Canadian Music is Diminished This Week
Mar. 9th, 2013 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnauSo, this week Stompin' Tom Connors died, as everyone knows.
I was not a great fan of his music, it was simple and kind of corny, but it was authentic music coming from an authentic man who had had a genuinely hard life.
One of his songs I liked best was "Tilsonburg", about the shitty life tobacco pickers in Southern Ontario led, and you knew he had been and done.
He also remained the kind of patriot you'd like to have more examples of around: dedicated to Canada's working class and to treating Canadians as friends, not the drunken yahoo with maple leaf face paint and a red-and-white diaper waving the flag on Canada Day.
This article puts it well, with more videos: http://canadiandimension.com/articles/5218/
But this week I also found out that one of my personal favourites, Nash the Slash, has finally hung up his bandages.
From his website, nashtheslash.com:
It's time to roll up the bandages. The thrill is gone, it seems for me more than B.B. King.
I'm proud of my remarkable 40-year career in the music biz with no hit (commercial) records. As an independent artist without management, major label support or any grants whatsoever (thank you Canada Council and Factor), I toured internationally and accomplished so much. I was unique on stage and on my recordings. I refused to be slick and artificial. I opened for and toured with some of the best musicians in the world, and was regarded highly by my peers. Rolling Stone journalist Lester Bangs once reported, "Nash the Slash is the kind of opening act that makes the headliner work twice as hard".
I created one of the first Canadian independent record labels (Cut-Throat Records) in order to release my music and merchandise to the public. I was the first Canadian musician to use a drum machine on an album (1978), at a time when drum machines were outlawed according to the bylaws of the Toronto Musicians' Association. I was the first to record an album, 'Decomposing', which was listen-able at any speed, and miraculously reviewed in Playboy magazine. I composed and produced music for film and television, and for multi-media exhibitions of the surrealist paintings by my friend Robert Vanderhorst.
I hold the distinction of suing the corporate giant Pepsi Cola of Canada for one million dollars (in the Ontario Supreme Court, 1982) for 'misappropriation of personality'; I won but received no money, just bragging rights.
I travelled across Canada, the US and Europe, and especially adored Newfoundland. I supported Gary Numan and Iggy Pop tours, and was invited to perform in Russia. I received airplay on Polish National Radio in 1979, when Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain. (Years later, a Polish fan explained to me that, because the first LPs were instrumental, there were no lyrics of 'western decadence' or 'punk anarchy' to grade the musical content as unsafe for communist consumption. Too bad no one in Poland could afford to send away for my records.)
(snip about mentors and assistants)
Finally, I would like to thank all the fans who have supported my career for so many years. I never tired of the letter-writing from and to the young and old, receiving and cherishing (to this day) their thoughts, and drawings of Nash in various poses and demeanor. I have kept many of these letters and artwork because they reflect a serious effort on the part of the fans to communicate with me... to connect.
My 'gauza-lobotomy' t-shirt artwork is courtesy a fan from 30 years ago. There were writers who described at great length how they listen to Nash records while toiling at their creative output, be it poetry, painting or making jewelry. There have been many who wrote about their own musical inspirations, some were gear-heads (drum machines were a popular topic of conversation). There were mandolin and violin players, even classical and jazz musicians. Many wrote for an autographed picture. There were even kids who took their Nash records to school to play for their grade five classmates, and then, I received a fan letter from the teacher. One time, a high school orchestra did an arrangement of 'The Million-Year Picnic'. Eat your heart out, Nickelback!
A few main reasons to put Nash to rest... Live gigs don't excite me any longer. My eccentric style/genre finds no place in the today's scene, although it's widely acknowledged that my sound led the way for the development of contemporary electronic/techo dance music in Canada. Even more to consider, the theft of music on the internet has devastated a very important source of my income. CD sales have dropped off considerably, and it's due mainly to file-sharing without regard for the ownership of the recordings.
Mark Zuckerberg was recently quoted as saying that Facebook will soon go through an 'explosion of sharing'. That may be all well and fine, but CDs are copyrighted objects containing music that is also copyrighted. The music-listening public has this misinformed idea that music is free... listening on the radio is free, so why not the internet? I don't employ Metallica's high-priced lawyers to chase down my millions.
A journalist once asked me to describe a typical Nash the Slash fan. I replied, 'They just get it'. They get my references to Ray Bradbury, Boris Karloff, and even my opening quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was my intention to shock, but not offend.
(snip about musical influences)
Creativity in all its facets should be inspirational, and as such should be absorbed, its subtleties appreciated, understood and then woven into the fabric of some other person's creative vision. I'm very pleased to have shared my creative endeavors with so many people around the world. I hope I've left a few breadcrumbs in the forest, to inspire others to find their own path.
Listen in safety,
Nash the Slash
This website will remain available.
I will miss him.
In recent years he was beginning to release some new work, and go on tours further afield than Hamilton or Ottawa, after a very long time in what seemed to be semi-retirement.
Now he's gone.
Circuit Breaker has been running for over two years now, and every set I do, I play one Nash song - it seems to fit the night.
I will keep that up, though there will be no more Nash.
I was not a great fan of his music, it was simple and kind of corny, but it was authentic music coming from an authentic man who had had a genuinely hard life.
One of his songs I liked best was "Tilsonburg", about the shitty life tobacco pickers in Southern Ontario led, and you knew he had been and done.
He also remained the kind of patriot you'd like to have more examples of around: dedicated to Canada's working class and to treating Canadians as friends, not the drunken yahoo with maple leaf face paint and a red-and-white diaper waving the flag on Canada Day.
This article puts it well, with more videos: http://canadiandimension.com/articles/5218/
But this week I also found out that one of my personal favourites, Nash the Slash, has finally hung up his bandages.
From his website, nashtheslash.com:
It's time to roll up the bandages. The thrill is gone, it seems for me more than B.B. King.
I'm proud of my remarkable 40-year career in the music biz with no hit (commercial) records. As an independent artist without management, major label support or any grants whatsoever (thank you Canada Council and Factor), I toured internationally and accomplished so much. I was unique on stage and on my recordings. I refused to be slick and artificial. I opened for and toured with some of the best musicians in the world, and was regarded highly by my peers. Rolling Stone journalist Lester Bangs once reported, "Nash the Slash is the kind of opening act that makes the headliner work twice as hard".
I created one of the first Canadian independent record labels (Cut-Throat Records) in order to release my music and merchandise to the public. I was the first Canadian musician to use a drum machine on an album (1978), at a time when drum machines were outlawed according to the bylaws of the Toronto Musicians' Association. I was the first to record an album, 'Decomposing', which was listen-able at any speed, and miraculously reviewed in Playboy magazine. I composed and produced music for film and television, and for multi-media exhibitions of the surrealist paintings by my friend Robert Vanderhorst.
I hold the distinction of suing the corporate giant Pepsi Cola of Canada for one million dollars (in the Ontario Supreme Court, 1982) for 'misappropriation of personality'; I won but received no money, just bragging rights.
I travelled across Canada, the US and Europe, and especially adored Newfoundland. I supported Gary Numan and Iggy Pop tours, and was invited to perform in Russia. I received airplay on Polish National Radio in 1979, when Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain. (Years later, a Polish fan explained to me that, because the first LPs were instrumental, there were no lyrics of 'western decadence' or 'punk anarchy' to grade the musical content as unsafe for communist consumption. Too bad no one in Poland could afford to send away for my records.)
(snip about mentors and assistants)
Finally, I would like to thank all the fans who have supported my career for so many years. I never tired of the letter-writing from and to the young and old, receiving and cherishing (to this day) their thoughts, and drawings of Nash in various poses and demeanor. I have kept many of these letters and artwork because they reflect a serious effort on the part of the fans to communicate with me... to connect.
My 'gauza-lobotomy' t-shirt artwork is courtesy a fan from 30 years ago. There were writers who described at great length how they listen to Nash records while toiling at their creative output, be it poetry, painting or making jewelry. There have been many who wrote about their own musical inspirations, some were gear-heads (drum machines were a popular topic of conversation). There were mandolin and violin players, even classical and jazz musicians. Many wrote for an autographed picture. There were even kids who took their Nash records to school to play for their grade five classmates, and then, I received a fan letter from the teacher. One time, a high school orchestra did an arrangement of 'The Million-Year Picnic'. Eat your heart out, Nickelback!
A few main reasons to put Nash to rest... Live gigs don't excite me any longer. My eccentric style/genre finds no place in the today's scene, although it's widely acknowledged that my sound led the way for the development of contemporary electronic/techo dance music in Canada. Even more to consider, the theft of music on the internet has devastated a very important source of my income. CD sales have dropped off considerably, and it's due mainly to file-sharing without regard for the ownership of the recordings.
Mark Zuckerberg was recently quoted as saying that Facebook will soon go through an 'explosion of sharing'. That may be all well and fine, but CDs are copyrighted objects containing music that is also copyrighted. The music-listening public has this misinformed idea that music is free... listening on the radio is free, so why not the internet? I don't employ Metallica's high-priced lawyers to chase down my millions.
A journalist once asked me to describe a typical Nash the Slash fan. I replied, 'They just get it'. They get my references to Ray Bradbury, Boris Karloff, and even my opening quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was my intention to shock, but not offend.
(snip about musical influences)
Creativity in all its facets should be inspirational, and as such should be absorbed, its subtleties appreciated, understood and then woven into the fabric of some other person's creative vision. I'm very pleased to have shared my creative endeavors with so many people around the world. I hope I've left a few breadcrumbs in the forest, to inspire others to find their own path.
Listen in safety,
Nash the Slash
This website will remain available.
I will miss him.
In recent years he was beginning to release some new work, and go on tours further afield than Hamilton or Ottawa, after a very long time in what seemed to be semi-retirement.
Now he's gone.
Circuit Breaker has been running for over two years now, and every set I do, I play one Nash song - it seems to fit the night.
I will keep that up, though there will be no more Nash.
