America, America – Canada shed its songs on thee.
How do Canadians feel about the United States? You could form a focus group or take a poll, or you could listen to what this country’s songwriters have had to say on the topic over the years. This top 10 list of Canadian songs about the U.S., reveals a range of thoughts and emotions – some angry, some euphoric and many satiric.
Songs about specific events that happened in our south, such as Gordon Lightfoot’s Black Day in July or Neil Young’s Ohio, were avoided. And if you’re wondering why Wilf Carter’s I’ve Been Everywhere is missing, it is because that rapid-fire ode to Rand McNally was written by an Australian, Geoff Mack.
There will undoubtedly be disagreements over the following tunes and rankings. But then, what’s the Fourth of July without some fireworks?
10. Lebanon, Tennessee (1995), by Ron Sexsmith
Singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith modestly muses about disappearing to an idyllic locale in 1995's Lebanon, Tennessee.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
In a gentle tune that is more daydream than American dream, the singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith modestly muses about disappearing to an idyllic locale: “I’ll work in some factory and I’ll buy myself a home down there.” For those who find Sexsmith naïve, you are welcome to your opinion. But you are not welcome in Lebanon, Tennessee.
9. Big American Headliner (1997), by Mike Plume
Jay Leno! Rolling Stone magazine! Cocaine! A hustling acoustic number warns against the supposed big time.
8. Amerika (2016), by Paul Murphy, Tim D’Eon and Loel Campbell (Wintersleep)
“What am I trying to find? Are you alive, oh my Amerika?” A bold guitar-rock message of hope from the Halifax-born trio was inspired by the Walt Whitman poem, Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking. Speaking of which, why hasn’t someone used that poem’s name for an album title?
7. Rising Down (2016), by Kaia Kater
In the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Grenadian-Canadian banjo player and songster Kaia Kater plucks and moans with haunting, elegant defiance: “Arise, arise – to fight these dogs biting at my heels, arise.”
6. Tie: California (1971), by Joni Mitchell; (Talk to Me of) Mendocino (1976), by Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Above, folk singer Joni Mitchell performs at The Riverboat Coffee House in Toronto, April 19, 1968. Below, Kate McGarrigle, seen here, who sings (Talk to Me of) Mendocino with Anna McGarrigle.Dennis Robinson/The Globe and Mail
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Find someone who loves you like Joni Mitchell loves California: “I’m your biggest fan,” she gushes, homesick while on a European vacation. Up the coast from Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing a stately ode to a seacoast and sunsets.
5. Democracy (1992), by Leonard Cohen
When he wrote “Democracy is coming to the USA,” was the godfather of gloom being ironic or optimistic? The latter, we think. (Extra points for the rat-a-tat-tat, Revolutionary War-era drums.)
4. California Dreamline (1992), by Martin Tielli (Rheostatics)
Tim Vesely, top left, Dave Bidini, bottom centre, Martin Tielli, bottom right, and Michael Phillip Wojewoda of The Rheostatics in Toronto, on March 22, 2007.Aaron Harris/The Globe and Mail
Tired of writing Canadian anthems, Rheostatics’ Martin Tielli (the guy with the double-neck maple leaf guitar) came up with an art-rock epic about surfing, disillusioned porpoises and sand in one’s tequila. Not all that glitters is gold in the Golden State.
3. Tie: Rockin’ in the Free World (1989) and American Dream (1989), by Neil Young
Some dummies still think Rockin’ in the Free World is pro-USA. Neil Young released it in 1989, the same year that CSNY’s American Dream, about Gary Hart’s scandal-marred presidential run, came out. The solo-acoustic version found on Neil Young’s Summer Song album from 2021 is much preferable.
2. 1957 (2007), by Buck 65
Buck 65 performs at the Pemberton Festival on July 26, 2008.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
Ah, the United States of the late 1950s, all hula hoops, sock hops and giant cars that got three miles to the gallon, but nobody cared because gasoline was free. For his unromantic song 1957, clear-eyed rapper Buck 65 (a.k.a. Rich Terfry) dug up a more nuanced time capsule – drugs, Ku Klux Klan and the death of Humphrey Bogart.
1. American Woman (1970), by the Guess Who
When an American croons O Canada before a Leafs-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, it’s just a paying gig for the singer. Same thing when Lenny Kravitz performs his hit cover of the Guess Who’s American Woman.
But from the throat of Winnipegger Burton Cummings, who wrote the lyrics, the Vietnam War-era stream of consciousness is a statement of preference for Canada over the Super Power to the south: “I don’t need your war machines; I don’t need your ghetto scenes.” Guitarist Randy Bachman’s stuttering riff and outrageously cool solo complete a snarling anti-anthem. Imagine the Guess Who crossing into the United States in 1970, a border guard asking them if they have anything to declare. Did they ever.
Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan performs at the Rock The Bells Festival at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on July 5, 2009.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
Honourable mentions: Alabama, Neil Young; America, K’naan; America’s Veins, Max Webster; American Wife, Art Bergmann/Jamey Koch; Build My Home in the USA, Tom Wilson (the Florida Razors); An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay, Sam Roberts; Burn, Bruce Cockburn; Clifton Springs, Steven Page; Empty Threat, Kathleen Edwards; Everybody Sings in Nashville, Ann Vriend; IOWA, Donovan Woods/Aoife O’Donovan; Le voyage à Miami, Luc Plamondon/François Cousineau (Pauline Julien); Mississippi, You’re On My Mind, Jesse Winchester; Monster, Jerry Edmonton/John Kay (Steppenwolf); My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying, Buffy Sainte-Marie; The Americans, Gordon Sinclair; The Beaver and the Eagle, Kelly Jay (Crowbar); The Fiddle and the Drum, Joni Mitchell; The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Robbie Robertson (the Band).