My Encyclopedia of Music in Canada articles from March, April and May 2009:
(Yes, that IS all over the map!)
For my existing EMC articles, do a search on my name at: http://canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=EMCSubjects&Params=U1.
After “finding” and posting a copy of the album cover, I managed to “track down” the opening song and first single, “My Pal in (d)Rome,” from the album A Defining Characteristic of Intelligence (1974) by the Canadian-British progressive rock band Kalsubai. The music is heavily influenced by King Crimson, Genesis, and early world music “fusions,” and it thus provides a sort of cross between “psychedelic progressive” jazz-rock (perhaps also a little bit along the lines of the Mahavishnu Orchestra) and what would later be called “new age” music” (but along the relatively “rock”-oriented lines of Mike Oldfield). “My Pal in (d)Rome” is mainly noted for having reached #41 in the US “Top 40,” although it also reached #34 in the UK’s “Top 30” and #21 in Canada’s “Top 20.” Magically, the song includes approximations of all of the instruments mentioned on Facebook by people who “remember” this album: Shakuhachi flute, clarinet, Mellotron, harmonica, and a Hammond organ “solo,” in addition to drums and percussion, jazzy guitar-chord comping, fretless bass, and weirdly-echoed, semi-pompous (!) lyrics and vocals. See https://youtu.be/2Gmr_JV2R6M.
In March, I heard from an upstate New York teacher (Jim Berti) who is interested in putting together a book called Rush and Philosophy in the ongoing series that began with Seinfeld and Philosophy. After some discussions by email, I agreed to co-edit (and contribute to) this book, contacted a number of likely contributors, and proposed that abstracts be submitted by the end of May. For my own contributions, I will use elements from my dissertation, an article on Canadianness I had recently submitted to an academic journal, and my “Rush Tributes” article that may still be published elsewhere. Hopefully, we would be able to get this published in 2010. I still also hope to publish my own book on Rush (i.e., more closely related to my dissertation), possibly in 2011.
Durrell Bowman 