Tosh's Tails
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I love to go a Wandering....
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
McCann met Greg Browne on the first day of Kindergarden in a small wooden school called St. Joseph's on the Waterford river in Kilbride. The math tells me it was 1972. The Sisters of Mercy still wore their habits back in the day, an extremely effective method of frightening the living shit right out of little boys. McCann remembers feeling very small and looking around for someone like minded. What he found was a friend.
For the most part, the lads focused on their ABC's and avoiding the sting of the dreaded ruler. But like all little boys, they sometimes found themselves on the wrong side of right, and occasionally documented their misadventures in song. "Wandering Ways" and "My left Hand" (a true story) are good examples of what can happen when these two scholars collaborate. Pure Genius. It's really too bad that Greg decided to disregard his songwriting "gift" to focus on saving lives as a vascular surgeon. Maybe someday he will put aside his medical hobby and make time for his "art". Until then we will just have to make do with McCann singing "Bad For me" at The railway Club in Vancouver on friday nite.
see you there
Tosh
Good People
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
McCann was sitting around on his ass per usual wondering what to do with his newly recorded "Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes" and being generally miserable when the invitation came to join his friend Paul Lamb on a songwriting excursion in rural Nova Scotia. When we landed the next day in Halifax, Paul was there to pick us up and we meandered our way to beautiful Annapolis Royal to make up some songs. The first 5 were pretty enough but very sad (McCann's fault) so to break "the heavy" paul suggested we all go out to dinner with his Bignell inlaws at a litlle place literally called "The End of the Line". the Dark One reluctantly agreed and was quickly charmed by the "Good People" you can meet on a whim if you give the world half a chance. When we returned to the cabin (owned by said Bignell's) Paul (now ready to slit his wrists) asked McCann if they could please try to write a happy song. Still buzzing from his extremely rare positive social encounter, the great misanthrope surprised all by saying "How bout we call it Good People?"
and they did.
Tosh
Stigmata (Safe Upon The Shore)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Sitting here in the Tofino sand watching McCann hobble around on one foot is more fun than rousting Partridge in the Fall. Poor bastard stepped on a rusty bit of metal (not at Middle Cove) and looks more now like an old man with the gout than the shantyman. Usually he'd be off running the beach in search of inspiration (BC grows some of the best) but today he's grounded like a lost ship. Reminds me of the day "Safe Upon the Shore" became a song.
After some very hard days of travel we found ourselves in the seaside town of Olympia in Washington. All hands had been working hard writing new songs to appease dreaded taskmaster Steve (dial it in) Berlin. Minds and bodies were well frayed. The usually "too cool for school" Foster passed McCann his morning's efforts on a single sheet of paper. The dark tale of a lover lost at sea was too much for our resident "bad seed' to resist and he decided to run with it.....literally.
10K later Murray's poem had a melody.....and a chorus.
The world's first Love Shanty was born.
Now if we could just teach the gimp to stop stepping on sharp objects.....
Tosh
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