November 2002
Words of Peace
“Singer Tim Lawson Writes War-Themed
Songs for Remembrance Day”
“In ’39, there was a fever in
the air/ Wait in line, for action over there/ My friends are
going, so I’m going too.”
Those are the first three lines to folk
singer Tim Lawson’s Muskoka Shore, a song about Howard
Lovell, a Canadian soldier who barely escaped the Second World
War after being stationed in Italy.
Lawson, 49, says the verse could easily
apply to 2002 and one of thousands of soldiers around the
globe currently in battle. “I don’t like the idea
of anybody having to lose their life. If (Canadians) have
to go into Iraq, it’ll be like last time with the Gulf
War,” the singer/songwriter said on the line from his
home in Langley, B.C., about the current political situation
that could see a head-to-head confrontation between the United
States and Iraq. “We can make this world a better place
and as Canadians we should be leading the charge.”
For his part, Lawson has released Lest We
Forget II, a collection of 12 war themed songs, including
one about a Canadian pilot who flew Lawrence of Arabia to
Cairo. Lawson said he wanted to keep the spirit of Remembrance
Day alive through the music. “There’s a very ripe
ground for celebrating these sorts of things,” the self-proclaimed
peace monger said, referring to a new generation of young
men and women who joined the forces after Sept. 11. The album,
folky ballads about love, heroism and loss from war, is being
distributed through Legion halls and record shops across the
country. He says he’s already received orders totaling
over 25,000 – which, if sold, makes him half way to
a gold album.
Lest We Forget is a follow-up to his 2000
EP of the same name. The first album contained just three
songs and various pieces of spoken word. Lawson said he always
meant to write a complete album but didn’t want to rush
the songs. “I thought when I started out that if you
push too hard things sound contrived,” he said. “I’m
trying to put myself in the shoes of soldiers or different
stories and I hope on that level it really works for veterans
and children of veterans.”
Half of the tracks on Lest We Forget II
come from Lawson’s previous four records. Six are new
including Such a Beautiful Tree, about a tree planted in Vancouver
in 1960 in memory of a First World War flight instructor.
“These wartime songs just keep creeping through in my
writing and I find that I’m continually fascinated by
reading more and more about wartime experiences,” Lawson
said. “Millions of people gave their lives through the
conflicts of the last century, usually young people. I want
these songs to inspire anybody to ring with the veterans.”
Lawson is also concerned about the current
financial troubles of the Royal Canadian Legion. It has closed
nearly 200 legion halls across the country in the past 10
years because of dwindling membership ranks as veterans age
and die. Nearly 30 percent, or about 120,000 legion members,
are 75 and over.
Fifty percent of the CD’s sale price,
$10, is going to the Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Fund which
helps war veterans, their widows and dependants. The goal
is to raise $100,000.
Lawson, whose grandfather Ray Lawson has
a hall named after his in Chatham, Ontario, thinks singing
about war time emotions is one way to keep the memory of Remembrance
Day alive at a time when many young people are experiencing
conflict for the first time because of the way of terrorism.
Much of Lawson’s work was influenced
by the late Sir William Stephenson, a Winnipeg man who became
a renowned spymaster during the Second World War (and was
the inspiration for the character M in the Bond novels.) The
two were introduced in 1985 via Lawson’s father, an
army colonel who served in the Second World War. “I
was looking for some way to contribute in my life to help
make the world a better place and Sir William gave me a focus
in terms of the military look at things, underscoring that
idea that our freedom wasn’t free,” Lawson recalled.
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