Friday, December 3, 2010

Artist: Murray McLauchlan, Album: Songs From The Street, Song: Hard Rock Town

"You're born in debt and you're never free.  You live all your life for the company.  And the smoke pours down on your mercury as the paint chips off your walls."  Murray McLauchlan is a singer songwriter who started his career in Toronto.  He started playing the clubs in the city and had one of his earliest songs recorded by American folk musician, Tom Rush, before he even released his first album in 1971.  20 albums and 10 Juno awards later, Murray has carved out quite an illustrious career in Canadian music.  Hard Rock Town was the title track to his 1977 album.  Murray has been praised over the years for his outstanding lyricism.  He is a true poet and although this song is a bit of a rocker, the lyrics remain clever and insightful.  Murray is still recording today and has started a band with fellow Canadians, Cindy Church, Ian Thomas and Marc Jordan called Lunch At Allen's.  You can follow the band at http://www.lunchatallens.ca/.  The original 1977 release of Hard Rock Town is likely out of print but there are two best of compilations that are available with the song.  The most recent is entitled, Songs From The Street, and it is available on Itunes.  You can hear the song, Hard Rock Town, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Ig0YiZRVs).  As always, you can hear this song as well as others that I blog about each day on Live 365 (http://www.live365.com/stations/raisedoncndnradio).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!