Gordon Peterson, you should be ashamed of yourself!

When I first heard Ed's cover of Hard Sun, I was blown away. I had not heard this song in years, but recognized it instantly. An obscure one-hit wonder from Indio, which was pretty much Gordon Peterson and a couple of studio musicians from Dundas, Ontario Canada. While Hard Sun was a hit up here and in a couple of northern states, one album is all Indio released. Because of Can Con, a law that states a radio broadcast must contain a certain percentage of Canadian content, I knew this song very well but like I said, until Ed's cover for Into the Wild, it had been a while, since I don't listen to radio much anymore. One thing I noticed right away was how true Ed stayed to the original. In fact, he made it better, but one thing he did not do was change any lyrics. I have the album Big Harvest on my itunes and I listened intently to see if he did, and I can't find any difference lyrically.
But this is what GP is trying to sue Ed for. Sad and pathetic. If anyone believes in the integrity of an artist's song it's Ed, as he has shown many times in the past. Case in point, Society. Jerry Hannan was honoured to have Ed cover his song, and even got to play it with him. What an accomplishment to have your song performed by one of the greatest of all time. I would be flattered beyond comprehension. Granted, not everyone is a fan of Ed or PJ, but you'd have to be living in a cave not to know who they are. Sadly I think this is where GP has been the last twenty years. He's reclusive and kinda whacked, and now you can add greedy. I'm sure he was paid once to use the song, now he wants more. Embarassing to say the least. Like Ed's lawyer said in the press release, he's not worried about it, it's just sad that it's even happening.
But this is what GP is trying to sue Ed for. Sad and pathetic. If anyone believes in the integrity of an artist's song it's Ed, as he has shown many times in the past. Case in point, Society. Jerry Hannan was honoured to have Ed cover his song, and even got to play it with him. What an accomplishment to have your song performed by one of the greatest of all time. I would be flattered beyond comprehension. Granted, not everyone is a fan of Ed or PJ, but you'd have to be living in a cave not to know who they are. Sadly I think this is where GP has been the last twenty years. He's reclusive and kinda whacked, and now you can add greedy. I'm sure he was paid once to use the song, now he wants more. Embarassing to say the least. Like Ed's lawyer said in the press release, he's not worried about it, it's just sad that it's even happening.
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Me too, they are the only reason Platinum Blonde even had a career.
Exactly! I hate it when they keep playing the band's older tunes (the same hit songs over & over each day) then their latest new produced works. Can Con doesn't say anything about that. How many records has Neil Young released the past decade that you've heard on the radio, maybe twice in a month or year? It's all his older works. Enough with old Rush & Kim Mitchel tunes. There are young Canadian bands out there trying to hit it big. But can't cause they have to hear Tom Sawyer & Rock N' Roll Duty play each hour around the clock so the radio stations can obey that 45% Canadian content so they can fill the rest with latest new releases tunes from the USA.
Bryan Adams, Nickelback, Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo and Sarah Mclachlan have also benefited from Cancon.
Montreal '98
Toronto '00
Buffalo Toronto '03
Kitchener London Hamilton Toronto '05
Late Show NYC Toronto x2 Cleveland Pittsburgh Mountain View '06
Hartford Mansfield '08
Toronto Philadelphia x3 '09
Cleveland Buffalo Mountain View x2 '10
East Troy x2 Toronto x2 Ottawa Hamilton '11
London Buffalo '13
I remember Bryan Adams having a problem with cancon once, saying that because he only wrote and performed the song, it didn't qualify as cancon...The songs have to meet 3/4 criterion to be considered canadian: writer, performer, producer, and publisher (I think)...
Anyway, Ed did change the Hard Sun lyrics to ones that don't really make a whole lot of sense. Perhaps this has already be settled between the parties involved.
Burned down and threw away the hours of her garden and her sun (original)
Bound down and threw away the hours of her garedn and her sun (Ed)
When I stay to pillage her, she throws it back at me (original)
When I see her bitter (pin her) charms, she throws it back at me (Ed)
I loved that song with all my heart and when Ed's beautiful version came out, I noticed the lyric change right away...How would Pearl Jam fans feel if someone got permission to sing "Black" and then changed the words just a little bit to "make it better"? I think everyone would be furious...no? Ed probably would be too...and yes, I am aware of the misinterpretation of "...untouched sheets of clay were laid spread out before me..."
And now, to everyone's relief, this will be the last time I speak of this... both versions are very good!
It's actually 35%, not 45% like Demetrios stated.
I don't really listen to a lot of radio nowadays, so half the time I'm not even sure which bands are Canadian and which aren't. However, having said that, I did watch a really interesting documentary last year which explored the importance of CanCon to Canadian musicians. You can catch them online at
This Beat Goes On: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone ... eatgoeson/
and
Rise Up: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2009/riseup/
The docs were great. They reminded me that we have produce some really amazing and influential music over the decades (as well as some embarrassingly hideous stuff