Two great pieces of Canadian music were released in 1984: Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams, and Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. They sound very different and both have very different ideas but both are staples in Canadian music.
Bryan Adams is maybe the greatest Canadian rock artist after Neil Young. I suppose you can think of him as the Canadian Bruce Springsteen, just not quite as loud and bold. In 1984 Adams released his fourth studio album Reckless and on it was the track Summer of ‘69. Upon first listen this may sound like any other rock song, but if we take a closer look at the lyrics there might be something more going on here…
The song is a reflection of speaker’s younger years. He begins by expressing his introduction to music, his passion for it, and most importantly his youth and inexperience. The speaker tells us about a young love, an incredibly romanticised memory. But life doesn’t wait for anyone and our speaker realizes that the hard way. Circumstances change and what we once thought would “last forever” passes with a blink of an eye. The chorus again hammers that concept repeating the naive and innocent ideas he had when he was young.
It’s easy to pass this song off as a cheap pop-rock song but that spoils the significance of the lyrics. To me when I listen to this song it is an anthem of growing up: it has the hard and energetic sound of youth yet kindles the experience almost perfectly. It describes coming of age in almost a surreal way and this is incredibly powerful. I’ve been listening to this song since I was young and it was just a cheap pop-rock song then, but now as I’ve gotten older the words become almost frighteningly real. Don’t we all sometimes reminisce about a simpler time back then?
The second song is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, one of the greatest American Poets in Canadian history. If we compared Adams to Springsteen maybe we can compare Cohen to… Bob Dylan? It’s hard to compare geniuses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6GXMjTeVSE
If we take a listen to Hallelujah we will notice the gospel sound right away. In nearly all the versions the blend of poetry and rich instrumental serves to transport the listener to church. Church bells ring and repetitions of the word “Hallelujah” sounds almost… angelic? Hallelujah is a Hebrew phrase that means “praise ye,” often used in religious texts, the sound signature is no coincidence.
I think almost all the events in the lyrics are each a metaphor for something. There is no explicit conflict, however, a thematic element is definitely present. I interpreted this song to be singing about conflict: conflict within the self, with loved ones, and of the past. I don’t want to turn this into an analytical paper so I’ll leave the rest of the interpretation to you because surely everyone has a slightly different interpretation. Maybe the ambiguity is what makes this song great.
We have explored two very iconic pieces of music written by Canadian artists. These were not the most popular songs back in the day yet they still pervade our culture today. They are both recognized as important works in music history. Although these two songs are in completely different genres and have opposite styles, they achieve the same effect: they invoke an ambiguous feeling within the listener and I think it is this quality that makes these songs great.
I compared these two artists to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, check these artists out because they produce phenomenal music.