Over the Edge « November 9, 2005

Features

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food. They tax junk food in seventeen states in the United States and New York City and Chicago City. The Aud- itor General suggested that. The Green Party led a campaign, by the way, to get junk food out of schools, and we won that. At the same time [we] called for a tax for junk food, we're still calling for that. We believe that it is possible to restore some of the tax cuts that were made on the highest uppet income cat- egory [of] $150 000 in income a year and up.

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+ we should have free post-secondary education, as they do in a number of countries around the world. If Costa Rica and Mexico can do [it], let alone coun- tries like Denmark, we can, too.’

- Adriane Carr

[T]here's enough wealth there to ac- tually ask those people who are earning those incomes to support the things that I believe are important to them: the education system, the health sys- tem, the quality of our environment. Those are big ticket items to support, and the higher income people... the Liberals never actually told people they,

were going to cut taxes across the board,

but they did. We would ask those up- ©

per income people to take a roll back from that tax cut, and that's a signifcant amount of revenue. And we also believe that public resources should be taxed more fairly, By that I mean, right now, there are subsidies in the form of tax breaks in the oil and gas industry and in the mining industry, there's also sub- sidies legally in the forest industry, like 25 cents a cubic metre is being charged for wood, so we think there should be a fair return, and that would cause com- panies to also value the resource more and add more value.

B:Whatis the Green Party’s stance on marijuana?

A: The war on marijuana has not been successful, and it's failed really our youth in our society in that it has diverted resources into the policing end of it when we should be bringing resources into the prevention and the treatment end of it. We believe, like the Senate of Canada recommend - the Senate! A very conservative body, and like the Fraser Institute actually recom- mended that marijuana should be legal- ized. It should be legalized, it should be taxed, it's production and sales should be controlled, it should not be available to underage youth, so, like liquor, there should be restrictions on its sales. I think that what that will do is [first] get rid_of the incredible pushing that goes

on on the street, which is contributing -

to the use and addiction to drugs. We believe that it will also make sense in terms of the product itself; right now, it can be spiked with all sorts of other

drugs, which makes it incredibly haz- ardous... more hazardous, especially with things like crystal meth, and num- ber three it will bring revenue into the government in terms of taxation. The Frasér Insitute estimated that it would be about nine hundred million dollars. We could immediately wipe out post- secondary education fees. [laughs]

B: Do you think youth pay enough attention to en- vironmental issues?

A: I think that youth are leading the way. What we're seeing now in youth in our society is the first generation to be raised in an education system that taught them from day one about recyc- ling, about environmental quality. This is part of the thinking of youth and it's not necessarily a part of the thinking of the middle-aged and older people in our society. I think that youth know they havea vested interest in the quality of environment and the conservation of resources so that those resources will be around for them to use, too. I believe that caring about the quality of our nat- ural environment is a very strong part of how youth approach the world, and it's probably one of the reasons why the Green Party gets the greatest support from youth, from the youngest age cat- egorgy of voters. I just wish they voted. Youth don't tend to vote, and it's a big problem, 75% of youth who could vote didn't. I really believe that changing the voting system can help, absolutely, so youth know their vote will count, but engaging youth in democratic and vot- ing processes in politics is part of what the Green Party is about. We have the youngest slate of candidates of any patty, seventeen under the age of 25.

B: How would you encour- age more young people to come out and vote?

A: As I say, changing the voting sys- tem. I think many youth are cynical about their vote counting and so they figure, “ Well, I'd like to cast my vote for the Green Party, or maybe some other third party,’ because youth are adven- turous. [In] the current voting system, it's not easy for a third party to break through. The Green Party has done ex- ceedingly well in a very-polarized two- party system. Youth are smart. ‘They want their vote to count, and I think that when we change our voting system - and it’s not just BC that's looking at changing our voting system. ‘Theres going to be referendum in Prince Ed- ward Island on November 28, there's referendums coming up in New Bruns- wick, Quebec, Ontarios looking at it, Canada's looking at it, BC’s looking at having another referendum. I think this is.all really, really good and positivie in terms of reengaging youth in voting. Secondly, I think youth are justifiably cyncial about politicians. Politicians manipulate government, things like the sponsorship scandals and scandals that have gone on don't make politicians and

politics look very admirable. So thats.

one of the things that I’ve tried hard to do, is change the face of politics, to model a different kind of politics that is more cooperative, that is longer-term focused rather than focused on just get- ting reelected in the short term.

ANDREW KURJATA NEWS EDITOR

If you're a music fan, it's likely that, at least once in your life, you have encountered a list of “The Greatest Bands Of All Time’. This is an institu- tion in rock fandom, and has helped sell numerous magazines, radio shows, and television specials. These lists at- tempt to measure the most important rock artists even to gtace existence, usually on the basis of two primary factors: influence and popularity. The top of these lists always consists of the usual suspects: the Beatles, the Roll- ing Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix. These artists managed to meld both factors into their career,

and thus came to-experience “Platean.-

Popularity’, which is used to describe artists who wete successful in their own time and retain a lasting influ- ence to this day, The other set of art- ists that appear on these lists are re- sults of what I have termed “the Velvet Underground Effect”. These are artists that, like the Ramones, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and, of course, the Velvet Underground, met with only limited success in their own time but went on to be hugely influential in the music world. Often, these bands were on the fringes of popular culture when they originally came into being but, due to cultural shifts, have become touchstones for entire genres of mu- sic, and their albums sell better now then they did when they were origi- nally réleased. Ultimately, perceived influence seems to be more important than popularity when it comes to be- ing a ‘great’. This is why you will never see Tommy James and the Shondells on one of these lists.

I think it is a fair guess to say that most people have heard at least one of Tommy James and the Shondells’ songs. Right now, one of their tunes, “Crystal Blue Persuasion’, is getting heavy rotation as the background mu- sic to the A&W ad, where a young couple announces their pregnancy by slyly giving the husband's father a Grandpa Burger. This is hot on the heels of a prior ad (the one where the guy takes wife out for a good-old fash- ioned drive-in date), which pulled the genius “Crimson and Clover” out for a new generation. Both of these songs

" came from the Shondells’ “psychedelic

phase’, which was something that, in the wake of the Beatles release of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’, almost everyone on the popular mu-

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sic scene seemed to be experiencing. Becausé of the seemingly- obvious fact that the Shondells were cashing

_in on a popular trend, they were, and

continued to be, dismissed as deriva- tive hacks by music critics. This is in- credibly unfair. The fact of the matter is successfully going psychedelic was not an easy thing to do. The Rolling Stones tried on “Their Satanic Majes- ties Request” and produced some of the most forgettable, annoying, and out-and-out bad songs of their career. The Byrds retreated into country, the Monkees went weird and imploded, and the Turtles ran away to join Frank Zappa. Countless lesser bands who had built their career on making sin-

gles.were.crushed under the.weight of.

trying to adjust to a world dominated by albums and artistry, In fact, it could be argued that Tommy James and the Shondells were the only band, besides the Beatles, that successfully made the transition from making rock/pop sin- gles to palatable psychedelica without losing momentum. Songs like “Crim- son and Clover’, “Crystal Blue Persua- sion, and “Sweet Cherry Win’, are at once beautiful and other-worldly, and

on their 1969 album, “Cellophane ~

Symphony’, they surprised everyone by giving Pink Floyd a run for their money with instrumental experimen- tation. To give you an idea, this would be like *NSync suddenly delving into Radiohead. And then succeeding.

“So why are they sO overlooked?

Simply, it is an in-

verse of the “Vel-

vet Underground

Effect”. A band

that was incred-

ibly popular fades into obscurity.’

This was only one aspect of the band's career. They also made an in- credible number of straight-ahead rock and pop songs that endure to this day. They began their career by record-

ing the definitive version of “Hanky Panky”. When most bands were writ-

The “Tommy James Effect”

ing protest songs about Vietnam, they released the garage-rock great “Mony Mony,’ now better known by the Billy Idol cover version. Interestingly, in the eighties, Billy Idol's version of the song duked it out for the number one spot with Tiffany's “I Think We're Alone Now’, which was a cover of another Shondells great. Both songs hit the top of the charts, meaning Tommy James and the Shondells were domi- nating a decade after they ceased to exist. R.E.M. also payed homage, cov- ering Tommy James’ first solo song, “Walking the Line’, which marked yet another successful transition in his career, from psychedelica into coun- try/folk. It should also-be noted that from the period of 1967 to 1970, the Shondells outsold other popular art- ists of the time, including the Doors, Van Morrison, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the Rolling Stones.

So why are they so overlooked? Simply, it is an inverse of the “Velvet Underground Effect’. A band that was incredibly popular fades into obscu- rity. This is sometimes deserved, like when the band kind of sucked. In the case of Tommy James and the Shon- dells, more explanation is needed. While declining to play at Woodstock certainly hurt their chances at immor- tality, I chink the most likely reason is simple snobbery. They were, after all, ~ a“pop” band, and pop music isn't seen as being respectable by rock ctitics, never mind that Elvis and the Beatles started out as a pop acts, too. Despite how good their music was and ‘how much they changed their sound, they simply could never shake the “pop” la- bel, in part because their songs were so good they kept meeting with radio success, no matter how different they were. This relates to another factor: the songs eclipsed the artist. While the songs endure to this day, the band’s overall image fails to capture the pub- lic imagination. There is no fire and brimstone, as in the case of Led Zep- pelin and the Doors, no romantic implosion like Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain, and no strong personalities like those of Bob Dylan or the Beatles. ‘They were simply a band that wrote good songs, and that doesn’t make for a good VH1 “Behind the Music’.

In terms of influence, they suffer from not having influenced the right people. While. R.E.M. are the critics’ darlings, both Tiffany and Billy Idol are looked down upon as untalented hacks, as is most anyone in the pop world that may try to imitate the Shondells beautiful tunes. There is also the fact that they aren't generally seen as innovators, but simply follow- ers, In a way, this is fair. It is true they didn’t usher in the album era like the Beatles or forge heavy metal like Led Zeppelin. On the other hand, the Beatles had their way paved for them by Chuck Berry, and Jimmy Page cut his chops in the Yardbirds. The fact is that just because you werent the first doesn't mean you arent good. Mi- chael Jordan didn't invent basketball, but he sure did a good job of playing it. This is the case for Tommy James

and the Shondells. Whether rock,

pop, psychedlica, or country, they may not have invented the game of experi- menting with rock and roll, but when it came to playing it, they were among the best.