While I was unplugged, I had a dream... Steven Page, Scarborough native and Barenaked Ladies founder, was arrested for snorting cocaine in his girlfriend's New York state apartment. In true Canadian style, in my dream Steven Page was snorting the coke through a rolled up Canadian bill. No greenbacks for this card carrying member of the NDP.
Here's a little Toronto Mike BNL background for y'all. I owned two copies of The Yellow Tape purchased at Sam the Record Man downtown at Yonge and Dundas. I was an avid listener of CFNY when they starting playing the crap out of this cassette, giving us an abundance of "Be My Yoko Ono", "If I Had $1,000,000", "Brian Wilson", "Blame It On Me" and even that "McDonald's Girl" cover. This was pre-Gordon and the Barenaked Ladies were massive on 102.1. They were quirky, folksy fun and they were talented.
They were also super wholesome chaps with a typically Canadian humility. They didn't really blow up in the States until "One Week" and that's about when we lost them. They were no longer ours, they now belonged to the world. Although Stunt is in my collection, it marked the end of my BNL fandom. I prefer Rock Spectacle and everything that preceded it. I really loved my yellow tape.
Now back to this dream, Brian Wilson style. It's probably good for a rock star's cred to get caught with a line of coke now and then. It helps move the back catalogue with the extra press and it makes cheesy pop songs sound a little cooler. This was a good move by Steven.
The bad move was making that damn kids record. BNL ain't Raffi, and that whole stunt was wrong. This old school BNL fan is glad they were forced to drop out of the Disney game.
On preview, this dream is no nightmare for Steven Page and the Ladies. Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane, but if this ludicrous happening was reality, it'd all work out okay. Trust me...
