Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Prog Rock #TOAST: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1956

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

On this 1957th episode of Toronto Mike'd, and 56th episode of TOAST, Mike is joined by Rob Preuss and Bob Willette as they kick out their favourite progressive rock songs.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, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, 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.

Toast. Just toast. I'm going to think about it, so. FOTMs. Do you know what time it is? It's toast time. Toast. Seems longer here.

What's going on? Oh! That's why it's a little longer. The pause. It only took. How many episodes have we done? Okay, we're doing it again. To the end.

Okay, we're doing one more. Toast. Yeah. It's like the anticipations. The patient. I was worried you talk over it. I was getting ready to talk over. FOTMs.

Do you know what time it is? It's toast time. Toast. It's a longer pause. Featuring Bob Wollett, Rob Bruce and Toronto Mike. Wow. So how many episodes have we done the three of us? It's like we're a real boy now.

No, we're all grown up. It's nice. Feels good. Oh, my God, warm and fuzzies. Wow, that was a special. It really was. Holy crap. Almost as special is being put in.

in the Hall of Fame. Jeez. Maybe more, because it's maybe more. Yeah. Welcome to episode 1,9506, 1956. Good year. Toronto-Miked.

Is that your birth year, rum? I wish it was, but no. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees

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He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick. We recorded a fresh episode of Building Toronto skyline with Karen Stints this morning. Check it out. Recyclemyelectronics.c.c.c.c.mitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. Today, for this 56th toast, it is indeed, Rob Proust, and Bob Willett. So you enjoyed the new opening. Thank you for that. Very beautiful. Very, very, very, very, very,

surprising. More on this in mere minutes. I think you just called us morons. More on this. Yeah. So we'll discuss this in mere minutes. But off the top,

can you guys share with me? I know Bob, you spent time with Rob in New York City. Please tell us what transpired there. Yeah, I went with my family. It was my daughter turned 16 tomorrow. So it was her sweet 16.

Happy birthday. Yeah. And so she'd never been to New York. And actually, we really talked a lot as a family about whether we would go to States at all because so many Canadians are kind of boycotting going there. But you only turned 16 ones and I had my 50th earlier this year.

So we thought we'll do it and we'll go. We'll go and I was very, very fortunate. The trip was amazing. Like, weather was great. Weather was good. Weather was great. And I was liaising with Mr. Proust quite often about hooking up to see each other. I'm like, I can't be that close to you and not, you know, not come by or at the very

least. But it was a very short trip. It was only Tuesday to Friday. So the Thursday evening We had thought about going to see a concert together In the Bronx No in Brooklyn And but my kids were exhausted

We went for a dinner And it would have been weird too Because we just wanted to hang out anyways We wanted us to talk The concert would have been fun But we would have just stood there and like Yeah So we ended up

Rob came into the I was at some really cool Pizza restaurant Um over on 9th Near the Port Authority And Rob came and met us there And he like as we were finished, well, we were already finished dinner.

We went and met on 8th at 8th. And we stood, he got to meet my family for the first time. And then him and I went for a little walk. And then we had a couple. Went to a bar. Very cool. And then we walked to another bar. To be fair, we only went to two bars.

Yeah, we did. But we walked quite a bit. And we were like, so we, I think you came around 8.30, 9 o'clock. And I think you, uh, you, uh, you walked away from the, uh, the hotel, uh, lobby at like two in the morning. Yeah, it was pretty good. It was a lot of fun. It was fun.

Okay, so in like of this, this, I know it's a family trip, Bob, but, so how many, like, periods, what period of time were you in the presence of Rob Proust? So for what I just said, Thursday night from 8.30 p.m. I should have listened. Yeah, I just gave the exact details. I said from Thursday night at 8.30 p.m. until 2 in the morning. Okay. And what does it like to see Rob Proust, like a fish out of water to see? That's my water.

That's his water. That's his pond. That's his pond. That's the, this is his town. Right. Rob Proust, what's it like to see? Bob Willett. That's the funnier part.

That was really cool. I love, see, as I've lived in New York for 25 years now, it's been 25 years. August of 2001 is when I moved there. And so over all these years, I've had friends come down,

family come down, and first of all, living there, I still feel like a tourist because I just think that there's such a cool vibe happening in Manhattan all the time. There's always something new, right?

And it's that energy that I've always loved. So whenever people are coming, I'm like, let's get together. I would bring friends to diners or whatever. when you, I mean, however long ago, you mentioned you were going to be there.

I was like to get together. We started planning it ages ago. Yeah. So it was fun. Yeah. And I'd like to think that I, uh, I mean, I often travel. I've been lucky to travel quite a bit. And I do my best not to look like a tourist. I look for comfortable. I was in Paris. I was in Paris. I was in Paris. I was in. I was in Paris. I was in. I was in. I was in. I was in Paris. I was in. I was in. I was a baguette in my hand. And I had the mine. Marcel Marceau look. Okay. So I want to say hi to some people on the live stream, live.tronomike.com. These are the people who logged in so they can comment. So in addition to you two gentlemen, but that's double-lipping, I guess. Jeremy Hopkins is here.

Hello to Jeremy. Hello, Jeremy. Canada Kev is here. Leslie Taylor is here. Tobias Vaughan is here. Moose Grumpy is here. Ty the Christmas guy is here. Hey, Ty.

And Y, Y, Z, Gord is here. That's a good crew. And they're all here. I think there's a lot of excitement because we're going to kick out Prague Rock. And that's, it's not from the Czech Republic. No, that is. Because every time I was, I was doing some voice, voice to transcripts or whatever, it always thinks it's Prague.

Yes. Yeah. Well, we should hear Prague rock from Prague. I bet you there's some fine rock from Prague. Fine rock from Prague for sure. But I want to get a, like a clarification from Bob Willett. Are you still banned from Instagram? Yeah.

Oh, weird. So can you take, okay, I'll give you the quick version. People just want to know what's going on. So last Monday, before the trip, uh, this all transpired within 40 minutes. Basically, I was, I sent my wife via messenger, via Facebook, Messenger, a Facebook post about some art installation. I said, hey, maybe if we're over near this place, we could stop it and see this. It sent it to her. She sent me back a memory, like a random memory of our children. And I closed it. I opened it back up. I opened Facebook back up.

And I got a notification that I was suspended. Wow. And I'll say this here for the, it's a, I'll, I didn't put it this publicly, but I'll say it here. Well, this is public. I didn't, you know, I know, but I just didn't want to put it down on paper. It said for, like, child exploitation. That's so weird. And I was like, what the hell? What was the memory?

Was it like bathing your child? No, nothing like that exactly. We were thinking maybe that way, but it was, but it wasn't shared publicly either. It was just she sent it to me in Messenger. Anyhow. So this picture, there's no child nudity. No, there is no child nudity. There was no child nudity on my, on my Facebook or Instagram.

Thank you. No, I'm just trying to think of what could confuse the algorithm. Yeah, so I got that notification. and it said, you can appeal this right now. And so I said, yes, I can appeal. I will appeal it. And it made me do a full facial scan thing. I did that.

I closed it. I got an email then from META saying that I had been hacked, which was weird to have it happen after. And then I went back in and it said, again, within 40 minutes, it said we have looked at your appeal. It has been denied and you are now permanently banned from META. So weird. Yeah.

And there's no... And literally said there's nothing you can do. Start from scratch. Well, yeah. So, I mean, and I have to change... I'd have to use a VPN and change my phone number. Oh,

you know, this is awful. Like, this tells you the control of these huge social media giants. If you read, so I posted on my LinkedIn and I said, I'm, I'm being as stoic about it as possible because guess what?

When I clicked that little check box, I gave everything up. No, I mean, it's not about rights. It's more about, like, decency and fairness. Like,

it's not about rights. Why would you expect decency and fairness from meta? I know. No way, man. So I'm not, I'm angry. Think about it. You were banned for child exploitation when you shared a link to an art. No, we don't know if that's why.

Oh, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say why. It never tells you why. It never gives you, hey, this was your post. It doesn't, I just gave that to set the, like, the innocuous things we were doing that we do every day with, with meta. So recently there was a Bill at Tanasoff. He was a cameraman with City TV, and Peter Gross interviewed him, and we played it

And then Peter, sorry, not Peter, he's still with us. He recorded that new intro here. But Atanasov passed away. And I just a very little, like, it's sad news that Bill Atanasov has passed away. Here's a link to hear a conversation with Bill about what happened to him, you know, 15 years ago, whatever, whatever, like that. And then it was pretty popular on Instagram, actually, for one of my posts anyways. And on Facebook, no, on threads. because everything I put on Instagram automatically

close to threads. I actually happen to dislike threads, but why not, right? I got a, we're removing this for violating like some spam protocol. Yeah. Like I linked to my conversation

with the guy you passed and I said, I'm sorry to share the sad news. He's no longer with us. And then I appealed and it basically said, you lose your appeal and it was removed. That's it.

I know. So I guess you cannot lose if you do not play. That's where we're asking. Well, that's the thing. And so right now I do have an in. Like you can't a hold of people, right? There's no way to, but I do know somebody, actually from the Toronto

Mike Universe who sent me, sent me up with somebody at META, but I actually haven't reached out yet. Yeah. Because I'm like, you know what? I, I don't deserve my content. I don't, I don't know if I want to do it. Yeah. Like I'm, now, the only thing is I do use it for the radio a lot. And for, and if I do finally get my podcast going again with, but I just, I'd be honest, this week and a half for whatever, it's been great. Yeah. And I've been doing the morning show, I've been busy doing, and I'm use the station's Instagram account? Yeah. I don't know.

So you still have a presence. Yeah. You're still. Also, I'm on X. Yeah. I'm on Blue Sky. And I'm on LinkedIn. And you're living your life.

Fine. I just, it's fine. A couple of nights ago, I watched this. Whoa. Hostile takeover. So we just had a bang on the door. I have a phone call coming in, too.

It's Santa Claus, I think. Hold on. The Christmas guy. Ty, the Christmas guy is here. So I'm going to turn the camera for everybody. Good to see you. Good to see you. We'll do a quick like. Okay, so I'm going to turn this camera just so like the live streamers can see that.

That was scary, right? We are scared. But it happened exactly with the ring. Yeah, because that's Lana Turner, which I'll tell this story afterwards. Yeah, telling me she thought it was three o'clock. This is all happening for a reason. So wait a minute. That wasn't related.

That's so weird. Was not related to him pounding on the door. That's Lana Turner. I thought that was like a ring turn or something. He's freaking out. So because, Ty, yeah, get in on that mic. I don't have a. You got to get right.

up there. Yeah, so you can, yeah, get right in there. Okay. In fact, every time you say tie the Christmas guy, now I think of the Christmas story leg lamp. Yeah, well, you should. For sure. You should. Thank you for that. So this is a big moment, but I'm going to put a bow on this and then it's going to be all tie. I got, tie one, a moment to address. You're going to tie the bow. Right. I had an 11 o'clock guest who flew from California to present this documentary she made about her late husband. She's a stand-up comic named Lana Turner, a different Lana Turner. No relation. Yeah, no, there's an age in this, Lana. And her, uh, her husband,

was, yeah, his name is Ralphie May. Oh, Ralphie, of course. Ralphie Mae. And Ralphie Mae died very young. Yeah. Ralphie May had, oh, UK James is on the feed. Okay. Ralphie Mae had died very young. He was very large man and he had some issues. And she made a wonderful documentary about him. So I watched the doc. I was all set for Lana Turner at 11 o'clock. And now she didn't show. And now this text came in saying she thought it was three. Okay. So we're going to move on from Lana Turner because we're recording a Prague Rock toast. tie the Christmas guy.

Surprise fourth person on the mic for the next. Amazing. I'm going to let you take it because I don't know how you want to. Well, okay, okay,

I got a message. So after the last toast, which was a little contentious. We should do a live call to Lana Turner on the show later, okay? She's dying. She can't get hold her. Like, do I come?

Are we going to bring her in at three? Did you type her, text her back? Well, let me, hey, let me set this up. And then I'll have a lot of it. out of mustard. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can I read it? Yeah, read it. Okay. All right. This message came in after the 55th toast. Do you remember this toast? About 90s Eurodance? The one where you yelled at Rob the whole show?

Yeah, right. Okay, well, to be discussed. Ty the Christmas guy wrote this. Want some real talk? I'd like to suggest you could have discussed your beef with Rob Pruss privately after the recording. I listened to every episode and it seems you have an ongoing, passive aggressive hate on for Rob Pruse.

Been building since he delivered the AI ads. But he's not on your payroll. That's where it all started. That's right. He's not on your payroll and almost always delivers despite his insane commute. You wrote this? Yes.

The fact that you've never re-recorded the opening of toast makes it seem like you still pine for the days of Cam and Stu. But I think it's time Rob and Bob get the respect they deserve. Wow. Just my two cents. So let's... And then, by the way,

I was waiting for all the FOTMs to chime in and say, yeah. Or no, but they were crickets. They're afraid of their leader. You know, you don't want to piss me off. But let's turn to Rob Pruse.

You just heard that. I think you read it in the... I think you posted it. Yeah, yeah. Tye the Christmas guy posted it. Yeah, I appreciate that. Like... These are his words.

He wrote them into WhatsApp and delivered him. Thank you for sticking up for me. Okay, but more like... Well, I know you don't need somebody to stick up for you. No. And I don't think... I didn't think we were fighting anyways.

Like... But have you felt a passive, aggressive hate on from me? Maybe a little bit. No, no, I have... No, I have not. But I appreciate... I've sensed it. You have?

No, you have not. No, I haven't sensed it in any way. But I have sense that, that I think Mike enjoys a little extra oomph. Hey, you know? I like being in the punching bag for some people. Yeah, well, listen. We can talk about that later.

No, no. In work-related situations, there are times that I don't mind when other people... You let them have their thing? Because some people need to get their thing. And this is actually what I want to come here and say, because Mike's been saying, A, I don't hate Rob Proust. Well, I sure don't. I certainly, I mean, that was written with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek.

I'm not sure everybody got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also, I mean, I know that you guys are buddies, but I've had friends like you in high school, right? who are, you know, like the mean girls who are like, oh, I love you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I want to change the way you dress, change the way you talk, you know, make sure you do this, that, and the other. And, you know, I mean, and I want everybody to know, too, that I was texting Mike through this whole thing. Like, it wasn't a surprise.

Yeah. And do you ever write an email maybe a strongly worded letter where you sent it and thought, oh, I probably could have ordered that? Oh, yeah. Oh, I just did one this morning. I had a listener email me. had one throwaway line on the on uh about uh drinking a california zin and a bourbon like i'm looking forward to getting american stuff and the guy gaslit me like said that i was i was slap it was a slap in the face to other canadians who work in the alcohol industry and blah blah

blah i went off on them i if i read it to you i'd be like oh i probably shouldn't can we put a pin in this for a second because launa turner she's trying to jump in an uber i'm going to do a phone call live on the air okay i'm gonna thanks to a great like I'm going to have the... Crack open your gray lace beer. Cheers. I would. Tie, yeah.

Hold on. Yeah, you're working. I see it. Let's see if we get an answer here. I'll see if we can get this connected. Cheers. Oh, my God. Do you want to Bluetooth with it?

You've got my blue. Hey, I must have done... I'm sorry. Oh, can hear me? Yeah, I can hear you, but I'm worried about timing because I had you for 11, and I phoned you, and I texted you, and I emailed you. And then I had another recording, which I'm doing right now at, well, for one o'clock. And this record.

is going to go till three, and then I have to get my kids at camp at four, and then I suppose we could do a hour recording at 415 if you wanted. But I did wrong. I mean, I wasn't on my phone because I was at lunch. Right. Well, you can grovel in person, beg for my forgiveness. But so, so, okay, so, and I might not, actually, I realize now I have to get my kid to to soccer at 530.

So we'll do, you and I are going to do 415 to 5 o'clock. all killer, no filler. 4.15, but you've got to be here at 4.15, because that's what I'm going to roll back from picking up my kids on the bike. So 415 to 5. If you don't mind knocking on this side door, we will record 45 minutes. Okay. And it'll be great.

I'm so sorry. I'll see you at 415. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Bye. Bye. The power of live podcasting. We now return. Lots going on.

We haven't got, we have to get the prog rock and get... I know. This is the episode with the longest songs ever. I need to address everybody because I've been accused of this thing. I have to tell you, if I didn't like Rob Pruse as much as I like him, why would I make Rob Pruss such an integral part of my one-man show at the Elma combo? Well, because he's he's hella talented and he would have been a great addition to the show. If you knew if you got on stage and you could use him as your punching bag on stage,

it makes you feel like a bigger man. Oh, again. You know, I noticed his last toast. Bob doesn't help me at all. Like Bob is fully like, oh, I'm in. Okay, so, and then one more word from me, and then back to you, Ty, the Christmas guy. And you have a booth at the C&E, right?

I see the C&E tag. Today's the first day, right? This is first day in our 20th year exhibiting at the CNA. Wow. It gets in you, boys. That's amazing. You know, I love the C&E. Me too.

I love the C. I'll be going. I'm introducing Matt Good next Sunday night. Are you really? At the, uh, I like Matt Good. Yeah. I'll see if I can, yeah. Hook me up. Let's do it.

Okay. Let me see. So I would just want to say that, uh, this picking on Rob is 100% because for a couple of toasts in a row. Rob has sort of played the song, so it'll be 90s year old dance, and he'll play the song, and he'll say,

oh, that's whatever, they're from Germany, and there's nothing else. And I just feel as a producer of the show that people want mind blows, even though Bob disagrees. Stu Stone had a lot to say about this in his most recent episode.

I listen to you guys talk about it. Yeah, like, I know he took shots at you and he took shots at you. No, but I do understand. And actually, you wrote something yesterday in our WhatsApp about it to do with the difference between our relationship as friends

and then the work of the show. And I do realize that with certain topics if I don't go deeply into it, I'm like, I'm a little bit removed from the topic. Well, if you don't care about the genre, you don't participate.

Well, I do. You disengage. But conversely, there have been times where I had too fucking much music because I have to me behind me too much as well, right? Can we find some middle grade?

You always yell at them. No, and I don't think there has to be middle ground. I think that I appreciate that you pointed it out to me because that was primarily for the first jam last time. The second two, there was more sufficient information. It was really the first one. It's covers you found on YouTube. Like, oh, here's a different rearrangement of this. See, now you're getting particular on what it is.

So you are actually being quite picky. No, don't forget. I don't think so. No, that's fine. This is the 56 toast. You've done 55 of these. I actually wasn't as agreeing with what you were. saying.

You just didn't like my tone. Maybe he could do a little more. You want to do. That's true. What he was saying it should have been done in private. That was his point. You know, my thought, well, just that, which is, I feel like this is like the home of real talk.

and if I have a beef of Rob Proust with the way you're saying. You know what? I do have a beef with his lack of, lack of prep. But that doesn't mean you don't like him. There's no research. There's no homework. There's no bonus jams and Thai. Like, just something about, oh, the, the singer on this song was also on this big hit.

And blah, blah, but they didn't have her in the video because they thought she was overweight or whatever. the heck the mind blow is or whatever. So I just want more from you. Sure, sure, sure. You expect more. I don't pine. I just want to just as to do. I don't actually pine for the days of Cam and Stew. I could easily do two toasts a month, right? One with Cam and Stu.

Because I have no desire, no thoughts in my mind of ever doing toast without Rob and Bob. Like this is toast and I want to keep going monthly for as long as Rob will make the drive. But if I wanted to have a Camden stew toast, I would add a second toast. It would replace this toast. Sometimes you want, holy week. I think there's one we just did one day.

Yeah. Yeah. And poppy my beer. I'd just like to say that, I mean, the fact that you finally re-recorded that opening. I know.

Thanks to you. You're the, I think you can all thank me for that. I was getting tired of raw or Bob talking over it. Oh. This is the 12th toast in a row. I thought that was funny. It was funny.

And I always made it something different that I tried to do. Yeah, yeah. It was funny the first couple times. I never re-recorded the intro. Like, I thought that was, I thought it was funny. Yeah. Maybe it has run its course, and that's why there's a new opening,

thanks to your feedback, which I appreciate because it is, you said, want some real talk, and then you'd spilled a bunch on me that I didn't anticipate. And I do appreciate it. Like, it was spicy. I pop some popcorn. I'm like, oh, this is interesting. And I'm glad you came in person. Like, you're sitting here.

I was in the neighborhood. Thank you for coming by. Well, regardless, you could, you know, you didn't zoom it in here. Should we start recording the episode now? Bob's like, why is there a fourth microphone? down here. No, I thought. I know. I thought so too. What are you talking about? I have no idea. Here's the secret. What was really weird was that woman calling at the exact same. Yeah. And then she was coming over now. I'm like, I don't have a fifth mic. Can you imagine?

She's talking about Ralphie. She's talking about her dead husband. And no, man. He died young, too. They have a couple of kids together. He's, he's an interesting story. I remember. As soon as you said, his name. He's this southern guy with a, yeah. Yeah, a southern guy, but the humor is not really my style. It's, uh, okay. Yeah. It was tough to get my head. It's crude. Yeah. Which I'm not anti-crued. There doesn't seem to be a lot of intellect to it. But back to Rob. I think, I don't think, I don't know how I've been misunderstood here so dramatically because

I'm like a huge Rob Proust fan. I probably mentioned the name Rob Proust in every episode of Toronto. Like that damn Rob Pruss, he stood the other show. Oh. So you phoned in the Stu Stone? Yeah, I listened to every episode. You're, I love this guy. So I didn't even name you in the Stu Stone episode.

I know. You noticed he didn't say I love this guy? Yeah. He listed every show too. Yeah. He does. But everyone knows I love this guy. Oh, do that?

I love this guy too, by the way. I'm surrounded by love here. Like, sincerely, love all three of you guys. But you... Love is all around. No need to waste it. We were gonna make it after all.

Exactly. That's where Bob throws his beret in this guy. So, Stu Stone came on because he listens to every episode as well. Hello, Stu. Yeah, he's listening right now. He's probably working out. That's why he's so fit.

That's right. He's also like, yeah, he's got to know about a work too, right? Rick versus a real... I know, I know. So you never know. of him about work and shoots and stuff. But he shot, he did take shots at you because Bob, you took a shot

at Stu Stone in the last toast because I said I wanted some mind blows and fun facts. And you sort of minimize like, oh. Yeah, you mean like going to Wikipedia and say it's a mind blow. Which is a good resource for such material. But you act like everybody is read every Wikipedia page.

Well, it's a place to find mind blows. If you dig. I don't know. Mind blows will typically end up on Wikipedia. It's a good place to go to get to, you're going to just stick around? I would just call it fun facts. I'd be, again,

we're getting it. Lots of pans. It's fun facts, and then sometimes it's a mind blow. Yeah, I think we can feed you. My lasagna. You know,

I would get you one. You can have Lawnas, you can have Lawnas lasagna. She can't get one for 45 minutes. Right. That's going to be wild. So wait,

but, but that shot was fired at. Yeah. At Stu. At Stu. From Stu to you, Bob Willett. But then he did take these passive aggressive shots at Rob,

where he kept talking about how, I'm sure Rob, I'm sure Rob couldn't get to the Elma combo for your one-man show. Like there were multiple. Oh, yeah, I remember that part too. So what was his shot at me? The shot at you was basically for criticizing. Oh, so it's not a shot at me.

Well, you got to listen back. You should listen because Stu talks directly to you quite a bit in that episode. Oh, good. But Rob, he's sort of suggesting that if you really wanted to be on stage at the Elma combo, you could have been there. You could have been there. I heard that. And you want to respond to that?

No. There you go. Bigger man. Right. I like it. Not a bigger man. This guy is always... Yeah, yeah, no.

He has a good point. He has a good point. If you wanted to, if you wanted to hire me a plane and fly me over. So you're saying, you're saying, because, to quote,

Ty the Christmas guy, you're not on the payroll. Yeah. Because you're right, you're compensated with Great Lakes beer. Yeah. You're not on the payroll. And that's why it was easy to say,

24 hours out, I'm not going to be at your one-time-only-al-gig. You don't know how much I wanted to be there. He's got a wife. Well, Okay, I'm just, if she's like, my wife, she's freaking out. And if he said, oh, I'm heading to, that family. I'm heading to Toronto now, babe.

You sort this. If I hated Rob Proust, why do I have his Christmas card in my studio? That's right. In plain view of all to see. Okay. So are we good, Rob? We're always good. We were good, even in the moment, my friend.

So when I was criticizing your lack of prep, you were just, it was water off a duck's back. Absolutely. Because you were making a point. I understand and at the same time I'm like I know I didn't and I also kind of don't care. There's that's that's a problem. No, no. But also, you know what? As a leader, as a leader as the president and CEO of Toronto, Mike of TMDS, you know,

I could advise you as somebody who's been a leader of teams. There was a better way to get you and a better place for you, Mike, to get your, your word across. No, but I think it's part of the show. Of course. Oh, yeah. Like I would never do it privately. Yeah. Of course.

But I appreciate that because it becomes part of the show. of the show, which is why we say, I'm going to HR because I found it uncomfortable. That's right. Tobias Vaughn, it's interesting. He says, he says, he says, who else is here? It's Stu and Cam! That's Lana Turner, get it down here. Fun facts are overrated. Great picks are more important. That's Tobias Vaugh. I feel the exact opposite. I think they both are at that for sure. I think the pick is less important. Because you can just like tweet out the title, go to YouTube and listen to it or whatever. To me, it's the context around the song that I'm interested in. That's an interesting conversation.

Maybe we should start doing some. We're going to get to it. I'm going to kick out Ty. But, oh, Jeremy Hopkin talked to Ty the Christmas guy about this very subject at the Christmas Niagara Comic Conc.

That's correct. And did either them back me up in the private chat? No. They both DM'd me to say, fuck that guy. Yeah, exactly. Thanks for the crickets, boys.

Wow. No support. All right. Well, thank you for dropping by. Ty the Christmas guy. Thank you, Ty. We love you on Toronto. Are you going to have your shop

in Oakland, In Oakville again at the holidays. The shops open all holidays and tell your listeners to head down to the C&E, the arts, crafts, and hobbies building. And you can mention their friend of Toronto, Mike, and we'll give you 10% out. There you go. Amazing.

Okay. 10% off. That's huge. That's huge. I love your stuff. I went to the house in Cleveland. It's just great. The Christmas story.

It's amazing. Okay. So we're good, Rob. You got, watch head. Shit. He did hit it. He did it. Check your head.

He did his head. I do it all the time. Thank you. Bye. It was nice to see you. And there's a real life results from his comments because there's a new opening now. It was amazing. Real people, real connections.

Thank you, Ty. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Oh, your glasses, dude. Oh, yeah. Come back for your glasses. Don't hit your head though. Watch your head.

All right. No, these are my keys. Okay, wow. So what a toast. Lots going on here. So let's hit record. Yeah, yeah. Can I imagine if this was your first episode of Toronto Mike?

You'd be like, I'm never listening to this goddamn guy. What is going on? Jeremy Hopkins says he backed me up. Okay. So I'm going to read this and then we're actually going to get to the jams. I did load up my normal stuff, but this kind of ate up that time. Jeremy Hopkins says, this is episode 1956. He says, here's the Toronto history fun fact.

Maple Leaf Gardens hosted the biggest rock and roll show of 1956 on April 30th, 1956. It was headlined by Bill Haley and his Comets. Cool. The pack show drew nearly 13,000 screaming fans. Bill Haley, of course, in the comments. The Platters. Bo Didley, Clyde McFatter, who I don't know,

Laverne Baker, Frankie Lyman and the teenagers, the drifters, and Big Joe Turner. That's cool. Are any of those guys, Progrog? They are the influences of Progrog.

Can I tell you a fun fact about Bill Haley? Yes. So in Manhattan, where I used to live on West 76th Street near just like a couple blocks from Broadway. And on 71st and Broadway, if you head east a little bit, there's a high school,

it was a high school in the 50s, And there's an auditorium in there where they recorded Rock Around the Clock. Wow. Which I think is so cool. It's called the Pythian Temple. Not a mind blow at all because most people will know this, but that was the original theme for happy days. That's, uh, walk around the clock. Yeah.

And, uh, that's how you knew you were watching an earlier episode, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And Fonzie didn't have it in the first, very first he had a blue jacket. Yeah, that's right. And, uh, it was like a member's only jacket. And, Richie Cunningham met a brother.

Is it Ralph? Yeah, he just disappeared. Ralph, no, Ralph Mouth was a. This was, uh, Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. That's right. He played basketball.

He went upstairs and never came back down. That's right. Okay. And you know, FYI. You guys are younger than me, but you know as much as I do. Because we had to watch it again.

That's right. We didn't have an on-demand world. I watched a lot of happy days. I did too. I know how much I know about leave it to Beaver because it was on after the Flintstones. I know. Mindy of Mayberry. We were lucky we grew up in the era of syndication.

When you didn't have too many choices, but you got to watch all the old shows that everybody else watched. I used to watch a show called Hazel, which was from the 50s. It was like a house. Yeah. Like a maid in the house? I've seen it.

I've never watched it on the reg. I watched it when I was a really little bit. I mean, I used the word the clampets the other day. And so I'm like, these people have no idea what I'm talking about a man. Yeah. Like,

tell that to somebody, like tell that to a kid who's born in 19, even 1980. Yeah. 9, 1889. Oh, was it in the 90s? Yeah,

it would have been in the 90s. Oh, that's right. And if you get satirized or parodied, I should say, by the Simpsons. That's right. That's true.

My daughter will learn about it. Okay. So before I throw to Rob Pruse for your first Prague-Rog jam, that was quite something, all this going on here. There's a lot of stuff going on. Is it a new moon? I've been up since 4 a. God.

Oh, that's a Our Lady Piss song. It's true. It is. Is it Prague-Rog? Yeah. Because my first question before your first jam, I'll save it. I'm going to say, thank you to Recycle MyElectronics.ca. Your support throughout the year has been amazing.

Recyclemyeletronics. We'll be on board, of course, for the rest of 2026 and hopefully be on. So stay tuned for that. information. Of course, palm of pasta is here all year. We love our palm pasta on Toronto Mike. Great Lakes beer. We're all drinking some great legs, right?

Yep. They're on board for over 10 years now. Amazing. That is amazing, actually. This is almost the end of the line for this season's Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball sponsorship. It'll be over at the end of August. So that's an opening.

So maybe Ty the Christmas guy. I should have closed a deal with him or whatever replace Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Nick Iini's, I recorded this morning, between, he was going to be him, then Lana Turner, then you guys. Wow. Lawner didn't show.

But he was on with Karen Stints, who recently made her Toronto mic debut. We did an episode of Building Toronto's Skylight. It was quite interesting. They have very similar thoughts on a lot of things. And you can check that out in your podcast feed right now. And is that everybody? Have I given love to, oh yeah, Ridley funeral home.

So, yeah, Ripley. Ridley. Ridley's, Ridley. I read it. It looked like a Pee from over here for a second. That's funny. What is going to? I'm looking at the funeral sign behind your head.

And I just looked up quickly. The fancy R made the D look like a P. He could call it the Ridley Scott funeral. Brad Jones' podcast does open with that AI slop that Ty the Christmas guy was talking about. Can you imagine if I had this moment where you delivered some AI slop and I started, I turned on you in that moment? Because he listens closely. Yeah, yeah. I think in Ty's mind, that was the start of me starting to hate you.

No, but you didn't like when I did those like, it was a good fun experiment. Oh, no, I didn't. I don't like them at all. No, I know. But I don't think, I think you didn't like. them until you knew they were AI. I think that if I gave to you, and I said,

that's the problem with AI. I think people. But for me as a creator, I know that it was bullshit as well, because it was a fun experiment to like try to write these little things or come up with them and edit them together. But I wouldn't hate you for this. No,

no, I know. Okay. I struggled for this past month, not just with these words from Time of Christmas guy, but I've been struggling with what is progress. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a big part of this conversation, I think.

So I've done my best. Yeah. I don't know if there's an answer. like it's sort of like what is AI. I just watched this documentary. What is AI? And there's like, oh, like, well, AI has been around forever. We just, yeah, but what is AI?

Now that it's sort of self-repe, whatever. Like, Google searches AI. Like, sorry, it is. So what is Prague-Rog? Hopefully we'll talk about this as we proceed. Any words Rob Proust before your first Prague-Rog jam? Well, it's good that you brought that up because I do feel like it's a much larger subject than what we're going to go into.

And I realize that it's been a huge part of my life. You're the big expert in this room. I'm not an expert at all. But what I'm not an expert at all. But what I do know is that I am adjacent to Rock. That's what I said. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, yeah.

But I've been curious about it since I was 11 years old. Right. But even earlier, because it was on the radio when I was a little kid as well, right? So there was a point in my life where I felt like I needed to learn something about it when I was around 11. So my first jam is related to me as an 11 year old. ABC Wild World of Sports? Like Olympics, maybe? That's what I did.

The sports. Is it agony? defeat. I like it. A lot of trumpet. Is it a wide world of sports? That's what I said. Not anymore.

It's not. I'm trying to read your mind. I'm bringing it down for you to speak. Keep it over again. Some of these songs are like 25 minutes long. This one is not. It's the radio edit. Okay.

So I want to hear from you, Ron. Anybody who knows this music knows this is Emerson Lake and Palmer. this is called Fanfare for the Common Man and it's a cover actually so it's their version of a piece of classical music

which was written by an American composer named Aaron Copeland Oh wow And Aaron Copeland composed this music in 1942 And in 77 ELP released an album called Works And it was a double album And it was like some instrumentals

And Keith Emerson Emerson wrote a piano concerto With like one whole One whole side of the album was a piano concerto. The next side, each guy took turns like making a side of the album.

And then they came together and did this and a couple of other tracks. What years is from? 77? 77, yeah. So for me, in 77, I had already been in a band for a year. And I was reading a magazine

called Contemporary Keyboard magazine. And Keith Emerson would be on the cover or, like, classical pianists would be on the cover. And I was reading about synthesizers and stuff. And I was like, holy shit, like, what's going on with this music? I had no idea what Prague rock was.

I don't know that they called it Prague rock. Probably didn't have the name. then, did it? They might have, they might have had it at the time, but I sort of felt like I needed to get into this world, so I got this album for Christmas, and I didn't really like it too much, because I sort of felt like it's a little too

heady for me in some way. I mean, even when I was 12, I loved Elton John, I loved Queen, I love synthesizers, but this, something in the Prague Rock world didn't quite speak to me. It was a little too, too advanced sort of like musically. Okay. But, but this one I love because I could relate to it, because it was classical music.

There was a video that came out at the time They filmed it. You might have seen it. They recorded it at the Montreal Forum in the winter of 70. It was probably the spring of 77. But in the stadium in Montreal, opened and empty, and they were on a stage because they did a tour with an orchestra that year. It was super fucking cool. But anyways, my other track is actually the original.

I was going to say, do you have the classical piece? Yeah, so this is the original. Is that Gilmore on the gong? Yeah. We played this for my father-on- law's funeral, too. Oh, wow. He wanted it.

It was like one of his songs. Yeah, that's fun. I know. This sounds like that, yeah. It must have been used. Somebody tell us in the live stream. It must have been used for like wide world of sports or Olympics. It's been used for many things.

Yeah, like festivals. When the Pope spoke in Washington or Philadelphia, they brought her to the podium. What's this called? It's called fanfare for the common man. Okay. And it's probably royalty free. Like, you can probably just get in. Well, no, it's probably still published, like it's still published because it's only

1940, but this is what it is. CBS News. Yeah, CBS News. It's one of the most important songs of the composition to last 250 years. I'm Dan Rather.

It was written in response to World War II. Yeah, well, there was a poet that wrote a poem about the common man which inspired him to make this. But it sounds like John Williams. It sounds like... A hundred percent. Aaron Copeland's music is all like this.

So ELP also does. did another cover of one of his pieces called Ho Down, which was done for the American Ballet Theater in the 1940s as well. I thought it was for He-Ha. Ha-ha. Love He-Ha'i-ha. Play the next... So this is what the original is.

It's cool. This is the opening of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Yes. Obviously inspires. Very much inspired by it. Aaron Copeland's music inspires Americana. When people think of Americana, all of his music is like this. He wrote a ballet called Appalachian Spring,

which is, to me, it's the sound of America. So you said, John, Williams. Like John Williams holds a lot of money of this guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing in classical music is that they all take inspiration off of each other. And I think the thing that I've learned over the years about Prague Rock is that there's a heavy classical influence

in a lot of it. Because the dudes play. It's the time, timing changes. The time changes, all that shit. And the keys, like a lot of strange key keys, right? That's what I found. That's cool. All right, so my dumb question is, what makes the ELP cover of that fanfare for the common man. What makes it Prague rock exactly?

The band. So once the band kicks in, like so it starts with the main themes, and then underneath it, it's basically like a rock band. It's d-da-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-so, because they are a Prague band. I mean, that is what they are. Is it the technical proficiency? Absolutely the technical. That's definitely got a lot to do with Prague rock, I'd say.

The story about the recording of the song is that they got into, they were going into the studio to make this new record, and they hadn't been together for a while, and Keith had the idea to do this, to take Aaron Copeland's themes, and basically jam on it. And apparently this is like one of the first takes. They, he played the themes.

The bass player is just going, did to do, and he's over top of it, right? Because it's such a short, simple thing that they just went with it. It's kind of like free-form jazz. It totally is.

I mean, jazz. When you go see the trio doing, you know, and they go around the three guys doing their different things. It's very simple. The modern version of this world,

whether it's free-form jazz or pro-rock, the ultimate is King Gizzard and the Wizard lizard. Yes. They are right now playing three nights down the street for me in Forest Hills at the same. At the stadium. Well, Canada Kev is a big fan of that band. I'm a big fan of the band too.

But they're the kind of band that you don't know what you're going to get. But when you hear them, there's something that they feed off of each other. And they're going to either say, today we're going to do electronica or we're going to do heavy metal or whatever. There's a question, yeah, I would have is like, what's the difference between a prog rock band and a jam band? Right? Like, fish or Grateful Dead or, you know. And also is ADP Prague Rock. Like I just saw, I'm going to butcher the pronunciation, but you know the band I'm talking about the French band.

Arje de Poet. Oh, I just saw them. They are, I would say they probably... And they were, like, technically proficient. I would call them Prog Rock. I would too. I think the line between Prog Rock and experimental music is very thin. The thing with Prog Rock, which is related to classical music, is that it is structured. Right.

They were experimental. And those guys are super. They're mathematic. So it's the opposite then of... It is. Free-form jazz. But jazz is structured, too. Even Freeform jazz is structured in a way.

There are expectations. They know where they read off of each other's rhymes. They know where to go. Yeah. Like, it's very. you have to be a very proficient musician to do that kind of but yeah this is the thing

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm just warming up here Canada Kev I mentioned him because he writes in the live stream Prague rock was able to happen because FM radio and getting away from the industry driven chart AM radio two minutes and 30 second limits artistic freedom he loves it he loves the shit and then Tobias Vaughn says Prague is essentially rock music influenced by more by jazz than blue

And more classical music than jazz, I would say as well. Sorry, jazz comes from classical too, though. There's an evolution that you can follow in American music that starts with classical music, comes into jazz through like Scott Joplin and early American composers, which is the beginning of the blues and jazz, and that's an American tradition.

And Aaron Copeland, as an American classical composer, follows those traditions as well. And Jimmy Moore points out that that fanfare for the common man also has vibes of the last post. I don't know that. That's the one you hear on Remembrance Day. Oh, yeah, yeah. And that could be Aaron Copeland as well.

I mean, the thing is he and he's at Taps though? No, no, it's different. It's different. Sorry. Right, right. You hear it every,

every November 11th. I think, uh, it was a Canada Kev that said the, you know, basically thanks to FM being. Yeah. That is,

that's, that's, to me, that's like Marshall McLuhan, like to a T, right? Like there, the, there, there became a place for it.

And they had to, be different. And here in Canada, specifically, the CRTC made FM not play hit records on purpose. Right. So, like, that's very, yeah, he's, he's bang on with that. What's weird to me, in my memory, as a, as a kid, so I'm 12 and I'm listening to this music trying to figure it out. Yeah. But secretly, like, it's just sitting in my, I think it's cool to see it on my record shelf, but not really listening to it. Yes. But when CFNY came along, the first time I set up, like, a good stereo in my bedroom and I had CFNY playing, they, Marsden played Prague Rock as well. Sure. There are some of these bands. He was... But they also, they couldn't play, like, they were not allowed to play hits, right?

No, no, exactly. So they'd play 14-minute prog-rock jams. Martin loved that shit because you'd mix that in with the newer stuff. And that's, to me, that was what opened my ears to it. Because for me as a keyboard player, I was like, holy shit, this music is using tons of keyboards, which I love. You ready for your first jam, Bob Wollett? Yes, so similar to what you just said about

having the record on your shelf, that that's what started this whole thing. We wanted, we talked about making choices on the show that are outside of our comfort zone, perhaps, not necessarily something we like. I've always kind of hated Prog Rock, never got it. And I'm that guy in the 90s when everybody's uncle was getting rid of their vinyl. I ended up with it because I had a record player.

So I had this record in there. King Crimson is the band. And I actually, fun fact, in 1995, maybe the first year of Conan, I was on a high school trip and saw King Crimson on Conan O'Brien. It was a rare. Wow. And then there's a connection just quickly to your, to your last one.

Greg Lake is in is in King Crimson who's from Emerson, like a Palmer. So this is considered the first prog rock album. Okay. And this is the first single on it.

Oh yeah, it starts like this. It's got a really ugly face on the album. It's all hand drawn. We'll be here a while. It's barely, not even eight minutes. It's practically

an edit. Oh, yeah. Vocalism. I don't hate this. No. No, but my favorite part of this is it reminds me of another song. Which is my gonna be my, yeah. So I have to admit, like I literally had the album.

I had my buddy, David Allen, who's like a jazz freak. He cleaned my record. He's got one of those high-end record cleaner things. Yeah. And I put this on by myself, not in any altered state. How old were you? Just what? Just now.

Oh, you mean just now? I just said, that's what? me through the show. Oh, 50. Yeah. I was 50. Yeah.

But you said, oh, because you saw the record. I saw them on Conan. Oh, when I was, when I was, 19,

and I'd never listen to them. Oh, my God. At the time, it was like, oh, this is, I didn't get it. And then, uh, I feel like Fred Norris and Howard Stern

would talk about King Crimson. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anyways, I know the name, but you're right. All I know is that sample, which you'll talk about a moment.

So, yeah, we're going to talk about a second. So this is also one of the first songs that the lyrics make, it's like they're putting words in because they fit, not because they mean anything. The words are sounds almost. So 21st century schizoid man, of course,

as soon as I was listening to this, I immediately had to text it to my cousin, who I went to go see the artist who, I've seen the artist who had samples. Let's listen to that now, because we don't need all eight minutes of this song. But I lost my mind when I figured out where he got it from. It comes fast.

It comes in the first 30 seconds. Massive hit. Great song. I'm living in that 21st century. I didn't even get it, right? Oh, you got to wait for the sample. Yeah. I guess every super baby won't need his thing.

Music. It's too bad he's such an asshole. I was going to say it's too bad he's selling like T-shirts with swastikas on them because this guy's so fucking brilliant and so great. I have a question. This is Kanye. See, I never heard before. You've never heard this?

I've never heard this? No, no. I think I have, but it just washed over me. But what is the name of the song? Power. Okay. But the opening line is 21st century. I didn't even, I just realized that now.

This is from Beautiful Twist, Darkton, Fantasy. Which they say is like the Sergeant Pepper of hip hop. Okay. And, you know, so this guy, he knew this song. Or somebody knew it. Somebody knew it and said, hey, we should use this and turn it into, and it comes out. And then listen, it turned up.

we're here. Listen to the vocals he's using. Like it's the same. It's underneath. You hear it in the background. So cool. But you know what? And the original is so cool in its own way,

which sort of like is why it's heightened in this as well. No, absolutely. And here's the thing. I loved power before I even knew this song at all. And then when I listen to it, I was like, okay, I don't hate all prog rock because that song is kick ass. Right.

It's the evolution of music. And I love this whole mind blow here. I mean, yeah, when everybody hears that King Crimson song, the first thing you can hear in your head is power. And King Crimson have such a history, right? Honestly, this song was massive. I can't believe you've never heard it. I probably heard it.

But it just washes over me because I don't really. Have you heard Jesus walks? I don't know. Maybe. I don't know the title. Like this 21st century schizoid man, I think the influence that it's had on people is just ridiculous. For sure. Like when you think about it.

It's funny. At the time, Rolling Stone called it a seven and a half minute. statement of purpose. Rock power, jazz spontaneity, and classical precision. Yes, it's all that. I think that sentence there really kind of sums up what Prague Rock is.

For sure. Anyhow. What I love. I hate that I love Kanye. UK James, also known as Jimmy Moore, says April Wine covered that King of his song. And he would know, he's from the Maritime.

April Wine, are they good enough musicians to do it? I don't know. Well, you can do your own version. a great April wine songs. I'll just tell you right now. Oh, yeah. Their greatest hits.

Miles Goodwin is an F-O-TM. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm going to play a clip from an F-O-TM who is, I'm going to tease that you might hear her voice on a future episode of John of Mike coming up very soon, actually. But this was sent in to me, but it's rather long. But I'm going to play it because I'm afraid I won't play it. It's Leslie here. Listen, Leslie Taylor. I was so excited when Bob selected Prague-Rog as this month's toast theme, as this is the music I listen to.

a lot of in high school. Montreal was a big prog rock city, so even though most prog rock was released before I even started high school, it's still got a ton of airplay. Leslie Taylor. So that's what we all listened to. My favorites were Genesis and Super Tramp.

In fact, I've already bought tickets to see classic albums live at Massey Hall next April to hear them play crime of the century. Though my favorite Super Tramp album is, even in the quietest moments from 1977, we can go into more detail on that when I come over to kick out the jams. Oh, she said it.

Okay. So here's my definition of prog rock. I'll be interested to hear what Rob and Bob's thoughts are in this. Honestly, you should have had me and Cousin Janow and Kenneth Kev on to talk prog rock. Probably, probably. But anyway, you do you. I started by reading the wiki definition of prog rock and my eyes glazed over because it was as convoluted and pretentious as the music itself sometimes is.

So here's my simple. definition of what prog rock is. It's mostly from the 70s. There are some late 60s and early 80s examples of prog rock, but it's primarily 70s. It's thematic in nature. It's album-oriented. And it must be listened to with your eyes closed and headphones on. So although not considered prog rock rock, I'd argue that rock opera, so 1969's Tommy and 1973's Quadrophenia that the Who recorded could maybe even be considered early examples of prog rock or at least the idea of prog rock it's orchestral in nature often using instruments not typical in rock bands so for example ian anderson of jethro tull played the electric flute um fun fact jeth roteau was my very first concert in

1979 wow it is a one episode right in the middle of our show there are often we're just warming up long, instrumental, with instrumental or vocalized, intros, solos, outros, codas. And the songs themselves usually are much longer than the average rock song. Pink Floyd, Procol Haram, Moody Blues, like early Moody Blues, pre-A-Cab Genesis, even post-Peter Gabriel that we argued at the park the other night. Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, early ELO, pre-Brexit in America, Super Tramp and Early Sticks, to name a few. And Cousin Janno would be mad at me if I didn't mention Canada's contributions Saga and Rush.

Of course. So just like with Yacht Rock, not every song by a Prague Rock artist will be considered Prague Rock. And some bands like Genesis and Super Tramp went a little bit more pop rock in later years. Anyway, with all of that said, I am going to give you my submission for a Prague rock song. I tried to pick one that wasn't too long. Suicide blonde by In excess Isn't that sound like that?

It's one of my favorite songs. And it's from that album that I mentioned that I'm going to see classic albums live. Is she getting free tickets from classic album live? That's too mentioned. Sponsored by Super Tramp. Well, she's awesome. That's amazing.

She put the song, you know, she's like the whole thing. She's like our co-host. I'm totally impressed. She's like her co-host. I mean, she's taking time away from us. This was Leslie's idea. And she took the initiative on this. I love it.

Not even this. I'm actually about to tell you that, you know, this is episode 1956, I think. So she said, can I have my birth year? Like she approached me a long time ago and said, and I'm trying to remember now. I think it's 1963. Oh, so you're not saying she's not turning 70 this year.

No. My mother is. But she said, can I have episode 1963 to kick out the jams in honor of my birth year? So I don't think I say no to anybody. Can I have 1965? Oh, now we're going to become a thing. See, that's the thing. Problem is all of us,

Jan Xers are coming up. Yeah, you can have a... Everybody wants 74, 74, 75. Right. But, you know, whatever. I say yes to everything. You know that. So, yeah, I know this song well.

I saw Super Tramp in 79 at the C&E. They played three nights. Bob Roper was their manager. He was their tour manager. And I went with a bunch of high school friends at the time, and it was their breakfast in America tour. We sat on the lawn. At the grandstand?

And the grandstand. Where were lawns? The lawns at the grandstand. I don't know. The field. You're on the field. Yeah, on the field. And the stage was at the end.

It wasn't on the end. It was in the middle. Right. Okay. And then people... It was so fucking cool. Oh, so she alluded to discussion at the park. I was part of this discussion.

We all collected a Trillium Park before the metric broken social scene. Oh, cool. Stars concert. How was that show? And Leslie was there, actually. She didn't go to a concert, actually. She just came for the... I brought some great lakes and we drank beer.

The show was exactly the opposite of what I desired. I enjoyed it. But the show was a metric show, right? So it was open and act. No, yes, of course. Stars first, broken social scene second, and then the headliner is metric. My personal taste would have flipped it completely. I want to hear metric open, and then I want to hear broken social scene,

and then I want to close the stars. Broken social scene is great solidly in the middle there, absolutely. Yeah, they're good middle. You know what happened to me once when I was with Honeymoon Suite? Cheap Trick Open for us. You know, I've seen Cheap Trick in concert. I saw Cheap Trick open for Kiss when I was 11, and I didn't know who they were because they hadn't released BudaCon yet.

Surrender. You have to watch Fast Times. I have Rick, Rick Nelson's, I have a bunch of, what's it called? Picks of his. Because one of my first things I did at 94-9 in The Rock was interview him. Oh, wow. He was great. And I saw him. I saw them open for Pearl Jam.

That's when I saw them. Well, the thing is, but with Honeymoon Sweet, we were. Why were they opening for you? Because we were playing in Ottawa at a football stadium? No, no, because they just wanted to leave. Oh, we were supposed to open for them. Well, I remember this story. No, you don't.

Do you really? And they were like, do you mind if we go on first? And we were like, okay. I feel like. No, I feel like. So you're like opening for us. the sweet guys might have told me this story. Oh, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's funny. I, uh, I went, it was, uh, I went and saw, it was the scorpions and Alice Cooper in the 90s. Oh, yeah. And the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, it's not right. Right. Not right at the time. Sometimes you're surprised by the, uh, order of things.

Chief Thrick had that hit at the time. Uh, the flame. Oh, my God. It was like on the radio. And were there, and were there. And were the guy who's the guy who sang it actually there, because he wasn't a, it was the, you know, it was a big hit at the same time was the, don't be cruel cover. That's right. They did. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. That was my top 40. So did people leave? No offense to Honeymoon Suite.

No, no. Because it was our big summer tour as well. Yeah. Was this like the big year for Honeymoon Suite? Yeah, one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the year after we did our big, like, racing after midnight, it was this third album tour.

Moonlight Desires, is that you guys? That's gal. By the way, walking through Manhattan with Rob Pruss and talking about, oh, yeah, that's the theater where we did this. It was really cool. It was really, really neat being, that's where there's these three back, the stage doors and blah, blah, yeah, yeah, it was really neat.

So what do you think of Leslie Taylor's broad rock? That was good. First of all, I didn't know she had such great pipes. She sounds great. She's articulate. She was in her sister's Crave show? Is it on Crave? Was she on? The sister's Carolyn Taylor from there. I know, but I watched

a lot of that. She was in it quite a bit. The figure skating one of Catherine Vitt. You know what? And with May. Yeah, yes. Amazing. Yeah. But I didn't know that Leslie because Leslie lives like on my old street or I think or near it in Leslieville. Yeah, she lives in Leslieville. Yes, she did a good summary of Prague Rock for us. She did a great job.

She covered a lot of shit that we probably would have covered. Well, that's why I wanted to make sure I played it before Miss. She did a great job. And I'm going to roll right into mine. Yes. Okay, because we've got to get rock in here. Yeah, seriously. We're doing good.

This is jazz. Well, that's it. You're arguing already. All three of mine are open to discussion because I tried very. very hard to understand prog rock. I didn't want to just play a rush song and say, oh, I was told this is fucking, I couldn't play 2112 overture

and said, I know this is prog rock. But also, I don't like that song. No. I like this already. So you tell me if this is prog rock. I don't know what it is, but I like it. It doesn't matter. It's Prague.

Okay, I'm not going to name the band yet because I'm going to do a little mind-blow thing here. Okay. This is the first album from this band. The man who is, no, he's not producing this. He produces the next album. He engineers this album, okay? His name is the guy named Alan Parsons.

Okay. That's what you need to know. Is this project? Stay tuned, okay? So, this band doing this Prague rock song was also played on another episode of Pandemic Friday with a different theme. You want to hear another song by this very band? Sure. Are you sitting down?

I will now. Do you have a guess of who this band is? It's a little bit like yes. So move over Prague rock. The same band is a Yarr rock band. God, it's Ambrosia. I fucking love this band.

And I never remember the same thing happens to me with the band Tame Impala. When I hear them on the radio, I'm like, who is this? And it's always Tame Impala. Same thing happens with Ambrosia. And I Shazam them, and it's like, it's Ambrosia. God damn it's Ambrosia again. They're so good.

They are Prague rock, but they're Yah Rock. They're Yah Rock. They changed, Yeah, yeah. Obviously. The Prague yacht. Yeah. Oh, man.

This is not Prague rock. No. This is Yacht Rock. It's Yacht Rock. Smooth jazz. I call FM Gold, right? You know? Smooth, man.

It's smooth like butter. Okay, so. Love it. Ambrosia. Started out as a Prague Rock thing. The first Ambrosia album, which includes the song we heard, which is called Time Waits for No One.

Yes. So good. We played it during the very popular Yacht Rock episode. It's two stones, a big Yacht Rock guy. So they overlap, though, right? And Brosia is the overlap. But yeah, they just change. I don't go back to being a Prog Rock.

No. But look at them. This is like a... It's a Welcome Back Carter. It's like my female cousin. A soft rock commercial jazz. Yeah. They left Prague Rock and said,

hey, we're going here. We're going to sell records. Yeah, this was their most successful album. It went to number 19 on the Billboard 200. I'm telling you. And you know the song, how much I feel? That went to number three. When I was a kid, these guys on the radio,

I loved their sound so much. I never bought the records. Who was playing them? Everybody, oh, these are big hits. Yeah, yeah. Top 40, right? Big hits. They had like three or four huge hits in the 70s.

Right? I love them. Yeah, they had a bunch of hits in 70s. So the time waits for no one as a prog rock. But now I'm going to blow your mind again, okay? Do it. Is high in the sky? Yes.

We play this before. I've never seen Rob more excited. No, he loved it. I know. It's not Eurodance. Fuck, fuck sake. We don't judge the themes. No, we don't.

We love the things. We love the challenge. We treat them all the equally. They are equal. So why am I playing the Alan Parsons project? Because you want to get late? Hey, lady. Come on over here.

You guys sitting down? I'm going to sit down here. I missed it down further. Ambrosia is the Alan Parsons Project. What? The initial Alan, the cast changed. But the initial,

the Alan Parsons project is Ambrosia teaming up with Alan Parsons. The same way that Toto is basically Michael Jackson's band on Thriller. Yes, that's actually a good example. So Alan Parsons project included the members of Ambrosia, is David Pack, Joe Puerta, Christopher North, and Burley Drummond. Who's doing the vocals throughout?

Same person? This is Eric Wolfson, I believe. So this is later, I wanted to play the songs people knew. So the initial Alan Parsons project didn't have any big hits that I could just go to. So this is a hit from later years, Alan Parsons project. And here, it's not a fun fact because I think most people who care about this song know this. but do you know on the album Tales of Mystery and Imagination?

No, that's the album that Alan Parsons Project has Ambrosia. Sorry. So this song on the album, I in the Sky, this is Eye in the Sky. Do you know what plays immediately before it? Absolutely not. I do not. Do you know, Rob? Tell Tell, Tell Heart.

What plays on the album just before this big hit for the Alan Parsons project? I've listened to it, but I don't remember. Well, are you a Chicago? Bogle's fan. Oh, yes. Oh, I did know this part. I feel like,

they use this for the intro for the Bulls. I knew this. This was part of my research. Really? Yep. Alan Parsons? Yeah, because I was looking at

that's cool. Different. Oh, if you care at all about the NBA in the 90s. This was huge. They still use it, I think, don't they?

Oh, I don't know. So wait, this is, what year is this? Well, it's 70. Because do you? What year is I in the sky? This is the song that plays 708,

78. It's called Sirius. Yeah. Yes. It's a great song. It's a great intro. You hear that direct influence from Pink Floyd and everybody as well, right? From North Carolina.

Number 23. Michael Jordan. I get chills, man. That's cool. Pre-Raptors, that was everything, man. Give us fucking bowls with Jordan. Jordan, game six. Jackson.

That's a Chy. Right. That's another one. Okay. So there you go. You can go from this Prague rock turned yacht rock band. I love that. The Allen Parsons,

was the engineer, and then he produced the second album for Ambrosia. I saw Alan Parsons do a gig in New York like 10 years ago, and he was great. I mean, he just has like a sort of a generic band,

but to hear these songs played is amazing. Okay, the bowls are done. They won six titles in eight years. Apparently Michael Jordan went to play baseball. He took it personally. He took it personally.

How did his baseball career grow? He hit a Homer. He did. There's a bad, bad footage of it. He hit a Homer for, for the Durham No the Bull The Durham Bulls

What are they? The Durham Bulls. The Durham, I think it was a Durham Bulls. Chicago White Sox, wasn't it? Chicago White Sox affiliate. Is that way there's a movie called Bull Durham?

No. Well, Bulldorm is Durham Bulls. But it's not because of Michael Jordan. No one's way before Michael Jordan. Okay, that's a great movie, by the way. Are you ready for your second jam? We'll get a rock here. I'm ready.

This is so cool though. Yeah. So fucking pretentious. Can't be. Night's in White Satin. No, I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. You're so funny.

You didn't title you. You think you're so funny. The Moody Blues. And then we can talk about the mid-80s moody Blues or mid-to-late 80s. I got lots of stories about Moody Blues. Okay. I can't say it because I love it. Okay, but we have to pick up our kids at some.

Okay. You know. You got to just look. You want some better play. Yeah, got to get to the end of the course. Moody Blues, 1972. Everybody knows this song. Yeah.

Written by Justin Hayward when he was 19. Big jam. Yeah. Big jam. Yeah. Booty blues. So me. Well, you know, I didn't know it was Prague Rock.

No, so this is what I want to ask. Yeah, yeah. You can say what you want first and then I can ask. Moody Blues, you know, they started in the mid-60s. Yeah. They were one of the forerunners of Prague Rock. But they had, but, like, Like any genre, if you don't define the genre,

if you have a short song that's catchy, it's going to become a hit. Right. This was a big fucking hit. Yes. Right? When we all know this song, this is a Prague hit.

So, okay, here's my question. How is this any different ultimately than something produced by Jim Steinman? It's not. But so Jim Steinman's stuff is never considered Prague rock. But it is Prague rock sort of right? I know. No, it's not.

You're right. Meatloaf is Prog Rock? Meatloaf, total eclipse of the heart, all that stuff. To me, to me, this is overproduced in a good way. It's like Broadway. Yeah. And listen, there's a nice middle section.

Oh, like there is. Like there is in every Jim Steinman's song. See, the beauty of music is that you don't define it. You just listen and there's good music and there's bad music. But we define it on this show. No, I know. We define it. But it's fun to isolate it.

And we're sort of following the threads of the history of the music, right? So for me, with the Moody Blues, this is the thing. Like, I would have never called this park in 72 when it was on the radio and I was seven years old. All I knew was I loved the song. But now, doing research and following the thread of the music, you realize that the dominant instrument in this, which we've talked about on other episodes, is the Melotron. Yes. Which was an electronic keyboard in the 60s, created in the 60s. Again, this is a technology changing way things have done.

The stereo comes in, stereo affects the listeners because the listeners have a new. It's like going into a concert hall hearing an orchestra. Now you've got stereo. The Beatles were expected. So, Mike, play my little, my, um, first. extra for this because this is, to me, the beginning of Prague rock. One, two.

Is that the wrong one? That is the wrong one. We'll come back to that then. That's not the right one either. Did I send you one just before that one? No, you only sent me the three finals for this one. Okay, stop this one for a sec. Play the one before that.

Sorry. It was either John Lennon or a German guy. I said to the wrong version. wanted to play was the opening of Strawberry Fields Forever. Okay. With the Melatron. Because that really is the album version? Yes. Samba. Sorry, I thought that was the one

I had. Right. And that's Melitron. Basically, it's the melitron. And that was like the start of the idea of taking an instrument and using it as an orchestral accompaniment to the rest of the song, right? Which is what the Moody Blues did. So they used that same sound. Did you have it there? Yeah, I'm just going to call it up on. I could also, I could also get it on my phone if we want on my Bluetooth here because I'm still connected.

Anyways, the melitron was the instrument before samplers and everything involved. You would hold down a key and each key had a tape that it would play. So every note was a recording. Was that how it worked? That's how it was. So it was a small, small keyboard like two hours.

So you would pre-record the tapes and then load it in? You'd buy the tape. You'd buy it pre-load. You'd buy the cartridge and you'd plug it in. Oh. And then you would load the tapes. It would load the tapes.

And every key you played was an actual tape loop. Wow. Unbelievable. That's crazy. Have you ever played one? I have. I have. When I was 12,

in my band, my friend Jeff, Dana, who's a film composer, his older brother Michael, who won an Academy Award for the film Life of Pie. But anyways, so Jeff and I were in a band. His older brother, Mike, he was in a Prague band

when he was in the late 70s, a band in Burlington called Darwin, and he had a melaton in the basement. So when I was 12, I'd go down and just look at his keyboard. Holy shit, but he had a melitron. So that's what this dominant sound of the Moody Blues was.

And came from the Beatles, it came from Strawberry Fields. Cool. The other track that I sent, if you want to play that one, it's actually a Spoon's track because I feel like we have indirect Prague influences because Gord loved Prague as well. In the early 70s, when he was like putting his bands together, he was really influenced by Prague with the weird times signatures and stuff.

And this was a song from our first album. And we had a melitron on the album. You'll hear it when it comes in here. Oh, I could hear it. This totally sounds proggy. It's very proggy. So this was a song that Gord had written before I joined, the band, but we wanted to work it up to get it on the album.

Because it was just like a really cool song. But I'll get Mike to like play into the song a bit so you can hear the Melitron happening as well because it's definitely got that Prague influence. This is on which album? This is on our very first album. Wow. Which came up 45 years ago. It's in 1981.

Yeah. Oh, totally. This sounds like a yes song or something. But Sandy, Sandy's singing it. Yeah. Oh. The crowd. Now it sounds like a German song.

Oh, now we've got Strawberry Fields playing at the same time. He's mixing it up over there. Brow's your slow today. They'll kiss, their human faces voice. This sounds like a problem. So here comes the Melotron for us.

I can hear it. No? Oh, I hear it. Will you skip to the, like if you skip to like three quarters of the song? A little bit further. Good. There you go. So that string sound in there is the Moody Blues string sound, the Melatron.

Right. So if there's a big build coming, you'll get to enjoy it. You'll get to enjoy it. You're 15. This is the Melotron. Derek going nuts on the drums there too Coral Yeah

It's a choral voice So each note you play Had a chorus Yeah Which then 10 years later on a Cascio For a hundred a bucks Watch what he's doing Watch

There you go There's the Melotron Probably the most famous Yeah That's really like That's the beginning of it all So is that Paul? Let me take you

That's a point. Cool. The other thing I wanted to say, but the Spoon's tune that I didn't actually play the Meletron. Oh. So our producer, Daniel Enwaw, and our two producers.

Fucking Daniel Lennon. Yeah. But they were like, you don't, you're 15, I was 15. They're like, we're not going to trust you to play the Melatron. The guy who owns the Melatron,

we're going to let him play it. So you know who it was? It was Hugh Syme, who does all the album covers for Rush. And he plays in the Ian Thomas band. Wow. So Hugh brought in the Meletron. into the control room, and he played the parts.

And I was like, of course, I'm not going to play it. Because I'm 15. I don't even know how to play a Melatron. So I got to sit there and watch. So that's actually Hugh playing it. And he did the album cover for us as well. So he did he get on the album credits? What does he get?

Melitron and album design. Yeah, and album design. Exactly. But I just thought it was like, to me, at the time, they were like, they were nervous to tell me, but I'm like, are you kidding? I'm 15. I don't give a shit.

And also, I was a little scared because I knew it was like a small keyboard with a giant, like built in a giant box. Wow. It's playing all the tapes and stuff. Right. So that was my Meletron story. But anyways, my original jam was the Moody Blues because the Moody Blues are a quintessential Prague band.

And I got to play with them in Ontario Place in 1994. Nice. So when they, yeah, at the forum, when they came and they always hired an orchestra in each town. And I was playing Miss Saigon at the time. And our contractor was responsible to hire the musicians to come and be the part of the band for the Moody Blues. Wow. So I got to put on a tux and sit in with the string section.

Cool. And it was the last time I played at the forum when it rotated. Yeah. Very cool. Amazing. Have I got too much information for you this time? No, but you really stepped up today. Have I?

Like you kicked it up a notch. Well, you know, it's not Eurodance. So this last, so Rob's was all about the melitron. This next song is like the melitron times a thousand. Oh, God. Go for it. Oh, I know. You know what it's going to be.

Yeah, it is so good. I don't know how long. How long this one? It sounds like Sesame Street, right? A PBS. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

It's never, yes. It's got another four, maybe three and three minutes, 40 seconds. Does it kick up or anything? Like, can you see on the waves? It's pretty much like this. Okay, yeah, yeah. All right, so I'll just talk. I don't even think there's low vocals, I don't think.

No. So my buddy, David Allard, who's my jazz expert, he's also appreciates the Prague Rock. This, again, I'm going back to kind of the roots of Prague Rock. This is a band called Tonto's Expandes, expanding headband. Love it. And it is a couple British dudes,

Malcolm Cecil and Robert Marguliffe. Now here's the deal. This is the Tonto synthesizer. And the Tonto is an acronym for the original new timbrel orchestra.

The Tonto. Love it. So you talk about pretentious, Mike. Yeah. It's all of this Prague Rock. It's highly pretentious. So it is,

it was, the first and still the largest multi-timbral polyphonic analog synthesizer in the world. Wow. I love it. So this album is for nerds and nerds alone. It's made for me.

Basically, Tonto started as a Moog modular synthesizer and then owned by the guy Robert Marglyph and he just started building around it. He put in a whole bunch of, I'm not going to go in through all the details of what he put into it.

But so this album is came out in 1972 I think I'll just double check it anyways yeah it doesn't and it you're thinking wow this is just a bunch of like really experimental music that only you know nerds would like well here's the thing

it's 1971 sorry here's the thing this album and this particular machine has been credited with changing music there were so many people who heard it and wanted to use it There's an article here. Keyboard magazine in 1984 said the collaboration that changed

that this particular album did, it changed black pop music as much as the Beatles, Sergeant Pepper altered the concept of white rock because the people who were listening and loved this, just a couple guys named Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder. Well, Stevie, you hired them, right? So that's my next song.

So here's the thing. Here's some of these guys who actually... So the Tonto is on albums by Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, the Isley Brothers, Billy Preston, Stephen Stills, the Doobie Brothers, Dave Manchin, a whole bunch. So if you're, you got me up here?

So now this is probably one of the most, you'll hear it the most. This is Living for the City. This is Stevie Wonder. It's a seven-minute jam. And you want to... It's not a prog rock song, but it's not far off.

No, no. It's the Sydney. It's the Sydney. Mississippi. So this has the tonto on it. And I'll tell you, I'll go through this pretty fast because I know we're running out of work. We're not even, we're only halfway through the show here. I'm going to go forward here.

We're going to cook a gas. There it is there. You'd hear it just starting. It's all the since you hear around. Yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. Here we go.

Here it is. Right? Yeah. There it is. Yeah. And then here as well. There it is. So this is Tonto.

So again, not a pro-rock song, but the influence on it, for sure. So the interesting part, the guy who's son, the son of the guy who did it, he actually went on tour with a fake. Like he took all the sounds it could make and he toured with symphonies. Wow. It is now. Do you know where Tonto is now? it's in Calgary. Oh, Calgary.

They have a music museum there, and I'm actually going to go see it because I'm going to the Great Cup this year. That's amazing. Wow. Yeah. I've never, I've just, long story short,

but yeah. So, I'm living the life. I am not, I would never, I don't think I could listen to that full album, the Tonto, but the influence on it is the great story of it.

How much, they did like two or three albums. Just two? Just two. Man, they're such good records, though. They're so hard to listen to.

I'm going to be honest. I think so. Yeah. Like Stevie Like a fichianados. Oh, not the Stevie Wonder album. The Tonto albums. Because there's also, then they take, and I think this is what makes it Prog Rock

is they have all these time changes and key changes and bullshit. I love that shit. Yeah, I know you do it. Yeah. Yeah. So anyhow, there you go. Tonto. You ready for my second Progn Rob Jam?

Okay. So. I'll bring you down here. You're fine. Here we go. Oh. Oh, so. worse.

I've actually played on. What are we called? toast in the past. But I was just thinking about these guys. Yep. Because they're going to play Toronto again. And you're going to get them in the basement? Yep.

Well, Cam Hocker. Amazing. And I wanted some Cancone. Yeah, good. Totally bra-b-graw. With Nash to Flash, right? So there you go. So I actually really like this song.

That's why I keep playing it. I really like this song. But I don't think the youngsters know that FM, this is Phaser's on stunt. was a duo. There was only two guys in this band at the beginning. The original lineup of FM is Cameron Hawkins, so Cam Hawkins is going to come on Toronto Mike.

Nice. And the late great Nash, the Slash. Really? Yeah. That's it. There's no guitars. Nope. You don't need it when you got all that synth.

Well, and Nash is playing mandolin, which gives you a different sound because he put it through so much shit as well. Yeah, like an electric mandolin, and he's got his electric violin. Did FM have any, like American success? I don't think so. just a Canadian song? I don't think so. I'm just curious.

But they were, one of the interesting things about FM when you dive in and we'll talk about this with Cam Hawkins is that in July, no, later in 19796, they record this performance for TV Ontario

called Night Music Concert TV show. I remember watching it. It broadcast on November 3rd, so November 3rd, 1976. And just think about this, Bob, in a time when you only have a few stations, right? That these guys were given like, I don't know, an hour

to play their very long pretentious songs. They played this song. They played one o'clock tomorrow. This is a CFMY song for sure. Yeah, for sure. In fact, I couldn't find this on YouTube, but I was reading about how, when you watched this on TVO,

David Pritchard, who was a chum FM DJ, David Pritchard would come on and he did some kind of poetry, it was some free association thing, where he did this fake biography, biography of FM or something. Wow.

So I couldn't find this on YouTube, but you can find this performance. on YouTube. And what's interesting is there's no bandages on Nash the Slash. Oh, he's not doing the... No, so go to YouTube,

find this TVO FM performance. You don't get to see the Pritchard stuff. But, man, I would think if you were watching TVO in 1976 and you saw these three songs, these long songs by FM, I think that's a mind blow. It was...

Oh, for sure. It blew my mind. I saw it. Do you remember seeing it? Yeah, yeah. Like the first band that I played, Emerson, Lincoln, Palmer, they also had a special

that was broadcast. on TV Ontario. Because TVO was the first place you'd see a lot of British stuff, right? Right. Like the early days, that's where you'd go and watch Monty Python as well.

Yeah. It was always there. And they played an Emerson Lake and Palmer concert. And I'll never forget, like, because Keith Emerson would play the organ and he would like tip it over, like stab knives in it and stuff. It was like so...

Experimental and just crazy. If you could ask John Cleese, one question. Yeah. What would you ask him? Is that parrot dead? Why are you charging $200 to watch the movie and then? just a quick

Q. Why are you playing this? Name that band, Rob Proust. Okay. Uh, I think it's my band. Spoons. Yeah.

Tell no. Do you know why I'm playing this? No. Nash the Slash is in the video. Oh yeah, he is, isn't he? That's right. That's like,

this is the most mainstream NASDA Slash ever got. He's in the video for Tell No Lives. I can't remember because they cut up like a Pepsi commercial or so. Oh, he did a Pepsi commercial. I can't remember if they used clips from this as well. No, it was a max up.

commercial. I want to just say this is a great song. Is it? You don't like it, eh? I love it. It's just weird. Did you write it? No, Gordero.

You wrote it. But we wrote it together. I mean, we wrote this. Do you have a co-write on it? No, I don't. But the same day that we put together this song and romantic traffic, we were together like in a rehearsal room, just doing them. Do you know, you have co-rights on the song?

Warranted traffic. Just romantic traffic? A other song. A few, yeah. Tell. No lies. Tell. You know who's singing on this?

The guys who sing on this? I mean, it's Nile Rogers, his house band, right? But the guys sing on this were the guys they toured with David Bowie on his last dance tour. It's crazy. And sing on Madonna, like they toured with Madonna. Is that the tour that Carol Pope says they couldn't afford to be opening for? I think so. I watched the documentary.

I watched the documentary. Yeah, yeah. Did you see me? Yeah, I did see you. I'm in there for one second. I saw you. I saw you. I saw you.

Was that the Elmo? Yes. I saw you. Yeah. But, uh, absolutely. It was early. But she talks about how the, they couldn't afford. to do a U.S. tour.

The record company said no. There was no support. So she said, we could have opened for Bowie. I think it might have been that tour. Yeah. In the States. It was the serious movie tour.

They couldn't afford to do it. Yeah, in 83. Wow. That's so weird. I mean, you're so dependent on the record company because they are basically... They're going to finance itself. They're going to roll...

They're going to front the money. They saw no future in rough trade. It's crazy. So I just think it's another mind blow. I know in Ashla, we've talked a lot about him because of the documentary. I'm looking at the poster now. but I think it's funny

to think that guy is this guy and this is like his most mainstream biggest hit as a solo artist I have the album it's a cover because it's a big gen

Of course it's like it all covers Yeah But let it give it a moment And then we'll go to Bob's third jam Oh no Robb's third jam I think Rob Bob

Robert Like a cover of Dead Man's Curr That's Nash's That's dune Something like peanuts Yeah And he's And, of course, he doesn't own this song, so it's not going to be very lucrative.

But it's great. It's so cool. It's something. Yeah. All right. Over to you, Rob Pruss. All right. Number three?

You ready? Hit it. Hit it! Hamid organ in the 70s was a big part of the sound. Because you would distort an organ and it would sound like a guitar, but much more fluid, you know? So this is an organ. That's an organ with the guitar together, yeah. I mean, uh...

Deep Purple as well, right? was full of rock organ. But who is this? Oh, it's a band called Vandegraff Generator. Wow. Sounds like a fake band from a TV show. We're going to see Vandagraph Generator, guys. There's so much into this world of Prague.

I'm sure Leslie knows everything we're doing. But there's so many bands. And, like, as the years have gone on, there's so much that I have discovered about Prague. Yeah. That knowing what little I knew back then when I was a kid, I'm like, there's still so much, and I love it all. Like, it freaks me out.

But this is a song. Oh, the Pepsi ad was a fake Nash this, Oh, was it? I don't remember that. That's why Nash sued them. Oh, that's funny. Oh, for the... Right, right. You mentioned the Pepsi ad.

It wasn't Nash to Slash. He sued because it was a fake Nash to sign. That's right. Wow. So this is an instrumental, clearly. That's according to Tobias Vaughn, but I now remember that from the documentary. Oh, okay.

Turn up a little bit. I know tastes are everything, right? Like, oh, one person's Mozart is another person's moist or whatever, right? I just came up with that. You can use it on in the 88. But, and I like both bands. Mozart is. You're like both bands, Mozart and moist.

But I got to say, this leaves me cold. Like, it feels very clinical. Well, it is a little, it is clinical. Because really, this is the kind of stuff that leans on the edge of classical music. So basically, so Vanegraff Generator was a Prague rock band, which started like in the late 60s in England. This song was a number one hit in Italy. Italy loves their prognor. Italy likes some experimental stuff.

Yeah, they do. And they've always been supporters. There was, you know, the keyboard player, Vangelis who had Cherry. Oh, Cherry's a fire. Of course. And he did, um, Blade Runner, whatever, whatever. He was in a huge pro-wrack band from Italy called Aphroditi's Child in the early 70s, and their music is unbelievable.

So, of course, it makes sense that this went to number one. So this is an instrumental called Theme 1. The original, this is a cover, another version. So if you play the next one, it's the original. It was actually composed by Mr. Sir George Martin for BBC. Same band. No. No.

This is George Martin with the BBC orchestra. What is the connection? This is the original. I'm doing that song. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So BBC would play this as the intro for like the news. BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2.

They asked Paul McCarney if he would record a theme. And he's like, I don't want to do it. Why don't you ask George to do it? And so George Martin composed this. And then that other band covered it. And then Van Gograff Generator. And it's called Theme 1. It's called Theme 1.

Theme 1. Yeah, for BBC 1. To Deepa. I'll bet you no other band has ever covered Theme 1. No. But I'm setting you up. You're setting me up? No, okay.

But you're setting me up for what's not a cover. So, no, no, but don't play it yet, but turn it down for one sec. I'm going to tell you the story. So, gather around, kids. So we released our first album. You're like Grandpa Simpson over here. Gather around, kids. So we released our first album.

We were doing this, we were doing tour. We were opening for Martha and the Muffins and stuff. And Gorb was like, we want to have an intro. We want to have a theme music to play when we come out. So he brings over to my house, he gives me this Vandegraph generator album. Oh. What the fuck is Vandegraph generator? And he says, take this open, this first,

song and put it onto a tape so our sound man will play this song as we're coming on stage. Right. Like a theme. It's called theme one. So I took the album and I put it on our record player and I hit record and so play the next one and this is what we had as our theme. See if you can tell the difference. Well, this sounds like a very phantom of the opera there. This is.

So why do you say this is not a cover? This is the original. This is Vandigrap Generator. Oh, it's not Spoon. But it's at 45. Oh, you did it at 45, accidentally. I had no idea, but listen to how good it is. Sounds great.

Yeah, listen. It sounds better than the first. Listen, it goes on. No, no, it's better. It's better. That's amazing. I was only 15. I was like, what the fuck?

You wanted mind blows, sir, Mr. Boone over there. Jesus, this guy fucking bring it. But enjoy it. This proves my point. I needed to publicly humiliate him. Yeah. So he would deliver the kids. I see he is a bully.

I think this is so cool, though. This is so much better. So we use this. as an intro for like a year. And the first night that we did it, I gave our sound man the tape, and we were backstage. You guys kill yourself laughing? No. So, we were

waiting backstage, and we hear it, and Gore's like, what is this? It's not right. And I had no idea. I didn't know it was 45 instead of 33. And Gore kind of freaked out for a second, and then we were like, oh, actually, it's kind of cool. And then this continues to be our intro as we walked on stage for like a year.

And then when we did our second album, we did our own proper instrumental that became our open theme. We'll be on stage. This is some mind-blow, fun-facts shit from Rob-Rooz. A lot of Prague Rock sounds better on 45 than 33. That's the truth. Pearl Jam comes out to some Philip Glass.

Do they really? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, quite often. Well, you know, we come out to Brian Eno. Like, I play Brian Eno before. How cool is this? That's way better.

Much better. Well done, Rob Proust. All three jams were interesting to hear about. Okay. It's a good thing. So I started with what's considered maybe the first prognon rock album. Then I went to an influential Prague rock album, and now I'm going to a song

I actually like. Is it prog rock? It's a, so it's not a prog rock artist, but it's considered Prague rock, the song. Well, to be discussed, is it possible? That's what we're going to talk about. Let's listen. That's why I did it. Let this play out a little bit. This can't take us home. Actually, this will match

nicely the opening of what I'm going to do. Can prog rock have, is that a harmonica? Yeah. Can you young do prog rock? I can have anything at wants. I'll just wait until the vocals start. so we can hear the difference. That sounds like a TV theme too. Totally.

You know why? You're thinking of bosom buddies. Here we go. It's way faster than I remember. If you don't know what this is at this point, in 1970s, the album is Turnstiles and it's Billy Joel, not a prod rock artist. You don't say.

So this is Prelude slash Angry Young Man, which wasn't a single, but has become like a statement. of his live show. And he, he's just, I'm glad to see he's healthy again because I know he had to cancel

big shows here. So then this is now, here we go. This is a pretty, okay. This is radical plans. He refuses to bend. He refuses to crawl. And he's proud of the scars

and the battle he's lost. And he struggles to me to be to be. So hang on. Okay, no, ask your question. Ask your question. This part at least

doesn't sound very prog rocky to me. But this part also changes a lot. Like throughout this part, like the, you know, we're going to call Angry Young Man. The A4 mentioned Aaron Copeland is an influence. Oh, of course. Yeah. Aaron Copeland, there's Americana, there's funk. And his piano, you hear.

His piano is stuff. So he just, so he's healthy again. And he did a great interview with Rick Bito. It was so good. And on that interview, can you bring me up there? Am I still connected? So he talked about, let's talk about the opening of Prelude. And this is where I've heard.

him say this before, this album, this thing before, but he says, the piano is a, um, is a percussion instrument. It's not a string instrument. He goes, so the opening is basically a takeoff of this. Great. Because that's, copying that on the piano. On the piano. Yeah. On a C. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. Because I've, I've been learning it for years. I've been working on it.

So there's your, that's your, that's not a mind blow. It's just an influence. No, I like that stuff. Yeah. Um, if you have a chance, watch the hour long. Rick Bito Billy Joel interview, it's so good. I love Billy Joel so much. Well, the doc was very good

too. The documentary's amazing, yeah. Part two was a mind blow. I mean, I thought that the whole second episode was so good. So, yeah, so I picked this because I do,

I love Billy Joel and I don't, I tend to say I don't like Prog Rock. Now, there are songs from Prog Rock that I, Prog Rock artists that I've started to enjoy. The King Crimson album is one of them

for sure. So I just think it's interesting. Again, Leslie earlier said that Genesis post Peter Gabriel has some songs that are considered Prague rock, which I got a, I would have had no idea

of that. Abacab. That whole album. I mean, everything Genesis has been. Well, not the, not, I can't dance. Not legal alien or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not land of confusion. No, you're right. I would say that 1981 era, like early 80s, they veered more towards and I love this. I love that. I love

three piece Genesis. I do. Yeah. So, and I tried to listen to Genesis live. I have it on vinyl. Yeah. I couldn't do. I couldn't do. I I couldn't pick any... I couldn't do it. No. I got to smoke some weed or something.

Do you remember the fat boys cover of this? Of course I do. Yes. You mean this one right here? Oh. He's all set. Oh, my God. Oh, I remember the fat.

They had a movie I watched called Disorderly. They did. Disorderly. That's right. Are any fat boys still alive? I don't know. If you found Run DMC was too aggressive, then you could go to the fat boys. They were the job.

They were the job. because there were fast. That's right. Anyways, yes, so yes, I did know. And you know,

Ty the Christmas guy came down like he was Santa Claus. That's right. He really did. What did you guys think when you heard this banging on the door?

I know this gave him. I was confused. The weirdest thing was that he knocked exactly when the phone rang. Yeah. And that was Lana Turner calling. It was amazing.

Yeah. Had no relation to Ty the Christmas guy. There's multiple things going on. It was a mind blow. Yeah. That was the mind blow. Yeah.

So, so, Bob, thank you very much. Ready, guys? Yeah, let's do it. I So Rush gets

It's called Hanson I do have 2112 overture loaded up to point out Because I suspect Is this Prague rock? You could play it Let's listen to it

I love this song Yeah Some more Cancon That's not Rush You've seen my hands As You've seen Soon you can take

And they'll Going to the expert Rob Pruss Yes Is this Prague rock I would say It's Prague rock adjacent.

I think that there's a fine... It's more Prague rock than Billy Joy. Absolutely. But I do think that there's a fine line where we can now agree that Prague rock began... It started, let's say, with the world of the Beatles and experimenting in the studio. As the technology changed, we had stereo, we had a melaton. We had classical influences from George Martinson, who gave us the theme one. And as it progressed, we had songs that they also wanted to have hits.

They wanted to, like, have a career. I would argue this is closer to a Jim Steinman song than a even a rush song or a moody, even the moody blues. This is way more a Jim Steinman style of pop than I think what I would call what I would do. Do you know why? My preconceived notion of what progress is.

I would agree with you, but I would also agree that because it's more centered around the vocal than the music. The owner of a lonely heart. Yes. Well, that's yes. Okay, so I spent all month trying to figure out. Yes.

But yes, the owner of lonely heart doesn't sound like a prog rock song. That's a, to me, that's a pop song. But we know that yes is a Prague band and that they came from the world of Prague rock. We don't know that as far as Gowan. He was in a band called Rhinegold, which I'm sure was Prague to. Sounds like it. You know what I mean? So I think the thing is that you can watch the evolution of the music from all the creators,

King Crimson too. Yeah. Like the guys in King Crimson played on Peter Gabriel's solo records, right? And so those worlds just sort of merge together. Yeah, yeah. It's the musicianship that really matters. So this is our introduction to Gowan, the first single from his, oh, it's his second studio album, but the first one I ever saw was this.

Yeah, no, this was, yeah. Was this 86? 85. 85. 85. Lead single from Strange Animal. Amazing. The second studio album from Lawrence Gowan.

But you can call me Larry. You can call me Larry. Now, this was a big hit in Canada, as you know. Number five in Canada. Wow. And this video was epic. I'm going to talk about the video in a minute, though. So my ears were listening to a lot of prog rock this last month,

but I wanted to play songs I liked. Like, you know, that FM song, I really, really liked that song. And I love this song, and it felt pretentious enough to be prog rock. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Like at least, if it's not classic prog rock, it's like, like you said, it's prog rock adjacent, like this element. I will go to the live stream in a minute because Tobias Vaughn and Canada Kev will let me know if I'm out to lunch on Gowan bean

Prog Rock. But, you know, we heard Leslie Taylor. Yeah, this specific song. We heard Leslie Taylor mentioned Sticks, right? Like early Sticks was Prague Rock. That was a big influence for me too, like in those days. Absolutely. Well, this song is how sticks, you know, got invited Gowen to fill in for Dennis to Young and do some shows. And of course, they loved a criminal mind. Thirty years later. Yeah. Yeah. I believe, I was trying to read, I believe, Well, they definitely still play it at most Canadian concerts.

So, like, most... Oh, he gets to do a... Oh, yeah, yeah. When he's with Sticks, he does one or two of his own songs. So at most Canadian concerts, you'll hear a criminal mind by Stix. Lead singer now is Gowan. And when he became a permanent record, I think their first concert together in 1999,

they performed Criminal Mind. That's cool. There you go. So, the video, we're all... Bob, you and our very similar vintage. Rob, you're a little older, but this video was like... Yeah, but I was making videos. I knew all about the video too.

Hold on, hold on. In fact, don't say anything when I say this name. I'm going to build something here. Rob Cortley. Rob Cortley directed the video for a criminal mind. It's a great fucking video. Great song, too. But I'm going to just really quickly play some other songs.

Rob Cortley directed videos for, okay? So it's like this is a little bit of Rob Cortley directing Canadian videos. in the 1980s. Are you guys ready? This guy loved Factor. You ready? Yeah, this is a big one here. So I'm not even going to let Gowan finish here, even though Roe Can Time. So this is a song, a song I quite like, FOTM band, as is Gowan. You should get Rob on the show.

I'm trying to remember this video. Yeah, the video I can't remember either. But this video was this great song, Blue Peters Don't Walk Past. The video was also directed by, Mr. Cortley, okay? So again, we're not going to spend too much time, but I see we have a few minutes here still. Here's another banger. Oh, I remember this video. This video, also directed by Rob Cortley.

Oh, here's a fun fact. So, you know, Jim Balance came in to help out Glass Tiger with this song, and that's why you hear Brian Adams. Right? Jim Balance, when Tears Are Not Enough was being put together, Jim Valance flew to, I think it was Frankfurt. Was it Frankfurt? I think it was somewhere in

Germany to record to get a recording of, to record, Bruce Coburn for tears are not enough. So Bruce couldn't

make it for the recording. So he did a little part in Germany. Hamburg, maybe? Quite of it

Hamburg. Yeah. Okay. So Jim Ballance then took that and brought it back to Canada on a plane.

All this is to say making his Toronto Mike debut in September Bruce Colburn. What? Wow. No way.

Are you serious? Would I build up and tell you that if I weren't being serious? Nice. Good for you. In September. Congratulations. See you in September. Bruce Coburn.

And I'm going to ask him quite a bit about Jim Balance. Wow. Come into Germany to record his part for tears and not enough. Wow. So Jim Balance made me think of that. And this song makes me think of Jim Balance. Okay. So others, this is Rob Cortley, right?

Rob Cortley. music director, extraordinary. He also directed this one. Video director. Video director. Toronto Rock staple. I can see this video

in my mind. Of course. By way, also an FOTM. So this is all of these songs are FOTM jams. Yeah. Except for the next few and then we'll get back

to FOTAMs. Okay, so Helix. Yeah. Love it. Rock you. Okay. Only much music power hour CD. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. So this might be the biggest at the mall. You ready for a big one? Do it. Tworrs. I loved this song. This guy's so much more than sunglasses at night. Yes.

Right. This song has a video. You probably saw it on much music. Directed by Rob Cortley. He invented Duckface. Corey Hart. Yeah. With sunglasses. And so he invented sunglasses too.

Yeah. It's a great song. And not in sunglasses at night, had a Lori Brown in the video. And she went on to Beyond Much Music. Yeah. Did I ever tell you that Corey Hart did me a huge favor? Tell me. Have I ever told you this?

So one of my best friends, Sarah, she's the same vintage as me. Her birthday's a week after mine. And I met her like through Jeff Merrick. Yeah. He texted with yesterday. Yeah. He was in London watching wrestling. And Jeff introduced me to Sarah.

Anyhow, Sarah is a massive Corey Hart fan. So for her 40th birthday, 10 years ago, I asked my friend Ken Green, who worked for Warner Music, Dr. Ken Green. And this is before, because he was working the Jonathan Waugh album, which was produced by, like, it's Patrick Waugh's son. Oh, okay. From the Montreal Canadiens.

So Corey Hart was producing Jonathan Waugh's album, and I was playing it, wherever, whatever station I was at, like Proud FM, not 10 years ago, I don't know, anyways,

I said, do you think, this is before cameo, do you think you could get just a quick video from Corey wishing my friend was like, she flew to Boston

to see one of his final concerts when he was supposed to be his final concert, and Corey did it. And not only did he do it for free, and we've never posted it on purpose. We said, we keep it private. He sang happy birthday to her.

And it's the best birthday gift I've ever given anybody. And so thank you. Shout out to Corey Hart for that and to Ken Green, formerly of Warner Music. And you know, Mark Wiseblatt will tell you he will affirm the tale, which is true, which is that Corey Hart, well aware of Toronto Mike almost came on one day.

Really? He might still. Yeah, he's a good dude. If he's in town, you never know, man. Yep. Because he also, cross your fingers. He came into Proud FM when he performed at the South Stage. Actually, I opened for him.

I DJed. Oh, really? And I opened for him. I DJed on the same stage as him. Okay, more Rob Cortley, okay? I'm going to do this with this show. Hold on that. All this directed by the same guy, all these videos.

First 45 I ever bought. And here's a, well, we'll let Platinum Blonde go for a moment. Not an FOTM band, but I'm working on it. A Bob's Baseman band. That's right. Yeah. No, he hasn't been on. You haven't had Mark Holmes on?

No, I've worked with him. I have his number. I've been, I did a live day. For some reason, I thought you had him on. No, no, no, no. I know him. I know him well. I've never made him here either.

I've DJed. I opened for him at the moment. He did a live to air that was on Proud FM. I produced it. Oh, wow. And know him very well. Never come on the podcast. So there's a band that's been Hanson, but they do have a great song with a video directed

by Rob Cortley. All right. Before you play that one? No, too late. Don't you say a word. Okay. The Big Money by Rush. Yes.

The video is directed by Rob Cortley. He's got to come on your show. You've got to get him on. Well. Look at these songs I'm playing. No. totally I'll email him. Does anybody know him? I don't. You know him?

So, a criminal mind, platinum blonde, Corey Hart, Helix, Glass Tiger, Blue Peter, Rush, Hanson today. Are there any other great Canadian bands that might have videos directed by Rob Cortley? Oh my. It was his second video ever. This is like his most iconic video, I would say. We gave him his skirt This is the subway one No, no, oh, sorry, okay, oh God

I thought it was the subway one Because he's just guerrilla directed that one Oh, sorry, sorry But this is the biggest, I'd say, the most The signature song, a spoon. Yeah. But the rantic traffic video sort of lives on more. Yeah, but yeah.

It kind of depends, yeah, like, yeah. Interesting, yeah. The video is more popular, but for songs. Right. Well, you know why? Because this was the early days of video. This was only Rob's second video, right? Wow.

And so this was before he did Blue Peter. So what do you remember about Rob Cortley directing the video for Nova Hart? I remember everything. He was amazing. It was like a being on a movie set because there was a lot of fucking dry ice everywhere. He was trying to create the effects. It was like, you know, it was the early 80s. It was the days of like mood lighting and like just really atmospheric kind of stuff

where you like have blinds and you'd have like lights coming through and stuff. So yeah, he did a whole concept like a whole treatment for it for like, like all the shots, you know, like a storyboard thing. And we just trusted him. And then we did our video for old emotions with him as well. Yeah. And he did a lot more platinum blonde videos. I only pulled the big songs from.

But can you remember what you said? His second video ever. Do you remember what his first video was? Yes, because I went to this place called Wikipedia. The first one was another Ready Records band called The Extras. And the extras was a really cool band. There's some good musicians in that band. They had a really cool album.

They did a video in 1980, which I don't even know if I, ever seen it. So we did the Nova Heart video at the fall of 82. It had already been up and down the charts, but we still wanted to do a video. A&M Records actually, in L.A., they had signed us. So they probably, I don't remember now, they probably funded the video, right?

So we made the video more for America, because it had already been a hit in Canada. I don't understand for the life of me how this wasn't hit in the United States of America. The Wikipedia page for the Spoons is very underrated. Very under-formed. Because first of all, it only has Canadian positions.

Yeah. And by the way, they say the peak was ARIAs and symphonies. No. The biggest one. This is 18. And then Nova Heart only 40. Well,

and no, that's bullshit. Yeah. I mean, although, although you know what, I think if you go across the country, it was different in pockets.

So, of course, in southern Ontario, we were much bigger. Yeah, yeah. So that's probably RPM. Yes.

So this is on RPM. And they're saying that romantic traffic only made it to 55 in Canada. I think that's true. This is like to me in hindsight. The video was popular for, at least for Toronto. Yeah.

So, Arias and symphonies, according to Wikipedia, is the biggest hit for Scoot. Well, that might be true. Well, it was the only song. Chuck Berry's biggest hit is my dingling. That's right. But Arias was the only song that was actually on a K-Tel record. Or Pearl Jam's biggest hit his last hit.

Pearl Jim's biggest hit, yeah, the most popular song. But when I saw Ari's and Symphony's on a K-Tel record, it was like sound explosion or one of those things. I was like, holy shit, we're like next to Rick Springfield or whatever. Madonna could have been on it or whatever. And of course, when Gord Dep. composed this song, wrote the song. What was he using?

What keyboard? What was he using? You just reminded me. He was using an old keyboard of mine. I know. That's because you told this story before. I'm setting you up for it. But you just reminded me that the guy who, so Gord auctioned off that keyboard

a couple of years ago. Even though it was yours. Well, yeah. I think he might have bought it for me from a couple of bucks. You can't. No, I know. It's like if Bob auctioned off the board I like you.

I know. That's true. That's true. But the guy who got the keyboard from Gord actually sent me a message on Facebook. like six months ago saying I'm sort of done with it if you want it you can have it

and I forgot I got to reach out to him I'm gonna get that keyboard back he probably already sold it no I don't think he has because I told him I want it you gotta reach it out yeah yeah I loan the keyboard to Gord he took it home

took it in his bedroom and he was 45 years ago this summer wow that he wrote over her it's so old well it's old but it's timeless

it's timeless you're talking about the song or the keyboard the keyboard the keyboard and the song he wrote the song yeah well the song too

it was the summer of 81 that we got together that he and I were like we need to add more keyboards to our songs. So he bore my keyboard and we went into our little rehearsal space. And I sat at my two keyboards and he had the keyboard and he didn't really play, but we sort of turned it into our songs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fun. Okay. Is it any more clear to us what Prague rock is? No, I think it's wider.

I think it's wider to me now. I think it's wider to me now. I think there's still a conversation to we had about overproduced pop versus prog rock. Of course. It was fun. I actually had a question of you, Bob. Yeah. That's related to Indy 88. Oh, sure. Electric Ballroom. Yeah, what about it? You had a morning where you were allowed to... I did it again this morning, too. You did this morning?

Yes, I did. Kiss 92.5 plays a DJ Climax mix every Friday morning, and it's rather popular. Monica's a big fan. Yep. Indy88 should have an electric ballroom Friday. You're not the only first person to say that. Every time I drop...

So there's three Fridays now. I've done it at 9.30. I drop a 20, 25-minute mix from... I call it the review preview. Oh, wow. So it's a little review of what I've played and previewing what's coming up the next night. To say the phone lines light up is an understatement. Wow.

Like so many texts into the station say this is a great way to start the week or the weekend, blah, blah, blah, blah. I did a, before the festival for only in order's carabana. I did a, I did a... Caribbean Carnival. Yeah. Is that what it's called now? Yeah, the Caribbean Carnival. It's a long story.

Okay. I did one with a bunch of dance hall in it. And then today I did one actually with a great in excess clash mash up. And I played, actually I played I Touch Roses by Book of Love. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Clash mash. I did a whole bunch of stuff. Anyways, it was great if I do say so myself.

And it was greatly received. You never know, maybe someday it will be a regular occurrence. I mentioned John Cleese earlier in this episode. Yes, you did. Because I was offered a phone call of John Cleese. if I could keep it under 20 minutes. And I thought 86-year-old Monty Python founder, John Cleese,

I would actually do that. For sure, you would. If you turned that down... I said no to some interesting things. I would... If you turned that down, this isn't somebody who has a show on CTV. This is fucking John Cleese.

Did you turn it down? No. Have you been offered it? Yes. Is it booked? Looks like we're going to record it on August 28. No. Good for you.

Good for you. That's so cool. We just bought my father. My father-in-law just turned 78. Wow. And we just bought him tickets to go see the... Holy Grail. Yeah, the Holy Grail. That's the one he's promoting.

Yeah, yeah. So we've already... So I gotta do that whole 20 minutes, and I got to promote his shit. And remember, it's an 86-year-old legend and get in all my... Do it. Well, you know what?

My Chuck D. interview. Indirectly related? Chuck was in person. I appreciate you having inserted commercials into your podcast now when I listen, and I have, like, skip 30 seconds, whatever? Well, Patreon people do not have to hear those. I'm not going to pay... What?

I don't have. Five bucks a month. The Patreon people, you cut out the live? No, the live reads are in there. It's the programmatic ads that are not heard in the Patreon version. But good for you to do that. I mean, I think it's great. Because financially, it helps. I think it's, I don't mind it at all.

Oh, is this Prague rock? It is. And there's a little old emotions in there, too. Yeah. And then Prague, Mr. Dress-up. This was great. I'm going to do a quick extra, but you guys were fantastic. And thank you to tie the Christmas guy.

Well, my next episode, oh, next month. Well, whose topic? It's yours. I'm going to write out. No, it's not. I did the 90s Oh right And I did this

So it's you Rob what do you want Quick Oh he doesn't have to make it now Well I'll do the extra And then you can tell us in And that brings us to the end Of our 1,956 show

Go to Toronto mic com for all your Toronto mic needs And much love to all who made this possible That is Great Lakes brewery I thoroughly enjoyed my sunny side Palma pasta Toronto Maple Leafs baseball Nick Ieinees Recycle my electronics.ca

And Ridley Funeral Home I'm recording again at 4.15 with Lana Turner and we're about to find out from Rob Pruse what the next toast topic is. Songs about home. Songs about home. All right. That's awfully

broad. You don't want to songs about home. All right everybody. Home jams. Home jams. Home jams. I like it.