Tags: music, national anthems, Sports, thanksgiving
October 13, 2008 | Sports, music
It’s Thanksgiving in Canada and Columbus Day in the States and it’s fitting that Canadian markets are closed today, as due to the financial meltdown there’s been increasingly less to be thankful for anyway, unless you count your health.
Thanksgiving stateside is a big thank you to major networks for airing continuous football coverage to ease the tensions of family get togethers (Canadians enjoy the south of the border holiday in their own way by delaying their return to the office from the pub by an extra hour to make sure their team covered the spread) while Turkey Day up here isn’t nearly that big a deal but roughly coincides with the start of hockey season.
Growing up, hockey competed with WWF wrestling, sharks and dinosaurs for our attention and one of us was taught how to skate by a dad who’d grown up in Southern Italy and had never seen snow [Editor's note: to this day skating backwards remains elusive, however for a large number of skaters, it is as well and doesn't detract from one's ability to enjoy the game, just one's ability to properly play it. Editor's note, II: For those interested in dinosaurs, check out Sarah Palin's Yabba Dabba Science here]
During those formative years, a favorite of ours was Dale Hunter, who made up for various deficits in skill by being one of the dirtiest, filthiest players ever to have laced up the blades in the NHL and who delivered one of the cheapest shots the game has ever seen when he blasted a player face-first into the boards after the guy had scored a goal [To give you an idea of how dirty he was, when the Washington Capitals retired his number, Hunter was actually presented with a commemorative penalty box]. He gave hope to all of us who were untalented, under 5′10, who used their stick like a samurai sword and who took inspiration from the movie Slap Shot (R.I.P. Mr Paul Newman)
Needless to say, hockey is huge north of the border and to our US friends, The Hockey Night in Canada Theme [see below], like Takin’ Care of Business, could be considered a second national anthem. It was the tune we hummed when we headed outside to play road hockey and the tune we hummed when we headed inside after a car ran over the tennis ball.
When the national broacaster, CBC (who, like NPR, have a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for all things quirky: weather vane collectors and the guy who can burp the alphabet in Aramaic) lost the rights to the song, there was a near national uproar and a contest was held to replace it. Entries came from far and wide and the end result was fairly craptacular [see below], but not nearly as bad as Hank Williams Jr’s Monday Night Football song (you can give your thanks to us, that we don’t include that link]
The bagpipe charged tune, was written by Colin Oberst and produced by Bob Rock [left], 
Bon Jovi and Metallica producer, who apropos of nothing really, bears a strong resemblance to Spinal Tap guitarist, David St Hubbins (seen right) and who strangely, has a speaking voice identical to that of Tap actor Michael McKean. [Even though Rock had nothing to do with these, for the hell of it, for our list of Worst Bon Jovi Cover Songs of All Time, click here ]
We’ll see if this new ditty captures the public’s attention like its predecessor but to us, there is only ONE hockey song, and it’s the incomparable Hockey Song by Stompin’ Tom Connors. Keep yer stick on the ice…
What a piece of crap. CBC losing the Hockey Anthem is like The Simpsons losing their iconic them song to American Dad.
After hearing the bagpipe funeral march that CBC is trying to pass off as the next great song, I kinda wish the guy who can burp the alphabet was asked to write the new song.