OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.

Subject: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Jerry Dingleman: The Boy Wonder(inactve)
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 05:54 PM

I just heard that Peter Gzowski died today. A great broadcaster on the CBC and a true folk music fan. He once co-wrote a song with Ian Tyson and used to M.C. the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Jerry

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 08:01 PM

Yeah, Peter was a good guy, and will be missed be Canadians. He had a great TV show in the 70's, featuring some fine folk acts. I particularly recall Melanie's comeback tour around maybe '77, when she played the El Mocambo and appeared on Gzowski's show. Adios, Peter, it was a pleasure to know you!

- LH

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: GUEST,Padraig
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 08:02 PM

First Mordecai, now Peter. We are losing some of best at an alarming rate.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 08:06 PM

A great loss to the Canadian cultural landscape. His radio programs were like aural railways, linking the regions of this vast land. He was a subtly gifted interviewer, and I appreciated the respect he afforded everyone he spoke with. I think he would have felt quite at home here on Mudcat. Most days, anyway.

What was the song he wrote with Ian Tyson, Jerry?

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Jerry Dingleman: The Boy Wonder(inactve)
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 09:02 PM

Bardford,

The song that Peter co-wrote with Ian was "Song For Canada." It's ont the Ian & Sylvia album "Early Morning Rain."

Jerry

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: sophocleese
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 09:25 PM

I heard yesterday that he had been admitted to hospital with serious lung disease. He will be missed in radio. Rest in peace Gzowski.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 09:47 PM

He was one of our best. Rest in Peace.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: hesperis
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:24 AM

Noooooooo!

Oh, well. He will be missed. Great voice, great person.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Mooh
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 08:52 AM

My God what a lot of Canadiana he has left for us! Somehow he just felt like the voice of the common man and the common interest. I will miss him.

When I saw the piece on CBC Newsworld announcing his departure, I thought I saw tears beginning to well up in the news-reader's eyes. There must be so many folks he touched directly, and so many more he never met.

Peace. Mooh.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Willie-O
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 09:08 AM

He was the best interviewer in the history of radio. First he would make friends with the subject, then ask the tough question you wanted to hear, but in a way that only a complete jerk could take offense. (Margaret Thatcher, for one. Also Lord Tubby Black I believe.) I heard an estimate today that he did 27,000 interviews over the years on Morningside and This Country In The Morning.

He seemed interested in everything, and we know he was a great friend of Canadian folk music. I never spoke with him, but the year after Stan Rogers died I wrote him a letter on the subject of Stan's importance to folk music, which he was of course very aware of. Gzowski read it and cried on air. I have it on tape.

Two days after that aired, I got a very nice letter from Stan's mom, who had been listening. All she had for an address was the name of the little crossroads hamlet where I lived at the time, but the letter reached me quickly. This is kind of a small country in some ways.

Wade Hemsworth, Peter Gzowski, all in one week. This is a sad time for Canada.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: GUEST,Steven G.
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 09:17 AM

He certainly was quite a broadcaster, author, and he will be missed. He certainly touch a lot of people.

Steven G.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: GUEST,Mr. Butts
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 09:29 AM

On behalf of all of my colleagues in the tobacco industry, we would like to thank Peter Gzowski for his many years of loyal patronage.

It was not often that we could boast of such a high profile figure who openly consumed 75 cigarettes per day.

Peter Gzowski was one of the greatest Canadian smokers of all time.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 10:19 AM

Hmmm. Makes you wonder what has kept Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell alive all this time, doesn't it? I wasn't all that aware of Peter Gzowski's smoking habit, but I doubt he could match either one of those two in either quantity or duration of butts consumed.

- LH

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Jerry Dingleman: The Boy Wonder(inactve)
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 10:56 AM

Little Hawk,

You might want to read Gzowski on smoking from today's Globe and Mail.

Jerry

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From:
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 11:28 AM

I listenened to today's CBC retrospective on Peter Gzowski. It was too short by a large margin. The man influenced Canadians much more than any politicianor sports star that we can name.

We'll miss you.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: gnu
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:59 PM

Thank you, Peter. Rest in peace.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 01:33 PM

I appeared on his show when it was in the old ramshackle studios, and what was most amusing about him was that since he got up at 4:30 a.m. he was always ahead of his interviewees on the news of the day (because they would have to rush in from wherever they were to get there by 9 or whatever. He would inevitably ask questions that you couldn't answer, because you hadn't read the paper. Also, he had this team of producers that gave him questions and briefings, so he always sounded wise (and he was, in his way) about everything. He really was the National Conversation everyone always says they want. It is also worth noting that he and the CBC raised the intellectual tone of this country almost singlehandedly -- farmers on tractors, people on fishing boats, truckers driving, they all listened to Gzowksi for many years. Incalculable influence for the good. I wish he hadn't been a smoker, what a waste.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Willie-O
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 02:58 PM

Peter T--DO TELL? What were you interviewed about?

Inquiring minds will speculate if you do not quell the curiosity immediately.

W-O

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 03:15 PM

He had me on as an environmental spokesperson. He had this habit of asking questions like: "I see by the morning paper that those backyard decks are saturated with arsenic. Are they safe?" (NO prep time for me at all).

He would often have a list of prepared questions that he would pay no attention to.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Peter Gzowski R.I.P.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 09:08 PM

I had a look at the article on Peter Gzowski's smoking, and it speaks volumes. I've always been about as anti-smoking as any person I've ever known, since I hate the smell of burning tobacco, and I've never been a smoker. I was not aware till today how badly it damaged Peter Gzowski's health. Maybe he actually did smoke more than Dylan. I don't think there's ever been anyone born who smokes more than Joni Mitchell, when she's offstage.

I detest smoking. My town is full of teenagers walking around smoking just like their idiot predecessors did when I was a teenager 35 years or so ago, but things have improved some. I believe less than 50% of them smoke now, as opposed to 99.9 % when I was growing up. I was among the 00.1 % who didn't at that time.

Tobacco manufacturers are pushers and murderers, and they know it, but money talks doesn't it? The usual story. The government should go directly after the tobacco companies, not the poor suckers they've hooked on a deadly addictive drug. The reason the government doesn't is that the very rich have powerful friends in high places, and the sale of tobacco and the taxes on tobacco products provide big revenue to both the government and the GDP.

"Money doesn't talk, it swears" - Bob Dylan

- LH