Why Joni Mitchell Never Played Woodstock
Woodstock is one of Joni Mitchell's biggest songs, but did you know that she never attended the festival? Although the singer-songwriter was originally on the bill, she was pulled from the festival at the last minute by her agent. That's because Mitchell had a TV show appearance on The Dick Cavett Show and her team was scared that she wouldn't be able to get in and out of the festival in time.
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CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
How Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and more disabled artists changed music
From unique guitar chords to sign singing, we explore the innovations of disabled musicians Cripping is a term used by disabled people to reclaim how they see themselves. As Eliza Chandler, an associate professor at TMU's School fo Disability Studies writes,"animated by the experiences of living in a world that does not typically desire us, or even imagine us as cultural participants, disability arts specifically mobilizes a disruptive politic.... the disability arts community doesn't want to be included in an ableist world/culture, we want to create something new. This disruptive politic comes through the word 'crip.'" When it comes to music, an industry that often treats disabled musicians and spectators alike as an afterthought, they've taken matters into their own hands. In a co-production between CBC Music, CBC Creator Network and AccessCBC, composer, performer and comedian James Hamilton takes viewers through the different ways disabled musicians have innovated, or "cripped," music. "Disabled musicians, by simply existing and being artists, can radically change the music world as we know it. This can be in the concert form, musical content, new technologies, or breaking down our definition of what music entails," Hamilton says in the introduction. Two such musicians are Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who were both disabled by the polio epidemic that swept Canada in the 1950s. After losing some of the mobility in her hands, Mitchell changed the tuning on her guitar to make it easier to play, and simultaneously changed the sound of the chords, leading to her signature "jazzy" guitar sound. Young recorded his 1972 album, Harvest, in a back brace after an accident on his ranch in the Santa Cruz mountains. The restrictive apparatus could have led to his "more mellow and minimalistic style," limiting his ability to play guitar and sing. More recently, ASL rapper Sean Forbes is popularizing sign-rapping with his songs like Watch These Hands, and Toronto-based composer Stephanie Orlando is writing music with neurodivergent listeners in mind. Both are making space for more diverse music audiences. Watch the video above for more insights into the myriad ways people are "cripping music."
Toronto Sun
23-05-2025
- Toronto Sun
‘Top Gun' attraction heading to Las Vegas in 2028
The destination planned on undeveloped land next to the Strat Hotel, Casino & Tower Published May 23, 2025 • Last updated 6 minutes ago • 1 minute read Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick. Photo by Paramount Pictures Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Paramount Global and Advent Allen Entertainment plan to open a Top Gun-themed attraction in Las Vegas. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The destination is expected to debut in summer 2028 on undeveloped land next to the Strat Hotel, Casino & Tower. It will include fighter jet simulations and other immersive experiences, as well as a bar with live piano singalongs. Presumably revelers at Top Gun: Maverick's Hard Deck restaurant will be able to belt out You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' as Tom Cruise and his co-stars famously did in the first film. Like other film and TV studios, Paramount has been looking for new ways to cash in on its well-known characters and stories. The company has been licensing the rights to Nickelodeon kids shows, for example, to hotel and amusement park operators. The first Top Gun was the highest grossing movie of 1986 and helped establish Cruise as an action star. The actor, now 62, reprised his role as a Navy fighter pilot in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick, which took in nearly $1.5 billion in ticket sales globally. Cruise has another big picture, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, hitting theaters on Friday. It's also being released by Paramount. 'Eatertainment' experiences have been tied to movies for years, from the Forrest Gump-themed Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. to the memorabilia-filled Planet Hollywood chain. Advent Allen was founded by Mark Advent, who helped design the New York-New York casino in Las Vegas, and Bill Allen, former chief executive officer of Bloomin' Brands Inc., a restaurant chain that includes Outback Steakhouse. Canada Editorial Cartoons Toronto Maple Leafs Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA
Global News
18-05-2025
- Global News
We could soon end up with a new definition of Canadian content for music. Here's why
A long overdue CRTC review of the Canadian content rules has begun. The outcome will affect music, radio, and both audio and video streaming. Radio, for example, is working under many regulations that have been in place since 1971. There have been a few tweaks along the way, but no Cancon review has been done in the age of streaming. It's time for a serious update. Cancon has been both helpful and controversial, and it's instructive to know a little of its history. Before 1970, there wasn't much of a music industry in Canada compared with many other countries. We had almost zero music infrastructure. Most record labels were branch-plant operations of foreign labels, while domestic companies were small and struggling. We didn't have much in the way of recording studios, producers, promoters or managers. Globally speaking, we were a musical backwater. Any Canadian artist who wanted to make it big knew they had to leave. Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, Leonard Cohen and other promising stars bolted for the United States. Story continues below advertisement But things had started to change within the culture. In 1965, we got our own flag, shrugging off an important part of British colonialism. Then came Expo 67 in Montreal, which had the interesting effect of raising our pride when it came to our culture. There were more discussions about what it meant to be Canadian. One point of agreement was that for a distinct Canadian identity to exist, Canadians needed to be able to tell their stories to each other. One way to do that is through music. And if Canada was to ever produce its own Beatles, much work needed to be done. After much lobbying, the Canadian content rules for radio went into effect on Jan. 18, 1971. The original demands was that 30 per cent of all music on the radio had to be of Canadian origin (more on that in a moment). Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy First, this was a cultural strategy that gave mandatory exposure for Canadian artists who made the grade. Second, this was an industrial strategy designed to create a domestic infrastructure of record labels, recording studios, promoters, venues, managers, national booking agencies — all those things that you need to support music on a nationwide scale. The radio's needs created a demand. A new market was born. Radio hated the new rules because initially, a lot of the music it was forced to play was objectively substandard compared with international releases. But over the next decade, we caught up. By the time the '90s arrived, Canada had a robust domestic music scene and was exporting far more material to the rest of the world than a country of our population had a right to. Things were so good that Cancon levels for radio were boosted to 35 per cent. Some new radio stations promised 40 per cent. Story continues below advertisement Then the internet arrived. Traditional terrestrial radio stations were now in competition with the whole world, especially after streaming arrived in the late aughts. (TV, which also has its own Cancon rules, also faced increasing competition from American cable channels and streamers.) Yet the rules from 1971 remained unchanged. There was a big push for reform in 2005, but all the suggestions put forward by the radio industry were either watered down or dismissed entirely. Meanwhile, the entertainment and media landscape continued to rapidly evolve. There have been attempts to alter the status quo, most notably with the Online Streaming Act, otherwise known as Bill C-11, which wants streamers to pony up five per cent investment into Canadian culture once they do $25 million worth of business in the country. The streamers and major labels are vehemently against this. Meanwhile, Canadian radio continues to pump millions into Canadian talent development and promotion. 0:31 Liberals' online streaming Bill C-11 set to become law after passing final vote in the Senate A starting point for these new hearings is modifying the bureaucratic definition of Cancon. As it stands, we use the MAPL system, which assigns a point to a song if (a) the music was written by a Canadian, (b) the artist is Canadian and (c) the lyrics are written by a Canadian. Story continues below advertisement The 'P' in this system is problematic. It does not stand for 'producer' like you'd expect. Instead, involves a convoluted issue involving a live recording made in Canada and then broadcast to the world. There are many of us in the industry (including me) who want 'P' to be converted to producer. Given the role a producer plays in the making of music, they deserve credit. Canada also has produced many, many superstar producers, including Bob Ezerin (Pink Floyd, Kiss, Alice Cooper), Bob Rock (Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi), Garth Richardson (Rage Against the Machine, Chevelle, Rise Against) and Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace, Billy Talent, Mother Mother). Shouldn't their contributions be recognized as a part of a song's Canadianness? I think so. What else could be changed? What about giving extra credit to radio stations that go out on a limb by playing new, unfamiliar artists? Another option is to give classic rock and classic hits stations a break on their Cancon load. After all, they're not making old music anymore, so to hit that 35 per cent quota, their playlists are filled with burned-out songs by the Guess Who, BTO, Rush, Neil Young and so on. Bill C-11 needs to be examined carefully so that terrestrial radio isn't alone when it comes to financial support of Canadian music. The outcome of this new two-week set of hearings got off to a rocky start last Tuesday when Netflix, Paramount and Apple all decided not to appear at the last minute. Music Canada, the lobby group for the major labels, is also on record as opposing much of what's in Bill C-11. Story continues below advertisement If you'd like to view the hearings, which will continue for the rest of the month, you can watch them online.
