Foto Tunes

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

July 2017 - Toronto ON

In celebration of Canada's 150th birthday I went in search of songs about Toronto and came across this gem. Murray McLauchlan released this song in 1974.
This video was done in 2010 highlighting photos of Toronto landmarks, some no longer with us.

Down By The Henry Moore

Here is my take on those photos some 40 years later. This took some time to locate some of these photos! It also required an outing to get a couple.


Gardiner Expressway looking west

Streetcars

CNE

Lake Ontario looking towards our condo, the Humber Bridge was not yet built in the video.

Crowded street

I walked down to Kensington Market
Bought me a fish to fry

The Silver Dollar, on Spadina, whose stage has been graced by stars from Bob Dylan on down (Blue Rodeo, Barenaked Ladies, etc.) since opening in 1958 closed recently.“Try to come along Spadina Avenue, see that goddam Silver Dollar sign, hundreds of light bulbs in your face, and not be drawn in there.” With the wattage of that enduringly iconic Toronto emblem, American author Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, 3:10 to Yuma) charged the opening of his 1989 novel Killshot full of electricity and dared an international audience not to get sucked into the orbit of an unabated Canadian cultural magnet’s modern façade.

  I went to the Silver Dollar

Bob Dylan The Time They Are A-changing

Toronto subway stations

Looked a stranger in the eye
A friend of mine says
That he don't think this town's so out of sight
But he's got shades 'round his soul
And he thinks he's seen the light

Singin' don't you want to keep on moving
Don't you want to get undone
Don't you want to change from losing
Don't you want to have some fun

Leonard Cohen Toronto Closing Time

Not sure why the video has a photo of Mont Royal in Montreal other than it followed the Leonard Cohen photo who lived in Montreal.
Anyway, this is me, probably 50 years ago on Mont Royal.

CN train, now VIA.

Horseshoe Tavern on Queen St. W (known as The Horseshoe or The 'Shoe to Toronto locals) is a concert venue and has been in operation since 1947. Owned by "JC", Ken Sprackman, Craig Laskey and Naomi Montpetit, the venue is a significant part of Canadian musical lore. It is captured in the memories of thousands of concertgoers, and in books such as Have Not Been the Same.Influential acts that have played concerts include the Rolling Stones, the Police, Etta James, the Ramones, the Talking Heads and The Jeff Healey Band. Actor Dan Aykroyd was once part-owner.

Stompin Tom Connors at the Horseshoe

Iconic Toronto Maple Leaf players captured forever.

Skyline from Toronto Islands.

The El Mocambo will reopen this summer and house a recording studio overseen by the team that designed Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix.

El Mocambo is a live music and entertainment venue located on Spadina Avenue, just south of College Street, the bar has played an important role in the development of popular music in Toronto since the 1940s.
It is best known for the 1977 surprise show by The Rolling Stones, which became nationally notorious for the presence of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife, Margaret Trudeau (now Margaret Kemper, mother of our current prime minister Justin), who was partying with the Stones.

I went down to the Palm Grove
I was jumpin' around the room
I was wearing my sneakers down
And castin' away my gloom
This fat girl come up and grabbed me
She sat me on her knee
She said you wrote that Farmer's Song
And she spilled a drink on me

Rolling Stones El Mocambo

Pearson Airport

Singin' don't you want to keep on moving
Don't you want to get undone
Don't you want to change from losing
Don't you want to have some fun

Massey Hall is a performing arts theatre just off Yonge St. The theatre was designed to seat 3,500 patrons, but after extensive renovations in the 1940s it now seats up to 2,765.

Designed by architect Sidney Badgley, Massey Hall was completed in 1894 at a cost of $152,390.75. Construction was financed by Hart Massey of Massey-Harris (later Massey Ferguson) holding company.
Many famous figures have appeared on the broad stage of this stately hall, including Montserrat Caballe, William Booth, Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso, Winston Churchill, George Gershwin, Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, Dalai Lama, Gordon Lightfoot, Luciano Pavarotti, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Cream, Neil Young, Thomas Mann, The Kinks, Billy Joel, Lenny Kravitz, Oscar Peterson, Joe Satriani and Arturo Toscanini.

Gordon Lightfoot 2016 Massey Hall

CNE

Outside of a subway station

Henry Moore The Archer is still at City Hall.

I went down to the Henry Moore
Skated all in the Square
The moon above my shoulder
And the ice was in my hair
Alone but never lonely
That's how I like to be
If you want to have fun
Like a rock'n roll bum
Don't think the worst of me

I don't have a photo of Sam The Record Man so here is Steve's on Queen St. W