And I'm bound for movin' on...
December 29, 2022 5:17 PM Subscribe
Ian Tyson, Canadian folk singer and songwriter, passed away today on his ranch in Longview, Alberta at the age of 89. His most lasting contribution must be "Four Strong Winds", once voted the greatest Canadian song of all time, and the unofficial anthem of Alberta.
Tyson began his recording career in the duo Ian and Sylvia with his then-wife, later forming the band Great Speckled Bird. Ian Tyson was a member of the Order of Canada, and an inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He may have also introduced Bob Dylan to pot.
A true cowboy at heart, he learned the guitar while recuperating from a rodeo riding injury, and bought the ranch near Longview, Alberta from the royalties from Neil Young's recording of "Four Strong Winds".
Four Strong Winds:
Live, Ian and Sylvia 1986 Reunion
1988 Calgary Winter Olympics opening ceremony with Gordon Lightfoot
Neil Young with The Band, 1976
Neil Young Live, 1995
Johnny Cash, 2006
Some other performances:
Montana Waltz
Summer Wages live 1991
Someday Soon live 2009
MC Horses live 2018 with Corb Lund
Guesting on Corb Lund's cover of AC/DC's Ride On
Tyson began his recording career in the duo Ian and Sylvia with his then-wife, later forming the band Great Speckled Bird. Ian Tyson was a member of the Order of Canada, and an inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He may have also introduced Bob Dylan to pot.
A true cowboy at heart, he learned the guitar while recuperating from a rodeo riding injury, and bought the ranch near Longview, Alberta from the royalties from Neil Young's recording of "Four Strong Winds".
Four Strong Winds:
Live, Ian and Sylvia 1986 Reunion
1988 Calgary Winter Olympics opening ceremony with Gordon Lightfoot
Neil Young with The Band, 1976
Neil Young Live, 1995
Johnny Cash, 2006
Some other performances:
Montana Waltz
Summer Wages live 1991
Someday Soon live 2009
MC Horses live 2018 with Corb Lund
Guesting on Corb Lund's cover of AC/DC's Ride On
Some of my favorite songs here. Judy Collins version of Someday soon, and Four Strong Winds...
posted by Oyéah at 5:29 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 5:29 PM on December 29, 2022
Grew up listening to Ian & Sylvia. A shared love of Texas Rangers made me a friend one summer at camp -- totally random and I can't even recall how it came up. Sigh.
posted by DoubtingThomas at 5:37 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by DoubtingThomas at 5:37 PM on December 29, 2022
I always loved Ian & Sylvia. He had some hard times later in life when he blew his voice out but had to keep performing to pay bills. What great songs though.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:43 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:43 PM on December 29, 2022
Beautiful song. I've never heard it before. Thanks so much for posting.
posted by WhenInGnome at 7:45 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by WhenInGnome at 7:45 PM on December 29, 2022
I am so sorry to hear this. I loved Ian & Sylvia way way back in the 60s days & saw him twice in the last 30 years.
This is a much bigger deal to me than John Travolta just kicking the bucket.
posted by y2karl at 9:32 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is a much bigger deal to me than John Travolta just kicking the bucket.
posted by y2karl at 9:32 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
three that have stuck with me over the years ...
More Often Than Not
Some Kind Of Fool
Nancy Whisky
with Sylvia, of course.
posted by philip-random at 10:37 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
More Often Than Not
Some Kind Of Fool
Nancy Whisky
with Sylvia, of course.
posted by philip-random at 10:37 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
.
posted by Silverstone at 10:41 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by Silverstone at 10:41 PM on December 29, 2022
Saw him and Silvia Fricker perform that and her song "You Were on My Mind" during a folksinging get together in 1964. Saw Dan Hicks there for the first time too.
Later that year I saw We Five perform Sylvia's song, as a pop hit.
posted by Repack Rider at 10:52 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Later that year I saw We Five perform Sylvia's song, as a pop hit.
posted by Repack Rider at 10:52 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Tom Russell was a friend and admirer of Ian Tyson and wrote a song about him called "I'll Never Leave Those Old Horses". Here he is writing about their friendship.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:57 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Paul Slade at 1:57 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
.
posted by talking leaf at 2:56 AM on December 30, 2022
posted by talking leaf at 2:56 AM on December 30, 2022
.
posted by hydrobatidae at 3:20 AM on December 30, 2022
posted by hydrobatidae at 3:20 AM on December 30, 2022
I am Canadian and can attest to the fact that, really really, this is the Canadian song. Second place is Neil Young Helpless, third is Joni Mitchell Coyote.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:11 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 9:11 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:46 AM on December 30, 2022
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:46 AM on December 30, 2022
.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 3:36 PM on December 30, 2022
posted by Grumpy old geek at 3:36 PM on December 30, 2022
If Ian Tyson wrote anything but cowboy songs, he would be recognized as Canada's greatest songwriter. His 1986 album Cowboygraphy is perfect example of voice, history, geography, and genre merging to create a living, often kicking document---in the style of Guy Clark. My favourite work is the small details, the delicate noticing (the list of people pulling calfs and naming the actual rodeos, how he sings Katy in Navaho Rugs, that he rerecorded Summer Wages when he realized the that he had finally realized that he had earned the ruefulness.)
He also early and well reocgnized that the west, from Northern Alberta to the Baja, was a geogrpahic region which originated from Inignieious thnnnking, and which must include the spanish--he was rarely passively or actively racist and his nostalgia was marked by a complex, willingness to recognize the hunger which often foregrounded the crisis of the west
His work before that was well considered, and often elegant--the density of the harmonies with Slyvia, and the work afterwards had a laconic joy. including the wide ranging, act of global listening of Raven's Call, where he didn't embarass himself, because of how he placed himself. quietly listening.
I think my favourite song of his though was the Coyote and The Cowboy--funny, self mocking, and in conversaiton with Joni Mitchell
posted by PinkMoose at 6:06 PM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
He also early and well reocgnized that the west, from Northern Alberta to the Baja, was a geogrpahic region which originated from Inignieious thnnnking, and which must include the spanish--he was rarely passively or actively racist and his nostalgia was marked by a complex, willingness to recognize the hunger which often foregrounded the crisis of the west
His work before that was well considered, and often elegant--the density of the harmonies with Slyvia, and the work afterwards had a laconic joy. including the wide ranging, act of global listening of Raven's Call, where he didn't embarass himself, because of how he placed himself. quietly listening.
I think my favourite song of his though was the Coyote and The Cowboy--funny, self mocking, and in conversaiton with Joni Mitchell
posted by PinkMoose at 6:06 PM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
I learned this song on the piano from my mom's Joan Baez songbook, along with so many other folk songs. I don't have a piano to play it on but I'll listen to your links. Thank you for posting them.
posted by gingerbeer at 1:36 PM on December 31, 2022
posted by gingerbeer at 1:36 PM on December 31, 2022
I wished that this memorial to Tyson had been available when I made my post. It's from a local indie journalist who also ghost wrote Tyson's biography. Tons of interesting details and memories, and a sense of his real character - a cantankerous cowboy, a conservation list, a poet, an avid reader, a chronicler of the West.
posted by Superilla at 9:02 PM on January 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Superilla at 9:02 PM on January 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
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To mark the 2017 Canadian sesquicentennial, here in Calgary there was a massive group play-along at Olympic Plaza, playing Four Strong Winds, with Ian Tyson as the honoured guest. I was one of the thousands in the crowd. It's still the only song I can play all the way through on the ukulele, and I still have the chord progression taped to my instrument.
posted by Superilla at 5:25 PM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]