Every band has got that one cover song hiding in their back pocket; the one that they’ve got polished up for special occasions and when they do bring it out it’s almost better than the original. For The Trews, apparently, that song is The Who’s classic “1921” and they’ve been holding onto it for the last two decades.
The Trew’s cover of “1921” that they’ve released today is absolutely goosebump-inducing. Guitarist John-Angus MacDonald explains that wasn’t always the case though. As a much younger over and somewhat overambitious band, the performed a live version that was received less enthusiastically.
“When we were a young band just starting out in Antigonish, NS, we decided, for reasons that no one outside of our own band encouraged or supported, that it would be a good idea to cover the Who’s 1969 rock opera masterpiece, ‘Tommy’ in its ENTIRETY,” says MacDonald. “So, we did. And the only time we ever did it live, on New Year’s Eve 1998/99 in Halifax, NS at the Economy Shoe Shop, we completely cleared the place!
“In retrospect, this makes total sense – I mean, who wants to listen to a 111-minute opus about an abused child who goes on to become a pinball champion, a global sensation, and then, ultimately, a martyr on a night meant for celebrating? But obviously, it all made complete sense to us at the time.”
The decision to revisit the song was more than simply the timely turnover of a century, but a handful of serendipitous occurrences that practically demanded it.
“When the idea was brought up this past summer that 2020 was the right time to revive the album’s third track, ‘1921’, with its prophetic and hopeful mantra, ‘got a feeling ‘21 is gonna be a good year’, we knew we had to do it,” says MacDonald. “And when we found a dude named Thomas D’arcy (Tommy can you hear me?) whose second cousin, Oliver Reed (who shares a name with my firstborn nephew) just so happened to star in the 1975 film version of Tommy and actually sang THIS song in the movie, we knew the serendipity was too much to ignore.
“So, we cut it live off the floor at a half-day session at his place in Toronto in early September. Another half-day to mix it, and here you have it. Here’s to making ‘21 a good year!”
It’s not the sort of comparison anyone ventures into lightly, pitting one of the best bands to ever come out of Atlantic Canada against some of the biggest rock legends of all time. Pete Townshends’s original vocals have a quality of piercing clarity, where Colin MacDonald has a more robust, well-rounded sound and that boils down to little more than subjective preference.
It’s pretty safe to say that if The Trews were to perform Tommy again it’s entirety, there might be a little more demand this time.
The band has announced a Drive-in show this weekend, October 3 at the Ancaster Fairgrounds in Jerseyville, Ontario. No guarantees of a rock opera, but for more details, click here.