Music critic’s legacy lives on in new book
“I promised my dad I would make sure it got out to the world,” said Kate Woudenberg of Peter Goddard’s new book, One Foot on the Platform: A Rock ’n’ Roll Journey. “I am so proud that he’s not going to be forgotten. He has done so many things and hasinfluenced people, which I never realized until after his passing.”
The respected music critic was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2021. In the 10 months leading up to his death in March 2022, Woudenberg says he kept a tight grip on the manuscript. Goddard had already shared it with his closest friend of more than fivedecades, JA Wainwright, who had agreed to edit the book.
Goddard met Wainwright while working at The Varsity student newspaper at the University of Toronto. He went on to have a 50-year career as a music critic first for The Globe and Mail, before moving to The Toronto Telegram where he wrote about pop music and the ascending culture of the era between 1968 and 1971, and onto The Toronto Star where he was a music, film and visual arts critic for more than 30 years. He is the author and co-creator of more than 20 books on iconic musicians, and a novel. He was the last recipient of the Juno Award for Canadian Music Journalist of the Year in 1972, and in 1982 he received a National Newspaper Award for critical writing.
Goddard was planning on publishing a 20-essay volume called My Private Rock ’n’ Roll, the title bestowed on the book’s first chapter in which he writes, the book is “not about nostalgia, although it goes back to pop’s halcyon early days… This book is about the humanness of rock, its inherent if crazy humanity, which, to my mind, is best understood as narrative – multiple stories, actually, as the lives and careers of rock’s several generations of musicians criss-crossed each other, leaving me to witness all the comings and goings and their influences.”
The book includes Goddard’s writings on music from the 1960s through to 2020. It tells a story of a man who was on the music scene as some of the greats were coming up and when at their peak. He recounts the story of being there when Bruce Cockburn “made it” and seeing a 19-year-old Arlo Guthrie during a two-week residency at The Riverboat.
The stories are often humorous – whether about Liza Minelli’s eyelash falling off, or trudging across the country road in a snow storm to do a phone interview with kd lang because the phone lines at the neighbours’ house were still operational.
Goddard discovered Creemore in 1983 and it became his family’s second home. Woudenberg said the family, including the dog and cat, spent every weekend in Creemore and would wake up at 5 a.m. on Mondays to get her to school in Toronto on time – she recalls wearing her clothes to bed so she could sleep a little longer.
A classically trained pianist, Goddard received a diploma from The Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto in 1966, a Baccalaureate in Music in 1967 and a Master of Arts (Ethnomusicology) in 1972 from The University of Toronto.
Woudenberg said her father worked long hours and was very dedicated to his craft but insisted his daughter practice piano most mornings for 30 minutes – even though she absolutely hated it – and would take her to some of the tamer performances, usually orchestras. She remembers her father scurrying to a nearby restaurant after leaving the venue to write up his critiques and then sending them via some antiquated phone gadget in order to meat deadline. Woudenberg, who describes herself as “a bit of a daddy’s girl,” said her father’s musical tastes were quite diverse, and he appreciated all genres. Woudenberg, to whom the book is dedicated, said her father was a fan of the music he covered but he had an appreciation for all music.
“I always thought he was the cool dad,” she said. “He would drive me to school and we would listen to current music… and he would blare it.” She remembers him jamming to the latest sounds on the top-40 radio station and being wowed by it.
Woudenberg said she promised her father she would follow through on the book, which involved renewing contracts with House of Anansi Press, saying it was important to her because people respected his take on music and performance and his work helped shape people’s musical interests.
Woudenberg said she and her mother are very grateful to the publishers, who demonstrated patience when working out how to proceed with publishing the book posthumously, and Wainwright for putting so much love and care into the book.
“Peter was unable to complete his personal rock ’n’ roll project,” writes Wainwright in the introduction. “From the measured insights he has left behind, however, there is sufficient evidence of his clear- eyed vision of a musical form whose identifiable strengths he recognized, but never overestimated, and whose high-priest representatives he often challenged and questioned.”
One Foot on the Platform: A Rock ’n’ Roll Journey by Peter Goddard will be in stores on March 11. The book can be pre ordered online or at any bookstore.
