The Top 100 Canadian Albums [Hardcover]

 

 

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Ah those , TOP 100 LISTS , again. These kinds of lists are only based on certain peoples opinion's and they are not really proof of anything.

There is a book like this one from ENGLAND and a couple from the U.S.

This is the first book of this kind about Canadian music. It is our turn!

These lists are very fun to read and to debate.

About 600 voters or judges from all over Canada took part in this POLL.

Including D.J.s , MANY MUSIC ARTISTS , music critics and other music industry people whom tried to do the impossible. Choose the , TOP 100 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME , from Canada.

All of the voters or judges names from this POLL are listed at the end of this book so you can read just where in Canada all of these judges came from.

The voters or judges came from , EVERY PROVINCE in CANADA!

Besides the , TOP 100 ALBUMS LIST , there are many , " HONOURABLE MENTION LISTS " , of artist's work from almost every region in this big country.

Including some French Canadian language albums / Punk albums / Blues CDs / Roots albums and NEWFOUNDLAND albums , [a list by , ALAN DOYLE of GREAT BIG SEA] , to name just a few of those fun extra lists.

This book's list also focuses mostly on ROCK / ROCK & ROLL / FOLK and POP.

There could have been more Punk / Metal / Country / Rap / Classical and Jazz , however , this is how this BIG POLL worked out after all of the votes were counted.

The TOP 50 ALBUM covers are shown in full page size. So they are reproduced almost as the same size as their ordinal LP covers. They look amazing!

Each , TOP 100 ALBUM , has it's own new information / recent interviews and new stories.

Some of the music artist voters or judges such as , NEIL PEART [Rush] and RANDY BACHMAN [B.T.O./GUESS WHO] , chose to submit different kinds of lists. NEIL , decided to list his , TOP Canadian Drummers. RANDY , tells us who are his , TOP 12 Guitar Players.

Not every one will agree with all of the TOP 100 ALBUM choices , but saying that this BOOK is all wrong , misses the whole point of this BOOK!

Even some of my favourites missed the cut. A few of these albums / artists I had never even heard of , until now!

This book gives the reader a great insight into the creative process and proves to every one just how much CANADIAN BORN artists have influenced the whole music world. Some of these music artists name's may even surprise you?

NEIL YOUNG , JONI MITCHELL , SARAH McLACHLAN [her highest listed album's are #s 25 and #33] , THE BAND , k. d. Lang , TROOPER , JANN ARDEN , SHANIA TWAIN , BRYAN ADAMS , RUSH , LEONARD COHEN , APRIL WINE , MAX WEBSTER , KING BISCUIT BOY , STEPPENWOLF , THE TRAGICALLY HIP , TEENAGE HEAD , SLOAN , FEIST , GORDON LIGHTFOOT , ARCADE FIRE , OUR LADY PEACE , HARMONIUM and the GUESS WHO , just to name a few of them.

The stories of these ALBUMS are very entertaining and informative with out being too long.

There is even a , "baseball CARD like check list" , so you can check off which albums that you may have in your own record collection.

If you want a crash course in recent Canadian ROCK / ROCK & ROLL / FOLK / POP music history and it's HUGE influence on popular music of the world , this is the book to get.

It is even fun to get mad about the albums that you think that they have missed. This list may spark many hours of debate with your friends.

The only thing that would have made this book even better was if they had a list of the , TOP 100 SELLING ALBUMS , in Canada and around the world. Then maybe , CELINE DION , would have been mention at least one time. After all , she is the largest selling female pop singer in music history , world wide.

Though it's bound to happen in any "Top 100" list, it just so happens that the Canadian music I like is very under-represented in this book. The contributors appear to be heavily biased in favour of central and Atlantic Canada, and are fairly clueless about the (older) Westcoast and Prairie music scenes [and totally unaware of French Canada's, it would appear].

For example, to ignore Chilliwack's "Dreams, Dreams, Dreams" or "Wanna Be A Star", both of which produced singles with huge staying power beyond anything coming out now, is, in my opinion, a major oversight. Loverboy's first two monster albums were huge international hits, but similarly ignored, as were hit albums from Prism, Doug and the Slugs and The Payolas. How about "Hardcore '81", the international punk rock classic from DOA?

Obviously I'm showing my age, but I don't think the book has enough from the late 70's and the 1980's, which seems to me to be the golden era of popular Canadian music, and the time where it established itself commercially without bands heading to the USA. Acts like Streetheart, Honeymoon Suite and Kim Mitchell were huge at this time, but nary a mention. Perhaps classic arena rock is just not politically correct.

Finally, while I really like Neil Young, Rush and the Tragically Hip, they are definitely over-represented in this book, though a predictable choice from the music scene literati [ie. CBC-connected artists from Ontario and the Maritimes]; a few less from their catalogues would have allowed more representation of significant Canadian albums.

French-speaking Quebec = 25% of Canada's population.

This compilation = 4 albums from French-speaking Quebec, 3 of them from the same 1970s band (Harmonium).

Need I say more?

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2.0 out of 5 stars Ughh...
Bruce Cockburn, the 4th greatest songwriter in Canadian history makes his first appearance at 57? Where is Kate and Anna McGarrigle's stellar eponymous album? Read more

Published on Mar 1 2008 by David Brewer

1.0 out of 5 stars Extreme regional bias
This is a wildly biased list. Probably he most critically acclaimed Canadian band of the 00s and the band that has dominated the Canadian college charts this decade, The New... Read more

Published on Oct 21 2007 by David A.

1.0 out of 5 stars ummm Sarah MacLachlan 33?
If you took the record sales of the 32 artists above where he slotted Sarah Maclachlan they would almost equal her.

35 million people are wrong? Read more

Published on Oct 19 2007 by Michael Eddie

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