I was fortunate enough to attend the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame 7th Annual Gala a couple of weekends ago here in Toronto. Among those inducted, the most famous were Robbie Robertson and Québec songwriter Luc Plamondon.
I won’t attempt a complete summary of the night, as my friend Steve McLean did a bang-up job at that for his blog here, and I don’t think I could improve upon that.
It was a shame, though, that there was no translation for many of the video presentations that were done for the Francophone inductees. I was able to catch a few phrases here and there, but I would have liked to have known more about these honorees.
CBC Radio 2’s “Concerts On Demand” program recorded the proceedings, including the performances, available here.
Robbie Robertson and Luc Plamondon
The big thrill for me, of course, was to see Robbie Robertson inducted. I’ve been a huge fan of The Band since I was a teenager.
To honour Robertson’s songs, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings performed “The Weight” and the Halifax band Wintersleep did a fine version of “Broken Arrow”. But the highlight was undoubtedly Daniel Lanois’ performance of “The Moon Struck One”. Lanois sat at his pedal steel guitar, ensconced within a kind of wood-shed diorama that rolled out from the wings of the stage. During the chorus, a prop moon rose up from behind the scene. A little cheesy, but in a creative-cheeky kind of way.
Oh yeah, and a lithe female dancer in a sexy, red dress with legs to next Tuesday performed an interpretive dance during the song. Not what I would have gone with, but it was…interesting. You get a sense of it in this truncated YouTube clip:
Props and pirouettes notwithstanding, it was haunting and terrific performance.
Great Scott
But it wasn’t just an evening of honouring, inducting and entertainment, it was also quite educational. One of the inductees from the Radio Era (1939–1969) was Jack Scott, who I wasn’t very aware of before, to my great shame.
Born in my old stomping grounds of Windsor Ontario, Jack Scott was a country-rockabilly-doo-wop singer and songwriter in the 1950s who had more U.S. singles in a shorter period of time than any artist other than The Beatles. In a three-and-a-half-year span in the late-1950s, he had 19 hit singles in the U.S., 18 of which were his own compositions.
His ballad “What in the World’s Come Over You” has been recorded by Tom Jones, Sonny James and Wanda Jackson. At the gala, Russell deCarle, the golden-throated singer formerly of Prairie Oyster, performed a wonderful version of it.
And Scott’s song “The Way I Walk” was famously covered by The Cramps and Robert Gordon.
Have You Seen My Love-Lorn Lobster?
The other surprise was the inductee from the Pioneer Era (pre-1938), John “Honey” Stromberg, who hailed from my home province of P.E.I. Stromberg (born John Stramberg in Milton, P.E.I.) was a wildly successful songwriter on Broadway, for vaudeville, and for the comedy duo Weber and Fields in the 1890s till just past the turn of the century. Lillian Russell made his “Come Down, Ma Evenin’ Star” her signature song, and the only song she ever recorded.
But I was most intrigued by his song “The Love-Lorn Lobster.” I gotta hear this song! Unfortunately, a google search only turned up this cover and the sheet music from the New York Public Library.
If anyone can point me towards an audio recording of this song, I’d be very grateful. Too bad YouTube didn’t exist in the 1890s.
Stromberg ended his days rather sadly, however, taking his own life in 1902 in Freeport, Long Island, either during a bout of insanity or to escape the pain of chronic arthritis.
But in his time he was one of the most successful songwriters in Tin Pan Alley. I salute a fellow Islander who made it big in the Big Apple!
