Insight
On Monday, October 19, 1987, stock markets around the world collapsed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22.6 percent in a single session, the largest one-day percentage drop in its history. In Vancouver the damage ran deeper. The Vancouver Stock Exchange, with more than 2,400 listings, most of them speculative mining and venture stocks, had set an all-time high that May, and it gave up 23 percent over the Monday and Tuesday. Within a week of the crash, a group of Vancouver musicians was in a studio on Dunbar Street recording a song about it.
The money behind the record was already in place. Stephen C. Jackson, a former reporter and editor with The Vancouver Market Report and The Canadian Market Report, had a business relationship with Proview Capital Management Associates Inc. Through a mutual contact he had helped raise investment for Notorious Records Limited, a small startup label with offices at 789 West Pender Street, a short walk from his own downtown office. Proview invested in the label, and part of those funds was still unspent when the market fell. Days after Black Monday, the label’s project coordinator came to Jackson with a request: put some of the remaining balance toward a lighthearted song about the crash.
The song was Joel Parkes’ ‘The Crash of ’87’, words and music. Jackson met Parkes to hear the pitch and satisfy himself there was something real to back, then gave the go-ahead. Notorious handled the rest, booking Bullfrog Studios and assembling the players.
The sessions ran October 24 and 25, five and six days after the crash, with Gerry Gagnon engineering and mixing and Gord Booth assisting. ‘The Crash of ’87’ follows the collapse through the Toronto and New York exchanges in just over three minutes. The flip side, ‘Paranoia’, came from Thoma, Scott and Nielson and packs the headlines of the day into two minutes twenty: tensions with Iran, drugs, violence and the sensational coverage that fed on all of it.
Jackson recalls the song going out about a week after the crash. As he remembers it, CFUN 1410 played it in Vancouver, probably along with CKLG 730 and CKWX 1130, and the story of a band that had turned Black Monday into a rock song ran on CBC, BCTV and CTV newscasts and across the border on KVOS in Bellingham and KIRO in Seattle. Friends told him they had seen it on newscasts farther afield. None of those broadcasts has resurfaced yet.
Notorious issued the two recordings as a 12-inch, 45 RPM single, catalogue NR-1001. Jessica Gihon coordinated the release and Sandy Flett designed the graphics, silkscreened onto a white sleeve. The release was accompanied by a lyric sheet and a mock share certificate from Notorious Records, certificate number 007, dated October 19, 1987, and good for 1,000,000 Class A shares in ‘The Crash of ’87’. The thank-you list on the insert runs from The Stock Exchange and Proview Capital to Imperial Records and everyone at Bullfrog.
-Robert Williston
Gallery
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Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 BACK
Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 INSERT SIDE 01
Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 INSERT SIDE 02
Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 INSERT 02
Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 LABEL 01
Window Jumper-The Crash of 87 LABEL 02
The Cra$h of '87
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Credits
Musicians
Joel Parkes: guitar, vocals
Andy Thoma: vocals
Jason Scott: vocals
Bernie Dobler: guitar
Ron Nielson: guitar, vocals
Tim Loughlin: bass
Norm Casler: drums, harmonica
Songwriting
‘The Crash of ’87’: Joel Parkes (CAPAC)
‘Paranoia’: Andy Thoma, Jason Scott, Ron Nielson (CAPAC/PROCAN)
Published by Notorious Publishing
Production
Engineered and mixed by Gerry Gagnon
Assisted by Gord Booth
Recorded and mixed at Bullfrog Studios, October 24–25, 1987
Album coordination by Jessica Gihon
Artwork
Album graphics by Sandy Flett
Silkscreened cover on white sleeve
Release
Notorious Records Limited, NR-1001, Canada, 1987
12" vinyl single, 45 RPM
© 1987 Notorious Publishing
℗ 1987 Notorious Records Limited
CAPAC/PROCAN
MAPL
Matrix / Runout
Side A: IR-5461-A -CL
Side B: IR-5461-B
Liner Notes
Jason Scott and Bernie Dobler appear courtesy of U-R-1-2.
Ron Nielson, Tim Loughlin and Norm Casler appear courtesy of No Stranger.
Special Thanks
The Stock Exchange
Everyone at Notorious – Kelly, Kerry, Jessica, Dave & Tina
Ron Hughes, Jeff Long, Lucy, Darren
Everyone at Bullfrog
Imperial Records
Proview Capital Management Associates Inc.
Original Packaging
Issued with a lyric sheet insert and an 8.5" × 11" Notorious Records promotional share certificate, dated October 19, 1987, certificate no. 007, representing 1,000,000 Class A shares in ‘The Crash of ’87’. The certificate is a novelty promotional insert.
Notorious Records Limited
888 – 789 West Pender Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1H2
(604) 681-ROCK
The WINDOW JUMPERS would like to thank:
The Stock Exchange
Everyone at Notorious – Kelly, Kerry, Jessica, Dave & Tina, Ron Hughes, Jeff Long, Lucy, Darren, everyone at Bullfrog, Imperial Records, and last but not least a very special thanks to Proview Capital Management Associates Inc.
THE CRASH OF ‘87
Monday morning I was feeling fine
Something happened that changed my mind
I had the funniest feeling the sky was falling
The telephone ringing was my broker calling
Well my heart started pumping like a bull stampede
When I heard what happened on the T.S.E.
My love was waiting at the factory gates with the engine running
Saying “Let’s head for the hills, the N.Y.S.E.’s coming”
An overnight drop from heaven
The crash of ‘87
She said our love is over, your run is through
Take your stocks and bonds and your dividends, your dividends
She said “I’m sorry honey, our love is coming down
So I’m selling it all and I’m leaving town
An overnight drop from heaven
The crash of ‘87
It’s a see-saw slide running up and down
Turning inside-out
I got nerves and a heart of steel
I live day by day, meal by meal
But I’ll never take nothing for granted no more
I will buy and sell with one eye on the back door
An overnight drop from heaven
The crash of ‘87
An overnight drop from heaven
Written by Joel Parkes CAPAC
© 1987 Notorious Publishing
PARANOIA
Well I was reading the paper
Just the other day
Everybody’s got something weird to say
Well the Commonwealth party was going fine
Cost more million dollars to just stand in line
USA shot Iran today
Iran says they’re gonna blow us away
Kids in the ghetto all hooked on crack
Now Boy George says he’s coming back
Paranoid, pack up your clothes
Paranoid, don’t wanna stay no more
Paranoid, turn off the TV
Paranoid, burn up the magazine
My dog Pitbull bit a gay
He’s carryin’ aids
I gotta blow me away
Down in Fort Lauderdale their having fun
My redneck greasetail can carry a gun
We’re all paranoid
USA shot Iran today
Iran says there gonna blow us away
Kids in the ghetto all hooked on crack
Now Boy George says he’s coming back
Paranoid, pack up your bags
Paranoid, makes me gag
Paranoid, turn off the TV
Paranoid, burn up the magazine
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