Welcome to my website !  Not a lot of flashy stuff or eye candy, but a collection of flotsam and jetsam that represent the sum of my colossal waste of time. Some original music, old vinyl, hobbies and other junk are what you’ll find here. Shall we get started?

My Sharity disclaimer : Below are vinyl and CD’s that are no longer commercially available. If anyone has any issue with anything I post here, please contact me and I will comply with your wishes. Thanks.

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Abuse/Praise?

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As a child in the 60’s and a teen in the 70’ growing up just west of Toronto, my ear was pretty well glued to 1050 CHUM . Thanks to CanCon, I heard a lot of great Canadian bands and it has been a recent obsession of mine to start collecting some of that old gold. Below you can download these albums I have ripped from my vinyl.  As good as the vinyl quality is, and some cleanup undertaken, you might notice an imperfection now and then so please excuse that.   If you want more great Canadian music go to Meester Music ,  a great music blog site.  If you want to know more about the bands below or any Canadian artist from days gone by, heres a good site : The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia  

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Download: Jackson Hawke Forever

1976 release. I really liked the single “You Can’t Dance”  (the original and better version not all England Danned and John Ford Coleyed up). I bought the album for that song and was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the album.I think this copy once belonged to a radio station because the album was immaculate (as you will hear) and there was kind of a promo sheet inside from Columbia Records simply stating a brief biography of the band and that Jackson Hawke were “off and flying”. The track “Ain’t No Cowboys” should be mandatory playing on Canada Day.

1. Into The Mystic
2. She’s Gonna Get Away
3. Brazil Nut
4.Ain’t No Cowboys
5. Forever
6. You Can’t Dance
7. Fortune
8. The Nightmusic
9. She’s the One
10. No Sad Songs

Download: Mandala Classics

A greatest hits compilation circa 1986. Great R&B from Toronto featuring among others legendary guitarist Domenic Trioano. I don’t know why they couldn’t create a decent album cover for this. Gotta be one of the worst non-DYI covers ever. A bummed out girl staring in the mirror at pictures of the band really reflects the energy that the album contains. Well, at least the music is good.

1. Loveitis
2. Opportunity
3. Give And Take
4. Faith
5. Lost Love
6. Mellow Carmello Palumbo
7. World Of Love
8. Every Single Day
9. Don’t Make Me Cry
10. Can’t Hold Out
11. One Short Year
12. From Toronto ‘67

Download: The Original Caste - One Tin Soldier

This one is kinda borderline for me. I only want to post stuff no longer commercially available. This was reissued on CD in 2005 but it was a Japanese import and was mastered from vinyl as well. It does have 4 extra tracks however, if you’re still interested in buying it but be prepared to pay higher than normal. This is just the original vinyl album posted here. Great pop recorded in LA by people from Moose Jaw, Calgary and Vancouver .

1. One Tin Soldier
2. Mr. Monday
3. Country Song
4. A Picture Of Bob Dylan
5. Nothing Can Touch Me
6. Leaving It All Behind
7. Watch The Children
8. Highway
9. Sweet Chicago
10. Live For Tomorrow

Download: Sugar Shoppe - CANADA/Thoroughly Modern Millie

The year was 1967 and Canada was in the grips of Centennial fever. Everywhere you looked, there was that mordernized maple leaf, logo for the centennial year, and of course Expo ‘67. The big tune on everyone’s lips was Bobby Gimby’s CANADA sung by The Young Canada Singers. Here is the Sugar Shoppe’s version of that song and on the flipside is their take on “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. It’s got kind of a Harper’s Bizarrish feeling to it.

Here’s a great site celebrating that magical year: Expo ‘67

Download: Octavian - Simple Kinda People

All I really wanted to do was find a good copy of “Good Feeling (To Know)” and I ended up with the whole album. Fun pop from the 7 member band from Ottawa (again a nice little bio here). The engineering is all over the place on this one. The vocals seem to be put back in the mix, or sometimes they’re up front enough to distort. Hopefully it’s not vinyl distortion or my turntable being a bit off. Believe me, I’m pretty anal about this. And by the way “Good Feeling (To Know)” sounds very good. (yay)

1. Hold Me, Touch Me
2. Magic
3. Sun In Your Eyes
4. Round And Round
5. In Trouble Again
6. Work It Out Together
7. Good Feeling (To Know)
8. Desperate Man
9. Good Times
10. Tell Me Why
11. Johnny Lightning
12. Simple Kinda People

Download: Bond

For the longest time I thought “Dancin’ on A Saturday Night” was a Bay City Rollers’ song. Well it was Bond from Southern Ontario (not Scotland). 1975 CBS release.

1. Dancin’ On A Saturday Night
2. I Love The Things You Do
3. Hold On
4. We Are Not Free
5. Mardi Gras
6. When You’re Up, You’re Up
7. I’m A Lonely Man
8. Don’t You Love To Dance
9. Gallo’s Dreams: Sitting Here
10 Come On Home

Download: Gainsborough Gallery - Life Is A Song

Named after an art gallery in Calgary (which is still here). Produced by Norman Petty (who first recorded Buddy Holly) in Clovis New Mexico. I like the brief bios on the back of the album that makes no mention these guys are Canadian. I think my favorite one is drummer Ray Andrew where it mentions “Fast cycles, sports cars and groovy clothes really turn him on”  Holy Johnny Bravo! Released in 1969 named after the big single that came off of this.

1. House On Soul Hill
2. I Need Someone
3. Thank You Girl
4. Light In The Window
5. Dreams In A Boxcar
6. Turn Around And Love You
7. Life Is A Song
8. Hello L.A. - Bye Bye Birmingham
9. It’s growing
10. If She Don’t Turn Your Head
11. I Think I’ll Catch A Bus
12. Get Ready

Download: Rain

1971 release from Kitchener Ontario Rain. Phyllis Brown, the lead singer, changed her name to Charity Brown and had a few singles and success  in her solo career. Technically, I couldn’t get some of the distortion off  the most important track (typical) “Out Of My Mind” but I hope you enjoy it anyway

1. Out Of My Mind
2. Let The Love Begin
3. Child Of Mine
4. Got To Get Away
5. Reason For Living
6. Caught In The Middle Of It
7. Here With You
8. I’ll Write You A Letter
9. Sad Colours Blues
10. I Don’t Want To Leave You

Download: The Hooples Album

A sort of greatest hits compilation from 1981 from this group originally from Cambridge, Ontario. Some good melodic stuff on here that show some big Four Seasons influence. More here

1. Someone
2. I’m Runnin’After You
3. Cry Now It’s Over
4. What Took So Long
5. We Can’t Give Up
6. This Song Reminds Me Of You
7. You Girl
8. Easy
9. You’re Hurtin’ Everyone
10. Good Morning Sun

Download: Jackson Hawke

A nice thing happened after I originally posted Jackson Hawke’s Forever album. Tim Ryan, the lead singer emailed me and said it was nice to see the band’s music up again. That was cool. This one is done a year later, 1977, and includes the great energetic single “Set Me Free”

1. Where Were You
2. Ring The Bell
3. Done Done
4. I Don’t Love You
5. Do You Like It?
6. What Do You Wanna Do?
7. Dancing With The Captain
8. Magdalena
9. Falling In Space
10. Set Me Free

Download: Tom Middleton - It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference

I’ve been a Todd Rundgren fan since the mid-70’s but it was Tom Middleton’s version of Todd’s “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” that I heard first and I still like it better than the original. He also does another Todd tune “Just One Victory” that pales a bit in comparison but is still a good listen. Recorded in Vancouver in 1973

1. Help Us
2. Just One Victory
3. Come Back To Me
4. O’Rosey
5. One More Chance
6. It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference
7. Lovelight Suite
8. Holy Moly Man
9. Name Of The Game
10. After The Rain

Download: Joey Gregorash - North Country Funk

1971 album recorded at the STAX studio in Memphis Tennessee by Winnipegger Joey Gregorash. I just stumbled across this one and it was in pretty bad shape. I managed to clean it up pretty well so I hope you like listening to it. Better copies of this album can be found from time to time on the net.

1. Jodie
2. Down By The River
3. Night Ride To Memphis
4. Make A Better Place
5. The Key
6. Don’t Let Your Pride Get You Girl
7. Freedom Means Love
8. Bye Bye Baby
9. Sugar Ride
10. Dollar Bill

Download: Bob McBride - Butterfly Days

Bob McBride was one of those unique Canadian rock voices. He was the voice of Lighthouse in their hit years. This album was recorded in 1972 while he was with the band. He led a tragic life that was cut way too short at the age of 51 in 1998. On the technical side, you’ll notice a fair bit of surface noise at times. The album is very quiet at points and anything but a pristine copy of this will show the noise. This album was actually sealed when I bought it but I think there was a defect in the vinyl. Enjoy the album anyway (you’ll remember Pretty City Lady) and I hope Bob is finding those “Butterfly Days” now.

1. Butterfly Days
2. My Beautiful Lady
3. Pretty City Lady
4. Strange Things
5. Straight Ahead
6. Back In My Time
7. Moonlight Lady
8. Far Away
9. Treasure Song
10. Happiness