Can-Con 45 Of The Day - April 8

Can-Con 45 Of The Day - April 8

Postby radiofan » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:30 pm

Today's Can-Con 45 is from 1966 ... David Clayton Thomas & The Bossmen and "Brainwashed" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_zTOLlNe04

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Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Can-Con 45 Of The Day - April 8

Postby Richard Skelly » Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:59 am

Maybe it’s true...or just an apocryphal tale. I once heard that back when The Guess Who included covers in their repertoire, Burton Cummings—a Royal Conservatory Of Music graduate—had a deuce of a time approximating the aggressive, innovative and offbeat piano licks in Brain Washed. If true, that would be high praise for Tony Collacott who manned the ivories in David Clayton Thomas & The Bossmen.

Collacott, also a Royal Conservatory alumnus, co-wrote Brain Washed which arguably failed to click for Tower Records in the US due to its mixture of anti-Vietnam War lyrics and a half censored mild obscenity.

“We won ourselves a victory, the casualties were light,
Judging by the news machine, it ain’t much of a fight.
60 million people, reading all about Vietnam,
85 percent of them don’t give a __damn.
I’ve been brain washed”

Clayton Thomas and Co. made an impression right across Canada for Roman Records, a Toronto indie run by future CAB Hall Of Fame broadcaster Duff Roman. Despite the single being blacklisted south of the border, its notoriety plus David’s powerhouse vocal no doubt gave him an aural calling card to impress future employers. Such as Bobby Colomby and the other original members of Blood, Sweat & Tears when they sought a new singer for their second Columbia album. Without Brain Washed, would David Clayton Thomas have ever crossed B,S & T’s radar?

For his part, Tony Collacott went on to work with Chimo and recorded for Revolver Records. He pretty well stuck to jazz after that. There’s a 28-minute YouTube tribute The Collacott Compilation that segues from CBC archival performance footage to a 2008 interview in what appears to be a rest home. Still spry, Tony plays some ramped-up Chopin on a slightly untuned piano...then mentions keeping his union dues paid just in case an occasional gig arises. The compilation ends with an airing of Brain Washed and then newspaper articles chronicling significant Collacott performances.

Tony Collacott died Sept. 1/2014. He was lauded by former Chimo bandmates singer Breen LeBoeuf and organist Ross Raby. LeBoeuf—who later also played bass in Brutus, Offenbach and April Wine—praised Tony as “an amazing person and inspired musician and songwriter.” Raby called him “an angel and a savage on piano.”
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