- published: 01 Jul 2011
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Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer. He has recorded seven albums of original music and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written a classical opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theater piece by Robert Wilson.
Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. Wainwright has dual US and Canadian citizenship. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in New York (which would later inspire his song "Millbrook"), and later briefly studied piano at McGill in Montreal. He began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at 13 with "The McGarrigle Sisters and Family", a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. His song "I'm a-Runnin'", which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller at the age of 14, earned him a nomination for a 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song. He was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year.
Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian, August 26, 1949) is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics.
Recognized for his trademark Panama hat, dark sunglasses, and bow tie, Redbone first appeared on stage in Toronto, Canada in the mid-1970s.
Redbone has released approximately fifteen albums and earned a sizable cult following. His concerts blend performance, comedy, and skilled instrumentals. Recurrent gags involve the influence of alcohol and claiming to have written works originating well before his time. He sang the theme to the television series Mr. Belvedere.
According to the Toronto Star report in the 1980s, his birth name is Dickran Gobalian, he came to Canada from Cyprus in the mid-1960s and changed his name via Ontario, Change of Name Act. However, a reference from 1973 states that he was a native of Philadelphia who moved to Toronto.
While living in Canada in the early 1970s, Redbone began performing in public at Toronto area nightclubs and folk music festivals. He met Bob Dylan at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Dylan was so impressed by Redbone's performance that he mentioned it in a Rolling Stone interview, leading that magazine to do a feature article on Redbone a year before he had a recording contract. The article described his performances as "so authentic you can hear the surface noise [of an old 78 rpm]." His first album, On the Track, was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1975.
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
That I'm walking right behind you, walking real slow
I don't want to catch up with you 'cause once we got started
We'd have to see it through
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
I'm following behind you counting my steps as I go
Maybe ten steps or twelve, divide us in two
Not counting the blocks between me and you
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
People said watch out for that situation
It's nothing more than crazy infatuation
Insisting it was love, I weighed common sense
I played with my heart 'til I saw how much I spent
I see you walking up 14th Street and you don't know
Now I'm so close behind you, almost in your shadow
Maybe one step or two and I'd be walking next to you
Not counting the blocks between me and you
I see you on the street, you kiss my cheek
My knees go weak
It's clear you've got nothing to lose
While I'm losing sleep
I see you on the street and my knees go weak