Still stompin' after all these years

[CHIMO]

We had just come out of the trophy room in Stompin' Tom Connors's basement, a rather stark chamber lined with framed photos, gold records and other memorabilia from a career that spans five decades. Connors was telling me about the games he plays with his band on the road: checkers, chess, Scrabble, croquet .…

Croquet? As in, “the good old croquet game, it's the best game you can name”?

“It's not the old ladies' game, the way we play it,” he growled. “You need shin pads. If we hit your ball, it'll go right out of the park.”

He's just as fierce about those other games, apparently. Stompin' Tom and the Connors Tone, the second volume of his autobiography, devotes a few paragraphs to the pleasure he gets from demolishing opponents on the checkerboard.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081024.wstomp25/BNStory/Entertainment/home

[HeresyLives]

1. A hard-scrabble life.

It handed him a lemon, and he made lemonade, and he's gotten no recognition or appreciation for it either.

You realize we'll think he's wonderful and promote him like crazy - after he's dead.

[Canuckistanian]

9. He was rescued from anonymity by Peter Gzowski

Once, on Peter Gzowski's CBC radio show, he wondered whatever happened to Stompin' Tom.

It created a growing snowball of people searching for him.

Here's an article from 1986 that documents his resurrection:

Tom left his mark in many places. He was named the Goodwill Ambassador to PEI; he got married on Elwood Glover's "Luncheon Date"; he made a classic feature film about one of his tours; he wrote 'Bud the Spud', 'Algoma Central 69', and the theme to 'Marketplace'; he sold-out the Horseshoe Tavern on a record amount of occasions; and he hosted his own television series, Stompin' Tom's Canada. Maybe we remember him just because we studied the words to 'Sudbury Saturday Night' in our Grade 9 history texts. Maybe it's our Canadian guilt complex, trying to recoup something we indirectly let go.

In any case, Tom's lingering impact is just now being gauged. Last winter, Peter Gzowski of Morningside pleaded with his listeners to submit any information regarding Tom's whereabouts. He came up empty, but he proved that the popular media, which had once chastised Tom for his goofy Canadian persona, was willing to go out on a limb to find him. Since Tom walked into self-imposed exile in 1978, campus radio stations have recharted his records and First Choice has added his film to their schedule. Everywhere I turn, someone has a story about Tom. So far, I've been told: Stompin' Tom committed suicide and is buried in a Skinners' Pond graveyard; Stompin' Tom is living on a trailer park in Burlington where he performs only for his friends; and Stompin' Tom is living up North as a hermit: He hates talking to people.

He's not a hermit.

More at:
http://www.stompintom.com/stompintomtimes/theseboots.html

[glarius]

2. His song "The good old hockey game" should have been

chosen by the CBC to replace their theme song which they lost the rights to. Instead they had a contest to replace it and chose some nondescript theme music. He and his music are Canadiana!
Here's the first verse and the chorus of "The Good Old Hockey Game:

Hello out there, we're on the air, it's 'Hockey Night' tonight.
Tension grows, the wistle blows, and the puck goes down the ice.
The goalie jumps, and the players bump, and the fans all go insane.
Someone roars, "Bobby Scores!", at the good ol' Hockey Game.

:: CHORUS ::
OH! The good ol' Hockey game, is the best game you can name.
And the best game you can name, is the good ol' Hockey game.

[HeresyLives]

3. I agree. EVERYbody knows that song.

And yet it was never even considered. Go figure.

[iverglas]

4. Damn right

It never occurred to me. If someone had put it forward I would gladly have joined a campaign for it, even though I would still have changed the channel whenever it came on. ;)

[Caradoc]

5. No hoser, just a real Canadian...

"Oh, the girls are out at bingo,
and the boys are gettin' stink-o,
there'll be no talk of Inco,
on a Sudbury Saturday night..."

Pure poetry and a lot of foot-stompin'.

[IntravenousDemilo]

6. He's a big fan of David Orchard, too. n/m

[auntAgonist]

7. Gotta love Stompin' Tom. We used to run into him

quite often in the town of Elmira Ontario when I lived there. He always had time for my son who at the time was probably around 7 years old. Tom was his 'hero'
===================


Hey Tom, You ever been to Tilsonburg?
Tilsonburg? My back still aches when I hear that word
While, a way down Southern Ontario
I never had a nickle or a dime to sow
A fella beeped up in an automobile
He said "You'll want to work in the Tobacco field's of

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

He said I'll only give ya seven bucks a day
But if you're any good you'll get a raise in pay
Your beds already on the bucko's floor
If it gets a little chilly ya can close the door

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg)
It was Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg)
My back still aches when I hear that word

I was feelin' in the morning anything but fine
The farmer said I'm gonna teach ya how to brame
He said ya gotta dawn a pair of oil skin pants
If ya want to work in the Tobacco plants of

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

We landed in a field that was long and wide
With one ol' horse and five more guys
I asked them where to find the cigarette trees
When he said bend over I was ready to leave

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

He said just to pick the bottom leaves
And don't start crawling on your hands and knees
Prime your load cause you'll get no pay
For standin' there pickin' at your nose all day 'round

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

With a broken back bendin' over there
I was wet right through to the underwear
And it was stuck to my skin like glue
From the nicotine tar on the morning dew of

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

Now the nearest river was two miles from
The place where they was waitin' for the boat to come
When I heard some talk of makin' the kill
I was down the highway and over the hill from

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

Now there is one thing you can always bet
If I never smoke another cigarette
I might get taken in alot of deals
But I won't go workin' the tobacco fields of

Tilsonburg (Tilsonburg) x2
My back still aches when I hear that word

My back still aches when I hear that word(x4)

[Caradoc]

8. Wow!

Small world...my brother lives in Erin and has run into Tom a couple of times at a local coffee shop. The Caledon Hills are beautiful...a guy I know is working on Elton John's new place up there.

[auntAgonist]

10. I also lived in Acton for a while. It sure is a small world.

We were on the 4th line between Acton and Georgetown.

Elton John is having a place built up there? wow indeed! I'd love to see that, and him for sure.

:hi:

kesha.