Dave Bidini - On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock

Copyright 1998 by Dave Bidini

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bidini, Dave
On a cold road : tales of adventure in Canadian rock

eISBN: 978-1-55199-675-2

1. Bidini, Dave. 2. Rheostatics (Musical group). 3. Rock music Canada History and criticism. 4. Rock musicians Canada Biography. 5. Guitarist Canada Biography. I. Title.

ML 419. B 585 A 3 1998 781.66092 C 98-931504-5

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

The author acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council.

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com

Lines from Ripped Off Winkle words and music by Tom Connors.
1977 Crown Vetch Music, administered by Morning Music Limited. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Recorded by Stompin Tom Connors on the album At the Gumboot Cloggeroo.

Lines from In Context of the Moon (Mitchell/Dubois)
1977 Mark-Cain Music (SOCAN)
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Lines from Nautical Disaster appears courtesy of the Tragically Hip.
From the album Day for Night. Written by the Tragically Hip.
1994 Roll Music/Little Smoke Music (SOCAN) .

Lines from Rock Is My Life & This Is My Song words and music by
Randy Bachman.
Copyright 1974 Sony / ATV Songs Inc. LLC .
All rights administered by Sony / ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West,
Nashville, TN 37203.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Every effort has been made to secure permission from the copyright owners of lyrics quoted in this book. Further information would be welcomed by the publishers.

v3.1

For my parents

* * *

Going down Highway 16 Johnny Crackle in the back seat of a 1962 Ford plays and sings sad songs riding ten years ago to a neon hamburger. Here I am, thought Johnny, and all I can worry about is the mustard and the relish.

Matt Cohen, Johnny Crackle Sings

Rheostatics:

Dave Bidini: Rhythm guitar
Dave Clark: Drums (19801994)
Don Kerr: Drums (19942001)
Martin Tielli: Lead guitar
Michael Philip-Wojewoda: Drums (2001present)
Tim Vesely: Bass

*

Greatest Hits (1987)
Melville (1990)
Whale Music (1992)
Introducing Happiness (1994)
Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music (1994)
Music Inspired by the Group of Seven (1996)
The Blue Hysteria (1996)
Double Live (1997)
The Nightlines Sessions (1998)
The Story of Harmelodia (1999)
Night of the Shooting Stars (2001)
2067 (2004)

Dennis Abbott: 49th Parallel

Barry Allen: Singer, Wes Dakus and the Rebels, Lovedrops

Randy Bachman: The Guess Who, BTO, guitarist

Terry Black: Singer, Sinner Man

Tommy Chong: The Shades, Cheech and Chong

Bruce Cockburn: Threes a Crowd, guitarist

John Cody: West Coast drummer, Ray Condo

Geoff Davis: Lights and tech, Max Webster

Jerry Doucette: Guitarist, Mama Let Him Play

Rik Emmett: Triumph, guitarist

Richard Flohil: Promoter, agent

Gale Garnett: Actor, Well Sing in the Sunshine

Amos Garrett: Session guitarist, Midnight at the Oasis

Peter Goddard: Toronto Star writer

Greg Godovitz: Fludd, Goddo, bassist

Gary Pig Gold: Expatriate Canadian musician

Rob Gunn: Road manager, Max Webster

Ronnie Hawkins: Singer, impresario

Bill Henderson: The Collectors, Chilliwack

Dave Henman: April Wine, guitarist

Richie Henman: April Wine, drummer

Jeanine Hollingshead: Mariposa Folk Festival organizer

Kelly Jay: Crowbar, singer

Jim Kale: Guess Who, bassist

Alan Kellogg: Ohio Express, guitarist

Ronnie King: Stampeders, bassist

Danny Marks: Edward Bear, guitarist, CBCS Humline

Dutch Mason: Maritime bluesman

Ra McGuire: Trooper, singer

Jim Millican: The Guess Who, road manager

Darby Mills: Headpins, singer

Kim Mitchell: Max Webster, guitarist, singer

Terry David Mulligan: Journalist, MuchWest

Alan Niester: Globe and Mail writer

Tom Northcott: West Coast singer-songwriter

Richard Patterson: The Esquires, Threes a Crowd, drummer

Jack Pedlar: Teenage Head, drummer

Bob Segarini: The Wackers, singer, broadcaster

Steve Smith: Jason, The Red Green Show

Frank Soda: Thor, Frank Soda and the Imps, guitarist

Skinny Tenn: Fludd, manager

Mike Tilka: Max Webster, bassist

Ken Tobias: Singer-songwriter, Stay Awhile

Shari Ulrich: Hometown Band, UHF

Donnie Walsh: Downchild, guitarist

Holly Woods: Toronto, singer

Denton Young: Zon, singer

PROLOGUE

Zero degrees is where we start.
Max Webster, In Context of the Moon

I was nothing but a pimply little question mark on the day my sister and I first walked into Ken Jones Music in Etobicoke. Sunlight streamed through the windows, dappling the guitars that hung behind the counter and bathing the small music shop at the back of the Westway Plaza in warm light. The store was cluttered with drums stacked on top of each other, keyboards leaning three deep against the walls, dusty racks of unread sheet music, long outdated band want-ads taped to the cash register, and ashtrays scattered across old chairs and window ledges. At the back of the store, young boys sat in tiny rooms plucking guitars through amplifiers that buzzed like heat bugs, the sound of their hammer-ons and finger-rolls and string-benders snaking out to where I stood, sucking it all in like sugar through a Pixie-Stik.

After our first taste of this place, my sister and I signed up for guitar lessons, which I grew to hate. My disdain might have had something to do with the fact that Cathy had mastered the basic chords and strumming technique before Id grown my first finger callus. She out-licked me on Kum Ba Yah, Michael, Row the Boat Ashore, and House of the Rising Sun, which we debuted for our parents in our living room sitting on bridge-table chairs behind music stands. Id like to tell you that I rose to her challenge and went on to become a blurry-fingered virtuoso of the fretboard whose technique set the worlds pants on fire. But I did not.

Instead, I quit.

Cathy played her hand just right. My room was papered with an Aerosmith poster over my bed, 10cc above my night table, and Rushs