Unquestionably

The National Post recently editorialised that Neil Young is “unquestionably Canada's best songwriter.”

Sounds questionable. This brought a flurry of letters suggesting other candidates. What most became manifestr was the point that Canada is exceptionally strong in the field of the popular song. Granted, the US is the world centre; but the US has ten times Canada's population. I think, proportionately, Canada more than holds its own, even against the US, let alone other major centres. There is nowhere in this world where you can escape Anne Murray, Celine Dion, or Gordon Lightfoot playing softly in the elevator or on the local pa.

For my part, for whatever it's worth, perhaps a loonie, I would rather listen to a half-dozen Canadian songwriters than anyone else. To my ear, they are genuinely better than anyone, anywhere; though this may be largely because, being from my own culture, they share so many of my own assumptions, and seem to see the world as if through my eyes. But that being so, let nobody be so foolish as to say there is no mainstream Canadian culture.

My preferences are definitely folky, and rather old. I think Canadian music generally is more folky than most: than Europe, because we are classless; than the US, because we lack the black infusion. Our roots are more exclusively Celtic, though of course adding strands from elsewhere. And it is primarily Celtic music that has come to be known, in the English-speaking world, as “folk” music.

Here's my list of the best, theoretically in order:

Leonard Cohen. He is the best living poet in the English language; and his music has become almost as good over the years. He surpasses anyone anywhere.

Joni Mitchell. Both words and music are more sophisticated than almost anyone else is doing. She falls below Cohen, though, because her moral and intellectual vision is weaker, smaller, and less reliable.

Stan Rogers. Salt of the earth.

Ian Tyson. Nobody else evokes the Canadian landscape and climate as well.

Gordon Lightfoot. He's written a barrelfull of good songs, and some of them are exceptional. He has also written some songs that make me wince. He's inclined at times to reach for the nearest cliche.

Paul Anka. Not my taste, but brilliant. He seems to be personally responsible for the top five or six karaoke classics of all time. Responsible for the Johnny Carson theme song, Diana, My Way, She's a Lady.

Stompin' Tom Connors. You can mock him; there is no depth to any of it. But he's written a lot of good, rousing songs that do not wear out. I'd say he is in a way the most Canadian of all songwriters, combining our sense of humour and our childlikeness, the two most distinct Canadian cultural characteristics.

Bob Nolan. To my ears, the greatest “Western” composer ever. He wrote, among other songs, “Cool Water,” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”

Buffy Ste. Marie. She's written a few that are transcendent. Qu'Appelle Valley, Up Where We Belong, Until It's Time for You to Go, and some wonderful film scores.
Robbie Robertson. “The Weight”; “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”; “Up on Cripple Creek”; “Somewhere Down that Crazy River.”

Mac Beattie. Forgotten now, but a local hero to the Ottawa Valley, and he ought to be better known.


Neil Young doesn't even make my list, frankly. The same three notes repeated endlessly. You really have to be on drugs to get anything out of it.