Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - TOAST 13: Toronto Mike'd #1190

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

In this 13th episode of Toast, Mike is joined by Rob Preuss and Bob Willette as they kick out sad jams. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

There'll be sad songs To make you cry Turn on those sad songs When all hope is gone Why don't you tune in and turn them on Just toast? I'm gonna think about it, so... F-O-T-M's, do you know what time it is?

It's... Toast time! Toast! Featuring Stu Stone, Cam Gordon, and Toronto Mike. And that's toast. Mmm, yeah, just toast. What up, Miami? Toronto. VK on the beat.

Check. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. My city love me back for my city love. Welcome to episode 1190 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. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past ridley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921 canna cabana the lowest prices on cannabis guaranteed and And Sammy Cohn Real Estate. Ask Sammy any real estate questions at Sammy.Cohn at ProperlyHomes.ca. Joining me today for the 13th episode of Toast is Bob Ouellette and Rob Pruce. Welcome back, Bob and Rob.

Unlucky 13. You're so down. Nice to see you, Mike. I wish I could say the same. Give him the state of the world. I don't know. It's fine. We're happy to be here. Whatever. Everything's relative. How was your, what is it, Blue Monday? What are they calling it?

Yeah, yesterday was Blue Monday. They say it's the saddest day of the year. How sad are you today, Rob? Well, I'm sad, but Blue Monday didn't really affect me in the way that I thought it would. So I'm here more for Turned Down Tuesday. Oh. You got turned down. Well, my life for turned down Tuesday. Oh. You got turned down. Well, my life is, you know, turned upside down, so.

Oh. I can't tell if we're doing some schticks or not. Is it bitter? Yeah, no. Is everything all right? Is the work or a shoot? Are you okay? Okay, so.

I couldn't figure out what to rhyme with. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah. Terrible Tuesday seems too dramatic, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Alright, I gotta drop the shtick because it's too much work to like, you know, because yeah, we're gonna kick out some sad songs and it's

gonna be sad because we're gonna be playing sad songs, but we don't have to be like totally sad during this episode. I want to find out how you guys are doing. It's been a month since we chatted. Let's start with Bob Ouellette, who's live in the studio. Bob, how was your break and how the hell are you doing? Yeah, thank you.

The break was good. It was nice. You know, the kids, it was interesting because I think we did it right. The week of going into Christmas was the last time we were here. And the kids were in school almost right until then, but they canceled the last Friday because of the ice or the storm that was coming in. The storm that never came. It did out east where my radio stations are. It hit Kingston and Prince Edward County hard

and all that, but it was pretty tame here. But it was nice. We were home. Didn't have to do a lot of traveling. Surprised the kids with a cameo. I paid for a cameo where you get celebrities to say things. So Rob Proust did this cameo?

Yeah. It's $430. No, we've decided to take the kids to Disneyland in the new year. And I hired the voice of a character from Encanto to do the message.

And I'm going to tell you right now, it was the best $100 I've ever spent in my life. Wow, that's the going rate. Well, it's not. It depends. If you want to get Jack Black, it's $500. Wow. If you want this woman who played Dolores from Encanto

to do a message, she sang, we don't talk about Bruno to the kids. Wow. You send them all this information and she had it all memorized. She congratulated my 12-year-old on getting an agent for acting. It was amazing. Wow. It was the best $100 I've ever spent in my life,

and now I have to figure out how I'm going to afford to go to Disneyland in 2023. How much would it cost to get a Stu Stone cameo? You know what? Just text him and ask. How are you doing, Rob? I'm doing good. Christmas was good. I mean, as good as it could be.

I got stuck in the snowstorm getting up to Canada. I tried to get through Buffalo on Christmas Eve. That's a bad idea. I know. But my Google map told me that it was going to work. And we got like two and a half hours outside of Buffalo. And then it instantly jumped to five and a bad idea. I know. But my Google map told me that it was going to work. And we got like two and a half hours outside of Buffalo. And then it instantly jumped to five and a half hours because it then wanted to reroute us back through Kingston, Ontario,

which we tried to do. And then that road was closed as well. So I spent 12 hours on the road on Christmas Eve with my wife and my stepson. And then we drove back to my mother-in-law. And two days later, we got to Canada. Wow. It was a bit of a delay.

But I'm a fierce canadian driver because i've been stuck in many like whiteout snowstorms before so i like i was sort of excited my wife was shitting bricks but it's okay and you're gonna do a live show in oakville are we allowed to talk about that is that coming up tell us all about this show in oakville we can talk about it because two i'm doing two that are already sold out so basically people are already coming out. So basically people are already coming to see a show that I'm still sort of

piecing together but I'm very excited to do. It's my first time doing quote unquote solo shows and it's something I've been thinking about doing for a long time because I've sort of wanted

to kind of combine all the different musical elements of my life you know between the spoons music and the honeymoon suite music and like theater music that I've done. And then it's I want it to be a little bit autobiographical as well, playing like music that that sort of inspired me when I was a kid learning piano and like pop songs. And yeah, a little and I've got some friends that are going to come and sing some songs with me as well. songs with me as well that i i what i'm hoping like for this to become like a sort of an ongoing thing that i can take around the country and have different people joining me in different places because i know people i know people everywhere i bet you know some vocalists i do know some singers

do you sing i sing a little bit as well okay but i'm more i'm more excited to like just collaborate with singers that just want to sing because i i like singing but for me singing and playing is the thing where i just sort of want to focus on my playing more you know yeah yeah yeah so i'm more excited to like get my friends to say come and sing some songs but sing whatever you want like we can sort of go through a whole catalog of stuff so you're like ringo star and you just have your all-star band yeah yeah sort of that's exactly right amazing and this all sold out like uh and these are massive venues right five they are it's unbelievable like people were comparing me to billy joel you know his residency at madison square garden you got an oakville residency i love it i got my oakville

residency it holds like 70 people but you know it's going to be a nice intimate gathering and i hope you'll be there oh well i'm going to be absolutely at at least one of those shows it'll take a snowstorm to keep me away i'm pretty excited about it actually cool i'm gonna be absolutely at at least one of those shows it'll take a snowstorm to keep me away i'm pretty excited about it actually cool i'm so glad you'll be there now i think a good way to kick start the uh sad jams episode and i have a couple of jams that didn't make my list and didn't make either of your lists that i actually want to play off the top and just discuss like like why are they so damn sad but before we get to the sad songs, sad news because we lost another FOTM.

This is only the third FOTM, that means guest of Toronto Mike, to ever pass away. We lost FOTM David Onley. Oh, right. Now, I'll start with you, Rob, because I know you were a City TV viewer, right? Yeah, for sure. So I guess I'm wondering if you have any memories, recollections of David Onley.

He was a fixture of City Pulse back in, I would call it, the glory days. He was. And honestly, his name, when I first saw his name, I thought, I'm not sure who that is. But when I saw pictures and saw some clips of him, I realized that, of course, I know who he is. And I loved him. Like, I mean, I don't have that familiar of a connection with the stuff he did. But just looking at him, I'm like, I know who that guy is. So he has done your show in an episode that I haven't heard yet.

You should hear that because Ann Romer comes over. You know Ann Romer, right? Of course. She comes over. She's always a firecracker and we start calling everybody who was a part of the day one crew of breakfast television so oh wow it was the day breakfast television turned 30 so we called uh well david onley called in and then we uh called steve anthony nice oh wow we called the the sports guy who's uh john whale, who was the sports guy,

the original producer, Bud Pierce. Like it was quite the 30th anniversary. So you got to check that out. And yeah, and I did put like, I did isolate the David Onley convo for like a, like a mini episode of Toronto Mike to remember him. But by all accounts,

a classy sweetheart of an FOTM and a great loss. And I do have a little insight here that I haven't seen documented anywhere. But I did talk to somebody who was with David the day he passed away. Oh, wow. So, where did it go? Okay, so back in August, there was a birthday party for a gentleman. And there's like, this is an annual event. And all these City, Paul City TV people get together. So, there's like this is an annual event and all these city

paul city tv people get together so there's a bunch of fotms there like uh you know uh peter gross and lauren honickman and people like that come out to this thing and on that day david that was in august david only was uh amazing like he was telling stories he was looking great i've seen photos he was sounding great so you know this is a this is a man who had polio at the age of three and then was partially paralyzed with polio. And he was diagnosed a couple years ago with like a brain tumor, I think, and needed surgery for that. So he's had some health stuff.

But he was great, August. And basically, the way I understand it is he was kind of plugging along, doing all right. And then he got some kind of a chest infection like two weeks ago. And it got worse. So he ended up being hospitalized with this. And then it's one of those things where the body started shutting down. Like they tried a blood transfusion. transfusion but basically i think maybe uh you know things would afflict him worse than someone else because of the the polio that he had as a toddler wow you know i'm thinking i don't know

what the uh like polio has been until the anti-vaxxers get their way it's been eradicated uh so i don't like there's nobody really you don't find any gen xers with polio but there's you know there's still there's still people uh in in their seventies and that were afflicted as a child. But yeah, David only 72 took them pretty quickly. And it's a great loss. He was a sweetheart.

Governor general of Ontario after his weather. You know, that's the wrong title, Bob. Sorry. Lieutenant governor. Governor. My apologies.

Well, Bob, I want to hear any, any recollections you have of watching City Pulse. Oh, my gosh. That's all we watched in my home. I mean, I go back to when it was Channel 79 and at 99 Queen Street East is what I remember. Like City TV, City Pulse News. He was the precursor to Harold Hussein. He was the precursor to Harold Hussein. And, you know, he was on his era with like Glenn Cole.

And it was just phenomenal. Every night, watched it every night. And Hunter, the... Bob Hunter, who was part of Greenpeace. Yeah, no, very formative for me. Really, you know, give Moses full credit for showing such a diverse lineup of people i remember seeing colin vaughn yeah colin well that's that's the face of diversity mike um um uh you know jojo chinto for instance um and i remember i remember going to see

at the old yuck yucks the first yuck yucks on bay street and seeing um russell peters um way back in the day do a whole bit and he had and it only made sense to toronto people he did the funniest bit and i'm not a russell peters fan he's a joke stealer um i but whoa bob those are fighting words it's absolutely true ask any comedian ask any comedian trust me. But he killed with this because he did impressions of all these people, including Jojo Chinto and Harold Hussain back in the day. When I said Colin Vaughn, my brain hadn't processed the word diversity yet. And he had an English accent. That makes him a new Canadian.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. His son, Adam Vaughn, also very diverse. Yes, long answer to your short question. diverse. Immigrant. No, yes. Long answer to your short question. City TV was a huge part of my life. City Pulse News, you know, going back to Deanie Petty before, you know, Ann Muszkowski, obviously, FOTM and Gord.

Oh, my gosh, I loved it. Yeah, Peter Gross and... Never forget Peter. Jim McKinney and all those guys. My gosh. Yeah, no, no. Like, iconic. So at my house, that's what we'd watch.

And then at my grandparents' house, it was Tom Gibney on CFTO. You know, that's a complete blind spot to me. I actually have Lloyd Robertson in the calendar. Oh, wow. And I'm excited to talk to Lloyd because he's Lloyd Robertson. But I have no personal memory of watching Lloyd Robertson on TV. It was not part of my life either. Can I give a little plug to something that I have coming up on my...

No. No? Okay, that's fine. Go ahead. In the calendar? Go ahead. And I'm going to... I'm crossing my fingers

because it may not happen. Let me guess. Rob Pruess is going to be on Bob's... That is definitely going to happen for sure. One day soon. But this is pretty crazy.

Okay, I'm ready. Loretta Swit. Yeah, from MASH. Yes. It's going to come up. Hot Lips Houlihan. Hot Lips Houlihan is is gonna be in my basement what she's gonna do a phone air for me yeah so how do you know how did this happen uh there is a

lovely man who is an old school hollywood publicist who i booked somebody with him somewhere along the way be at the humble and fred show when i produced it or ken kostick and mary joe eustace's show his name name is Harland Bull. He used to be Walter Cronkite's publicist. I got to have this guy on the show. And he represents Loretta Swit. He represents Anson Williams.

Potsy. Potsy Weber. He's all about, he's like, I'm looking, he goes, I want to get these people on your podcast. And I'm like, I want you to help make this happen. I'm insanely jealous. Okay? Forget Lloyd Robertson.

I want Posse. Hot Lips Houlihan. My dad. We'll talk about my dad a little later. My dad died. My dad's birthday. Save that for the sad songs. I want to get sad with that.

My dad's birthday will be on Friday. But if my dad was around to know that I'm going to interview Hot Lips Houlihan, that's insane. Okay. When you do, because I do want to cry tonight. I want to play sad songs. I want sad stories. And I did forget to get the tissues, but I can always run if you need it. I can always.

No, it's all right. Can I have a drink first, though? I'm like a coffin over here. Okay, crack it open. Crack your beers. I know I can hear you. Sorry. The cough button's way over here.

I know. You need to get your. On the mic. All right. All right. That's a. Yeah, you're to get your... On the mic. All right. All right. That's a... Yeah, you're a logger man. I am a logger man.

And here I am, IPA guy. Oh, that's nice. I just, you know... So thank you to Great Lakes Beer. Yes. And because later when you get serious about your father, this will be inappropriate, so I'll just do it right now.

Do it. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. There you go. We buried my dad in a leaf urn. So they're trying to make a leaf urn. Wow. That's the kind of world I grew up in, Rob. Nice.

Today I was walking through Cloverdale Mall and they have this like sports store. Are you doing your walk? Are you that age now? No. You're doing your power walking in Cloverdale? I had an appointment there and I biked there. But I'm in and they have like a sports thing there. And then I saw this like a jacket, like a cool looking jacket.

But it had, it said 13 times Stanley Cup champion. And it was like leaf stuff all over, right? And I was thinking to myself as I pass this jacket, like, should we be proud? Like, should we be bragging about the 13 Stanley Cups we have when Bob, like the most recent cup was several years before we were an embryo. Yeah. Should we be bragging about it? I mean, we got to do something.

I don't know. Did the Chicago Cubs talk about their World Series when they were 100 years out? Were they? I mean, now they can talk about the recent one. But before that, I don't think they were bragging about that. I don't know. I'm still on a break from the Toronto Maple Leafs, so I haven't been paying much attention. I'm not saying I'm done with them.

I'm not breaking up for good, but I'm still on a pretty significant break. We have the odd date every now and then. The other day, I had the game on. My wife came down. She's like, what are you doing? I was like, I was watching the Leafs game. You slipped.

Yeah. She's like, don't do that. You're going to hurt yourself. And I said, I know. She's like, what are you doing? I was like, I was watching the Leaf game. You slipped. Yeah. She's like, don't do that. You're going to hurt yourself. And I said, I know. That's what they do. They hurt you. Hit the post! Every story sounds sad if you play Sarah McGonagall.

Right. Rob, you did not choose this jam. I did not choose this jam. Bob, you did not choose this jam. But I'm going to let it breathe a little bit here while I drink my Great Lakes beer. And it's hot at the end of the day I need some distraction

Oh, beautiful release Memories seeep from my veins That may Be empty Oh, I'll Wait less, and maybe I'll find Some peace tonight

In the arms Of the angel, fly away from here. From this dark, cold, home to the moon. Getting sad, guys. It's working. It's getting working. Alright, I'll bring it down. I have a couple of points I want to make about this song by Sarah McLachlan.

One is a musical thought or question. And I'm glad we have a uh keyboardist on the line here because rob not only did you play with um the spoons in fact you shared a story about your first gig with the spoons was the night that john lennon was shot and killed yeah that was at the edge and of course you mentioned honeymoon suite and you're doing all this broadway work and everything but can you i need to understand so this song on its own, in my opinion, this song is sad. Like it sounds sad to me. Yeah. Is there something like musically with the notes and the chords that would make this a sad song?

Well, I have a larger theory about sad songs, which I think is that it's sort of a subjective thing that we all will hear a song and depending on the time frame that you're hearing a song may make a song become a sad song because i feel like for me this song is kind of a happy song like Like it rides a weird line. Are you a psychopath? No. I think your question about what makes the song sad to you is that it's an open, there's open chords. Right. And the tempo as well. It's slow as heck.

And the tempo, there's like ringing piano chords. But there's another thing. There's not a lot of action. There's not really a beat to the song. Right. And so that would lead you to believe that a song is a sad song but i also feel like you're gonna bring your own shit to a song for sure whether it's a happy song or a sad song i feel like like for me when i try to think of sad songs i'm like oh it's hard to think of

like like objectively sad songs because i think we bring our experiences and our memories of where we were when we heard a song to make it a sad song. You're 100% right. But I think objectively, this is a sad song. Am I nuts? But now here's another part, and I'm not sure if it made its way to me. It's a television commercial.

Well, that's where I'm going. Did they air in the States? They aired in the States. That was all in the States. Yeah, they make fun of it on SNL all the time. Commercial for what? Okay, so. The Humane Society.

When I hear this song, I can picture sad dogs and cats. Dying dogs and Sarah McLachlan doing a voiceover. And they look sad, right? Their eyes, they look sad. Well, that's just mean. That's mean for the dogs and for Sarah McLachlan because the song is a beautiful song.

Well, she didn't make them sad with her song. They were sad already. They were already sad. Right, exactly. But I understand they raised a lot of money from this campaign. This was a very successful campaign to raise money for whatever they call the Humane Society down there.

But this absolutely, you can't really at least I can't detach this song anymore from those ads. It's like a two prong approach here. One is the song is sad. It feels just drenched and slow and it's sad. And then you think

of a like a sad looking dog looking at you from like humane society jail or whatever and it's like please adopt me or whatever and they're giving and their stats like one million dogs will die while this commercial's on oh yeah it's over the top that's mean that's cruel that's abuse i mean i mean you take a beautiful song like this and and then attach it to the images of dogs like that of course it's going to become sad but the song on its own is a beautiful sort of like thoughtful kind of a sound interesting i mean in my mind of course this song is now like 25 years old right yeah so right i look at it in my life i think oh i i sort of have happy memories of where i was listening to this song, but it's not, it's not happy. It's not sad. It sort of sits in the middle,

sort of. So Rob Pruce is a serial killer. Yeah. Where are the bodies buried is the question. Wow. Okay. I'm going to let this one brew a little too, because it gives me sad to think on it here.

I did not choose this jam, but I thought about it. You're cheating is what you're doing. It's your show. Bonus jams. Yeah. Bob, I'm not cheating.

Okay. Underneath the bridge, top has sprung a leak. And the animals I've trapped have all become my pets. And I'm living off of grass And the drippings from the ceiling It's okay to eat fish Cause they don't have any feelings

Something in the way So again, I was wondering musically, because musically, this one doesn't have any dying dogs and cats to associate with it. It's just, to me, to my ears, this is a very sad song, and I love it, because there's a comfort in being sad. Yeah,

for sure. I mean, I remember this, I mean, when this album came out, obviously. Yes, thank you. Never mind. I believe this is the last official track before the hidden track on the CD. Right, Endless, Nameless, or whatever that is. Yeah, and it was such a departure from the rest of the album that it really stood out, and it really made you go, wow, these guys are doing something different.

Even at 14 or 15 years old was I was when it came out. It's interesting. I'm nowhere near qualified to talk about it. Rob would be as a musician. There is, again, there's certain, whether it's minor chords or certain

types of strumming and playing even, and the production too. Let's not forget Butch Vig's production on this, making it so big and echoey. And it sounds almost vacuous. It sounds like it's in a big empty room, which would make you think it's sadder. So I think there's a lot going on with this. And it's so slow. Yeah, the tempo too.

It's got that Sarah McLachlan angel tempo. I'm going to mash him up later yeah for sure so rob would you say that like it's like absolutely minor definitely minor chords or just the way he's strumming even you know yes it's absolutely it's it's always the openness of a song where there's a difference with like a like a ballad which feels like a love song ballad right but these kind of songs this and angel i understand why it would seem like a sad song because it's got that same kind of openness yeah this to me is a sadder song than angel is but you're associating the puppies with sir mclaughlin yeah you put some dead puppies to this

it's gonna be bad puppies make everything sad angel sad but much sadder with the visual that you think of when you hear it but this song to me is sadder than angel but what you're saying with that is what's interesting my mike is the Mike, is you're saying exactly what Rob is saying. Your association with the song is that, you know, it's exactly what Rob's saying. It's about what's going on in your life and how you interpret the songs that are resonating with you at that time. Yeah.

I have happy songs in my life that are, like, to me, sad songs because they happen to hear them. If I happen to hear them at sad moments, when I hear that song again, I'm like, holy shit, this is bringing back a memory. That's not a happy memory. Here's a happy song. But, you know, as time goes on in your life, you learn to associate and disassociate the memories and the songs so that you find this weird middle ground that it makes you super happy. And it's like cathartic at the same time music the power now here's what you know when we oh sorry what were you gonna say there rob no that that's exactly right it's cathartic power

absolutely and uh music as we discuss often on this uh on this podcast it's a time machine man there's nothing like it like uh you you hear the song you're back and maybe it was a happy time it was a sad time, but you're right back in that feeling what you felt then. So it's quite something. Okay. And now that I played that cold open, which was like a mashup.

Yeah. What did I play? Billy Ocean and Elton John. So, you know, a lot of people, when I said we were kicking out sad songs, this is the jam people kind of mentioned. And I'll bring it down because we all know this song. But this song to me is like lyrically, it's like on the nose,

but it's a bit too high tempo kind of. It's not really a sad song. No. I think that's the point, right? I mean, it shows the genius of Elton and Bernie, right? Elton's like, he's like, turn them on. Like, embrace it. You know, embrace the sad songs.

Let's turn them on. Let's listen to them. And we're going to love that. This is kind of like what we're doing. We're listening. We're embracing. We're enjoying the sadness that is washing over us. But you know what's interesting too?

The first song we all thought of when you said sad songs, we go right to this song, to sad songs. Because how many songs do we know with sad in the title, right? Yeah, right. But I think what's interesting is if you take the lyrics and you remove them from the music, because it's almost like elton decided to keep the song a little bit more upbeat yep and if you really look at the words the words are beautiful

like i mean he's really saying something serious about what music can do and what it can how it can express a feeling and then elton sort of you know he spiffed it up a little bit yeah and it's that weird combination that you go oh you know you don't think too much about it really on the surface but it i think the genius lies in Bernie's lyrics that we sort of gloss over by enjoying Elton's melody at the same time. I mean, it's the two together. Do you guys remember the Sass on Jeans commercial?

Yes. Let me see if I can find it here. Stand by. Sass on Sessom. I could have written... Oh, there you go. There you go. I could have written Oh there you go

How much money did he make Wow I love it So next thing you know Pearl Jam's gonna do Can't find a better van Right It's perfect. Sad song, sad song.

Yeah. I love it. Good for him. Hilarious. No such thing as selling out. There isn't. I don't care what anybody says. Well, tell that to Neil Young.

This note's for you. Come on. You know, it depends. I don't know about that. It depends what song. Because I had on this one of the songwriters for the great song Rise Up by Parachute Club. They were very upset

when McCain's Pizza Rising Crust Pizza used Rise Up in their commercials. Did they make good money off it though? No, someone did. I don't think they did. They just felt it was too important a song for LGBTQ rights.

Interesting. And it's like a protest song, Rise Up. But they didn't sell out. But they don't want it used. It tarnishes it, right? It taints it. Interesting. Yeah.

Because Sasan was sponsoring his 1984 tour, right? Right. And that was for this album. his 1984 tour right right and that was for this album so i think it was just that that was the perfect time for him to like do this little you know variation on it and i mean like with the spoons like a year later we did our thrifties commercials and stuff nice like that was the ultimate in like tacky appropriation of well talk to us company what was the backlash like at the time when you guys started doing those ads well it's it was weirdly not so bad at the time because we did like commercials we had like posters in the stores and all this stuff right but we and we did a commercial which actually wasn't a song of ours

like they didn't they didn't actually want to use a real song but they had some guys uh these jingle writers that that sort of co-opted our sound a little bit. And then Gord and Sandy sang on the commercial. And it sounds like it could be a thrifty song, but we had nothing to do with the song. Except that they had Gord and Sandy sing to it. It sounds a little bit like Tell No Lies, sort of. But it's not a song of ours, actually. So that way, I feel good that there's many incriminating pictures and posters of us in the stores with big sweaters and, you know, acid wash jeans and stuff.

Oh, that's amazing. But the music was not used in any way. You also did, remind me, you did the thrifties, but you did the, with the cassette tape? What are they? Oh, Maxell. Maxell, right. Yep. Because our manager, his father was like, he ran the Maxell company in Canada or something.

So actually that was like a sponsorship sort of thing where they helped fund the making of our Tunnel Lies video. And then while we were making the video, they cut like a 30 second or a minute long Maxell commercial. So we took some of the scenes and just redid them. You guys were ahead of the times really. Absolutely. Learning how to monetize those things.

Good for you. Sort of. That was all. That was as far as I went, though. That was the end of the story. I'm playing another one before we get to the real jams. This is very short. Hi, everybody.

Hi. And hit it. and hit it! Can I borrow a feeling? Could you lend me a jar of love? Hurting hearts need some healing. Take my hand with your glove of love how about it Luann will you marry me again oh no oh well uh can I have my shirts back at least okay you heard the lady why don't you take it outside, alright? Okay, so shout out to Kirk Van

Howden in his very sad Can I Borrow a Feeling? Great jam. No, Robert. I don't know what that is. That's from The Simpsons. It is? Yeah, yeah. It's Milhouse's dad and mom when they got divorced and Milhouse's

dad is a sad sack. He worked at a cracker factory, but he only worked there because her dad got him the job. But now he sleeps in a race car, Bob. That's right. That's right. Yes. Yeah. The Simpsons.

There's an era of the Simpsons, certain seasons in which gentlemen of Mike and I's age that pretty much everything relates to. But Rob, you don't speak Simpsons? Not that Simpsons. Okay. No, I mean, I speak a little bit, but yeah, apparently not enough. Who's the guy that was responsible for that?

So that's Milhouse's dad, Kirk Van Houten. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's the whole story. So he's trying to woo his wife back and he he thinks he can sing he actually even has a cassette that he's pitching to a record it's so it's it's awkward it's so sad if it wasn't a cartoon it would be really hard to watch it is sad which is perfect because now we're gonna kick out sad songs we start with rob right is it rob or we start with you we started with rob last time okay we're gonna start with rob this time we're gonna start with rob pruse sure get it Rob or we start with you? We started with Rob last time. We can start with Rob this time. We're going to start with Rob Pruess.

Sure. We're going to get the first jam. Sure. Quickly though, everybody, sad songs are coming, so go get your tissue. I could have made 50 songs for this list. Get ready. I recommend Great Lakes Beer. Don't do Rye.

Don't do Rye. Rye will just bring it all to the edge. Can of Cabana. That'll bring it down. Smoke them if you got them. Smoke them if you got them. There you go. They won't be undersold.

Sure, it's a Ridley Funeral Home. Well, don't get so sad that we need to call, you know, Brad from Ridley Funeral Home. Call me before we call Brad. Well, now you can arrange in advance, like not just with Ridley, but with the doctors who can do it for you. So, you know, anyway.

Sorry, that's a whole other conversation. Well, that's if it's terminal and there's no hope for recovery, Bob. And that's a very progressive thing. Okay. So do you want me, Rob, to just play your first jam and then you'll talk to us about it? Sure.

Okay. I'm excited to hear why you find this to be a sad song. Here we go. Here we go. song. Here we go. Laughing girls and teasing boys Was I ever in love? I called it love I mean, it felt like love There were moments when Well, there were moments when

Present There were moments when... Present. Go out with you? Why not? Do I like to dance? Of course. Take a walk along the beach tonight? I'd love to.

But don't try to touch me. Don't try to touch me. Because that will never happen again. Shall we dance? The future. Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow's a long way off. Maybe someday I'll have somebody's hand.

Maybe somewhere, someone will understand. You know, I used to sing. A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket. I'm all packed up and I'm on my way and I'm going to fall in love. But at the moment, it doesn't look good. At the moment, it will never happen again. I don't think it will ever happen again. I don't think it will ever

happen again. You okay over there, Bobby? I feel vastly underqualified for this conversation. I should point out, before we hear rob uh tell us why he finds that to be so sad uh that i'm gonna play more of the music in this episode than normal because i feel like we need to let it like percolate and then yeah in that song to be honest

i'm not i'm not familiar with that song so like i wanted to hear the story sure right i was clinging to every word rob talk to us buddy well it's sort of new to me as well but i was you know i i have well what you would call the psycho killer mentality of of songs that aren't sad that are sad or should be sad or whatever i feel like you associate songs more with memories than with the actual content of the song but i feel like this is it sounds like a sad song like the story oh yeah it draws you in so the shangri-la's you know their biggest hit was leader of the pack in the 60s this song uh was from 1966 wow and i just sort of came upon it by accident like i'm a fan of all this kind of music like it sounds like a phil spector production which it's not but it's just that era and i like it was sort of new to me

in the last week as well like when i found it and i thought man it's beet that era. And it was sort of new to me in the last week as well. Like when I found it and I thought, man, it's Beethoven. You can't beat Moonlight Sonata. But then it goes off into these tangents, which becomes sort of like this waltz music that sounds familiar. And then it's just spoken word like a girl group. I just think it's a sad story in a way. If we can shout out a toastast OG by the name of Charles

Cameron Gordon. We were kicking out Summer Jams at some point and he kicked out Remember Walking in the Sand. Oh yeah. And that's like, so you're right, Leader of the Pack is the big one, but that Remember became a big TikTok hit with like Generation Z.

This song is due for a revival as well. I feel like this could end up on TikTok for sure. I feel like some kids could take that. And I found there were a couple other versions of the song as I was looking and learning more about it. So, Anyetta, who was one of the two female vocalists in ABBA, she did a version of this song on a solo album 20 years ago. Wow.

And Marianne Faithfull did it as well. And I don't know. There's just something that I feel like is really kind of bleak and beautiful at the same time. Seriously, Bob, I might have to hold you. I know. That's fine. We can spoon later. It's good.

We're just warming up here. And I'm already pretty devastated. Can I ask you, Rob, as the accomplished musician you are, what is Beethoven doing there with Moonlight Sonata? Obviously, it's iconic, but most people who play piano, I don't know anybody who doesn't like Beethoven, but what is it about what he's doing there that makes it so visceral? Well, it starts with the minor key. It's the key that he's writing. Moonlight Sonata is in C sharp minor.

But what happens to me, like I've played Moonlight Sonata since I was probably like nine or ten years old. I first, because it's not hard. It's not a hard song to play, right? But it's like listening to Sarah McLachlan or listening to Nirvana. When you sit at a piano and you play that right? But it's like listening to Sarah McLachlan or listening to Nirvana. When you sit at a piano and you play that for yourself, it's like magic. Yeah. And I would play that song and realize

what's happening is that the bass notes that are moving, there's a little bit of tension in some of those notes. Okay. And it's sort of the marriage between the tension and the release of the minor chord to the major chords. Amazing. And that's the magic of it. My seven-year-old is just learning

ode to joy oh amazing and she's just started she just picked that she's learning kind of like a combination conservatory suzuki method and yeah uh it's non-traditional kind of you know what and it's amazing she's only been playing for about six like less than six months and they already got her playing with both hands and uh and it's just amazing to watch her get into it and i feel like like i feel like by the time she's nine she's gonna be doing the same thing you were you know it's yeah for sure and i mean the whole thing is like when you play music like this it even even when you're a kid it makes you like like unconsciously there's you feel something in the music and that's the mystery of the power of the music, right? Have we named the song yet for those listening? It's Past, Present, and Future.

By the Shangri-Las. By the Shangri-Las. Wow, that's amazing. Great start, Jesus. Woo! All right, Rob, great start. Now we move to Bob Ouellette. I'm just double-checking.

Bob, is there anything you wanted to say before I kick out the first jam? I'm going to make sure I have it in the right order here. So the first one is the one where we're going to... So I've got a personal anecdote. I got it. Yeah, I have it in the right order here. So the first one is the one where we're going to, so I've got personal anecdote. Yeah, so I've got a personal anecdote. We've got some mind blows. And then I'll end the bit with

one of the saddest things I've ever thought about. Well, I cannot wait for that. So, no, nothing to start with. This is, you know, I've always go on about how much my family has influenced my love of music and pop music. So let's just listen to the lyrics of this one specifically.

Okay, again, I'm letting these songs brew as opposed to when I normally bring it down right away. Here we go. Here we go. We walked to the sea Just my father and me And the dogs played around on the sand Winter cold cut the air on the sand winter cold

cut the air hanging still everywhere dressed in grey did he say hold my hand I said love's easier when it's far away

We sat and watched a distant light We're two ships that pass in the night We both smile and we say it's all right. We're still here. It's just that we're out of sight. Like those ships that pass in the night There's a boat on the line where the sea meets the sky There's another that rides far behind

And it seems you and I are like strangers, a wide ways apart As we drift on through time He said it's harder now we're far away We only read you when you write We're two ships that pass in the night And we smile when we say it's alright We're still here, it's just that we're outside Like those ships

That pass in the night We're just ships That pass in the night And we smile when we say it's alright We're still here, it's just that we're outside CHFI. Candlelight and Wine. Barry's all right. CHFI. Candlelight and Wine. Barry Manilow.

Ships. Let the record show I got a box of tissue for Bob Ouellette. You did. The mic is yours, Bob. Be open. Let's hear it. Yeah, so I've got a couple things prepared to talk about this particular song. Now, Barry Manilow gets the shaft when it comes to legitimacy. Everybody thinks he's just schmaltzy, and he's a joke, and he's Vegas. He's

all these things. My dad, as I've talked about my dad so many times on the show about music, my dad and my mom and my grandma were such huge influences on me musically. My dad was an unabashed pop music lover. My dad's favorite bands were Barry Manilow and Elton John and Billy Joel. He loved my, he, my dad was born in 1954. He could have been into Led Zeppelin. He could have been into the yard birds. He could have been into all this. He wasn't, he was into pop music. He loved the Bee Gees. He loved. So one thing that my dad and I used to do on Saturday mornings, I used to bowl YBC. If you're from Ontario, Youth Bowling

Council, Saturday morning bowling in Ontario. And my dad was like my coach and he was a very good bowler and we'd go out to April Lanes out at Kennedy and Lawrence from downtown Toronto or East End Toronto where I lived and we would listen to music the whole way and my dad would explain songs again,

I'm seven or eight years old. And I can remember my dad explaining like cats in the cradle and what, how it was about a dad who, you know, he, he learns his lesson cause he didn't have time for his side song. Yes. So,

and, and then he, and he, and this song, we, I remember him, we heard, and he told me about this song and he was like,

listen to that old, you know, and I could hear kind of like a, a regret about his father and his voice you know my dad would also you know completely uh you know explain inappropriate songs like paradise by the dashboard light when i was nine years old he would tell me exactly what was happening when the you know when the play-by-play is going on so you know like my dad was very young my dad was 22 when I was born. And so he's so responsible for so much of the music that I love. I told you he was a DJ. My dad was very sick for a very long time.

He passed away two years ago coming this May. And we had moved him into, so this is the personal anecdote side of it, and then we'll get into some mind blows. He'd been very, very sick, very rare. For 20 years, he's been sick, and I've been taking care of him. The irony about this, about the ships passing in the night and the cats in the cradle, him and I had drifted. But I still, once he was really, really sick,

I was there for him every step of the way as much as I could be. I'm his only son. He had no other children. So we put him into St. Ironically, St. Peter's in Hamilton is where he goes. He had a massive stroke and they're like, he's not, you know, it's done. So I set him up in the room with, I got a portable DVD player and I put mash on.

Again, the aforementioned Loretta Swit earlier. I put mash on the DVD and then we start listening to music. And so we get, so he's there for a couple days. We get the call on Mother's Day two years ago. My lovely wife Laura and I, we head out. We don't think he's going to make it. So we head out there.

I'm like, we're going to put some music on. My dad loved... The other thing my dad loved and I picked it up too was Jesus Christ Superstar. Yeah, sure. Oh, wow. Yeah, Ted Neely, Carl Anderson, saw them actually at the O'Keeffe Center in 92. Anyhow, took him to see that.

Also took my dad to see Barry Manilow, which is another, at Kingswood Music Theater in the mid-90s. Anyhow, so I put on Jesus Christ Superstar. My dad is like, basically, he's dying. And, but, you know, the music from Jesus Christ Superstar gets, at a certain point, it's like,

Jesus must, Jesus must die. And you're like, okay, maybe this is a little much. Maybe this is a little much. And I think my dad would think it was funny. Take that off. Throw on Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits, Volume 2. And, yeah, and Ships comes on, and he died shortly thereafter

right there with us this is the saddest story I've ever heard but uh so so that song is obviously it's about a son and his dad walking along the sea you know he's dressed did he say the line did he say hold my hand stands out to me as just like one of the most amazing songs uh amazing lines I've ever heard so it really resonates with me. And yeah, and Barry really gets, you know, he gets, like I said, he gets no respect. And I think undeservedly so. But it's interesting that those...

He gets a lot of respect, but he's a schmaltzy artist. Yeah, but he's a pop artist who's also, to move on from the sad part to the mind blows, who's also not just, you know, everybody knows, oh, he wrote the theme song for Bandstand, people of a certain, but he also wrote

some of the most iconic jingles in the history of North American television. Okay, so I have loaded up a few. Yeah. The order doesn't matter, No,

it doesn't matter. Okay. So the thing about, the same guy who wrote that song there, which again, the production's over the top, but I think,

obviously it resonates with me personally. Rob, you talk about a song and what you're going through at the time, i can't listen to that song without you know feeling emotional about it but i felt that way before based on my relationship with my dad it's just so happened that i also played it right before he died in my arms essentially wow okay let's amazing now i almost don't want to lighten the mood here, Bob. No, let's lighten the mood a little bit. Come on. All right, fine. You're the boss.

You're jammed. But I just want to say, you know, like a guy like Barry Manilow, he's so multi-talented. He like, think about the things that are part of pop culture that he's responsible for. I am stuck on Band-Aid, because Band-Aids look on me. I am stuck on Band-Aid, because Band-Aids look on me. Because they're really thick to your fingers, and they stick on Band-Aid, cause Band-Aid's stuck on me. Cause they're really thick to your fingers and they stick on Band-Aid knees. Remember, only Johnson & Johnson makes Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages with the unique Super Stick adhesive. Depend on the protection of America's number one bandage.

I am stuck on Band-Aid, cause Band-Aid's stuck on me. Okay, we're not even done yet here. This one's a little quiet, so let's hope this can be heard. I'm State Farm agent Jack Frank. I'd like to tell you about one of my car insurance policy holders, Paul Messer. For 24 years, we helped Paul keep his coverages up to date. Then one day, he had an accident. Then he really found out about the fast, fair claim service we promised him.

Great claim service is one of the reasons Paul came to State Farm 24 years ago, and it's a big reason he's going to stay. I'm like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Wow. Okay, I kind of saved the best for last because I had no idea this was Barry Manilow, so this is going to be something. You ready, Rob? I'm ready. I'm ready. Burger machine With a broom and a brush Clean it up for the rush

Before you open the door For the shine on the floor When we finish one day But all over again Tell me what does it mean At McDonald's it's clean You deserve a break today So get up and get away

To McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's You deserve a break today That's right That was the slogan when we were growing up Yep They also remember They had a parody of Mac the Knife

Mac Tonight So that was the other one When the clock strikes Half past six That would be the McDLT era The hot stays hot and the cool stays cool That's right, exactly It's Mac tonight

It's a good time For the great taste Dinner at McDonald's Get Mac tonight That You Deserve a Break That was like an original version Because they definitely lightened it up as the oh yeah that's like that's going way back

I think that's the original and then they just took the but I mean he's getting resids on that the whole time so Barry's still around and I will end on this note as sad as I think my little anecdote about my relationship with that song and my dad are

to me this is one of the saddest things I can think. In 2017, finally, after years of being known as Ferry Manilow and being known as Barely Man Enough, all these... Never heard that one. Never heard those before? Never heard Barely Man Enough. Barely Man Enough, Ferry Manilow, Whether or Not He Was Gay. Ferry Manilow finally came out in 2017.

And this quote, I get choked up when I read it. That's right. Why had he not come out? And he goes, I thought I would be disappointing my fans if they knew I was gay, so I never did anything. Could you imagine going through your life being as successful as Barry Manilow was and

is and thinking that you can't be your true self because you're going to disappoint the people who love you? To me, that's sadder than anything I've said. Yeah. You know, this is all very sad, but you told that anecdote about your dad watching MASH. And of course, you've already told us Loretta Swift is coming into the basement. Hot lips, hula hands.

90%. And Friday would be my dad's birthday, and she's tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. Well, I hope your opening anecdote is your dad watching MASH. You got to open with that, okay? Yeah, for sure. Thank you. But one of the saddest songs I can think of that didn't make my list is,

it was pointed out by Cam Brio on the live chat here at live.torontomic.com, but Suicide is Painless. Yeah. Like that music, which that music stuck around for the TV show, but I think the lyrics were by Robert Altman's son. Oh, interesting. I want to say.

Yeah. I think there's a quote from Robert Altman where he says his kid made more money off that movie than he did. Wow. Because he wrote the lyrics there. Canada Kev says he's got some dust in the air. No, dude.

When the masses, when the FOTMs listen to this, I'm telling you, you should invest in Kleenex and Scotties right now. But it's better to listen without looking at the lyrics because I just Googled the lyrics and they're not so sad. Ships? To ships? Suicide is painless. Oh, suicide is painless. I thought you were talking about Barry Manilow's ships. No, no.

I think that's actually kind of sad. Suicide is painless. Yeah, no. I thought you were going to play Suicide is Painless, the MASH song. Okay, I thought you were telling us that because we already think you're a sociopath. Yeah, I think the song about the dad saying, hey saying hey you know what we're just ships that pass each other and we're

it's hard when rob pruse wants to feel good he listens to uh cats in the cradle in the silver that's right and he starts to get happy all right you guys ready i mean yeah i can't talk that story but i kind of came out hard you know i i came out hard you didn't top that story. I kind of came out hard. I came out hard. You didn't save that for last. No, no, no, no. That's the most personal I'm going to get. The rest are sad songs, but that's one of the most personally sad songs. I don't even know if I've ever told anybody that.

I don't even know if my family knows the story of playing ships in the... Well, your mom... That's a good point. I remember there used to be, when you'd come on Toronto Mic, I'd see a post from your mom on Facebook where she likes you on my show. Yes.

And I always felt like warm and fuzzy about that. Like, Oh, Bob's mom likes him on my show. Will she hear toast? She will. She's actually had to try to make a belief game tonight with her husband. So yeah,

so yeah, so she, but she will listen to it. She literally, she said on the way, she was, will you give me a shout out? I'm like,

mom, I talk about you and my whole family the entire time I'm on because I can't talk about music and not talk about the influence that my family had even though none of us play anything. All right, my turn. All right, you guys ready? Yes, ready. Bring it. Friends are warmer than gold

When you're old Keeping them is harder Than you might suppose Lately I tend to make strangers wherever I go. Some of them were once people I was happy to know. Mounting mileage on the dash Double darkness falling fast I keep stressing, pressing on

Weakened down, some substratum Feels like something really wrong has happened I confess I'm barely hanging on All my happiness is gone All my happiness is gone. It's all gone somewhere beyond. All my happiness is gone. Robin, Bob, do either of you know David Berman? I do not. I'm not familiar.

Is this, I just Googled the lyrics. Is this Purple Mountains? Yep. I'm not familiar. So, do you remember the band Silver Jews? I don't know that band either, sorry. I remember the name, but I don't know them. So, David Berman's probably best known.

He's a co-founder of the band Silver Jews. And that band, I don't have the exact date, but they stopped making music. They broke up back in like 2009, I want to say. And David Berman went through some tough times. But over a decade later, he actually got back to recording music. And, you know, he used the moniker Purple Mountains. That was David Berman, which we're hearing right now.

And he put out this song, All My Happiness Is Gone. Wow. Hmm. And I'll save my mind below, but there's a quote from David Berman. So we're going back to May. So the timelines are kind of important here into why this song gets me. May 10th, 2019 is when this single comes out. May 10th, 2019.

Then in June 2019, one month later, David Berman's quoted as saying, There were probably a hundred nights over the past ten years where I was sure I wouldn't make it to the morning. This is a man battling mental illness, contemplating suicide and going through some tough times. Well, my friends, okay, May the song comes out. That quote's from June. He took his own life, hanging himself in his apartment in August 2019 in Brooklyn, New York. How did the, I'll be honest, I don't even,

I know Rob, you said you know Silver Juice. Where would one have found out about that band? They didn't get radio play, did they? Not here, no. I think he was indirectly related to some other bands as well. Like people that he had played with earlier. But I think now, like Mike, as you're mentioning it, I think I remember when he died.

I was reading about him on some music websites. But I didn't know him as well. Silver Jews, again, much like Bob, I didn't know much about well silver juice again I uh much like Bob like I didn't know much about silver juice until David Berman died like I think we talked I talked about this with wise blot on Toronto Mike when we were talking about David Berman's death that was in August 2019 so I went back and then here this song so the first single off his first album in 10 years you know having gone through all that shit and then uh i listened to the lyrics of all my happiness is gone and i hear that song and it reads to me it sounds to my ears like a

suicide letter right yeah like knowing he takes his life so literally they drop this in may he takes his own life in august wow so i'm hearing like a man like yeah i mean he's it's not even subtle to me all my happiness no it's not at all now yeah like he killed himself two months after that yeah yeah it's one of those yeah the signs were there but especially in hindsight right like that's the hard thing with musicians and music is that you can hear a lyric and think oh that's nice like you know you wrote some good lyrics and it's meaningful but you forget how much it is actually a person speaking out and crying out about their life and sometimes we take a thing because we're not we're not experiencing it the same way they are right but holy shit like to know that he wrote this and then killed himself is like sad because

the music is not that sad no this is the arrangement's not sad at all it's actually sounds a little bit like uh kind of like a manchester kind of like yes you know it's not sad at all. It's actually, it sounds a little bit like a, kind of like a Manchester kind of like, you know, it's got that, that kind of Brit poppy feel to it. Yes. Yeah. There's a bit of a,

a pulpiness too. Like I hear you. It sounds like that song, Melt With You. A little bit like a little modern English. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Great song. Great song. I want to shout out Tobias Vaughn on the live stream, live.torontomic.com. Cause he points out, he says, Purple Mountains, anything by David Berman, really. And he puts a sad face, but he says the whole album is like that. And he says he took his own life on the eve of the tour

to promote that album. So the night before the tour, and he points out, it is an incredible album. So that's the big single from the album. Take a listen to it. David Berman. When I'm ready to be sad again. Well, yeah.

It's just a moment to say you never know what someone's going through. Now, not everybody wears their feelings on their sleeve like David did there where he was basically saying there were a hundred nights where he went to bed and he wasn't sure he'd make it to the morning. And he writes a song, All My Happiness Is Gone.

But, I mean, there's so many people you'll encounter during your day where they'll smile wasn't sure he'd make it to the morning and he writes a song all my happiness is gone but i mean there's so many people you'll encounter during your day where they'll smile and tell you everything's great you'll go to their instagram page and you'll see big smiles they look like they're having a great life meanwhile uh they're they're battling uh you know that mental illness or they're going through some serious struggles you just have no idea what people are going through. Well, I've been, knock on wood, very fortunate to have not a lot of exposure to that kind of mental illness that ends like that, except for somebody who is mentioned quite often

on this podcast, Martin Streak. And I worked with him for two years in very close quarters and I spoke with him. Again, I wasn't particular. We had drifted because we didn't work together, but spoke to him quite literally weeks before he took his own life. And he was in great spirits. It seemed all things considered, he had just lost his job and he made a joke. He blamed me.

He said it was my fault. And but, you know, again, the same thing. It was my fault. And, but, you know, again, the same thing. He was, he, Rob, George Strombolopoulos just posted a picture of Rob Zombie, George, and Martin together. And I was just talking with my wife. I just, I choked up looking at it because you could just, the piercing eyes that Martin had. Martin had this presence that made everybody feel so frigging amazing.

And to have him gone. So, you know, you, you can listen, you can listen and you can misread lyrics or not hear lyrics or, or sometimes you just don't know it all as well. You know, it's, it's, it is, it is a mystery. No, thank you for sharing that. Everyone but Craig Vann, I think loved Martin Streep. Oh, Martin wasn't always easy to get along. Don't get me wrong. I could tell some stories. I was at the party. So Rob, I was at the party for Marty, which was at the opera house,

and I set up my studio in the lobby, basically, as you walk in. It was great. And everyone but Neil Mann came on the microphone, and everyone else popped on. Said nice things. And it was quite interesting because, you know. Did you know Martin, Rob? I didn't know him.

I don't even actually know if I actually met him my sister knew him from some clubs in Burlington and stuff as well so kingdom 1400 Burlington yep I produced that show in two years I probably know your sister anyhow sorry I didn't mean to I just

what you were saying kind of resonated with me I literally just Friday night I was out with my wife and I had a full conversation about Marty. I'm wearing my it's cool to be kind hoodie because, I mean,

maybe it's because I'm pushing 50 or whatever, but like I'm trying to be kind to people. Even some of the dicks out there I'm trying to be kind because I'm trying to understand that

like I don't know what they're going through. Like I don't know if they have a child who's sick or somebody they love is battling something. And I don't know what's going on at home. I don't know what's going on in their personal lives. I don't know what they're afflicted with. So I'm just trying to be kind to people and give people the benefit of the doubt. There's your next theme.

Songs about kindness. That would be quite the foil. Songs about kindness. Yeah. Okay, look. Songs about kindness. Okay, look, write that down. Let's move on. I was going to talk about, there's a guy out there named Gary V.

I don't know if you've ever heard of Gary Vanderchuck. He's a, you know who. I know from you. Yeah, but his whole thing is about kindness. One of his whole things, he's like, if somebody is treating you like garbage, think about how sad their life must be or how fucked up their life must be for them to treat you that bad. And that's empathy empathy right and that's yeah that's how i try to raise

my kids is being empathetic anyhow let's let's go let's get sad again purple mountains all my happiness is gone okay it included that the single had a couple of remixes of the song uh one of them by a no account and it is called All My Happiness Is Wrong. So I thought just as a little bit of a bonus track, a little taste of that here. So this is All My Happiness Is Wrong. A little different, just a little different remix, and then I'll bring it down. And we'll pass the baton to Rob Proust. He'll make us cry.

Friends are warmer than gold when you're old. And keeping them is harder than you might suppose. Lately I tend to make strangers wherever I go. Lately I tend to make strangers wherever I go Some of them were once people I was happy to know Mounting mileage on the dash Double darkness falling fast I keep stressing pressing on

weighted down at some substratum feels like something really wrong has happened I confess I'm barely hanging on there you go. All my happiness is gone.

Interesting juxtaposition. All my happiness is gone. Sounds like Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. Well, you know what's a song that sounds happy melodically but is actually really sad is Hey Ya. Hey Ya is like... Outcast. Outcast, of course. It sounds like

a happy song, but if you listen to it and you hear different versions where it's kind of acoustic or slowed down, it's a very sad song. Anyway. So you can't judge these things always by the melody. That's for sure. Okay, Rob, any words before I kick out your next jam?

Which I think, by the way, before I kick it out, every Canadian listening, it fulfilled the CanCon requirements, I guess. I can't wait to talk to you about this song. But you want to say anything before I kick it? No. I think we should just listen to it about this song, but you want to say anything before I kick it? No. I think we should just listen to it. There we go.

There you go. Ah, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Goodbye to you, my trusted friend. We've known each other since we were nine or ten. Together we've climbed hills and trees Learned of love and ABC

Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky Now that the spring is in the sky now that the spring is in the air pretty girls are everywhere think of me and I'll be there we had joy, we had fun

we had seasons in the sun but the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time goodbye papa please pray for me But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time. Goodbye, Papa, please pray for me. I was a black sheep of the family. You tried to teach me right from wrong. Too much wine and too much song.

Wonder how I got along. Goodbye, Papa, it's hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky Now that the spring is in the air Little children everywhere When you see them them I'll be there We had joy, we had fun We had seasons in the sun But the wine and the song

Like the seasons have all gone We had joy, we had fun We had seasons in the sun But the wine and the song Like the seasons have all gone Goodbye, Michelle, my little one I can't say goodbye to Michelle. Okay, talk to me, Robbie.

What happened to Michelle? Goodbye, Michelle. Well, this is just one of those songs. I think for us, as Canadians, this is like the ultimate Canadian sad song. I think you're right. I remember, you know, I was saying earlier that, you know, telling us all those songs

that my dad would explain to me as a little kid. And I remember hearing this on 1050 Chum as a kid. Oh, yeah. And then getting it on the Oh, What a Feeling soundtrack. I had it on the same box set. That box set. And learning about, and already knowing about the Terry Jacks song

and knowing it was about war. And it was something that we couldn't relate to as kids in the early 80s. It seemed so, so... Again, another one of those songs though, Rob, that outside of the little bassy bum, bum, bum, bum, it doesn't sound like a sad song. No, but it's the lyrics that draw you in right and i feel like so when this song was on the radio

originally i was like eight years old right and i was obsessed with the radio at that time so whatever was on the radio i was learning to love it for whatever it had on its own and this song always made me feel weird yeah it was something about that story like it's hard to die and like at that age i was like i don't really know what i'm feeling but this is seems sort of sad but the music is happy and like looking at the sky should make you feel happy but i didn't quite understand that juxtaposition of those ideas right so i feel like for all of us it's just one of those songs it brings up a happy or a sentimental memory and like it's sad it's generally going to be sad or um

sentimental yeah nostalgic that's an old like an old and originally originally uh it was going to be for the beach boys which is when i discovered sort of researching it which i could sort of imagine because terry's voice is like a nice sort of a high sweet voice. Right. And he wanted, he pitched it to them, this version and they didn't want to do it. So he was like,

okay, I'll do it myself. It's interesting. So this, so the, the writer, so you said it's based on a French song, Mike,

is it like the, the melodies? Yeah. And I haven't. Yeah. So Rob, do you have any more of those mind blows? Because my understanding is,

yeah, that's a French song. And then these are the English lyrics. Jack's wrote the lyrics. So what's interesting then. So the, well, the lyrics,

it was originally, it was a poem by Rod McEwen, who was like a famous kind of a folk guy who wrote like, like really nice poetry, folk kind of songs. But the original music was by Jacques Brel, who was super famous. That's it.

That's the name I'm looking for. I wonder if it would count as CanCon under the maple, under the A-M-A-P-L, the Music Artist Production and Lyrics. Well, it has to the amount of times we heard it. No, but it precedes maple. Like, remember anything before 72? All you need, like Paul,

like My Way by frank sinatra's cancon so i'm now finding yes i'm now yeah right that's right i'm now learning you're absolutely of course you're right rob you wouldn't bring some false info to this program we'd be very mad at you if you did that but that just was intended for the beach boys quite something okay yeah wow um but so i think cancon was like the Maple was already happening at this time because it was released in 73. So for sure. Okay. So artist and producer Terry Jacks for sure.

He's from Winnipeg. So shout out to Terry Jacks who's still with us. He's from Winnipeg. He's only 78 years young. Wow. Also from Winnipeg, Sammy Cohn. If you have any real estate questions, you write Sammy.Cohn at properlyhomes.ca.

That's a good segue man it only took me 1190 episodes to figure all that out rob i love it thank you for bringing the the can it's the largest well at that time i think i don't know if it's still true it was the largest selling international single by a canadian artist wow yeah you know heard that before. 14 million copies it sold. Wow. And like it's, I mean, it's like it becomes an iconic thing where it almost doesn't seem like there was a time when we didn't know that song. But like for me personally, to be eight years old and I still, when I look at like a list

of songs from 74 and I see that on the list and I'm like, of course, that's just one of those songs. Like, it's like you mentioned Cats in the Cradle. Cats in the Cradle was around that time as well. And it was those storytelling kind of songs for us, like as kids growing up, it made me think of stories about life and your parents and like, oh, you learn things from your parents

and you move on and you grow up and these relationships shift in that way. And I've always loved that. You know what songs are like the Cat Stevens songs. Like if you listen to a Cat Stevens song, it's kind of like kind of sad and kind of introspective and, you know, tea for tiller men and all that. Bob's going to crack open a Great Lakes beer on the microphone.

Because we're going to need it for this one. Oh, yeah, it's a big one. Nice. Get comfortable for this one. My preamble to this is I have always said that this and this version of this song is the saddest song ever written. Wow, and you didn't even close with it. Oh my goodness.

Here we go. Oh yeah. I knew Rob would like this. I don't feel qualified to talk about this with you or hear Rob. Oh yeah, you should. I never needed anyone And making love was just for fun

Those days are gone Living alone I think of all the friends I've known But when I dial the telephone, nobody's home All by myself Don't wanna be All by myself Anymore

All by myself But I wanna live All by myself Anymore Hard to be sure Sometimes I feel so insecure And love so distant and obscure Remains the cure Now it's a Beatles song.

Yeah. Right? Is that George? Nope. So, I mean, I'd like to come back at the six-minute mark if possible. You just put up your hand and it's coming back. We'll just keep talking. You've got to let the piano, the interlude has to play.

We have to hear the interlude. You just tell me when to turn it up. He's going to. Right now? No, no, no. No, the piano part. After he does all this. So, like, there's some...

This is like the... Do we call that a coda? No. Or no, if it's at the end, right? I'm going to let Rob answer that, but I don't think so. So, this is Eric Carman, obviously. 1975, all by myself. Made popular in the 90s with Celine Dion's cover.

I still don't think it's Celine Dion's cover is anywhere near as sad as this version. No, I think I can still think I can remember thinking early. Is it coming here?

Here it is. Let's turn this up here. So listen to this piano playing Rob Pruess. Nice. Standing first. What minute are we at? Three and a half. There you go. So we'll come back. At six minutes, there's something I want to hear again. So give me like that when we're at five and a half.

So Eric Carman writes this song. This full version becomes a hit on the radio. And I always thought it was so sad, mostly because I can picture Eric Carman with his big puffy hair all by himself in his basement writing this. Until you find out a couple mind blows about this song, if you don't know, and a guy like Rob will know.

But he wrote the lyrics, but this ain't his song. This is the second appearance of some classical music. I'm surprised you're blowing this mindblow now. I'm surprised how you're playing this. Why? I'm not trying to micromanage you, Bob.

That's fine. I would finish the all-by-myself Eric Carman song, and then I would play the other song, and then I would say... I don't want to take up too much time, that's fine. I would finish the All By Myself Eric Carman song, and then I would play the other song, and then I would say... I don't want to take up too much time, that's all. I got nothing but time for you, Bob Liddick. I appreciate it. It's such a long song.

Where are we in the... Listen to this. So there's a breakdown coming up. You're only at 448. Oh, my gosh. I'm so out of practice with the radio. Did you research The Raspberries? Yes. So The Raspberries? Yes.

So the Raspberries were a band that he, so you'll hear that the chorus is actually lifted from another song that he wrote in like 72 with the Raspberries. And we'll talk about the music after. That's fine. There's a breakdown. I don't want to tell you what to do.

Well, there's a breakdown that comes up here that I want you to hear. And I will ask both of you, what 80s power ballad does it remind you of? Because you're at 425. I love this game. Yeah, it comes up at like 550 or so. So, you know, the thing about what's interesting about this song is, and Rob, you could attest to this. I'm sorry, more than I could.

Was this song a massive radio hit? Yes. Yes. Eric Kerman, yeah. Right? And it's the full six and a half, seven minute version, right? Well, no, there was an edited version. Was there an edit?

Yeah, okay. It had the opening of the piano solo in the intro. That's up. So that drum reminds me. Do it. Go back. Can you go back? Just so we can.

I was talking over it. I miss her. Phil Collins? Yes. In the air tonight? Listen. Okay. Really?

Like shorter, right? You double that. It's in the air tonight. I can feel it coming in the air tonight. Okay, one more time, actually. Listen to it. I mean, it's not in the air tonight, but it's like a half of it. Inspired by, perhaps?

Yes, sure. Except this predates in the air tonight. Well, that's what I mean. It's like 10 years before. That's my point. And you know what? Maybe it's the same producer. I, that's what I mean. It's like 10 years before. That's my point. Yeah. And you know what? Maybe it's the same producer.

I have no idea. I actually don't know. I didn't look that up. You know, they're both big jams, right? Yes. This is a big fucking song. It's epic. It is epic.

By Faith No More. So what's interesting to me is obviously, you know, the lyric, When I was young, making love was just for fun. Those days are gone. that's a sad ass lyric like the lyrics are sad but the music is so sad as well the production is sad Eric

Carmen I don't know if he I mean he there's full credit to it but Eric Carmen didn't write the music for this I mean he arranged this song but he didn't't write the music for this. I mean, he arranged this song, but he didn't write all the music for this. Shout out to one of my favorite movies of all time, Shine.

Are you ready? Yeah. There you go. There you go. Wow. That's the exact thing. Wow. That's the exact thing. Wow. Wow.

Wow, even this. Yeah, the whole thing. That kept me from shining. No, this is Rachmaninoff's. Well, I don't know. Maybe it's on YouTube. No, this is Rachmaninoff's. Well, I don't know. Maybe it's on YouTube. So I don't, maybe.

No, this was, no, because I pulled this. This is a piece by Rachmaninoff. Yeah. It's his second piano concerto, right? Yeah, in C minor. And this, yeah. What's the full title? Because Leslie's asking on there. Yeah, so it's Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18.

Yeah. It's even better than Op. 17. Yeah, so 17 was no good. You really had to wait until 18 to make it. Let me ask you this, Rob Pruce, because you are a classically trained pianist. Have you ever listened to a piece, like this Rachmaninoff piece obviously is pretty epic.

Have you ever listened to a piece of classical music and thought I should I could put lyrics to that um I thought of doing it but I have not done it because it has occurred to me over the years when I've learned about different songs that have done it and I thought oh it would be a good idea

like there are some songs over the years that it's like like a song like this is very obvious yeah although it's interesting, like a song like this. It's very obvious. Although it's interesting to me to know that the chorus is an old raspberry song because I did not know that. Yeah. I know what that song is because, because the rock one enough parts, when you hear rock one enough,

symphony is piano concerto. It's so obvious that that's what this came from. Right. Right. So it's interesting. If you listen to less, if you listen to let's pretend, which is the raspberries,

it's not as obvious. You will be able to hear it. But I got to admit, I've listened to it, and I don't necessarily hear it quite as much. Do you have that queued up or no? Do you get that? Oh, you sent me another one? I don't have it.

No, that's fine. Oh, the Let's Pretend by the raspberries. I'll get it for you, buddy. It's fine. I just don't hear it as prevalent, obviously, as the Rachmaninoff. So I just think it's one of the most famous power ballads of all time. Yeah. And it's a classical piece from the turn of the century.

Really? Yeah. We'll be right back. say oh no no eric kerman can sing oh yeah so do you hear the similarities rob because i am having a hard time picking them out yeah it's very i mean i mean based on that just hearing that i can hear the first few chords right and the sort of the melody would be like an inspiration for all by myself right definitely there's a relationship between the two if i was sitting at a piano i could definitely do it you could bang it out yeah i hear it for sure yeah um yeah i have a quick i did learn a fun fact about the guitar solo though tell me i met the guy who played the guitar solo oh really yeah he's a superstar Hugh McCracken Hugh McCracken yeah

related to Phil McCracken uh maybe I don't know about that so what is Hugh McCracken known for he's he's a studio guy right yeah but but Hugh played with John Lennon on um Double Fantasy he played with McCartney on some of his records he He's like a... That's why it sounds like the Beatles. Wow. Yeah. That's why it sounds like George Harrison. Exactly. Yeah. Hugh has done... He's played on everything.

Oh, my gosh. He played with Gloria Loring. He played with the Monkees. He played with... Yeah. Barbara Streisand. Wow. That's crazy.

So I have a friend in Manhattan, in New York City, who lived in an apartment one floor below Hugh and was like a friend of his. Wow. And one day in 2009 when Manny's Music Store was closing, I went into the store and my friend was in there with Hugh

because Hugh was helping my friend pick out a bass guitar. So I met Hugh for like a split second and I was like, holy shit, there's Hugh McCracken. And he passed away in 2013. He played on 52nd Street, Billy Joel. Yeah. Oh my God. You have to look his Wikipedia page. like holy shit there's humor cracking um and he passed away in 2000 2013 he played with he played on 52nd street billy joel oh my god you have to look his wikipedia page i'm looking at it right

now holy moly yeah he played on everything and you knew him well i met him i met him one time but he was a good friend of a friend of mine wow yeah anyhow so that's uh to me what i still maintain probably the saddest song ever written. Yeah, it's a lonely song in the piano opening. Yeah, very lonely. Yeah. Yep, for sure. You know, One is a sad song, too. I'm thinking of the Amy Mann cover.

No, that's a sad song, too, though. All the Ones, actually. One is the loneliest number. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Which we've kicked out. I could have done 50 sad songs.

I really could. Yeah, I know. Let me just shout out some songs that are coming out in the live stream real quickly here. So, who do we got here? There's somebody new.

DJ Dream Doctor says, Leonard Cohen has a bunch of sad songs, of course. He wonders if Northern Town by the Dream Academy. I actually shared that in the group earlier this week. It popped in my head.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by the Hollies. Leslie says, that in the group earlier this week. It popped in my head. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by the Hollies. Leslie says that. Oh, that's, and you know, a good fact about that song, it was Elton John

playing piano. That is a fun fact. I love it. I love it. And Cambrio points out, and this is kind of when we were listening to the Purple Mountain song,

Nirvana had a song called I Hate Myself and Want to Die. That's pretty, yeah, yeah. In retrospect, quite something. DJ Dream Doctor says something about a part by The Cure is quite sad. Everything by The Cure is quite sad.

I actually had a bunch of Cure songs on my list. Oh, yeah. There's a couple that I really, there's like a couple album cuts that I've always liked. I love The Cure. Hey, I have a quick Eric Carman story very quickly. I did a, I'm still a I have a quick Eric Carman story very quickly.

I'm still a part of, we're going to do it soon, but this thing called Toronto Miracle where we gather food for our food insecure in the city of Toronto. And I like to have an episode every year where I promote the day where you're going to leave the non-perishable food items outside your door. So I decided

I had this chat and I put in music afterwards. Hungry Eyes? Yeah, I put Hungry Eyes and I got a nice note. Could you please they felt it was insensitive for me to use Hungry Eyes by Eric Kerman. They felt or Eric Kerman felt? I don't think Eric heard it.

And then I thought, well, that's the joke. To me, the joke was that it was inappropriate to play Hungry Eyes. Well, look, right after 9-11 happened, I played Fly Like an Eagle on AM640. So that was the wrong thing to do. But we didn't know what was happening. Seriously.

Anyways, that's a whole other story. They played music on 640? No, it was bumper music. All right. We're kicking ass, taking names here. Thank you for your help with that one, Rob Proust. Because I knew as soon as I picked that one, I'm like, and I knew it was based on a classical piece

that I would be leaning on you for that one. Oh my God, yeah. I mean, that's my era. I mean, my childhood era when I was, that song was on the radio when I was 10. That's another one of the songs when I was first playing in a band and I had the sheet music.

And that's, of course, because there was piano all through it. Right. I wanted to play that. Of course you did. So that was, yeah, one of those songs I taught myself to play for sure. Oh, amazing. Uh-huh. All right, my turn.

What do we got? You guys ready? Go. Let's get sad. Again, as Rob said off the top, a lot of this is very subjective, but here we go. Thank you. guitar solo We chase misprinted lies We face the path of time And yet I fight And yet I fight And yet I fight

This battle all alone No one to cry to No place to go gone This is Nutshell by Alice in Chains. Okay, so I think it actually is objectively sad, but when you kind of dive in, it gets sadder because Lane Staley wrote these lyrics

and this appeared on the 94 EP Jar of Flies. That was an EP, right? Yeah, it was. EP Jar of Flies, yeah. After its follow-up to Dirt, wasn't it? Yes. The CD. Because the first one had Man in the Box

and then there was Dirt, which is with the three-legged dog, and then there was, yes. Dirt has Rooster and Dirt, which is with the three-legged dog and then there was, yes, Jar of Flies. Dirt has Rooster and Dirt, which is also very sad. Dirt is a very sad song. A lot of sad Alice in Chains, actually. But Staley, I guess shortly after they complete Jar of Flies, which has Nutshell in it, Staley, Layne Staley, the lead singer and the guy who wrote these lyrics.

And these lyrics haunt me. Like, we chase misprinted lies. We face the path of time and yet i fight and yet i fight this battle all alone no one to cry to no place to call home like it's all heartbreaking he enters rehab because of course he's addicted to heroin and you can kind of hear him kind of openly and he does this he did this in the what's the uh what's the super group uh mad season oh gosh yeah with mccready young yeah oh so good he does it there too but anyway that's a great so yeah great reference so when i hear this song like it's just

devastating i find it devastating when you know how it ends for lane staley and you kind of hear it all put on display here i just think it's a sad song. I think we're seeing a pattern with your choices, Mike, in that you brought up Kurt and you brought up Lane and you brought up your friend whose name is eluding me at this moment, who passed away shortly after he released his music. David Berman.

Yeah. Again, clearly, obviously, you know, suicide is a very, very sad subject. But Lane doesn't commit suicide. He OTs. He's an addict. Yeah, but he just... Six to one half does the other half, if you ask me.

I don't know. Like, you're asking for it. But he's addicted to a highly addictive opiate. And he takes... Yeah, he does... So is it sad? So, okay. So not to get...

Here's a sad... It's still sad. Well, no, yeah. he does. So is it sad? So, okay. So not to get, here's a sad, here's a sad debate. Is it sadder that he died of an overdose or is it sadder that Kurt blew his own head off? Which is sadder. Wow. That is the saddest debate we could have, right? If we're going to go down that road. It's so sad, especially when you consider how talented and creative these people are.

These young men are. I mean, I can't choose. It's, you know, like you said, six of one, half dozen of another. It's a sad one for sure. You know, Lane is an interesting story because, I mean, he had it all, right? Like, you know, they were there. They were right up there with the rest of them. He was in Singles too.

Yes, he was. Yes, he was. I just re-watched Singles. Does it hold up? Does the rest of them. He was in Singles too. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. I just re-watched Singles. Does it hold up? I loved it. In fact, some stuff, like for example, there's a guy in Singles who I didn't know it was him until I re-watched it, but he plays Prez in The Wire.

Have you ever seen The Wire? I've talked to you about The Wire before. I say, I want to like The Wire. Oh, you don't like The Wire? Well, no. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. I watched the very first episode, and I'm sorry, but the pilot of The Wire is horrible. Do you know who directed the pilot of The Wire? I do not.

Molly Johnson's brother. Molly Johnson's brother. Yes, I did know that. Yes, I did. Clark Johnson. What? Really? That's true, Rob.

The pilot's no good. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I know Molly Johnson is a four-letter word around here. See, I'm trying to remember the first time I watched The Wire. I did not have any feeling after the first episode.

Her brother was involved with the show, I heard. Yeah, he was in season... I'm just kidding. Let's do that. Yeah, I just listened to your interview with her. Let me say it for Bob and everybody. And then I have to get back to some Alice in Chains mind blows and stuff.

Okay. But I got an email from Rob Pruse that I guess it was this past week. Rob was on a road trip of some sorts and he decided to finally

dive in and listen to Molly Johnson. Some of the famous Toronto White episodes. So prior to listening, Rob, what had you heard about this episode?

I heard it was controversial. Awkward is. Awkward. was controversial awkward is awkward and controversial awkwardly controversial i guess yeah um but your introduction to the episode was fantastic because the way you sort of like prepared the listener that's uh future mike i think we call that character he doesn't come around so you've you so if people go back to the molly johnson do you have a preamble it was always was always there. Oh, it was always there. I have not edited that episode. You launched it with a...

It's like one of two episodes. You know who else I did it for? Your buddy, Carol Pope. Oh, okay. Carol's a tough interview. Yeah, but also we had internet issues. So there were two episodes where future Mike had to give a little context.

Right, right, right. And it's funny because I imagined that a Carol Pope interview would be similar to a a little context. Right, right, right. And it's funny because I imagined that a Carol Pope interview would be similar to a Molly Johnson interview, but I guess because I know Carol so well for 20 years that I can understand her in a way. And so listening to Molly, I understand her. And you did a really good job with her though,

but it was an entertaining interview. And remember, the difference is Carol Pope is on like, it's like, it might as well be a phone call. Right. The Zoom is so bad. Molly, I could reach out and, you know, touch her. She's right there. In my basement. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I've had that. Anyway, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Have you had an interview go south like that, Bob? Not with my... Oh, so yeah. So a couple things. Yeah. So my first one that comes to mind is I'm at Proud FM. I wasn't conducting the interview. I was the program director of Proud FM. And my morning show was interviewing Debbie Harry.

Okay. Legend. Yeah. And she came in and she was told it was TV. And so she was in full makeup. And she was ready to go. And it wasn't full TV. So she was pissed.

She's like, what do you mean there's no TV? I'm like, well, you know, we're going to, we'll stream it. Well, this was that, you know, all that. She's like, I thought this was a TV studio. I thought this was that. And I was like, no. So she, that was not a good interview. I have interviewed Carol Pope when I was at Proud FM, when I was, I was, I was program

director and I was doing pulling shifts. It was during pride and I found her and look and I'm very good friends with her guitarist Tim Welch. I know Carol. My mom's a huge fan. I've known her music. I just did not vibe with her at all. I couldn't ask the right question. I felt like no matter what

I did. She's tough. No matter what I did I did wrong. And then honestly one of the wow I'm asking. I'm a dumb shit because I just had no idea. And maybe in retrospect, if she heard that, she'd be like, she'd either think it was hilarious or she would feel bad, one of the two.

The other one is a Humble and Fred interview in which I was a part of. I did not do it. I was producing the show at the time. No, I was like an associate producer. Susan Hay of Global News. I've heard them reference this many times. What happened there?

So she comes in and she thinks, so we're at the edge at the time. It's before AM 640. Like Derringer is doing afternoons. Stern is fucking annihilating Humble and Fred at this time in the ratings, right? Like we're on the ropes, right? You know, we've been number one.

Stern comes in and takes us out. So somebody in her group, a friend of hers said watch out those guys are gonna they're gonna rip you up they're gonna tear you apart and that is and as much as uh people may or may not like or not like humble if they don't rip people up they don't tear them apart right unless you produce the show um Which only you and I understand. She came in guns a-blazing. And she was shooting, saying really shitty things about Humble and Fred, about how bad they are,

about how they're losing, about all this. And this was live on the air. This was not rehearsed, nothing. It was like, what is happening? Yeah, it was one of the strangest things i've ever seen in my life i produced an interview of susan hay she was on uh where was she on your feminine warriors maybe or i'm sure she's lovely but somebody told here's what i somebody got in her

ear and said you're going on with essentially like bubba the love sponge you're going on with shock jocks from the states and they're gonna ask to see your tits or something which of course that's not what humble and fred's mo has ever been and she came out basically just like swinging and humble fred literally didn't know what to do it was one of the most awkward interviews and then meatloaf with humble and fred worst interview i've ever seen god bless meatloaf he's dead what happened in that interview he again so we're at mix 99.9 at the time he's doing the rounds he comes around and he sits at the end. So Humble's on my left.

I'm producing the show. Humble's on the left. Freddie's on the right. Meatloaf's at the end of the table, and the newspapers are there, back when we still had newspapers. And he literally picks up the newspapers during the interviews

and just starts reading headlines. Oh, he reads them out loud. Won't even answer questions. Like, nothing. He was an absolute dick. Wow. Yep. Won't even answer questions. Like nothing. He was an absolute dick. Wow. Yep. Don't get me wrong.

Bad Outta Hell is still one of my favorite albums of all time. But he was- That's Jim Steinman. Yeah. He was horrible. He was a horrible person for that interview. I have a picture of him though with me. But you think I did a good job, right, Rob?

With the Molly Johnson interview. Oh my God. It was fantastic. I mean, the way you described the turnaround, I kept waiting to job, right, Rob, with the Molly Johnson interview? Oh, my God, it was fantastic. I mean, the way you described the turnaround, I kept waiting to, like, as I was listening, to see the moment when you, like, decided that you guys were sort of, like, coming around. And it really did feel to me like a Carol Pope interview in that way.

Like, there's some people who are, like, really shy that come across as not shy but, like, just difficult. Well, Molly's not shy. I guess Molly's like that but but she took huge offense to you which i think was a little bit unwarranted as well diva which i don't think carol would do but maybe that's only because i know carol as well there are people in life who get off on making other people uncomfortable yeah and i feel like maybe carol's that person i feel like she enjoys i you off. I need to revisit my Carol Pope because I know Future Mike

only showed up twice for Molly Johnson and Carol Pope. Yeah. I got to revisit that Carol. I don't know if Molly Johnson gets off on making people uncomfortable.

I think she was legit felt like a front. Something triggered Molly Johnson because I felt it like I said and you can hear it in my voice, right Rob?

Like my brother Steve said like he knows me he's known me for you know 45 years. Yeah. I hear it too. hear it too That's my nervous voice I don't even know what I'm going to do I get really high pitched when I'm nervous Let's get back to being sad

Oh yeah come on Bring the sad back You were going to play some more Alice in Chains or something I want to say a couple more things about Nutshell real quick here Just a couple more things Alice in Chains or something. I want to say a couple more things about Nutshell real quick here. Just a couple more things. Alice in Chains, Nutshell. This is from the Unplugged, right?

Not only is this the Unplugged, this is their first song. This is the opening of their Unplugged, MTV Unplugged. April 1996. They hadn't played together in over two years. What? Yeah. I don't know if I knew that. Because he went to rehab.

Right. he have right Faced up at the time And yet I fight And yet I fight This battle all alone No one to cry to No one to call So I'm a big fan of the Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged. This is the first opening jam.

And it's just his vocal performance, Lane, keep in mind what he went through the previous two years. And you can, you know, his body's been ravaged by uh addiction to heroin and he's kind of yeah you know he's he's not doing well but this vocal performance it's just just so heart-wrenching and amazing yeah it's great and speaking of singles so when did i mention singles why did i mention the single soundtrack oh yeah so pres we were talking

about the wires in the singles but before that i mention the single soundtrack? Oh, yeah. So Prez from The Wires and the singles. But before that, I mentioned... Oh, yeah. Because Blaine Staley. It was Blaine Staley. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's in the movie. He's in the movie. So if you guys have the single soundtrack,

and I'm sure you guys do. Oh, my God. Yeah. I think that soundtrack is still the quintessential soundtrack to the beginning of that era. Oh, for sure. For sure. Screaming Trees are on that

soundtrack. With that in mind, you can guess who this vocalist is. Hold on. We We Chase misprinted lies Chasemus printed lies We Face a path of time

And yet I fight Yet I fight This battle all alone No one to cry to No place to call home This is only from 2020. This is Mark Lanigan. Mark Lanigan, yeah.

Wow. 2020, you know, he passed away. Just last year. Yeah, February 2022. He passes away in Killarney. It's in Ireland. In Ireland. And this is a duet.

I just want to shout out the woman whose voice we hear on this thing, which is really wonderful. You've got to find it. That's haunting. Maggie Borkland. That is a haunting track. It is haunting, isn't it? I think this is what you'd expect would happen when we all get together

and kick out sad jams. But now I'm feeling really sad. Is that a shock? I don't know. I thought it would be more uplifting, but okay. I'm going to pass the baton now, bring down Nutshell, one of the saddest songs I know. And Rob Pruce, any words before your final jam?

Well, I will say that I discovered this artist and this album and this song from Elton John and I discovered it when Princess Diana died alright here we go 25 years ago right All alone I

Didn't like the feeling All alone I Sat and cried All alone I had to find some meaning in the center of the pain I felt inside All alone I came into this world

All alone I will someday die Solid stone is just sand and water, baby Sand and water and a million years gone by I will see you in the light of a thousand suns. I will hear you in the sound of the waves. I will know you when I come as we all will come Through the doors beyond the grave All alone I will heal this heart of sorrow All alone I I raise this child.

Flesh and bone, he's just bursting towards tomorrow. And his laughter fills my world and wears your smile. I will see you in the light of a thousand suns. I will hear you in the sound of the waves I will know you when I come as we all will come

through the doors beyond the grave That's a sad song, Rob. All alone That's a sad song, Rob. Came into this world You okay, Rob? All alone Did we lose Rob?

Someday, darling Oh, we're going to finish this song. Rob's not going to talk until we finish this song. Solid stone is just sand and water, baby. Sand and water in a million years gone by. Rob, can you hear us? Rob?

Oh, there you are. Can you hear me? I was worried about you for a minute. Maybe he offed himself. It's like it's such a sad song. Rob just said that's enough. No. I actually brought it down earlier and I kind of set you up to speak.

And you weren't there. Oh, maybe Rob refuses to speak till the song ends. He didn't want to offend him. And then the song ended and you weren't there. I just noticed my mic was muted, but didn't i wasn't gonna say anything anyways come on how beautiful is that song very very uh sad and beautiful sad and beautiful so this song for me has for 25 years been like one of my beautiful go-to sad songs. Who's singing that song? Her name is Beth Nielsen Chapman. Yes. Country singer.

She is probably best known for anybody who doesn't know this album. She wrote a song called This Kiss, which was a huge hit for Big Hill. This Kiss, this Kiss, that one? Yep, yep, that's Beth Nielsen Chapman's song. Wow. But I discovered this album

when Elton John was on Rosieie rosie o'donnell's tv show in the 90s yes and it was after princess diana died and she asked elton like how do you get through the death of diana and it was he said i it was this album wow so i was like holy shit if elton john elton john gets if elton john is listening to an album for a cathartic expression of your emotions i want to know what it is so i found this album and it's so beautiful so two things uh a rosie o'donnell elton john can con connection uh really yeah uh one time when Elton John was on because he used to come on quite on the reg with Rosie O'Donnell.

What are you listening to now? And he shouted out Amanda Marshall when that first album came out. I'm going to tie it to an FOTM. Christopher Ward co-wrote a number of songs on that Amanda Marshall album. But that particular, soh nielsen chapman

there um i'm getting a hundred percent brandy carlisle vibes holy moly holy moly like brandy carlisle owes some oh some some some cred or some or some props to to to uh to beth there it's unbelievable for sure yeah it sounds so good. It's beautiful. And the whole album is like this. Like, it's one of those, I mean, there's, in the album, there are about four

or five songs out of the whole thing that I think are just the most beautiful songs about life. It's amazing. And she wrote it because her husband

was dying of brain cancer. Oh my God. And then he died and she wrote these songs. And so, of course, like, holy shit like what a way to express your feelings and you and what you're going through right i have chills okay crazy uh yeah wow that's crazy do you guys know how this topic came to be

nope well last week we last month we were talking about how most of the songs from december were sad feeling. Well, it was more specific than that. Yes. Brick by Ben Folds 5. Oh, it was from Brick. Right. Brick.

Yeah. Because we talked about. Yeah. I still, I was actually just talking about that song to somebody. Just like the smell of cold is one of my favorite lines in that song. You know, it was like day after Christmas, the smell of cold. And I was like, that's just so powerful. Well, you know, this song closes with a song that talks about the smell of snow.

It warms me today. This song does? No, this show. What did I say? This show ends with a song. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're right. That references the smell of snow.

It warms me today. Nice. Amanda Marshall, that Birmingham was a hell of a song. Oh, my gosh. I thought it was amazing. Dark Horse, Let It Rain. Yeah, Dark Horse. That album's amazing. So am I allowed to ask, like, now I guess, I don't know.

I feel like it's rude because what a great album. But I feel like that could have been the. She could have been. She could have been. Yeah. I don't want to say she's. Yeah, she's somebody. She's amazing.

But that could have been a big fucker. That could have been Mariah Carey, for God's sake. Yeah, I saw her in 96, I think it was. Maybe 97. So she headlined at the Molson Canadian Amphitheater at the time with Chantel Kraviezic opening. Oh, wow. And it was when Under These Rocks

and Stones came out, which by the way, one of the songs, like Wayne, is one of the saddest songs ever written. I love Chantel's music. It's the only time I've seen, one of the few times I've seen an opener get an encore was Chantel and a grand piano. And it was one of these nights where it was like,

I remember it was a Mix 99.9 night. I worked at the Edge at the time, but I loved those two albums. And it was $15 for those two artists. Wow. And Amanda Marshall blew it. I mean, Chantel Griffith was phenomenal. And to this day, I would say Under These Rocks and Stones is one of my favorite.

Probably top 30. I'm glad you mentioned Wayne. I love that song. Oh, my gosh. Such a great set. And when she tells the story about it, and Surrounded is also another one that's on there. That's a big jam, too. It's about her friend who had cancer.

Oh, my God. Big much music jam. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Shout out to There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Shout out to David Kimes. Yeah, yeah, anyhow. Yeah. But Amanda Marshall, yeah, I remember.

It's funny you talked about seeing Elton John on that Rosie O'Donnell show, which at that time everybody watched. Exactly. It was huge. The Couged Balls. Oh, and she was in love with Tom Cruise. Yeah, everything. Talking about making fun of, what's her name?

Talking about Cody is her kid all the time. She would make fun of uh kathy lee remember all that and yeah all that stuff right yeah that's like 20 that was like 19 peak 1997 yep exactly so it's so weird to me because that time was filled with such happy and sad moments because it's also in 97 was when jeff buckley died yes and i feel like his album his album grace is to me it's like in 97 was when Jeff Buckley died. Yes. And I feel like his album, his album grace is to me, it's like beautiful, sad. Are you ending with Jeff? I could have had Jeff Buckley on this.

There's so much stuff. Exactly. Exactly. So it was that same era. Like when Jeff died, I listened, I listened to his album now and it's sad, but it's not sad because I remember when it was brand new thinking,

Oh my God, this guy's unbelievable. Yeah. But it turns tragic. Of course, that's what happens, right? So we're going to kick out Bob's penultimate,

no, sorry, your final jam. My final, my final. And then I'm going to kick out my final jam. But a friend of the show, Ian Service, when he heard we were

kicking out sad songs, he sent over this cake song, Sad Songs and Waltzes. So just a little taste of sad songs and waltzes by Cake before we get to Bob's jam here. I'm writing a song

all about you A true song as real as my tears But you've no need to fear it Cause no one will hear it Sad songs and waltzes Aren't selling this year

So thank you, Ian Service. Nice. All about You know, and before I kick out this great song, which I absolutely love by Bob Willett. You didn't sing this song. You just chose it. But George Jones has a song, I Stopped Loving Her Today. We haven't even touched country.

Are you kidding me? Country should be its own sad songs. I didn't even consider country in this. I Stopped Loving Her Today. That was Tammy Wynette who wrote that about, right? I Stopped Loving Her Today. Yeah, that's a big jam. Okay. Alright, that about, right? I stopped loving her today. Yeah, that's a big, that's a big jam. Okay. All right.

You ready, Bobby? I can't come on this show and not kick out a jam by this band, but I will say that I'm just going to give you a talk up through the, I literally have a sad AF playlist on my Spotify, which includes brick by Ben folds five, break your heart by bare naked lady. Say something by a great big world footsteps.

Oh my gosh. Right. One song glory from the Rent soundtrack. Against All Odds by Phil Collins. The Last Day of Summer by The Cure. Anyhow, there's so many sad songs. I want that playlist. Yeah, I'll share it.

Yeah. Under the sheets of clay Early spread out before me As her body was still Oh, all five horizons revolved around the sun As the earth grew sun Now the air I tasted and breathed Has taken a turn And all I thought of was everything I know she gave me all that she was.

And now my bitter hands are chained beneath the clouds. Oh, what was everything? All the pictures said. Oh, men washed in black Tattooed everything We can talk over this part if you want, but we gotta come back for the big line. If you want.

It's a long song. Talk. I fucking love this song. Can I just tell you that right now? I fucking love this song. Black by Pearl Jam, fifth track on 10. My God. Lucky Blade Lock. Oh, fifth track on 10. My God.

Lucky Blaylock. Oh, great. Single soundtrack. That scene with the X-Man, Xavier McDaniel, better than I even remembered it. That scene where he's trying not to come. And X-Man is like, don't come. Great jam. I just thought of him because I mentioned Lucky Blaylock.

Go on. This was not on the original Mama Son you know we've talked about the tapes this they did this together but uh stone's got this hard drive it wasn't been then but he's got thousands and thousands of songs and stone wrote this and eddie heard it and wrote these fucking lyrics to it and it is there's a line i'm gonna when it comes yeah i think you know just point, just point at me. Yeah, yeah. I hope one day. Yes, I know you, yes. To me, this is my favorite song ever written in a song ever. Name check the songs in the Mama Son trilogy quickly.

Footsteps, Alive, Once. Once, that's it. So let's turn this up here. We're going to hear this. Once? That's it. So let's turn this up here. We'll hear this.

Tattooed on my seat All that I am All that I'll be Yeah! This song coming up is, to me, the best song, best line ever written in a song. Here we go. I know someday you'll have a beautiful life I know you'll be a star

In somebody else's sky Why, why, why Can it be, why can it be? How can it be? Look at this. Look, look, look, look at this. Look at this. I know, brother.

15-year-old Bob. Ah, ah, ah. Woo. Ah, yeah. Ah, woo. Ah. We belong together. Yes. They tag lots of songs.

That's the unplugged version. They started doing that. Yeah. So this song, I just, you know, again, I'm 15 years old when this song comes out. Yeah. And just, again, that line, I know someday you'll have a beautiful life. I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky. Why can't it be mine? And, you know, so Eddie's gone on to say publicly that, you know,

the song is about early relationships and how they seem so great when you're young. But they're probably not just, they're not the right thing at that time. And, I mean, I think we were all 15 or 16 at some point and have relationships like that. I don't have a reference for this quote, but I saw it myself in one of the 40 times I've seen this band. And Eddie, he said on stage that he thought

at one point in his life that Black was the saddest song ever written until he heard this song and they broke into Last Kiss, the cover from the 60s. Frankie something. I don't have the name of the band. And then he said he's given up

the saddest song ever written to Last Kiss. But for me... Their biggest selling single, Bobby. It is their biggest selling single. So that band, his voice, his lyrics with the musicianship of that band, of those guys, I just, you know,

I don't, you know, it's not, you know, it's not my dad dying in a hospital, but I literally, I literally have chills every time I listen to that song. Amazing. Rob, don't you wish you were here? I wish you were here. This is what I wish. I wish I was there too.

Like just to break into song with us, man. Cause that, that is a song Bobby hit on a song that just completely like it transforms me. I get transfixed. Like I, wow. Rob,

where does that song, like where does that grunge movement fall in your life? You're like, you were part of the, the early eighties, you know, you've got the, the punk movement going on.'ve got new you've got like uh all this uh uh uh synth stuff going on and an amazing post post uh post disco um where like what what did grunge what did you know nirvana because we've obviously we've talked a lot about

grunge what do these bands mean to a guy like you who was a musician? They really woke me up again in the early 90s because I had gotten into musical theater. Right. So I was in Honeymoon Suite and then I found my way into the world of musical theater. Right. And then in that world,

I was on tour with Phantom of the Opera. Oh, wow. So here I am in the world of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yeah. And it was the early 90s, right? And I was on tour. phantom of the opera oh wow like so here i am in the world of andrew laid weber yeah and it was the early 90s right and i was on tour i did the canadian tour and in the summer of 92 i was in calgary we were like for the summer we were doing the show and i remember going to the hmv and saying like like what's new like what should i listen to and i remember somebody handing me pearl jam wow and, you need to listen to this. This is the future.

So I sort of left my rock and roll roots in a way because I was in a new world, but I found my way back into it. So for me, 92 was Pearl Jam, was extreme. And then singles, when singles was like the best way to put it all together. Wait, did you say extreme? Like more than words? More than words and get the funk out.

More than words. No, more than words and get the funk out. Well, no, it's more than words. No, more than words. Get the funk out and wholehearted. Remember He-Man Woman Hater? Yes, but you need to go and listen to the next album that came out called Three Sides to Every Story

and the third side was like this epic opus that was like Beatles. I'm just surprised to hear extreme in the mix there because you're going down these hard grunge bands. Well, for me, yeah, because there was Pearl Jam

and Metallica and Extreme were the bands for me. Actually, I saw Metallica playing Calgary in the summer of 92. I was driving to Calgary to do Phantom and the day I arrived, they were playing at the Saddledome and I went right up to the box office and got a ticket.

Got a ticket from there. You mentioned musicals, and one of the songs I did want to put on my list would have been top five for me, and I mentioned it as we were going into it, was from Rent, one song, Glory. Yes, right, right, right. Oh my God, one of the saddest songs ever written.

We'll have to do a sequel. Yeah, yeah. All right, due to time constraints, we should probably get to my final jam. Okay, here we go. My final sad song. Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath. Keep me in your heart for a while. If I leave you, it doesn't mean I love you any less.

Keep me in your heart for a while. When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun, keep me in your heart for a while. There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done keep me in your heart for a while keep me in your heart for a while keep me in your heart for a while. Sha la la la la la la la la la la Keep me in your heart for a while.

Keep me in your heart for a while Keep Me In Your Heart For A While is essentially the, I like to think of it as the last breath of Warren Zevon. Warren Zevon. Yeah. He knew he was dying, he was terminal, and he wrote this song. And when you know what happens next, so this album comes out August 2003

and Warren Zevon passes away September 7th 2003. I was just talking about how much Letterman loved Warren Zevon. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Two things I want to say. Right now I'm going to play this, okay, because I quote this often. You know, I co-host this show with Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home, and we talk a lot about life and death, and it's called Life's Undertaking.

And here is the line I quote all the time. And what was the diagnosis? It's lung cancer that's spread. Wow. That's tough. Well, I mean, you better get your dry cleaning done on special. tough. Well, I mean, you better get your dry cleaning done on special. From

your perspective now, do you know something about life and death that maybe I don't know now? Not unless I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich. Enjoy every sandwich. Enjoy every sandwich,

Bob. Enjoy every sandwich, Rob sandwich Bob enjoy every sandwich Rob you never know you don't know what's going on this guy was afraid of doctors he avoided doctors because he was afraid of them and he didn't want to see a doctor and then when he did get his diagnosis it was too late because he never went and got himself checked out

get yourself checked out and enjoy every sandwich I think that's a great way to live your life, right? Jesus. For sure. Quick mind blow here before we say goodbye here. Quick mind blow. This is Warren Zevon. He was born in Big Beaver by the borderline

He started playing hockey by the time he was nine His dad took the hose and froze the backyard Little buddy dreamed he was Rocket Richard he grew up big and he grew up tough he saw himself scoring for the Wings or Canucks

but he wasn't that good with a puck Buddy's real talent was beating people up his heart wasn't in it but the crowd ate it up. Through Kiwis and Juniors and Midgets and Mikes, he must have racked up more than 300 fights. Till a scout from the Flames came down from Saskatoon, said there's always room on our team for a goon. Said there's always room on our team for a goon.

Son, we've always got room for a goon. There were Swedes to the left of him, Russians to the right. A check at the blue line looking for a fight. Brains over brown, that might work for you. What's a Canadian farm boy to do? What else can a farm boy from Canada do? Did you guys hear the hit somebody? Yeah. Yeah. Who on this call here can tell me who is saying hit somebody? I have no idea.

No, I can't. Sorry. David fucking Letterman. Really? Oh, my God. This just made me think. I didn't even touch East Coast music like Ron Hines. I don't know if anybody knows who Ron Hines is.

He's a huge Newfoundland singer-songwriter. Wrote some of the saddest songs I know. Beautiful. So many sad songs. Oh, my God. I love sad music. I love it. I love it.

This is great. Gentlemen. Go ahead, Ron. I think sad music also lives in the world of classical music as well. Oh, absolutely. I mean, looking how we've had a little Beethoven, we had a little Rachmaninoff. Yeah. And I feel like it's a whole other world I didn't even delve into

because there's so much music written as funerals and requiems and all that stuff, right? And it's like Madame Butterfly, just like when you hear it, you don't have to know anything about it, you just hear it, and you're like, this is heartbreaking. And you don't hear the lyrics, the thing with classical music is you remove the lyrics

from it all, and the music and the melody moves you to realize there's something deeper that's going on that we feel, and it's just there. I can't believe nobody did Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. I had it on my short list. I had it on my short list. That was on my short list, too. Right?

Also on my short list, which I want to shout out, is a wonderful Prince song as performed by Sinead O'Connor. Nothing compares to you. That's a sad song. Oh, my gosh. But my sister wanted me to point out that I thought of Nothing compares to you. That's a sad song. Oh my gosh. But my sister wanted me to point out that I thought of that song too. It was her wedding song.

It was her first dance. That's interesting. Yeah. What's our next topic? Happy? No, not happy. A kind song. Songs about kindness.

Songs about kindness. Give that one to the other Duke boys. Are they coming back? What's going on? I have to follow up. I don't know, here's what I was told I'll be very transparent with everybody here So Cam said I need to pause He said until something

In his professional life changes I don't know, I have to follow up But I have a feeling we're not there yet Meanwhile, the great Stu Stone was in the States Filming that wrestling documentary And he said he would be back in February, I think is what he told me. I have to see where he's at. Rob's back in

February in the country. We should try to let's do it. Could you be in my basement for the next host? Do you have a proposed date at this point? I would work around your schedule. Well, you know what? My show in Oakville is going to be February 23rd.

So maybe earlier in that week, possibly? Well, hold on. This is good. An on-air meeting. I like this. Hold on here. Maybe that Tuesday night? That's just after the family day long weekend.

So let's do the 21st. Come on, let's do it. We're supposed to do it the third Tuesday. February 21st? Yeah. Come on, Bob. I'm totally free. I'm totally free.

Okay. Okay. And I'll talk to Cam and Stu, make sure everything's cool. Well, now maybe I want to rethink kindness. Let's think about a theme. Let's think on this theme. Okay. Thank you guys very much, man.

Thank you for having me once again. Thank you. Rob, thank you for everything. You're always... It's a pleasure listening to you talk about music, man. Yes, you too. We'll see you in person. I can't wait.

Yeah, that's going to be awesome. We had a little coming out of our shells in the background here because I needed to feel good at the end of that sad, sad episode. We came out of our shells tonight, guys. Thanks so much for doing that. Did we shout out Palma Pasta? Not yet.

Delicious, authentic Italian food. Come on. Here it is. Come on now. Come on now. Palma Pasta, delicious. And that brings us to the end of our 1190th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Rob is at Rob Pruse X. Yeah. Bob is at Bob Willett. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma pasta is at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA

Canada. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. I like it because I do the Palma Pasta and I pop the P's. Yeah. And spit all over my microphone. But with Ridley, you get to go into the R.

Ridley. You got to roll your R's. It's a pleasure. Canna Cabana or at canna cabana underscore. And Sammy Cone Real Estate is at Sammy Cone. K-O-H-N. See you all tomorrow. Oh, when I've got the crew from every spring of Parade Down Bay Street.

I know that includes David Schultz and Gare Joyce and a couple of others, a couple of other stand-up comics. So come back for that. See you all then. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or 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 green Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't stay today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine