Music
A 15-year-old made an awesome Rob Ford concept album
by Mark Teo
July 23, 2014
The ongoing Rob Ford saga—which, hopefully, comes to its merciful conclusion in October—isn’t any stranger to music. After all, plenty of songwriters have parodied Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor: Of course, he collaborated with Jay Z on “Crack Cocaine.” The Rob Ford musical, which sells itself as “gravy train meets Crazy Train,” launches this September. At the peak of the crack-tape hysteria, Drunken Stupor Records released the Rob Ford noise tape. Merry pranksters launched the Mayor Rob Marley Twitter account. Ford appeared in a Korn video. We could go on—but we won’t.
Instead, we’ll focus on perhaps the best RoFo musical development yet: A concept album about the mayor’s descent into the druggy abyss. Even better? The album, as NOW reports, was created by 15-year-old Mateo Lewis.
Inspired by musical theatre—and it sounds like it could, in fact, easily land on Broadway—the album establishes the Ford story quickly: It’s structured around a conversation between Ford and his therapist. But between bouts of straight storytelling, the mayor sings his narrative over a piano and synth score.
According to NOW, Lewis—who attends the Etobicoke School of the Arts, whose alumni includes Broken Social Scene’s Emily Haines and Kevin Drew, R&B songstress Andreena Miller, Fefe Dobson, and AUX’s Sam Sutherland—was considering the idea before the better-known Rob Ford Musical was established. It’s not hard to believe, considering how well-developed the album is.
Check it below.
The best part of the album? Despite compacting the key players in the Ford saga—such as crack-tape conduit Mohamed Siad, Crazy Town reporter Robyn Doolittle, Sandro Lisi, and so on—Lewis’ album has a tight-wound narrative. And while it’s plenty hilarious, it doesn’t go for easy chuckles—for the most part, the story is presented straight, right down to Ford’s crack-smoking admission to reporters.
NOW reports that the album was recorded in a month starting last June—impressive, considering how well-formed it is. For his part, Lewis says he doesn’t have plans to stage the musical. Yet.
“At this point, it’s strictly a concept album,” he told the Toronto alt-weekly newspaper. “I was thinking maybe if I can get my friends together, we could do a little production somewhere in either, like, a church or even my living room for friends, but I dunno.”
We can only hope. In the meantime, if musical theatre isn’t your thing, here’s the Rob Ford mosh, presented without comment.
