By the criteria on the CBC website, I'd have to go with "American Woman"

50 Tracks Essential Song Criteria:

- Does it woo you with words?

"Woo" isn't the word I'd use, but the words are very powerful and memorable

- Does it move you with melody?

The rythm is more moving than the melody, but its Rock and Roll, Its supposed to be that way.

- Does it have you from the hook?

It has several excellent hooks, The repeated phrase "American Woman" the guitar vamp at the start, a very memorable guitar solo, and the twist where the "American Woman" being sung to represents the whole United States. The lines "I don't want your war machines, I don't want your Ghetto scenes" completely reframe the whole meaning of the song. A "break up" song with geopolitical overtones. Wow. It was masterful!

- Does it define a generation?

It not only defines a generation, it defines how a generation of young Canadians, and a lot of young Americans, were starting to view the US. see the lines quoted above.

- Did it create a musical revolution?

Not really, but then, neither did any other song on the list. Musical revolutions are pretty rare.


For the most essentially Canadian song, I'd go with Northwest Passage. A Canadian folk singer driving across some vast expanse of Canadian countryside thinking about the explorers of the past. What id the "One warm line?" The Railroad? The Trans Canada Highway? Canadian Identity? Canadian Unity?

More than any other song, that one gets me thinking about Canadian history and what it is to be Canadian. Canadian Railroad Trilogy is a dry history lesson in comparison.