Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mercoledi Musicale

This morning as I waited in line for my - dear god help me - Starbuck's coffee (oh lord I can just see all my Italian friends rolling their eyes) I heard an old favourite playing in the background.  It still had the power to move me to a gentle melancholy as much today as it did when I first heard it back in 1963.

During my teen years, along with Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell,  Ian and Sylvia were singers who defined a distinctive type of Canadian music that mixed folk with country and urban overtones.   I grew up listening to, learning and loving the songs they composed - You Were On My Mind, Someday Soon et al - as well as their covers of Lightfoot, Dylan and others.  But I don't think there is a song to beat this one and there is good reason it was chosen as one of the greatest Canadian songs.  There have been all manner of covers but nobody sang it like Ian and Sylvia.  This version of Four Strong Winds was  recorded at a reunion concert on the CBC in 1986.  They are joined by Judy Collins, Emily Lou Harris, Lightfoot and Murray Maclaughlin.  Now there's a backup group if there ever was one!


I have to admit that hearing it today brought back memories and made me feel just a little big old.   I'm finding it hard to believe that it almost 50 years since I first heard them sing it.  And like all great songs it endures.


12 ottobre/October -  San Serafino da Montegranaro

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4 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I'm a big Ian and Sylvia fan too. Do you know that "Four Strong Winds" was the first song that Ian Tyson ever wrote? He says he gave songwriting a try after Bob Dylan started to write his own stuff because he figured "how hard could it be?"

Anonymous said...

You and Debra are taking us down Canada's path of memories. It's great, love the music, keep it up.
Dayle

evilganome said...

I am embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten about this and all the other great Ian and Sylvia music I listened to when I was a youngster. Now I am going down memory lane as it were.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0gGualM_oY&NR=1

Videos from the Nilsson prize night last Thursday.