Three Great Books Chronicling Canadian Rock n’ Roll

The late Scott Young, Neil’s dad, was a distinguished Canadian journalist and prolific author, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, for his years of columns on the sport. He died in 2005 at age 87, having published more than 35 books—novels and nonfiction, some for young readers. His NEIL AND ME (1984) is illuminating on the family’s break-up, when he left his wife Rassy, and Neil, and brother Bob. The chapters about Neil’s music and performing are very enlightening. The elder Young was a very good writer, no less writing about his famous son. An essential book for understanding Neil, it bespeaks all that is heartfelt and sincere about Neil’s songs and career. Especially valuable when read alongside Jimmy McDonough’s Shaky (2002). For other coverage of mine about Neil Young, you may read a post I wrote when Patti Smith interviewed Neil at BEA in 2012.

Like a big pot of soup you can feed on for days and days, HAVE NOT BEEN THE SAME: The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995 (2001) is a rich broth of a book, with great stories and characters spanning four decades of Canadian rock n’ roll. The 10th Anniversary Edition, published in 2011, was released simultaneously with a CD release that had younger artists covering songs by their musical forbears, bands that had been in the first edition of the book, it was a cool project that I bought and enjoy from the Canadian indie music seller zunior.com. So good you can open it at the start of any new chapter, and just begin reading and enjoying. Kudos to Michael Barclay and his co-authors Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider.

Like the memorable book about the 1960s art scene that swirled around Andy Warhol, EDIE: American Girl by Jean Stein, with a Foreword by George Plimpton, Dave Bidini’s ON A COLD ROAD: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock n’ Roll (1998), is a multi-voiced oral history of verbatim recollections by dozens of Canadian musicians, shaped by Bidini who toured for years as part of the Rheostatics. There are many colons (e.g., : ) in this book followed by paragraphs of rich memories. Bidini’s arranged it kinetically, so you feel like you’re bouncing around on the bus, too, as you read funny, outrageous evocations of epic touring traversing the continent-wide country. Full of humor and pathos, it made me laugh, and nearly cry, for the sincere efforts of so many hard-working, hard-partying, hard-striving artists. Bidini is also prodigiously prolific, with twelve books published, including 2011’s WRITING GORDON LIGHTFOOT: The Man, the Music, the World, in 1972. And then there’s his musical career, which now has him fronting Bidiniband. I also enjoy reading him on Twitter @hockeyesque.