My friend Ron told me about this Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith from St. Catharines, Ontario. I listened to this song and it’s a beautifully written song. His name seemed familiar and there is a good reason for that. My friend Randy from MostlyMusicCovers covered him this past June. I’m not sure why I didn’t look at him more then.
This song was released on his Other Songs album released in 1997. The album won a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year in 1998.
This song came about when he was at a playground with his young son and he observed a little girl being looked after by her grandmother because her mom was in rehab. The mix of innocence of the little girl and the problem of drug addiction of her mom played into this song.
From everything I’ve heard from him and also read about…he draws his inspiration from real life about something real…not made-up stories but true to life. In this song, we see Amanda as a child and have to wonder how living in this situation will shape the rest of her life. There is not a real Amanda but this story has happened so many times.
His songs have been covered by Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, and Emmylou Harris to name a few. He has released 18 albums since 1986 and released his last one in 2023 called The Vivian Line.
Ron Sexsmith: I remember one time a man came up to me in France and asked me where Amanda was today and that he wanted to meet her and help her somehow. I had to break it to him that she was just a fictional character and I think he was a little heart broken about it… kinda how I felt when I found out Sherlock Holmes was a work of fiction too.
Ron Sexsmith: “I think that singer / songwriter is the best job description for what I do. I am in that tradition of singer / songwriter. This is the first album on which I have had a co-write (“Alexander Brandy”). I have always prided myself on the fact that on the back of the other albums, it said all songs by Ronald Sexsmith. I think that the people who are into my stuff expect that. There have been a few exceptions, like I did a Leonard Cohen song on my first record. In general, I try to stick to that (writing all of the songs), because I am old fashioned. I like to buy a (Bob) Dylan record and find out that he wrote all of the songs, or Joni Mitchell or whoever it is. It’s romantic for me to think that at some time, they sat at a piano, or in a room and that, they wrote this thing, and they didn’t have any help. I would say that being a singer / songwriter is what I do and that’s pretty well who I am.”
Strawberry Blondes
She was not the girl next door but the girl from around the cornerIt was at the tail end of grade four when she came to school one morningAnd all eyes were upon her as she took her seatHer name was Amanda, with pretty eyes of greenAnd hair of blonde, strawberry blonde
Springtime and dandelions and summer around the cornerWas at the tail end of age nine with a million dreams before herShe lived with her mother in an old decrepit houseIf there was trouble at home, she kept it to herselfAll summer long, the strawberry blonde
And by her face, there was no way to tellSeemed like all was well in the worldBut the neighbours said her mother had lost her willTo gin and sleeping pills, it was no life for a little girl
Still, I see her face framed in blue skyAt the top of a slide coming downAnd when the sirens wailed, her mother had failed to riseAll the neighbours stood outside as Amanda just stared at the ground
Time flies and years are piled, I’d forgotten all about herWhen I saw her down the aisle of a streetcar with her daughterThen I heard Amanda say as she got up“Come on, Samantha, girl, this is our stop”And they were gone, two strawberry blondes
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