There’s a little big song I’ve been humming every since hearing it earlier this week. I can’t shake it for this one has a lyric and melody I want to wrap my arms around and embrace as a new soul anthem for the city I call home.
All together in this big old town…c’mon, you’re humming too, right? And how about those lyrics? Let’s see now. This writer is in love.
We skate beneath the moon
and the snow falls like a quiet tune
Somewhere in these old streets a new self to be found… Songwriting is a beast. I have a songwriter residing in this house* and we dish on the trials of the trade. What seems simple is striking in its complexity. Streets of Toronto nails every element of a hit song: a great hook, a lovely story, and a sound that just builds and builds. It was penned by Toronto science teacher Kevin Walsh. You can listen to the song over and over and not worry not much about song origins. It can just worm away into your brain and stay there all day.
Or…
I asked Walsh to break it down for this fangirl.
Is this song one of many tucked away in your back pocket?
“I’ve always been involved in music, usually as a sideman of sorts—a bass player typically. I also have a love for poetry and love writing it. So it’s been natural over the years to link the two. Recently, because some of the musical outfits I play with needed some original songs, I started writing again after a long break, and was surprsied to find just how deeply I felt challenged by that, and how much I enjoyed it. I do indeed now have a bunch of unheard songs “in the back pocket” as you say.”
What is the story behind the lyric?
“I started by thinking what elements in my life here in Toronto I like best. Maybe due to the season, the skating I’ve done with my boy over the years outside down at Kew Gardens with this beautiful view of Lake Ontario in the background came to mind right away.The first time I arrived here (I’m from out west originally) and saw people playing shinny at midnight under the lights, realized that you could simply show up with your skates and off you went onto the ice, snow, sleet, hail or whatever–it just blew me away, and continues to be one of my favorite things. My son (age 8) also immediately affirmed this when I asked him with no prompting what he liked best here: “Skating outside, and the people in the stores look at you and are real nice..” So that sent the words toward, roughly speaking, being a song about people, and an image or two of the sort of things I find particularly beautiful. Finally it seemed to make sense to do different verses about different lives living themselves out here. “
Verse one: It was intended to convey the sense of those who are born, raised and die here—Torontonians to the core.
Verse two: It has something to do with the night life, with the kinds of soulful musicians that are scattered about the place playing tiny bars all over (and most especially the kind of moments that occur in those places once in a long while, when a ballad is sung just so)—if I can do my best to describe it–and the crowd is feeling just so as well and you have some sort of moment of sublime human communion between everyone present.
Verse three: It’s about myself and my fiance who’s from Newfoundland (and I’m from Vancouver and we met here). But more generally intending to convey the classic Torontonian story about coming from Canada all over to eventually make this place home.
Verse four: This verse is the one about “Yana” and that was inspired by that moving image of Torontonians welcoming Syrian refugees at the airport recently.
5th and last was intended to get at some sense that this place has been around long before it was York or Toronto and honour to some degree the various First Nations people that have lived here as well for quite literally thousands of years now.
Walsh corralled a few friends and many colleagues to help with background vocals and accompaniment. Teachers who love their work and make music together? Isn’t that what you call a blessed life?
“There’s sooo much talent in this school, and everyone’s so willing to contribute creatively. The song itself, with its recurring theme of all the different lives living themselves out in this city, felt like it needed multiple singers, so Havergal was the first place I turned to. The other singers seen in the video, by the way, Patrick Brealey, Terra Hazelton (not pictured, who sings a line that begins with “Somewhere in these old streets..”) and Joanne Morra are friends as well, from the Toronto music scene at large—and were also very generous in offering their own time and talent. Bridging both worlds is Ariel Shetzen (“She’s as beauty as can be..”) who’s both a former student, and now a budding jazz singer around town. And of course there’s the huge gang of colleagues that turned out during lunchtime of a PD day and sang their hearts out, game enough to run out into the snow and belt a final chorus even. I can’t thank them all enough for their spirt and enthusiasm and relentless support.”
What are your hope for this anthem?
Well it’s Friday here, contest closes at midnight, so no hopes have been dashed just yet and I can dream away: I’d like it to win and be heard in a wider Toronto way, and maybe contribute in some way to the general feeling of pride we hold in our town.
There’s monster talent in this city and many of them have joined this contest to interpret love of place. I would tell you to check out the other entries but really, don’t bother. This one is it. Now get busy and vote. As I post this, Streets of Toronto is in fourth place. It’s up to you to move it up to the top. The heartbeat is hard to miss.
GO STREETS OF TORONTO GO!!!!
More on songwriting and a few heroes here and there:
*Songbird: Yes, that would be my kid.
4 Comments
Such an insightful and thorough breakdown of Mr. Walsh’s song!! Really enjoyed reading this 🙂
Thanks. I love a song that builds and builds and tells a great story.This one does it for me. It’s now in third place of all entries. Let’s hope it moves to top spot in the contest before midnight!
Anne, thanks for the great piece and the wonderful words about the song. And I love your blog! “Effortless mastery” comes to mind–you make this writing game look suspiciously easy.
As to “Streets of Toronto”, it didn’t make it to the final round this weekend unfortunately. But the amount of support it got was completely heartwarming for me. Your post alone–as I’m sure you know it’s just so gratifying to have some body else moved in some way by something you’ve worked hard on.
By the way, now that it’s off the CBC contest website I’ve posted the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0YetvGxgck I may also post it into CBC’s Spotlight contest that begins shortly (with far less fanfare on my part; not sure my guts can survive another topsy turvy week like watching this past week’s voting melee at Song in the 6ix). But reactions like yours inspires me to keep trying with this song for a bit nevertheless.
Again, thanks so much!
I wish you the best of luck with the song. It’s easy to champion talent!