C10

Wilfred Langmaid
On the record

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"One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.

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CP

Gone but not forGotten: Mookie Morris was eliminated from Canadian Idol’s Top 5 this week.

Come together right now over me."

Come Together by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

I find myself quoting Homer J. Simpson in my columns a lot of late, and here I go again.

"When are people going to learn? Democracy doesn't work!"

I found myself thinking of Homer's quote from the 1996 episode of The Simpsons' "Much Apu About Nothing" when the Canadian Idol results were revealed Tuesday night and Mookie Morris was eliminated.

As a family, we have followed Canadian Idol with interest for the past five seasons.

This year, we saw a group literally blossom before our eyes and ears from week to week, and I could have lived with any one of the existing Top 5 winning the competition - the first year I could say that.

However, we had two favourites as a family - Earl Stevenson and Mookie Morris.

To my mind, Morris was the most talented artist in this year's competition. He was the youngest of the Top 5 at age 18, and he dazzled week by week with a stellar combination of energy, awareness of the many roots of rock music, and a unique ability to make classic songs his own while never warping them beyond their original meaning.

This week, he did a version of The Beatles' Come Together that transfixed me. After it ended, judge Zack Werner said, "I don't know how many people really know that song was actually taken from an old blues song, and I knew you would figure that out or I had a feeling you would - and you really captured the old blues soul funk of that thing - and to be honest, I think that you can get really carried away sitting here but I think that was the best version of that song I've ever heard."

Werner nailed it. I have heard this song covered by many - but never better.

Some of Morris' performances week by week, be they newer hits like The Kooks' Naïve and Amy Winehouse's Valerie or old nuggets like The Kinks' Lola and The Band's Ophelia, rank up with the greatest moments I have ever seen on the Idol stage.

Musically mature beyond his years, Morris wowed the judges literally every week with what they kept calling his "star quality."

I couldn't agree more. In fact, before the show's results this week, judge Jake Gold told Morris "Call me Monday."

Morris should, and will. He has a huge career ahead of him.

That is part of the irony and the fun of Idol, at least the Canadian version with which I am most acquainted.

Acts can make it big even without winning it all. I fact, I feared from the outset that Morris was (pardon the snobbishness) too good to win Canadian Idol.

By that I mean he is in a different league than the more homogeneous sound that tends to get the mass appeal that leads to ultimate victory. In fact, I feared that the even quirkier Stevenson would be eliminated first, and have great doubts that my clear fave from here on in will win it all.

For what it's worth, I predict that the far safer Theo Tams, a very talented singer and piano player, is the most likely winner for 2008.

Much like Jacob Hoggard from 2004's competition, Morris pushed the envelope a bit too far for shiny and broad consumption, but his star power shone. Half a decade later, Hoggard is a mega-star as the frontman of Hedley.

Judge Farley Flex put it this way after Morris tore through a unique take of Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride two weeks ago.

"Dude, you're just unbelievably charismatic. Everything you touch, you're a star. You've just got to choose which galaxy you want."

I'll be there for that magic carpet ride, and I am happy I have gotten to see the early ignition of what will likely be a stellar career.

Long-time Daily Gleaner columnist Wilfred Langmaid is employed by the University of New Brunswick. He resides in Fredericton.