Art Bergmann – Bound for Vegas

I’m learning more about Canadian musicians as the years go by and I love what I’m finding. I have some Canadian followers and I appreciate all of your insights. CB suggested Bergmann and I’ve been listening to him this week. He is all over the map and gives you a great variety and he rocks. The more I heard the more I think of Paul Westerberg. 

He has some quirky and deep lyrics throughout his songs. He also doesn’t always play by the music business rules. One band he formed was called the f**k band which turned into Los Popularos for a short time. 

Art Bergmann is a Canadian singer/songwriter and a pioneer of punk rock in the country. Born in Vancouver…he was in the punk scene in the late ’70s, playing with bands like the Young Canadians (originally The K-Tels). Their track “Hawaii” (I love this surf punk song) became locally popular and set the stage for Bergmann’s career.

In the 1980s, Bergmann went solo, and his music started to change, blending his punk roots with elements of rock, folk, rockabilly, and even country. His debut solo album, “Crawl with Me” (1988), produced by none other than John Cale of The Velvet Underground, put him on the map. His songwriting kept getting edgier with albums like “Sexual Roulette” and “Art Bergmann” in the early ’90s. He has recorded a total of 12 albums with his last one coming in 2023 with the name of ShadowWalk: Legacy of Love. 

Bound for Vegas is off the 1990 album Sexual Roulette. One critic wrote that the album is“Art Bergmann in Paul Westerbergish form” and then he described The Replacement’s new album All Shook Down as “Paul Westerberg in Art Bergmannish form.” I do get a heavy Paul Westerberg vibe or is it the other way around? Either way, he is good…listen. 

Bergmann was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2021. He said this about it: I just thought it was a joke by maybe some friends that have grown up through the years and now work … at the Governor General’s office. I have been toiling in the underground for years, and awards like this are kind of anathema. So, you know, this would be the ultimate leg-pulling, I would think.

Art Bergmann: “People always say, ‘You’re so angry, and your words are so dangerous.’ And I say, ‘Does everybody forget Jimi Hendrix and the Stones and the Who and all the great rock and roll stuff?’ Everybody forgets what it is, you know.”

Art Bergmann: “I sort of grew up with music all around, my parents were heavy into classical —my dad thinks music died after Beethoven, so there was a lot of that around the house. And I had to sing in church; that’s where I got to know harmony from, I guess, and melody. And then my older brothers were greaseballs, and they had all the great stuff like Eddie Cochran and Elvis and Buddy Holly.”

Below is another song I was going to pick…Unfaithfully Yours. 

Bound For Vegas

Load up the trucks
Don’t forget the make-up
We’ve got the six semis
For the money
None for the show
We’ve got our costumes ready
Got to go go go

Bound for Vegas
Bound for Vegas

Who’s got the map
Who’s gonna navigate
We’ve got six shows
On the strip
It’s a sellout
Wayne Newton doesn’t
Want us to be late

It’s in my heart
I’m making a financial start

They call me the performer
I guess they always will
Call me the entertainer
Don’t retire me yet
I ain’t over the hill
I ain’t had my fill

It’s in my heart
I’m making a financial start
I’m a never was
Trying to be a has-been
A has-been on the come-back trail
Come-back to me
On the Vegas scene
By the age of fifty

Good-bye Vancouver, Good-bye Toronto
Good-bye New York
Even the St. Louis blues
I said buy Detroit, buy New York
Ain’t going Route 66
Give me I-85

Bound for Vegas
Bound for Vegas

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

31 thoughts on “Art Bergmann – Bound for Vegas”

  3. Not bad that Vegas track, wry sense of humor. You know more about him than I, though I do know his name and remember hearing a couple of tracks by him on CFNY back then…right now I can’t even remember what they were

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    1. He does resemble Westerberg in songwriting…I did pick up on that and I can see why that critic said that about both. I love the Young Canadians punk sound.

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      1. ‘Sexual roulette’ rings a bell, I think there was a song he did (as well as album) called that I used to hear now and then. He was one of those artists most of us probably heard of back then but didn’t necessarily know the music of.

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      2. I had never heard of him before CB mentioned him….I’m glad he did. He is the kind of artist I really like…you can tell he does it for himself…not for anyone else.

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  5. Yep, like his songwriting- no surprise there I guess. ‘Vegas’ and ‘Hawaii’ really worked for me, ‘Unfaithfully’ not so much, I dunno why. But another new artist for me to find the time to explore?!

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    1. Jerry Lee does seem right up his alley. The guy is really interesting…I saw a quote where he didn’t do music to get rich or get famous…he did it to meet people and have adventures.

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  8. I have to agree with you, Max (shocker!!!), Art Bergmann who is a new name to me sounds cool. There’s a lot of great music coming out of Canada. Not that I want to plug my new music post from today, the garage rockers I featured, The Discarded, are also from Canada.

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    1. Yea…I’ve discovered more and more from Canada that I really like. Art is pretty cool man… I also like that punk song he did called Hawaii.

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  10. Thanks for the tip on Alex – had never heard of him. Going through his stuff on Spotify this morning and like it. I catch the Westerberg connections! As for Canadian artists – you also need to check out my friend Barry Greenfield and his great lost LP “Blue Sky” which you can also find on Spotify. I will be sending you a backround story on him.

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  12. I’ve heard rumours that’s Art had relocated to the prairie, Alberta maybe?…..the best Bergman story was him late late standing in the parking lot of a hotel in Kamloops and yelling his wife’s name at the top of his lungs because he couldn’t remember what room they were in….after a fantastic show at the, what was known as the Heroes Pub at Cariboo College (it’s named something else now) he had an amazing band, the openers was the Matthew Good Band..it was a good night

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    1. What a great story! Thank you!
      A Canadian got me into him recently and I love his stuff…he knew I would like him because I’m such a big Replacements fan…and Art fits right in there.
      Sorry it took me so long to reply.

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