The People's Railway (A History of Canadian National) by Donald Mackay
“During the first twelve years of this century, Canada's enthusiasm for railways reached heights we were not to see again. In fifty years of deals honorable and scandalous, four railway systems, equal in the mind of the times to all our present transportation systems combined, had brought a magic unity and prosperity to a country of hopelessly vast distances.”
And who among us does not like railroad trains? We hear the distant chug chug and toot toot of an oncoming freight train so we rush outside hoping to catch a good look at the proverbial iron horse and its sometimes uncountable string of bountiful followers as it rumbles past our vantage point.
As author and historian Mackay points out in this, his 1992 publication, the railway hysteria that once upon a time swept through this country left Canada with more railway miles per capita than any other country in the world. Pity we now don't utilize railroads as much as we did even 60 years ago.
Mackay's book combines historical references, maps and photographs, and first hand accounts of life on the line from drivers, conductors, and other workers to bring what could have been a somewhat dry topic to vivid and highly readable life.
Born in Nova Scotia, Donald Mackay was a journalist until he left behind his steady paycheques in 1975 to become a full time author and historian. Mackay died in 2011, but not before leaving a legacy of eleven books, with his final publication being a memoir called Safe Passage: Travels through the 20th Century, which came out in 2010.
The People's Railway was published in 1992 by British Columbia publishers Douglas and McIntyre.
I Thought He Was Dead (A Spiritual Memoir) by Ralph Benmergui
“It was 5: 15 a.m. And the dead of winter. As usual I had dressed in the dark, tiptoed downstairs and was on my way to work as a jazz radio morning host. I opened the front door, and as the first blast of winter filled my lungs, I felt what I can best describe as a clutching scream of sorrow in my chest. Was this anxiety? I'd had anxiety attacks in my early twenties. Now, at fifty-four, was this an encore?”
Guess what? Ralph had heart disease. Surgery followed, along with changes both physical and spiritual. The book looks both backward and forward, as it is part memoir and part spiritual guide. Once a radio host and television personality, Benmergui's health crisis spurned him to journey from his media past to his present life as an ordained spiritual director and a strategic advisor in a number of different fields.
And as do a number of us, Ralph has a podcast. His is called Not that kind of Rabbi, which can be found wherever you get your podcasts. The Benmergui website is www.ralphbenmergui.ca.
I Thought He Was Dead came out in paperback form in 2021 from James Street North Books, which is an imprint of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers.
We have chatted with Mr. Benmergui in the past, and our audio visit with him can be heard by clicking on the LDRIMMER you tube channel and scrolling down to episode 145.
Note: Dear constant reader. I may have inadvertently published two previews of the same title, namely The Legacy by Gail Bowen. Hope you didn't mind.
Buzz Me In (Inside the Record Plant Studios) by Martin Porter and David Goggin
“It began with Jimi. Gary Kellgren built the world's first living room style recording studio on the west side of Manhattan in 1968, and the success of the album Jimi Hendrix worked on there – Electric Ladyland – launched a recording studio empire. Music industry demands quickly fuelled the studio's expansion out west. And a fleet of concert recording trucks soon followed.”
And who doesn't like a good listen to a great Jimi Hendrix track, right? Read this book and you'll take a helter skelter ride through more than a decade's worth of high drama, hedonism, high tech, and musical genius as told by the insiders at the Record Plant studios, one of the most prolific recording factories of all time, founded in 1968 by charismatic audio engineer Gary Kellgren and ace businessman Chris Stone.
In the pages of Buzz Me In you'll learn about the living and the dead, the big timers, the has beens, and the never weres. You'll read about the time the studio lent Keith Moon of The Who a reel-to-reel tape recorders which he took back to his hotel room and promptly set on fire because he said it “ran slow”. There's hippies with hammers, hot tubes with infamous back stories, battles and bust ups, drummers and dead beats, guns and girls, and a whole lot of 1970s rock and roll history.
Just a few of the recording acts featured in the book are Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Cindy Lauper, Peggy Lee, Rufus, The Soft Machine, and Frank Zappa. There's more pictures in Buzz Me In than you can shake a guitar pick at, or something, and the stories and anecdotes are based on the memoirs and archives of co-founder Chris Stone as well as interviews with more than 100 studio employees, music producers, and recording artists.
Buzz Me In just came out in June of this year. It is from publishers Thames and Hudson, which can be reached at www.thamesandhudsonusa.com The authors also manage the Record Plant Diaries Facebook page at www.facebook.com/record plantdiaries
www.thegreatcanadiannotebook.com
