Steven Page, vocals
Kevin Fox, music director/cello/vocals
Craig Northey, guitars/vocals
Andrew Crust, conductor
To close out our 2020-21 season, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to welcome Canadian icon Steven Page.
Page is joined by guitarist Craig Northey of the Odds and cellist Kevin Fox for a set of classic Canadian songs. As well as some Barenaked Ladies and Steven Page originals, the set will cover songs by Leonard Cohen, the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie, and John K. Samson of The Weakerthans. VSO Associate Conductor Andrew Crust leads the orchestra.
Steven Page, Vocals / Guitar / Keyboard
Steven Page’s distinctive and powerful tenor is among the most instantly recognizable voices in popular music. A member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame with former bandmates, Barenaked Ladies, Steven Page reunited with the band he co-founded for their induction at the 2018 JUNO Awards – a night capped off by an exhilarating two song performance.
With a strong focus on his own career, Steven Page is busy.
A new album, his fifth solo effort, DISCIPLINE: HEAL THYSELF, PT. II, was released in 2018 – a year that saw Steven tour the UK and Ireland and undertake the most extensive U.S. Tour of his solo career.
2019 started with a highly successful East Coast tour with Symphony New Brunswick and in May, Steven crossed the country with trio members Craig Northey (Odds) and Kevin Fox. Steven Page and his trio mates continued the Discipline Tour in autumn 2019, with 28 dates in the U.S. Northwest, Southeast, Northeast and Texas from September through November. Steven Page Trio – Live in Concert was filmed during the Cross-Canada tour and has been airing on public television stations across America.
Since becoming a solo artist, Steven Page has been carving out a diversified niche for himself that expands beyond recording and performing through an exhausting array of projects in music, film, theatre and television. He has composed six Stratford Festival scores, has collaborated and toured North America with Toronto’s innovative Art of Time Ensemble and performs with his rock star pals as a member of the Trans-Canada Highwaymen. Steven journeyed across Canada and the U.S. as host of TV’s The Illegal Eater, became a Chopped Canada Champion and appeared as a judge on Iron Chef Canada in their 2019/20 season.
The year 2020 started off with a bang – as the trio traveled across their homeland one again – starting with three dates in the Maritimes and ending with further shows in the west, in classical crossover concerts across Canada including planned performances with the VSO. Looking forward, The Stratford Festival has announced Here’s What It Takes, a musical featuring Page-composed songs, (to be debuted as pandemic restrictions permit).
Still the dynamic stage presence he’s always been, Steven Page is the consummate entertainer, performing music from both his solo career and his BNL years.
Kevin Fox, Musical Director/Cello/Vocals
Kevin Fox is a multi-instrumentalist, sought-after arranger/composer and in-demand recording artist. He has composed arrangements for the likes of Jim Cuddy and Justin Bieber, recorded with such artists as Celine Dion and Chantal Kreviazuk and performed with artists including Steven Page and Olivia Newton John. Awareness of Kevin’s talents as a singer/songwriter quickly started spreading with the release of albums COME ALIVE (2004), SONGS FOR CELLO & VOICE (2008) and SET RIGHT (2011). He combines his signature instrument, which he bows, plucks, taps and loops, with his charismatic voice, to create a captivating musical tapestry of cello-driven folk/pop.
Craig Northey, Guitars/Vocals
Craig Northey is a founding member of renowned Canadian rock band "Odds". Formed in 1987 they crossed over into radio success, platinum awards and Juno nominations during the mid 1990s and have maintained their vitality to this day. Craig is also known for his work as a film and TV composer (Kids in the Hall, Corner Gas, Hiccups, Young Drunk Punk, This Blows). Some of the people he has toured with, and/or made albums with, and/or written songs with are: Steven Page, Warren Zevon, Strippers Union, Rosanne Cash, Colin James, Gin Blossoms, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Rankin, Adam Levy, Wide Mouth Mason, Jeremy Fisher and the Waltons.
Andrew Crust, Associate Conductor
Andrew Crust has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet and pops programs. Currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, Andrew conducts a large number of subscription, pops, educational and contemporary concerts with the VSO each season. Andrew is the newly-appointed Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 20/21, where he programs and conducts the Grand Classics, Pops and Educational series, featuring such soloists as Awadagin Pratt, Amit Peled and Katherine Jolly.
In the current and upcoming seasons Andrew will debut with the Arkansas and Vermont Symphonies as Music Director finalist, and with the San Diego Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic as a guest conductor. Other recent engagements include performances with the Winnipeg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bozeman Symphony and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Québec.
Andrew is a 2020 winner of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. In 2017 he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, receiving a scholarship and an invitation to guest conduct the Orchestra di Sanremo in Italy. He was a semi-finalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition, and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, with full access to all rehearsals and performances of the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors. Andrew has also established himself as a conductor of films with orchestra.
Andrew served as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted around forty concerts each season. He stepped in last minute for a successful subscription performance featuring Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Charles Yang. Andrew also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.
Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago.
As an arranger/orchestrator, Andrew is currently working with Schirmer to make orchestrations of a set of Florence Price’s art songs, has orchestrated works by Alma Mahler and Prokofiev, as well as many pops and educational selections.
Andrew is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially-sensitive concert experiences, and utilizing social media and unique venues. Andrew is a firm believer in meaningful music education, having produced and written a number of original educational programs with orchestras.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1919, the Grammy and Juno-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the third largest orchestra in Canada, the largest arts organization in Western Canada, and one of the few orchestras in the world to have its own music school.
Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada.
The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Recent guest artists include Daniil Trifonov, Dawn Upshaw, James Ehnes, Adrianne Pieczonka, Gidon Kremer, Renée Fleming, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Bernadette Peters, Tan Dun, and more.
For the 2020-21 season the VSO has created the innovative streaming service TheConcertHall.ca, a virtual home for a virtual season, where more than forty performances will be released throughout the year.
Gravity (Steven Page)
From Steven Page’s album Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II (2018), a track described as a reflection on the Christian right's political influence.
So this is how the whole world ends?
When all mankind at last repents?
Or self appointed governments
Make no sense?
And hence we're no longer
Wise to the lies
I pay no mind to scientists
Who hide the truth behind a mist
Of fancy words and Mayan twists
We can't believe you're buying this
'Cause
You were wrong
We knew you were wrong
Yes all along
We knew you were wrong
We sing this song to prove
You were wrong
If you were wrong
We knew all along
And all I can see
Is what God tells me to see
Now we live in a world that outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
Pythagoras, and Copernicus
Mortal men like the rest of us
We let them get the best of us
And so we've failed Gods test of us
'Cause
We were wrong
We knew we were wrong
Yes all along
We knew we were wrong
We sing this song to prove we were strong
'Cause we were wrong wrong wrong wrong
All I can be is what God tells me to be
Now we live in a world where they've outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
Calculus, and astronomy
They pale aside to Deuteronomy
We banned the drugs and the sodomy
And now we fixed the economy
'Cause
We were wrong
We knew we were wrong
Yes all along
We knew we were wrong
We sing this song to prove we were wrong
Yes we were strong by being so wrong
All I can see is what God tells me to see
Now we live in a world where they've outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
(We were wrong)
Oh if he wanted you to have the answer
Don't you think you'd have the cure for cancer
Oh if he wanted you to have the answer
Don't you think you'd have the cure for cancer
Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure (John K. Samson/The Weakerthans)
The second part of an affecting song trilogy that spanned 13 years and three albums, in which Samson chronicled the relationship between a pet cat and its depressive and somewhat negligent owner, as observed from the animal’s perspective.
It had something to do with the rain
Leaching, loamy dirt
And the way the back lane came alive
Half moon whispered, "Go"
For a while I heard you missing steps in the street
And your anger pleading in an uncertain key
Singing the sound that you found for me
When the winter took the tips of my ears
Found this noisy home
Full of pigeons and places to hide
And when the voices die
I emerged to watch abandoned machines
Waiting for their men to return
I remember the way I would wait for you
To arrive with kibble and a box full of beer
How I'd scratch the empties desperate to hear
You make the sound that you found for me
After scrapping with the ferals and the tabby
I'd let you brush my matted fur
How I'd knead into your chest while you were sleeping
Shallow breathing made me purr
But now I can't remember the sound that you found for me
I can't remember the sound that you found for me
I can't remember the sound
Chancellor (Gord Downie)
A poetic gem from the pen of Gord Downie (lead singer of the Tragically Hip), drawn from his solo album Coke Machine Glow (2001).
Seconds from pajamas I must
First open all the doors and the windows
And invite the vampire in to be one of us
Then in the guise of cool air
In the softer hours he's there
Sitting talking in the voice of your mother
About leaving one good party for another
And the night of a thousand missteps
And the loss that made him dogged
Or it could have been the doggedness
That caused the loss in the first place I guess
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
Crazy daisies and wooden stars
The threat of oxygen on Mars
Marching armies in the night
Smiling strangers riding by on bikes
Children smoking, sloganeers on mics
Just a few things most vampires don't like
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
Before the dawning's first light I must
First close up all the doors and the windows
And try to trap that cool air in to be one with us
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
I’m Your Man (Leonard Cohen)
The title track of Cohen’s eighth studio album, released by Columbia Records in 1988.
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man
Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please
I'm your man
And if you've got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I'm your man
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
Call & Answer (Steven Page / Stephen Duffy)
A track from the Barenaked Ladies’ album Stunt, their very successful fourth full release, issued in 1998.
I think it's getting to the point
Where I can be myself again
I think it's getting to the point
Where we have almost made amends
I think it's the getting to the point
That is the hardest part
And if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
I'll point you home
I'll point you home
You think I only think about you
When we're both in the same room
You think I'm only here to witness
The remains of love exhumed
You think we're here to play
A game of who loves more than whom
And if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
You think it's only fair to do what's
Best for you and you alone
You think it's only fair to do the same to me when you're not home
I think it's time to make this something that is
More than only fair
So if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
I'll point you home
But I'm warning you, don't ever do
Those crazy, messed-up things that you do
If you ever do
I promise you I'll be the first to crucify you
Now it's time to prove that you've come back
Here to rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Brian Wilson (Steven Page)
From the 1992 album, Gordon, an early hit for Barenaked Ladies that has had several incarnations in the band’s discography – and even a cover by the titular Beach Boy himself, Brian Wilson.
Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night,
just to check out the late-night record shop.
Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane;
but when I'm surrounded I just can't stop.
It's a matter of instinct, it's a matter of conditioning,
It's a matter of fact.
You can call me Pavlov's dog
Ring a bell and I'll salivate- how'd you like that?
Dr. Landy tell me you're not just a pedagogue,
cause right now I'm
Lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did
Well I'm lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did.
So I'm lying here, just staring at the ceiling tiles.
and I'm thinking about what to think about.
Just listening and relistening to Smiley Smile,
and I'm wondering if this is some kind of creative drought
because I am
And if you want to find me I'll be out in the sandbox,
wondering where the hell all the love has gone.
Playing my guitar and building castles in the sun,
and singing "Fun, Fun, Fun."
I had a dream that I was three hundred pounds
and though I was very heavy,
I floated 'til I couldn't see the ground
I floated 'til I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me, I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me, I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me because I'm
Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night.
Just to check out the late-night record shop.
Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane;
but when I'm surrounded I just can't stop.
Steven Page, vocals
Kevin Fox, music director/cello/vocals
Craig Northey, guitars/vocals
Andrew Crust, conductor
To close out our 2020-21 season, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to welcome Canadian icon Steven Page.
Page is joined by guitarist Craig Northey of the Odds and cellist Kevin Fox for a set of classic Canadian songs. As well as some Barenaked Ladies and Steven Page originals, the set will cover songs by Leonard Cohen, the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie, and John K. Samson of The Weakerthans. VSO Associate Conductor Andrew Crust leads the orchestra.
Steven Page, Vocals / Guitar / Keyboard
Steven Page’s distinctive and powerful tenor is among the most instantly recognizable voices in popular music. A member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame with former bandmates, Barenaked Ladies, Steven Page reunited with the band he co-founded for their induction at the 2018 JUNO Awards – a night capped off by an exhilarating two song performance.
With a strong focus on his own career, Steven Page is busy.
A new album, his fifth solo effort, DISCIPLINE: HEAL THYSELF, PT. II, was released in 2018 – a year that saw Steven tour the UK and Ireland and undertake the most extensive U.S. Tour of his solo career.
2019 started with a highly successful East Coast tour with Symphony New Brunswick and in May, Steven crossed the country with trio members Craig Northey (Odds) and Kevin Fox. Steven Page and his trio mates continued the Discipline Tour in autumn 2019, with 28 dates in the U.S. Northwest, Southeast, Northeast and Texas from September through November. Steven Page Trio – Live in Concert was filmed during the Cross-Canada tour and has been airing on public television stations across America.
Since becoming a solo artist, Steven Page has been carving out a diversified niche for himself that expands beyond recording and performing through an exhausting array of projects in music, film, theatre and television. He has composed six Stratford Festival scores, has collaborated and toured North America with Toronto’s innovative Art of Time Ensemble and performs with his rock star pals as a member of the Trans-Canada Highwaymen. Steven journeyed across Canada and the U.S. as host of TV’s The Illegal Eater, became a Chopped Canada Champion and appeared as a judge on Iron Chef Canada in their 2019/20 season.
The year 2020 started off with a bang – as the trio traveled across their homeland one again – starting with three dates in the Maritimes and ending with further shows in the west, in classical crossover concerts across Canada including planned performances with the VSO. Looking forward, The Stratford Festival has announced Here’s What It Takes, a musical featuring Page-composed songs, (to be debuted as pandemic restrictions permit).
Still the dynamic stage presence he’s always been, Steven Page is the consummate entertainer, performing music from both his solo career and his BNL years.
Kevin Fox, Musical Director/Cello/Vocals
Kevin Fox is a multi-instrumentalist, sought-after arranger/composer and in-demand recording artist. He has composed arrangements for the likes of Jim Cuddy and Justin Bieber, recorded with such artists as Celine Dion and Chantal Kreviazuk and performed with artists including Steven Page and Olivia Newton John. Awareness of Kevin’s talents as a singer/songwriter quickly started spreading with the release of albums COME ALIVE (2004), SONGS FOR CELLO & VOICE (2008) and SET RIGHT (2011). He combines his signature instrument, which he bows, plucks, taps and loops, with his charismatic voice, to create a captivating musical tapestry of cello-driven folk/pop.
Craig Northey, Guitars/Vocals
Craig Northey is a founding member of renowned Canadian rock band "Odds". Formed in 1987 they crossed over into radio success, platinum awards and Juno nominations during the mid 1990s and have maintained their vitality to this day. Craig is also known for his work as a film and TV composer (Kids in the Hall, Corner Gas, Hiccups, Young Drunk Punk, This Blows). Some of the people he has toured with, and/or made albums with, and/or written songs with are: Steven Page, Warren Zevon, Strippers Union, Rosanne Cash, Colin James, Gin Blossoms, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Rankin, Adam Levy, Wide Mouth Mason, Jeremy Fisher and the Waltons.
Andrew Crust, Associate Conductor
Andrew Crust has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet and pops programs. Currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada, Andrew conducts a large number of subscription, pops, educational and contemporary concerts with the VSO each season. Andrew is the newly-appointed Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 20/21, where he programs and conducts the Grand Classics, Pops and Educational series, featuring such soloists as Awadagin Pratt, Amit Peled and Katherine Jolly.
In the current and upcoming seasons Andrew will debut with the Arkansas and Vermont Symphonies as Music Director finalist, and with the San Diego Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic as a guest conductor. Other recent engagements include performances with the Winnipeg Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bozeman Symphony and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Québec.
Andrew is a 2020 winner of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. In 2017 he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti, receiving a scholarship and an invitation to guest conduct the Orchestra di Sanremo in Italy. He was a semi-finalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition, and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, with full access to all rehearsals and performances of the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet Memphis and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Andrew has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Michael Bolton, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors. Andrew has also established himself as a conductor of films with orchestra.
Andrew served as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted around forty concerts each season. He stepped in last minute for a successful subscription performance featuring Bernstein’s Serenade with violinist Charles Yang. Andrew also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.
Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill.
Abroad, he has led concerts with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, Hamburger Symphoniker at the Mendelssohn Festival in Germany, the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile in Santiago.
As an arranger/orchestrator, Andrew is currently working with Schirmer to make orchestrations of a set of Florence Price’s art songs, has orchestrated works by Alma Mahler and Prokofiev, as well as many pops and educational selections.
Andrew is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially-sensitive concert experiences, and utilizing social media and unique venues. Andrew is a firm believer in meaningful music education, having produced and written a number of original educational programs with orchestras.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1919, the Grammy and Juno-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the third largest orchestra in Canada, the largest arts organization in Western Canada, and one of the few orchestras in the world to have its own music school.
Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada.
The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Recent guest artists include Daniil Trifonov, Dawn Upshaw, James Ehnes, Adrianne Pieczonka, Gidon Kremer, Renée Fleming, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Bernadette Peters, Tan Dun, and more.
For the 2020-21 season the VSO has created the innovative streaming service TheConcertHall.ca, a virtual home for a virtual season, where more than forty performances will be released throughout the year.
Gravity (Steven Page)
From Steven Page’s album Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II (2018), a track described as a reflection on the Christian right's political influence.
So this is how the whole world ends?
When all mankind at last repents?
Or self appointed governments
Make no sense?
And hence we're no longer
Wise to the lies
I pay no mind to scientists
Who hide the truth behind a mist
Of fancy words and Mayan twists
We can't believe you're buying this
'Cause
You were wrong
We knew you were wrong
Yes all along
We knew you were wrong
We sing this song to prove
You were wrong
If you were wrong
We knew all along
And all I can see
Is what God tells me to see
Now we live in a world that outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
Pythagoras, and Copernicus
Mortal men like the rest of us
We let them get the best of us
And so we've failed Gods test of us
'Cause
We were wrong
We knew we were wrong
Yes all along
We knew we were wrong
We sing this song to prove we were strong
'Cause we were wrong wrong wrong wrong
All I can be is what God tells me to be
Now we live in a world where they've outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
Calculus, and astronomy
They pale aside to Deuteronomy
We banned the drugs and the sodomy
And now we fixed the economy
'Cause
We were wrong
We knew we were wrong
Yes all along
We knew we were wrong
We sing this song to prove we were wrong
Yes we were strong by being so wrong
All I can see is what God tells me to see
Now we live in a world where they've outlawed gravity
Yeah we live in a world where they outlawed gravity
(We were wrong)
Oh if he wanted you to have the answer
Don't you think you'd have the cure for cancer
Oh if he wanted you to have the answer
Don't you think you'd have the cure for cancer
Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure (John K. Samson/The Weakerthans)
The second part of an affecting song trilogy that spanned 13 years and three albums, in which Samson chronicled the relationship between a pet cat and its depressive and somewhat negligent owner, as observed from the animal’s perspective.
It had something to do with the rain
Leaching, loamy dirt
And the way the back lane came alive
Half moon whispered, "Go"
For a while I heard you missing steps in the street
And your anger pleading in an uncertain key
Singing the sound that you found for me
When the winter took the tips of my ears
Found this noisy home
Full of pigeons and places to hide
And when the voices die
I emerged to watch abandoned machines
Waiting for their men to return
I remember the way I would wait for you
To arrive with kibble and a box full of beer
How I'd scratch the empties desperate to hear
You make the sound that you found for me
After scrapping with the ferals and the tabby
I'd let you brush my matted fur
How I'd knead into your chest while you were sleeping
Shallow breathing made me purr
But now I can't remember the sound that you found for me
I can't remember the sound that you found for me
I can't remember the sound
Chancellor (Gord Downie)
A poetic gem from the pen of Gord Downie (lead singer of the Tragically Hip), drawn from his solo album Coke Machine Glow (2001).
Seconds from pajamas I must
First open all the doors and the windows
And invite the vampire in to be one of us
Then in the guise of cool air
In the softer hours he's there
Sitting talking in the voice of your mother
About leaving one good party for another
And the night of a thousand missteps
And the loss that made him dogged
Or it could have been the doggedness
That caused the loss in the first place I guess
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
Crazy daisies and wooden stars
The threat of oxygen on Mars
Marching armies in the night
Smiling strangers riding by on bikes
Children smoking, sloganeers on mics
Just a few things most vampires don't like
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
Before the dawning's first light I must
First close up all the doors and the windows
And try to trap that cool air in to be one with us
I'm discovering uses for you I thought I'd never find
I could've made chancellor without you on my mind
I’m Your Man (Leonard Cohen)
The title track of Cohen’s eighth studio album, released by Columbia Records in 1988.
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man
Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please
I'm your man
And if you've got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I'm your man
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
Call & Answer (Steven Page / Stephen Duffy)
A track from the Barenaked Ladies’ album Stunt, their very successful fourth full release, issued in 1998.
I think it's getting to the point
Where I can be myself again
I think it's getting to the point
Where we have almost made amends
I think it's the getting to the point
That is the hardest part
And if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
I'll point you home
I'll point you home
You think I only think about you
When we're both in the same room
You think I'm only here to witness
The remains of love exhumed
You think we're here to play
A game of who loves more than whom
And if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
You think it's only fair to do what's
Best for you and you alone
You think it's only fair to do the same to me when you're not home
I think it's time to make this something that is
More than only fair
So if you call, I will answer
And if you fall, I'll pick you up
And if you court this disaster
I'll point you home
But I'm warning you, don't ever do
Those crazy, messed-up things that you do
If you ever do
I promise you I'll be the first to crucify you
Now it's time to prove that you've come back
Here to rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Rebuild
Brian Wilson (Steven Page)
From the 1992 album, Gordon, an early hit for Barenaked Ladies that has had several incarnations in the band’s discography – and even a cover by the titular Beach Boy himself, Brian Wilson.
Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night,
just to check out the late-night record shop.
Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane;
but when I'm surrounded I just can't stop.
It's a matter of instinct, it's a matter of conditioning,
It's a matter of fact.
You can call me Pavlov's dog
Ring a bell and I'll salivate- how'd you like that?
Dr. Landy tell me you're not just a pedagogue,
cause right now I'm
Lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did
Well I'm lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did.
So I'm lying here, just staring at the ceiling tiles.
and I'm thinking about what to think about.
Just listening and relistening to Smiley Smile,
and I'm wondering if this is some kind of creative drought
because I am
And if you want to find me I'll be out in the sandbox,
wondering where the hell all the love has gone.
Playing my guitar and building castles in the sun,
and singing "Fun, Fun, Fun."
I had a dream that I was three hundred pounds
and though I was very heavy,
I floated 'til I couldn't see the ground
I floated 'til I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me, I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me, I couldn't see the ground
Somebody help me because I'm
Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night.
Just to check out the late-night record shop.
Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane;
but when I'm surrounded I just can't stop.
