Essentially Canadian

The weekend was such a blur, I'm only getting to Saturday's paper now. In honour of Canada Day, the Star listed ten essential Canadian songs. I did something similar last September, listing what I thought were ten essential Canadian tracks.

Here's the Toronto Star's list:

• Huron Carol - Jean de Brebeuf (1643)
• Hymn To Freedom - Oscar Peterson (1962)
• Four Strong Winds - Ian Tyson (1964)
• Mon Pays - Gilles Vigneault (1964)
• Suzanne - Leonard Cohen (1966)
• Canadian Railroad Trilogy - Gordon Lightfoot (1967)
• Both Sides, Now - Joni Mitchell (1968)
• American Woman - The Guess Who (1970)
• Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell (1970)
• Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen (1985)

When it comes to Canadian music, you can't go wrong with the holy trinity of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. It's a shame Young didn't make the Star's list, I don't know how he could have been completely excluded. As for Gordon Lightfoot and the Guess Who, you'll never catch me saying a bad word about either.

Did the Star's panel stop listening to music in 1985?

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