Canada Can't Pull It Off

The competition for world's largest guitar pull is more intense than I suspected. I hope the people in Luckenbach realize that.

Canadian guitarists swarmed a festival in Toronto last weekend in hopes of breaking the Guinness World Record for world's largest guitar ensemble. The official count was 1,623 guitars, which left them 179 short of the record set in Germany a couple of years ago. It sounds like a good time was had anyway.

The rules for the Toronto pick-a-long specified that only acoustic and unplugged electric guitars were allowed. No Guitar Hero fake guitars. Not even bass guitars, banjos, ukuleles, mandolins or lutes.

The song of choice was "Helpless" by Canadian homeboy Neil Young. I think I'll add it to my repertoire since it's pretty simple. Just a series of D, A and G chords while singing through your nose, which I do naturally.

"Helpless" was chosen in an online poll -- beating out other greatest Canadian hits like Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business," the Band's "The Weight," Bryan Adam's "Cut Like a Knife" and Feist's "1, 2, 3, 4" -- but not everyone liked the selection. "Gawd what a boring song!!" one person wrote in a comment on the Globe & Mail website. "And to hear that many people play it would really be grating."

"Helpless" certainly isn't everyone's cup of Molson's but I thought Young's performance of it was one of the highlights of "The Last Waltz."