Canadian Rock and Roll
The Canadian Collection
The Museum's collection of Canadian Rock and Roll memorabilia includes an original poster from the Festival Express, signed pieces from the Tragically Hip, The Guess Who, Randy Bachman, Daniel Lanois, Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, Michelle Pagliaro, Triumph, Kim Mitchell, April Wine, Blue Rodeo and more. The collection features rare albums and singles, including pieces from the Yorkville scene of the late 1960's. Also included are backstage passes, drum sticks, original posters and promotional material, contracts, guitar picks and countless other material relating to Canadian Rock and Roll.
The History of Canadian Rock and Roll
1960s
As the late fifties gave way to the sixties, stars of the previous decade were still producing hits, but they were quickly losing ground as they struggled to find material that would click with this new and energetic generation. The first Canadian-made and produced rock recording to achieve international popularity was "Clap Your Hands" in 1960 by a Montreal quartet, The Beaumarks. Shortly thereafter, they appeared on American Bandstand and a charity concert at Carnegie Hall. Bobby Curtola from Port Arthur, Ontario had several songs on the Canadian music charts beginning with "Hand In Hand With You" in 1960. His biggest chart-topper came in 1962 with the song, "Fortune Teller", which was also successful internationally. In 1966, he won an RPM Gold Leaf Award (The Gold Leaf Awards, which were in effect the first Juno Awards) for being the first Canadian to have a gold album.
The CHUM Chart debuted on May 27, 1957, under the name CHUM's Weekly Hit Parade, to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in Canada. Yet in the 1960s, Canadian music was regarded with indifference and Canadian recording artists were forced to turn toward the United States to establish their careers. In 1960 Walt Grealis of Toronto started in the music business with Apex Records, the Ontario distributor for Compo Company (founded in 1918), Canada's first independent record company that today is part of Universal. Also emerging in the 1960’s was a small neighbourhood in Toronto called Yorkville that began to develop a small scene that would produce some of Canada’s earliest rock and roll groups and folk singers including Ian Tyson and Gordon Lightfoot as well as bands like the Mandala, Ugly Ducklings, Big Town Boys and many more.
Country rock and folk rock singers like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Denny Doherty (of The Mamas & the Papas), David Clayton-Thomas (of Blood, Sweat & Tears), Andy Kim, Zal Yanovsky (of The Lovin' Spoonful), John Kay (of Steppenwolf), and Ian & Sylvia found international audiences. One important example was a Winnipeg band called Chad Allan & the Expressions, which had a 1965 hit with a version of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over". They would eventually evolve into The Guess Who, the first Canadian rock group to have a No.1 hit that reached the top on the Canadian Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, with "American Woman" in 1970.
Their success paved the way for a new wave of Canadian singer-songwriters, including Stan Rogers, Murray McLauchlan, Bruce Cockburn and Willie P. Bennett. Unlike the generation before, the late sixties American and British counterculture and hippie movements had diverted rock towards psychedelic rock, heavy metal, progressive rock and many other styles, most dominated by socially and politically incisive lyrics. The music was an attempt to reflect upon the events of the time - civil rights, the growing unrest in America over the war in Vietnam, and the rise of feminism. In many instances, the "message" within the song was simplistic or banal. Although only two of the five original members of Steppenwolf were born in Canada (Jerry Edmonton and Goldy McJohn), the band was among the biggest in Canadian music in the 1960s and 1970s. German born frontman, John Kay, would later become a Canadian citizen and was the only member of Steppenwolf to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame. Another one of the most prominent players of the late 60s rock scene was Neil Young, who was a member of the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield, before joining Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Young also recorded music with Crazy Horse throughout his solo career, which has now spanned over 40 years, establishing him as one of the premier singer songwriters in history.
1970s
With the introduction of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC) broadcast regulations in 1970, the Canadian recording industry made rock a major focus of its activity. In 1971, the Canadian content law was passed ensuring Canadian culture and artists weren't overrun by the American media outlets. The Juno Awards began as a reader poll conducted by Canadian music industry trade magazine RPM Weekly in December 1964. A similar balloting process continued until 1970 when the RPM Gold Leaf Awards, as they were then known, were changed to the Juno Awards. The first Juno Award ceremony was held in 1975 and was closely related to rectifying this same concern about Canadian content. This led to increased production and with the ground-breaking international popularity of The Guess Who and Neil Young at the end of the 1960s, opened markets outside Canada to the country's musicians. Moreover, success abroad usually ensured success in Canada. Led by Anne Murray and The Poppy Family, the early 1970s were a golden age for Canadian music. Many performers from the late 1960s came to the forefront in the following years, among them The Bells and Andy Kim from Montreal, Chilliwack from Vancouver, Five Man Electrical Band from Ottawa, Lighthouse from Toronto, and The Stampeders from Calgary.
With the introduction in the mid 70s period of rock music on FM radio stations, where it was common practice to program extended performances, musicians were no longer limited to songs of three minutes' duration as dictated by AM stations. The Canadian music industry was still nascent, with little independent music media and a limited distribution infrastructure. The two most internationally renowned bands to arise from this industry were Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Rush. One of the largest exports to date is Rush, boasting 25 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records, making them one of the best-selling rock bands in history by 2005. Rush currently place fourth behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith for the most consecutive gold and platinum albums by a rock band.
Following the scene of hard rock a small wave of acts emerged from all across Canada, including Moxy, A Foot in Coldwater and Triumph from Toronto, Trooper from Vancouver, and April Wine from Halifax. Canadian cultural critics have noted, in general, that the late 1970s were a lesser era for Canadian music. Many of the acts that had defined the earlier half of the decade were no longer recording, and the new artists emerging in this era simply didn't seem to be able to capture the Canadian pop zeitgeist in the same way. Never the less a number of established Canadian acts, including Rush, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bruce Cockburn, April Wine, Pat Travers and Neil Young, remained influential and recorded some of their most popular material of all during this period, and former "The Guess Who" lead singer Burton Cummings emerged as a popular solo artist in soft rock. Also notable is folk rocker Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" a monster hit of the era. Artists like The Kings, Prism, Crowbar, Saga, Nick Gilder, Ian Thomas, Goddo, Harlequin, Mahogany Rush, Moxy, Streetheart, Max Webster and Ironhorse saw their greatest success during the late 70s period.
Many acts have had equally vital, if less remunerative careers outside the mainstream in punk rock and its derivations, generally distinguished by a tendency to extremes of one sort or another. Whether in instrumental intensity, lyric content, or performance style Canadian pop music evolved with the times, reflecting worldwide trends. In the late 1970s, as punk rock, disco and the emerging new wave ruled the landscape with groups such as Teenage Head who saw huge success.
1980s
Things changed course in the 1980s, the changing fast-paced culture was accompanied by an explosion in youth culture. Until the mid-1960s, little attention was paid to rock by Canadian daily newspapers except as news or novelty. With the introduction during the 1970s of the "rock critic", coverage began to rival that of any other music. The 1980s saw Canada support and promote many of its own talent in pursuit of true originality. Canadian rock generally had been discouraged by market forces before the 1980s, in particular the need to conform to the taste of a Canadian audience that has had its standards and expectations formed by constant exposure to US and British acts for the prior three decades. Music videos assumed a major role in the promotion of pop rock recordings in 1980s for US exposure.
Videos produced many mainstream pop-rockers that saw huge success in and outside of Canada. Success in the larger US market remained the major goal of most, if not all, post-1970 Canadian rock acts; a goal in fact reached with some greater or lesser degree of consistency by several, among them Bryan Adams, Aldo Nova, Loverboy, Corey Hart, Alannah Myles, Lee Aaron, Tom Cochrane, Honeymoon Suite, Doug and the Slugs and Glass Tiger. As well, the era produced the country cowpunk of k.d. lang. Bryan Adams would emerge as Canada's superstar of the 80s having been awarded the Order of Canada, and inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998 for his contribution to popular music and his philanthropic work. Also notable is Loverboy who accumulated numerous hit songs in Canada and the United States, making four multi-platinum albums. Music videos became more and more important as a marketing tool for Canadian bands by the mid 1980s with the debut of MuchMusic in 1984.
The networks were not just an opportunity for artists to get their videos played—the networks created VideoFACT, a fund to help emerging artists produce their videos. New Wave, Glam Rock and heavy metal had become the most popular style of rock in the mid 1980s. Acts such as Platinum Blonde, Helix, Toronto, Parachute Club, Spoons, Trans-X, Rational Youth, Men Without Hats, Norman Iceberg, Images in Vogue, Headpins, Sheriff, Teenage Head, Idle Eyes, Eight Seconds, The Northern Pikes, Brighton Rock and Martha and the Muffins were along for the new Canadian music video ride. Although many of them, in fact, were only "one-hit wonders. In the late 1980s, the Canadian recording industry continued to produce popular acts such as Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, 54-40, Sarah McLachlan, Spirit of the West, The Waltons, Cowboy Junkies and The Pursuit of Happiness, Colin James, David Wilcox, Jeff Healey, Great Big Sea and Ashley MacIsaac, all of whom went on to have great careers and continue to build upon the legacy of the Guess Who and Neil Young who pioneered rock and roll in this country all those years before.
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