Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Robert Priest: Toronto Mike'd #1294

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

In this 1294th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Poet, Author, Singer and Songwriter Robert Priest about co-writing an Alannah Myles hit, working with Bob Wiseman, writing with Julian Taylor and so much more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1294 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

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You need the Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today. Making his Toronto Mike's debut, is poet, author, singer, songwriter. That's not four people. That describes my guest, Robert Priest. Welcome, Robert.

Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. I ran down that list. You're a poet, and I didn't even know it. So much ground I want to cover with you, but here's like a little teaser as we sort of walk through your career, Robert. But you have written, okay, tell me if I need to update my bio here.

You've written 18 books of poetry. Is it still 18? Well, maybe, because there's four novels, so let's see if we're at 22. Yeah, I is it still 18 um well maybe because there's four novels so let's see for 22 yeah i think it's 18 it might be 19 but some of the some of them are just picture books like with little made of one verse with pictures for little kids so it sounds better than it is okay well i don't want to do the russian dolls thing here i got 18 books of poetry. I have four children's novels. Yeah. Four children's albums. Yeah. Do you know what I want to say? My mouth

always, and I said the word album like several times in the last episode or two. I want to say album like pablum. Pablum, right. Yeah, I know. Naturally, I want to say album, which is ridiculous. There's no L there. I know that. So I have to consciously, when I say the word album, I have to consciously like remove the second l that doesn't exist from album ah

if you say love of then you could just migrate the l to the of and it could be love okay where have you been all my life please okay but i'm not even done yet okay okay? Six CDs of songs and poems. That's a wealth of work. Yeah. A great catalog there. But the 18 books of poetry, where do I begin with you? Maybe we begin in England, only because I noticed you're born in England,

and recent guests, Simon Law, Vernon Reed, and Roger Christian, all born in England as well. Where were you born? Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. So 45 minutes from London, I say. Okay, well, I know where London is. Okay, I've been to the airport. I never got out of the airport, though. I got to get out of the airport, right?

I got to get back there. Yeah, I think so. When were you last over there? I think it was maybe eight years ago. I did a little tour there. But you have no accent. I'm listening now. Now, Vernon Reed, he was very young when he moved to the United States.

But Simon Law, Roger Christian, born and raised in England, they have accents. When did you move to Canada? I moved here when I was four. That'll do it. Yeah. That'll do it. Yeah. That'll do it. The Canadians just wiped that accent out. They said, let's get rid of that.

So what brought your family to Canada? Well, if I've been flipping, I could say the Ascania, which was the name of the ship we came on. Do it. Be flipping. Yeah, it was a great big, I remember it fairly clearly, a great big ocean-going ship. But I would say it would be the opportunity.

After the war in England, we were still on rationing, food rationing in the late 40s, early 50s, and jobs, etc. So that's, they made, my grandmother was here and grandfather, so that's what prompted it all. Okay, now curious, only curious, because two days ago, Paul Langlois from the Tragically Hip was here, and he brought his guitar.

He played live. It was great. You brought your guitar, so later we're going to get another live performance down here, which is amazing. But do you have any tragically hip connection over your many decades? Well, you know, he lived,

I used to live in the Bain Co-op and there's a park on the end, the Withrow Park, and he lived across there. So I would see him, you know, and nod and the odd exchange, but nothing other than that, really. Okay. You never know who's got a hip connection.

So you got to ask the question, right? For sure. Well, here's a gentleman I know you have a connection to. Blair Packham. What are your feelings about Blair? This is the big hot seat question. How do you feel about Blair Packham? How do I feel?

I've known Blair since he was probably in his early 20s. I was a big fan of the Jitters. I still am. So I used to go and see them live and marvel at, well, it was a great band for just, you know, for partying, but at the songwriting. So my first deeper impression of him at that time was, wow, this guy's good. You know, he's got a sense of melody. He's got a sense of lyric.

He can sing. And I was more friends at that time with Danny Levy, the rhythm guitar player. But, you know, over the past four decades or so, I've gotten to know Blair. And I consider him a friend and still a very talented guy and you know a good human being I guess. Yes he's a sweetheart. He is. So he texted me one day and said have you had Robert Priest on your program yet and I replied not yet and he said I should rectify that immediately and here you are so that's all because of Blair. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, he referred to me once

as the criminally underrated Robert Priest. So, you know, he wasn't already in my good books. Well, hey, we're going to do our best to rectify that today because, you know, a number of people always ask, who's up next, right? And you say a name like, I don't know, you say Paul Langlois. And then everybody's like, oh, Paul Langlois. I love the Tragically Hip or whatever. And with with robert priest it's like if you're an insider like

those who know know but if you're around the periphery or outside uh that might be a new name to you so i i really like i'm gonna treat this episode as robert priest 101 essentially all right we're gonna educate okay so i asked bla asked Blair if he had any questions for you because he suggested you come on, and he just wanted to get you talking about your first album. See, I consciously removed that second L, but your first album is called The Robert Priest EP. Yes.

This came out, I believe, in 1980. The jitters play on this album. That's right. Yeah, it was fantastic. You sound like you forgot. Did 1980. The Jitters play on this album. That's right. Yeah, it was fantastic. You sound like you forgot. Did you forget the Jitters play on it? Just for this little moment as we're reviewing stuff. But no, that was quite a thing.

That, you know, again, through my friends, the friendship with Danny and I, the songs that were on it, there was one song, Little Gun, which was related to the John Lennon assassination. And, you know, he was, Danny was quite encouraging to me and he managed to pull that off that we got the whole jitters in the studio. And we did all four songs right off the floor. Not me, I did a ghost vocal, but yeah, so I just, you know, rock. I like to rock, and you wouldn't have got a better rock foundation than those guys.

Yeah, they're fantastic. And he also points out, produced by Keith Elshaw. Right. Keith was a DJ at the time on Q107, and my earlier band, the Death Aids, had entered a song into the Homegrown contest called A Long Way to My Knees, and somehow we got on that album.

It was the first thing I ever recorded, and I sort of finished it, dropped it off at Q107, and I got home, and they were playing it, I swear. Wow. So I said, whoa, I'm off to a good start. The good old days. Yeah. Try doing that today.

I know. Keith was the DJ there, and he was particularly taken with it all. So yeah, he came on board to produce that EP and managed eventually to raise the money to press it and everything. So you didn't win that homegrown contest? There was no winner that year. Oh. So sometimes I say I did.

Like, who's going to doubt you? Yeah, exactly. They go to Wikipedia. It was a big tie, right? It was a big tie. Oh, man, it was Sago. What are you talking about? It's all right here on Wikipedia.

But am I right in remembering that the jitters did win that contest one year hmm like i guess uh blair will text me when he hears this to let me know but i have uh memories of like um last of the red hot fools maybe like winning the or at least was a final contender maybe i i don't specifically remember that, although that would have been in the later 80s, I guess, if it did happen. Yeah, like maybe mid-80s or something. Yeah, so Q107, it slipped off my radar by that point. Right, so I was just like, every day I go to see,

oh, who was on Toronto Mic on this day in history, essentially? And I saw that in 2018, on this day in history, essentially. And I saw that on, in 2018 on this day, John Donabee dropped by and, uh, and I just was tweeting about it. And then I thought, Oh,

I'll tweet all the stations. Cause he's, he's been around and we were talking about his stops at various Toronto stations. And I thought, I'll just stick the call letters in this tweet. I almost ran out of characters. Q's on that list.

He's an OG from, uh, Q107. I think Dave Charles brought him on like for day one or something but q yeah the mighty q uh i think uh born in like 77 i want to say maybe around the same time as the toronto blue jays but uh makes sense yeah yeah we you know going back if you wanted to hear you know rock and roll uh chum fm was playing rock at that time but you basically had your two options unless oh cf and y had like an alternative rock going on right but you had

your q and you had your chum fm and then uh cf and y yep that was the case that was gary slate at the time right i hardly knew how important he was but there you go there you go shout out to gary slate i hear he's got a few bucks lying around i heard that we're gonna tap into that okay so i hear that i left my uh i left my dehumidifier on which is a big mistake so what i'm gonna do if you don't mind i'm gonna play a song yeah so i can run over and turn this thing off and then i want to ask you about this song this is not a song that you're singing on but it's a song people will know and i know there's got to be a story behind this so let's listen to elena miles ¶¶ With this intro, I could have gone for a bike ride. I forgot there's a long build-up here. Okay, lots of time to turn off all the dehumidifiers, but here we go. © transcript Emily Beynon song instead of a kiss

baby this is a song instead of a kiss For all of you who ache, who long for nights like this A song instead of a touch. Darling, this is a song instead of a touch. To all of you who wait so long for me so much. It is for those who love to cling. It is to those, to those I sing

Here is a song instead of a pitch Instead of a move Instead of a soothing touch In the afternoon I don't even want to talk over this. Very beautiful. Now, what is your relation, Robert Priest, to this Atlanta Miles hit song,

Instead of a Kiss? Well, I wrote the lyric. Yeah, I basically, I was friends with, and still am, with a songwriter, a singer named Nancy Simmons, and she was doing me the favor of singing backup in my band, the great big face band in the early 80s,

and she was good friends with Alana. So one day I met Alana Miles, and we formed a friendship. But I wasn't writing with Alana at the time. I was writing with Nancy. And later I mailed that lyric to Nancy, who was living in California. And I forgot about it. You know, it was like one of many lyrics. And one day I get,

and so, you know, I had formed this friendship with Alana. I kind of knew she's a wacky, humorous person at times. And one day I get this call from somebody and it sounded like somebody, you know, who'd smoked 10 packs of cigarettes calling from Newfoundland.

She strung me along for quite a while. But then she said, oh, you've got the next single on my... And she'd just had the worldwide hit with Black Velvet. Yeah. So, yeah, she'd put it to music. It was during the... She'd been in love with and in a relationship with Robert Plant. And that had ended and she was heartbroken.

And she and Nancy had been trying to write songs on some island and had not had much luck. And Nancy pulled out that lyric. Yeah. And Alana said, go. And Nancy just started to play and Alana sang it. And there it was. Okay.

Well, that's a, that's a big hit. That was a number one hit. Yeah. And I have here in my notes that it, it won the SoCan Airplay Award, I guess, for Song of the Year, I suppose. Song instead of a kiss. Just take that accolade. Yeah, it was nice. A nice thing on your resume

for a poet. I was going to say, so I know we're skipping all over, so you're going to have to set me straight on all things Robert Priest, but a fun fact for you

is that Atlanta Miles, her real name is Atlanta Biles with a B. That's correct. You knew that, right? I didn't know that. I couldn't stump you on that one. That's a fun fact.

I like to blow minds with these facts. Okay, like when I tell people, Lee Aaron was the name of the band. Her name is Karen. Lee Aaron, she took the name of the band like Alice Cooper. Uh-huh, right, right. Okay, if you have any fun facts, just spit it into the microphone.

I think Biles was deemed to be, you know, not a lubricating type of last name to issue one into the public notice. But her father was, I guess, a big famous guy in the can content regulations things. Like, you know, it's an honorable name, if not particularly musical. Yeah, no doubt. Now, I wonder if we could have like a sliding door alternative history. Would Black Velvet have been

the worldwide smash it was if it was recorded by Alanna Biles? Boy. It's a good conversation. I don't know. Yeah, that's a very, I mean, I think it's a great song. It's my favorite song about Elvis for sure.

And she sings the hell out of it. But, you know, these things are predicated on such chance, you know, joints, you know, so who knows? But I would certainly hope so. One would like to think that great songs are destined, but I know some great songs that you've never heard of, so who knows? Right, who knows? Right.

Who knows if Atlanta Biles would have been as successful. Now, I do want to shout out FOTM, Christopher Ward. I know he was a big co-writer there. I think he was dating Atlanta at the time. But Christopher Ward and FOTM, Robert Priest, you're now an FOTM. That's Friend of Toronto Mike. Ah, okay. Which comes with gifts, which I'll give you very shortly.

That's not just a title you can wear proudly. That also comes with gifts, which I'll give you very shortly. That's not just a title you can wear proudly. That also comes with gifts here. But when I listened to, you wrote the lyric, but a song instead of a kiss, the song, the melody, if you will, has a very Stairway to Heaven vibe to it. You notice that. You can't miss it, right? Yes, yeah. It hits you in the head.

It's like, oh, it's very Zeppelin-esque here. Yeah. So that's the, well, a lot of that is, you know, give credit to Dave Tyson, who was the producer and who did all that orchestration and arrangement. But of course, yeah, it was coming out of the relationship between. He's got a song, Robert Plant has a song, where he refers to some lover's velvet voice.

Wow. Yeah. Okay, we know who that is. Yes, yeah. It's interesting. She has that relationship with Robert Plant and then gets the lyric from Robert Priest. Yes. Born in England, Robert Pease.

Okay. Yeah, I know. We noticed that. And I think I'm pretty much the same age as he is. Okay. So in my own alt-universe life where I didn't have to leave England, you know, I project myself sometimes offensively into that league. Okay, now, poet, musician, where should I start with you?

I'll tell you, I did load up songs, but I'm not sure they're in chronological order. It's kind of a hodgepodge. Could I play something, and then maybe you tell me what I'm playing? Sure. This is a fun game. Can Robert Priest identify the song I'm playing now? Okay, so I'm going to start with this.

I'm going to look at your face to hear a reaction. Let me see a reaction. Oh, I know what that is. Good, I haven't stumped you yet. Another big intro. We should be hitting the post on these things. Yeah. And he thinks it's a comedy But he makes my life misery First he hits the bottle Then he comes for me

Just look at this house On this quiet little street It seems so serene But if you looked inside it would make you cry for all the pain that's been And I'm feeling so ashamed I feel like I'm to blame

Trying to make it better It just isn't safe I wanna talk to someone I don't know if I can tell someone Who would understand Tell someone Don't know what to say I don't know who to talk to

Turn away Money stayed home Okay, not to be confused with FOTM, Sass Jordans, Tell Somebody, this is Tell Someone. Tell us what we're listening to. Well, actually it was commissioned to write that song. It was an organization that was trying to outreach to basically kids who are in the situation that you hear there, where I guess there's somebody with an alcohol or drug problem who's wrecking everybody else's life.

And yeah, they commissioned me to write it. So that's not my particular story, by the way. But I read all about it and wrote the song. And it came with a budget to produce in, I can't remember the name of that, some big studio. Those drums, if they were real drums, would have to be Castle High, I think. And what year are we? I mean, it sounds of an era, but what year are we in here? I would say maybe 88. I could be wrong.

Yeah, and it did get, there was a video as well done by Barry Stone, and it did get played a bit on Much Music. I don't know. I hope maybe it reached somebody. That was its purpose.

I was into it, but I also liked getting paid to write a song. Getting paid. It's funny, I'm coming off. So last night I went to Hyde Park, watched my daughter play soccer, and then rushed home to chat up a stand-up comic named Simon Rakoff.

And Simon basically has a legitimate beef with Just for Laughs. And he sees independent comics in this country getting squeezed by this for-profit almost I won't say monopoly, but they control a lot of parts of the Canadian

comedy scene. And he, we chatted for like an hour about his beef with, so I called the episode simon rackoff versus um just for laughs but you know he was painting a picture of how incredibly difficult it is for independent comics in this uh country to make a living and we went you know he was very uh well spoken he was very eloquent but what's it like uh like what's it like to be a poet in this country is it what's better to be a poet in this country? What's better, to be the poet,

if you were to judge somebody by their bank account, which you should never ever do, but what's better, to be a poet or a stand-up comic? Well, I would, of course, rather be a poet, but I'm a big admirer of stand-up, and particularly the terrain that it's pitched for itself. You know, idealistically, poetry has the same kind of possible variation

and reach and, you know, filth and splendor and beauty as stand-up comedy does, but, you know, in the power centers of that, whatever that means, they don't take much advantage of that. So I always look to comedy to, you know, why don't we have, you know, I do, of course, but why don't we, in general, why aren't we into the dark and the dirt and the filth

as well as the ordinary and the static? But, yeah, I would think at least with being a stand-up comic, there is an avenue to making a good wage. You've got to work your ass off and be as callous as hell, I think, just to bear the lifestyle. But if you were just looking at the finances of it, you probably have a better chance at an income over many years being a stand-up comedy a comic are there uh government grants

available to artists such as yourself yeah there definitely are um although uh mr ford just cut the ontario arts council by a third third. But there are grants. And so I've had the good fortune of setting out at the age of 19 or 20 to be a poet. And partly through receiving grants, initially just small grants, but to do this all my life, including the songwriting.

In fact, I think it was a poetry grant that funded my first ep um you know so you can get the jitters on there yes exactly not that i paid them but uh yeah that was the studio costs and all so right you know there are there is one huge prize whose name i won't mention in poetry poetry that is now $135,000 for one poet somewhere in the world. So, you know, I don't know what the, if you average that out over the, you know, million other poets, it's, you know, not huge. But you can get grants that help your income. You can't rely on it. Okay, I appreciate you shedding a light on this stuff.

I'm only now realizing how little I know about the inner workings of all this. It's fascinating to me. Now, what's also fascinating is you said you were like 18 when you became 19. Where did that come from? Maybe give me the origin story of Robert Priest, the literary poet. Sure. did that come from like maybe give me the uh the origin story of robert priest the uh literary poet sure well you know from the age of eight um i knew i would be a writer um and i in a you know kind of i hope it's not terribly egotistical to say but i thought i'm somebody you know i'm special wait and see so you know i know that story is common to many people, some who go on to be somebody and some who perhaps don't.

But so that was my set destiny from that early age. And I wrote, you know, somewhat as a student and into high school. But come university time, I was really good at math. city time, I was really good at math. And so my plan was I'd go to Waterloo, get a math degree, go into law, become a lawyer, get into politics, become prime minister of Canada. And then after that, I would write. I feel like you have a good name for like a,

Robert Priest to me sounds like he would be like the prime minister of Canada. Thank you. It's not too late, you know. I made the wrong choice. Yeah, but I got into university. It was a four-month thing where then you go to work for four months. And in the four months off, I fell amongst writers. I started a little bit into the herb.

And the writing thing just totally blossomed. I couldn't leave it. I didn't go back to school. And it wasn't like a moment where I made a decision. But it's been since then, since I was 19. It was just even more in my face, more permeating that that's what I do. It's totally obvious. It's natural. There's no way I can't do this. So that's where I was. You were a poet and now you know it. You can can borrow that by the way

thank you very much but so i understand so the poetry and i want to ask you about uh doctor poetry in a minute oh yeah sure but the poetry and then there's the the music like is it just it was a natural compliment i know you brought a guitar like not all poets uh play guitar right i i wish more well maybe i shouldn't that, but I do encourage other poets to, why don't you extend your practice into writing lyrics? Yeah, really. I mean, where were we? Right.

So I was 12 when The Beatles came out, and it really hadn't occurred to me that people write songs. I don't know why. But, you know, the big thing was that they wrote their songs. And I thought, I wonder if I can write songs. And one day I was following Oriole Wallace, a post-pubescent young lady in grade eight, and I was about four foot two.

And I had a huge crush on her. And walking along behind her, I wrote in my head my first song. You know, and so I thought, I thought I guess I can do that um and it didn't become as as regular a part of my life at that point as it would when I got to be about 20 um at which point yeah it just seemed and this wasn't unusual in the era that you had Jim Morrison and people like that, who were, you know, John Lennon, who were very much at the intersection of poetry and music. Well, there's a guy I want to ask you about.

So I have a song for it, too. So put a pin in that, because I want to ask you about somebody at the intersection. Here we go. Last night I was listening to a Leonard Cohen song. I lifted the needle, went into the street, my fingers still trailing sweet strands of that last melody. And it moved in my heart like a wind from the sea. away from the sea When this song is it's not over

When this song is it's not over now It's not over now I had seven lovers they're all named Suzanne I'm forever saved so long to girls named Marianne. Oh, if you ever heard him, then you understand.

When his song ends, it's not over. When his song ends, it's not over now. It's not over now It's not over now Open this gift and this gift opens you The darkness may lift or the song makes it true If midnight is coming then morning is too In any case sing it Cause either or both might be true

Oh, love is a wire and also a bird Tries in its way to be free As it tries to be heard Oh, he gave us his heart So I give you my word When it's long and it's not over So I give you my word. When it's long and it's not over. When it's long and it's not over. Nine to the nine to the nine.

It's not over now. Everybody. When it's long and it's not over. When it's long and it's not over. When his song is, it's not over. Na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na. It's not over now. now Leonard Cohen song

oh thank you for playing that I quite love singing that song well if you were to ask me to name a poet who is also a musician I think Leonard's my first thought well it was always Bob Dylan but I always think Leonard Cohen he's kind of a poet who became a singer.

That's right. That he began as, let's say, a book poet, which he was very good at, and a novelist, and was already famous for that. But he did know how to play the guitar. He'd taken lessons, so he had some capability on the guitar. And he didn't really get into the guitar. He'd taken lessons, so he had some capability on the guitar. And he didn't really get into the recording studio until after he was 30. Right.

And you start with songs like Suzanne and Sisters of Mercy, et cetera. No, he's, yeah, I'm quite a fan. Every once in a while, I just, OK, I'm going to go read some Leonard Cohen lyrics just to kick my ass. And he kept writing great way into old age up until probably the day he died. And it's very elegant stuff. I think if we were to compare him with Dylan, Dylan, no doubt a genius, wrote some great poetic songs. But if you read them, some of them are a bit awkward and choppy.

And, you know, he says if-en. But Cohen, yeah, big fan. And who's with you on that song? Well, that's me in my living room into my cell phone, singing with guitar and video, and then passing it around to a bunch of people. So to Bob Cohen and his partner, Charmaine Lewis. Any relation there?

Bob Cohen? Oh, you're up on your language skills. He's in my band, so we often play with that, that he's a Cohen, which is a Jewish priest, and I'm a priest. Let's see who else is on it. Well, the guy who co-wrote it, who writes lots of my melodies, Alan Booth is on it. My wife, Marsh, is on it. Okay, cool.

Yeah. Okay, because it sounds pretty good for just kind of recording in your living room. Yeah, yeah, these days, boy. All right. All right, we're going to go back again. We're all over the place chronologically, but that doesn't matter. It kind of makes it more interesting, like a Tar days, boy. All right. All right, we're going to go back again, roll over the place chronologically, but that doesn't matter. It kind of makes it more interesting,

like a Tarantino film. Yeah. Dr. Poetry. I am. Talk to me about Dr. Poetry. Well, I began as, it began, I think, with my business card, which was Song Doctor,

and I would pass it out and hope that people would call me in to finish off their lyrics, which some did. But my good friend and now Toronto Poet Laureate, Lillian Allen, who really pulls people and stuff together, got a show on CBC called Word Beat. And she just came to me and she said, you're going to be on the show. You're going to be a character named Dr. Poetry.

And I just want you to write prescriptive stuff. So she just handed me this lovely gig, which again, I don't say I got paid royally, but I did get paid. Well, that's something in Canadian media. Yeah. And it was like once a week I would go down to CBC and I would have just written something

and record it in this kind of doctorly kind of way and often satirical stuff. Yeah. And it's like, wow, this is coast to coast. You know, it was like, this is... It's a big deal. You know, my big ambition is to have readers. I mean, money is also nice, but, you know, it's like,

I just want people to know the work. So this was like, what a thrill that, you know, across the country. Now, it doesn't please the people I've referred to as the power center who, you know, tend to read in monotones, et cetera, to have someone, you know, being humorous and, you know, using more than two musical notes, but they weren't going to love me anyway. I read in one biography of you, I was reading online talked about how you'd been quoted in the farmer's

almanac. Yes. What's that story? So my idea of poetry extends to like what's called prose poems all the way down to micro poems, which one would call aphorisms and stuff like that. And all of my books have these little, you know, one line things. And so this just came out of the blue that the farmers almanac called me or wrote me probably at that, in that distant age. And I think the one they wanted was a people begin as dreams and end as

memories. I know that's in there. I think there's some others in there too, but I can't quite remember. Okay, cool. And then the other interesting note in the bio that I need some explanation of is that you were debated in the Ontario legislature. Right. Yeah, well, during the Harris years,

I have despised a bunch of politicians in my time, but I don't know if I've really despised anyone more than Mike Harris for his, you know, welfare mother beating ways. So with my co-writer, Alan Booth, we wrote a song called Free Toronto. And it was, you know, just childish. It was like playing with his name, harassing the poor and someone whose name, Palladini is a weenie blah blah blah you know and then and then if we're free you know free oh sorry it was called free Ontario pardon me and I sang that at several protests and I guess and

there was one night where I know I was backed by the guy from the from the bare-naked Ladies and some other. Ed Robertson, Stephen Page, which, who are we talking about here? Oh, no. Oh, man, I know. Tyler Stewart. No, the guy who wrote the, the other guy who's not in it anymore. Oh, that's Stephen Page.

Stephen Page. Yeah, yeah. FOTM Stephen Page, Robert. Right. My, my favorite Bare Naked Lady. And it got into the hand. Oh, oh, Robert. Right. My favorite bare naked lady. And it got into the hand. Oh, right. Okay.

So then the guy from the NDP was there and he's in the legislature and it was during the, what do you call it when you just keep speaking and speaking? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That thing. That thing. I'll get that name. I know it. We'll remember in a second.

So they were just, you know, holding the floor on the other side and talking and talking and talking. So this guy from the NDP got up. Filibuster. Filibuster. Yeah. That's it. I didn't even, by the way, I did not have to Google that.

I just wanted, for my own edification. I didn't see it either. I didn't get there. It came into my head. I wasn't aware of it. So as part of the filibuster, this guy said, I'd like to quote a lyric by the poet Robert Priest, and he started to read the lyric in which he says,

Palladini's a weenie, and et cetera, et cetera. And even though it's part of a filibuster, Palladini, point of order! And he gets up and he says how it's disgraceful, et cetera, and he helps extend the filibuster in protest against my poem so I was told every Palladini

would be a pal of mine right yeah Shadow to Ridley Funeral Home he's no longer with us speaking of no longer with us were you friendly with Mendelssohn Joe? Very friendly with Mendelssohn Joe he was you know you could certainly call him a mentor to me with us. Were you friendly with Mendelssohn Joe? Very friendly with Mendelssohn Joe.

He was, you know, you could certainly call him a mentor to me. And I mean, my friendship wasn't based on his help, but he gave me so much help by trading paintings for studio time and videos and dentistry and stuff like that. And of

course, I'm a fan of his work and his painting and we would have dinners and jolly good time. He was very good company and a brilliant guy. Well, there's going to be more Mendelssohn Joe talk on Toronto Mic later this month when Bob Wiseman drops by. And by the way, I'm going to bring up Bob later when I'm going to play another song from you and Bob's going to come up on that and I'm going to ask you about him. But Mendelssohn Joe, a guy who I never did get on this program, but always like a mythical character in this city.

I mean, I would see him, I'd bike by him. He was just, you know, you'd see him on, I guess it was Much Music. You'd see him on Much Music and it was like, oh, Mendelssohn Joe. It was like, oh, this. And then suddenly, my memory is that he was no longer around. And I didn't hear much about Mendelssohn Joe for a long time.

And now we've lost Mendelssohn Joe. Yeah. Well, when you weren't seeing him around, that's because he moved up to Emsdale. And basically became a hermit in the wilds there, kept up his painting and his songwriting, having a good time until he didn't. Yeah, so many talented people about

that you just don't have the level of fame as like a bare naked lady, for example. When you said Mike Harris, you're talking Mike Harris, I was thinking of the real static song. It's a bad time to be poor. Right. Shout out to FOTM Dave. Okay.

But another guy in that vein who came over recently, also a friend of Blair. I feel like Blair is friendly of all these cool cats, but Kurt Swinghammer. Any interactions with Kurt Swinghammer? Yeah. More, more recently than previously,

but he did design the cover of, I guess it was a tape called Rottweiler Pacifist that was put out by the Music Gallery, which was again, poems and music recorded in the same kind of issue. And of course, I love his painting. Wow, he's doing some paintings now that I think are really sensational. I hope he's getting attention for them. And the music. So yeah, another super talented guy, right? Yeah, much like yourself.

A poet. I'm going to play a couple more things and you brought a guitar, so I'm going to make you sing for your supper. But speaking of Kurt Swinghammer, I looked over to my right, I see the Shuffle Demons disc that Richard Underhill brought,

brought over just a couple of weeks ago. And it was Kurt Swinghammer who designed like the, the Shuffle Demons, like suits from the Spadina Bus days. Like it's just everything kind of connects. Wow. It's just fascinating.

Okay. So I'm going to play this, but just before I play it, I want to let you know uh robert that i have a uh lasagna for you courtesy of palma pasta and i urge everyone listening to go to palmapasta.com four locations uh three are in mississauga one's in oakville and uh home of uh you know at least one TMLX event every year. So we love Palma Pasta on this show. So there's a lasagna for you, Robert.

Wonderful. Shout out to Great Lakes Brewery, who sent over some fresh craft beer for you. So Great Lakes beer also for you, Robert. But I want to just say that they're going to host, so Great Lakes Brewery, they have a location in southern Etobicoke. They're going to host TMLX 13

which is the 13th Toronto Mic Listener Experience and that's going to be held the last day of August, so I believe that's August 31st from 6 to 9pm at GLB, they're going to buy you your first drink and Palma Pasta is going to feed us so Robert, you're invited to that

of course, I hope to get Blair out for that. He's been to some TMLX events, but that'll be wild. So that's the last day of August. And then I want everybody to know about a event. This is not a Toronto Mic'd event, but I'm going to be there. But there's a big event called Getting Hip to the Hip. We mentioned the Tragically Hip earlier. This is going to take place September 1st at the Rec Room downtown.

And it is an evening for the Downey Wenjack Fund. And you can go to gettinghiptothehip.com to get more details. There's a hip cover band and a live recording. And there's a lot of cool stuff happening that night. And you can use the promo code FOTM10 and you save 10%. So FOTM10 at getting hip to the hip.com.

All right, Robert, you mentioned Harris and then we talked about free Ontario and then I dropped the, the great real static song. It's a bad time to be poor. Let me just play this and tell me what this is. We can put a man on the moon,

but we can't stop the war on the poor. If wishes were horses, beggars would stop the war on the poor. Don't pick your nose. Your eyes will stop the war on the poor if wishes were horses beggars would stop the war on the poor don't pick your nose your eyes will stop the war on the poor spare the rod and stop the war on the poor forgive and stop the war on the poor takes a lot to laugh but it takes a train to stop the war on the poor you know i like this new stainless steel razor blade so much i had to go out and stop the war on the poor Now of course we're listening to headphones

And now I realize it's only coming in the right channel And if I had noticed that earlier I would have fixed it But regardless, what is that? Well that's from a series of videos that I did with The same guy I write songs with, Alan Booth Which we called Time Release Videos And that was me in some park And him filming me the same guy who writes songs with Alan Booth, which we called Time Release Videos. And that was me in some park and him filming me.

And I mean, the basis of that construction is when you go to protests and they do that, one, two, three, four, we've got roves, it drives me crazy. It just seems so brain dead. So I was always looking at, you know, could we have more playful ways of inserting our protests? So I just, you know, as you can tell, took already existing, you know, song titles and statements

and truncated them and added my, which I call a meme splice, where you take basically a meme and like a gene splice and you inject new material into it so that was one of those videos how do you decide if you're going to be an adult poet or a children's poet like and where does that split come from like where does all the children's poetry and uh books come from well certainly as a child um it was children's novels that that really tweaked me and and um i you know my big ambition among, was to write for children. So that was always there as a main part of my ambition.

But it really kicked in when I got with my present partner, Marcia Kersner. And she still has, but he's much older now, a son who was six. And he was into Star Wars, and I would, can I write you a poem, you know, and trying to impress him. And so it was really just a very integral part of my everyday life to write. And what's different, of course, most of it at that time, and still is, would be structured rhyming poetry, which is a good friend of the song lyric form.

Right. And then when we had our own children, and they were much younger, and I got introduced to picture books and those kind of sweet little things for little kids, and it was like, wow, this is art. I see this as art. And so can I do this?

And that began another stream of my creativity there. And it's remained part of my practice, partly, I guess, from my own children, but also I began to go into schools and do poetry with students of various ages. So I guess to answer your question, it becomes a decision. Or there might be a moment of just, wow, here's an inspiration, you got to go with it. But these days, as far, you know, just in the whole practice, songs, poems,

it does become more of a determination. Today, I will, you know, get back into my room and write. And, you know, I'm on a project, I'm going to write that project, but I might diverge and write something else. And you got to sing on the show that practically raised me. You got to sing on Sesame Street? Yes, I did. Okay, I need that story. Well, there was a division of Sesame Street, excuse me, called Sesame Park, which, which functioned out of the CBC. And I guess I just went in there and pitched myself. And, uh, so they got me, uh, to do some videos. Uh, initially

they wanted me to write about racism. And I said, you know, I don't think just blaring at children, don't be racist. It's going to be any good just show children playing together you know but anyways they i did something about home something about safety um wrote with i think pretty much with my friend alan booth again and then they paid and we did videos and they were popular so they got migrated to sesame street in the states. And just to answer the question that many little children do ask me is, no, I did not meet Big Bird. Right? But that was really a thrill. And in fact, there was one of them where I played with my now 39-year-old son

in his second year in a park. And so that's really, you know know it's very sweet in my memory here's some high praise from uh literature critic michelle landsberg okay oh yeah his poetry for children is almost miraculous it is almost pure celebration it's high praise yes oh yeah no and then and it's not like you know she i grew up with her or anything she's uh she's the the doyen of music of children's writing in canada uh the wife of stephen lewis um yeah um that thrills me that was um and in fact there had been a book day songs night songs which was a picture book for little kids and that was the book she was referring to and i had bought they were going to sell it to me cheap or you know

have it remaindered and i bought 1300 copies of it and they remained on my stairs for about 10 years and then she discovered that book and wrote that review. And suddenly the publisher calls me and says, do you have any of those left? And I got rid of all of them. I should have upped the price, but the same price I bought them for. And they all sold, 1,300 books gone on the whim of her word. That's powerful. Oh, it was lovely.

But I wish I had some now. I have one more gift for you here. See here, this is a flashlight courtesy of ridley funeral home you're a bright guy and now you'll be even brighter with that flashlight there so it was it was worth the trek here yes thank you to south etobicoke and i will take this opportunity to say that if anyone listening has old electronics old old devices, old tech, and they want to get rid of it because it's obsolete or broken or whatever, don't throw that in the garbage because then those dangerous chemicals end up in the landfill. Here's what you do. This is a hot tip for you.

Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. It'll ask, where are you? And then it'll tell you a place very close to you where you can drop off this electronics to be safely recycled. All the locations there have been accredited by the EPRA. So go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. Hey, Robert, you dropped the name, it's your partner's name, right? Kersner? Yes.

Any relation to Ed the Sock? No. Is Ed the Sock a Kersner? Yeah. Steve Kersner. Oh, man, I could have milked that. Who knew? Well, maybe she's been hiding this fact.

You've got to find out. Do you know Steve Kersner, who is Ed the Sock? Really? Wow. I have another FOTM. Yeah, Ed the Sock. He's trying to be a poet out there, I think. He's very unspoken lately.

Well, he was great at what he did. And I think insult is also at the heart of poetry and ought to be practiced more. Okay, well, now you just told me I'm a poet too. I can insult with the best of them. Okay, so I did that quote from Michelle Landsberg about your children. So I just, to be fair,

I'm just going to read something from the Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Sure. This is about your adult work here. Okay. Adult work sounds like it's pornography or something. Right. When you dabble in the adult stuff.

Okay. Poetry full of flashes of insight. Imaginative in a strange way, he takes inordinate chances with logic, countering absurdity with absurdity, and expanding our sense of human emotional possibilities. Get that tattooed on your back or something. On the largest part of my body, which we won't talk about.

Okay. Yeah, whatever organ you choose. That's your business. That's between you and your wife there. Okay. You can respond to that. I don't know if that embarrasses you to hear, but you're getting legitimate praise. For those listeners who are like,

I don't know any poets uh you know i know robert frost got to a fork in the road and he had to choose a really to go right like there are some people like that's that's the extent of their knowledge it's just fascinating that you walk amongst us uh fm magazine calls you a rare hybrid a poet who can as easily compose hummable melodies as sing them with power. Like, you're just here. You're here in my basement right now. I know.

I'm impressed. I think I feel. Does it embarrass me? Not at all. I love that quote. And it was really, I was in my mid-20s at the time. And there is any Oxford companion to Canadian literature, so, you know, for my parents who had really not been all that pleased that I didn't become Prime

Minister of Canada, at least I, you know, I could show them that. And my mother, I should mention, in this whole thing, was a writer and a stand-up comedian herself, so I came by all this stuff, honestly. No, it doesn't embarrass me. It helps my desire to reach more people. And it looks good on a resume and probably helps get you the odd grant. And those books stick around. And if you live long enough, people will realize, much like Blair Packham said, that you're underappreciated and it's this unsung hero. And then people, just before you die, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, people will start to much like Blair Packham said, that you're underappreciated, and it's this unsung hero, and then people, just before you die, you know, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, people will start to celebrate your life. Well, I hope it's a little bit before then, but you know what, it's like, I've been lucky, I've got to do what I want to do, and so I rarely feel, you know,

not appreciated. I feel like, you know, I just wish I had more readers. And maybe that will happen over time. I sure hope so. But you're competing with, like, trashy reality television streaming on demand. Right. And I don't know if you noticed, and maybe this is untrue and I'm going to get in trouble,

it feels like the society is just getting dumber. Like, I think we're not going for poetry when there's, I don't know, wives of Las Vegas. I don't even know the names of these reality shows, but they're very popular. Yeah, I've never watched any of that stuff, but there is definitely, I would say,

maybe a portion, probably a strong portion that is getting dumbed down, but then it's the information age. And so all those kids out there who were as curious as I was as a kid, they can find stuff. They can learn stuff. I was so hungry for knowledge. I wanted more of the Greek myths and stuff.

So I think there's probably a strong thread that is getting smarter, I guess. And then there's the thread of people who are just getting deeper into pornography or that but it is a very uh variant age and it's very hard to you know have anywhere near enough knowledge to be able to sum it up but there's you know like modern music it's easy to say i don't like pop music um you know uh but there's so much other stuff going on and i'm not saying pop music is all bad either so it's a big age your access to you have access to like everything all of the time all at once and that does sound like the name of the oscar winning movie i don't know that's like fluke but um out to Rusty for that fluke. But we have so much, like, it's almost too much. Like, there's almost a paradox of choice thing going on where it's like, I don't know who's curating this for me because I'm drowning.

Right. No, who's curating? So it's an age when some of the great curators, though, have been knocked off their pedestals. Yeah. Right. And all these democratic other curators, though, have been knocked off their pedestals. Yeah. Right? And all these democratic other curators have come up with it. I can do this. What I do for poetry is on Twitter, I have one name where I just follow poets.

And those poets post poems they love. And they might even say, feel you know get in on this stream so i'm getting sort of um a great daily anthology of poems i've never read that a credible poet you know loved enough to to scan and put up on the web and i love that i love that it's not coming from you know some guy in you know ivory tower to use a cliche um and i think that's a process that that um applies to other arts and scenes that that um it's it's a bit kind of democratic going on that we we have to let the populace in on the curation and i mean it's one thing where we you know we talk about the populace in on the curation. I mean, it's one thing where we talk about the demise of the trusted human curator,

but it seems like the more common replacement for such people that we would listen to and trust is the algorithms. Oh, God. Like, the algorithms are, oh, you know, feeding you through various channels. We've all opted into, we've all accepted the terms and conditions.

We decided that's the trade we're willing to make or whatever. Like as a side, we all opted in all at once. Maybe Mendelsohn Joe never opted in, but many opted in. Right. Right. You know,

but the, the algorithm is sort of in command now. Whereas I, I personally, let's just talk about radio for a minute here is that i i grew up loving radio and there would be certain programs where uh i the host would and i don't know who was choosing the music in hindsight but they play the music and then they would tell you about the artist and maybe tell you not just where they're playing

live but about the maybe the guitarist who came from another band and then you'd be like oh so this is an offshoot of that band like you would be educated with the music and that part seems to be missing like it seems to be more like oh yeah i got high this weekend and then i saw i saw the new mission impossible movie and then the music just kind of plays as like a i don't know just in the background or whatever i i just find that the trusted curator is gone and it's kind of sad. Well, that's a good point because, yeah, you have this basically artificial intelligence being, you know, ushering people down different, you know, kind of an asterisk of hallways.

And, you know, well, since you've gone down that hallway, now you're going to, you know, and you just get further and further into maybe one bit of your taste. It just gets magnified and loaded on. Yeah, it's an interesting age that way. But capitalism is kind of an algorithm in a sense that if you take a product, you know, plus, and there's no X equals morality

or Y equals what it does to the environment, but it's X plus distribution equals the largest amount possible on the other side. And whatever, whatever makes that, that Z on the other side, so, so we were always sort of algorithmed into straight jackets and, you know, for a while, but it's, it's now, you know. Maybe the difference uh it's it's now you know maybe the difference is it used to be you know you dropped the name gary slade earlier today right so it used to be that you know mr waters uh ran chum 10 50 chum or whatever like you can go in his office and you could hey there's the guy who owns the station or whatever so yeah they you know you want to maximize profits or whatever but it's a little different than let's say, uh, Bell Media or Rogers or Chorus owns these stations.

And it literally does become kind of like a number. Like there is no, you can't go in the corner office and chat up the owner about your idea. Right. Right. You know, and yet something out there knows you, knows your tastes, you know, knows your predilections and likes to feed you little things and take you down paths.

And who the hell is that? Where are they taking us? Right. Right. Fascinating conversation, but I want to play a little music again. Sure. So let's listen to this and you can tell us what it is. Here we go.

When I see that list of names upon that long black wall So many fallen in their prime, it's hard to count them all Yes, the soldiers die, they fall in all their millions But for every one of them that dies, say goodbye To ten civilians, fathers and mothers Ten civilians, sisters and brothers Ten babies being born Ten lifetimes of tears for those who are left to mourn Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh My apologies for fading it down, but I want to hear you tell me about Ten Civilians. Sure. Well, that, of course, is produced by Bob Wiseman from my album Love is Hard. And the origin of the song is from this startling fact of the modern era that in modern wars, for every military person that dies, 10 civilians die, which is a reverse of the same thing 100 years ago. 100 years ago, 10 soldiers would die for every civilian.

So this shocked me when I heard it, and it's sort of like the most anti-war fact I've ever heard, and I just wanted to radiate it and get it out as much as possible into the populace, because it's going to take a lot of people really... Well, anyway, you know. So, yeah, with Alan Booth, I wrote this song, and there it is. And thank you for playing it because it does get you know I love the ideal of songs

and I don't think we should have to write protest songs but I'm glad there's a portion of music that is open to inserting some protest I thought with the election of Donald Trump as president and everything that followed I

felt like oh oh, we're going to have this great age of protest music. And I don't feel it happened. Maybe I missed it or maybe that's part of drowning. I'm drowning, okay? In content. you know, typically, yeah,

the one benefit of Earth Disrupted is the music that comes out of that, the protest music. So I love a good protest song. Yeah, a good one, yeah. Yeah, a good one. I do like a good one. Yeah, and the Trump stuff, I mean, it's just like there's so much protest embedded in the media, as well as the opposite of protest, so that i don't know if people feel who might

have written a protest song feel like oh i don't want to flay that dead horse at this moment but it just feels like we got more maybe just from like a rock perspective it felt like more protest music came out of the george w bush uh yes it felt like we got stuff out of that where we didn't get it out of the Trump. Yeah, true enough. And true of me as well, that I wrote a lot of stuff that was, because I was so enraged. Trump too, I mean, it does enrage me,

but at this point I'm actually trying, okay, stop watching the Trump stuff and learn about Ontario politics. Right. You know, like, get onto your own country. It's so distracting, right? It's like, oh, wow. It's like methadone or something.

It's just something that, you know, it's habitual and it somehow is sedative. Well, we got the, you know, the Greenbelt and we got what's happening with Ontario Place and the Science Centre. And there's just, there's so much grease everywhere. Don't get distracted by the orange-haired guy down south there. I'm going to ask you about Bob Wiseman, but actually one more jam here to get us to that here. Who would stand in the shadows Weeping, oh Lord

If love was easy Who would lie in the gutter Juicing, oh Lord If love was easy Love is hard Cause the world is hard Love is hard. Love is hard. Cause the world is hard. Love is hard. Love is hard.

Cause we are hard. Love is hard. Love is hard. Cause we're so scared of God, oh Lord. Who would lie to their brother, a straight-faced, oh Lord? Oh, Lord. A lie to their brother A straight face Oh Lord If love was easy Who would drink all that whiskey That whiskey

Oh Lord If love was easy Love is hard Cause the world is hard Love is hard Cause we are hard Love is hard Cause we are hard, love is hard Cause we're so scared of God, oh Lord Oh, her skin is soft

And her bed is soft And her hair is soft And her music's soft And her lips are soft But and her music's soft, and her lips are soft. But that don't mean a thing, cause love is hard. Who would spend all their money on diamonds or gold? You know, Robert, these songs from Love is Hard sound fantastic. Oh, thank you.

Bob Wiseman produced this. That's right, yeah. How did you make that happen? And tell me a bit about Bob since he was actually supposed to be on the show last week and then his daughter's birthday party conflicted. And he made the right choice there and he blew me off and he's coming at the end of the month here. But what's Bob like to work with?

I found him great to work with. You're not going to get any BS out of Bob. He's straight up. Let's see, I met Bob back in, he was maybe just out of his teens and he was going out with the daughter of a woman that I was going out with because I'm older than him. Wow, wow.

Yeah, so for a while he was... You're not that older than him. I'm probably 10 years anyway. Yeah, okay. Okay, yeah. And she was slightly older than me. But, you know, so he was that guy. He seemed like an amiable, straight-up guy.

And then, you know, I heard him play piano and, you know, got familiar with his amazing talents and then he got into to blue rodeo and basically we let's fast forward to i'm playing at the transac once a month and bob is resident genius there and i start basically saying bob you should produce an album for me you know and you know and i kind of it took a while to convince him that it was a worthwhile project. But I was actually hearing that song, the Ten Civilians. He thought, okay, I'm going to do it.

So, I don't know how I found it. Ten Civilians sounds a little Elvis Costello-esque. I don't know if you've heard that in there. But I like to hear things in other songs. Oh, okay. Sorry, continue. I'm certainly a fan of Elvis Costello. Yeah, and I think that was funded

through an Ontario Arts Council grant to make an album. Is that possible? See, now I'm thinking of Simon Rakoff, who says, and this is a great question, why are there no grants for stand-up comics? That is ridiculous. Right, like how do we fix this?

That's a federal thing, I guess. Well, hopefully not by taking any of the poets' money, you know. Well, that's true. It's like, we're taking the money away from the poets, Robert, and we're giving it to the stand-up comics.

And what is the difference between poetry and stand-up comedy? One is typically funnier than the other. I'll give you that. But it's still art. It's still art. And in fact, there are poets

that you could hear that would be just as likely to be at home in yuck yucks as they are in a poetry hall and then there are people like i always thought george carlin he definitely uh intersected with poetry uh louis ck etc people like that when you go deep which you have to do to get to those sort of intersecting places that produce the kind of imagery that you need to do your job,

you intersect with poetry. It's inevitable. And poetry is so wide, as is comedy. So they're bound to share the same platform. It's a wordplay right like it's uh they're related they're cousins i suppose but okay yesterday this is a fun fact for you robert anyone listening so i was on a bike ride where did i go yesterday i think i was going to ontario place so i went no love there's a new it's called love park it's beside the rbc water park on queen's

key near harbor front there. So I was going there, right? And then I'm biking back and I bike by Ian Blurton. So I just want to say, it's amazing to see, I mean, he's been over here and I love this guy, but to see him in the wild and we exchange hellos on our bicycles. So hello to FOTM

Ian Blurton. Okay, that's not nothing specific. I just wanted to throw that out there. Okay, into the universe. Robert Priest, you brought a guitar. Ivy Act... We've heard far too much of me. Maybe I will... You can get ready there, whatever you need to do.

I have... Let's see what you want to do. There is another microphone I could unmute if you wanted... Do you want a mic aimed... I don't know. Just like that? That's fine. You can hear it all, right? It's not like I want a mic aimed i don't know you just like that that's fine up to you can you can hear it all right it's not like i'm a great guitar player or anything well that's not what i heard okay in that story where you wrote your first song uh i guess you were uh you said you were four foot two right when you wrote your first song yeah maybe i was grade eight so

okay i just like you said four foot two and i don't know why I was just thinking of this now, but one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons is Summer of Four Foot Two. Oh. You know, like Summer of 42. This is Summer of Four Foot Two.

Right, because, yeah, one of my favorite Simpsons episodes. Okay, so Robert Priest, the mic is yours. I'm just going to lean back and enjoy the show if that's cool.

Okay. And I might take a little video of this. Now, I had planned to do something a little more strenuous than what I'm about to do, but... Do whatever, what do you want to do? Well, I'm just a bit dried out, so I'm going to do something very simple. Do you want more water or...

Well, it's okay. No, I've got lots of water. It's just... Vodka? It's okay. I don't have any lots of water. It's just... Vodka? It's okay. I don't have any vodka, so I'm glad you said no. So we're just going to do this simple song called Motherhood Could. If anything could move a mountain, motherhood could. If anything could move a mountain, motherhood could

If anything could move a mountain, motherhood would Motherhood does what motherhood does Cause motherhood does what it should And it all works out for the common good So don't mess with motherhood If anything could move a mountain Motherhood could If anything could move a mountain

Motherhood would Motherhood does what Motherhood does cause Motherhood does what it should And it all works out for the common good So don't mess with Motherhood And all who scream for Luxury the common good so don't mess with motherhood.

And all who scream for luxury and money, once they all scream just as loud for Mommy! Mommy! If anything could heal the planet, motherhood could. Mommy! with motherhood yes it all works out for the common good so don't mess with motherhood eat your heart out Robert Plant Robert Priest in the TMBS studio

that was fantastic well thank you what was your original plan and now I need I'm naturally curious what was the more what was the original plan because that was fantastic the Well, thank you. Okay, what was your original plan? And now I need, just need, I'm naturally curious. What was the more, what was the original plan? Because that was fantastic. The other one I was going to do was something, it's called Something Bigger. Okay, which is bigger than that. Okay, okay, okay.

Well, that was amazing. I'm so glad you did that. Now, what are you working on now? What's next? And where should we all go to consume all of your wonderful poetry etc right now to consume the poetry um my latest book is called if i didn't love the river um it's good people's poetry it's getting great reviews you can get it through amazon but you can also get it through my

publisher ecwpress.com and they will deliver um and uh to get the Bob Wiseman produced record, Love is Hard, the streaming services are your best bet there. Where do you get the most compensation? Is it better if people went to CD Baby, for example, for Love is Hard? Do you have a preference? At this point, there is no hard copy.

But you can download on CD Baby. I just know that, for example, if you stream your songs on Spotify, you're never going to see any money. Right. Like the numbers required, it's just not going to happen.

I think I did make 140 bucks on Spotify. I apologize. Okay, okay. That doesn't sound right. Well, you know what? You and Drake, you guys have figured it out.

That's it, you know. The compensation, where you get the best compensation is writing a hit for Atlanta Miles. I think I made over a hundred grand on that one. Not all at once, either. What do you think Christopher Ward has made from his Black Velvet? Oh, man. It's got to be millions.

I mean, it's still played all the time all around the world and done by other artists. Well, you know, there's our, you know, Stephen Page, your favorite Barenaked Lady, does have a co-writing credit on a U.S. Billboard number one song. One week. Really?

He went to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Oh, that was when he was... With Barenaked Ladies. Right, right. I should mention just while we're comparing... Yeah, anything here before I... I'm going to play a little Lois to the Low to take us home, but say anything now.

This is your opportunity, Robert Priest, who was a poet, an author, a singer, a songwriter, and now an FOTM. Anything you want to get off your chest now is the time. Well, I write with Julian Taylor. I don't know if you know... FOTM Julian Taylor. Is that right?

He's fantastic. Yeah, he was in Staggered Crossing's right um i don't know i've written with him since then you know since those days but um his latest so i i now call myself a two-hit wonder because uh julian's song um uh that they thought it's called seeds they thought seeds seeds is a fantastic song. I played it on my show when Julian Taylor was here. Yeah, so I'm a co-writer on that. So I thank Julian for making me a two-hit wonder. There you go.

It's a really great song. You're a co-writer of this song, Robert. I can't believe it. Let's get a little taste of this. You're dropping bombs on your way out. Here we go. We'll see you next time. They tried to bury us But they didn't know we were serious Somehow Everything eventually dreams

Someday Somehow Everyone eventually dreams Someday Nasty is shining strong and clear Listen, Robert, I could blow smoke up your ass all day, but I'm telling you, I said this on the Julian Taylor episode when I played this song. This is a gorgeous song, and you should be very proud.

Yeah, I mean, not to be immodest, because he's got a majority of it. I think I wrote the words to the first couple of verses, but I'm very much pleased and gratified by that song. And I'm still writing with Julian. Yes, what I'm up to. I'm got a, you know, there's a few more in the works with Julian

for his next release, I hope. I'm at Lula Lounge. Does this play by tomorrow night? Yeah, I'm going to drop this five minutes after we take a photo together. So it's going to drop in. So I'm at Lula Lounge tomorrow, a Thursday night,

doing a couple songs with other artists. My next book is written in the slot, ready to go with ECW Press. I've got an album of poetry and music produced by James B. called People Like You and Me. I'm writing short stories, writing songs, and

living life a bit. Sorry, I'm fishing out my Look People album. Shout out to FOTM James B. Alright, yeah. Do you consider James B to be famous? I don't have a good assessment of his reach, but I consider him to be a magical creature

that he draws these people around him who all seem to be collective and mutually helping one another. And he's funny, and I'm helping him write a movie, by the way. I forgot that. So whatever it is, the power that he has it seems totally benign and uh creative that's sort of more of a philosophical question anyways is james b famous he probably is if you listen to jazz fm right he's a what you know yeah or if you'd like the old the the swing the swing

songs the swing i think he's, so I always side on the side of James B. being famous. But Robert Priest, as far as I'm concerned, you're famous. All right. Keep it up. Poetry. Music. Julian Taylor songs. He's fantastic.

Big fan of his. And a big fan of yours now. Thanks for dropping by, man. Thanks for having me. And that brings us to the end of our 1,294th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Robert, remind us, how can we follow the

happenings in your universe? Yeah, Facebook, Robert Priest number one. Twitter, what is my... I think it's Robert Priest Singer on Twitter. Please follow me. I'll tag you on this in about half an hour. I'll tag you on this. Great.

People can find you there. Okay, awesome. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Getting Hip to the Hip is at Getting Hip Pod. Remember, the promo code over there is F O T M 10. Use it and see me there. Recycle my electronics are at E P R a underscore Canada.

The moment lab or at the moment lab and Ridley funeral home or at Ridley FH. See you all Friday. When my special guest returning to kick out the jams is Jay Douglas. Well you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or will do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh you know that's true because

Everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me today And your smile is fine