No Sugar Tonight

It was bound to happen. Whether you're a concert virtuoso, a star athlete or a lowly amateur blogger, you're gonna have an off day once in a while. I have lots of topics on my mind, but just no mental energy to expound on them tonight. It's a good thing I came across something trivial to talk about.

I'm a Rogers High Speed internet subscriber, and the default home page when I open my web browser is, oddly enough, the Rogers Yahoo! Home Page. You have the option of setting up the page as you wish, but I've never bothered to take the time to do it. There is a lot of information on there, including weather, sports scores, Rogers Cable TV listings and news headlines of different categories. Then there is the most prominent section with news headlines, links to video clips, and other interactive stuff. More often than not, this section is full of fluff, and I've complained that this section should have more hard news. But an item came up on there tonight that I couldn't resist. It's titled "POLL: What's the best Canadian rock band ever?" I clicked on it, and a pop-up poll came up with the following selections: Rush, The Guess Who, The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo.

That was a very disappointing list, if you ask me. For the record, I was torn between Rush and The Guess Who but opted for the latter. As of this writing they are tied at the top with 32% each, the Hip are at 21%, BNL 8% and Blue Rodeo 7%. But I think to narrow down the list of great Canadian bands to a choice of five does not do this country's music industry justice. What about BTO? Nickelback? April Wine? Sum 41? Sloan? Max Webster? Glass Tiger - NOT! Certainly a case could be made for many bands. The five chosen for the poll are probably the most commercially successful bands in Canada, but does that equate greatness? Obviously that's in the ear of the beholder. And the choices seem generationally biased. I do believe that Rush and The Guess Who are truly great bands. The Guess Who are most well known for a string of hits in the late 60's and early 70's, but those hits alone don't paint the entire picture. They were an extremely talented bunch, who could perform just about any style of music from blues to psychedelia. And Rush was probably the pre-eminent progressive rock band in North America. I was fortunate enough to see both of them play in the summer of 2003, along with 400,000 of my closest friends, at the big "SARS-stock" concert in Toronto.

After sort of slagging Canadians yesterday, it's only fair that I give due props tonight. We rock better than Americans. The quality of music coming from Canadian rock musicians is at a higher level than what comes from the big marketing machine to the south. The British are at the top, but we're not too bad - we compare favourably with the Aussies. The discussion of greatest bands doesn't even cover the great individual talent produced in this country, which includes some true legends. Neil Young alone should be enough to give all our citizens free lifetime passes to the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame.

Interestingly, the poll seemed to be precipitated by an informal Poll in USA Today on the greatest American rock bands. The winner there was Pearl Jam, followed by Aerosmith and Van Halen. Not exactly The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, but that's apparently the best the Yanks have to offer. Highly arguable results in that poll as well - The Beach Boys and Nirvana were just 17 and 18 respectively, and Journey(!) at number 5 - but at least it was a write-in and not limited to just five bands.

This is the kind of fluff I can sink my teeth into. I'm sorry for falling back on it tonight. Tomorrow I hope to be in better form. If I write anything about Bananarama tomorrow, call an ambulance.