canada’s best different types of music fans for all conceivable genres. albums in this way. The idea was met with complete They are the most passionate fans I know: people who enthusiasm, especially from musicians themselves; the listen to more music in a week than most people do in a overwhelming response was that it was about time. year. Best of all, they’re not all critics or snobbish about But how should the Top 100 albums be chosen? One their tastes. obvious way would be to conduct a huge poll, open to You’ll already know a lot of our jurors. They are anyone wishing to vote, perhaps on an Internet site or your local deejay or music reviewer. They are your through ballots placed in music stores, much as baseball favourite musicians, including Jim, Ed, and Tyler of fans vote for all-star teams. That approach, however, Barenaked Ladies; Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett of measures overall popularity, rather than quality; Great Big Sea; Neil Peart of Rush; Nickelback’s Ryan moreover, the results are open to being skewed by Peake; Sass Jordan; Holly Cole; Holly McNarland; repeat votes. Jill Barber; Ron Sexsmith; Corb Lund; Martin Tielli Another option would be to sequester the country’s and Dave Bidini of Rheostatics; George Pettit and Wade top critics, writers, and musicologists, but that would MacNeil of Alexisonfire; Sarah Slean; Matt Mays; and produce a very knowledgeable selection while perhaps many more. Our jurors also include music company leaving out the important element of popularity: critics employees, broadcasters, managers, agents, bookers, and experts tend to favour recordings that match their retailers, roadies, instrument makers, festival operators ideal of what makes a great one, instead of what simply and volunteers, theatre and club managers, collectors, makes them feel really good. But there’s a reason librarians, website managers, and a few other folks certain albums resonate with the public, even if critics who demonstrated intense interest in the project. dismiss them. This is the constant divide between music I can vouch for them all. experts and music fans. Each juror was asked to provide a list of Top Ten Instead, I wanted to find a happy medium between Canadian albums, using whatever criteria they wished. critical choices and popular ones, between music nerds They could choose their own favourites or the ones THE TOP 100 CANADIAN A LBUMS Top 100 text working.indd 8 12/08/2007 2:22:37 PM Standing, left to right: Neil Young, Jeff Weaver (CBC Radio, Victoria), Frank Sampedro (Crazy Horse, guitar), Bob Mersereau (author), Ralph Molina (Crazy Horse, drums). Seated: Billy Talbot (Crazy Horse, bass). The author meets Neil Young & Crazy Horse backstage at Harbour Station, Saint John, NB, in 1996. Also in the photo is Jeff Weaver, the first juror to vote in the survey. Coincidentally, he voted for Young’sHarvest , the eventual winner of the poll. they felt were the most important, from any style, in matter if a Canadian artist had moved away and any language, from any area of the country, as long made the album somewhere else — a book about as the music had been released in an album format. great Canadian albums that didn’t include the likes It could be a Greatest Hits collection, a live album of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell would be unthinkable. — everything counted. To be considered Canadian, To ensure every style was represented, I paid however, a solo artist must have been born in Canada attention to the demographics of the jurors, whom or have moved to this country before making the album I believe are a good mix of ages, men and women, in question.