The story of Rita MacNeil [photo from Rita’s concert “Songs my mother loved” — at Sarnia, Ontario where my wife and I spoke with her.]
I been goin' over my life And I feel you in the breeze You're a constant reminder Of what used to be. And I know you walk beside me On the earth beneath my feet And though you're only a memory You still give to me A reason to remember And a reason to believe. I been goin' over your life And I've seen you on your knees You so wanted favours Bestowed upon me. And the love that you gave me Is the reason I can feel When the heart needs a mansion And the soul needs the key.
Ask anyone over thirty-five in Atlantic Canada and they will be familiar with the name Rita MacNeil, a hugely successful singer-songwriter, whose unexpected death occurred ten years ago, on April 16, 2013. Like Alden Nowlan of last Friday’s post, she was born in a poor out-of-the-way place in Nova Scotia, with significant drawbacks like him, and just as unlikely to succeed.
Rita was the fifth child of a very unhappy marriage, her father telling the family at her birth they should pray for her to die because she had a disfigured mouth which meant she could not drink her mother’s milk. A doctor sewed up the broken cleft and she lived, but an aunt advised her mother to keep the child out of sight so that the disfigurement would not offend anyone. Growing up self-conscious, Rita was to become the target of many unkind comments, and the parents were often unable to be a support because both of them were angry alcoholics. One of the few adults to pay attention to her was an uncle who used her sexually.
When her unhappy mother wasn’t drunk, she did try to encourage her daughter. “One of these times it’ll all change,” she said, and she would keep up that optimism for the sake of Rita if not for herself. That hope-against-hope helped Rita through many more difficult years until at long last some public recognition began to come to her for her singing and writing talents. Those moments of motherly support are what inspired the above verses of her song called “Reason to believe.”
A few times after trying to make it in the large city of Toronto, Rita would reluctantly return to her Nova Scotia home on Cape Breton Island, seeing how so many of her neighbors fed on the peace and beauty of the Island even while struggling with some ugly aspects of life. Why couldn’t she? But Rita knew the answer to that: she longed to have the world know of her thoughts through her very personal songs, and at that time it seemed this just wouldn’t be possible in Cape Breton. Once she came back from Toronto pregnant and unwed, a different time she returned with a truly loving husband who stood by her through thick and thin, but even that did not seem enough. Another year she returned with a drinking problem and a recent suicide attempt.
Nevertheless, Rita’s singing career did get started in Toronto where she became one of the voices of the feminist movement of the 1960’s. This was important to her in several ways, though her lyrics left the folks back home cold and they suggested that since the tunes were good, why doesn’t she just put less preachy, less controversial words to them? Rita felt that her songs had always been personal, largely about her own experiences, and in due time she began to downplay the feminist message and just be that determined woman. After doing a coal mine tour deep underground with members of her family, she was inspired to create a very male song, “Working Man.”
It's a working man l am And I've been down under ground And I swear to God if l ever see the sun Or for any length of time I can hold it in my mind I never again will go down under ground.
The song was an immediate hit, especially in Cape Breton where mining was the occupation of so many, though the song also has a parallel meaning for herself. The Island’s several talented musicians were now encouraged to follow her success and thus began an era of “down-home music.” The recordings also boosted Rita to national popularity, and indeed to being heard in many countries of the world.
References:
I’m Not What I Seem: The many stories of Rita MacNeil’s life, by Charlie Rhindress, 2016
On A Personal Note by Rita MacNeil with Anne Simpson, 1998
bookends2016 