Stomping Tom Connors's song 'Mary in Sussex' was written about my parents. My Dad was traveling and met Tom in a bar. They discussed how my dad missed his new wife and kids in Norton New Brunswick. Tom didn't know where the tiny village was so my dad told him it was close to Sussex the bigger town nearby. Tom would write songs about places and people he met as he traveled (mostly Hitch hiked) across Canada. My parents being an inspiration for a Stompin' Tom song has been one of many reasons to smile whenever someone new finds him.
This song played while artillery rounds fell in Kigali, Rwanda. General Delair knew how to keep up Canadian morale, play some stomping Tom! I always wondered what the locals thought.
When Stompin' Tom wrote that song, 96% of all NHL players were Canadians, so Canadians were always on the winning side. Connors was always "the genuine article". He ran away from a troubled home at age thirteen, then spent the next 13 years hitching back and forth across the country, as I did myself. I know exactly what his experiences were, from having seen the same places from the same vantage point. He wrote a song for half the towns in the country. I first saw him playing for quarters on a street corner. His professional career began after that, when a bartender in a northern mining town (the bar was a block away from where I was born) offered him a beer if he would play a few songs, and it turned into a long gig and appearances on local radio. Tom and the bartender remained friends for life. Though maybe not a Mozart or even a Dylan, Connors was completely genuine. A newspaper obituary wrote: "The proper venue for Mr. Connors was a smoky bar room where people connected by slamming their beer mugs together, hopefully obliterating whatever differences existed between them."
I thought this song was just toe tape folksy fun. I will def look at more of his stuff. Thanks for this great info. Yeah, about hockey, even when I was a kid and the iron curtain was still up, most hockey players were Canadian with a smattering of Swedes and Americans. It’s more international now with a lot of Eastern Europeans. Still, your game and your gift to us. A hockey is big here in NY. We actually support 3 NHL teams if you count the NJ Devils which play just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. But nothing beats the local Rangers, Isles rivalry. My wife is a Rangers fan and I’m an Isles fan. My kids are with me. Lol.
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 The first Stompin' Tom song I was really aware of was "Sudbury Saturday Night" which was a piece of musical social realism worthy of Ring Lardner, and funny as hell. Someday, I'll tell the story of the fabulous 1970s Franco-Ontarian rock band Cano, from Sudbury Ontario, a town which somehow combines a blue-collar history as a rough mining town with major contributions to the arts. The lead vocalist of the band was also a brilliant playwright, determined to make the hick dialect of Northern Ontario French a vehicle for serious literature. If you can find their album "Au Nord de Notre Vie", you'll enjoy it, I'm sure. Canadians think of Hockey as "their game", but they never doubted the cred of fans in the snow-bound states. I still remember the painful transition of league expansion. In our Canadian heads, there were the "real" hockey teams and "real" American hockey cities, like Detroit, New York, Chicago and Boston (bless'em, the most noisy and riotous of all hockey fans were in Beantown). All of a sudden there were NHL teams in places with cactus, and it just didn't seem right. American network TV started broadcasting NHL games. At first it was hilarious --- their cameramen couldn't follow the puck, and their announcers didn't know what they were talking about. They thought you just sat back and rattled off statistics like in baseball. The new audience complained that they couldn't see the puck on the screen, and the networks tried to super-impose a big blob on the image to show where it was. All of this infuriated viewers in Canada and the American Northeast. The CBC, which had broadcast NHL games since 1931 (!) issued a press release announcing that they received millions of letters from fans in the hockey homeland, complaining about everything imaginable, but that they had never once gotten a complaint from a viewer who couldn't see the puck. Eventually the Americans hired old CBC vets or found people who knew the game. There was also a problem with "goon hockey" for awhile. The new audience couldn't appreciate good plays, a brilliant assist, or any of the finer points of the game, so they wanted to see fights. Not that Canadians and Northeasterners didn't appreciate a good hockey punchup, but nobody raised as serious hockey fans wanted to see a bunch of drooling goons who couldn't skate. The man responsible for changing it all was Wayne Gretsky. With his gentlemanly style, his willingness to set up a goal for his mates and let them have their chance, and just plain class act, made a special effort to teach the new audience how to appreciate the game. Interesting trivia: in Vancouver, they broadcast live game play-by-play in Punjabi. In the Canadian West, Punjabi-speaking cowboys go back a century and a half, and Punjabi-Canadian hockey fans almost as long. More trivia: The first Canadian Olympic hockey victory was in 1920. The team was the Winnipeg Falcons. The Falcons were unusual in that the team was almost exclusively composed of Icelandic-Canadians. Icelanders had founded "New Iceland" in the 19th century, a community with it's own Althing parliament, northwest of Winnipeg. Icelandic is still spoken there, in the town of Gimli, and Icelanders are sort of like the Irish of Boston for Winnipeg. The whole team enlisted in World War I and fought together in the trenches, with two of their best players killed in action. When they came back, they re-established the team and went on a rampage of wins that brought them to the Olympics in Brussels.
@@philpaine3068 I bought "Au Nord de Notre Vie" shortly after it was released. Loved it then and still do. Just a few weeks ago I came across a live video of "Chez Zeebe" which was wonderful to hear & watch. Cano was a beautiful gift to my ears! Greetings from Peterborough.
@@CharCanuck14 Delighted to find another Cano fan. I had the privilege, decades ago, of spending a lot of time with every one of the surviving band members. Each was a totally different personality. They gave me hilarious tales of playing in northern mining towns where half the audience was passed out under their tables, along with much more serious and tragic stories. The build-up of overlapping instrumental layers in "Au Nord" still gives me shivers of delight. That wasn't studio manipulation --- they played ALL those varied instruments themselves, and could do live anything you heard on record. Peterborough may be a Southern Ontario town, but its strong Anishnabe connection makes it an honourary Northern place in my eyes! A very pretty town, too.
@@philpaine3068 I'm envious of your Cano connection Phil! I haven't met a lot of fans, but the ones I have, as with myself are passionate about their beautiful music. Rachel's voice was incredible and all the members played such an important role in bringing us that whole unique package. I remember being in shock learning about Andre's death. Yes, we do have a strong Anishnabe presence in Peterborough and for making us an honourary Northerner I say "miigwech". I've really enjoyed hearing about your connection with the band. Thank you for sharing Phil. -Char
Stomping Tom was played all the time my dad loved his songs. As well as Hank snow who is also Canadian. The first time I seen my dad cry was when stomping Tom passed away
The song is one that is interchangeable depending on where its being sung, so the part where he says "The Canadiens win" is when its sung in Montreal, in Edmonton it be "The Oilers win" Also the part with "Bobby Scores" also tends to be swapped out with whoever is the most known for said team. Stomping Tom Connors is a great singer, another of his songs is Tillsonburg and Stompin Grounds.
You found him! One of our national treasures a real delight. Am singing along with him as always and stomping my foot. He has a lot of real songs about real Canada. He did the theme song for the show Marketplace; some very true phrases in that one. Of course, Bud the Spud has to be included. Tom played at so many places, big and small, and was always loved. Thank you for doing this.
I watched Stompin' Tom at the Horseshoe Tavern on Queen near Spadina in 1968 Toronto. I was there with my wife on a Saturday afternoon after seeing him a week earlier on TV when we fell in love with him. Between sets he went to a booth along the back wall and quenched his thirst with 6 or so guys who were Leafs players. Now, at 80, I just remember Davey Keon in the group. I'm sad to say I never saw him in another live performance, but I loved his albums and the occasional RU-vid viewing.
I got to see him live at a local fair once, he was nearing the end of his life but could still put on a show. One song for you to check out is Sudbury Saturday Night. Its my absolute favorite...and its a pretty good drinking song lol
I lived in Sudbury for 25 years. You weren’t a Sudburian if you didn’t know the words! I loved when he’d bring out the plywood and perform. There’s a great statue of Stomping Tom downtown by the Sudbury Arena, near a dive bar called the Townehouse.
Yay! You’ve found our Tom! The “Stompin'” comes from the first bar he gigged at, he was putting a hole in the stage boards so they gave him an extra piece of wood and he never performed without it after that. You have to watch a video of him performing. While some are fun like Bud the Spud, Big Joe Mufferaw, Ketchup Loves Potatoes, Tom can also break your heart with incredible story telling, “The Bridge Came Tumbling Down” is sad but my fav will always be the “Martin Hartwell Story”, the true experience of a bush plane crash and how an injured Inuit boy Davey TukTuk saved the pilot. I got to see Tom Connors live and every person knew every word to every song. Another giggle is a video of him singing his song “kd Lange” to her, great video.
Next suggestion on your exploration is the National Film Board of Canada. They have just had their 77th Academy Award nomination for the Flying Sailor, an animated film about the true story of a British sailor who survived the Halifax Explosion. Many wonderful things to see and a glimpse into what makes us.
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 Story from Adrienne Clarkson, who was the Governor General at the time: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ALO-ykAKqjM.html
@@Fish-nt5wb just watched part of it and will finish it. Very cool. I think maybe I’ll include this in the next reaction I do of him. the Governor General at the time was such an eloquent speaker and did such a wonderful job with this.
Oh yes, that one and "Black Fly", both written by Wade Hemsworth, are great Canadian folk songs. The McGarrigles do a great job with "Log Driver's Waltz".
Been getting a lot of requests for that and someone sent me a link. I watched the first 20 seconds and then stopped because I want to do a genuine reaction. It’s on the list.
This comment will clue you into my age; I remember watching Boston playing Toronto when Bobby Orr (a good Ontario boy) played for Boston alongside Phil Esposito.
Not sure Stompin' |Tom was even a Maple Leafs fan, but as far as I know the video was added after the song was released which may speak to the vintage Leafs footage.
Now, you need to learn the biography of Stompin Tom...he was an amazing man and extremely generous...his personal backstory is truly epic. He was also an extremely proud Canadian...giving up his Juno awards when artists who had made a career in the USA rather than staying in Canada started receiving them. On a personal side note, in 2008 I visited Vegas for a friend's wedding...I stayed an extra week and took a helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon landing in Arizona where a a grizzled old singing cowboy picked us up and took us to the ranch house for breakfast. On the trip to the house he sang a song for every country represented in the wagon...when he discovered we were from Canada he sang "Sudbury Saturday Night" without any prompting...he then explained that in his youth he had been playing a little bar outside Vancouver where Stompin Tom found him and invited him to travel with him playing shows...and to that day he still received a Christmas card and birthday card from Tom on a yearly basis.
Wow, I love this story of your personal experience. I love that my fellow American was able to play Stompin Tom for you. That makes me feel very gratified.
Nobody loved Canada more than Stomping Tom. He loved Canada to the point that he even refused to tour in other countries. And to his delight he was embraced by even young people for his infectious love of the country (maybe some listened to him with some sense of irony, but always with affection). Most people in Canada knew songs of his that took place in nearby towns and cities. One that comes to mind is "Tillsonburg". When he sings "Tillsonburg / My back still aches when I hear that word" he's referring to working on tobacco farms specifically, but for me it always brings to mind my days as a student doing hard labour work as a temp during summer breaks, often in factories that happened to be in Tillsonburg.
The Father of a good friend of ours passed away recently. After the church funeral service and another graveside service the last thing that was done at the request of the deceased was the playing of the hockey song on a portable speaker placed on the casket.
When I was growing up Hockey Night In Canada was on every Saturday night and the whole family would gather to watch. Not much else to do back then. What we enjoyed most of all were the fights even though back then there was very little protective gear.
stompin tom connors song "sudbury saturday night" .....INCO was the mine company at the time ....quite the story about the stomping part of his name .......sudbury the nickel capital of the world,..... this one not tom but was a popular one also "Log Drivers Waltz", logging history, another canada heritage minutes
Not Tom Connors but there was a Canadian group doing comedy songs called the Arrogant Worms. They did songs like We Are Beaver, Canada Is Really Big, The Mounty Song, and Carrot Juice Is Murder
Thanks for making that video John. I love Stompin Tom Conners. Now see what ya did?... now I gotta have a beer. 🍻 God keep our land glorious and free 🇨🇦 and God bless America 🇺🇸
Thanks so much. I really appreciate it more than you can know. The comments are my favorite part of doing this. What a wonderful community here. Also, 🍻 my friend.
WOW🎶💜🎶 Had forgotten this ole Canadian Classic. Not sure how, as everyone used to sing along. Sure was interesting seeing all the old footage without helmets too. Thanks. 🥰🇨🇦
sir, look up when Canada sang star spangled banner when there was a mic fail and then listen to us sing ours as well, just cause i heard ya mention once if we show patriotism, and next game the favour was returned, was so beautiful. Thank you neighbours.
John… did you know that when Stomping Tom did his appearances in bars when he was just starting out he would wear out spots on the stage. He then he to bring his own piece of wood to stomp. It became almost a,trademark with him so,even when he became famous (in Canada) he kept on bringing that piece of wood to ‘stomp’ on. I believe that’s how he got the ‘Stomping’ I. His name.
I'd suggest you check out a Canadian folk group called The Arrogant Worms. They also have a hockey song called ... Me Like Hockey ... which is a delightful song as well. I also recommend any of theirs, particularly War of 1812 or I Am Not American for a bit of your Americana mixed in with our Canadiana.
I just took my kids to a Hawks game about a week and half ago. It was their first, except for my oldest (she’s a rabid fan) and I played this song several times before our trip to Chicago. Lo and behold, they played this at the United Center and my kids were able to sing along! ❤️🇺🇸🇨🇦🥅🏒
Love it. Last time I was at an Islanders game with my kids we heard it being played by the organist. Don’t know if I ever would have realized it had I not done this reaction.
Another Canadian-American thing I think you would enjoy is the show due south. It's about a Canadian Mountie looking for his fathers killer and he ends up in Chicago via transfer. they make some light hearted jokes and stuff.
Another iconic song from Stompin’ Tom is “Bud the Spud”, a song about a potato’s journey from its’ farm in Prince Edward Island to the big city (Toronto, in this case). There is an animated video on RU-vid, but we had the book that I read to my kids throughout their childhood. Stompin’ Tom was quirky and a proud Islander, but his art was basically poetry about Canada set to music. May he rest in peace.
Your video on the Hip drew me to your channel and you're clearly interested in Canadian music. There are a lot of great groups and singers up here that have never really gotten out of the country, or even the region. For every Bryan, Celine and BNL, there are dozens of other acts just as good (or better). I'm looking forward to you discovering them. Some of my favorites include: * Great Big Sea * Blue Rodeo * 54-40 * Joel Plaskett * Glorious Sons * Matt Minglewood (check out "Kandahar", a song he did for the forces during Canada's Afghanistan mission ) * The Trews (especially their song "Highway of Heroes" ) * Our Lady Peace * Spirit of the West * The Rankin Family * Rita MacNeil * Ann Murray (she actually had some popularity in the States, but as a Maritimer I have to mention her; especially since my mom went to Teachers College with her. :) )
John I just wanted to add that as a Canadian I have travelled through the United States many times; first as a young woman driving her little Volkswagen Beetle across the border to Buffalo to buy bargain clothing in my mid-twenties when I was size 6 Canadian which was probably size 2 American. We didn't need a passport back in those days. It was pre 9/11 In 1999 I left Lethbridge, Alberta and went on a major tour through America. I had a bit of an itinerary but not much. As a lover of Twain I wanted to see where he grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. I also wanted to see The Cove in Charleston, NC. I don't know what you have seen of your country John, but I yell you I was truly captivated when I drove along a biway from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Asheville, North Carolina. When I stopped in a General Store in Valle Crusis, North Carolina I truly felt like I was in heaven.. i had never witnessed such natural beauty. I don't knoe why I am sharing so much of myself with you. It's a God thing why I am so drawn to you. I'm not crazy. My apologies if my comments are unwanted. While I was in Asheville, NC Billy Graham's Cove was closed for the weekend so I asked the desk staff what other attractions that I might see in the area. They had a paper placemat and the man at the front pointed out Biltmore Estate! OMG! I've been through Casa Loma here im Toronto but I had NEVER experienced ANYTHING on this majestic scale
It is the Ieafs playing an American team. Tom meant no harm ,I saw him several times in bars and lounges in PE I when he was getting started and I was vacationing there.
Great Stompin Tom song, I had the pleasure of seeing Tom in concert 3 times, stompin on a piece of plywood and drinking his "screetch", if you are interested, please listen to his song about Tillsonburg, the town we now live in, it concerns his period of picking tobacco, after hearing it your back will ache like the song says.
Stompin Tom does "How Do You Like it Now" which is the only song in existence about the Canada-USA Free Trade agreement, which became Nafta after the addition of Mexico, Fire in the Mine, and The Consumer (someone put the song to Black Friday footage. Ron Hynes did Sawchuck (about a goalie) and Home From the USA, and No Change in Me - but is famous in the USA for Sonny's Dream. Fred Eaglesmith does Cumberland County (about the man who drives the snow plow) and How's Ernie (about a man who lost his best friend when the man's daughter dumped him) Corin Raymond, Ol' Fort Mac - about working in Fort MacMurray oil sands / tar sands
You have to see a video of a live performance. Stompin and yodeling occasionally. Songs about local heroes and of course the great classic, Bud the Spud.
I'm not sure if you realize it, but the main reason why he was called 'Stompin' was because he'd use his heel of his cowboy boot to keep rhythm of his song. Here's a live shot of him in concert singing the same song. A truly patriotic Canadian icon. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wiTeNS7Ds3U.html
Oops, on this majestic scale in my I think ot was 46 years on this planet. Over 250 rooms with a gymnasium and and a swimming pool in the basement along with a MASSIVE kitchen and pantry. BUT AS AN AVID READER I was enthralled by the library...20,000 volumes in 8 languages! The Vanderbilts had a full-time librarian to categorize the books. How I wish my husband, John had been with me because it was truly a fairytale setting. Most of the land that the original owners now belongs to the Pisgah Nationsl Forest. But even back in 1999 you could get a horse and buggy and a picnic basket filled with EVERYTHING GROWN AND PRODUCED on their remaining 8000 acres of land including the grapes grown on the last remaining major private esrate in the US. I am STILL in awe of this man who HAD A VISION of what SUSTAINABILITY SHOULD BE.
We saw him live in a free show at Ontario Place. A real pleasant surprise and a great memory. We rated him right up there with Anne Murray, Stomping Tom and Gordon Lightfoot.
I liked his song A straw Hat and an Old Dirty Hanky best. But my wife and I really enjoyed all of his work. We saw him live once at Ontario Place, by the CNE.
Saw stompin Tom many many times, Tilsonburg will always be my favorite Tom song. All about picking tobacco, not far from where I live now. Tom had to have a board to stomp cause he's wear out floors in bars 🤣
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 a RU-vid video of him performing Sudbury Saturday Night with the scuffed up board he had to bring everywhere with him 🤣 There is a full show the video comes from ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mCSEUWGcr2s.html
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 retro 80s scenes and vibes, the only movie/video show Stompin Tom did that I can recall. I remember when he was touring and it came on tv here. Maybe one day when ya have time to kill, He is the epitome of Maritime Canada Culture. Stay blessed ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uSHnwiUn9Xw.html
I believe this was a live performance so he switched it up and said Canadiens win, possibly in Montreal or maybe to tease some Toronto fans lol but on the recording of the song before the 3rd verse he says "Third period... last game of the playoffs too..." and then says "the puck is in, the home team wins"
Oh my friend. I am a life long Rush fan and the Professor was one of my inspirations for learning to play the drums. I have held off in a Rush reaction because of how world famous they are but I do vow to do them in prior videos (see Gordon Lightfoot, the Tragically Hip, etc) to focus on Canadian music that the rest of the world doesn’t know well. But yes, Rush has to be in there at some point.
What a great memory for this old gal! Before players wore helmets and mouth guards! I LOVED HOCKEY when there were only 6 teams and they rode on busses around the great lakes and knowing hockey was Canadian sport invented here in Nova Scotia. Not to mention that the device known as the basket used in basketball was ALSO invented up here in Canada! Everything good or funny or clever came from Canada. All you have to do is read the AMERICAN author Ralph Nader who wrote Canada Firsts to know what I mean. 😅
Hey Carol, you don’t have to sell me on the virtues of old time hockey. I’m with you and we have always appreciated here in the northeastern US that this sport is a gift from our friends to north. We like the Candidness of the sport because all our hockey heroes growing up were Canadian. They came to our elementary schools on sports night and were part of the fabric of our community. Some still are.
When he said "The Canadians Win!" he's likely referring to the Montreal Canadiens team, officially le Club de hockey Canadien. When I was a kid my favourite Stompin' Tom songs were 'Lester The Lobster' and 'Bud The Spud'.
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 The Canadiens and the Leafs are the two classic rival teams of the NHL. Much like the Yankees vs. the Red Socks in baseball. Canadiens are Montreal's team while the Leafs are Toronto's.
Stomping because his right foot always stomped on a piece of plywood. He never played without it as that was his signature. We have a local French guy Stomping Pierre who dressed the same and only plays on the plywood and only sings Stomping Tom songs of which there are many.
So that’s interesting. I’ve heard conflicting info. Some have said what you said, but some have said that lacrosse is the official summer sport and hockey is the winter sport. 🤷🏻♂️
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 Well - thanks to you, I just learned something. In 1994 hockey was made Canada's official winter sport and lacrosse in summer. I go back a long way and had no idea this had happened ... thanks. Got to catch up with the times ... LOL!
Yes, I've heard that my entire life, (62 year old Canadian). Whenever I did my friends and I would turn to each other in surprise. None of us had ever played lacrosse, except for once in High School during gym class. Lacrosse is as Canadian as Hagus.
He had a few different verses. The Canadians win on this one but he does a verse about overtime and Bobby scores....I would like to think it was the 69 Cup when Orr scored in OT.
The vintage footage, probably from original 6 era, shows the difference in the way that spectators dressed to attend public events, men ties and jackets, women dresses and neckless, nobody wearing jeans and tee shirts. Players, including goalies and referees, without helmets. Different era
This is a movie about Tommy Douglas, the father of universal healthcare in Canada. A few years ago he was voted "The Greatest Canadian". What I find remarkable is how much the man reminds me of Bernie Sanders. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OgIhMczSYV0.html
@@johnf-americanreacts1287 Well thank you John. When a person starts tracking on something like this, one thing leads to the next. I really got into that movie myself. The thing about Tommy Douglas, is how he used his relatively narrow base as the balance of power. Pierre is the Liberal PM and Tommy is going to force the agenda. It's one way to make 15% as good as 53%. He embarrassed Trudeau into adopting large chunks of the NDP platform. The real Tommy Douglas is very, very impressive to watch. BTW, their daughter, Shirley Douglas became an actress and married Donald Sutherland. So Keifer Sutherland is Tommys' grandson. Anyway, this is the federal election debate from 1968. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N8ssqU9qOEo.html
