My tastes in music have always been varied— “eclectic” is a good word— I took up guitar at the time of the folk music popularity of the early 60’s, and transferred with the trend into the Beatles and the pop music of the rest of the 60’s and into the 70’s. At the same time, through the years I didn’t mind a bit of country, blues, and even jazz. The line was drawn, however, at heavy metal in its day, and now rap, and, although I don’t mind a number or two, I never was fascinated by classical music… no doubt evidence to some of my poor taste. In recent years, I found I was not in tune with the pop music of today, so I leaned more toward contemporary country and even classics of years gone by like those of Sinatra. Was it a maturing, or a degenerating?

When I look back over the last fifty or so, I’m mindful of a few we have dropped along the way. No doubt there are older fans who feel that the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, or Jim Morrison were early losses that changed the direction of popular music, but I never particularly mourned those losses, probably because they had a lot of responsibility for their own demises due to drugs.

However, two other names stand out with me as losses that make you wonder the “what if?” question. In the complementary fields of “singer – songwriter”, here is one of each. Continue reading →

It’s funny how quickly change takes place when the right time rolls around.  For the last thirty years, maybe fifty years, maybe even back to the Industrial Revolution— I don’t know– people have been trying to draw the attention of the public to the polluting of our world.  No one paid them much attention, whether they were hippies in tie-dyes or Moses look-alikes carrying placards in the streets, but suddenly fear of Global Warming has focused our attention and snapped us around quite sharply, and politicians, entertainers—whoever–  are clamoring to show people how “green” they are.

No one dares voice opposition at this stage.  If you aren’t fully into Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming, you are a Neanderthal at best.  A few brave souls seemed to be hanging on with meek suggestions that we could be looking at large weather cycles that have swept through our history over the last number of centuries, but their voices are fading from our hearing.  David Suzuki, long regarded over the last thirty years as a pain in the butt who could ruin what might have been a good day with his proclamations of doom, has become a darling of the Canadian public, even appearing in curious TV commercials to convince homeowners that unplugging everything in the house will get them more beer in the long haul (but warmer beer, however). Continue reading →

Last week I read some comments from people responding to an online  “Topic of the Day” regarding Sidney Crosby and his contract for 43.5 million over the next five years.   Most were supportive of the Cole Harbour boy and the fantastic success he is having in NHL hockey.  Only a few made comments suggesting that the dollar figures were a little out of line with other areas of “employment”, while some Cole Harbour people optimistically suggested that he use his new wealth to build them a hockey arena.

Crosby is, by all appearances, a fine young person who has taken his sudden success in stride.  “Success” was a common word being used in the comments, and I was a little struck by the way its use at times seemed to suggest that he had achieved “success in life”, at the ripe age of 19.

We measure success so much by money, and although all would agree that Crosby is a uniquely talented player, it seemed that he had not reached the bar until the contract (with its yearly figure apparently tied to his sweater number– 8.7 million a year for number 87) made it real.   You are not officially a success until the ink dries on the deal. Continue reading →