Rip this joint, going to save your soul
’Round and ‘round and ‘round we go
Craig Martin would tell the story about an aha moment that happened while he was fronting the Midnight Ramblers, his Rolling Stones cover band. While driving back to Toronto from a gig in Montreal, the Stones’ Rocks Off, the first song on the 1972 album Exile on Main St., came on the radio. When it was over, the album surprisingly continued to play on uninterrupted to the second track, Rip This Joint. Was the disc jockey on a smoke break?
Mr. Martin was a child of the Seventies, an era when music fans listened to full album sides, whether on vinyl or cassette. He suggested to his bandmates that they play a complete side of Exile for their next show.
Craig Martin gestures to the crowd during a 2023 show at Toronto's Massey Hall, a regular host of Classic Albums Live.Jag Gundu/Supplied
That was just the start. In 2003, Mr. Martin founded Classic Albums Live, a Toronto-based Canadian success story that now employs approximately 100 musicians to perform entire classic-rock albums, cut by cut and note for note, in venues across North America (particularly Florida) and some in Britain.
On any given night, Classic Albums Live might present Supertramp’s Breakfast in America at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Led Zeppelin II at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Fla., and a Stones album somewhere else.
Mr. Martin conceived the concerts as rock ’n’ roll recitals, not theatrical tribute presentations. “No cheesy costumes, no bad impersonations,” as he explained it. “Just the purity of the music. That’s all you need.”
Mr. Martin, a musician, an entrepreneur and a dogged champion of the electric sounds of his youth, died of cancer on Aug. 23, in Toronto. He was 64.
The achievement of his concept can be attributed to the widespread fandom of a rock music canon that originated in a time when kids grew up with largely the same pop culture references. The generation who listened to “LPs” on “hi-fi” stereos now purchase tickets for concerts to revisit their melodic past in the cushy seats of theatres and music halls.
“No matter how good or bad the music was when we were 16 years old, we’re connected to it,” said music historian Bob Wegner, a former member of the Classic Live Albums rotating roster of musicians. “But in the case of classic rock music, it’s objectively good.”
While much of the Classic Albums Live repertoire comes from the 1960s and 70s, albums such as Madonna: The Immaculate Collection, Van Halen’s 1984 and U2’s Achtung Baby from 1991 are presented as well.
“I sell nostalgia, and I am not ashamed of it,” Mr. Martin told the Financial Post in 2023. “Music takes us back to the prime of our lives and, for a lot of us, those memories can be pretty golden.”
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Mr. Martin was a stickler for recreating memories meticulously, right down to the cash register effects from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and the stage banter of the Beatles when presenting the semi-live Let It Be.
“It’s based on a love and respect of the music, and Craig demanded a great deal from his musicians,” said musicologist Mike Daley, part of the Classic Albums Live stable of performers from 2003 to 2009. “The workload could be crushing if you were a core member of his troupe.”
Classic Albums Live began at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre, a general admission club with no seats, where Mr. Martin presented a monthly series. The first concert was The Dark Side of the Moon.
Guitarist Des Leahy was part of that first show. He remembered the experience as nerve-racking: “I wondered if people would show up. But Craig told me, ‘You gotta play a card.’ And the club filled up. He was on to something.”
Though the concert series at the Phoenix was quickly successful, eventually the presentations were shifted to seated venues.
“We realized the people who were coming out to the shows were an older crowd who didn’t want to stand,” said Mr. Martin’s sister, Tracy Martin, referring to baby boomers and Gen-Xers. “When we moved to the soft-seaters, things really took off.”
Toronto’s Massey Hall regularly hosts Classic Albums Live. Typically, the venue, which welcomed Enrico Caruso, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, does not book what some might call a cover band. Classic Albums Live is an exception.
“Their attention to detail and level of musicianship is impressive, and a big part of what distinguishes them,” said Jesse Kumagai, president and CEO of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. “If the recording had three guitars all playing the same part, you’ll see three guitarists on stage. No shortcuts are taken.”
Mr. Martin had a deep reverence for the music he presented. He believed in the Beatles as others might admire Beethoven and Bach and he saw his operation as comparable to the TSO. “They play cover music, we play cover music,” he reasoned.
Mr. Martin was a stickler for recreating memories meticulously, down to the cash register effects from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.Classic Albums Live/Supplied
Many of the albums covered were originally recorded by artists who are no longer active. And while legacy acts such as the Eagles still perform live, the prices charged to see them are prohibitively high for many fans. Where rock legends AC/DC fill stadiums, Classic Albums Live offers the group’s iconic Back in Black record in intimate, affordable settings.
“Craig turned our collective passion for the music into something that brings us closer together,” Mr. Kumagai said, “which is something very special and desperately needed in today’s world.”
Craig Ray Martin was born Sept. 2, 1961, in Toronto. He was one of two children born to Maureen Martin (née Flower) and Ray Rade Martin. They both worked in advertising promotion.
He attended Wexford Collegiate Institute (now known as Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts) in Scarborough. Like many teenaged boys in the 1970s, he was a fan of Mad magazine and loud guitars.
“It was wood-paneled basements and all that, and if you didn’t have a Rush record or Kiss or Led Zeppelin, they’d throw you right out of Scarborough,” said Classic Albums Live drummer Rick Vatour, who met Mr. Martin in Grade 9.
Mr. Vatour first saw Mr. Martin’s Rolling Stones cover band at a motor inn in Richmond Hill, Ont. “He was a leader even back then. He could convince an audience they were having the greatest night of their life.”
Mr. Martin spent time with a celebrity tribute-act company, imitating Mick Jagger and others in glossy productions. He saw a future in presenting albums live, but without the Vegas-style glam and shenanigans. His vision was specific and unyielding.
“The idea was to present the albums as whole works, and not to pander to the audience members who just wanted to hear the hits,” Mr. Daley said. “After the intermission we would play what were called ‘outros,’ which were songs not on the featured album. Sometimes they were hits, sometimes obscurities. Craig pleased himself first and didn’t try to guess what the audience wanted. I think that was the right decision artistically.”
He was involved in every area of the organization he ran as a family business, whether handling the sound checks and hiring musicians or playing rhythm guitar for the Creedence Clearwater Revival shows and singing Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album.
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Mr. Martin was complicated and could be challenging to interact with. “When you worked for him, you had to have a bit of a thick skin,” said Ronnie Littlejohn, a Toronto singer and Jazz.FM91 radio host. “He was going to tell you how it is. But it made you a better musician.”
Mr. Littlejohn credits Mr. Martin for giving him his career highlight. He was hired to sing Van Morrison’s part in the presentation of the Band’s star-studded live album The Last Waltz.
“Other than my honeymoon, singing Van’s Caravan at Massey Hall was the greatest four minutes of my life,” Mr. Littlejohn recalled. “It was magical.”
In 2016, Mr. Martin wrote, directed and produced GIG, a musical about the music industry’s grittier side. It was mounted at Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre (now the CAA Theatre) for a seven-show run. Though it was a fictional rock ’n’ roll tale, Mr. Martin explained that it was, in a sense, autobiographical.
“I’ve played the Hells Angels’ clubhouse in Sherbrooke, Que.,” he told the Toronto Star. “I’ve played maximum security prisons. I’ve talked my way out of some very difficult border situations. I’ve walked offstage mid-show. I’ve blown record deals. I’ve turned down a reality TV show. I’ve loaded pinball machines into the van in lieu of payment.”
And now he had a musical that wasn’t particularly successful. “It’s misshapen and cringe-worthy,” Samantha Wu wrote for Mooney on Theatre.
Heartbreak struck his family when Lucas Martin, one of two sons, died of cancer four days after Christmas in 2016. He was 18 years old. Mr. Martin took up painting after his boy was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease. His first canvas was a box for a bulletin board he purchased to keep track of all the required medications.
He often gave away the paintings, with a request that a donation be made to Canadian Cancer Society.
“I don’t know where I’d be without painting,” he told the Financial Post. “With Lucas’s passing, you kind of get to the point where nothing can get you now. It is like a gift he left behind − you’ve been to the abyss, you have looked in − and so if a flight gets cancelled, or there is a problem with the road venue, who gives a crap.”
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Mr. Martin leaves his mother, Maureen Martin; sister, Tracy Martin; son, Jackson Martin; and ex-wife, Susan Hanley.
On Aug. 28, Classic Albums Live presented Led Zeppelin IV in Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theatre. Mr. Vatour was on drums; Nick Hildyard sang. Both were part of the ensemble which performed the album at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in July, 2003 − one of the first Classic Albums Live concerts.
The Houston show was dedicated to Mr. Martin. One of the extra songs was The Rain Song, an epic, affecting ballad − “Upon us all, a little rain must fall” − performed with a string section. The orchestral numbers were Mr. Martin’s favourites: There could never be too many musicians on stage for him.
“It was an emotional night, but the crowd was very respectful of our feelings,” Mr. Vatour said. “They understood. I believe they got it.”
Following the Classic Albums Live presentation of The Dark Side of the Moon at Massey Hall on Sept. 11, musicians will pay tribute to Mr. Martin by performing some of his favourite songs.
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