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Badlands Books

The Bonemen years

Paul Gross - Music

Thunder, Perfect Mind was over but it seemed the habit of song writing had become fixed. Songs need to be sung and so the next foray into musical performance came a few years later with the assembly of a group who dubbed themselves The Bonemen. Paul wrote the melody and lyrics and then the group worked together on the arrangements. Audiences were found in small Toronto clubs. Paul's brother, Tony, was a loyal fan. Judging from his description of one of the concerts he attended, it sounded a bit reminiscent of the Blues Brothers. (Like the Blues Brothers, the Bonemen seized eagerly on whatever venues would have them!)
On the evening Tony describes, The Bonemen opened to a good house made up mostly of friends of the performers -- an enthusiastic but polite and orderly audience. As the set was drawing to a close, Tony said he noticed the atmosphere change with the arrival of a whole new crowd.
The men were big and burly, their pectoral muscles bulging from their open vests, body parts heavily tatooed. The girls were leather-clad and extensively pierced. None of them showed any interest in what was going on on stage and the noise level rose to demonstrate their indifference. Fortunately, the Bonemen's repertoire was exhausted, so they weren't subjected to having objects lobbed at them. The heavy metal group that followed was equal to the roar of its biker fans.
Neither stability of membership nor longevity was to be the lot of the Bonemen. However before they drifted off to other pursuits, they got together to record. (The resulting tape was a very limited edition, made for family and friends, never available commercially) My favorite song on the album takes its inspiration from the down and out side of the part of Toronto known as Cabbagetown. It is called Cry. I like its lyrical sadness. Once I master the audio tricks of this web page business, I'll add it to this page. In the meantime, here are the lyrics. The song reflects another quality I admire in my son: the ability to get in touch with the day-to-day struggles of people and then distill them, in one form or another, so those of us who watch and listen can better understand