on that trip .”
Segato adds : “ Most people know the song speaks to empowerment and is a call for equality for gay , lesbian , and feminist rights , but it has two elements – a subversive , political call to action and representation around invisible communities , and the other piece is connected to the power and the potential of a good strong spirit .”
The Parachute Club finished the record and “ Rise Up ” was identified as the first single . Lanois added the final layers to the song , using his sonic genius . As Segato says , he gave it “ that sound .” “ He just built on what Lauri [ Conger ], Steve [ Webster ], and Dave [ Gray ] were playing and created this dynamic intro . Danny really helped us identify our whole catalogue and sound . He was such an important part of that . We were seven people playing and he found a place where all the rhythms and all the pieces could fit .”
Did Segato foresee this spontaneous song would become an anthem and still resonate with people nearly 40 years later ? “ You never do ,” she says . “ But , this is something I do remember . At the time it was released , I was living on College Street at Clinton in this little apartment above a store . It was a hot summer day and my windows were open . I heard a car go by and the song was blaring out of the radio as it was passing by . I got this sense , ‘ This is going to go ! This is really going to go somewhere !’ For the next year , I heard the song everywhere . It just exploded across the country .”
“ I often think about this song ,” Segato concludes . “ It was an incredible gift that somehow came into our laps . Timing is everything for a song and you can ’ t ever plan that . We ’ ve written really great songs – some better in a way than ‘ Rise Up ,’ but timing is everything . You never know when you are going to hit a zeitgeist moment ; we hit that zeitgeist moment where there was a confluence of all these energies – the energy of the street , the city ( Toronto ), and country was changing radically , and there was the influence of the influx of immigrants from the Caribbean and elsewhere … that all was affecting the music of the street and the era .”
Spirit of the West
“ Home for a Rest ” Artist : Spirit of the West Writers : John Fraser Mann & Geoffrey Kelly Year Written : 1989 Year Inducted : 2018 Fast Facts : •° From 2005 to 2016 , “ Home for a Rest ” was the fifth best-selling digitally downloaded 1990s song in Canada by a Canadian artist , and the best-selling digitally downloaded 1990s song by a Canadian band in Canada
•° In 2007 , Toronto ’ s 102.1 The Edge named it No . 8 on its list of the best Canadian new rock songs of all time
•° “ Home for a Rest ” was named the 22 nd greatest Canadian song of all time in a 2005 public vote by CBC Radio
“ You ’ ll have to excuse me , I ’ m not at my best / I ’ ve been gone for a month , I ’ ve been drunk since I left / These so-called vacations will soon be my death . I ’ m so sick from the drink , I need home for a rest .”
Who amongst Generation Xers has not screamed the above lyrics with a group of their best buddies and danced wildly at a wedding or at a nightclub ? “ Home for a Rest ” by Vancouver ’ s Spirit of the West is a song that somehow struck a chord and became a party anthem for a generation . This rollicking drinking song is an example of a timeless song that never topped the charts .
Like “ Rise Up ,” the seeds for how “ Home for a Rest ” went from some scribbled lines in Kelly ’ s journal to a great song is , in part , due to the advice from their producer .
“ We were doing pre-production for Save This House with Danny Greenspoon and earmarking songs for the album and he asked us if we had any others ,” Kelly recalls . “ John [ Mann ] and I barely wrote enough songs . We weren ’ t the kind of people that pumped them out . We told Danny , ‘ The only other thing we have is this half-baked idea for a tune ’ and we played him ‘ Home for a Rest .’” The producer heard enough in those bare bones to encourage the duo to flesh it out .
The real bones for this song started as a long poem , written years before Save This House was recorded . Spirit of the West was schlepping across the U . K . — travelling with all their gear from town to town , via buses , taxis , and trains . “ It was exhausting ,” Kelly recalls . “ Hence the line , ‘ you ’ ll have to excuse me if I ’ m not at my best !’ We frequented pubs along Charring Cross Road like The Spice of Life and during those six weeks is when that song really began .”
The song never became a radio hit ( though campus radio played it heavily ), but it became timeless and its success came organically . “ People just took it to heart ,” says Kelly . “ It became a staple of our live sets and it ended every Spirit of the West show over the last 15 years . We were never brave enough to mess with that formula … it had earned that spot !”
Kelly admits the song was “ a passport ” for the band . “ That one song was nearly enough to get us places ,” he adds . “ We had to back it up with other material , but it certainly helped to open the doors and gave us a little credibility . Every once in a while , I ’ ll think about that song and relive that time when I wrote those lyrics . There is a charm in those lyrics that I love , like that second verse about train travel [“ In the buffet car we lurched back and forth / Past old crooked dykes through Yorkshire ’ s green fields ”]. I can still smell the air there . It ’ s a real snapshot of our early days as a band and a great little memento from that time .”
Even today , Kelly gets messages and videos from people sharing wedding
PHOTO : ALEC WATSON
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 41