The 1981 Listening Post - Red Rider - As Far as Siam

Red Rider - As Far as Siam 

#251

By Julia Talbot

June 30 1981

Red Rider

As Far as Siam

Genre: Repressed and restrained or…. just stereotypically Canadian.

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Julia’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Lunatic Fringe – really that’s it and even that isn’t much. 

When I think of Canada I think of beer and hockey and cold weather and comedians and white people who are still just as racist as any white people anywhere but who at least have the decency to refer to Native Americans as the First Nation. I generally don’t turn to the frozen North for my music. If pressed I’d cough up Neil Pert as a genius god of the drums and some of the most syllabled lyrics ever, and Drake, Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne and Sarah MacLaughlin as excellent musicians whose music I could kind of care less about. In fact, my highly unschooled, non-Googled, off the cuff research would be that when I think Canadian Rock I think of painfully white, understated introverts trying to unsuccessfully access their party and get down genes. KD Lange, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen embody the over-thinking, well-educated, sensible and sane (or else you’ll freeze to death) folk-rock licks the best in my humble opinion…. And then you have the Red Riders. 

 

Now I know that their lead singer Tom Cochrane has some chops and notoriety as a singer/songwriter/musician but no matter what he has written on this album, no matter how passionate his feelings might be on the inside, they are expressed in a variety of technically proficient songs that are all missing that certain grit, the connection of shared humanity that really great performers give you when they sing and make their pain yours and vice versa. This is why we are all still listening to Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive 42 years after its original release… and Lunatic Fringe is a recognizable tune (thanks to it being featured in the movie Vision Quest) but not on anyone’s top twenty, even as a workout song. 

 

I can relate. I love to sing and in my head I am a full on soul singer; it’s me and Etta, Aretha and Big Mama Thorton, collectively shouting about the pain of the universe, being done wrong by our men and loving Jesus until we can stand on our two feet again by ourselves. Unfortunately, I have a voice that is better suited to- passable Edith Piaf or Italian canto. It sucks. 

 

So for As Far As Siam goes, unless you are looking for the understated, have a penchant for music that is great as a song in an action movie or are so completely repressed that these songs seem emotional and expressive to you, I’d say you could skip it. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/24xLvFKw7kxpwe3YRK00Ch?si=uB15vqLzRACXoRw8ZVuAtQ