Bob Dylan, Richard Flohil, Pierre Berton and Stompin' Tom Connors...discuss
Stompin' Tom, the Songwriter -a lazy songwriter?
Recently, I read with great interest and enjoyment, Richard Flohil’s two posts about Stompin’ Tom (on his Substack site is called Stories From The Edge of Music). If you’re not a subscriber to this site, you should be. The tales he tells about his personal and professional encounters with famous artists are enjoyable as hell.
There was a phrase in Richard’s second post (#26 Stories from the Edge of Music: Stompin’ Tom — more tales about a Canadian icon. Pt 2) that gave me much to ponder.
Richard writes:
“For the most part, he was a lazy songwriter; his songs came to him both frequently and fast, and he rarely rewrote or laboured over a lyric.”
As someone who has spent the last 10 years immersed in Tom’s songs, I have much to say about this.
Lena Connors, Duncan Fremlin and Richard Flohil, Zoomer Hall - 2017
I don’t know where Richard learned this about Tom. As an obviously skilled researcher, he’s not one to throw out quips like this without some serious consideration. I can’t comment directly on Tom’s songwriting process because I’ve not witnessed it first hand. Tom’s co-writing partner Gate Lepine has experienced Tom’s methodology hundreds of times and he tells me there was nothing lazy or easy about it.
I will say that Richard is not the first informed music professional who has shared similar thoughts with me. Years ago, I was sitting in a hockey dressing room discussing Tom’s “Hockey Song” with a famous Canadian musician/actor, Sean Cullen, and he quipped that some of Tom’s lyrics were nonsense.
The example, in The Hockey Song - “They storm the crease, like bumble bees, They travel like a burning flame”. Sean’s comment was “what the hell is that supposed to mean?” So, if I apply Richard’s comments to this, perhaps Tom could have worked longer to create a better line but, as Richard went on to say,
“his audience understood them and loved them without reservation.”
I agree that there is evidence that Tom’s songs were written “frequently and fast” but the “lazy” part bothers me.
On more than one occasion, I called his home number to ask if I could drop in for a visit, only to learn from his wife Lena that “he’s writing and can’t be disturbed”. His masterpiece, “Margo’s Cargo” comes to mind, and it boggles the mind how much went into that story/song. A lazy writer would not have produced a song like that. In fact that song/poem puts him in the same league as Robert Service and his “Creation of Sam McGee”, a highly recognized work of genius. I’ll even put Tom in the same league as Pierre Berton.
There are too many other examples of Tom’s brilliant lyrics to list here…Tillsonburg, Songbird Valley, MoonMan Newfie, Gumboot Cloggeroo, The Marten Hartwell Story and so on.
Shortly after his book, “Chronicles” was published, Bob Dylan was interviewed on the TV show, “60 Minutes”. He confessed to writing his masterpiece, Blowin’ In The Wind” in 10 minutes. I’ve not heard anyone describe him as a lazy songwriter.
And I’m sure if I pour over Dylan’s catalogue of lyrics, I’ll find many that are awkward, whimsical and nonsensical. But hey, “that can’t be true…because he’s Bob Dylan”.
Such rubbish.
I think Tom’s lyrics/poetry came from an unsophisticated place,, he didn’t have a lot of education, but those simpler lyrics and imagery hit home with lots of folks.
I stand corrected (well, just a bit). "Lazy" was, in fact, lazy, and I bow to Dunc's years of working with and knowing Tom much better than I. Tom — like the rest of us — was a flawed human being, but I hope my overall appraisal of him encouraged people to rediscover him. He was a unique character in Canadian music, and it's certainly not lazy of me to reiterate that.