Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Blair Packham Kicks Out the Protest Jams: Toronto Mike'd #1451

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

In this 1451st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Blair Packham while he kicks out his favourite protest songs. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

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Today, returning to Toronto, Mike, to kick out protest songs is Blair Packham. Welcome back Blair. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Glad to be here. Very glad to be here. I'm glad to see you. Like I got warm fuzzies when I saw you at the door and I'm like, there's my friend, Blair Packham. That's nice.

Yes, my friend, Mike Boone, who I always speak so highly of. Is that true? Yep. Okay, well, lots of ground to cover. So you're connected. I remember you once did an episode where you literally came over and told me about all the FOTMs you're connected to.

And there's been like, I don't know when your last visit was but it's been a while. So there's lots more. I want to talk about people like Alan and Michael Zweig and Rick Emmett and Paul Meyers and all of that. the FOTMs you're connected to. And there's been like, I don't know when your last visit was, but it's been a while. So there's lots more, I wanna talk about people like Alan and Michael Zweig and Rick Emmett and Paul Myers, and all these people will come up as we catch up. I'm keen to get to the first jam.

So just to let the people know, you basically selected, is it your 10 favorite protest songs? Yeah, I would say so. When we did the jams episode before I realized, I think we've done two of them now, and I realized there's so many songs that I love and I think I'm afraid of being judged just on those ten songs. It's like you can't judge me on ten songs. It has to be more so this will make ten more. So you care what other people think of your jams? I do because I

don't know why. Yeah. Well you're alone, right? Like this is a common thing. No, it's not. It's very common actually. The social aspect of music is very common. You know, the cool kids, whatever they listen to in high school, you know, you sort of check it out. Well your jams are your jams.

I say lean in, embrace your songs. So I will tell the listenership, so you send me the list of your 10 songs and I load them up and then of course I listen and I'm very excited to kick out 10 great pieces of music with you today and then we'll catch up between but I can't think of a better way to start. Are you ready to kick out the protest jams Blair? Yes I am. I was born by the river in a little tent, oh, and just like the river I've been running ever since. It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come Oh, yes it will

It's been too hard living But I'm afraid to die I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come. Wow, Blair, I get the chills every time I hear this song. This is a beautiful song. It really is. It's the great, the late, great Sam Cooke. What a voice. Better known maybe for, well no, this song is enjoying a real renaissance right now, but I mean at one time he was probably better known for Cupid, draw back your bow, and you know

twisting the night away and that kind of thing. But yeah, this song, so heavy really. And yeah, it's so beautifully sung, but also so beautifully recorded and the orchestra on it is, yeah, it's very moving. And that opening line, I'm trying to think, I think it was Christopher Ward came on and he kicked out jams where he loved the opening line, like basically, best opening line.

That opening line, wow yeah it just hits you well it's it sets up the the timelessness of the you know the oppression of people you know you know I you know I it's it's just it's sort of it takes it out of the realm of the present and makes it timeless that opening line and it's gorgeous. Yeah. It is absolutely gorgeous. Gorgeous. Like you Blair. That's why I'm here. I don't really care about the jams, man. Let's just tell me how gorgeous you needed. Your tires pumped and I got the, I got the pump right over there. Okay.

So Blair, firstly, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Um, yeah, I had a month, uh, away, firstly, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Yeah, I had a month away in California. I was in the Bay Area for a month. Really, there's no responsibilities other than to take care of my friend, Paul Myers' house. Okay, FOTM Paul Myers from Gravel Berries, brother of Mike Myers, and Peter Myers, who loves palma pasta. Can I just throw it out there? I hope Peter's listening. Uh, very vocal on Twitter about his love for Palma pasta. Yeah.

And Peter, um, Peter's, I don't know Peter very well, uh, but I've known him a long time and, uh, and he's a great guy and there are those Myers brothers. They're, they're lovely fellows. Um, and, uh, Peter's, Peter's the other brothers will tell you he's the funniest. Okay. You know what? I think I, in fact, I know there's an outstanding offer that if Paul Myers ever has 90 minutes in Toronto,

that he and Peter are gonna come on together. Toronto Mike. That'd be fantastic. So this is like out there, Peter knows it, Paul knows it. Cause Paul got his Zoom, cause he's in California, you were hosting for the guy. But his return has to be in person. Paul Peter will be here eventually I don't know if Mike will ever be here and that's a whole different story but you're

here now so yeah that's kind of that's how close you are to Paul Myers where he needed or he wanted a house sitter for I guess he was going to Asia or he's going on a big adventure with his wife yeah he and his wife Lisa Algar. You'll note by the way that in Wayne's World Garth Algar, the character played by Dana Carvey is named after Lisa Algar. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, so yeah Lisa Algar and Paul Myers were going to Asia for a month and they had this idea, I think it might have been Lisa's idea. I'm not sure. They came over for dinner when they were in Toronto back in December and they asked if they just said, it might have been Lisa's idea, I'm not sure. They came over for dinner when they were in Toronto back in December and they asked if, they just said, Lisa said, we got this idea and we don't know,

it's kind of crazy. How would you like to spend a month in California? It's not that they needed anybody particularly. The house would have been fine. Like is there a cat or something? No, no. It was just an offer. It was a very kind offer on their part

and I have the kind of schedule that can, you know, when I teach at Seneca College, I teach for seven weeks and then I'm off for nine weeks. So I have a lot of time in between. And usually I'm hustling to do this or do that, or I'm producing music for people, or whatever I'm doing, you know. But I thought, yeah, with enough notice,

actually it wasn't December, it was maybe November. So I had enough notice to figure out what I'm gonna do in the month of February. And what I decided to do was go to California. Okay, so you're there for a month. Yeah. And is there a moment where you're like, I could see myself staying here?

Like, did you have any sense of like, hey, maybe this is where I belong? No, I didn't have that feeling. That's a different feeling from, hey, I could stay here, I think. Hey, I could stay here is like, this is very livable, very enjoyable. But I didn't know anybody.

And in terms of where I belong, I don't know. I don't know about that. I mean, I'm a people person. I'm a people person. I'm a people pleaser. I like to be around the people I love. And I didn't know anybody.

So honestly, I would go into a store and I'd be like, hi. So anyway, yeah, I know I'm just people pleaser. I like to be around the people I love, and I didn't know anybody. So honestly, I would go into a store and I'd be like, hi, so anyway, yeah, I know I'm just getting this loaf of bread, but what's going on in your life? And they'd say, you're Canadian, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, that's right, a lot of Canadians there too. Paul and Lisa live in a lovely neighborhood in a place called Kensington, which is adjacent to Berkeley. So they're in the East Bay.

Okay, and that's a big college town. Oh, Berkeley, yes. A protest college town, in fact. Okay, perfect. Okay, so lots more catching up to do, but I wanna get to another jam. So Blair, let's kick out another protest jam. ["Rested On Charges Of An Unemployment"] I'm going to go ahead and play it. Flying across the desert in a TWA, I saw a woman walk across the sand.

She'd been walking 30 miles en route to Bombay to meet a brown-eyed handsome man. Her destination was a brown-eyed handsome man. Way back in history, 3,000 years, in fact, ever since the world began. There's been a whole lot of good women shedding tears over a brown-eyed handsome man. It's a lot of trouble with a brown-eyed handsome man's about a trouble with a brown-eyed handsome man. Yeah. Chuck Berry. Yeah, Chuck Berry. It's not an obvious protest song, I gotta say, but I say, I mean, protest isn't quite right. I guess social commentary is what it really is. So brown-eyed handsome man. I think Chuck Berry is talking about black men and about

how and their place in society. And he's doing it in a very, in a typical Chuck Berry way, he's sort of masking it with pop music and a catchy melody and a good groove and so forth. But it's not an overt message, but I mean, the opening line, arrested on charges of unemployment, he was sitting in the witness stand the judge called up the district attorney and said free that brown-eyed man, you know and and Arrested on charges of unemployment You know when you think about that white people don't get arrested for being unemployed

You know and and there are listeners who are like black people don't either but, but they certainly did. And you know, any excuse. And you know, and I think that's what Chuck Berry is talking about in this song from the 50s, you know, at a different time. And sadly, not different enough, but a different time. What is the vibe like politically in the neck of the woods you were living in for the last month? Like, is there a lot of talk about the upcoming American election and etc? I wouldn't say a lot of talk. The weird thing is, I think people are afraid to put up lawn

signs. There are lawn signs, there were lots of Black Lives Matter signs, which is great. And there were, Paul and Lisa have a sign that says, in this house we believe in inclusion and we believe in, you know, and so forth. And it's just a little sign, but you know, that kind of thing you'll see, but you won't see election signs so much. There were some here and there that were about a particular proposition on the California ballot about trans kids and protecting our kids and stuff like that.

And you know, unless you read up on it, you don't actually know what they're, cause which way it's being spun, you know? Yeah, interesting times. I know in Alberta, they were, there was some controversy. And I think it stems from whether the teacher must report to the parents that their child has basically going by a different gender

than assigned at birth. Right, and you know, and everybody's up in arms about this and so forth. I don't know in California particularly what that proposition was, but I would say this, Berkeley is historically, and San Francisco in general, which is of course right across the bay, historically the land of protest and unrest,

and those are woke towns, and I think they, you know, and, and, you know, it's those are woke towns, you know, and I think they would wear that name proudly as would I, by the way. Well, I always thought woke was a good thing. Like, I know people have tried to change the connotation of that word. And to me, it's a, you know, better than being asleep, like that. You're aware of your, the world you live in, your surroundings, your place, your privilege. I proudly consider myself woke. Me too. And, and, and I, but I don't take on the mantle of, um,

you know, uh, woke therefore means that I'm cow town, cow town, every left-wing cliche, but you're awake, you're, you're aware. And I think that's crucial in this world. Critical thought, like be aware and then educate yourself and then critical thought and then, you know, assess what's best. And Berkeley is a center of that. I mean, it really is. It's historically going back, it's where, and it's also, by the way, here's an interesting thing.

It's where Randy Backman claims to have heard the woman say, no sugar tonight for you, to her man. 100%. And thank you for bringing me back to the Randy Backman episode, because now I need to ask, did you listen to, this is an important question here, and we're gonna have a lot of catching up

between these important songs, but did you listen to Robert Lawson fact checking Randy Backman's appearance on Toronto Mic? Did that make it into your ears? No, it didn't. I'm gonna go back and listen to it. Sorry. And then all my follow-up questions need to be erased here.

I had all these follow-ups. Well, the thing is, I'm a fan of anybody who fact checks Randy Backman. So, and Robert Lawson does such a good job. So I'm going to, I'll dig in. Well, it's a bone of contention with people that we know mutually that episode. Somebody who I won't name,

but I might ask you about him later, said to me on the record, so this is something he said on Toronto mic into the microphone that that episode made him feel sorry for Randy Bachman. So really, let's see that wouldn't be Allen's why it is Allen's. I feel like now again, I'm not going to, I've, you know, Alan doesn't want me sharing everything. He tells me privately, of course, I feel like it depends what it is. Like if he tells me, oh, I'm having an affair,

I'm not gonna share that. But if he tells me something about his feeling on an episode of Toronto Mike, I do kind of feel like that can be something I can talk about on the program. It's not a personal thing about Alan. Yeah, and was it, but it wasn't on. No, this is on the record.

So he said it was recorded. He said that he feels sorry for Randy Backman. But I do want you, because I value your opinion so much Blair So I want you to listen to Robert Lawson fact-checking Randy Backman and tell me what you think I think I'd enjoy it I you know, I used to listen to vinyl tap on CBC radio and and I enjoyed the stories But I would be thinking to myself really is that how that happened? Your eyes would be rolling Yeah, and sometimes I'd be thinking to myself, really? Is that how that happened? Your eyes would be rolling. Yeah. And then sometimes I'd be thinking, no way. Look, I know the guy who was there. You weren't

there. Forget it. You know, that kind of thing. I'd be yelling at the radio. Right. And I feel like Randy can handle this. He's a rock and roll god, right? Like he's one of the, you know, biggest rock and roll musicians this country has ever produced. He's still out there rocking. I think he played very recently with Alan's brother, who let me ask you since this WIGs have come up, I understand because Michael's WIG made his Toronto mic debut and he was with his brother Alan, but it was the Michael's WIG focus and he lived with you.

It wasn't really. Did you listen to that episode? What did you think of the Alan's WIG and Alan's WIG, Alan's WIG and Michael's WIG. It sort of turned into and and I know Allen's listening, but it sort of turned into At the end Allen was like he was he was a bon vivant. He was sharing anecdotes and stuff and I was like Yeah, where's Michael? Where's Michael and Michael is an enabler in a beautiful way. He's like he's a sweetheart

He's laughing at Allen stories and then saying yeah, but what about this and he's encouraging him But I'm thinking this this is your episode. But these are long form conversations. It's not like I'm gonna do 20 minutes here and. No, and Alan has good stories, no question. Oh yeah. But he clearly loves, he loves you. He loves being on the podcast.

Does he care so much? And I mean this sincerely, does he love me or does he love to hate me? Well, I don't know. I can't quite tell. We've never talked about you, so I don't know. I don't think he loves to hate you because I but I think he really enjoys this experience and I think he's really good at it. Well, my most recent guest. No, it's not my most recent guest is Peter Gross, because he came in to talk about how he's in quite the pickle.

He dropped by yesterday, and that's a really interesting episode with Peter Gross about how he's kind of screwed effective today. He's kind of messed. Oh, and it's all in that episode. It's a short one. It's's like 35 40 minutes or whatever but the day before that was Kevin house do you know the name Kevin how I know the name only so he's on the show because I got a note from Alan Allen's why I heard Jay Douglas on Toronto Mike then Jay was talking about this great compilation that he's on with the Cougars and the compilation is called Jamaica to Toronto it's wonderful and the guy who compiled it it goes by the name Cipriano.

Like this is like his DJ name. And then I get a nice note from Alan about like, okay, I heard Jay talking about this call he gets in this compilation. I know the guy who, I know Cipriano. He's also got another name. Believe it or not, he's got another name. It's not just Cipriano, but he's also Kevin Howes.

Kevin James, oh wait, his name's Kevin James Howe. Howe, and he kinda goes by more Kevin Howes, and I asked him, did he lose the Kevin James because we have a famous actor named Kevin James. So Blair, do you know the actor named Kevin, do you know of the actor named Kevin James? Sure, sure. Okay, yeah, so Kevin didn't.

Isn't that amazing? Wow, that is amazing. I was, cause not only, cause you have the name Kevin James Howes, that's your name, and you're completely unaware that there is a famous actor named Kevin James. Isn't that a next level oblivion? I guess.

I'm always suspicious of people whose last name is James because I always think, that's your middle name, isn't it? Like Colin James Munn, for instance. Sure, okay. Well, LeBron James, I think that's his last name. It could be. Yeah. Yeah.

Who knows? It might be McGillicuddy. I don't know. You never know. You never know. But anyway, shout out to Kevin Howes. That's a really good episode. He talks about these compilations and he was on the show.

So this is a long winded way of saying he's only on the show because Alan wrote me a note and said, Hey, there's a guy, he lives in Toronto. You should talk to him. He puts together these compilations, Willie Dunn, for example, he put together a great compilation of Willie Dunn music and indigenous artists that have been overlooked over the decades, he shines a light on them and it's quite wonderful stuff.

And that's how much I respect Alan. So I'm just putting on the record. I'm actually in Alan's, before I met him, I was a fan, but I'm a fan of Alan Zweig the person, but he does like to criticize certain things and I respect his feedback. He has a critical mind and is not afraid, not only not afraid to share his opinions,

I think it's a point of honor for him to share his opinions. So I, me, I think discretion sometimes is the, you know, but anyway. The better part of valor. Yeah, but that's me. But Alan and I, we've had some sort of very minor, I would say dustups over the years,

but I consider him a friend. I know he debated that thing. You had that when you had him on the first time, I think you were saying, now so-and-so, is he a friend of yours? And he was like, well, I wouldn't exactly consider him a friend. And I'm thinking, wait till you get to me.

I wanna hear this, because I've known him so long. Did he say he was a friend of yours? Because I do wanna ask you about your relationship with Michael in a moment. Yeah, I think thinking, wait till you get to me. I wanna hear this, because I've known him so long. Did he say he was a friend of yours? Because I do wanna ask you about your relationship with Michael in a moment. Yeah, I think Alan, I think he conceded that maybe we're friends or something. And I think, no, I think we're friends, Alan.

Like we've known each other a long, long time. Do you hug when you meet each other? I do, I mean I- Do you hug non-friends? I feel like you gotta be friends of someone. Yeah, I don't hug non-friends. But no, and I feel happy to see Alan, you know? And when I see him. So, you you know, whatever he can think whatever he wants

I think he's a friend of mine So before I kick out the next jam and then I have many many questions you but I it was revealed in this episode of Michael's Why? That he lived with you. Yeah, so I did. Okay, just give me a little like like like how this happens How long did you live with Michael's wife? I guess it was two years maybe we lived together. We lived in two different places. I met him through Doug McClement, another FMT. FMT, yeah.

Doug McClement who was my boss for five years at Comfort Sound and Michael was a guitar player on a session for a singer named Donna Green. And Donna was doing a demo and Michael was the guitar player and in the session it came up that he was looking for a roommate. And my mom and dad had just said, you're out, get out. And so I had to find an apartment. So I said, hey, I'm looking for a place.

The next thing you know, Michael and I are friends. And our friendship is pretty deep. I only see him maybe a couple of times a year, but I love Michael's wagon. He can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. So high praise from Blair Packham. Yep. He's, he's one of the, you know, one of those, I don't know, like how do you rate these things? Paul Meyers is, I always describe Paul Meyers as my best friend, but you know, Michael's why it would be, they'd arm wrestle over. But that's a great question. Like, can you, do you only have one best friend?

Can you have multiple best friends? Does that make them think they're all tied? Well, I guess best, I don't know what, how do you, best indicates that there's only one, but I don't know. But I don't know, and at my age, I'm 64. Do you have best friends? I don't know. I guess so, I do.

Okay, later I'm gonna ask you about a young woman named Janet Van de Graaff later. Would you consider her your girlfriend? So at 64 you can have a girlfriend, that's my question. Does it need to be like, what is it? Howard Glassman would say, oh no, it's my lady friend. You can't have a girlfriend in your 60s. But-

Lady friend makes you sound like your Chris de Burg or something. You know, it's like- Lady and red. To me it's kinda creepy. I don't know, no offense Howard, but know, it's the lady and red to me. It's kind of creepy. I don't know. No offense, Howard, but it to me it's like it sounds sort of disco era. She's my lady, you know, but yes, the lady Janet Van de Graaff is my lady. Okay, I'm going to come back to her. Okay, we got more jams to kick out. Let's

go your third jam. Oh, yeah. jam. I'm gonna fight this morning Oh yeah Now when I was a young boy At the age of five My mother said I was gonna be the greatest man alive But now I'm a man way past 21 I want you to believe me baby, I have lots of fun

I'm a man, I spell him I have lots of fun On my main I spell him H-I-N That relevant main No B Oh child Why That mean nannish boy I'm a man

I'm a full grown man I'm a man I'm a natural born lovers man I'm a man. I'm a natural lovers man. I'm a man. I'm a rolling stone. I feel cooler just listening to this actually. Muddy Waters. Rolling Stone.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I didn't want to pick protest songs that are, you know, or songs that are of social commentary that were obvious, sort of like, you know, Eve of Destruction or something like that. Right. I felt like, or Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, even Johnny Winter, but the original version is from the 50s. And it's when Muddy Waters was just a young man. And he's saying, I'm a man. No B, he says. No O, no Y. I'm not a boy. I'm a man. And that's the thing. And it's just that riff over and over again played so, I mean, even this remake, which I never liked remakes,

but this is really good. Like the feel of the band is so great. And you can hear Johnny Witter, ah, yelling in the background. That's how I knew it was the later version. Okay, Blair, you're my resident musicologist here. I have a question about this. Do Muddy Waters popularize that?

I don't know enough about the blues to know exactly. I have a question about this. Does Muddy Waters popularize that? I don't know enough about the blues to know exactly. It's a chord progression, but it's not much of a progression. Because what it is, is in the key of E, it's like E A E A G A E E A G A E But so many songs have like borrowed that. Well, and Muddy Waters himself has Hoochie Coochie Man, which does that riff, but also goes off into other stuff in the blues progression.

But I'm thinking like even George Thorogood, right? Like George Thorogood, Bad to the Bone, uses that progression. Yeah, and that's, and it would come from Muddy Waters for sure. But whether it came originally from Muddy Waters, I don't know that. But he popularized it.

Certainly, yeah. It's wild. Muddy was a star, like know that. But he popularized it. Certainly. It's wild. Muddy was a star, like an absolute star in the blues world. So when Keith Richards tells you, as he does, one of his favorite stories is the Rolling Stones go to 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which is the Chess Studios. And they go there in 1964 or 65 on a pilgrimage, basically. And when they arrive, they find, Keith says,

they find Muddy Waters on a ladder painting and he's doing it as a favor for Leonard Chess. No way, there's no way that happened. And I talked to, so Willie Dixon- Robert Lawson's coming out of the bushes right now. Yeah, right. I talked to Willie Dixon's grandson. Willie Dixon wrote all those songs that the Howlin' Wolf did

and like, you know, and some Muddy Waters did. Willie Dixon was the resident bass player and producer at the at Chess Studios and his grandson Kevin used to do the tours and I was the only person on that tour so it was just him and me and I said okay so we just came in the front door and I said okay this is where Keith Richards claims to have seen Muddy Waters on a step letter he said no not a chance not a chance Muddy was a, not a chance, not a chance. Muddy was a star, not a chance. He'd be painting for Leonard, you know?

So I have always wondered like, when we find out artists have embellished stories or like, do they believe, is it like, this is, you know, what George, this came up with Peter Gross yesterday. Like it's not a lie if you believe it to be true. Like are these stories that the people telling the stories believe are actually happened or are they, did they know they're embellishing?

I'm just curious. Like, I think it depends on the person. Uh, I have embellished stories and then later regretted it because later I thought that just doesn't even make sense. But how embellished like would you go? Like you're not, you're going to keep the core of the story intact and then you're just going to paint a bit of a texture around it, like a little color around it. Yeah. I'm not going to put muddy waters on a stepladder in my story. Oh, yeah. And then you're just going to paint a bit of texture around it, like a little color around it. Yeah, I'm not going to put muddy waters on a stepladder in my story. You know, when

I got home from from being on Toronto, Mike, there was muddy waters. His corpse exhumed and propped up to Ridley funeral homes. And there's a measuring tape for you courtesy of the funeral. And now, because we're kicking out jams yesterday just before Peter Gross dropped by, Brad Jones from Ridley funeral home dropped by and we kicked out the most pop, when he started in the funeral profession in the late 80s,

the most popular funeral songs, both contemporary and religious. What were the songs that were most often requested to be played at people's funerals? Isn't that an interesting? It's a great topic. Yeah, and we covered it all, we did it all yesterday, and I think we'll do sequel episodes like the, the, the tw- the two thousands.

And then the 2010s it's like what has changed. And you're not going to tell me, give me a hint or anything like, well, okay, I can totally give you a hint if you like, uh, my way by Frank Sinatra is number one with a bullet. Wow. That's amazing. That's, you can imagine the people at that funeral and they're all sitting there like, yeah, that's right. It was his way. Yeah. Regrets. He had a few, but too that's right. It was his way. Yeah. He did it.

Regrets he had a few, but too few to mention. Too few to mention, yeah. Cause you think in the way that song builds and Frank doing his thing there, Frank being so Frankie, like it really is quite the song to hear at a funeral. Like it's- Yeah, it really is. But then some people will opt for Tina Turner's The Best.

Like a sort of- Simply The Best. Like, and that kind of a joyous end or whatever, right? Right. Better than all the rest. Uh, it's yeah. So amazing, but there's a bunch of them we kicked out. I haven't really even thought about a funeral song. Um, I have thought this though, and I, so I'm going to go on record. Uh, I've said this for years. I'm only half joking. I want a funeral where, uh, if even not, not a funeral memorial, whatever,

where it's filled with women who didn't get a chance to sleep with me. They're going to need to do that at the at the dome. It's a lot of women. Yeah. Yeah. I mean we live in a big world. You know I love it.

But you know one song I whenever I hear it I always think oh man I wonder how many people maybe not so many in here in like South Etobicoke but I wonder how many people in I don't know Alabama something how many people are kicking out Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd? Like isn't that like, especially that 11 minute version, the live version, like, you know. You can imagine the people just sitting there like, okay, come on, I gotta get back to work.

Where's the radio edit? Like that's what you're looking about. Okay, we're going right this next song. Again, gives me chills. You've picked some good songs here and this is an important song. Let's get to this one here before I ask you about another gentleman, Canadian rock star like Randy Backman who you've been working with. So first let's get

very serious here. Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves And blood at the root Black body swinging In the southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Such a heavy but beautiful song. Wow. Yeah. Billie Holiday and her orchestra.

I had to look up the name of the writer because it wasn't written by her and I'd forgotten. I knew it was a Jewish school teacher. But his name was Abel Mir, hold on, Miropal, I should memorize that, but he wrote it under his pseudonym Lewis Allen. And it's protesting the lynching of black Americans, which was going on a lot in the 1930s. Wow. on a lot in the 1930s. In the post-civil war era, the post-slavery era, there was a great effort to you know to okay well if you know if people are going to be free we're going to make it

as hard as possible for them to live their lives. Black people specifically. It's just a chronicle of that and Billie Holiday became so identified with this song that in fact we're talking about confabulations and changing stories and so forth. She told people would talk to her as if she wrote the song and she wouldn't dissuade them of that, which is interesting. She almost, I think she even said a couple of times that song that I wrote and she did not write it,

but she might as well have cause it was so closely identified with her. And I think everybody has that moment, like the literal moment when they realize what strange fruit is referring to. Like it's like, cause you know, the song before you understand the song and then you have that, Oh, and then it's like, Oh, yeah. If you're not, you know, if you listen to music casually, you may not even, you may not never know, you may not ever know it. It's got all the hallmarks of a lament from the 1930s, you know, and a jazz lament, basically.

But when you actually listen to the words, it's like it's horrifying and lovely at the same time. So. Wow. Just earlier, I mentioned Freebird by Skinnerd for my celebration of life. That's what I want. I want the jitters to reform and play. That's my request here. Freebird, okay? I want to hear you. If I leave here tomorrow. But then I'm thinking, so we're playing, you know, I'm listening to Strange Fruit and then I'm thinking of Neil Young who I just got tickets to see in July by the way. Congratulations. That's great. It was easy, actually. I just put in paid money and I got it. Now, it's all took.

But what am I saying here? Yeah, Southern Man. Southern Man is a, and then the response to Southern Man, which is the very popular Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Sweet Home Alabama, in which they literally name check Neil Young. Yeah, and the other song, the follow up to Southern Man, Alabama.

So they were also talking about that because it's called Alabama and then they do Sweet Home Alabama. So both of those songs are anti-racist songs on the part of Neil Young. And I think there's a feeling with some people in the States that Neil Young is a Canadian and what does he know

and mind his own business and all that stuff. But these are human issues and, you know, when you see something horrible going on, you, speaking up is essential. Yeah, our very own Paul Myers speaks up early and often because I follow him on social media. And he's also Canadian, fun fact. Yes, that's right.

Yeah, Paul Myers is, yeah, he's good. He expresses his opinions clearly and passionately. Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, let me ask you about, again, we talked about Randy Backman earlier, but let me ask you about another Canadian rock god, Rick Emmett. Yes.

So Rick made his second appearance pretty recently since your last visit anyways, second chat with Rick Emmett. Yes. So Rick made his second appearance pretty recently since your last visit anyways, second chat with Rick Emmett. Tell me about working with Rick. Well, it happened in a really funny way. I thought, Rick and I have known each other for 25 years, something like that. But he just, I sent him a text out of the blue to see how he was doing,

because I hadn't talked to him in a while. We don't always talk, we talk a more now, but but for the longest time we talked a couple of times a year and He I told him how broke I was and he offered some work for me. Hey look, hey Okay, so let's let the listenership know a third person has just entered the chat so to to speak. A young woman, a young lady. In fact, I think I'll change the camera angle just so. Yeah. Okay.

Morgan. Say hello to everybody. Hi. Okay, there you are. I'm just gonna boost you a little bit. You got a sweet little voice there. Okay, Morgan, Blair and I to sing a song for you. Is that OK? You got to speak, though.

You get the nodding. Yes. OK. And then we'll ask you how it feels. But Blair doesn't even know this is going to happen. No, I have a song loaded up and we're going to sing a song. You ready, Morgan? Yes. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Morgan. Happy birthday to you.

Morgan? Yes. How old are you today? Eight. Eight? That's amazing. That's amazing. You look like you're eight, I have to say. Yeah, you look older to me.

So as I said, I was kissing you good night last night and I said to you, until I have grandchildren, I will never be kissing another seven-year-old. And now I get to kiss an eight-year-old. How does it feel? Please, the people want to know. How does it feel turning eight? Does it feel different than seven?

Yes. Okay, I need to know. Yeah, how does it feel different? I don't know. Yeah. It's hard to explain. It's hard to explain, I bet, yeah. But turning eight, I remember it well.

No, I don't. It was a long time for Blair, but it was actually a long time for daddy too, but it was longer for Blair. Way longer. Do you want to tell us what the plans are? I've heard a little bit of what's going down, but tell me what's happening today to celebrate your eighth birthday.

Right in that mic. Let me hear it. Well, after you... Record? Yeah, we're going to Play Place. Okay. Are you going to play like what? Video games?

What's going on there? Like just fun activities? Yeah, we're going to play place. Okay. And are you going to play like what video games? What's going on there? Like just fun activities? Like video games. Okay. And then I heard something else is happening after that. You want to tell us what's happening after that?

My friends are coming over to have a sleepover. Oh my God. How many of your friends are coming over the sleepover? Three. Oh my gosh. And they're so there's gonna be three, many of your friends are coming over to sleep over? Three. Oh my gosh. And so there's gonna be three of your friends are gonna be sleeping here all night. Yes. Okay I gotta spend the night at Blair's house. All right what are you doing tonight? Do you know or is it gonna be a surprise? Surprise. Okay and then tomorrow is something happening tomorrow, too Yes, what having a family party? Oh my goodness, so everyone's good. Oh everyone but Michelle right because she's in Montreal Maybe she'll a face time in or something and for the candles. Okay Morgan listen

I want you to have the best eighth birthday. I love you very much. You're my youngest So this is a big thing like I'll never have a kid under eight again Like this is a very big moment for me, you know, I love you very much. You're my youngest. So this is a big thing Like I'll never have a kid under eight again. Like this is a very big moment for me, you know, I love you very much, right? Yes, do you love me? Okay, good on the record there. I got it recorded. You're recording. Do you remember Blair from? Events etc. Do you remember me? I was at TMLX not the last one. You know what though? She wasn't there as I I was at TMLX, not the last one. You know what, though, she wasn't there as I recall. Oh yeah, you weren't there, Jarvis was there, yeah. So Monica stayed home with him.

Yeah, that's right, you were at home. So Jarvis was learning, David Quinton Steinberg was teaching Jarvis how to play drums. Their drum, that's right. But we have met before, we have met before, but I don't expect you to remember. But next time, next time, you better remember. Come on, you remember?

I've been a fool, played it dumb, shoulda played it smart. Used my head but not my heart. Yeah, Morgan remembers that from the 80s, right? No, no, I remember she was on my shoulders for a TMLX event. Oh yeah, and I was singing that song. Does that ring any bells, seriously?

Yeah. Okay, can you sing any of that? No. Now I'm just the last of the red hot fools. You remember that one? Yeah. Yeah. Is that a good song? Yes or no. Be honest. Oh, see. Oh, honestly, she likes it.

Given the opportunity to be on. OK, but I will. You know, recently I played for her circle circle dot dot. I got a cootie shot and you like that quite a bit. Right. And do you remember who sang that one? No. Remember, I said he was coming over for a chat, the guy who sings that song? Yeah. Who is it? I forgot. Yeah, me too. Stu Stone. Oh, there you go. Okay. So this is again, Morgan, you've been wonderful. This is the album of Jamie Kennedy.

Stu Stone has circle, circle, dot, dot. And you know what, Morgan, I'm playing it because I'm loading it up and we're going to talk to Stu about and Morgan says to me she was seeing me seven the couch I was playing it and Morgan said to me unprompted. She said to me. I like that song Right good, and you like last of the red hot fools by the jitters. I don't remember that one Oh my goodness. I've got been a fool You like it, right? Yeah, okay any final words here before I go back to the jam kicking with Blair Packham, do you want to tell the world anything

about your love for Taylor Swift? No. All right. You can go now. I, again, happy birthday. Happy birthday. See you in like an hour. Yeah.

There you go. Okay, everybody, that's Morgan, my youngest. And this is her eighth birthday. This is the real day. So today an hour. Yeah. There you go. Okay, everybody. That's Morgan, my youngest. And this is her eighth birthday. This is the real day. So today, March 15th. Beware the Ides of March. Okay, good singing, Blair. You didn't know what was going on.

No, I had no idea. You never know what's gonna happen in the space. Crazy. Okay. And now let's kick out this jam. Jam. He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist, a Baptist, and a Jew. And he knows he shouldn't kill, and he knows he shouldn't kill and he knows he always will kill you for me my friend and me for you and he's fighting for Canada he's fighting for France he's fighting for the USA and he's fighting for the Russians and he's fighting for Japan

And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way And he's fighting for democracy, he's fighting for the Reds He says it's for the peace of all He's the one who must decide who's to live and who's to die. And he never sees the writing on the wall. But without him, how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau? Without him, Caesar would have stood alone. He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war And without him all this killing can't go on He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame

His orders come from far away no more They come from him and you and me And brothers can't you see This is not the way we put an end to war Buffy St. Marie, Universal Soldier Yeah, of the songs we've played so far, this is the first overtly, overt protest song And I think it's fantastic first overtly overt protest song. And I think it's fantastic.

It's relentlessness, like it never changes musically. It's the same section over and over again, musically, right, melodically. But the words change and it just builds an intensity as a result. I usually like a chorus. I like a bridge. I like a change.

But the fact that it doesn't change really works for it and it just gets more and more intense and the message is completely explicit, you know, about the universal soldier and the things we ask of soldiers to do for us and how it wouldn't happen if people didn't agree to fight. And yeah, it's really heavy. And the whole Buffy thing, we've talked about this.

You talked to her like literally, as I recall, it was like the week before that story, CBC broke that story on the 50th date. Am I right? Three days before. Three days before. So you had a conversation with Buffy St. Mary. Yeah, I had an interview with her

for my songwriting workshop, songstudio.ca, which is coming up this summer, folks. And we have some excellent guests already lined up. You want to name check any of them? Well I can only... Is Rick Emmett there? Rick Emmett hopefully will be there. We do need to talk more about Rick.

Yeah, we'll get... Yeah, we got rudely interrupted by this eight-year-old who just... Yeah, yeah. We'll get back to Rick. Yeah, I can't confirm Justin yeah, we got rudely interrupted by this eight year old. He just, yeah, yeah. I, yeah, I can't confirm Justin Rutledge yet, but, um, love that guy, but it looks like he'll join us. I can't confirm Mary Gosha as our keynote speaker yet. Um, I can only confirm, uh, Andy Stachanski, who is, uh, from, uh, who's coming from Los Angeles to join us. Okay.

That's, that's a big, that's a big name. Uh, they're okay. Back to Buffy though. And I'm sure we did talk about this, but who's coming from Los Angeles to join us. Okay, that's a big name from the past. They're okay. Back to Buffy though. Yeah, Buffy. And I'm sure we did talk about this, but I am naturally curious, because as I recall, I believe,

because I got, somebody leaked about, somebody leaked that this Fifth Estate story was dropping, and it was going to question her indigenous heritage, essentially Buffy's, who was born Beverly Santa Maria, I believe it was going to question her indigenous heritage. She essentially, Buffy's, who was born Beverly Santa Maria. Anyway, then I think I texted you, like, have you heard? And you hadn't heard. I hadn't heard, yeah. It was just breaking.

So that happened just before the interview, that your text to me, like the day before, a couple of days before. And so when I spoke with her, I was fully aware and she was fully aware. Everybody was aware, but we didn't talk about it. Yeah, we didn't talk about it at all. So you're kind of like one of the last,

cause I feel like when this news dropped, she stopped doing interviews. This is, I don't think I can find any interview with Buffy from post Fifth Estate airing. Yeah, so the Fifth Estate airing, was that a Friday night or a Thursday night? Darn, I wish I could remember, but. But I spoke to her on the Monday.

So however many days that is, and then she put out a statement a few days later after the fifth estate and that's it. That's all we've heard from her. She's not doing a, like, let's face it. She wouldn't do a Blair Packham conversation today. No, unless, unless you realize you got one of the last one-on-one chats with Buffy. I mean, I think she might, she might, given that we, we did, I was honorable and stuck completely to songwriting. Okay. So there, that begs this question.

So you did a three days, what is it, three days before the story broke in the fifth estate. But if you did get a call today with Buffy, so you have no problem, like you'll chat with Buffy and you won't even ask her about the state story. I have a problem with Buffy. I do in fact, but not about songwriting. And that would be in for, for my workshop. That was the reason I was talking to her. Well, that's the thing that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter when indigenous people entered her heart in her life. Uh,

that's that song universal soldier. It doesn't detract from that song and the message in that song, which is a beautiful song we both love. And that song has nothing to do with her indigeneity or not. And I'm not disputing, I'm not going either way on that because except to say that it sure looks like she's not indigenous and I will go with whatever the indigenous community lands on and I know that they're split on this

issue or they have been, but I'd say they're less so now. But I don't want to speak for anybody. I don't want to speak for her. I don't want to, the only person I can speak for is me and I'm a fan of her songwriting and I'm a fan of what she's done socially, but I can see, I can completely see that it had hurt people and it had negative fallout and so forth,

so I don't feel it's my place as an old white man to talk about that. You know, it's interesting, there's a guest I would recommend to you, Haile, a guy named Mark Marilainen, who's a performer under the name Najowan. He's an indigenous performer. He and his wife Laura do two different podcasts, actually, and I know it's a bit meta to have other podcast hosts on,

but he's so eloquent on this subject, not just of Buffy, but of this kind of thing. He's a, he's half Finnish and half indigenous. And he's a very articulate and passionate spokesperson, well, not even a spokesperson. He just has lots of opinions and they're very well stated. I recommend you, and I recommend you talk to him. The last conversation I had with him about Buffy

was with him, his wife, Laura, and David Steinberg, who is Buffy's lawyer. See, I didn't know that. Yeah. But it's okay. That's just last week too. And it was something. Okay. So, and do you know the duo crown lands?

Yes. Yeah. He is. David is also their lawyer and there's a controversy about his indigeneity. I think Bob Ouellette was tipping me off to this one here. But what I will say, and again, I'm also an old white man and cannot speak for indigenous people,

much like yourself, Blair. But I do think to misrepresent yourself and your origin story is regardless of ethnicity, race, that's disappointing. We talked about this earlier about, you know, with reference to Randy Bachman about how, you know, you can, you know, conflate, you can, you can say something for effect and then next thing you know, it's part of your story, it's part of your biography. And I've done that myself. I try not to. I actually try to be scrupulously honest about things But there have been things that I have

That I've come, you know, I had an encounter with David Bowie here. I'll come clean I had an encounter. I met David Bowie backstage at a concert and and we had a conversation But it was a little briefer than I have portrayed it over the years. See that's typical typical was a little briefer than I have portrayed it over the years. See, that's typical, typical, uh, the typical embellishment you hear from people where they had maybe a, cause I'm also like you, I'm trying to be very clear. So when I talk about meeting Dan Acroyd, I always let people know he held the door and I said, thank you. And he said, no problem at a restaurant, Dan Acroyd, that's my Dan Acroyd.

And I don't pretend like we sat down and had drinks together and I didn't drink Great Lakes beer with Dan Aguilar. Like I try to go above and beyond to be clear, you know, and Pat Mastro, Annie playing my game at the CNE, you know, when I was game booth attendant in 1990, like that happened. Okay, but you know, hey, You didn't you didn't go out for drinks next? No, we didn't go out for drinks and it took many decades for me to chat with him again And he finally did come on Toronto. And he probably here's the thing. So Blair Let's say there was a key part of your bio that you fictionalized. Okay, you're in you know, you this is bothering you It's a key part of your bio. I think you would take great lengths to

Clarify and you would be clear but just to clarify My conversation with David Bowie was such you know, we we don't tech we weren't texting each other You know, we didn't go for you know, we don't tech, we weren't texting each other. You know, we didn't go out for, you know, I didn't have coffee. Although John Gallagher tells a story where he lit a cigarette for David Bowie. And I'd like to believe that actually happened. But, but, you know, so you would, you would actually, it would be important to you, Blair Packham, to clarify the truth, just so there's no misunderstanding. And what really bothers me, which is why I personally feel hurt, if I can use that

word, by Buffy St. Marie, who I admired greatly and listener knows that is that she had for decades. She let this mistruth grow and she fed fed the fames and for her own benefit. At any point, she could have stopped down and just said, I need to be honest with everybody. I didn't meet the these indigenous people didn't come into my life until I was in my 20s. I was born and raised in the United States to an Italian-American family. Like just come clean. We'd probably forgive you. The art stands alone. Thank you for being honest with us. And now, obviously now, these Indigenous people are your family, you know, your adopted family. And we can appreciate that for what it is. There's no need to talk about being scooped, 60 scooped and you know adopted and etc. Yeah sort of doubling down in a way. Yeah. No, I know. We'll deal with what the reality is like tell me your truth but make sure it is true. Trying to I mean okay so my David Bowie story, not that I'm ever recounting, but it's when I embellished it I embellished it so little really. Basically I said, we had it, he and I had a conversation, but it was two sentences,

but it was a conversation about something other than, hey how are you? I told him about my band working with Bob Ezran and he said he's a great producer and that was it, but I added something to that where he, because I was the new signing at Capital Records and so we're label mates, David and I, and I said, so I purportedly said, he said he's a great producer and I said, well, didn't get us a deal and David Bowie in my story said, but you've got one now, with a smile. He didn't.

He just went. And don't you feel better putting the truth out there? No, not really because I'm thinking about all the people I told that very innocuous story to and they'll be thinking, why would you lie about that the truth? No, not really because I'm thinking about all the people I told that that very innocuous story to and they'd be thinking, why would you lie about that? Right? It's not worth it. Right. But it was years ago that I like when I first met him, this is, this would be 1987 and uh, so, um, and it's such a minor thing.

So no, I mean, I, you know, I can even imagine Janet Van de Graaff who I may have told that story to, she's listening and now disappointed in me. But Janet, it's okay. Everything else I told you was true. But here's the thing. Here's the thing about the Buffy thing. My story was so innocuous and so nothing.

Her- And nothing burger. Yeah, and her story, her story, it was so intertwined with her identity. And at a certain point, how do you unravel that without seeming like a monster? And I think she is accepting. Let's face it, she's accepting June awards that are earmarked for indigenous artists. Yep, like that happened. Yeah, well, she created that category, so it's arguable that those

those junos wouldn't have gone to anybody. You know that they, you know, unless she had been there. So you know, I know what you mean, but it's not like they were there. Well, that's like a time and space, but that's a time space continuum. Like we can't go back and see where these exist with help. No, exactly. Except that we do know that she was instrumental in making someone else would absorb that all that oxygen that she was because, you know, if you would ask me, you know, 15 years ago to name an indigenous artist, I would, at that point, I'd probably be able to name one.

Like it depends if we're going to, you know, count a Robbie Robertson or something like that, but I would totally be, oh yeah, Buffy St. Marie is an indigenous artist. I know her, I know love lifts us up where we belong. I know the song we played, Universal Soldier. She was on Sesame Street. Like she was the famous indigenous artist that I would have gone to. Like that oxygen might have, if she wasn't consuming that oxygen into her lungs, someone else would breathe that in

and somebody else might have been elevated. And we'll never know. We'll never know. But we can agree, I think that it would have been the right thing had someone else taken up that oxygen and taken up the mantle of the indigenous artist who breaks through to the mainstream.

100%. Okay, now since you mentioned Janet Van de Graaff, we can disclose that you consider her your girlfriend, right? I consider her my girlfriend, yes. And you guys seem very happy together. I like that there's some question you consider. It's like I'm a, it's a Senate subcommittee. You're lovers, aren't you?

Do you or do you not consider Janet Van de Graaff your girlfriend? So I saw this poster, because I just had Jane Harbury on the program. Do you know Jane? I love Jane. Yes. I know and love Jane. Yes. So Jane came over I wanted so much about me did talk a lot about of course the Riverboat Coffeehouse, but We're talking a lot about her time in England. And I'm thinking, uh, I need two hours on riverboat. We got it. We, you know, anyway. So Jane Harbury, great conversation with her. Uh,

she does PR for Hughes room and I am told on April 17th, which is a Wednesday at 8 P.M. I think the door's open at 7 P.M. That you and Janet VandeGraaff are performing together. Yes, we were writing a show and it's show and it's called Scott and Scooter. Partake with Scott and Scooter. Yeah, the partake part is because of Partake Brewery is sponsoring us.

Not Great Lakes Brewery! I'm sorry. I can't attend this event. Does Great Lakes make a non-alcoholic beer? You know they're working on it. Well, there you go. Soon as they do, Partake and I will have a serious conversation. But in the meantime, they're working on it. Well there you go. Soon as they do, Partake and I will have a serious conversation.

But in the meantime, Partake is sponsoring it. It was going to be drinks with Scott and Scooter. And then Hughes Room suggested, what if it was Partake with Scott and Scooter, because then we can get a sponsorship. So, but we're writing a show, and Scott and Scooter are fictional characters. They're older people, so it's a stretch.

And they've always wanted to make music all their lives, and they've had lots of hits and misses, but mostly misses where they're writing, they're doing jingles for the healthcare sector, for instance, they're doing, they had a metal band at one point, they had a country act, they're just trying anything they can try, and now in our show, we're gonna tell you all about those adventures. Okay. Yeah exciting

Uh, I do see the poster here So you guys both look lovely together and you're not wearing your glasses and you're in mid-smile And i'm just telling you you look a little bit like 1985 kenny rogers. That's on purpose. Yes Because that's from our country. Uh, we we have we have the cowboy shirts. And success, mission accomplished. It's meant to look show busy from an earlier era. You know, I was thinking, like, you know, we talked about, I loved Buffy on Sesame Street when I was coming to Beijing. Similar, like maybe a couple years later,

my mom buys a Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits. And I want to say 1982, but don't hold me to that, but around then, okay? So I'm still pretty young and she's got this Kenny vinyl. Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits and I want to say 1982 but don't hold me to that but around then okay so I'm still pretty young and she's got this Kenny vinyl Kenny Roger's Greatest Hits this is the one with Lady on it. Lady could you move your car now? Lady friend okay okay anyway so my mom spun this this is the only album I ever remember her playing but she played it all the time like this album I knew it back to you know front to back because I knew it so well.

And I was thinking, what would be the equivalent, like when I find out Buffy is not indigenous and she's Italian American? And then I think, oh, imagine you found out Kenny Rogers, that wasn't a real beard. Like if I found out, you know, he wore some kind of a mercantile deal or some kind of a fake beard, like that would be like, okay,

everything I believe to be true what do I believe I think I think the indigenous community might not have as much sympathy for you and your pain at that point but I know what you mean okay you know what I mean so so again speaking of the Italian community yes I do want you to know Blair I have a large lasagna for you from palma pasta I love that. In my freezer. So I know you love your Palma Pasta. I do. And because I'm shouting out the good people at Palma Pasta, go to Palma. By the way, Palma. Yes.

That's actually, so that's, that's Palma Petrucci, the matriarch of the Petrucci family, which owns Palma Pasta. And she started Palma Pasta with her husband in 1985, speaking in 85. But I just want to say happy birthday to her. Yesterday, Palma Petrucci turned 93. Oh my goodness. Yesterday. 93, wow. Good for her.

So you know, Palma Pasta's good for you. Yeah, yeah, well there you go, yeah. And her husband's still with us, he's older. Yeah. So, and you know, goodness gracious, okay. In fact, her husband looks younger than Anthony Petrucci and FOTM Anthony Petrucci. Wow.

You're getting the lasagna, but I'm also inviting you Blair to TMLX 15 at Great Lakes Brewery. It is on June 27 from six to nine p.m. We're all gonna collect and have a great time. I would love to see you there if you're available or in town, I don't know where you are on June 27. It's also my birthday, it's gonna be a big day. Oh wow, that June 27. It's also my birthday. It's gonna be a big day.

Oh wow, that's amazing. It's also your birthday. Well, I will endeavor to be the, I suspect. I started doing this John Prine tribute show. I'm one of the singers in this John Prine tribute show that is so good and the band backing us up is so great. Johnny Maxx, the blues guy put this together and Johnny sings some John Prine songs as well.

And he's been booking dates everywhere. So it's possible in June, we've got a few John Prine. Well, if you're available, obviously, yes, obviously, but I love David Quentin Steinberg drops by. Oh yeah. It'd be quite the, uh, quite the event here. Okay. So you're taking home some fresh craft beer with you as well. That's great. Great beer. Okay. More to come, but let's kick out another jam. We got to fight the powers at sea Got so many voices, saying all the same

Giving up all around me, faces full of pain I try to play my music, they say my music's too loud I try talking about it, I try to play my music, they say my music's too loud I try talking about it, I got the baby runnin' around And when I roll with the punches I got Knocked on the ground by all this bullshit Going down, hey, time is truly wasted Bite the power, Blair Man, what a groove, oh my god Yeah, the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brothers.

You know, I had a realization as I've gotten older. I've had a few. But one of them is that life is long. It's also short, but life is also long. And people have second acts and third acts in their lives. And you may typecast somebody. Like you may have thought of me as this guy from this 80s band and I'm still walking around

wearing the shoulder pads with big hair and so forth. But people go on and they do other things and they do other things that there may be even more proud of than the thing you know them for. Right. And absolutely. And so the jitters is about a chapter in my life. But but when we first met, you focused on that a lot and that was that was fine. But it is a tip. Can we get off black cars already?

Exactly, it's a tendency for you to, not just you to do, but for anybody to do with anybody else. But especially me. Well, perhaps because you do, as with the Gino Vanelli example you just cited, you do get fixated on this era. Anyway, the Isley Brothers,

this is a song from the 70s. Yes. I was a teenager when I heard it. First of all, I'd never heard the word bullshit saying in a song. And it was very powerful to me. Profanity was a lot more powerful in those days because you didn't hear it very much. And to me, this is a protest song. I try to play my music. They say my music's too loud. I try talking about it. I get the big run around. And when I roll with the punches, in other words, when I do what they want me to do, I got knocked on the ground by all this bullshit going down. And anyway, the Isley Brothers had a whole career.

Did you know the Isley Brothers, their version of Twist and Shout was the version the Beatles learned to play? I did know that. Yeah. Yeah, because they wrote the twist and shout, right? I'm not sure. But they're the original recorders. They're the originators. They had the original hit, yes.

And yeah, so the Isley Brothers, then there was this whole period before this where they had a hit with a song called Who's That Lady? And Ernie Isley, Jimmy Hendrix was in the Isley Brothers band and Ernie Isley learned a lot from Jimmy Hendrix and vice versa. So there's a whole, they've had this whole, there's, you know, they're, I think they're still making music or some of them.

I feel like a member just passed away. Yeah, I feel like you're, yeah. I think it was Ernie Isley, actually, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, Twist and Shout has a kind of a, I just watched season four of True Detective. Yes. Which I didn't actually like. I know people, I actually loved season one of True Detective, and I did not love season four of true detective. Yes, which I didn't actually like I know people I actually loved season one of true detective and I did not love season four, but I watched the whole thing I think I was kind of mildly hate watching it

I just wanted to see what what they were up to or whatever But there's a common thread which is that scene from Ferris Bueller's day off where he's singing the Beatles version of twist and shout So that that's like a like that that music that scene is kind of weaved throughout this like six episode season. So Twist and Shout as you know I've been kind of hearing it quite a bit lately as I go through these episodes. Right and yeah heavily identified with the Isley Brothers as well as the Beatles for anybody who digs just a little bit deeper and but this song this song well and the reason I wanted, wanted to play this song is it's called fight the power part two.

But in fact, then there's fight the power by public enemy, which I believe we'll be getting to eventually. I was actually shocked. So I was, yeah, I was shocked that you didn't follow up, fight the power. Oh, I, you know, I sent that list out of order. And so we've been, we've been going in the order that I sent it to you, but, but it was, I thought to myself after I thought, oh shit, I should have put that in the proper, you know, I sent that list out of order and so we've been we've been going in the order that I sent it to you But but it was I I thought to myself after I thought oh shit I should have put that in in the proper, you know, probably should have started with strange fruit

Uh, you know, well, you know, that's what's I called sequencing. It's important like I do that's important It is next time we kick out jams. I want the order to play. I'll give you the order here So let me get to the jam. In fact, okay Well, it sounds like i'm allowed to play in any order I want going forward here. Okay, so let's do this. Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight. Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather switch than fight. Switch! Then fight! Uh

89 I'm rockin' in this town Listen if you're missin' y'all Swingin' while I'm singin' Give it what you're gettin' Know what I knowin' While the black band's sweatin' In the rhythm I'm rollin' Gotta give us what we want Gotta give us what we need Our freedom of speech is freedom of death We gotta fight the powers that be

Fight the power Fight the power Fight the power! Fight the power! Fight the power! Fight the power! Fight the power! Fight the power! Fight the power! We got to fight the power of that beat!

As the rhythm's designed to bounce with calcic that's a lot to do Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm ghetto.E. in full effect, Blair. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm ghetto. Yeah. This, by the way, this is still my favorite hip hop, is Early Public Enemy. It was so thought provoking and interesting and passionate. It was hard rhymes, but with great sampling, of course, by the Bomb Squad. But saying something, like there was such substance to what Chuck D was saying on these

songs. It wasn't a self aggrandizement Wasn't you know, it wasn't about gangsta bragging about busting a cap in somebody's ass or whatever It was about social justice and and issues real issues for real people And it's yeah, I agree and the samples as you say The samples are crazy like you don't hear records like that anymore because nobody wants to give up. Nobody wants to pay for the samples. So, you know, you'll hear it with a big artist,

but again, not layer upon layer upon layer like this. They're from everywhere. Yeah. Oh, the bomb squad. And you know, they would take like a James Brown grunt or something and that would become like a lyric. It was fantastic. Oh, absolutely. Lots of great James Brown grunt or something. And that would become like a lyric. It was absolutely lots of great James Brown, lots of other great music sampled in there

by the Bomb Squad. But for my money again, and I'm an older guy, but for my money, nobody raps like Chuck D. Chuck D is my all time favorite rapper. And I'm not just saying that because he's an FOTM. I felt that before he was an FOTM. Right yeah yeah and I just love the tone of his voice. That almost sounds like that you know

it's almost like Alan Rickman which is the one in... actually I do two impressions. Would you like to hear them? Yeah of course I do. This is Alan Rickman but this is Jeremy Irons and this and this is Chuck D. No now I can add Chuck D. Your Chuck's not that good. No it's not very good at all. I'll work on it. So let me ask you were you there for this in real time like when this thing you know and I like that he timestamps it you always know it's 1989 because he opens with 1989 and this of course from Do the Right Thing. I love Spike Lee movies still my favorite Spike Lee movies.

Still my favorite Spike Lee movie. Do The Right Thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, was I, yeah. I remember, I actually remember hearing rap for the very first time in Bloor Subway. I was waiting for my girlfriend.

It was probably 1979. Well, it's early. Yeah. And I was, because I remember the girlfriend at the time, right? So I can timestamp it that way. That's how you cord your light. Yeah, so I'm standing in Bloor Subway waiting for her.

She was always late. And I hear this music where it's just a lot of talking over top of a really infectious beat. And I didn't know what it was. So I left the place, our meeting place, to go down the stairs and saw these guys with a boombox. And it was really loud and I was digging it so hard. Like it was so great.

So that would be the first time. And then I saw... Flavor Flav? No, Fab... Fab 5 Freddy? Yeah, thank you, Fab 5 Freddy at the concert hall as part of a show called The Kitchen Sink. Did DJ Ron Nelson bring that? No, no, this was before him. Although I did know DJ Ron Nelson. I have a story about him, a great one. Oh, because you were at CKLN?

No, he came to record at Comfort Sound. Oh, you were at CIUT anyway. Right. Do you want to tell me quickly, because I don't know if that guy gets his Do flowers I think that guy was so key in bringing hip-hop to this country. He was um, I Don't know not I mean I the story I have to tell is so nothing to do with this It's funny as hell, but it's but it's not not to do with any of this. So yeah, yeah, you can ask me later You can ask me Ask me, but it just in this moment. No. So, so then I saw breakdancing for the first time at that show at the concert hall and the show also featured Eric Boghossian by the way.

Um, it like, it was a really wide, it was a variety show. Basically he was, he played the DJ, didn't he? Didn't he? He was in, um, what was that show called? The movie talk. Yeah. Yeah. That radio was it? No, it wasn't that. Yeah. Talk? The movie, talk radio? Something like that. But it wasn't that, yeah, but it was American Talk, something like that. He's the talk guy, he's the Howard Stern-like guy who gets murdered. Right, and I saw it on like City TV,

Lake Talk Radio it was called, 1986, 88. Talk Radio, so same name as the TV show, the Dave Foley show. Or no, that was news radio. Right, so talk radio, yeah. Now I miss Phil Hartman, thanks very much. Yeah, yeah, I know, the Dave Foley show. Or no, that was news radio. No, that was news radio. Right, so talk radio, yeah. Now I miss Phil Hartman, thanks very much. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, it's sad. Anyway, so my exposure to rap was early,

and I liked it instantly, but I didn't become a fan, really, till the 90s. And even then, I'm a very light fan, I have to say. Sure. A light skinned fan, too. Which is okay, I have to say. But you know, a light skinned fan too. But I like that. Which is okay. I think it was a DJ Ron Nelson himself told me that he learned that rap had been embraced

by a white audience he said when he started selling t-shirts at concerts. This is what, again, this is DJ Ron Nelson's story to me. Which is he said, he said, black people didn't buy the t-shirts. The white people bought the t-shirts. And suddenly he was making the cash for t-shirts sold at these raps shows. And he said, that's how he realized that suddenly the audience, you know, started as a black

audience and then it became whiter and whiter and the t-shirts started selling DJ Ron Nelson shared this anecdote on Toronto mic and people should dig up the DJ Ron Nelson episode of Toronto mic, but I will again, public enemy. I loved the first album, you'll bum rush to the show. But the two that you gotta take with you on that desert island or whatever, is it takes a nation of millions to hold us back, which might be the greatest hip hop album ever. And then close second, the one that that song's on,

Fear of a Black Planet. Yeah. The intro of this song, is it Malcolm X? I think the sample of the speech, it relates directly to the Buffy St. Marie song, is it Malcolm X, I think, the sample of the speech? It relates directly to the Buffy St. Marie song, Universal Soldier. They would rather, he's saying about the most educated. Yeah, they'd rather switch, and you know what that's from

by the way? It's from a cigarette commercial. Yeah, I Would Rather Fight Than Switch was the slogan, and they showed a man or a woman with a black eye in a, in like a magazine ad. And they, they don't want to switch their cigarette brand. And they're good. They would rather fight than switch. Well, then that was taken and flipped.

I would, they would rather switch than fight. That's why he says it was sort of a wink as he says, so he pauses. They w it's suffice it to say they would rather switch. Then fight. And it's because he's, he's quoting an ad. Look at you bringing that, bringing the heat today. It's suffice it to say they would rather switch than fight. And it's because he's quoting an ad. Look at you bringing the heat today, Blair. Loving this so much, only three songs to go. I have another gift for you.

Okay. I think you're gonna love this. Yes. This hard cover book in front of you is Toronto Maple Leaf's history. This is the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. Oh wow. And they play at Christie Pitts.

Yeah, yes. And here I'm actually, I'm gonna talk more about this with Rod Black next week, more details, but I plan to record live from the home opener on May 12th. So May 12th, which is a Sunday, if everybody makes their way to Christie Pitts for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team home opener. I plan to be there.

I'm going to have Stephen Brunt as my special guest and others and Blair, if you're around, make your way to Christie Pitts, man. Okay. May 12th. It's a Sunday. And we're going to watch some great, again, the best baseball in the city outside of the dome takes place with the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. The whole history is in that book. I will read this book and enjoy it. As you know, I'm not a sports guy, so you may have been saying I know you'll enjoy this jokingly. Well, the history part.

The thing is, I will enjoy it, but also the guy who works on my guitars is also David Wilcox's guitar tech. I'm the least of his worries in terms of famous clients, but his name is Mike Zimmerman and he loves the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club. So I will, I will actually read this and then give it to him. I need to get my guitar set up already, like right now. So because I can give you a second book, really? I a hundred percent. I will happily pass it along to him. I promise you I'm going to get you a second book. Totally dig it. In fact, I'm I'm gonna roll into this jam and I'm gonna grab it so I don't forget. Here's another. This is the third last. That's the anti penultimate protest song from Blair Packham. I'm gonna go get some I would never name all Some of those that work forces are the same that bark crosses Some of those that work forces are the same that bark crosses

Some of those that work forces Draw the same that bar crosses Killin' in the name of Killin' in the name of Now you do what they told ya Now you do what they told ya Now you do what they told ya now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you

And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you And now you do what they told you Rage against the machine. Love it! Killing in the name. Yeah. The same. The burn crosses. It's it's the it's the same. Now it's worse. Now that was 1992. It's worse now. The you know, I think the world

is so polarized and people who are drawn to law enforcement, not always, of course, I'm not generalizing, but you know, there's there's some dangerous crossover exactly in the way I'm not being very eloquent about this, but you know what I mean? Well, it's the same... They're describing a situation...

Yeah, you go ahead. Well, I was going to say, it kind of uses as an opportunity to just talk about how you deal personally. And I'm always trying to deal myself, which is that the world is on fire. Yeah. personally, and I always like trying to deal myself, which is that the world is on fire. Yeah, like the polarization. That's why I was wondering when you're in California, like is it like because it's going to be Trump versus Biden part two, like it's like a boxing match or whatever. And I don't even want to think about what happens if Trump wins that election. I don't want to think about it. So we have that going on. We have our own stuff going up here. Our next prime minister looks like it's going to be Pierre Poliev and then what that might entail. And then I am well aware of

what's happening in Gaza right now, Hamas, what they did to Israel and now the response. And I've had many a conversation with Ralph Ben-Marighe and others about this situation where you can absolutely want Israel to defend themselves and have much love for Jewish people around the world and disagree fundamentally with the policies and the response by Israel. It this it's all been mixed up and there are many people who maybe disagree with what Israel is doing in Gaza right now and have kind of extended that to basically what I would call anti-Semitism like yeah and that's happening throughout the world which which upsets me it's it's also upsetting and meanwhile you've got a country

independent nation Ukraine which was invaded a couple of years ago by Putin. And there's ongoing, you know, there's that war continues two years later. And I think about what will Putin do next? What happens if Russia wins that war? I don't know how you deal with it, Blair, but this just feels like a rough time to be a citizen of this planet Earth. It really does, and how I deal with it sadly is I put my head down and I try to just enjoy my own life and try and do the right thing otherwise.

I don't know what else to do, I really don't. Everything is so complicated. I mean, racism isn't, you know, so I can easily take a stand. Anti-Semitism isn't, you know, but even politics, I mean, I don't at all think much of Poliev at all. But you know, I'm not the biggest Trudeau fan either,

but I definitely would re-elect Trudeau sooner than I would elect Polievff, but that's me. And I know lots of people who would disagree with that and they are people I love. So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with people in your immediate circle who disagree with you on some very basic principles? I don't know the answer, I just keep my head down

and it's awful. And we didn't even discuss the climate emergency we're in, which if you- No, which is really the big thing. You know, that's existential. Right. Right. But it's like, how do you focus on that when you have this, the day-to-day like survival mode

going on here and forget about the fact that I'm, we're a dual income household here. Yeah, sometimes I have an income, okay? So, you know, we can get by on the fact that we're a dual income household here. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes I have an income. Okay. So, you know, we can get by on the fact like, and this is, these are real numbers. Like I used to buy a loaf of bread. I got the four kids and one's in Montreal right now, but you know, we're feeding people here and they're for sure.

I would be able to buy a loaf of bread for I'll say, let's say 189. Okay. Only going back like five years. Yeah. But I'm not going back 15.'s say 189. Okay. Only going back like five years here, but I'm not going back 15. No, 189. And that very same loaf of bread, let's say it's 349 right now.

Like this is across the board for every item, but wages haven't gone up like that. Like I don't make like five, I started TMDS five years ago. My rates haven't gone up that same percent. Like it's absolutely difficult time of inflation. Rents, I know like when I was, I was saying when I was between marriages over a decade ago, I was able to rent a two bedroom

for 1250, right? In a nice place, I got it at a pool, in a parking spot, 1250. I know, amazing. I had a whole house for 700 bucks in the 90s. Like not that long ago really, in the 90s. So that's the day to day that we're all dealing with. So how do you step back and say like, okay,

and then I, this is where I was at. I talked to Ralph about this too. So you're talking to a guy who, if he can bike somewhere, he bikes somewhere. I really do care about my car. I'm very careful of my personal carbon footprint because it makes me feel good to make that as small as possible.

Meanwhile, and I shared this on Toronto Mike previously, but there was that great gift shared after the Super Bowl where they showed all the private jets flying off from Las Vegas after it, okay? And I'm sitting here sipping on my paper straw, planning my bike ride so I can keep the car parked in the driveway and thinking about what's the fucking point, Blair?

Like what's the fucking point of Mike in a South Etobicoke basement biking and drinking from paper straws when you got, forget Taylor Swift, there's hundreds of Taylor Swift's flying out of Vegas after that football game. I think all you can do is do what you're doing already. You can probably do more of it, but you're doing a lot more than most people. And I think that that's all you can really do because that's all you can control. And the point is you're setting a great example for your children and you're providing a great environment

for your children to grow up in. Now, other people have said to me, how do you feel about Owen, my son, inheriting this earth? And I think, good luck. I mean, there's not much I can do about it. I have apologized to him on behalf of my generation, but that's all I can really do.

And there are lots of- I thought you were gonna say, I apologize to him for making him in the first place. Well, no, no, because I wouldn't have missed that experience for the world. Yeah, but you know, and there are lots of people in my generation, by the way, who would call me various names for apologizing to my kid, you know?

But I feel bad for him, but there's not much else I can do. So I feel like I can't spend what remaining days I have left, and it is only days, folks. No, it's not really. I have a dramatic announcement to make. No, I don't. Shout out to Ridley Fetterman. That's right. I'll cut you a deal. far as I know I'm I have I don't have my demise is not on the books yet

But but we're all dying. Yeah, we're all dying and and I just I want to enjoy You know my time with Janet for instance, you know, you said about having a girlfriend at age 64 Yes, you do I you know my my ex-mother-in-law has a boyfriend and she's 80 something and and she did they just met like last year. To be clear, I was worried about the term. The nomenclature. The nomenclature.

You should have the relationship. It's good for you. Right. But but but I want to enjoy that and I want to I want to enjoy every minute with her and I want to enjoy every Enjoy every goddamn sandwich. Yeah. And I want to take that literally. And that's why I went to California. Cause I thought, when else do I get a chance to go away for a month? She joined me for five days, which is great.

I was kind of hoping she'd be able to come for longer, but she wasn't, but five days was magical. And the rest of the time I did a lot of writing. And yeah, I'm, I was following your adventures on Facebook. So I saw photos and you looked happy. I was happy. It was beautiful. Now, here's the thing. California, you were saying about the Trump thing. Yeah. No, there was there was not a very blue state, very, very blue state.

And that area, particularly blue. But getting back to food prices, yeah, everything there is the same price number wise. So what did you say? Loaf of bread is like three forty nine, three forty nine. California, the cheap bread, by the way. Right. Three forty nine you say loaf of bread is? Like $3.49. $3.49 in California. That's the cheap bread by the way. Right, $3.49, same loaf of bread, $3.49 in California. The milk too, like we used to, less now, but we drank a lot of 1% milk with these kids

for a long time. And absolutely the price would be, like went up like, like these prices would go up 50 to 100%. I know. And in California, same prices, but it's in American dollars. So food is very expensive there. So imagine trying to eat actual healthy food. Like okay now I'm going to eat you know more vegetables and more organic product. It's like I don't know and we haven't even talked about like maybe your son can live with you forever. Where are my kids going to live? Yeah,

I intend to live with Janet and I don't intend to live with my son forever, but he's welcome for another year or two. And then he's, we've got to figure it out. Well, I still get a 22 year old at home. Like, like I was long gone by 22. I was on the road when I was 19, but, but yeah, I know. I hear you. It's a different world and COVID and all that stuff.

Hey, let's get back to that song for a minute though, because I wonder if you know this, do you happen to know who produced that killing in the name of Rage Against the machine? No, tell me well It was none other than then good Garth Richardson. Do you know who that is? You should have him on the show easy to get yeah Yeah, Jack Richardson son Jack produced the guess who? Back to Randy Bachman everything gets back to. Jack produced Love It to Death by Alice Cooper

with Bob Ezra and as his surrogate. Okay, see this is why you're here, man. I'm learning. I'm like a sponge. That's a fun fact. Yeah, and Garth is a great guy. And the reason he's called Garth is because he stutters. And, but he's a lovely, not, I shouldn't say,

but he's a lovely fellow and he's a lovely fellow. He's a great guy. Well, I'm sold. Now we did talk since Jane Sibbery, right? I think so, yeah. Okay, I don't wanna like repeat myself. Okay, just kidding. Because we hadn't, because you gave me her email

and that's how it all came to be. You've been great. Fun fact. You've been great at. Fun fact, I gave you her email. Is it though? Is it though? Is it a fun fact? I don't find it that interesting. No, here's the funny thing.

I just watched a Curb Your Enthusiasm last night. I did too, last night. Just randomly. And in this episode, he and Jeff, his manager, No, here's the funny thing. I just watched a Curb Your Enthusiasm last night. I did too, last night. Just randomly. And in this episode, he and Jeff, his manager, they argue over whether something's a fun fact or not. And I thought of you and Jane's every- Oh, this is an older episode. Okay. Yeah.

I noticed, there was actually, I've noticed, a lot of things will pop up on Curb that have kind of already been threads that kind of showed up here that we've kind of pulled at. Makes me wonder if Jane gets all her material for Curb Your Enthusiasm. I did watch recently the documentary showed up here that we've kind of pulled at. It makes me wonder if Jane gets all her material for her year of enthusiasm. I did watch recently the documentary about, uh, tears are not enough that Dave, and they recorded it and Jane's on the film there.

I don't know who she's talking to. I want to say she's done a romp and Ronnie Hawkins or something like that, but she's sort of talking about cows. Like she's just talking about cows. And I was thinking, Oh, this is like a fly on the wall camera in the room, catching her just chatting about cows. Like I think Jane oh, this is like a fly on the wall camera in the room catching her just chatting about cows. Like I think Jane Sibri has an absolute, uh, obsession with cows. Oh, maybe I don't, I'm not aware of that. I mean, Jane Harbury talked about it a little bit and I noticed there's a video of course, with her walking a cow, right? Right. I think she's got a cow thing.

She may. I'm going to have to get her back on and talk about cows. Oh my goodness. Two jams to go. Okay. I got a birthday party to go to. I know you do. And I'm changing the order here, but let's kick this one out. And this might get us to talk some sopranos maybe. We don't mind what's going on It's time for some justice It's time for the truth If we are blind There's only one thing we can do

We gotta say I, I, I, I Ain't gonna play some setteh Ain't gonna play some sit-teh Everybody say I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, So this is all this is put together by Little Stevie, right? Yeah, Little Steven. Yeah, Little Steven of Bruce Springsteen's band, the East Street Band. Right. Silvio on the Sopranos. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Steven Van Zandt.

I met him three times and I have not embellished these stories, so I have no nothing to protect here. OK, I'll tell Robert Lawson just stay over there. Back off, Robert. Come on. I recorded a Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul at the Elma Combo. I was, sorry, assistant engineer with Doug McClemmett as the engineer and enjoyed it immensely. Like it was so great.

They had a solo, like he did an album separate from Bruce Springsteen called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul and it was so great. It was amazing. He was channeling Keith Richards, like there's no question. He played his guitar in Keith Richards' tuning, so it sort of instantly sounded like Keith and he kind of sings like Keith.

And it was amazing. It was so great. Then they opened for U2, Little Steven, around this time. And I saw them and went backstage with the Capitol Records people. Around this time, what time are we talking? When is this 80? This is like mid eight. I think 85 85. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's a song that came out in 85. I'm gonna ask you

about in a minute, but you finish your Stevie stories. Okay. Well, yeah, they're not very interesting stories. I mean, you know, I said hello, I was introduced as the new signing again. I was meeting a lot of people as they were saying and by the Capitol Records people introduced me. So the David Bowie thing. then anyway very very nothing nothing story but I was thrilled to meet him because I enjoyed and and I said to him I recorded you at the El Macombo and he went oh cool and that was the end of that you know he didn't say you did I must work with you again you know. That's the best recording I've ever heard. Exactly. So then he was mounting a musical in about, oh, I don't know, five or six, seven or eight years ago,

The Rascals music, the band The Rascals. And so he was there with his wife, who was also in The Sopranos. And- Yeah, she played his wife. Yeah. And- Absolutely. They were the backers behind this musical. And so at the meet and greet after I said, I recorded your, and he probably thought every time I come to Toronto,

some guy says that to me, not remembering that it's me, but, um, uh, but anyway, I enjoyed meeting him, but there, and, and because I'm a fan, and I wanted to hear this song again after all these years. Now. Okay. So this, for those who don't know, this is an anti-apartheid song, right? So this is a South African apartheid, uh, so this, for those who don't know, this is an anti-apartheid song, right? So this is South African apartheid, Sun City. Is it that artists were playing Sun City? I know a little bit about this, but you know, you should play Sun City because they have

segregated audiences. Yeah, Sun City would pay enormous amounts of money to people, to artists, to go and play shows there, but they, black people weren't Right. I don't think they were just segregated. I think they weren't allowed in, in, in, in the facility. And, um, you know, it was apartheid. So, uh, it was awful. Ask David Steinberg about, about our apartheid. He knows about South Africa and what it was like and, and so forth. He's told me, described it to me. It's unbelievable. Um, I think, described it to me, it's unbelievable. Well, I will.

I think this song though contributed to, it was part of the world pressure to dismantle apartheid. And I believe it helped, not just this song, of course, but all of the pressure led to the dismantling of apartheid. And he's one of those examples where, you know, a culture is shamed by the rest of the world and made to see this is not good, this is not going to fly. Recently I had Peter Kent back on the program and Peter Kent was talking about the late Brian Mulrooney. And you know, politics aside, you know, we all have our jerseys or whatever, teams or whatever, but he was kind

of a key role on the world stage because people like Margaret Thatcher were kind of late to the anti-apartheid movement and Brian Mulroney was a big voice about how apartheid is wrong and we need to do what we can to have a free open South Africa. Yeah. To his credit. Yeah, absolutely to his credit. I'm not a fan of Brian Mulroney generally, but I don't believe with the exception possibly of Donald Trump and Hitler, I'm not sure, are there's a few more.

I'm not sure I believe that anybody is fully bad or fully good even. I think we all have... Even Margaret Thatcher? Yep. We have it all... we all of us have it in us. What about Ronald Reagan? Good and bad. All of them. Good and bad. And so Brian Mulroney, you know, sure he did like... he did some good stuff. Now this song, I'm gonna play it up again. I'm listening to it when I hear this song and I don't hear it very often. Yeah. I haven gonna play it up again. I'm listening to it. When I hear this song, and I don't hear it very often.

Yeah, I haven't heard it since then. There's another song that came out in 1985 by an artist we've already talked about today. And that song and this song remind me of each other. I don't know which came first, they have different writers, but there's a part of this song, Sun City, which sounds to me like the song I first heard in Rocky IV. That's with the Russians. Okay. James Brown, Living in America. Yeah, they are similar. I agree. Yeah. Kind of wanted to nail that part because maybe I'll jump back a bit here. Hold on. Well, I have to find the part anyways.

There's a definitely a part where I hear living in America. James Brown. Okay, great choice here. We have one to go. All right. Oh, sorry. We have one to go. All right. Before we are sorry, we still need to talk a little bit about Rick Emmett because he's got to do that now. Oh, okay. Well, so, so the Rick Emmett thing,

this was just when Morgan came down for her birthday. Right. So, and I, and I did want to say, so I, I had sent a note, a catch up sort of note to Rick, Hey, what's going on? And he told me, and, and I, and he said, what, what about you? I tend to be really honest. If you send me a text saying, how's it going? I will tell you, I won't just go fine, how are you? So I said to him, a little worried about money

because I had no cash flow. I was in between my teaching gig and stuff like that. I own my house, I have money in the bank. I'm okay folks, before you start that telethon for me. But the cash flow was down. So it was just sort of that day or that week, and I was thinking, yeah, I could use some dough, you know? And I hadn't hustled any gigs.

This is the life of a freelancer. I've been freelance since 1985. Yeah, you know it as well as anybody. But I happen to mention this to Rick. This is the kind of guy he is. He said, well, I happen to be making a record. How are your engineering chops these days? And I said, good, I think.

And I'm thinking, are you asking me to engineer your record? And then he said, my regular engineer isn't available. Do you wanna try, like we'll just try a day. The pay is X and we'll do it at my place. And so I went to his place and we had the greatest time. So I kept going back day after day after day after day and we recorded what he's calling 10 Telecaster tunes.

And there are, or 10, sorry, do it again, 10 Telecaster tales. And there are- I'll fix it in post. Thanks, and there are stories for each song and there are instrumental guitar pieces and he's such a great guitar player. And so my job was to record it and then edit it

and then mix it. And it was a great experience. And we really bonded, like it was, you know. He's a likable guy. He's very likable. And I just have Zooms as the guy. Like I don't think I, I know I haven't met him in person

because I wouldn't forget that. And I did, I'll tell you, because he, we talked quite a bit about his slow pitch prowess, okay. Yeah. He was quite the slow pitch player. So I have, and I'm not afraid to tell you, I have invited Rick Emmett

to a Toronto Maple Leafs baseball game at Christie Pitts, where Rick Emmett could sing the anthem and throw at the first pitch. Like this would be like a Rick Emmett appreciation day. And he's noodling it right now, but I hope maybe you can- I'll put a little pressure on. The Rick gets nervous. It's funny, it right now, but I hope he, maybe you can. I'll put a little pressure on. The Rick gets nervous.

It's funny, because that's, Chris Dupitz, that's the area he grew up in, basically. He was a Dufferin and Bloor. And so he's- Super close. You'd think he'd be very comfortable, but he's lived out of town so much that- Well, that's what he said, where do you have to drive in? I'm like, you can drive here and we'll bike in together.

The anxiety of finding a place to park for him is very real. Right. You know? Well, you have to pick him up. You know what? I would. I actually would. Okay, now I'm getting some ideas.

So we're going to explore this, but when does this album come out that you engineered for Rick? That's a good question. I'm not really sure, but soon. The stories are written, the album is mixed and mastered. It's ready to go anytime. I'm so happy to have been a part of it.

I really am. Just because you're honest with the question, how's it going? You could have just said, hey, I'm good, man. Thanks for asking. Yeah, and it's funny how quickly it passed. I mean, not only because he gave me some work, but also because things changed anyway.

Like, you know, it's on any given day as a freelancer, you might answer the question, well, could use a little more income. Literally, I think it was yesterday I was talking to my wife about it. I'm like, oh yeah, you know, you get the same amount of money, let's a little more income. We have that literally. I think it was yesterday I was talking to my wife about it. I'm like, oh yeah, you know, you get the same amount of money, let's say every two weeks, every two weeks, the same amount of money is in your bank account.

Like that's the joy of working for the man. Working for the man. You know, she works for a bank in this dependable amount. Meanwhile, it's feast or famine over here for us. Like one month we're like, oh my God, we're gangbusters this month. And then you have a month where it's like, oh, it's like, oh my goodness gracious.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just that, it's not for everybody that unpredictability. Yeah, it really isn't. And in fact, this was my lecture at school yesterday. I teach at Seneca, as I mentioned, and I talk about the life of a freelancer. And I was saying the unpredictability

is definitely one of the downsides. Like if you need to know, like this is the amount that'll be in my account every two weeks, then this is not the life. No, not at all. And you have to learn how to save half that money. If you get $10,000 for a project, you can't go woohoo and go buy a used car. You know, you've got to you've got to put five thousand of that. Well, that's the discipline everybody needs. Right. Like I find it interesting that people who, oh, my goodness, I have an extra eight hundred dollars.

I have to go spend that on like a dress or a suit or something. Yeah. Like that, that whole concept is just, just discipline. Yeah. I, yes. And, and if you have kids, you should have an R E S P. Oh, that's actually so thank you for talking about R E S P's because I learned so much about the value of R E S P's by listening to a great podcast.

I'm going to recommend to you right now, the advantage investor, okay. From Raymond James, Canada. Seriously. Yup. This is again, I'm pushing 50 here. So I've learned a couple of things. One is max out those RESPs. If you have kids that are going to do any

second post-secondary, uh, and it's not just for like university, like you can apply it now. I don't know. Beauty college, like different, uh, you know, different things. As long as it's an educational initiative and you can prove it. Yeah. Well, and it's a no brain. If. Yeah, you know things as long as it's an educational initiative and you can prove it Yeah, well, it's a no brain. If you can you should definitely top it off because it's you're leaving money on the table

Arlene Bishop and I started a our ESP for our son Owen in 2001 hundred dollars a month. That's all we ever contributed We never talked we know there were a couple years when we had we had good years So we were able to but the government matches your contribution. So we ended up with $40,000 by the time Owen graduated high school. So smart of you doing that. Yeah. And then, and then, so then he took a, he took five years to do his engineering. He's just finishing now in mechanical engineering.

We never thought once we had no money stress whatsoever and we're self-employed musicians, you know, so it was so good. It was really good. And good, and that kind of advice is readily available for free by listening to the Advantage Investor from Raymond James Canada. One more thing, Blair, I know I've told you this in the past, but if you have that drawer full

of old cables or adapters or old phones, you got like a Blackberry in there or something. You got old laptops that don't even boot up anymore. Don't throw that in the garbage, Blair. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in your postal code, and then the EPRA will say, hey, you got a place like a block away where you can drop that off,

and it will be properly recycled because they've accredited these places that will keep those chemicals out of our landfill. That's fantastic. It is. And thank you to the good people there and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. You ready for your final jam? I am.

You will not be able to stay home, brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on stag and skip out for beer during commercials because the revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox and Four Parts without commercial interruptions. The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew

to eat hogmas confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by the shape of a war theater and will not start Natalie Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia the revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal the revolution will not get rid of the nerve the revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner because the revolution will not be televised brother there will be no pictures of you and will scott here and this is the revolution will not be televised so great and so early what year would that be 77 76 i will find out okay it's uh I will find out. Okay.

It's a. It was. What's the first year of SNL? 75, I think. But this song you're hearing now is 1971. Okay, so by 75. So he was a guest on like the second or third episode of Saturday Night Live. He was a musical guest and did what's the word?

Johannesburg about about South Africa Africa and about apartheid. And as a teenager, I would have been 15 years old and I was like galvanized. I was like, what the hell is this? This is so great. And it's a precursor to rap, you know, it's a, and it's sampled all over the place, this song in particular, but also his other songs

And you know, so you recognize it from other but this is the this is the originator, you know And and it's a comment on commercialism and it's a comment on the revolution You know that is that that even then was brewing and is still I mean we're experiencing right now This is what this is this this divide this this left-right thing, but also rich-poor divide. You know, it's... This is what's happening. Unfortunately, the response of people, I think, around the world is, well, we need a strong leader to sort of tamp it down.

We actually don't. I don't think we do. I think that's the wrong idea. Because strong leaders almost inevitably are corrupt and do really bad things. But anyway, I believe we're in the revolution right now and we can't quite tell because we're in the middle of it or in the beginning of the middle of it, something like that. Anyway. Great choices today, Blair. Actually, I really enjoyed all your all your musical selections. And you can start like brainstorming what will be the theme for your next visit.

I actually dig this. Blair, you draw by once in a while while we catch up and then you kick out thematic jams Well, look your own toast. Yeah. Well, thank you. And yeah, I like it. I like it Although I enjoyed listening to toast to I like the camaraderie that you fellows have so how are you with Koy and dance because of? Bow and Luke are gone, right? So that Toast was, as you know, Stu Stone and Cam Gordon. Yeah. And now Toast is Rob Bruce and Bob Ouellette. What are your feelings on the switcheroo there? I think it's all good, actually.

It's a different vibe. It's a sort of a- It's a kind or gentler vibe. I was about to say, it's a friendlier vibe now. Rob Bruce particularly particularly but Bob is wild and both so kind and gentler and gentle really nice guys I like it I think it's great two thumbs up from Blair Pack yeah definitely definitely I'd like to be a part of it sometime actually if either one of them is that

happening I would I but I'd love to be a substitute I'd love to be on with with with Rob just because we've known each other so long and yet I didn't remember that last time we talked about it. I'll see what I can do there. You know you're no Liza Fromer but he might make the trip for you. Boy did I ever have a crush on her when I was younger. Did you enjoy did you listen to Liza Fromer kicking out the jams with her first musical crush Rob Proust? That I don't know how I've missed that missed a couple of key episodes lately because I'm an avid listener, but I didn't and I will because Liza Fromer, that's why.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,451st show, 1451. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky, I'm at Toronto Mike. Blair, where do you want people to go to follow what's going on with your life? Probably Instagram, which is at real Blair-O-Matic. At real Blair-O-Matic on Instagram. Much love to all who made this possible.

That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, don't forget your lasagna Blair, RecycleMyElectronics.ca Raymond James, Canada the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team and Ridley funeral home Seawall Monday Here's a guy who's on the show because Rob Proust told me you have to put this guy on the show Which I've done for you. I've done for Ellen's why I do this And I'm sure you know this name because Jane

Harbury knows this guy, everybody knows this guy, Bob Roper. Oh, oh my god, Bob Roper, you should have had him on on your inaugural episode. You should have been episode one. Yeah. Well he's episode 1452 and I'll be talking to him Monday. Happy 8th birthday to my sweet baby Morgan. Love you Morgan. See you all Monday. Trash and then puttin' down roads And they're brokerin' stocks, the class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn because everything is coming down.