Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was an iconic Atlantic Canadiannote folk Singer-Songwriter whose brief, brilliant career began in 1976, produced a number of albums, and was then cut short by his tragic death in an airplane accident at the age of 33.
He left behind an enduring legacy for the Canadian music scene, and a number of his songs ("Barrett's Privateers", "Northwest Passage", "The Mary Ellen Carter") have become national standards. "Northwest Passage" has been cited by prime ministers and governors general as an unofficial national anthem of sorts, and was voted the fourth-best Canadian song of all time in a CBC radio poll.
There is an annual music festival held in his honour in Nova Scotia.
Discography:
- Fogarty's Cove (1976)
- Turnaround (1978)
- Between the Breaks ... Live! (1979)
- Northwest Passage (1981)
- For the Family (1983, the first of five posthumous collections)
- From Fresh Water (1984, posthumous)
- Home in Halifax (1993, posthumous)
- Poetic Justice (1996, posthumous)
- From Coffee House to Concert Hall (1999, posthumous)
Tropes:
- The Alleged Car: The Antelope sloop in "Barrett's Privateers" is an alleged ship which can barely sail and gets smashed into pieces with one cannonball.The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight...
She'd a list to the port and her sails in rags
And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers 'n jags - Anti-Christmas Song:
- "First Christmas" isn't strictly anti-Christmas, but as Rogers believed Christmas was a time not just for celebration but for deep, sober reflection, it's depressing.
- "At Last I'm Ready for Christmas" tries to be one, but, like the narrator, the song's heart just isn't in it.We swore this year we'd keep things simple, then did our usual spree.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "The Idiot", the narrator's complaints about his job out west are the desolate landscape, the refinery fumes, and the cowboy clothes they wear.
- Artistic License – History: The last of Barrett’s Privateers longs for Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia, but the town didn’t gain that name until 1818. The song mostly takes place in 1778, while the final verse is set in 1784.
- Black Comedy: "Barrett's Privateers" is about a comically under-equipped, inexperienced, largely sick and incompetent bunch of would-be pirates sailing in a vessel in poor repair. When they finally find a slow, easy mark, they take days just to catch it, can't even hurt it with their cracked cannons, and a single cannonball smashes the Antelope to pieces.
- Bystander Syndrome: The narrator of "Harris and the Mare" bitterly laments that none of his neighbors at the pub assisted him in the fight with Clary or its aftermath, stating "And none of them I'll call a friend no more."
- Determinator: After their ship is sunk in a storm and written off by the owners, five members of the crew of "The Mary Ellen Carter" vow that she will rise again ... and through back-breaking labor and unbreakable will, make good on their promise. Stan then invites the audience to follow their example: "Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain/ And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!"
- Drinking on Duty:
- The captain and the mate in "The Mary Ellen Carter" are both drunk drivers.
- The cook in "Barrett's Privateers" has the DTs.
- Dying Town: "Fogarty's Cove" (only implied, and jauntier than the others), "Finch's Complaint", "Make and Break Harbour", "The Field Behind the Plow", "Free in the Harbour", "Tiny Fish for Japan"...
- The narrator in "The Idiot" left one of these to work in a refinery out west.
- Fatal Family Photo: the kid in "White Squall" shows his shipmates "his pictures of the girl he'd wed in spring."
- The Greatest Story Never Told: "MacDonnell on the Heights" tells of an unsung hero of the Battle of Queenston Heights, "but not one in ten thousand knows [his] name."
- Happily Married: The woman in "Lies": despite having become older and less conventionally beautiful, her husband still loves her face "line for line" and still takes her out dancing when they get the chance.
- Heavy Mithril: While not heavy, "The Witch of the Westmorland" is about a knight with a Wound That Will Not Heal who is blessed by a centaur witch to be invincible.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- "The Flowers of Bermuda", about a captain who goes down with the ship so his crew can escape running aground.
- "MacDonnell on the Heights" is about how the eponymous Lieutenant-Colonel rallied his fellow Canadian soldiers after their general's death, thus setting the stage for victory before becoming mortally wounded himself. However, because of General Brock's greater rank and more notable demise in battle itself (MacDonnell succumbed to his wounds the next day), this sacrifice has been overshadowed in history.
- Historical Biography Song: "MacDonnell on the Heights" [sic] is about Lt. Col. John Macdonell
and how his heroic death in the War of 1812 was overshadowed by that of General Brock shortly before. - Job Song:
- "The Field Behind the Plow" is about a farmer.
- "The Idiot" is about a refinery worker.
- "White Collar Holler" is about a computer programmer.
- "Tiny Fish for Japan," "The Jeannie C.", and others are about fishermen.
- "Working Joe" is a variation in that the narrator's actual job is never stated, rather the song is about the stress and fatigue associated with being employed full-time while simultaneously supporting a family.
- Location Song: Many of his songs are extremely redolent of place; even the ones about fictional places ("Fogarty's Cove," "Make and Break Harbour") breathe the reality of lots of real places. His albums Fogarty's Cove, Northwest Passage, and From Fresh Water were Concept Albums about the Maritimes, western and northern Canada, and the Great Lakes, respectively.
- "Watching the Apples Grow" is about the character's love for his home region, the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia.
- "White Squall" centres on the treachery of weather on the Great Lakes, leaving the people of the lakeshore communities to deal with tragedy (there's a reason why it's a "red-eyed Wiarton girl" specifically).
- "The Idiot" contrasts the protagonist's familiar environment back home in the Maritimes with the alienating conditions in Alberta.
- "Canol Road" is about a man suffering from cabin fever who murders someone in a bar fight in Whitehorse, flees along the titular road through isolated country, and eventually runs out of gas and freezes to death. Canol Road is a real cross-country road in the Yukon, and the song references the real-life Yukon towns of Carmacks, Haines Junction, Carcross, Teslin, and Johnson's Crossing.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never actually get to see the Mary Ellen Carter "rise again," except for indirectly, when the singer describes what will happen tomorrow. That said, the preparations for doing so are pretty awesome in and of themselves.
- The Pioneer: "Northwest Passage": the main character waxes lyrical about the Franklin, Kelso, and Thompson expeditions through Western Canada and pondering his commonalities with them; while he himself is simply driving down the highway across the country a hundred years later, he has "like them... left a settled life" to strike out for something new.
- Precision F-Strike:
- Most of "The Mary Ellen Carter" goes by without more than one mild "hell" until the final verse, which Rogers punctuates with relish:
And you to whom adversity has dealt the final blow,With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go ...- "Barrett's Privateers" wouldn't be anywhere as effective if it didn't crash into each chorus with a heartfelt "God damn them all!"
- Recruiters Always Lie: Captain Barrett in "Barrett's Privateers" promises a cushy gig with no fighting and plenty of loot. Disaster ensues.
- Rich Jerk: The owners of "The Mary Ellen Carter" quickly write off the sunken ship and claim the insurance money, even though the crew insists it's still salvageable.
- Salvage Pirates: The jolly main characters of "The Athens Queen" make or at least handsomely supplement their living by salvaging the contents of ships that run aground on a notorious rock near their home. They don't accost and rob the crew of the titular ship, since it's already been abandoned when they get there, but nor are they hastening to their rescue, preferring to "go and have a few and wait until low tide" for easier salvage conditions; the fate of the crew is ignored in the song.
- Seadog Peg Leg: The narrator of "Barrett's Privateers" loses both of his legs when the Antelope is sunk, though whether he ultimately receives replacements for them (wooden or otherwise) is never stated.
- Sole Survivor: "[I'm] the last of Barrett's Privateers."
- Take That!: Ontario's tourism industry came out with the slogan "Ontario! Is there any place you'd rather be?" Stan's response, from "Watching the Apples Grow":Ontario, y'know, I've found the place I'd rather be;Your scummy lakes and city of Toronto don't do a damn thing for me,I'd rather live by the sea.
- Wanderlust Song: "Northwest Passage" is from the point of view of a person who has "left a settled life" to drive west across Canada and identifies with early European explorers.
