NOTES
- Global music sales fall by 7.6% in 2003—some positive signs in 2004. Retrieved 19 May 2004 from www.ifpi.org/site-content/statistics/worldsales.html
- Statistics December 2003, retrieved 24 May 2004 from www.cria.ca/indstats/indstats1203.htm
- See David C. Schwartz and Charles J. Mannella, “Popular Music as an Agency of Political Socialization: A Study in Popular Culture and Politics,” in New Directions in Political Socialization, ed. by David C. Schwartz and Sandra Kenyon Schwartz (New York: The Free Press, 1975); William S. Fox and James Williams, “Political Orientation and Music Preferences among College Students,” Public Opinion Quarterly 38, no. 3 (1974): 352–371; and David J. Jackson, Entertainment and Politics: The Influence of pop Culture on Young Adult Political Socialization (New York: Peter Lang, 2002).
- See R. Serge Denisoff, Sing a Song of Social Significance (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1972); Ray Pratt, Rhythm and Resistance: Explorations in the Political Uses of Popular Music (New York: Praeger, 1991); Timothy E. Scheurer, Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times to the Present (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991); Kenneth J. Bindas, “The Future Is Unwritten: The Clash, Punk, and America, 1977–1982,” American Studies 34, no. 1 (1993): 69–89; Todd Boyd, “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self: Variations on a Political Theme in Rap Music and Popular Culture,” Public Culture 7, no. 1 (1994): 289–312; B. Thompson, “Right-on Rock,” New Statesman and Society (25 June 1993): 22–25.;Robert Perkinson, “The Indigo Girls,” The Progressive (December 1996): 34–36; Matt Hendrickson, “Revolution Rock,” Rolling Stone (4 September 1997): 35–43.
- Dolf Zillmann, Charles F. Aust, Kathleen D. Hoffman, Curtis C. Love, Virginia L. Ordman, Janice T. Pope, Patrick D. Seigler, and Rhonda Gibson, “Radical Rap: Does it Further Ethnic Division?” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 16, no. 1 (1995): 1–25; J.D. Johnson, L.A. Jackson, and L. Gatto, “Violent Attitudes and Deferred Academic Aspirations: Deleterious Effects of Exposure to Rap Music,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 16, nos. 1–2 (1995): 27–41.
- Paul Nesbitt-Larking, Politic, Society, and the Media (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2001), p. 86.
- Not everyone agrees that lyrics in and of themselves are effective carriers of meaning. Simon Frith argues we should not interpret lyrics like poems, disconnected from their vocal and musical context. He even asserts, “song words are not about ideas (‘content’) but about their expression.” Simon Frith, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 164. How the singer stresses words, for example, is crucial to understanding his or her intent, and we must not assume our interpretation of lyrics is the same as everyone else's. As an example of the peril of lyrical interpretation he offers the frequent misinterpretation of protest songs, in particular Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the U.S.A.,” which is a sad tale of the eventual incarceration of an unemployed Vietnam veteran. Nonetheless the Republican Party wanted to use the song for President Reagan's hyper-patriotic re-election campaign in 1984. I take Frith's admonitions seriously, yet I hold to the belief that the misinterpretation of lyrics by some should make scholars more careful in how they interpret the content of lyrics, not abandon the project.
- Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack, and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can Rock Renaissance 1985–1995 (Toronto: ECW Press, 2001).
- Evaluation of the Sound Recording Development Program. Retrieved 4 June 2003 from www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/pades-srdp/exsummary e.htm
- Canada Music Fund. Retrieved 4 June 2003 from www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/fcmus-cmusf/fcm-cmf e.cfm
- In 1971 the Canadian government implemented content regulations on radio. Currently, at least 35 percent of popular music selections played each week on both AM and FM radio stations must be Canadian in origin, although the enforced percentage varies quite a bit with FM stations.
- Barclay, Jack and Schneider, Have Not Been the Same, 27.
- This essay does not take a position either way on the contentious debates about the impact of Canadian cultural policies or whether they ought to be maintained, except to point out that the band whose lyrics are analyzed here have benefited from these policies.
- In John Lehr, “'Texas (When I Die)': National Identity and Images of Place in Canadian Country Music Broadcasts,” Canadian Geographer 27, no. 4 (1983): 361.
- Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991).
- Ibid., 28.
- Ryan Edwardson, “Of'War Machines and Ghetto Scenes': English-Canadian Nationalism and The Guess Who's 'American Woman',” The American Review of Canadian Studies 33, no. 3 (Autumn 2003): 339–356.
- Michael Taft, “Syncretizing Sound: The Emergence of Canadian Popular Music,” in The Beaver Bites Back? American Popular Culture in Canada, eds. David H. Flaherty and Frank E. Manning. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993): 197.
- Popular music analysts have considered the musical sound itself as vital in interpreting the meaning of popular music. Tagg offers seven categories of musical factors to consider when interpreting music qua music: time; melody; orchestration; tonality and texture; dynamic aspects; acoustical aspects; and electromusical and mechanical aspects. Philip Tagg, “Analysing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice,” Popular Music 2 (1982): 37–67. While this analysis focuses on lyrics, it also considers where appropriate the complement or contrast offered by various elements of musical presentation in the songs of Blue Rodeo, especially the placement of the vocals in the mix and the choice of instrumentation.
- In 1987 Rolling Stone magazine described them as the best new band in America.
- a Gundersen, “Among the Best, Seldom-Heard Music of 1994,” USA Today 3 January 1994, p. 6D.
- Currently the band consists of Keelor, Cuddy, bassist Bazil Donovan, drummer Glenn Milchem, keyboardist James Gray, and multi-instrumentalist Bob Egan.
- Peter Howell, “7,000 Fans Jam Forum to Cheer on Blue Rodeo,” Toronto Star 18 June 1991, p. D4.
- Gregory Millard, Sarah Riegel, and John Wright, “Here's Where We Get Canadian: English-Canadian Nationalism and Popular Culture,” The American Review of Canadian Studies (Spring 2002): 11–34.
- Millard, Riegel and Wright, “Here's Where We Get Canadian”; Robert A. Wright, “Dream Comfort, Memory, Despair”: Canadian Popular Music and the Dilemma of Nationalism,” Journal of Canadian Studies 22, no. 4 (1988): 27–43; Roger Gibbins, The New Face of Canadian Nationalism (Montreal: Queen's University Press, 1995); J.L. Granatstein, Yankee Go Home?: Canadians and Anti-Americanism (New York: Harper Collins, 1996); Eva Mackey, The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 145–147; Ryan Edwardson, “‘Kicking Uncle Sam out of the Peaceable Kingdom’: English-Canadian 'New Nationalism' and Americanization,” Journal of Canadian Studies, 37, no. 4 (2002–2003).
- The writers at Chart magazine put it first on their list of the Top 50 Canadian Songs Of All-Time. Retrieved 19 May 2004 from www.chartattack.corn/DAMN/2000/06/3012.cfm.
- Ryan Edwardson, “Of 'War Machines and Ghetto Scenes,”' Parentheses in original.
- “Piranha Pool,” Outskirts, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1987.
- Piranha Pool Song Notes. Retrieved June 4, 2003 from www.bluerodeo.com/br/piranha.html.
- In Seymour M. Lipset, Continental Divide: the Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada (New York: Routledge, 1990): 121.
- See Lipset, Continental Divide, ch. 3; Pierre Berton, Why We Act Like Canadians (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982).
- For a comparison of the religious ideals of the two countries see chapter 5 of Lipset, Continental Divide
- “God and Country,” Diamond Mine, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1989.
- According to Ipsos-Reid's 2003 survey of Canadians' religious beliefs, only 12 percent of Canadians can be classified as Evangelical Christians. Canadian Religious Beliefs and Practices—Part 1. Retrieved 19 September 2004 from www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/031113canadian. While this places Canada third in the world in terms of percentage of the population who profess Evangelical Christianity, it places them significantly behind the U.S. where 33 percent are Evangelicals.
- Sharaz Habib, “God Should be Left out of Political Speeches,” Toronto Star, 25 March 2004, p. A12.
- In the interest of fairness it should be pointed out that a number of letter writers to the Star argued that Harper's reference was being blown out of proportion.
- “It Could Happen to You,” Tremolo, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1997.
- Reginald Stuart, “Robert Kennedy's Son David Found Dead in Hotel,” New York Times, 26 April 1984, p. A1
- Mackey, The House of Difference, p. 145.
- President Bush canceled a planned visit to Canada after the Chretien government's refusal to join the war effort, and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci described the U.S. as “disappointed” with Canada's decision and implied the possibility of U.S. retribution, saying, “For Canada the priority is trade, for us the priority is security. Security trumps trade.” “U.S. Loses Faith in Canada,” National Post, 26 March 2003.
- Simon Frith, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), p. 164.
- The reference is to Manitoba Member of Legislative Assembly Elijah Harper who torpedoed passage of Canada's controversial 1987 constitutional reforms.
- “Fools Like You,” Lost Together, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1992.
- For critiques of Canadians' failures to live up to their ideals of tolerance and multiculturalism and the uncomfortable positions in which such policies place minorities see Neil Bissoondath “A Question of Belonging” in Belonging: The Meaning and Future of Canadian Citizenship ed. William Kaplan (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993), and Mackey, House of Difference
- “Underground,” Outskirts, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1987.
- No less significant a Canadian icon than “Hockey Night in Canada” host Ron Maclean was asked in 2003 if he were trapped somewhere remote what one piece of recorded music he would bring and answered, “I'd take Blue Rodeo. If I could pick one album it'd be Outskirts, but I'd take their Greatest Hits.” Outskirts is the album on which “Underground” appears. Chris Young, “Coach's Corner's Second Banana,” Toronto Star, 29 April 2003, p. C1.
- Jack Aubty, “Bilingual Canada? Who Cares? Poll Shows Language Policy Means Little to Canadians,” The Ottawa Citizen, 1 August 2001.
- Different surveys of most important symbols produce different results, yet the winners are always distinctly Canadian. In a 2003 survey Canadians to determine “institutions of symbolic importance to Canada” health care came in first with 78 percent. The Queen came in last. Anxiety over the future of health care was running high when the survey was administered between March 7 and 27th, 2003, so it is not surprising the system rated so importantly. “Medicare Beats Maple Leaf as Canadian Symbol,” The Charlottetown Guardian, 4 April 2003.
- “Western Skies,” Lost Together, WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's, 1992.
- The reference is to the number 503 streetcar in the Toronto Transit Commission system.
- Lehr, “Texas (When I Die).”
- Barry K. Grant, “'Across the Great Divide': Imitation and Inflection in Canadian Rock Music,” Journal of Canadian Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 116–127, p. 119.
- The “crime” almost certainly refers to Mark Lepine's 1989 murders of 14 female Université de Montreal students.
- This is a word, Jim Cuddy has pointed out, that is very difficult to rhyme.
- Review: LIVE: Blue Rodeo with The Sadies, retrieved 19 May 2004 from www.chartattack.com/damn/2003/01/0911.cfm