Raise your hand if you got married to a Blue Rodeo song? Many in this country have, and while I’m not one of them, that’s not to say that the band hasn’t provided much of the soundtrack of my life.
I recall seeing the Cuddy, Keelor, and company countless times in the mid ‘80s at Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Queen Street, this before their first album “Outskirts” arrived in 1987 and the band imprinted themselves on the Canadian consciousness.
With the exception of The Tragically Hip, and with due respect to other Canadian musical icons, no other band I think resonates so strongly with its audience in this country. Just go to a concert where the sing-along audience is in essence another member of the band.
Sure, they often sing about Canada – “I’d rather be lying by the Bow River, just watching the clouds go by…” – but it’s more than that (after all, we’re not that insecure), even if putting one’s finger on what that is precisely is unclear.
Is it Cuddy’s impossibly beautiful songs (“One Night Left in Heaven,” “Bad Timing,” the wedding staple, “Try”), or Keelor’s edgier efforts, that create the perfect balance – Canada’s Lennon and McCartney – both of which are shared through the duo’s amazing but unlikely trademark harmony?
Is it the devotion to their audience and playing in countless cities, towns, and festivals across the country – and still going after nearly 40 years? Besides the early days at the Horseshoe, I’ve seen them on the lawn at Ontario Place, from the plush seats at Massey Hall, hockey arenas in Hamilton and Oshawa, and Kitchener, Ont., the latter where my at the time 18-year-old son was the youngest in attendance with a couple of decades to spare (and where the glow of today’s version of the concert cigarette lighter, the cellphone, bounced off more smooth, round objects than a bowling alley).
(It is also at the wonderful Centre in the Square venue in Kitchener that the band is set for a post-pandemic return in December, and onwards to Peterborough and Kingston).
Maybe it’s their casual, unpretentious Canadian style, visually and musically – the latter blending folk, rock, and roots (even if for lack of better description they tend to be square-pegged into the round hole of country music).
I’m really not sure, in all honestly, what exactly makes Blue Rodeo so special. Even to this day, I guess it really hasn’t hit me yet.
Lyrics
You say that you’re leaving
Well, that comes as no surprise
Still I kinda like this feelin’
Of being left behind
This ain’t nothing new to me
Well, it’s just like goin’ home
It’s kinda like those sunsets
That leave you feelin’ so stoned
Hey, hey, I guess it hasn’t hit me yet
I fell through this crack and I kinda lost my head
I stand transfixed before this street light
Watching the snow fall on this cold December night
Never thought this could happen
But somehow the feeling is gone
You got sick of the patterns
And I got lost in this song
Hey, hey, I guess it hasn’t hit me yet
I fell through this crack and I kinda lost my head
I stand transfixed before this street light
Watching the snow fall on this cold December night
And out in the middle of the lake Ontario
The same snow is falling
On the deep silent water
The great dark wonder
Into the waves of my heart
Into the waves of my heart
Of my heart