In 2004, Canadian hip hop artist k-os became world famous, with his song “Crabbuckit.” The accompanying video had him strolling down a Toronto street, the city’s iconic green and orange Beck taxicabs and fire-red TTC streetcars rolling behind him, with a guitar on hand. The song itself is Canadian music history, winning a Juno for Single of the Year, and was unique in how prominently it featured Yonge Street in the lyrics.
What about other songs about Toronto? What are they? Was there one about your favourite street or the street that you happen to live on? Chloe Doesburg, along with Lauren Barhydt and Jonathan Tyrrell, have been trying to solve the mystery by mapping and curating songs all about Toronto on their website Track.Toronto.
Before starting the project the team already had a few Toronto based tracks that provided inspiration for Track.Toronto.
"For me it's 'Closing Time' by Leonard Cohen. It's about The Matador," Doesburg says. "The Matador was an after-hours club, I was very fond of and I actually learned about from hearing the song."
After coming up with the idea in June at NXNE, Doesburg, Barhydt and Tyrrell started mapping songs online in July and have nearly 100 songs so far. Doesburg says that they have plans to jump off of the net and into the real world by posting physical signs around the city that refer people to songs about the area online.
“We’re sort of hoping to make neighbourhood playlists, essentially,” Doesberg says, “like walk up Bathurst and listen to this set of songs as you go along. They’ll each be related to a specific place.”
Their project was a logical step forward for the three friends who shared an interest in music and wanted to explore the Big Smoke after studying architecture at the University of Waterloo.
“Maybe it’s funny that none of us is actually from Toronto,” Doesberg says. “I grew up in Kingsville, which is a small town outside of Windsor. John is from Purse, Ont., and Lauren is from Brampton.”
They now live in Toronto’s Junction area close to the city’s burgeoning music scene and see the potential for interest in songs organized by place as opposed to artist or genre.
“There’s a huge amount of love for local music in Toronto already,” Doesberg says. “I don’t think that it’s really a stretch to get people interested, but we wanted to find another way to bring it all together.”
So the next time you're at St. Clair and Jane don't be surprised if you look up and see a sign for the Barenaked Ladies' song about a girl named Jane or if you're near Spadina you have the opportunity to listen to the Shuffle Demons' Spadina Bus.
To find out more about Track.Toronto and to see what they’ve collected so far visit www.listentotrack.ca.