My Life Is A Song #29

In October 1996 I crammed all my belongings into a 1986 Honda Prelude Special Edition leaving only a cramped cockpit around the driver’s seat and left my parent’s home in Southern Ontario for Saskatoon.  It was an early Thursday morning, my parents waving and crying in my rearview mirror, and I had four days to arrive in Saskatoon to start my new job, my first real, full-time job, on Monday morning.

I Love Saskatoon

I would only live in Saskatoon for a little more than a year and a half, but it easily felt like three.  Not due to boredom or torment, far from it, but rather from the seeming lifetime of wonderful memories I made during that short but special period of my life.  I’d happily be still living there if the local economy at the time hadn’t been so unstable.  The company I worked for was discussing closure of the Saskatoon office and with no other options in town, getting out while still earning money seemed most prudent.  And so I ended up in Calgary and all this (spreading my arms to indicate my kingdom).

I did love Saskatoon.  I met many terrific people there and embarked on all sorts of adventures and mischief as any 24 year old should.  Included in those events of my yesteryears is my discovery of this amazingly corruptive band that I’m confident very, very few of you have ever heard.  You certainly won’t hear them on the radio as their lyrical content quite often swims in the cess end of the English language pool.  This song manages to remain profanity free while retaining much of the quirky, guttural charm that pervades their music.

I suspect many of you wouldn’t like this album, if I were honest.  It’s funny in a way that twenty-something guys find things funny.  I was so enamored with it I even gave it to one of my best friends as a special gift on his wedding day.  I doubt it got played that night, though “Fun on a Stick” would be a fitting honeymoon night ditty.

There are several songs on this album that tickle my funny bone while cranking up the adrenaline output.  Balladeers, these guys are not.  The song I have chosen is perhaps the most radio-friendly of the bunch and while that may seem like a copout it’s actually a pretty cool tune in my mind.  The title is hilarious as is the content but I love the bass-driven instrumental interlude most.

In honour of my short but beloved time in Saskatoon, the Paris of the Prairies, I’m kicking off your weekend with “International Tractor Pull Champion” from the ablum Agronomicon released in 1996 by Saskatchewan legends Porksword.

Studio Version: