I Wish I Was In Sudbury - On This Saturday Night

- jim young, originally posted March 9, 2013

"Well the girls are out to bingo, and the boys are gettin stinko,
We think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night
The glasses they will tinkle while our eyes begin to twinkle
And we think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night." - Stompin' Tom Connors

Stompin’ Tom Connors recorded 48 albums in his lifetime, which lasted from 1936 to 2013.

And that’s not counting the 10 albums of unreleased material that he left behind.

To put that into perspective (even without the unreleased material), that’s about 4 times more albums than the Beatles released, 4 times more than Michael Jackson released and 4 times more than The Band released during their lifetimes.

It’s almost as many as Frank Sinatra, more than Anne Murray, more than Gordon Lightfoot, more than the Guess Who, more than The Who, more than Led Zeppelin, more than Bruce Springsteen, and more than even Bob Dylan.

And on the Saturday Night – not just in Sudbury, but across Canada, on the Saturday Night following his death, 37 Corus radio stations played “The Hockey Song” as a tribute to Stompin’ Tom.

The irony here of course, is that during his lifetime, Stompin’ Tom struggled to get ANY radio stations to play his songs.

In spite of the obvious advantages that Stompin’ Tom Connors would have enjoyed, he refused to go to Nashville or live in the United States simply to increase his exposure and ultimately his wealth.

Instead, Stompin’ Tom Connors chose to live life on the road as he ventured across Canada performing and selling the bulk of his albums out of the back of his truck or the trunk of his car.

So it’s not surprising that the 4 million copies of these 48 albums that Stompin’ Tom sold may pale in comparison to the total quantity of any of these same artists.

But at the same time, it’s a testament to the dedication of Stompin’ Tom Connors as an artist and his patriotism as a true Canadian.

Stompin’ Tom Connors returned his Juno Awards in 1978 as a protest to the artists that conducted most of their business in the U.S. but were still eligible to win Juno Awards in Canada.

And the same radio stations that refused to play Stompin’ Tom Connors songs when he was alive are now playing Stompin’ Tom Connors songs as a tribute to this true Canadian to capitalise on the commercial benefits of the news of the passing of Stompin’Tom Connors.

To these radio stations, on behalf of Stompin’ Tom Connors I say, “Fuck YOU!”

Except I don’t have the right to speak on behalf of Stompin’ Tom Connors.

And I’m quite sure that Stompin’ Tom Connors would be too much of a gentleman to publicly express that sentiment.

So this is just from me. “Fuck YOU anyway!”

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