Canadian Stoicism

Earth - The Stoic

Earth, like a goblet of empty delight,

Empty of summer and balm-breathing hours,

Empty of music, empty of all flowers,

Now with that other draught of death and night

And loss, and iron bitterness refills.

The upland rifts are gleaming white with snow

The north wind pipes, the forest groans below,

The clouds are heaping grandly on the hills.

Yet thou complainest not, O steadfast Earth,

Beautiful mother with thy stoic fields,

In all the ages since your fiery birth

Deep in thine own wide heart thou findest still

Whatever comforts and whatever shields,

And plannest also for us the same sheer will.

- Archibald Lampman, hockey playing poet (1861-1899)

For those of you non-Canadians in the audience, the above poem might give you an idea of what it is you are up against when you play hockey against Canadians. Lampman could take Bukowski or Rourke any day.

Couple of music notes of a non-Canadian nature. Picked up the Wipers 3 cd set a couple weeks ago. It is the band's first three records plus a bunch of really good outtakes and such. I have always liked the Wipers first record. I still give it a spin every now and then. Top notch punk rock.

Soon as I started to listen to the second cd I realised it was even better than their first and that the third cd would be even better, which it is. I have been driving around town listening to it. It is a little like driving around town listening to Alice Cooper's "Killer" album. Not exactly an everyday soundtrack for your life in 2010. Or is it?

I do not think I ever saw Greg Sage or his band the Wipers in Vancouver. Too bad, because the Wipers were one of the Kings of the Golden Age of West Coast Rock 'n' Roll.

Do not find many good used records in the second hand stores any more so I was pleased to pick up Roxy Music's 1976 live record and the "Blue City" soundtrack.

I liked Roxy Music lots back in '76 but that is also when I started to measure up other bands against Motorhead and the Sex Pistols. Never listened to Roxy Music much after that though I have been careful to collect most all their early records just because of the time period in which they were released, during the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll.

The record is surprisingly good. The whole thing comes off as being just slightly less spaced out than a Hawkwind show from the same period. You want to hear some fucking sizzling guitar playing? It is fucking carcinogenic. These guys must have been as good as anybody in 1976.

I have been a sucker for good slide guitar players. Cooder lets loose with lots of that on the "Blue City" soundtrack. Made me very happy. Good American music has been doing that for me for a long time. Made the old lady happy. Made the dog happy. She is happy when Sonja and I do some linoleum boogie.