My Song

I never did get around to submitting my idea for the Songquest contest that CBC ran last year. I did finish the poem so I thought I should put it here to provide closure to this thing. Who knows, maybe Stompin' Tom Connors or Gord Downie will see this and write some music to accompany the words.

I was attempting to capture the sound I often hear in the early morning hours when the local bottle collectors come by my apartment building to search the trash bins looking for returnable bottles. There are quite a few of them who frequent my neighbourhood and they are all very different from each other.

Unsung Hero

Early in the day as the dawn breaks the night
He searches for a treasure that others rarely see
From a corner of the city, a place that’s real and gritty
All day long among the towers he will roam

In the morning he walks past, I hear the tinkle of the glass,
As the wheels of his old handcart click along
Try’n’ to make a livin’, from other people’s trash,
Unsung hero empty bottles are your song

Unsung hero or urban zero, your life is one we rarely see
Unsung hero or urban zero, what makes you do this every day?
Scratchin’ out a livin’ from other people’s trash
Unsung hero turnin’ bottles into cash

He defends his territory like a lion on the plain
While snarling at the others, his prize they try to claim.
From the bins, blue and green, wine or beer, rum or gin
Unsung hero, yes we know that it’s a sin

Unsung hero or urban zero, an Eco-warrior we seldom ever see
Unsung hero or urban zero, saving the world one bottle at a time
Scratchin’ out a livin’ from other people’s trash
Unsung hero turnin’ bottles into cash

cwkj

What is Songquest

What is the Great Canadian Song Quest?

We are all familiar with songs such as “New York, New York”, “I Love Paris” and “Galveston”... but what about songs dedicated to Canadian places? There are classics like “Bobcaygeon” by The Tragically Hip and “Running Back to Saskatoon” by The Guess Who. There are definitely more places in this country worth immortalizing in song. That’s why CBC Radio 2 is launching the Great Canadian Song Quest – to give Canadians a chance to nominate what locations matter most to them and commission 13 new songs to be written about those places.

And not only will Canadians get to decide on one place from each province, they will also get to vote on the 13 singer-songwriters who will compose and record the new songs.
How can you get involved, and when is all this happening?

September 7-27: Great Canadian Song Quest launches!* How well do you know Canada? Take our online quizzes for your chance to win some great prizes!* Share Quest with the Rest. Use our handy social media tools to campaign for your favourite locations.

Sept. 28- Oct. 9: Location Nominations begin!* Nominate the Canadian place you think deserves a song to be written about. Choose from the list online or enter your own.*Track how your location is faring and chat with your favourite Radio 2 hosts on Twitter and Facebook through the “Share Quest with the Rest” page.

Oct. 12-23: Voting begins!* Time to vote for your favourite location from the shortlist of the most popular places from each province, and the artist you’d like to see create the song for that locations.*Download our badges and blog templates to campaign for your choice location and artist!

Oct. 26: Winning artists revealed!* The 13 winning artists as chosen by you are revealed and will begin composition on the songs representing your favourite Canadian places.* Share your passion with others by uploading your own original song about Canada for feature on the Song Quest website.

Nov 23: Final locations and songs announced!* The final location results of The Great Canadian Song Quest are revealed. 13 brand new songs recorded by 13 talented Canadian singer-songwriters, inspired by 13 special Canadian places!

Day 2

So I will keep to my word and post more here today. I have been working on the poem that I hope will be selected by CBC to become a song and I am not really bothered by who records it either. Maybe I should ask for my old friend Rob Barrie who makes a living as a musician in Cape Breton to be the one. I still have the 7" 45 rpm record of him that he gave me in college nearly 25 years ago. 'Coke Avenue' is one of the songs, and as I recall it wasn't half bad. When we had our 20th anniversary reunion for my college, Rob was there in the pub with his guitar singing and playing all night (along with others).

I live in Toronto now and it's a whole different world here in the downtown city from the small town where I grew up, or even Belleville, where I moved to attend college in the early '80s.
There aren't as many natural wonders and beautiful scenes here for sure. I've seen the mountains of BC and Alberta, the thousands of beautiful lakes and rivers that fill Ontario, and so much more across this great land. I am sure there will be more than a few songs which will be selected that will sing the praises of our natural beauty and grandeur.

I would like to see at least one or two about the urban landscape of Canada. I am pleased that someone in Vancouver for example, has built a campaign for the downtown east side. I have been through that area and I have never seen anything like it anywhere else in Canada. I hope it will be given strong consideration for the interesting and real place that it is. It is fantastic that someone in a city that is surrounded by so much natural beauty chose to offer another choice for a song topic.

Urban settings can be even more complex and beautiful than nature because the subject usually contains humans in all their multitude of varieties. People come in in different sizes and shapes and they also have rich, dense layers of personality, intelligence, quirks and flaws. The city brings together a large number of people into a relatively small geographic space and the opportunities to observe human nature are virtually unlimited. Because Toronto is such a multi-cultural city the human landscape is of a global scope.

9 months ago I moved to Isabella Street in downtown Toronto. I am now living in the front of a charming apartment building that is on the edge of St. Jametown, the most densely populated square mile in Canada. It is a microcosm in this one small area with people from around the world, but also mixed in are people with different socio-economic traits from areas like Cabbagetown, Rosedale and the gaybourhood which surround St. Jamestown. A trip to my local discount food store is always interesting and colourful.

Maybe you have to live here to appreciate it but the noises and people are always around you, day or night. It is early in the morning when the noise is nearly gone that I often here a sound which inspired this poem.

more to follow...cjonisabella

Day one of blog for CBC Radio 2 Songquest contest

I have an idea for a song which I think would be a great addition to this project. I have started a poem which I would like to see turned into a song. I haven't yet decided who I would like to record it. I wonder if my choice of artist will impact my chances with the jury for the contest. What if I chose a Canadian artist who isn't willing or available to record my entry?

I just looked at some of the other ideas already up on the CBC's website for the contest. I only looked at a few, but most seem to be about mountains, lakes, waterfalls, or other natural beauty spots eh! Well my song would feature an urban city topic but I hear the song in my head as a country flavour melody; not rock, blues, etc. So as the idea isn't fully hatched yet and I have some ideas for supporting material I better get to work soon.

More to follow... cjonisabella