I was too young to remember The Poppy Family, although over the years some of their songs, "Which Way You Going Billy?" and "Where Evil Grows," have become part of the great Canadian musical tapestry.
To me, though, Susan Jacks was the lady who sang "I Thought of You Again," a song that appeared on Canadian Mint, a K-Tel compilation that also included "Where Evil Grows" and "Seasons in the Sun," songs that were connected although at the time I had no idea. I never really thought much of Susan Jacks outside of this one song. I never forgot the song, but it was just part of a memory from another time.
When I heard of her passing a couple of years ago, it made me sad.
A few months ago my wife and I went to Victoria to hang out for the weekend and go for the world's most expensive high tea at The Empress Hotel. It was also a weekend where an atmospheric river savaged the southern coast of BC. Vancouver was hit pretty hard, and my buddy's basement in North Vancouver flooded, leaving him with around sixty grand worth of water damage ... that he was able to get fixed for about ten grand. Gotta love insurance estimates.
Anyway, it was still pretty bloody wet on Vancouver Island. Luckily our accommodation was in a nifty part of town where, within easy walking distance, were a number of shops and a great donut place. The nifty shops were more to my wife's liking than mine ... however, one of the shops had a small bin of records that were being sold for five bucks a pop. Most of them were in pristine condition, and I almost picked up a Bobby Curtola album but didn't ... which I regret now. However, among the items I did get was a still shrink-wrapped copy of The World of Susan Jacks. I scanned the back cover, and there on side two near the end was "I Thought of You Again," and that was all I needed.
The album contained fourteen songs, with only four songs clocking in at three minutes or more. Most of the songs were around two and a half minutes ... get in, make your point and get out. Terry Jacks produced the album and wrote the majority of the songs on the album. For a compilation this is remarkably cohesive. Susan Jacks had a great voice, and it's strange her solo career didn't get more attention. I suppose it boils down to the fact she was a product of the late '60s and early '70s, and so many artists just sort of fell by the wayside as time moved on.
This may have been an album I got because of a nostalgic connection to a single song, but I found myself really enjoying all of the songs that were collected here. This really was The World of Susan Jacks.
She was in many ways a Canadian icon. She may be gone, but hopefully she won't be forgotten.
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