33 Songs from Here
FROM APRIL/MAY 2023 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX
Kipling to Kensington, Trinity Bellwoods to Black Creek, these songs have soundtracked the neighbourhood for 40+ years and counting
“Youth of Eglington” [sic] by Black Uhuru (1981)
Jamaican singer Michael Rose had a brother in Toronto’s Little Jamaica; the title was made to rhyme with “won’t put down their Remington.”
“Metro’s No. 1 Problem” by Truths and Rights (1981)
The problem in question is racial tension, according to singer Mojah, who formed this reggae band explicitly to write Canadian protest songs.
“Spadina Bus” by The Shuffle Demons (1986)
This ode to the former 77B on the TTC should be on any list of Top 5 Toronto songs. The band played it on Spadina on the route’s final day in 1997, before the new streetcars started running. Also references the “Ossington trolley,” the “Bathurst tram” and “the York U run.”
“Bleed a Little While Tonight” by Lowest of the Low (1991)
When this East End band wasn’t immortalizing the Carlaw bridge or the Only Café, they were singing about the street that housed their beloved Sneaky Dee’s, and “I will hold this coin that / Reminds me of the time when / You nearly kissed me blind on Bathurst Street it’s true.”
“Dopefiends and Boozehounds“ by Rheostatics (1992)
The first band to ever romanticize Etobicoke: “Down here on Kipling / Where the streetlamps light the way / There’s talk of a reunion / Of the ones who didn't stay.”
“Hard Deep Junction Blues” by Big Rude Jake (1993)
Ah yes, the “Junk-tion”: “Junkshops line the streets in the Junction / Heaps of useless relics on the sidewalk by the store,” sings the late Toronto barroom poet.
“Trinity Bellwoods“ by Treble Charger (1994)
Long before there was a band called Birds of Bellwoods and another called just Bellwoods and before two mid-2000 indie comps called Friends in Bellwoods, this quintessential mid-’90s grunge band immortalized what was then still a pre-gentrification needle park. In 2015, future R&B superstar Daniel Caesar opened his debut EP with an instrumental track of the same name.
“College Street” by Laura Repo (1998)
“Live with me on College Street,” Repo suggests, promising a life of chocolate croissants in cafés, walks through Trinity Bellwoods down to the lakeshore, biking through one-way streets in Kensington, swinging across the floor of the Matador and so much more.
“Mimi, Queen of Bathurst” by Atomic 7 (2002)
This instrumental is named after the legendary Screaming Mimi Braidberg, who ran a breakfast joint next to the old Oak Leaf Steam Baths. She was a massive music fan known to let the bill slide for starving musicians and named her chili after Blue Rodeo.
“Riding West on Dundas” by Corin Raymond (2004)
This Cameron House staple sails past the market on his bike at sunset in springtime, with a song in his head and some fine finger-picking in the string band behind him.
“Rose of Montrose” by Kurt Swinghammer (2004)
The renowned painter illustrates a story of a mother and daughter living in a house that eventually gets torn down for condos, but a tiny garden of “hope and dreams” remains: “Rose of Montrose / Strongest of all / They say it grows / When snow starts to fall.”
“Gore Veil” by The Deadly Snakes (2005)
Misspelling the street name on the east border of Trinity Bellwoods, this ridiculously catchy pop song has an unusually baroque arrangement for scrappy garage rock. No idea what it’s about, though, as they use the title as a verb: “If I gore veil in my mind I could turn to reality.” The refrain of “bap-ba-da-ba” makes more sense.
“Darkness Has Fallen” by NQ Arbuckle (2005)
This Sorauren songwriter and master of melancholy sings “The street’s so deserted, up and down Roncesvalles Avenue / And I want to help but I haven’t a clue what to do.”
“I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory” by Kathleen Edwards (2008)
The Ottawan sings of Dupont and Bathurst’s classic 24-hour diner, on a “midnight run to the Vesta Lunch” for cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes.
“Black Ice” by Ohbijou (2009)
The band that curated the Friends in Bellwoods comp sings, “I took the bus down Bathurst Street and saw where / All the lonely people meet down there.”
“Weston Road Flows” by Drake (2016)
There is no shortage of Toronto references in lyrics by the second most successful rapper in history (damn you, Eminem) – not to mention the CN Tower on the cover of the album that includes this song – but this is one of the only times Drake has put local geography in the title. He also references Rexdale rapper Jelleestone here.
“Wezide” by Clairmont the Second (2017)
This prolific rapper often name drops his neighbourhood, but particularly on this track, which mentions the Weston GO station, the 89 bus, Keele and more.
“West End (Yea Eh)“ by The Sorority (2018)
Haviah Mighty reps Brampton while her co-MC Lex Leosis shouts out a souvlaki joint at Runnymede and Annette: “Ain’t think much of the west end kids, but who did? / ’Cause we Grillway grub then smoke up at the crib / It’s still Dundas West and Dufferin Mall / Honest Ed’s been had it all / Fuck gentrification, you can’t have our location.”
“Neon Skyline“ by Andy Shauf (2020)
The Saskatchewan songwriter set up shop at a Queen Street West diner that’s been a Parkdale staple since 1962 and wrote a concept album about the characters he found there.
“Got the Love” by Terrell Morris (2020)
This R&B singer does a sexy strut through the West End: “Do you still live at Eglinton and Black Creek? / I just had a dream about you last week ... Let’s rendezvous on Ossington / Walk up the strip then show you off.”
“Jumped in the Humber” by Jerry Leger (2021)
Not sure if this was inspired by a real incident, but there is mystery afoot right from the opening lyric: “Jumped in the Humber / Or was he pushed? / Bad deal gone down / Or just had enough?”
“Panic on Runnymede” by Sloan (2022)
It’s hard to imagine anyone freaking out on this placid Bloor West thruway, but this mid-tempo grungy Crazy Horse rocker, sung by Andrew Scott, sounds ominous.
“Contract Killers” by Kiwi Jr. (2022)
These P.E.I. transplants get to it and at it on an unheroic condo-laden side street: “The roads were closed opening day / By thoroughbred RCMP / I walked alone Joe Shuster Way / Superman probably made more money than me.”
“If the Loneliness Don’t Kill Me” by Whitehorse (2023)
In 2000, Luke Doucet mythologized Mitzi’s, a Sorauren brunch spot that closed in 2021. Now he’s drinking near Bloor and Dufferin: “I wanna stumble from the Three Speed / Shout obscenities down Bloor / I wanna stay the morning after / Wake up on your hardwood floor.”
“Bloordale Beach” by Eamon McGrath (2023)
McGrath put out seven – seven! – new albums this past January, but this one might be the best song of the lot, and not just because it references Shari Kasman’s pandemic art project in the ashes of Brockton High School: “The bones in your closet have been drying out for weeks / And you washed up on the shores of Bloordale Beach.”
Kensington Hits
“One People” by L’Etranger (1984)
The band that featured two future NDP MPs – Andrew Cash and Charlie Angus – wanted to be Toronto’s equivalent of The Clash, and succeeded. This song was an early MuchMusic staple: “I was walking through Kensington Market / And I saw graffiti on the wall / Said ‘we don’t need your kind living here’ / Underneath was written ‘Forgive us all.’”
“The Embassy” by Henri Fabergé & the Adorables (2006)
This Torontopia-era band was formed at the titular Kensington bar, where they held legendary monthly parties. The band featured, among others, Laura Barrett, members of The Bicycles, Maylee Todd and future award-winning epidemiologist Dan Werb of Woodhands.
“Charlyn, Angel of Kensington” by Jason Collett (2008)
Collett once played in Andrew Cash’s band, so it makes sense that he too would paint a picture of the market in song. This one has hand drums, melodica and a reggae-influenced groove. It starts out at St. Christopher House and takes in Denison Square and Alexandra Town along the way.
“Kensington Girl” by Lucas Stagg (2008)
A tiny, perfect portrait of falling in love in the market: “Standing on Augusta in a breezy summer dress / Showing me around the scene/ It all starts making sense.”
Parkdale Recordings
“Confessions from a Parkdale Basement” by Cuff the Duke (2007)
Subterranean housebound blues: “The hopelessness of our dissent / And the pressures under which we went / Are buried in the shadows of a Parkdale basement.”
“Saturday Night in Parkdale” by Freeman Dre (2010)
The proud neighbourhood bard – who is currently recovering from a brain aneurysm – sings, “There ain’t no place built for dreamers quite like Parkdale ... and it feels like home for now.”
“Parkdale” by Tanika Charles (2010)
When the Western Canadian artist relocated to Toronto, one of her first songs was about how “I gotta get paid / Working on a chain gang / Living in Parkdale.”
“Stay Out of Parkdale” by Black Lungs (2015)
Wade MacNeil of Alexisonfire, a proud St. Catharines band if there ever was one, has some Toronto opinions: “We will not fear the sirens and screams / This city ain’t quite what it seems... Stay out of Parkdale!”
