Quote:
Originally Posted by Acousticado
In the interest of accuracy...
America may claim The Band as their own, and although it’s true that they sure were able to capture “Americana” in stories and music, all but American (Ark) Levon Helm actually hailed from southwestern Ontario, Canada. So, with an 80% Canadian contingent, if there’s a comparison to the Beatles, it can be argued they were the Canadian Beatles. 
The boys knew what it would take to make it to the big time and in those days, to write about Canadiana wasn’t going to get it done. Canada’s The Guess Who knew that (think “American Woman”) as did Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and many other notable Canadian artists. The first pretty successful Canadian band to not give-in to predominant American references in music was The Tragically Hip, who for so many Canadians was refreshing to see ourselves and places mirrored to us...finally (exception, “New Orleans Is Sinking”). Not that we don’t love all of our “American” mega stars.  You can have Céline Dion though. |
Brilliant post. Americans are a funny lot; on average they are consumed by novelty, by what is new, physically and in regard to the arts but this is what makes this melting pot of ethnic groups continue to produce new, vital forms of music. There is only one other country in the world that has such a rich musical heritage going back throughout the 20th century that I can think of and that is South Africa. I guess for Americans it’s hard to see how rich it is if one is living in the midst of it. It takes a foreigner or a Canadian to see it and exploit (or cultivate) it.