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I didn’t know Mary Margaret O’Hara very well when I asked her to sing on my first record \u00a0in 1988 but I loved the way Greg Keelor described her to me, it sounded like she was some sort of amazing force and he was right, she was also very kind and selfless. I dropped off a cassette in advance for her to learn the songs. She lived upstairs on the west side of Spadina then near Dundas.<\/p>\n
When she showed up for the session at the Music Gallery Members studio (which cost $5 an hour for the 8 track) she came with her boyfriend but she made him leave when we were about to start recording. She arranged it for him to come back in an hour or two. I thought it was amusing that she needed him to leave in order to sing. Then for me to record her she needed to stand around the corner so I couldn’t see her. Okay. Then she needed the lights off. Okay. And then she sang and it was more than I could have hoped for.<\/p>\n
Each take she did I would hear aspects I liked and some I didn’t. But each time I played it back I didn’t hear it in the same way. \u00a0I couldn’t find what I thought were wrong parts plus I heard new things I didn’t notice the first time that gave me pause and made me feel regret about expressing criticism. She tried to accommodate me and went back out to re-record each time with my jumble of directions only to do something else equally brilliant and confounding. I started to grasp it made no sense to try and direct her. I learned a lesson, certain artists are so exceptional you shouldn’t interfere, just trust their talent. It might take many hours of listening later to properly process and it’ll be worth it.<\/p>\n
Sometimes people who have heard of her but never have met her ask me what she’s like. She is a legend, that’s what I tell them. She’s a living legend – right here right now. She may also be a saint. Whatever one does in the presence of saints, that’s what you should do if you meet her, offer to wash her feet or get her a piece of cake.<\/p>\n
In this song called Travel Agent, from that first session,\u00a0her voice echoes the inner strife of the singer. It’s about someone losing their mind. Someone who hypothetically bears a striking resemblance to me.<\/p>\n
I do wish I could transfer all this from the 1\/4 inch 8 track and clean up some stuff, fix some stuff that I didn’t hear when I was 25 but I’m ok if I die tomorrow and this is the way it stands in highly sought after spaces in random delete bins everywhere.<\/p>\n\n