Culture: Viva Forever and the 17-Year Rule

TORONTO, ONTARIO - About a year ago, this blog mentioned The Imbayakunas, an Andean-Canadian group that was performing near the base of the CN Tower in Toronto. They've been back on a number of dates this year, and when I take the volunteer post in the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre at the foot of the 6213 steam locomotive on one of those days, they can be heard playing in the background.

While most of their repertoire is classic Andean music or at least in some way related to it (Simon and Garfinkel's "El Condor Pasa" was, in fact, derived from a Andean folk song), the group includes some popular music. I'd grown used to them playing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and The Eagles' "Hotel California." This past weekend, though, I heard a new melody coming from the pan flutes, rondador, drums, and other instruments--"Viva Forever" by the Spice Girls.

I have to admit that as much as I've been somewhat dismissive of the semi-manufactured Spice Girls, I've always thought "Viva Forever" was actually a pretty good pop ballad. A collaboration between the group and producers Matthew Rowe and Richard Stannard, it has a catchy melody and the lyrics mixing Spanish and English are reasonably creative. I happened to be in Europe when it was at the peak of its popularity there in late summer 1998, so there was no way I could miss it--unlike in the US, where the single was never even released (though it was part of the "Spiceworld" album). It's the only Spice Girls song that has ever made any of my personal play lists. Apparently Pavarotti thought it was worthy too, since he did a collboration with the group and included it on one of his own albums.

I've noticed in my lifetime that many songs tend to come back with a cover version that is in some way musically superior to the original. To cite two examples off my lifetime top-10 list, the 1986 Crowded House hit "Don't Dream It's Over" returned seventeen years later in 2003 with a Sixpence None The Richer cover, and the 1988 Roxette single "Listen to Your Heart" returned seventeen years later in 2005 with a dance version but also an amazing unplugged version from D.H.T.

My prediction is obvious: In the summer of 2015, seventeen years after its original release, some group is going to do a cover of "Viva Forever" that will blow the Spice Girls away. Maybe they'll even include instrumentals from the Imbayakunas.

Margin Notes: Imbayakunas, Talking Bridges, TBTL

The Imbayakunas performed near the entrance to the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario on 2-September-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One day while working in Roundhouse Park in Toronto, Ontario this summer, our crew thought we heard Simon and Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa" coming from the Rogers Centre. It turned out to be the Ecuadorian group The Imbayakunas performing outside the CN Tower. The group became a fixture for much of the summer, providing the far background music for the area. In addition to traditional Ecuadorian songs and "El Condor Pasa" (which was inspired by Andean music), their repertoire includes a varied list of pop music including The Eagles ("Hotel California") and even Celine Dion ("My Heart Will Go On"). Don't they count as "CanCon" (Canadian content) without covering Dion?

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The headline could have come from a model railroader, but these protest signs along the Georgetown Line were actually calling for electric-powered commuter trains. This one was along Dundas Street West on 2-September-2009

Many trains already pass the CN Tower every day, but many more will if GO Transit/Metrolinx's plans for expanding service on the Georgetown Line come to fruition. GO wants frequent trains to Pearson International Airport and longer-distance commuter trains to Kitchener-Waterloo on the route. The plans are encountering quite an organized resistance in many neighborhoods, not so much for their frequency as simply the fact that they would be diesel-powered. Protest signs against [Premier] Dalton [McGuinty]'s Dirty Diesels have appeared all along the line in Toronto recently.

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Some interesting graffiti was found on the Wallace Avenue footbridge in Toronto, Ontario on 12-September-2009

On the Wallace Avenue footbridge over the tracks that may be electrified, some interesting graffiti was found recently. If a bridge path could talk, what exactly would it say? Get off of me?

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Radio shows aren't alive, either, and the show called Too Beautiful To Live has lived up to its name. The last broadcast of the evening talk show aimed at younger listeners on KIRO-FM in Seattle, Washington was Friday night, though Luke Burbank, Jen Andrews, and Sean DeTore will continue the program as a podcast. I must give Blatherwatch and Michael Hood credit for making the comment of the week, noting that the programs replacing "TBTL" are not awesome. Frank Shiers is live and local, but not terribly exciting, and Allen Hunt's religious program is an odd choice for the otherwise-centrist station. Interestingly, the other major Bonneville effort at reaching a younger audience, KSL's Nightside Project in Salt Lake City, Utah, rolls on--maybe it's time for me to finally listen to that program.

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I have been listening to NPR's All Things Considered often enough to catch Noa Adams doing fill-in hosting, which has been a nostalgic return to the era lasting until 2003 when he was one of three regular hosts along with Linda Wertheimer and Robert Siegel. Hearing Adams and Siegel co-hosting again took me back a decade, though Adams fans probably most enjoyed his solo hosting on Labor Day.