Geddy Lee -- Take Off

 

Well, as the sign says above, Happy Canada Day! We bid you welcome from the Great White North. As I mentioned yesterday during the regular weekly Reminiscings of Youth session, I would be doing another special July 1st edition of ROY in commemoration of Canada's 155th birthday. Yesterday was a fun pop tune by Spoons, "Tell No Lies". Today, we're going even sillier.

Occasionally on KKP, I've cited my favourite comedy series of all time "SCTV" that was filmed in Canada and had several of its cast members hail from this country. One of the favourite segments on the show was "Great White North" which found popularity in both Canada and the United States, and it all came about because of a bureaucratic bit of nuttiness via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In the early 1980s, "SCTV" was being shown in both countries but because of a difference in the allotted commercial time between Canada and America, there were an extra two minutes of time for the Canadian broadcasts, and so the CBC asked or demanded the show's producers to add some Canadian content despite the fact that it was already mostly Canadian in location and cast.

Two of the cast members, Dave Thomas (St. Catherines, Ontario) and Rick Moranis (Toronto) thought that this was corporate claptrap at its most idiotic, but they decided to get back at the CBC by coming up with "Great White North" which was two minutes of this improvised Canadian content by Bob and Doug McKenzie played by Moranis and Thomas respectively. Basically, they parodied the uber-Canadian-ness through everything ranging from their accents and vocabulary to their clothing and topics which in the case above covered long underwear and back bacon.

Well, to everyone's surprise, including Moranis and Thomas, "Great White North" was a bona fide hit, eh? Pretty soon, folks were putting on their tuques and heavy coats, and they were mimicking the so-called Canadian accent. There was even a parade in celebration of the guys down our main street of Yonge Street here in Toronto with fans going crazy which rather terrified the two. I'm sure that they were thinking "What the heck did we just do?!". 

And that wasn't all, eh? Bob and Doug ended up starring with the amazing Tony Bennett in one segment, they recorded a Grammy-nominated album, and they even got their own movie, "Strange Brew", a few years later with the villain played by Max Von Sydow, who just happened to play the Exorcist and a knight who went up against Death himself in "The Seventh Seal".

Now, to fulfill my duties of providing Canadian content on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I am obligated to provide a brief glossary of Great White North speak:

G'day -- Hello or goodbye

How's it going, eh? -- How are you?

Beauty -- Great or wonderful

Hoser, hosehead -- Idiot, dummy

Take off! -- Get out of here! or another confrontational phrase that ends with off.

Eh? -- Just pepper your conversation with this sentence ender for pure Canadian back bacon pleasure.

Interestingly enough, all this was happening while the whole Valley Girl speak was popping up in America. Just imagine having the McKenzies having a conversation with Moon Unit Zappa!

Anyways, as for that Grammy-nominated album, I'm referring to "The Great White North" which was released in 1981. The album had the LP version of sketches starring the boys but there were a few musical interludes such as their version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", and then on Side A, there is "Take Off", which is a mix of more McKenzie chicanery and vocals by Geddy Lee from the legendary rock band Rush.

As the Wikipedia article for the album states, "The Great White North" hit the Canadian RPM charts at No. 3 in December 1981. Well, what was coming out in that month in Japan, according to Showa Pops?

Mariko Takahashi -- Yoake no Lullaby （夜明けのララバイ）

Hiroyuki Sanada -- Ai Yo Honoo ni Somare（愛よ炎に染まれ）

Takao Kisugi -- Yume no Tochuu （夢の途中）

Finally, as for that "Coo loo coo coo, coo coo coo coo" that Doug twitters out every episode, that comes from the flute intro for another Canadian media legend, "Hinterland Who's Who".

G'day, eh?