jack layton

jack layton

80's Parachute Club hit joins the party for Jack Layton's NDP Campaign.

- "Jack asked to use our song and I said, Forget it, we'll write you your own anthem." - Lorraine Segato

The new song is called "Bringing All The Voices Together" and it's a re-write of the 1983 hit "Rise Up". If you live in Canada, you will undoubtedly remember that Segato originally released the song with her band the Parachute Club back in the early 80s. That infectiously positive single, produced by Daniel Lanois, went on to win several awards and became an anthem for many a different group.

Re-written by Vocalist/Director/Woman-about-town Lorraine Segato, with the help of Richard Underhill and Lynne Fernie, the song is now a bona-fide anthem for Toronto city councilor and NDP federal candidate Jack Layton. "It is a song we wrote for Jack Layton's campaign to get him elected as NDP leader. It will premiere at the convention on Jan 27th in Toronto, and that will be televised before the vote… Jack will probably use it as much as possible if he gets elected." says Segato. "The song will probably go onto to have a club re-mix at some point. That's all I know for now."

She is enthusiastic about the possibility, but hasn't always been so willingly involved in the song's usage. "Over the years, many political parties have either used or wanted to use the song "Rise Up" for their campaign. Most of the time, they don't ask. They just use it until you say no. Well, Jack asked to use our song and I said, Forget it, we'll write you your own anthem."

Recorded Thursday January 16, 2003, "Bringing All The Voices Together" is an all new take with inspiring new lyrics. When I asked Jack about it, he was obviously impressed. "It's a new version of Rise Up, not the lyrics but the spirit. Also, we are laying some French into the song. A guy by the name of Gregg Lawless, does a lot stuff with kids. He goes by the name of Gregg 'Laroche' when he's working at the schools". Jack is fluently bilingual, so his comedic impression is convincing. When asked if he speaks any Cantonese as well, he quips 'a little bit yeah. I have to communicate with mother-in-law if I wanna eat."

The track also includes vocal help from some of the city's finest pipes, all of which are old friends and supporters. "All these musicians from over the years, Richard Underhill from the old Shuffle Demons, you know, Spadina Bus, he's the sax player for Blue Rodeo now, he wrote the music. I went down when they were doing some of the chorus work, and oh man it was great, this was one serious group of singers." Molly Johnson, John Alcorn, Dave Wall, Alana Bridgewater and Colleen Allen, just to name a few. Lorraine, of course, sang as well. "it's so amazing to look into a room like that and know that every one of those people possess monster talents and all of them did the gig out of the expansiveness of their hearts. Just to know that people still do things because they believe in something was important for me to remember."

This guy sure does have a way with the artistic community, bringing them together and reaching out to all manner of folk. Music is one of the ways he achieves such high standing amongst the younger set, most notably with support from the Bare Naked Ladies. Not only has he been part of this community for years, but it's all part of the master plan.

"It's Young people who are shaping the future, lets get some of them to run for us, and reach out beyond our traditional source of candidates. And that I think will result in the media and the public becoming excited about our team." It does look like grey hair is a pre-requisite for government… "We have to encourage and involve young people generally, a lot more, in our party, and in politics. We've got to listen to what they say when they say 'here's how we'd like to be involved'. So if they say we want a rock concert cause that's gonna turn people on, then by golly that's what were gonna do. Some people might pooh-pooh the idea and look down their nose at it. They say that people who went to a rock concert and became members of the NDP aren't real NDPers, well I say nonsense. Its absolutely not so. What is a real NDPer then?"