Bryan Adams: the most underrated rock musician

Most of the time, Canada gets bashed for all the wrong reasons. I like Canada. I was there in 2000, and I must say it was a great place. Nice mates, great atmosphere, good weather (mind you, this was during summer) and good food. There has been some great imports from Canada. Myers, Loreena Mckennit, Loverboy (could you imagine NOT starting the weekend without some local radio station playing Everbody’s Working for The Weekend), and yes, Bryan Adams. The verdict is still out on Celine Dion, and that Titanic thing is to blame. Truth, you’ve got to admire the woman’s joie de vivre. But that is as far as I’m going to go on the Celine Dion thing. Seriously. But there is other good things about Canada, like the fact that they have a music video channel that actually play music videos.

My first introduction to Bryan Adams was through the single “Heaven”. It was the 80s, I was up late on a Friday night watching (as usual) Night Tracks on WTBS, and then I see this video with a bloke singing in an auditorium filled with television sets. Nutty thing about the 80s: most of the music videos, visually, made no sense but surprisingly stayed with you. So there I was, listening to this raspy voiced chap scream about “heaven”, and a “friendship” blossomed. Now I know there are some “hardcore” metalheads and wannabes would love nothing more than to engage me in a battle of words about the “rock” factor of Bryan Adams. I say nay … save you breath. If you picked up a guitar and plucked out riffs that could strip clothing off an overdressed Siberian dweller, then that, my good folks, qualify as a rock musician. Though I may want to thread carefully about that with the “stuff” that passes for rock today. Sure Mr. Adams didn’t sing about blood, guts, black masses and all that gory stuff, but he made decent rock anthems (summer of 69) and he was one of the few rock ballad maestros that existed out there. Trust me, there are few chaps out there that could pull off that rock ballad gig and still keep their reputations as hard rockers intact.

In the 90s when Kevin Costner starred in Robin Hood (oh, the humanity), despite the snickers and mumblings of “has been” Mr. Adams stepped up to the plate and proved what rock legends are made of when he wrote “Everything I Do”. I’ve passed by many weddings in NYC that must have played that song to death. Point is, real talent does not have expiration date unlike many of factory-made pieces of talent that dote the present musical landscape. Today most rockers sound like a facsimile of each other. There was a time, when you could listen to rock music and hear those signature riffs. Heart had it, Van Halen had it, Guns N Roses had it and yes, Bryan Adams had it. If I were stuck in cave in Kandahar, removed from human contact for a year, and were to hear the signature intro riff to “Heaven” you can bet it would bring a smile to face, a tear to my eye and I would exclaim, “why yes, that is Heaven by Bryan Adams”.

So there it is folks. One good reason to ease up on the Canada-thrashing and to give our northern neighbours a tip of the hat rather than a wag of the finger. We can easily forgive the Celine Dion “situation”. As to Avril Lavigne, Canada … we’ve seriously got to talk. Really, chaps. Take a bow Mr. Adams. And thanks for making some of us (wannabe) rebels feel like rebels as we air-guitared Summer of 69 … most of the times in the presence of shock and bewildered friends.

Tags: Bryan Adams, Canada, rock, 80s, music, 80s stuff, Loverboy, rebel, entertainmet