She likes to play for double or nothin' She's tellin' all the boys she's hot And everybody knows she's ready To give it everything that she got

Pick of the Week

“Roller”, April Wine (1979)

In my mind this is one of the greatest Canadian bands of all time. This is a case where Cancon certainly helped a Canadian band. What has always left me  really puzzled is why they did not do better in the U.S., at least not like their contemporaries, like Rush? I question what their management and the record companies were doing. They were always a consistent, enduring, solid band that produced many, many fine rock songs and great ballads. Goodwyn's voice was better than Geddy Lee's, any day of the week - a great rock voice for sure.

And when she said she'd be a movie queen nobody laughed A face like an angel she could be anything

Quick Hit

“Emma”, Hot Chocolate, 1974

Most people know this band for its disco hits “Everyone’s a Winner” and “You Sexy Thing”, but there was more to this British band than meets the eye.

“Emma” has always been my favourite Hot Chocolate song.  Originally I loved the first few funky bars of the song, it was infectious. When I listened a bit closer I started to understand what it was really about.

The reason this brilliant song only got modest radio play was it dealt with a taboo subject – suicide. People did not really want to hear about it. In the‘70’s it seemed to me it was very real.  I knew kids in school that committed suicide. Why did people not talk about this more? 

Pat Boone had done “Moody River” in 1961 about it but it really was not a topic covered in music. Later in the seventies ‘Queen’ did “Don’t Try Suicide”, and the ‘Police’ did “Can’t Stand Losing You”, about a teenager who commits suicide after losing his girlfriend. Neither of these versions had the same intimate treatment of the subject that “Emma” did - “Emma” was “a star in everyone’s eyes” and yet was found “still and cold upon the bed”. Very real. Very painful, yet somehow beautifully done. There was a message there too – The most beautiful people in the world do not always succeed all the time.