The Citizen, 1996-05-29, Page 5International Scene
By Raymond Canon
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1996 PAGE 5.
Breaking news
on the Geezer
rock front
When you're thirty, something
always happens to the music.
Gene Lees
Never mind 30, Gene — how about 50? I
reached the half century mark not so very
long ago. Fifty is a significant digit in a
guy's chronology. It causes you to stop and
look around. And back. And forward. It got
me to thinking about the popular forms of
music of my life.
I've seen quite of clutch a musical styles.
When I was a pup, the radio waves were full
of Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy
Lee and a skinny little punk with a golden
throat named Frank Sinatra. Then a truck
driver from Memphis came along and
transformed the popular music scene single-
handed. Well . . . pelvised. Rock and roll
was born.
And rock begat Soft Rock. And Hard
Rock. And Acid, Heavy Metal- and'
California Rock. There was also Country
Music. And Country and Western music.
Not to mention Bluegrass, Old Time, Blues,
What goes around
comes around
For the past quarter of a century it must
have seemed to most North American car
owners that the Japanese automobile
manufacturers could do no wrong. They
brought to our market, cars that were
cheaper and better built than the domestic
models and, in so doing, forced General
Motors, Ford and Chrysler to take a hard,
long look at themselves to see what could be
done to become more competitive. Chrysler
almost went out of business before it saw the
light but all three struggled for years, some
would say that they are still struggling, to
develop a more level playing field.
While all this has been going on, there has
been some cross-breeding in the industry.
The most visible sign of this in southwestern
Ontario has been the CAMI plant at
Ingersoll which is a joint venture between
Suzuki and General Motors.
Something that has gone almost unnoticed
for years, took place in 1979. At that time
Ford bought a 25 per cent interest in a
Japanese manufacturer called Toyo Kogyo. I
am sure that this name will not light a spark
of recognition in any reader save the most
avid car buffs, but I can bring you into the
picture by telling you that the name was
changed to Mazda in 1984.
I also have to tell you that the Canon
family are Mazda owners. I got tired of
being handed pieces of junk by Chrysler
after I had become enamoured with the
Valient and its slant-six engine and, in
preparing for a TV program on small cars, I
Rhythm and Blues, Soul and (Shudder)
Disco.
That was already much more than I could
handle. But it was just a hint of what was
about to come down the track.
Have you looked at the music scene
lately? No? Brace yourself, batten down
those ezrplugs and take my hand. There is
Rap, of course. A form of music performed
by baggy-panted, baseball-capped bozos
who look like crack dealers and talk like
drill sergeants — if drill sergeants talked in
rhyming couplets.
But Rap is merely the beginning of this
descending scale. You will also discover
Punk. And Funk. Hip Hop and Head Banger.
Team and Jungle. Not to mention Glam
and Scratch and Thrash and Compost.
And what do they all sound like? They
sound like a pounding migraine feels. They
have all the charm of a recorded train wreck.
They are as spiritually satisfying as a bout of
seasickness. These forms of hormonal
venting are, to these jaded earholes at least,
atonal, non-rhythmic and utterly bereft of
any musical characteristics as I understand
them.
Of course, that's exactly what my Old man
said about Elvis.
If I needed any proof that I'm out of the
mainstream musically, I found it in a small
decided that the Mazda 323 and 626 were
among the better bargains. We are now on
our fourth 626, have been treated well by the
local dealer, and we have no regrets
whatsoever.
Since I like to know a bit about the
manufacturer who makes my cars, I looked
into the Mazda story and found that Ford
was not alone in owning parts of Japanese
producers; there was a considerable amount
of cross breeding. However, the 25 per cent
ownership by Ford was certainly the largest
minority holding of record and I wondered
what Ford and Mazda would do about it.
For openers any Mazda truck that you own
is made by Ford in the United States; the 626
and the MI-6 are also made in the U.S. with
mainly Mazda parts but with some Ford
content.
This bears out what is taking place in the
car industry; it is difficult to know just
where a car originates. It could be assembled
in the States but some of the parts could
come from Canada or Mexico. I would
imagine that most of the production from the
Magna plant, which is to be set up in St.
Thomas, will go to the U.S.
At any rate Ford has recently made more
news by increasing its stake in Mazda from
the 25 per cent mentioned above to 33.4 per
cent thus giving it what amounts to
controlling interest in the firm. This is
inherent in the announcement that Ford will
provide the next president of Mazda, a move
which should make the Japanese sit up and
take notice.
What brought this all about?
For openers it seems that it was
Sumitomo, Mazda's bank, that engineered
the deal; this is the same bank that arranged
for Ford to take the 25 per cent in 1979. The
bank was disturbed that Mazda was showing
a loss of about a half a billion dollars during
the past year and things did not seem to be
news item last week. It notes that the British
Broadcasting Corporation's pop music
station is refusing to play a recently released
ditty from a fairly well-known British pop
group. The BBC claims the song just isn't
good enough to make their playlist.
It's a single called Real Love.
It's the latest — and possibly last — musical
effort of a group that you may have heard of.
The Beatles?
Other late breaking news on the Geezer
Rock front: guess who's making a
comeback?
Pat Boone.
It's true. Old Mister White Bucks who 40
years ago rendered generations of music
lovers comatose with his syrupy, goody-two-
shoes renditions of songs like April Love and
Love Letters in the Sand is re-incarnating
as ...
Are you sure you're ready for this?
...a heavy-metal rocker.
I swear. Very soon, you will be able to go
to your record store and pick up a CD called
Pat Boone: No More Mr. Nice Guy.
"They're laughing at me now" says Pat,
"but I'll be laughing when they hear me sing
Rock and Roll All Nite and they say, 'Hey,
that's pretty doggone good.—
Sure, Pat.
Just don't forget your Geritol.
getting better. The company had seen one of
its new plants flattened by an earthquake;
sales have been flat in Japan and the
company, like other Japanese car producers,
has suffered from the high exchange rate of
the Japanese currency.
Because of all this, Ford was able to get
the additional shares at a price 22 per cent
below the market price of the shares on the
day of sale. In short, Ford got a bargain.
But Ford needs some help too and it saw
this help in Mazda's factories in seven Asian
countries, an area where it is currently very
difficult to set up car sales. This is also the
locale of the highest growth rates and Ford,
like Chrysler and GM, is facing the prospect
of slow growth in its traditional markets in
both Europe and North America.
As far as Canadian Ford and Mazda
owners are concerned, there should be very
little change for the time being. The shock
will come in Japan where one of the vaunted
domestic manufacturers is now in the hands
of the Americans. Another fine example of
what goes around comes around.
Letters
Continued from page 4
attending even some of the Hay Days '96
Homecoming Weekend events to the address
below. Individual name tags and family
registration packages will be ready for pick
up at the "Registration Table" at the Zurich
Community Centre.
Please join us for a weekend full of
entertainment, nostalgia and fellowship and
make Hay Days '96 Homecoming Weekend
an event that will be talked about for the
next 150 years!
Dale and Marie Dignan
Invitation and Registration Committee,
Hay Days '96
19 Daniel Street,
Ingersoll, ON. N5C 1X5
The
short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Keeps us on our toes
Life used to be a whole lot less
complicated.
And absolutely nowhere is this better
illustrated than at work on a community
newspaper. The importance of accurate and
thorough reporting is obviously the primary
goal behind what we do, but achieving this
has been made a little more arduous by the
convoluted familial groupings, politically
correct jargon and original spellings in
today's society.
It is, quite frankly, not likely good enough
anymore to know what you're talking about;
you also must tread carefully so as not to
offend the PC police by using gender biased
or 'demeaning' jargon, or upset individuals
by misspelling a name or using wrong
terminology to describe a relationship.
It wasn't that long ago when men were
men and women were women. Today you
literally need a manual to help ensure you
find the appropriate label. Words that once
told a news story, such as fireman,
policeman or workman, have been replaced
by gender-friendly firefighter, police officer
and worker. There are no more actresses or
comediennes, we have only actors and
comedians in the asexual world of the 90s.
And where once a chairman ran the business
of an organization, we have a chairperson or
the totally ludicrous chair. Now, while I
consider myself a fairly enlightened
individual, I would still far prefer to be
referred to as a male-derivative word than an
inanimate object.
In the terminology department, writing
stories these days means delicately
unravelling intricate family ties. Many
spouses don't share the same last name,
while others have yet to make it legal, a fact
that must be decorously determined during
an interview to save any embarrassment or
confusion later. Imagine the turmoil when
the spouse mentioned in the story is actually
not the spouse at all!
Once it is determined that someone is not
legally married how then do we refer to
them? In this, there is a veritable
smorgasbord of expressions, with the
preference usually a matter of taste. Are they
a common-law spouse, a significant other or
a soul mate? My personal preference is life
partner, but in this age of non-commitment
such a presentiment is perhaps puzzlingly
optimistic.
Also adding an interesting twist to the plot
is the fact that when a person is discussing
their spouse you can no longer assume that
person is of the opposite sex.
Once the adults have a name in this word
game, the questions of parentage — that of
his, hers and theirs — comes into play. This
one has taught me, if nothing else, how to be
vaguely accurate.
Finally, what's in a name? Oh, I'd say
these days, about eight different spellings!
After seven years in this business I have
learned not to take any moniker for granted.
Joe Smith could as easily be Jo Smyth. As a
young girl I went to school with Laurie,
Janice and Deborah. Today it could as likely
be Lori, Janis, or Debra. We have Megan or
Meaghen, Ashley or Ashleigh, Crystal or
Kristal, Lindsey or Lyndsay — or Lindsee.
There's Jason or Jayson, Corey, Cory or
Korey — I imagine you get the idea.
It's definitely an interesting world full of
questions and surprises. It may not make this
job easy, but it certainly keeps us on our toes.
Arthur Black