Is Mash McCann known only in Montreal?
 

Montrealer Mash McCann (I hope I spelt his name right) recorded a tune called As The Years Go By (And as the years go by/true love will never die/A child asks his mother/do you love me/and it really means will you protect me...), and I've only heard it played on Montreal oldies radio, which doesn't exist anymore. It was usually introduced as being a record from 'Montreal's' Mash McCann. It's an appealing record. I wonder if others have heard it. Have you?

Mashmakan was a Canadian group, not an individual, that released two LPs, "Mashmakan" in 1970, and "The Family" in 1971. As I recall, "As The Years Go By" was a hit in the US also. It sounds great on Sony/Legacy's "Artifacts, Volume I" CD.




Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

... The name of the band was changed to Mashmakhan, after a type of drug being peddled by a local dealer, to become more hip with the young people, and the journey began. Pierre Senecal's "As Years Go By" was released as a single in an edited form, and became the group's first hit. The single sold 100,000 copies in Canada, 500,000 copies in the U.S., and over 1,000,000 copies in Japan ...

more at http://www.allmusic.com/

"As Years Go By" on the US charts for 18 weeks and peaked at #31

Interestingly, I just saw a screening of a new documentary called Festival Express and it is mind-blowing!! The list of artists is incredible--The Dead, The Band, Janis, Ian & Sylvia, Buddy Guy, and Mashmakhan!

Mashmakhan featured future Little Feat bassist Kenny Gradney and he has a good scene where he and Bob Weir are chewing out some hippies (and rightly-so!).

Go to the visual arts forum for my post on this wonderful new find.

Hello All

Legendary Border Blaster CKLW AM 800 (The Big 8) Windsor Ontario played a lot of this song back in the day. I am sure this exposed the song to many Americans and contributed to the songs success in the USA.

Charlie

I always sorta liked "As The Years Go By" and I actually saw the band perform not long after it came out.

The song was a big hit in Vancouver too, where I am from, and I had the self-titled LP, but it got fried over the years, sad to say.

"As Years Go By" was a big Top 40 hit in the upper Midwest...

Bob:)

Collectables issued a Mashmakhan two-fer CD containing both of their Epic LPs. I don't have the CD, but all of the Collectables CDs that I have that were licensed from Sony have excellent sound quality. I believe Sony engineers remaster all the CDs they license to Collectables.

Mashmakhan is notable as one of the participating band's in 1970's Festival Express, that traveled across Canada with the Grateful Dead, the Band, Traffic, Janis Joplin, Ian & Sylvia, ... heck, go to the site for more http://www.festivalexpress.com/main.html . In any event, they are documented in the film and DVD, due out soon.

BTW, Michoacan (mich-wa-can) is one of the central states of Mexico, with a gorgeous pre-columbian culture, which, in the late 60's / early 70's was known for the exceptional quality of its finer herbal exports (or so I'm told by folks who actually remember the 60's). I don't know the exact sequence of associations, but at some point people began to refer to Michoacan - the herbal product - as meshmacan, unaware that the name had indicated the origin. Probably the corrupting influence of the band's name.