cktimes.ca Archives for Classic Vinyl


Classic Vinyl

With John Gardiner

A few words about the Hawk!!!

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

Had a most interesting talk with a Wallaceburg musician last week and was totally surprised by what I learned. Found out that Bob McIntyre, local rocker from the Glasstown, played guitar in Ronnie Hawkins' band during most of the 1980's. Wow! To an old rocker like me, this was big news indeed.
I met with Bob out at the Oak's Inn to discuss Wallaceburg Minor Baseball and ended up in an extremely interesting conversation about music, including some stuff about Rompin' Ronnie, but more just about the general state of music these days. And we both agreed that things ain't great these days in the music biz.
Ronnie Hawkins came to Canada in, I think, about 1957-58 from south of the border and he never looked back. He is generally credited with bringing the rockabilly sound that would evolve into modern rock 'n' roll to the land of ice and snow. His compatriots before his longlasting stint in Canada were guys like Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at the old Sun Records.
I've never been all that impressed with Rompin Ronnie's own music – I own a few of his albums and they're okay, but they're not really my cup of team – tunes like Bo Diddley and Mary Lou are rock classics, but they just don't turn my crank.
Where Hawkins had his biggest impact, in my opinion, was in giving a huge number of young and talented musicians a real chance at the big time. The biggest example was the group of guys he hooked up with in the mid 1960's and named The Hawks. Bob Dylan later tried to steal them, but they ended up heading out on their own as The Band. And what other group could have dared to use that name.
I know I've mentioned this before, but I actually had to good luck to catch Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (when they were The Band guys) back in 1967 in my home town of Hanover. They came for a dance to celebrate Canada's Centennial and the young musicians in town, myself included, were thrilled to see a guy who was already a Canadian rock legend.
The musicians who pop up on Hawkins' albums are a who's who of the rock music industry – and not all of them are Canadian. On the first album I pulled out for this column, it was really no surprise to find King Bisuit Boy on harp, but there was Duane Allman on keyboards – quite a lineup.
So, perhaps you can see why I lit up a bit at finding out that a local Wallaceburg rocker had played with Rompin' Ronnie. Like I've said, I'm not really a big fan of Hawkins' music, but I do accept the contribution he made to rock music, especially in Canada. It was good to see him honoured a few weeks ago with a spot on the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto. That was Kris Kristoferson standing in with him for the photo ops.
Could Ronnie Hawkins do his thing if he came to Canada in 2002? Not likely. The industry is too top-down. These days, Hawkins' would end up bouncing around on the bar scene for 40 years and not making the breakthrough he made back in the late 1950's. That's because the music business was looking for innovation and something new back in those days. These days, all they want is a formula that will sell records (CDs?).
That's what's wrong with most things these days. Too much production and too much preprogramming. We need to get back to the basics and that's Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins to a T. Sit down and listen to a couple of his older albums – raw rock 'n' roll to be sure. And that's hard to find these days.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.