It's the first Monday of the month, which means it must be time for another Covered Classics song.
CBC Music has teamed up with the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame to bring you a series of live song performances as part of each song's induction into the hall of fame.
This month's Covered Classics song is "Last Song." It was originally recorded by Toronto band Edward Bear, and is covered here by Canadian singer-songwriter Matthew Barber.
"Last Song" is the type of recording that rock bands dream of: a hit that takes them to the top of the charts. Although three-piece Edward Bear, formed in 1967, had previously earned recognition with their songs "Masquerade" and "You, Me and Mexico," their biggest hit was "Last Song," composed by drummer and lead singer Larry Evoy.
While Edward Bear’s original sound was blues-rock, "Last Song" is a moderate tempo, light-pop commercial ballad, written for the 1970s AM-radio style.
"Last Song" relates a story of unrequited love, using the lovely poetic metaphor of a burning light ("Still my light’s on") to represent the singer’s feelings. He realizes that his girl will never feel the way he does about her, and he decides, regretfully, to move on. The universality of this emotion made the song one of the most popular of the early 1970s.
Performed by Barber, this rendition of the song strips it down to the basics. With a great moving bass line and the organ/piano combination, on first listen it sounds like something the Band may have recorded back in the same era that "Last Song" was originally released.
Check out this in-studio performance of April's Covered Classics song.