Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Danny Marks: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 2001

Episode Date: October 26, 2026

On this 2001st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Danny Marks about being a founding member of Edward Bear, being called one of Canada's finest lead guitarists by the Globe and Mail at just 19-years-old, playing stages from New York to LA opening for Led Zeppelin, Paul Butterfield and Badfinger, and his 25 year run as host of BLUZ FM.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, I'm Danny Marks, and it's 25 years that I'm celebrating, Blues FM on Jazz FM 91 Radio. It's been a great year, 2026 for me, especially considering that there was a bit of a house fire next door to where my home is. And I've been out of my house for a year and a half, give or take, moving in very soon, November of 2026. And this year has been incredible.

My album made it into the top five of the Canadian blues album on the big chart. I hosted the Canadian Blues Music Awards in January and it's been 25 years of Blues FM on Jazz FM 91 and to top it all off, this is my debut appearance out here

in Atobico on the Toronto Mike podcast, a legendary podcast in our city. One of my favorite cold opens of old time. You nailed it. You nailed it, brother. Yeah, man. Welcome to episode 2001. I've got to get used to starting these numbers with

2001 of Toronto Mike. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakes beer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Fusion Corpso, Nick Aienies.

He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recyclemyelectronics.c.c.a.com.ca. Safe, secure recycling for residents, businesses, and the environment. Ready to recycle? Bring it! and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto-Miked debut. It's been a long time coming, but this man is celebrating 25 years. Hosting Blues FM, currently heard on Toronto's Jazz FM.

It is indeed Danny Marks. It is indeed, I, and glad to be here, Toronto, Mike. It's great to see how you do things out here in a Tobico. Give me play by play, because you are a radio veteran, of course. Well, studio. Well, the play by play is, I've been watching Toronto mic for a while. Imagine 2001. That's a big number.

That's a great number. Are you worthy? I'm worthy. Yes. You know, I pulled this. I'm going to do this, okay? I pulled this because I was so excited you had. Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

Yes. No, no, no, at all. Just a little bit of the flavor. I wondered whether you might be having some second thoughts about the mission. Space, the final frontier. Wrong? Wrong, wrong. Wrong, wrong.

Get out of here. Just a little more. I never gave these stories much greetings. But particularly in view of some of the other things that have happened, I find them difficult to put out of my mind. Open the pod bay doors, please, help. Open the pod bay doors, hell. I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

What are you talking about, Hal? This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye. Goodbye. That is Hal 9,000 from 2001, a space odyssey. I don't know. I get the chill. I think the voice of that Hal, man, always haunted me, still does. It was a Canadian actor named Douglas Rain, and Douglas has another claim to fame. He co-founded the Stratford Festival. So, shout out to the...

the late great Douglas Rain, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, and shout out to 2001, a space odyssey. Danny, you are episode 2001. That is great. You've beamed me right into your basement. I'm still on the Star Trek mode. But when I knew I was 2001, episode 2001,

I got very excited because that is a monumental number, and that was quite nifty how you brought that sound in. You know, you're watching how the sausage gets made here in real time. here. So you're going to see all this happens in real time. I did get sad news. I'm going to bring us down before you lift us back up and I've got audio and we're going to really get into it.

The sad news I awoke to today I had to check it twice. Okay, Danny, I read it and I'm like, this can't be real. I read it again. I realize it sadly was real but we lost an FOTM today. That means friend of Toronto Mike.

Danny, we didn't lose you, thankfully. No. Although Eric Elp gave you the wrong time. He told you it was a noon recording when in fact it was an 11 a.m. recording. So Alper almost made you miss your Toronto Mike debut, but we're not here to trash the great Eric Elper who once brought Gino Vanelli on Toronto mic. We're here to celebrate a man who voiced both Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. He's a Toronto guy. He passed away suddenly at the very young age of 46. leave I'm reporting this. Eric Bousa, I will drop a remembering Eric Bousa episode tomorrow morning. That's October 27th that morning. And you can hear the most amazing chat we had because Eric Bousa

was a Toronto nostalgia junkie. And I can't believe he's gone. Sad news off the top, Mr. Marks. I wonder how a Toronto chap got the job that was created more or less by Mel Blank. I wonder how we got that gig. You're going to get that story and more in episode 2002. So 2001 is all about you. We're about to get into it. 2002, you will hear in Eric's own voice, how we got that job. But, you know, we lose FOTMs now and then David Marsden, Lloyd Robertson,

and usually these people are in their 80s. Sometimes you get a very sad update. Did you know SAS Jordan? Did I know SAS Jordan? I did know SAS Jordan, not as well as some, including our own Eric's. Eric Alper, who is the man that everyone asks about everything. He gets to the kernel of every story. Even though I dragged him a couple of minutes ago.

I shouldn't have dragged him. Well, you know, but he's the greatest because he gave me a great story about David Clayton Thomas when Clayton split, and he got to what Sass Jordan was all about, because I had only met her briefly. And when Eric described what she was, I realized how much she meant to so many people. Right. What a, what a sassy woman she was. And another one that left too soon.

Now, David Marsden. David Marzden. Okay. David Marsden, we knew well when he was originally David Mickey. Dave Mickey, he was one of those fast talking jocks on the radio. And he was slicked back hair, but he was a, he was a, um, a culture vulture even then. I mean, he was a leader in, in the pack. And he, um, he got kind of cut off at one point for something controversial.

And he reinvented. himself and brought himself back and he nurtured so many people. And the other thing was he never felt like he was competing with anybody else but himself. Wonderful man. Beloved. And Sass, I think, same. She came over from UK, I believe. And she was very young though. Yeah. And just be loved. So there's an example of somebody I say gone far too soon. I'm not that Marsden. Marsden, we don't want him to ever go. He was 85 years old. But Sass was 65 years old, way too young. But then you wake up and realize Eric Bousa suddenly, something with his heart, he's 46 years old. Like, it really gives you some perspective on the, the fragility of life that here today,

voicing Bugs Bunny, loving, you know, byway talk and Joey Jeremiah talk. And we're talking about, you know, Donnie Darko starring Stu Stone, my next guest on Toronto Mike, and gone. Like, I will urge you to listen to episode 2002 where you can hear this conversation. but I just, you know, you remember how fragile this life is when a 46-year-old, seemingly healthy, successful, great voiceover actor, gone. Well, too late for me because I'm still here. You're still here, okay.

And I'm waiting for it to be all about me today because I know that's going to happen. It's coming. It's coming. Come on. We got to meander a little, you know, 2001 meander a little off the top. Payers respect. It's all about you from henceforth. Now, Gare Joyce wrote in when you heard you were coming on.

and he wrote so overdue. I was working the Rye Campus Bar back in 1984 and Danny Marks was my favorite act. I loved it when he'd play name the series and he'd play a TV theme song. I was the only one who got blank. So I guess I can tell you blank. I know what it is.

Okay, what is it? Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. No, good guess, good guess. I'm glad you gave it a shot. Car 54, where are you? You want to hear it? Yeah, well, he wants me to ask you. There's a hold up in the Bronx.

Brooklyn's broken out in fights. There's a traffic jam in Harlem. It's backed up to Brooklyn Heights. Crucefts do at idle wild. You're close. I feel like I should help you out. So it was Jackson Heights. And then the next line that you skipped was there's a scout troop,

short a child. Cruise's do at idle wild. But let's not hear it from me. I condensed it. There's a hold up in the Bronx. Brooklyn's broken out. fights. There's a traffic jam in Harlem that's backed up to Jackson Heights. There's a scout troop short a child. Cruise just to an idle wild.

Car 54, where are you? So very good, Danny, that you almost nailed those lyrics and we weren't sure you're going to do so. So we're kind of skipping ahead. We'll go back and then come forward. We're going to talk about what's going on with Blues FM, of course. But can you please tell me about playing campus bars and TV theme songs? and what is your favorite TV theme to play? Well, you know that when we were just performing around, we, in the old and olden days of the 1960s,

we were playing a lot of blues rock. We were opening for Led Zeppelin, Badfinger, Humble Pie, Paul Butterfield Blues Band. That was a great claim to fame as a young lad. Of course. By the time that the 1970, you know, the David Crosby song, I almost cut my hair, I did. And it was such a great release.

because as a kid at school, you were told, if your hair touches your ears, on the top of your ears, you're going home. You can't wear jeans as a boy at school. Girls weren't allowed to wear slacks. So we were rebelling with the whole long hair thing and everything, and then we were all blues musicians at that early age. And something happened to me around the time of Led Zeppelin, around the time of Black Sabbath, around the time that all the guitars got distorted. I started thinking, man, this is like crazy. We're using this fuzzy guitar sound to cover up for like bluffing notes and bad notes and and junk. And at the same time, I started to hear reggae music for the first time. I reacquainted myself with country music. I started to love West Montgomery, the greatest in jazz. Paul White,

the man who discovered the Beatles for Canada and really for North America, had introduced me to all this great music in about 1969. So suddenly I was going back to the Ventures, Dwayne Eddy, in the shadows Al-Kaola, my great guitar heroes who played clean and so beautifully and melodically. And plus, I remembered my drama training, Dora May Vermeure. And I started to play the odd little TV theme.

Hawaii 5-O might have been one of the first ones he played because it was adventurous kind of a thing. Very good. There's no lyrics song, right? This is the show that is big. For those of us who are small, and now I'm sure that you will see, A show that I know will please you all.

Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, tiny talent time. C.H. C.H. Our sister, C. Bill Lawrence. Exactly. Bill Lawrence, won't you introduce us, please? So I started to use my new guitar playing chops, of playing cool old styles of guitar, and turned it into a little bit of a mini set,

and people started requesting it. Then, before Weird Al, or before this Dred Zeppelin thing came out. Yeah, I remember Dred Zeppelin. Okay, of course you do. You're in that age group. That's music. Okay. We were doing Gilligan's Island reggae.

Sit right back on you'll hear a tale. A tale of a faithful trip. Betta to that. And people loved it, and they requested it. And so I recorded a version. However, I alluded to the fact that ginger was kind of a proclivity,

and I rhymed something with Hutt. And the next thing we knew, I got a letter from Sheldon Schwartz, Never do that. Cease and desist. And we had recorded this beautiful, reggae version, let alone Rastaman Jed, they all got cancelled. But we started by the time, Mike, that we were done, it was a 45-minute set of TV themes.

Boom, boom, boom. Bam, pa-pap-pap-pah-ta-ta-da-ta-da-da-blacketter. Like shows that people didn't really remember as well as, you know, well, this is the show that is big and so forth. Curtains, lights, this is it. We'll hit the heights, no more. Oh, now I'm thinking Eric Bousa again. Of course, of course. It all ties in.

Mel was a huge influence on me, Mel Blank. So I loved doing dialect. I love doing accents. Mother and I used to do accents when we were kids. And pretty soon people said, hey, that's offensive, buddy. You're culturally appropriating. Well, yeah.

You can fill your boots of the Scottish accent. Achlady, it's three, but I could get in the law trouble for that. Let the wind blow, hey, let the wind blow. through the streets in McHiltalgo. Donald, where's your truzers? I thought Alan Fru was in the basement. Well, I'm telling you, I'm through with through. But wait a second, this'll do.

So I realized you couldn't even do the Swedish, was it the Swedish chef? You can do the Swedish chef. No, where you can't, they can't. You know, I'll get thrown off the air for that. And the thing is, so pretty soon I couldn't do any of the, now remember when Peter Sellers had the party? I mean, that embarrassed a hell out of me.

That's the influence for Hank Azaria doing the voice of Apu. on the Simpsons was that. But could that survive? No. Hank Azaria doesn't do the voice of Apu anymore. And there's a new voice of Apu who is of South Asian descent. But you see the difference between the Scottish, Italian, Swedish, there's a difference that and then Jamaican, Chinese, South Asian.

Yes. There's a sort of a subtle difference. And so people were saying at one point, hey, you know, you're playing the blues. Isn't that cultural appropriation? and people said to me, you know, you shouldn't be due. But I love country music, Mike. Yeah. Sometimes there's nothing better than George Jones to soothe my soul.

And I'm not a cowboy, but you know the number one song in the world today, Choose in Texas? Man, I am obsessed with it. Can you do a little bit of it for me? I know it, but it's set the record. I don't want to do it because I can't get it out of my head for three days at a time. It's Ella Langley. D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D.

No, two-step and crawled to room. Judging, but, yeah. Yeah, it's just... On my own. I don't even know the words, except I do know the tune at this point, and it is catchy. So I watched even the guitarist,

I believe his name is Tom Bukovic, describing how he created the guitar intro for it, because it's mesmerizing. And this is not, Beyonce and Taylor Swift, and all their records are gone. Right. Even Drake. Oh, I want to ask you about Drake.

Sure. Can I chime in? Firstly, because you mentioned Mel Blank and you mentioned Bugs Bunny, I'm actually just going to play right now 14 seconds of Eric Bows on my show. Let's listen to me. That's right, Doc. Huge fan of Toronto Mike, you know, ever since my reruns on global TV, you know, the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show, I used to be a Toronto star,

but now, eh, no, I'll be streaming channels. It's hard to find me. So there you go. I just thought, since he did that for me, yeah, well, he was in this wildly coyote movie. that just dropped like this past summer. So, okay, well, great loss for everybody. But you mentioned Drake. Okay.

Drake just turned 40 years old. Oh, my. But I happen to know you, and this is thanks to some footage that was uncovered by FOTM Daniel Tate, who by the end of today, because this is Election Day in Toronto, he could be, I'm checking my watch.

He is the Daniel Tate who's running. Daniel Tate could be a member of city council at the end of the day today. So stay tuned. He got my vote. Well, do you live in his ward? I do not. Okay.

Well, you don't get the vote. That's why I said, he'd, he would. Okay. So this is a long winded way of me asking you about jamming with Drake's dad, Dennis Graham. Well, firstly, the footage of Drake's dad, Dennis Graham, cousin Dennis. Yeah? The best song he ever did has not been uncovered because somebody doesn't want it to be seen. Somebody at Rogers, the producers, somebody that has that tape in their possession.

Wow. I say tape because it was videotaped. Sure. And that song was, for your precious love. It was a ballad. And that was where his heart was in. The one that Drake saw was cross-cut saw,

which was kind of crummy. I let the other guitar player have all the solos and all the glory. But it wasn't really as good as the one I wished people would see. So anyway, when Drake found out that his dad used to hang out and jam at different bars, then he found out that his dad had been a guest

on Stormy Monday, TV show, which ran across the country, thanks to Rogers Cable TV. It needs to be brought back, Mike, but nobody in a position of authority or possessiveness or smarts has brought it back. And it's just a wonderful watershed, if that's the right word, I don't know, I'm just stretching for words of talent that was alive in the city in the 80s, including Dennis Graham, who I nickname as Cousin Dennis. And his big claim to fame was, walking down the Danforth one day, garbage tree,

Chuck pulls up and one of the sanitary engineers yells out, Hey, cousin Dennis. He goes, that's me. That's what Danny named me. Sorry if I'm using voices. There's no, nothing intended there. No, you can do anything. This is Toronto Mike.

This isn't the CBC here. Go nuts. Okay, fill your boots, as we say here. But what an interesting tie-in. Your connection to Drake and you jamming with Dennis Graham. And then we brought in Dennis Tate and Dennis Tate and Daniel Tate, right, who has been over, so I call him at FOTM because he's been in this basement, because he's, He wrote a book with Rob Bowman called The Flyer Vault.

Yep. So it's funny that he's got this new part of his life, which is so different, so removed from the part of his life that I was attracted to, which is basically music nostalgia, which is a big reason why you're here. On that note, I can't even let a minute go by without playing a song and then bringing you back, okay? As long as it's not one of the songs that was from a band I was in that I did not play on. Well, that's it.

I'm going to play it. And then I'm going to tell you that. I suspect you play on it and you're going to tell me he didn't play on it. But first, do you know the name Rob Pruse? I only know that name to see it and now to hear it. He was keyboardist for spoons and honeymoon sweet at some point. But he's on the live stream now. He's on a bus.

What did he say here? I'm going to read it here. Why not get these facts right? He's on a bus going to Washington, D.C. with the Mamma Mia tour and he's listening to you live. Love Ababa. He says he was on. Yeah.

Yeah. He was on Tiny Talent Time in 19. 74 when he was eight years old. He says, it's all tying in. It's all tying in. He says, you remind him of fellow FOTM, Dave Bidini. Have you ever been told that there's a Bidini vibe? Okay, I'll tell you this. A lot of people have mistaken me for Dave Bidini in the subway and places like that.

That's why I never wear those fedores anymore. Dave Bidini is a little bit younger than me, even though he possibly looks a little bit older. He does look older because the beard. I lent him a copy of Axis chops and Hot Licks 20 years ago, and he still hasn't given it back. We're going to fix that. That's, we're going to fix that. That's David Deney. Because that's bullshit.

I can't wait to play the song you didn't play on. This is going to be fun. Masquerade or last song? Well, I'm going to play a song and you're going to find it when I play it. But I have a quote from you that Rob Proust says he saved from Facebook a few years ago. And he says it's his favorite Danny Mark's quote. So I'm going to read you this quote.

And you can tell me whether you really wrote this, okay? I feel like I feel like you should read it. But I'm going to read it and then you're going to, you got a better voice. This is good. Memory is our most important to resource. It guides and informs us on the most basic levels. Fire hot! Music is a way to strengthen memory and keep the brain supple for future use.

That's me. That's me. Dementia, senility, whatever it's called, is the way we slow down and become incapable. This is why songs matter. Learning and retaining words and music keeps the memory functions alive. As a child, I vowed to remember what it was like, and I do today. I can recall specific moments, places, and the people around me.

The past is a nice place to visit. But I wouldn't want to live there. Danny Marks. You said it. Okay, well, that really left an imprint that Rob Pruss saved it. How sweet it is. Okay, here's a song. I have no idea what song you're talking about,

but I'm going to play it. Hey, yes. Can I do my fucking homework, Danny? Mind yourself now, Mike. This isn't jazz FM. It's been a long. Oh, man. This is Larry Evoys singing.

Now, we covered this on our album, Big Town Boy, a salute to the Toronto Greats. Our version is awesome. This is good, though. I play a guitar solo in it even. I do my homework, Danny. I can't believe you thought I'd play something you weren't on. People do that all the time, Mike. They're stupid, okay?

You're not. You don't get to episode 2000 making mistakes like that. This is going to be in a lot of people's heads for the rest of the day. Good. So tell us... That's the part I came up with. This... The guitar and theirs?

Yeah. Okay, I know you don't want to live there, but we are going to go back for a moment here. Okay, that's a nice place to visit. Who the hell are you when you end up in Edward Bear? We're listening to Edward Bear. And tell the kids, Edward Bear is not a guy. Like, I think people think Edward Bear is just a solo artist.

Mike, once again, You are spot on. People do think. So Edward Bear, let me tell you. You're a culture guy. Yeah. Edward Bear just had his 100th birthday. 100 years old.

Yeah, I can do this. Go ahead. Winnie the Pooh. Bingo. Here he comes down the stairs, Edward Bear. Bump, bum, bum, in other words, Teddy Bear. So the Edward Bear. So this was Larry Evoys idea to name the band.

So I headed down to an interview to an audition. And the audition was in the basement of Klein and year's architect at Prince Arthur and Bedford in Toronto, the annex. And I told the guys in the band at the time, I said, you can send these other guys home because I'm the guy for this gig. And I had a beautiful little yellow Les Paul, if I remember correctly, a 57 Les Paul special. And they were interested in blues. They advertised for a blues guitarist. But they were also playing Baccarac David's songs, which I love. They have major seventh chords in them, beautiful core changes. And Hal David is the one lyricist. People just don't seem to understand how his

greatness, because Bert Brackack was so good looking. And Hal looked like an accountant or your uncle or your uncle's accountant. But this is what they were doing. So yeah, I passed the audition. We started to play. We came up with that song and through a wonderful series of events, because you're a Toronto music person and culture person, you know who Richie York was. You know who Terry Brown is. Right. You know who Paul White is. Paul White is the guy at Capitol Records in Canada who said, you know, the Beatles are going to be big,

and we should put them out on our label, and never mind them being out in Swan and these other labels. Is that an Ozzy accent? It's sort of an Aussie accent. You can do that one. He's more like I say. Paul White once said to me, you know, Danny, I once dated Bobby Gentry, and I'm like,

oh my God, Paul, you're James Bond. You know, he was like, so I'm not doing his accent, but he was so lovely. What a great guy. He knew the Beatles were going to be big. Dave Dexter was like, harmonicas are folk instruments, and let's put more reverb and compression on these English idiots and get them out of here.

You know, he didn't want them on Capitol Records. So I passed the audition. One of the songs we had, almost like how the Beatles had Please, Please Me, and it was too slow, and the record company said, speed it up. We had, Thank you, Down in Mexico. Larry wrote it, and I took an intro that was kind of like the love and spoonfuls, do you believe in magic, a rising chord thing, The suspended thing in the middle, a little guitar solo,

and Terry Brown got Doug Riley, who everyone knows who that is, to orchestrate it and get the marimbas in there and get the trumpets because the Tijuana Brass was big, even on Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. And man, that record was great. And it was the big single from our first album, Bairings, and our first album had songs like, Mine Police, going to get you when you sleep. and toe jam.

I didn't even know what it was, but somebody said, that's what we should call a song. And it was a Robbie Robertson guitar lick. I mean, we were a Toronto Sound offshoot group, but we also had pop songs. And Pat Harbron, I want to say,

I could be wrong, called us Canada's most enigmatic band because nobody knew what, like Schaefer said, well, what were you, pop or blues? Well, we were both, Paul. And then it came apart after the second album. Okay, hold on.

So how old are you when you joined Edward, bear. It was 1967, I think, or eight. So I was either 16 or 17. I was still in school. Okay. That's very young. The Globe and Mail, quote unquote,

well, they claimed you were one of Canada's, quote, finest lead guitarist when you were still a teenager. Yeah, cool. Like, that's incredible hype from Canada's national paper when you're still like 19 years old. Bingo. So my dad, you know, he would read the globe at dinner, you know, have his half a grapefruit and it's coffee.

Yeah. And he, you know, and they knew I had gone to guitar lessons, but eventually the guy said, look, Danny's not really playing what we're trying to teach him on the paper because he's memorizing it and just playing it off off his top of his head. Meanwhile, he wants to play Secret Agent Man and Jimmy Reed, like, what's with this kid? So dad reads in the paper and he's like, I can't believe it.

When did that happen? When did this happen? That Danny became all of that. And Mike, I didn't really sit with the records and slow them down to 16 or play them over and over and try and copped the licks or watch anybody's hands. I didn't do any of that. I just did it all wrong, but a lot of people ended up copying what I was doing, like David Bendeth or the guys in Rush, the guys in triumph. They were there when we opened for Led Zeppelin. My friend Rob Pilch, who's one of the greatest.

Was that at the rock pile? Yes, man. Once at the rock pile and once at the oak. Keith Center, which became the hummingbird, became the Sony. Which is now the Meriden. Yeah. They can't keep a name there, but the rock pile for those, because you know what, this is the confusion for young people, not old oldies, okay?

Not old old oldies like us, okay? But the rock pile was the name of the Masonic Temple at 888 Young, but today there's a old mother's pizza in a Tobico, is it at Tobico or Mississauga? I think it's at Tobico off Dundas Street, which is now called the rock pile. So it's like sometimes you'll talk. talk about Led Zeppelin playing the rock pile and they envision this like a Tobico former mother's pizzeria and I want to make sure the listenership knows we're talking about the Masonic Temple, the concert hall.

Exactly. It was the Fillmore of Toronto. It was where the concerts happened. It was where the bands came. I remember seeing the Who there and we opened for Lighthouse there. We played double bills with a group called Tegarden and when Van Winkle. There were just two of them. I almost wanted to do a dialect there.

But we... You can do that one too. I'll tell you the ones. When you do the ones you're not supposed to do, I'm not going to censor you. You can do them. I will tell you that's, you're not supposed to do that. Okay, thank you. So when you break into your Olivia Chow accent, I'll stop down and say, okay.

You know, I knew we would get around to that, and it's a good day for that, because Jack Layton is in another article in the Globe and Mail about me, because he happened to be there when I came back the first time from having a broken wrist. and Jack Layton was a lovely guy. Barbara Hall was also a wonderful, is a wonderful woman. Yeah, she's still with us. And she's still around and cabbage-down- Her elbows are up?

She's beautiful. And you know what? If she supports something, I'm in favor of it. Because I find, I knew a little bit of top political talk. I don't like any of them. I think they're all dig. They're like wrestlers. And people say, you mean wrestling's not real?

You know, but no more real in politics. You almost broke into like, a hoser accent there. Yeah, I got, I got one of those. Oh, that's like auto. You really want to. Auto, the, uh, auto the bus driver on the Simpsons. I also do crazy Guggenheim.

Okay, well, do it. You know what I mean? I used to do all those voices. Okay. I need to shout out Jim Moore, who's listening from England, uh, but he was, uh, he was a a maritime who was in a local band I love still called Rusty. Did you ever see Rusty? Rusty.

Rusty, a big band in the 90s. Anyway, Jim Moore is now in England, but he wrote in, Danny is hilarious. I used to see him at the Elmo, 40 minutes of jokes and chat, and then 20 minutes of music. That's a good ratio, man. That's Jim's recollection of everything. But you mentioned Jimmy Reed.

So is that your first real blues experience when you start playing guitar as like, I guess, I don't know, 11 year old or something? How come you, you know that because it's absolutely true. So my older brother, who was a huge, blues fan and rhythm and blues fan and he was like a DJ for local dances and things he would bring us albums like hound dogs old gold on atlantic and george lorenz relatives have said you remind us of our uncle and i'm like wow because he was in our house as kids so my brother sat me down with a guitar and he said look at this danny all it takes is one finger this is your first guitar right and he goes

Oh, dank, dink, a dink, a dink, you got me peeping, you got me hiding. I'm like, oh, my God, man, one finger on two strings and we're in the groove. That's blues. But before that, I loved Lewis Armstrong as a kid. I chose Lewis, just like my dad when he was a kid. And good on you for calling him Lewis. A lot of people correct me when I say Lewis Armstrong. And they go, you mean Louis Armstrong?

And I go, no, I mean Lewis Armstrong. Because when in Hello Dolly, he says, this is Lewis. Yeah. He doesn't say, this is Louis. Louis. I don't know who that was. Well, you know, I think that was Fred Flintstone. Was that Fred Flintstone? Fred Flintstone, who was basically Jackie Gleason.

Right? Yes, the honeymooners, yes. And it comes back to Mel Blank, who was, you talked about Mel Blank. He was Barney Rubble. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I'll do the thinning around here, bubble boy. Oh my God. And we talk about Masonic Temple. El Cabong.

They were, yeah, they were water buffaloes or whatever, which is the same thing, kind of. Yeah, yeah, water buffaloes. Okay, okay, I got to take a deep breath here. The aggression is us at times, but if we can follow that train of thought, it doesn't matter. Well, we have as much time as we need here, okay. You're late, so I can keep you as long as I want. Not your fault. Not your fault.

Okay, so I got to find out what happens with you and Edward Baer, but I need a little more info on Led Zeppelin at the rock pile. Like, what, you mentioned other names too, but I'm most excited by Led Zepp. We could talk about Humble Pie and Badfinger and the Birds. Love the Birds. Like, so maybe a little bit while you're in Edward Bear, who are the, the legends that you open for, I know you were playing from like New York to L.A. So you're opening for some big time acts here. But maybe it's just a little more about what it's like to open for Led Zeppelin, for example.

Okay. So, yeah, because in Los Angeles, we opened for humble pie at the whiskey. And Steve Marriott offered me the smallest roach of the smallest joint you've ever seen with the biggest grin on which I loved. And I demurred. I said, no thanks. At Anganos in New York City, when we opened for Badfinger, I had heard. that George Harrison was in the audience the night before.

I was so excited. I loved Badfinger. I was pretty cool with Humble Pie. When we opened for the birds, I was very excited. I arranged to meet Jim Morrison. But the two times we opened for Led Zeppelin, one time, I don't know whether you want to believe this or not,

but we were in the basement. Jim Morrison, though, he was there, but he's not in the birds. No, Jim Morrison. You said Jim Morrison in the birds. You mean Jimmy Page. Jimmy Page was in Led Zeppelin. I mean Jimmy McGwin. Jimmy McGwin.

Okay, there's two birds. Anyways, this yard birds I'm thinking. have. Go ahead. The yard birds, their drummer is okay. Okay, that's Ginger Baker. Cream. Now we're really, now we're in need of more coffee. But this is stuff I only know by talking to guys like you because that is before my time. I got to talk rusty here, but keep going of these great bands you open up for it. It's okay because you're getting me a little bit wound up, which is nice.

My heart rate is going. So, yeah, it was, Jim Morrison was in the doors. Jim McGuin, who changed his name to Roger, was the founder of the birds. And when meeting him was a thrill, I said to him, man, when we were kids, we used to get high just listening to your music. We didn't need anything else.

We'd lie on the floor at Kingsley Graham's house and listen to the birds, and we loved it. So the two times we opened for Led Zeppelin, once was at the rock pile, and there was a lot of kerfuffle going on because they were demanding more money, and one of the Toronto guys stole a part of their engine, of their truck and said you're not getting it back unless you play and there was some big thing going on.

My roadie, Ed Bodnachuk and I were in the basement and we saw a little brown Gibson guitar case tucked neatly away where nobody would find it behind a curtain. We opened it up and there was Jimmy Page's legendary, prized, Les Paul sunbursts. And Ed and I looked at each other and went, no, no, we're not thieves, but we knew what we saw. and we just put it back and tucked it away. Now, flash forward to us opening for Led Zeppelin at O'Keefe Center. Before the show, during the sound check, there's kind of a jam going on, and they don't see a lot of fender amps in UK.

But Roger Plant was well known for taking Jimmy Page's guitar and jamming with the locals at a show. I walk onto the stage to see Plant plugged into my amp, cranked up to 10, and he's like, Oh, listen to the volume on this thing. This is great. And I walked over and on a Gibson-Less Paul or a similar guitar, if you flick the toggle switch and one of the pickups is at zero

and the other is at full, the thing goes deadly quiet in a flash. I went over and I, while Plant was playing, mind you, and I flipped the toggle and it went dead. He says, hey, don't touch that. He says, that's not you guitar. And I said, well, that's not your ramp then either, is it? And that was it. I could have gone, wow, Robert Plant, man.

I love your pants. You know, use my app, blow up my speakers. I don't care. That's amazing, though, that, you know, you can dine out on that story for the rest of your life, really. Yeah, I guess, you know, I mean, I, see, the thing was, I think at the time, I didn't know what the relationship was between Jeff and Jimmy and the yardbirds and Jimmy actually being the one who created Bex-Belero. I thought it was all Jeff's doing.

So I thought when Led Zeppelin came out and I had already, being a big fan of the Jeff Beck group, I thought, geez, Jimmy Page and those guys are copying these other guys. And, you know, I've heard it with these high voices and these distorted guitars. And I really didn't care. And all we cared about was the Toronto audience, the home audience. And the article in the Toronto Star was very favorable to Edward Bear for the way we played opening for Led Zeppelin. And then partly it was because I wasn't intimidated.

And at this age, maybe now, I would have been intimidated. You were too young. Yeah, man, you got it. Okay, so why do you leave Edward Bear? Well, there was this big issue with the fans because the fans were saying, hey, Danny, like that Edward Bear that you, me in Mexico is so pop, like it's kind of, you know, bubble gum.

Like, aren't you, like blues, aren't you heavy? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, of course we are. I mean, it's on the album. And then I said to the guys, look, we've got to make the second single represent that other side of us or people will think we're a pop group. And the record company says, no, no. He says, we'll go on making these albums like you make.

But you've got to follow the formula. Every group follows the formula. Mike, the Beatles followed a formula. It was all I, me, you, me, I, you. It was all that and all the songs were similar until they broke out. And then they really led the way. And everyone was, wow, rubber soul, this sounds cruddy. It's all acoustic.

It's not electric. And then a few months later it was like, whoa, this is, the best thing I've ever heard, you know, but we grew with it. I know that voice. So Edward Bear, I wanted us to change. So we put out a song called, you can't deny it. And I don't know if you've got that anywhere, but if you had it somewhere and somebody was listening to you can't deny it, they'd go, that's Edward Bear. And yeah, it went up to 16 in Peterborough and in some markets. But for the most part, people were like, no, we want to hear, you know, so we were sort of squished on that.

You know, they did what I asked, and there it is. That's our album, Eclipse. There you go. Listen to this. Yes, Guy. Yeah, you know. So stylistic, is this good old-fashioned stylistic differences? I would say that that was a lot of it.

And there was also a difference because when I was in my teens, Scientology was a very big thing that was coming in. And people that were drifting from other reasons and finding themselves getting dislodged from their roots, Scientology was a way forward. And it worked and it did very well for a lot of great Hollywood actors and people. And it started to really take hold in Toronto. And there's a chap named El Ron Hubbard,

who was a sort of a sea captain and a science fiction writer. And he came up with this thing and you hold these cans. and they, you know, they tell you what's called. Like Dianetics or whatever. That's it, exactly. Yeah, because I used to see it on Young. I used to live at Charles Street and Young, and just down the street was the Dianetics Center.

That's right. So that was very popular. So there was a lot of pressure on us, and I was too young to sign to take part of it. I was pressured. It's the same thing happened. Let me mention the most controversial thing of our time. COVID, there was a lot of pressure

to sort of go by what everybody else was doing at that time. It was terrible. We were lying in our beds going, what the hell is going to happen? Who's going to bang in the door and take us down? So with Scientology, I was pressured, I felt, because they wanted the group to be in the org with everyone else.

And yeah, okay. My mother said, look, you're not, you can't sign, and I'm not going to sign for you. And then when I became 21, I said, you know, a mother was right, as usual. She spoiled me, but she also made me. And so I'm also not going to sign because, you know, I'm like Uncle Groucho.

I don't want to be a part of a club that would have a guy like me. So I remember. Great line. So, you know, outside of a dog, I slept like a log, you know, that sort of thing. So, you know, I didn't sign and it was a bit of a bone of contention in the group. And then between all these other things and plus mostly I think it was musical differences, I thought I could just go off and be a blues guy. The next thing I knew, I was listening to and being courted by Rick James, the super freak.

you know, he was a piece of work. And I joined a group called Jericho, which had a great history, but they were fatally flawed. And I realized what it was like to go back to the bottom. I wanted to go back to the bottom. I wanted to learn what I hadn't learned at guitar lessons. I wanted to start playing things right if I could. And I even went back to my original guitar teacher,

but that's another chapter. So yeah, that's what happened. Well, can you give me a little more, Rick James, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Biggest hit of his life, of course, was super freak. Yeah. And he spent time in jail for kidnapping. I can't remember the charges anymore, but there's a messy last chapter in the Rick James story.

But he was famously, he was a draft dodger from Buffalo who ended up playing the minor birds with Neil Young. Correct. Now, I wouldn't blame somebody for dodging the draft or anybody. I mean, I think if they came to us today and we're too old. to be drafted. But if they had come to me back then, I don't think I would have, I would have said, you know, come on, I'm not going to do this. And on the other hand, you know, people have always said, well, not World War II now.

That was a just war. We were, and I want to say, you know, even then, I know there was evil and good in the world. But even then, there could have been another way to work around that. There could have been a way. So, Rick James, anyway, yeah, draft Dodger, New Young, Minor Birds. I once asked Rick what he thought of Neil Young, and he said, it's wimpy, he's wimpy, listen to that, it's wimpy. And I was a big harvest, Neil Young fan,

I keep me searching for a heart. I was like, yeah, man, but Rick James was very, he led the band like, you know, hop two, three, four. He was really a megalomaniac. Ironically, he dodges the draft, but he ran it like a drill sergeant. That's what I'm getting at. Thank you for voicing that. Exactly, Mike.

He's Rick James. Bich. I'm glad you said it. Somebody had to say it. Okay. So fascinating that you're like playing with Rick James, but can I just cherry pick some names you played with during this like the 70s period

of your musical career? You don't mind if I just cherry pick some names. No, I don't even mind word association. Okay, okay. And this would be all over the place, but Tiny Tim. Brilliant, loved his fans, stayed until the last table was gone.

he was a human jukebox of music before electric, like during the gramophone era. So people think he was all about tiptoe through the tulips. That's all I know from Tiny Tim. Because Nick Lucas was the first real genius crooner of the guitar back in the 1920s. But Tiny Tim would also be, I'm telling you all that sort of thought of ill thing. Right.

He sang like that. And he knew all these old songs and all the stories of all those great, famous people. a big medley of songs that included your cheating heart and everything else. He was so scared to tune his ukulele up to pitch. He made us detune our guitars and things just a little bit to match with his tuning.

He thought if he broke a string, he couldn't get a new one and it looked like they were from a screen door. But during his performance, he got down in his back. It's surreal. He's kicking his legs up in the air. He's flailing away. The mic was on a boom stand. And the boom, like this one, started to topple over

and almost like hit him. and I reached out with my spare hand, I pulled it away from arms way and set it back up and he and I looked at each other, and that was the moment that we really connected. He called me Mr. Danny, and we called him Mr. Tim, and the fans came from all over.

Remember drastic measures when they called? And there was a Howard Pope, maybe, in that band. He was Carol Pope's long lost ex-brother, something like that. Okay. They brought their ukuleleys to him to be blessed, and I believe we played at the Bermuda Onion, a club no longer there in the Colonnade.

Wow, wow, wow. Yeah. Okay, here's another big name for you. Ready? Bo, you don't know Diddley. Bo Didley. So Bo Didley at the Elma Combo, we had a super group,

and we're all lined up, we're all playing away, and I'm joking around as my usual thing, genre bending. I'm singing Bo Diddley as Johnny Cash. Well, Bo Diddley, Bo Didley, have you heard? Well, baby's going to buy me a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don't sing.

And then we look at him. That's very good. I just want to stop down and say, that's very good, Johnny Cash. Thank you. So, yeah, Johnny's,

I do Johnny singing everything. You need cooling. I'm not fool. And I'm going to send you back to school and we'll squeeze my grapefruit. You know, that sort of thing. So we're singing, Johnny Cash does Bo Didley.

And I look at the back of the room, I see the lights glinting off a pair of pop bottle glasses. It's Bo. The man, he heard us mocking his music. but having fun with it. He walks to the front, we're going to have some fun, he says. And he gets down there.

And so he's, you, chum, tchagoo-ch-ch-ch-ch-bo-boom-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cach-ch-ch-ch-ch-cach-ch-ch-ch-ch-cach-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cah. It's not just tug-tug-d-d-d-d-d-d-tug. It's like, jumb-jib-bomb-ch-ch-b-ch-ch-b-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-bo-cha. You know, like all these emphasis and everything. So I'm playing with Bo, and I started going, shik-tik-a-boom-ba, chik-a-pun-p. Whoa, hold it.

I said, what are you doing? I said, Bo didly beat, man. I'm just doing the beat. He goes, don't do that. Okay, Bo. So then we're going back again. He needs to jumb-bag-j-jun-bah. And I turned the tremolo on in the amp.

like on his old records. Hold it. He goes, what are you doing? He says to me, say, Tremelo, Bo, like the amp, like your old records. Don't do that. Okay, Bo, no problem. So we're back into it. Juk, jacaboo, bum, jubam, butchum from Bo.

And I'm like, brunna, na, na, na, n'e7 cord. Hold it. He goes, what are you doing? He said, E7, Bo. He says, don't do that. So I realized all he wanted me to do was in between him going, jug da-ba-to-du-bo-jugum-but-d-d-do. That was me.

Those kinds of little rick-a-d-d-dun-do. So during the show, Bo goes into a riff. Do-do-do-do-do. And I look at him and I go, do-do-do-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du. And suddenly we got harmony. He was like, yeah, do that. And that was it.

Bo was great. See, he knew how important he was, but he had a sense of humor about it. Like Beebe King knew his humble origins, but he never dumbed down the blues. Like so many people do, you ain't got no blues. You know, that sort of silliness. Beau was regal, but Beebe was really a king, and he lived for love. Next name?

Oh, yeah. And I'm only to do four, only because I need to actually get you to the radio. So, and I have questions because I got a little tip on some, preparing you some well-known jingles you may have played on or voice. So that's like a, like a teaser. But here are the last four names. Rita Coolidge. Lovely.

When I played the solo and we're all alone, isn't that her song? And she looked at me and mouthed the word, That's beautiful. That's beautiful. And I melted. She was so nice in the middle of all these harsh and hard people in Colorado and some people

that weren't that warm and friendly. She was just lovely. She carried herself with such dignity and warmth. There is a legend out there, which I hope is true, that she's the one who truly wrote the piano coda at the end of Leila. You know, I've heard that was somebody else, but, you know, it could have been her. Maybe I'm confusing names. Who did you hear?

I don't want to say Bobby Whitlock, but that's the name that came to my... Okay, I heard Rita Coolidge. It could have been. I was playing it the other day. It's beautiful. Oh, it's great. I think a good fellow is when I hear it, but it is, I think I like it better than Layla. Do do, do, do, do, do.

Yeah, because Lela's. Ween, we, we, we, we, we, you know, it's like. Either way, the helicopters are in the air, and you're doing Coke, either way. More on different Coke in a minute. But, okay, so three more names, right? So one more name for you is, and this is not FOTM lead singer of lowest of the low, but I do want to hear about you playing with Rompin Ronnie Hawkins. Romp and Ronnie Hawkins was on that same job with the Rita Coolidge.

We went down at Colorado. Johnny Esau was there. He was a famous Toronto sportscaster. Alan Thick was there. Ronnie Hawkins was there. Jim Carrey was there. Ziggy Larenk was there. It was like an all-star Toronto cast.

Transmorted. Ziggy Lawrence. Yeah. FOTM Ziggy Lawrence. Okay, yes. She was really very lovely there and is always lovely. But Jim Carrey? Jim Carrey was sweet, man.

But what area? Is this Jim Carrey before living color or after? Yes, before. Wow. And he was very funny. He kept us all in stitches. He used to come see the band at a couple of places, so we knew him from before.

I gave him a pair of desert boots. He wore them during the film. The film was called Copper Mountain, and it's still, you can still watch it. It's not a great film, but it's amazing for the people. So what I learned from Ronnie Hawkins on that gig was, Ronnie was singing, Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee.

And I was going, long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee, singing the harmony. Again, like Bo. And I noticed when I looked over, Ronnie was looking at me and we sang together. We were smiling with each other's eyes and we were watching each other's mouths to get the phrasing right on. And I learned when you sing harmony with somebody, one of the most beautiful things is not only are you looking into each other's eyes and souls, but you're matching breath with each other and you're matching the breath and the audience is dancing. Everyone's breathing together. It's the beauty of live music and performance. AI cannot take that away from us. Ronnie Hawkins. We need the humanity. Keep the humanity in art.

That's what I say. You can quote me on that. I will. Quote me on that. Okay. I'm Jen X here. I was raised by this man. Mr. Dressup.

Oh, he sang the wasted crust. Last night I didn't eat up my food or my bread or something. I tucked it under my plate. I thought nobody would find it there. but when it got good and late, the wasted crust. So here was a guy. I mean, I don't know who came first. Mr. Rogers or Mr. Dressup?

I believe it was Pittsburgh for Mr. Rogers was in Pittsburgh. They're similar vintage. I think maybe missed, I'm not sure. Actually, I'm going to tap out. I'm not sure. That's okay. Similar eras. Both Americans brought up to Canada to do stuff with the CBC.

And then, of course, one went down to, was it, PBS. But that was Mr. Rogers. but Mr. Dressup stayed. See, the thing is... Ernie Coombs was his name. Ernie Coombs was Mr. Yes. So the thing is, Mike, that people that are at home can be really smart and Google us. But again, we're working from memory, right?

You and I... We're not Googling. We're not researching. So what I found about Mr. Dressup, Ernie Coombs, and the same thing about Johnny Bauer, who was one of the names. Well, he's my last name. Johnny Bauer. I'll do them both.

Do them both. So Ernie Coombs was as sweet as you could possibly imagine. He sang his song. He was beautiful to work with. He was delightful. He remembered everybody. And this is what the greats do. They remember your name.

They remember who you are. They pay you attention. Johnny Bauer, his wife, Nancy, led us into their house, into their home. It was full of awards and gold and globes and statues. Every damn thing. And there was Johnny Bauer. You shook his hand. You had it checked twice to make sure he wasn't still wearing the goalie's glove.

I got to introduce him to my... my dad and I heard my dad say to Johnny Bauer and I did it at CBC, you were one of the good ones. Dad said to Johnny Bauer and I'm like, oh man, this is one, one proud moment. Yeah. What was this Christmas on honky the Christmas goose? Honky, honky the Christmas goose got so fat that he was is no use till he learned how to blow his nose. Honk like a goose nose blows. A 1050 chum hit. Yep.

Wow. There was a bridge and we missed the cue. I think either Johnny missed the queue or we did. I said, I had to stop. Johnny, can we take that again? He's like, hey, I'm the shutout king. You want to make me take it again? And he did.

Wow. Okay, glad to hear it. These are some are legends here. Ronnie Hawkins, by the way, dined out on that story about John Lennon, staying at his estate there, and making long distance calls home and leaving Ronnie Hawkins with the phone bill.

Back when long distance calls, cost an arm in a lake. did, yeah. So there, he found, he dined out on that one. All right, so we're going to pivot a little bit here because I understand and eventually trust me, we're almost getting you to the radio. I even have a song to bring us into that, okay? Am I right that you would play on or voice some pretty big jingles for some companies like maybe Coca-Cola, Bell Canada, the C&E, true or false? Okay, so I'm, I think it was Pepsi, not Coke, but I can't tell the difference and I don't drink either. Do you remember it and I'll tell you which one it was? You got the right. one baby oh that is Pepsi yeah that's uh yeah that's uh what's his name uh i think was ray charles so they got me to do ray charles now for the cn e ted rosnick and steve mcinnon were great ad jingle guys sid kessler was the jingle king in toronto right a million years go ahead i know no uh sid kessler is he the no he's not the pisa nova guy what's pizza what's a big there's some big sid kessler jingles that i we still you know quote today but i have to google the name

of these things. You keep telling your story and I'll find out what I'm thinking. Okay, absolutely. So Sid Kessler was the jingle king. And Ted Rosnick, among others, worked for Kessler. Oh, it is Pizza Nova. Very good. Because Alfie Zapacosta came on this program and we talked about it. It was Sid Kessler who did the 439-0-O-O-O-Pizanova. A real Italian pizza of flavor you can savor. Get it while it's hot and do yourself a favor. Pick up the phone and call us. Pick up the phone and call us now. Man, that one worked. You kidding me? Every morning, that's my alarm. I wake up. No, please. Oh, but if I want Italian food, I'm just going to say to you, I go to Palma's kitchen,

Palma pasta for life. Back to you, Danny Marks. Very good. Thank you, Toronto. If I may, use your first name. That is my first name. I know. Yeah, Sid Kessler. Sid Kessler was the Jingle King. And so he trained Ted Rosnick, who, by the way, also did some cartoon voices, like the Tasmanian devil he did in some things. And I'm not sure if it was for Warner Brothers or who. But he showed me how he would have been if he, yeah. So it was something similar to that and it was in a cartoon because Ted's done a lot of movies. And he showed me how he did it in his office and it was quite convincing and a bit frightening.

So Raz and McKinnon, they were doing the first or an early version of Let's Go to the X. I don't think it was the very first one. I had played guitar on some of their stuff for not O'Henry, but it was one of those big chocolate bars. Mr. Big? I was probably was Mr. Big. Some great ad campaigns for Mr. When you're this big, they call you mister. And yeah, so I played some like surf guitar, sidewalk surfing.

So we did the let's go to the X thing. And McKinnon said to me, Danny, can you sing blibbitty bloppity? Let's go to the X. And I said, blibety bloppity. And I went, blibety blopity, let's go to the X. And they said, great. And that was a demo. And they kept it and they used it.

And I have it on a dat tape somewhere, the original recording of it. I can't find it. I've searched through it all through the internet. internet just to hear my old version because you know what they still do that let's go to the accent it's based on let's go to the hop by danny and the juniors of course of course let's go to the hop one of my favorite campaigns and then i i have memories they would have for example an australian exhibit at the c and e one summer and then they would have like sheep coming on going let's go to the x like i don't do the osie accent as well as you do but they would just kind of modify that tune but

that tune was legendary absolutely yeah what about bell canada any memories of doing uh something for Bell. I remember doing it, but I'm not sure that I could remember what the song was or whether I sang or voiced. I had been doing some voices, and the funny thing was one of the first campaigns I auditioned for years ago was, ding, you have mail. I didn't get that gig, but it was like, oh man, that was the beginning. Is that AOL? Yes, brother. I mean, how long ago was that? So my, my board voice agent, he calls me up every once in a while, Jerry Jordan. Danny, it's being a, you know, it's been a tough year for the voice business, but I got something for you.

And I don't want you to sound like a radio announcer on this. He doesn't talk like that. Oh, because that's like, I don't know if that was what that was. I was trying to think was that was kind of a bit of a Fred Flintstone, but not quite. I don't know who that was. Can I segue us over with a jam? Okay, so let's listen to some Danny Marks.

Take my understand. I'm the man on the ring. You're just in time for the show I wouldn't start up without you Come with me We can go Oh man Look at my eyes

Look at my eyes Am I crying? You're weeping like a baby I love to see it Oh man The money shot Okay I need the full and complete

Danny Mark's radios So obviously you're a talented guitarist You're a great singerist, You're a great singer, great voiceover guy. I need the full and complete radio story. You're the man on the radio. We're going to get to this, you know, blues FM and jazz FM and everything. But it starts on CBC radio, am I right?

Yeah, as you have been, Mike, you're right. And I can see why your podcast is the most listened to in all of Canada. You know, I used to say that as a joke, but actually I'm number three right now in Canada, The top two are big American shows, one called Heavyweight. And one, and literally the gal who played Kelly Bundy on Married of Children just recorded an episode with the gal who plays a meadow soprano. They have a podcast together. And in this episode of their podcast, Kelly Bundy, whose actress, her name will come to me in a minute.

She discloses that even though she's been talking for years about how she's suffering from multiple sclerosis, which is a terrible disease, she was made. misdiagnosed. So this was a very fascinating episode, and it rose their podcast to number two. I'm number three right now. That's still really great, you know, because Canada is, is a much smaller country. Yes, it is. But it just shows, it just shows this is why. I wanted to pat myself on the bat. I'm batting me right now in my category. Okay. So please, actually, you know, before I get this,

because I'm going to, I know it's going to involve some, some great voices from. Arthur Black to Sheila Rogers. I know the great voices. I'm going to... Arthur Black came and spoke to my primary school when I was in grade school. That was a big moment for me, actually, having this big voice in the room, in the library. So we're going to get all that. But I need to invite you, Danny Marks,

and the listenership to TMLX24, which is taking place on November 28th. That's a Saturday. From noon to 3 p.m. This is a free event. Free isn't beer because I'm bringing Great Lakes beer. I have some Great Lakes beer. I have some Great Lakes beer for you, Danny Marks to take home with you, fresh craft beer. But Palma Pasta, who's hosting us, because this is taking place at Palma's Kitchen in

Mississauga. Palma Pasta will feed every single person who comes to TMLX-24, which is the second floor of Palmer's Kitchen. That's happening November 28th, brother. Wonderful stuff. And it's beautiful to see local businesses, and that's a good thing to say about them, supporting a local radio show that is. and a podcast rather that is doing so beautifully well all around.

Number three, you've still got room to move up. I'm working on it. Yeah. Taking down the heavyweight. Okay. Yeah, but I can see why you are because you've effortlessly done your research and you make it fun. And now I get the fun,

because I just did episode 2000 with Bob McCowan and there was so much radio talk in that and I get to revisit some radio talk with you right now. But Ridley Funeral Home who have been sponsoring this, you've mentioned independent. That's a family run business, Ridley Funeral Home. They're at 14th in Lake Shore. I'm telling you, I talk to Brad Jones on the reg because we produce Life's Undertaking,

and Brad tells me all these great reasons why you should pre-plan your funeral. And I'm here with a specific direction to you, the listenership. If you want more information about pre-planning your funeral at Ridley Funeral Home, it makes so much sense. Call Tammy at 416-259-3705, and tell her Toronto Mike sent you. You're taking that number down?

down over there, Danny. It's a good thing I recorded it. You can pick it up on the rerun there. Excellent. You know, I've been working on, uh, on some of that and my sad joke is I don't have a will. I have a won't, but everyone says, I don't, I'm not that thrilled about it, but it's true because it leaves a, you know, once you're gone, there's a big mess to be cleaned up in a lot of ways. It makes a lot of sense. So at least had that conversation with Tammy again, tell her Toronto Mike sent you. And last but not least, I want to give love to recycle my electronics.ca.ca. secure recycling for residents, businesses, and the environment. Recycling electronics and appliances with local Recycle My Electronics programs is free, fast, and easy.

Ready to recycle, Danny? Bring it. Just go to Recyclemyelectronics.ca and find out what and where to recycle. Tell me about your ongoing history of the radio. And hearing you talk for the last hour, this doesn't surprise me in the least. You got a good rap on you. an amazing voice, you got great stories, you belong in an audio presentation. Tell me about your radio life.

Well, I suppose that radio is in the blood of our family, particularly my dad and my older brother, because when dad was a kid in the 1920s, he built a crystal set, and that's a very primitive kind of thing, you know, wraps some wire around a roll of toilet paper or a piece of wood or a baseball bat or something, and you put a few things together. and next thing you know, in the cool of the night when the radio and the airwaves cool down, you're tuning in to the Cotton Club, and they bring on Cab Calloway,

and my father was thrilled to hear Cab Calloway. Now, Dad played the hell out of the harmonica, and he could play like, I believe the guy's name is Larry Adler, but he had the chromatic harmonica with the little button on the side, so he could play all of these show tunes and ethnic numbers and things like that with little half stops in it, And then every once in a while, he'd grab the Marine band. He'd start huffing and puffing.

And I realized, Dad was listening to the grand old Opry. Because he was playing like D. Ford Bailey. Oh, Dad was awesome on the harmonica. So he listened to this on the late-night radio. My brother ran a long wire from his bedroom window to mine with a speaker attached. So he would tune in to WDIA or, you know, different. stations in the States and playing all that arm do do do do do good night sweetheart all that sort of thing and the R&B oh sometimes I get a good feeling yeah oh you know all that sort of

thing edit James and that's been sampled in a bunch of big hits in the last decade I know and he heard it when it was new so I'm hearing it so when I got my first channel master radio I'd tuck it under my pillow and I'd hear cousin Brucey from WABC we got a brand new one out now by the Beatles. M. M. M. Doodal do, do, do, do, do, do. What the heck was that? Man, so I just loved it. So I've

taken the drama lessons, Dora Mayver Moore, CBC got me in, and I was 12 or 11 years old. There was a thing called razzle-dazzle, an old TV show. Nina Keo's dad, this is Nina Keo, puppeteer, extraordinary in FOTM, voice of Muffy Mouse,

and also worked on Mr. Dressup. You see? It's all tying together. And her parents, her dad did Razzle Dazzle. Razzle Dazzle. So Michelle Finney, I believe. Was it Michelle Hall? Keo is the last name of, I believe the, I got to dig up. But, but I believe Razzle Dazzle was Nina Keo's dad.

So keep going. Yeah, anyway, so some of the kid actors on that were on this thing that I did at CBC Radio. Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. And I played one of the skates that was a very minor role or something. I don't know. I played a minor role like the kid down the street. And so they had these, little props, like, and you could still see them at CBC, a door in a frame that,

uh, black, you know, opened. And then they two, two, two coconut, here come the horses down the street. And then they have cellophane in front of the microphone, crinkling it. Right. Here, ooh, put another log on the fire, Hans. It was, Michelle Finney was a co-host with Alan Hamel. Okay. Originally, anyways. And what about Howard the Turtle? Yeah. So Howard the Turtle was Nina Keo's dad. So let me do this. Yeah, John Keo. So Howard the Turtle was puppeteered by John Keogh,

who would father, go on to father, Nina Keo, who was on Mr. Dressup, and of course, today's special. She was Muffy Mouse. And she's been in this basement. So these were part of the Toronto thing. So we went over to the old Jarvis Street CBC Studios. and I fell in love with it.

And everyone gathered around the microphone. We all held scripts, and they put their arms around each other's shoulders while they read their parts. And it was so beautiful. But I never got to go back until 1987. I get a call from a guy named David Joseph Mallowhoff. David Mallowhoff says,

hey, I'm representing Arthur Black, a basic black show. And we like your TV thing idea. Do you think he could come in and play Stump the Band with Arthur? And that started a 10-year affiliation with Arthur Black, and through that I met Sheila Rogers, who's one of the most wonderful voices and people.

Just retired. Really? Wow. Maybe in the last 12 months, she retired. And I think Matea Roach, I think they renamed the show. She had a book show on CBC radio, but Mattia Roach, the Jeopardy Champion, I believe they are now hosting the replacement. Well, see, these are the people that are part of the rich cultural tapestry of Canada

those, from those days. And in those years, the CBC would, I guess you could use the word groom, although whatever the connotations are to that. They would teach somebody and bring you along, and they would show you. So the guys at CBC said, firstly,

you're only speaking to one person when you're on the radio. So you don't say, hey, everybody! Like so many people make that mistake, hey, everybody, and people are in their rooms, like by themselves going, who is he talking to? It's just me.

Are those people dumb? Like they must know other people can hear the same signal, but please continue. I think I always heard that. I call people gentle listener. Okay. Because I used to read, gentle reader, you will see. So I'm gentle listener. So anyway, I'm at CBC.

They bring me in and David Joseph Mallowhoff and John Stinchcombe are teaching me the rules of radio and I get to play a thing called the Humline with Arthur Black and Sheila Rogers. People call up and go, my grandfather had this music box and it played us. song nobody can identify. This is before Shazam and all of that junk. And so we would name the song and then I'd end up singing, there were two little piggies in a pig pen. They loved like sweethearts do. Said the little piggy boy to the little piggy girl. Let's piggy wiki wiki, wiggie, wiggie, you know, and I get to do these songs. Right. So, and then one time Arthur and I did barnacle, Bill, the sailor, who's that knocking at my door? And I was, ca, cac, cac, right. That's Popeye.

Exactly. Oh, how are you? So we had a real ball doing that, and ten years later, one day Anton Leo came over, kissed my cheek, and I never worked there again. So it was the kiss of the end. But that same year, I get a call from a chap named Chuck Camru. And Chuck says, Danny, I want you to come down to CJRT offices here on a mutual street. We're reinventing our radio station from CJRT, Inc. into Jazz FM91, because the internet is coming in big.

This was like 1996. And that's when I auditioned. And it was a great meeting with Chuck Camru. What a visionary he was. And this is the inception of Blues FM. Yes, sir. Wow. Okay.

I feel like, I mean, I have one more song loaded up, and I'd like to play it before we dive into Blues FM, because you're celebrating 25 years of Blues FM. Okay, so I've got more Blues FM questions. But do you mind if I play it? another Danny Marks? No, I don't. I was so touched with you playing

man in the radio. The creation of that was during that so-called epidemic, whatever you want to believe it was. But what do you believe it was? Because that's the second time you... Because I'm dying not to say anything about it, just to allude to the back.

Because it'll get you cancelled if you're anti-vax. I'm not a Vax Nazi. Let's put it that way. Because I got my COVID booster two Fridays ago. Do you think I'm stupid for doing that? No. Oh, wait, let's not get carried away here.

No, because I think it's a personal choice. I think things should be allowed to be personal choice. Do we want, do we want digital IDs? No, and I know that's coming because Doug Ford and his government are looking at it right now. So how come he, you know, he's supposed to be, you know, the right and the left, it's all crazy. But to be clear, to be clear, to be clear, nobody did, nobody forced you to get the vaccine. It was certain jobs, it was a requirement, so certain jobs, and to cross the border. I believe, of course.

If you wanted to leave Canada, I think you had to get vaccinated. I chose, for me and my family, I chose to get vaccinated because, um, because of for health and safety purposes, okay, but nobody said,

hey, nobody forced me to get the jab. So what I, what I was, I voluntarily got it two Fridays ago, but let me hear from you. Yeah, but what I had to do,

so, and I, I did it willingly was, I would do a test every week before I went into any public place where I would be working. Right. So I would, uh,

take the little test because I figure what the hell. I mean, it's, oh, they stuck that thing in the back of your nose or something, right? Yeah, so the COVID test. But the thing doesn't have to go into the back of your nose. So the thing is, I like hot soup. And I always notice if you eat hot soup, you eat some spicy food, your nose runs. So I didn't have to stick the tip all the way up my nose. My nose did the work.

The thing went on the, it brought it out, okay. The thing went on the, on the tip. I put the tip in the jar, I swirled it around. I tested it. I never got the thing. I never had the thing, and I'm still to this day, nothing. So you never got vaccinated. You've just been safe and careful, and as far as you know, you've never had COVID-19.

Yeah, I call it being smart, but being smart for me. And I know I never had it because, you know, I would have had a sniffle or I would have had a sore throat or I would have had some symptoms. So, but at the time, I think a lot of us, it's fair to say, because our prime minister at the time, you know, Fidel Castro's son. allegedly, I don't believe that to be true, but I feel like this is the part of the podcast where it gets interesting. Justin Chudeau. Okay, so, yeah,

so he was saying that, you know, if you don't believe certain things like what they believe, you're probably, you know, this, that, and the other, and I felt I'm none of those things and like, why are you saying I am? And so now look what's going on in Europe. Do we want to be part of that? So I've led us into politics.

You don't like to be told, you don't want to be, You don't want any mandates. Like you don't want to be told, get this inoculation. You want it to be your body, your choice. I believe that that's a logical way of saying it. But you never got inoculated. And as far as I know, you've never been thrown in jail for this crime against humanity. We were very, very frightened because there was a real closing of,

there was a letter I had to carry in case I was stopped by the police to say why I'm out. And why I'm... Outside? why I'm crossing town. I was given a letter. In Toronto. Yeah. And I was also told, you know, like either you have the proof that you've been vaccinated or you.

Danny, this can't be true. I biked every day through the pandemic and I never did I need to have my papers on me. That was more for crossing the border or there were other. Maybe they. I don't think it was for being out. Maybe they overreacted. Maybe they overreacted. Because you were allowed to be outside.

You were allowed to exercise and walk your dog and run and bike. We were only locked up when it comes to like, I don't know, going to like a club, like going to the Lee's Palace. Yeah, a lot of our jobs were lost. You're in a tough industry. Yeah, relish, relish,

tough industry, tried to fight it. And so, you know, and I was going in a place where we're sharing microphones and everything like that. Sure. You can't. And so even if I have a sniffle now,

I don't want to go in there and do anything. But we, whether we have. had the right, whether we should have been or not, there was a lot, there was a lot of, um, if it wasn't it was coercion, I think you had to, you were told look at, you, you should need to do this or else. And then our prime, I was getting to the prime minister, he was saying like, Justin Trudeau. Yeah, Justin Trudeau. If you don't do this, you're likely this segment of the population or that or the other. And like we felt, you know, that's really. Oh, am I, so were you a part of these,

uh, convoys that collected in Ottawa? Were you a part of these convoys? We weren't, but we went down to a protest where the nurses were protesting at University Avenue. And we saw a group of protesters and we said, excuse me, are you a nurse? No, I'm not a nurse. I'm not a nurse. They pointed to one of them, the organizer, oh, I'm not a nurse either. But they're sort of, they were paid to protest. And so this is what they're saying is happening in Europe. There's a lot of innocent students and kids at one level.

and then at the next level up, there are others. And then at another level, there are people who are receiving money from foreign governments to come and sort of overthrow what's happening. And I, you know, I'm watching this, and I'm thinking, is it really happening? Because other people have said, you can't believe that.

Look, at Paris is completely peaceful. They're just making up these videos. And since we don't share news on Facebook, and we have to go and search for the news, but all the news seems to be either skewed one way or another. Okay, so let me just cut to this. Like, if you read today at cbc.ca slash news,

you read about the mass protests in Paris, France, you would be skeptical that that was a true reporting. I believe that the mass protests are real and they are going on. But when I put up a thing on, on my social media saying, look what's happening. Paris is burning. Someone wrote it and said, no, it's not true. They said, here's my girlfriend, took a picture in Paris this morning.

There's nothing happening. There's the Eiffel Tower. There's the street. There's nobody in it. And I'm like, why are people bothering to not believe what's obviously going down? I mean, the place is burning. And yet people are still saying, I don't, CBC's... It's a big city.

Yeah. All I'll say is there are still news sources that I fully trust. Do you think I'm a sheep or do you think I'm a sucker? You know, because there's a sucker born every minute. Am I one of those suckers that there are still news sources, including the CBC, that I trust? I think it's good to trust somebody.

And I think if you have people that you trust, I don't think you're a fool or a sheep or a sucker or anything like that. I think that the discussion needs to be brought to the table like we're doing. No, we're having a civil conversation because we respect each other. That's right. And Mike, this is one of the worst things of the world today is that

like there's that other post about this is a stick and then people go, no, it's a limb, it's a branch, why you son of a you know, and like it shouldn't be that way. When did it stop being respectful? I don't know. I think there's an orange guy in the U.S. who has a big part of this

polarization of different viewpoints. I think he is. I also think there's a prime minister in Canada who is also a big part of the polarization, the current guy. Mr. Mark Carney. Yeah. I think he's a part of it too, because I think that he and the so-called orange guy don't like each other.

No, they don't. And they want to have a reason. And Justin Trudeau didn't like the orange guy, and the orange guy didn't like Justin Trudeau. No, but his wife did. Yeah, supposedly. But now Sophie's had a few things to say about. Justin in the meantime. So, you know, the wives are like getting into the mix.

The wags. Okay. So. Are we off track? I know. So here's my last, my last little thought on that is earlier you quoted Groucho Marks. Yeah. And you said, I wouldn't want to be the member of any club that would have me as a member. So just before I play this great Danny Mark's song and ask you a couple more questions about Blues FM, I would say to you, Danny Marks, FOTM, Danny Marks, what I would say to you is.

knowing that orange blob in the United States of America doesn't like this country of mine or our prime minister gives me a feeling our prime minister is the right man at the right time and on the right track. I wouldn't want to have a prime minister liked by Donald Trump. I first saw London. Johnson when I was just 19 years old. Yes, I first saw Londa Johnson.

I was just 19 years old. He had a rainbow around his shoulders, and it was shining just like gold. Now the rumor circulated that he had put his guitar down that he moved to Philadelphia, where he pushed a broom around He came up to Toronto

And just thoughted making sound When a car jumped the sidewalks struck Lionel Johnson down I first saw Lonnie Johnson When I was just 19... Can you tell me, Danny, about Lonnie Johnson? Yes, I can, and thank you for asking Because it really, that is a true story

And it sort of comes around full circle just like a rainbow wood. So I was 19. I might have been 18, but for the purposes of the song, I'm 19. It's Yorkville. I'm walking down the street.

I had long hair. I could feel it flopping on my shoulders. I had my bell bottom pants on. And I noticed a small group of people were gathered around, and it was Kathy Young, the folk singer and a Juno Award winner from back then.

It was her guitar, but it was a small man was playing it. And they were watching this little guy, and this little guy had what appeared to be, like a sort of a halo like you'd see it, a fresco, is it called, in a church, kind of a bronze looking halo, not like Casper the Friendly Ghost, but sort of a halo. And I, he had an aura. And I asked somebody, I said, what the hell?

You know, who is that? They said, that's Lonnie Johnson. And at that time, Mike, I hadn't even heard of Robert Johnson. So I didn't know my Johnsons. Right. So, but Lonnie Johnson. So I looked it up and I thought, hmm, so flash forward to like a long time later, maybe 30 years or so ago,

whatever the year would have been, I'm watching these American Folk Blues festivals, and it's a video of, and Sunny Boy Williamson the second says, right now I'd like to burn mounts this man's name, and his name is a legend, and he's like flipping and flopping and flying about it. On comes Lonnie Johnson,

a little guy with the cheapest electric guitar you could imagine, and he's jostling the strap across his shoulders, and the strap is like a cord. It's not even a leather strap. And he plays that like, boodoo-de-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dweed. And then he starts singing, another night to cry over you. And I went, my God, that's the guy I saw on the street. Well, I knew it was Lonnie Johnson.

So I started to listen, and I took that song, and I rewrote it with lyrics about seeing Lonnie Johnson. Right. And I played the same kind of guitar. I bought one on eBay, a cheap K, and I played the lick. I learned the Lonnie Johnson lick. It was kind of like what Chuck Berry ended up doing. Now, Lonnie Johnson is on the first page

of blues and jazz guitar, before Chuck Berry, before T-Bone Walker, before B.B. King, in fact, and B.B. says Lonnie Johnson was the man, right? But B.B. says that about T-Bone. But T-Bone also says, Lonnie, he was the guy. So I played the Lonnie Johnson lick. I write the song. I record it. The Toronto Blues Society says to me, you're going to host this year. It was like 2006 or whenever it was exactly, Mike. And I said, look, let me sing my Lonnie Johnson song. and I'm going to sing it and put a big picture of Lonnie behind me, and I'll sing it, and it'll be a great production, and I'll sing it with the band. We did it.

So a chap is watching TV who owns a network that was then called High Fi, Canada's Music and Art Channel. It became eventually BBC First, and he said, wow, Danny Marks, singing that song about Lonnie Johnson, said, he's been on guitar picks with Kim Mitchell. We should give him his own. we should give him his own series. And in fact, I'm getting ready to sell a company. My gift to you guys, I know you love the blues,

an eight-part blues series. Let's call it what we do. Let's flesh it out. Let's pull Danny Marks in to be the host and that song about Lonnie Johnson. So I realized, yeah, people say you should never do anything for free, but I played for free on, on, uh, Hi-Fi's Kim Mitchell show about the guitar.

Cities and Blue? That was the show. That's the show you did on hi-fi in 2013. Cities and Blue. The show that I played the song on for them was called Guitar Picks, hosted by Kim Mitchell. That's when they saw me.

So then they also saw this footage of me singing at the Blues Awards. And in the end, what I realized was that I had a premonition that Lonnie Johnson would be my angel if I told his story because I'd made a beautiful amount of money from hosting the show, and I got great credence

in Canada as a, and as a blues guy for 10 years of hosting cities in blue. Amazing story. Yeah. Amazing story. I mean, I'm going to do another 90 minutes with you on the convoy, okay? No, just kidding. I'm just kidding. Come on.

Come on. I'm just kidding. No. No, no. We went there. I was watching the commentary on the live stream. And you can see this moment where it's like great voices, great story, whatever. And then they said, oh, it's getting awkward in here.

And I was going to say, That's literally my favorite part, okay? The more awkward, the better. I got to lean into that. Okay, but here, now we are closing up with this chatter about Blues FM because you're celebrating the 25 years. I do want to ask you just a couple of quick questions about being on Blues FM. But congratulations, because in 2006, you were given the Blues with a Feeling Award.

This is a lifetime achievement in music and broadcast. Like, that happened 20 years ago. Yeah. So what the hell have I done since? Well, now you're on Toronto, Mike. This is the next chapter. Okay, the next chapter was the name of Sheila Rogers's long-time CBC radio show. You see how it's all coming together?

And you said a Yorkville woman named Kathy Young. You mentioned her name moments ago. She made her Toronto Mike debut like less, I think it was an early October. She sat right there. We talked about everything. She even showed up at TMLX 23, which was at the GLB Brew Pub, Kathy Young. You know, we were friends back then. And we're still friends today.

And Eric Alper is also doing a great job with her publicity to bring it full circle of that. So Kathy recently wrote and recorded a song. And it's a beautiful piece that she made. And it's tough because when you're in the blues, there's already a support system for blues. And Kathy's song is called, I don't want to lose you. And it's very kind of sweet in country. And I wonder. Do you know who it's about?

Yes, I do. Because she didn't share it on the show. The guy from the stampeters. What's his name? I believe, it was the bass player from the stampeters. And after all these years, here Kathy finds a perfect, perfect mate. And she's kind of helping him out. And he's bringing her on tour.

And they're having sort of a late in life rock and roll romance, which was really beautiful. And then he, and he was a real joker because he was like giving me the Edward Bear uh, shrift, you know. so, but he was one of the three mainstay members of the Stampeders. And let's face it, Sweet City Woman, that was a hell of a song. Oh, no doubt. It comes on right now. I'm going to be jamming out to what.

Are you kidding me? Now, Jazz FM, 91, Jazz FM 91. That's the full name. That's where we hear your show, Blues FM, blues, of course, B-L-U-Z. There was a reason for that. Tell me. The reason was when they said to me, what are you going to call your program? I said, well, Saturday night blues has been taken.

Of course, my friend, Holger Peterson. So I said, well, we're Jazz FM, the station. I said, why don't we call it Blues FM? Right. Blues FM on Jazz FM. It's sort of, you know, sounds an answery. So they went to certify the name on the line, and they said, you know what? Somebody's already taken up the web address for BLUES.com.

I said, well, let's just spell it differently. How about BLUZ? There's a lot of Zeds and jazz. Let's do it that way. And that's how they did it. And so, you know, I'm stuck with it. No, it's working for you, brother.

25 years. 25 years. I want to shout out somebody because I believe, you know, you've been around 25 years there, but I got to shout out a guy, Glenn Woodcock. Oh, yeah. He hosts the big band show that he took over,

and you ready for this? Yep. 1976. Still airing Sundays at 5 p.m. on Jazz FM 91. So I believe he's the current, you know, champion when it comes to longevity on a Toronto radio station. you'll catch him. Don't worry. You're only at 25 years.

I got another 25 to go. So my last question on the way out, unless there's anything else, burning in your mind, this has been amazing. But do you have any Ralph Ben Murgie stories for me? Ralph Ben Murgie, I met at CBC because we were together on his different broadcasts when he did radio. We knew each other back then. And one of our highlights was singing,

Love will keep us together by the Captain and Toneil. And so we really had. had a good time. We had a great relationship there. And then Ralph came over to Jazz FM-91. For a while, he was in more of an executive position. And then he's moved to Hamilton, the Hammer, Steel City. He's in the hammer

now, yeah. And now he's got a podcast on Jazz FM-91 called something about I hate jazz. That's popular to say when you like something, I hate it. He came over here to talk about that, and he played songs for us that were basically songs for people who think they hate jazz, but

actually they don't hate jazz because these songs are jazz. See, that's a beautiful way to get the love in. I never say I hate anything, but I think that's a wonderful way to do it. You just hate being forced to get vaccinated. Well, I refuse. I refuse to be forced to do anything like that. As soon as the forcing comes in. You know who you remind me of, it just hit me.

Yes. And maybe because he's top of mind because I'm waiting to see this SCTV documentary. It's dropping like Friday night or something. and I'm going to maybe talk to Ron James and Jane and different people about it here. But you remind me of Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel? You look, you have a Jimmy Kimmel look to you. I used to get Tom Hanks a lot.

Say this for me. There's no crying in baseball. There's no crying in baseball. I see it, man. I see it. I see it. See, I don't know. For me, it was always Letterman Carson because they let their own.

They let their guests really shine. They didn't ever try and sort of match them, you know, lick for lick. But Kimmel was pretty great. Is he still on? He's still on? Yeah, I believe he's still on. I believe he's still on. And Colbert.

Hanging on by a thread. Colbert's gone. But Kimmel's still there. But Kimmel saved this SCTV doc from Martin Scorsese who lost interest in the project. Aw. All comes back to Scorsese. I got to say, Danny Marks. I, you know, and any awkwardness just made me like it more.

This was a great conversation. I agree with that, Toronto, and I didn't have to go into the awkward. And I know that it's sort of, it's, because, you know, I didn't have to. It's you, it's you. But, yeah, but it's, and it's us. And so, and people were challenged. You can't just make it all, you know, cookies and ice cream. But I am going to need you to drink this hand sanitizer before we take our photo by Toronto Tree.

Okay, Denny Marks? No, it's a way to do it. That's the way to do it. As long as it's gluten-free, whatever it is, I'm on. You know, I'll tell you the best place to get goat in Toronto was Dubai on Gerard Street East, and I can make a wicked goat curry. Oh, gluten-free. Good to hear it, and I love those tips, so thank you so much.

And thanks for making the track here. It's all Alper's fault you were late. You have no blame for being late today, Danny Marks. Your conscience is clear. Thank you for being here. Loved it so much. And that... brings us to the end of our

2001 show. You are 2001, Danny Marks. Go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs and much love to all who made this possible. Again, that is Great Lakes Brewery. You've got your fresh craft beer, Danny Marks. Palma pasta.

I got a lasagna in my freezer for you. You want it? That's empty, but I got a lasagna for you in my freezer. I'll take everything because the thing is if I can't eat it, I'll find somebody who can. You'll love it. So you're getting the lasagna from Palma Pasta. There's a keychain there

with a flashlight and measuring tape and bottle opener. That is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. Much love to Nick Ieinis, who stepped up to help fuel the real talk. And of course, Recycle My Electronics.com. So here's how it's going, everybody.

Episode 2002 will be remembering Eric Bowsy. We lost a FOTM far too young. We're going to revisit that conversation for episode 2002. In episode 2003, the return of Stu Stone. He wants to talk about the Bob McCowan episode. Don't you dare miss it.