OT: RIP Stompin' Tom

[Fourier]

We lost a legend last night. Canada's Woody Guthrie passed away last night:

Hello friends, I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin' Tom.

It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with its beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.

I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the Patriot Canada needs now and in the future.

I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done.

Sincerely,

Your Friend always,

Stompin' Tom Connors

I have fond memories of listening to Sudbury Saturday Night on a warm summer evening in a Sudbury parking lot as my wife and I drove across the country.

Click to read more...

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Beyond the "Hockey Song", he was a legend and very proud Canadian, sad day. RIP good sir.

 

[CornKicker]

at least we know he will live on in arenas around the country and world for decades and decades,

RIP

 

[The Head Crusher]

RIP Stompin Tom, the creator of Canada's second national antheme.

 

[PBandJ]

RIP to a Canadian legend.

 

[Ol' Jase]

Ever go to a show thinking "this will be a giant meh" and leave thinking "holy ****, that gig was unbelievable!!"?

This exact thing happen when I first saw Stompin' Tom.

RIP to a legend.

 

[Slatsmsg]

An Oiler fan living near Calgary, I was at the Flames/Sharks game last night when they flashing Stompin Tom up on the Jumbotron. That's when i found out he had passed away.

The immediately played the Hockey Song, the whole crowd at the Saddledome sang along raucously. I am very glad I was at a game when I found out. Seemed only fitting. I lifted a glass to him with my bud, we sang loud.

RIP to a Great Canadian!

 

[I am the Liquor]

He will be missed.

 

[Replacement*]

A great man, a legend, has made many people smile.

RIP

ps

I never knew about this: Looks like life didn't throw him too many bones and he made it on his own.

He was born Thomas Charles Connors in Saint John, New Brunswick to the teenaged Isabel Connors and her boyfriend Thomas Sullivan. He was a cousin of New Brunswick fiddling sensation, Ned Landry. He spent a short time living with his mother in a low-security women's penitentiary before he was seized by Children's Aid Society and was later adopted by the Aylward family in Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island.

At the age of 15 he left his adoptive family to hitchhike across Canada, a journey that consumed the next 13 years of his life as he travelled between various part-time jobs while writing songs on his guitar. At his last stop in Timmins, Ontario, which may also have been his big "break", he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the city's Maple Leaf Hotel. The bartender, Gaet Lepine, agreed to give Tom a beer if he would play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 13-month contract to play at the hotel, a weekly spot on the CKGB radio station in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.

 

[Up the Irons]

good bye to a great Canadian. He wrote about Wop May, the top Canadian pilot of the day. May was from Edmonton, and Mayfield Road and area are named after him. You know you are important when Stompin' Tom writes a song about you.

My favourite Stompin' T songs: Margo's Cargo and The Consumer (the Marketplace theme)

 

[402]

RIP Canadian icon

 

[Expatriate]

RIP Stompin' Tom