Omissions from the List of Essential Canadian Music

If you have not yet listened to my personal compilation of the essential Canadian music, it's at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLteYFTJPq94DmDUuG2d08U5-vRs-skASU. If you have listened, there are a few new additions. And there may continue to be, as my memory keeps getting jogged.

A Canadian friend has written pointing out an obvious omission: The Guess Who.

But to tell you the truth, I did not forget them. It was an intentional omission.

My position is that they are not really Canadian.

True, they are from Winnipeg. True, they are very popular in Canada. I’ll also concede the Burton Cummings is a great singer, and Randy Bachmann comes up with great riffs.

But there are two kinds of culture in Canada. There is real Canadian culture, and there are Canadian imitations of foreign culture. All countries have the latter, but Canada is probably more prone to this than most. A lot of movies filmed in Canada, for example, are indistinguishable from Hollywood films. The Guess Who is the latter--a Canadian imitation of foreign culture.

Their first hit, "Shakin’ All Over," was a cover of an American song. Their original name, Chad Allen and the Reflections, was in imitation of the name of a British band. Their first recording was called "Tribute to Buddy Holly." They were named “Guess Who” later in hopes they would be mistaken for some established American or British band performing incognito. They first became financially solvent, and well known, when they were hired by the CBC to regularly do cover versions of current (foreign) hits; the idea was to imitate the originals as closely as possible.

In other words, the whole idea behind the Guess Who was to imitate foreign styles. So what’s Canadian about them?

"American Woman," their best-known song, is irredeemably un-Canadian in tone. Canadians are notably polite. Yet what could be more rude than insulting the womanhood of a neighbouring country? It is also arrogant, assuming that American women as a group are just dying to make out with the singer; what is less Canadian than arrogance? 

More generally, the Guess Who seem to me to be consistently pretentious, and being pretentious is as un-Canadian as you can be. Ask Avril Lavigne; that's the point of "Complicated."

So although they were born in Canada, they seem somehow not to have been brought up with traditional Canadian values and cultural sensitivities. I think a lot of Canadians can legitimately enjoy them, but because they are good at what they do, not because of their Canadianness.

A few more deliberate omissions, for similar reasons: Rush, Bachmann-Turner Overdrive, Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild,” Leon Redbone, Loreena McKennitt, Murray McLaughlin, Valdy, Nelly Furtado, The Band. Not Canadian in spirit; imitations of foreign styles.