Daniel Hill's boys in City
MICHAEL PETERMAN
The Peterborough Examiner
Aweek ago I slipped down to Showplace to see singer Dan Hill in concert.
The theatre wasn't packed, but the performance was first-rate. I found it a compelling introduction to the talents of a man who has become one of Canada's most successful pop musicians, even though he has flown a little under the cultural radar of many observers. He is best known by many for his 1970s ballad Sometimes When We Touch (the honesty's too much), but his songs have been covered by many renowned singers including Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Rush and The Backstreet Boys.
Hence, even while on vacation these days, Dan's many royalties quietly accumulate.
I went to see Dan in person for two reasons -because his younger brother Larry (Lawrence) is a good friend and because Dan has been writing quite compellingly about his family, both his son and his father, in recent years. And what better way to recognize Black History Month in Ontario than to think about the Hill family and their remarkable story and achievements. They are all storytellers with much to tell us.
Dan and Larry are the sons of mixed American parentage. Their mother Donna is white and their energetic, charismatic father, Daniel G(rafton) Hill, was black. The newly married Hills came to Canada in the early 1950s looking for a new life, one removed from racial tensions and intolerance that then characterized the United States and one in which he in particular might make his way through advanced education and hard work.
Daniel knew things would be tough for his family. Still, he was bent upon personal achievement; and he made it clear early on that he had very high expectations for his children. While he devoted himself to earning a doctorate in sociology and breaking through the oft-times unspoken social and employment barriers in Ontario, he encouraged his children to learn how to express themselves and to aspire to appropriate kinds of success.
He became an author, the founder of the Ontario Black History Society, a professor, the sirector of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Ontario's Ombudsman. He was awarded the Order of Ontario (1993) and Canada (1999).
During the concert Dan spoke of his family's move from Newmarket to Don Mills when he was very young. Don Mills was then Toronto's new and model middle-class suburb; it was so neat in its layout, he joked, that it didn't include a cemetery. All was future-oriented, progressive. Little wonder then that the Hill boys became "uber-achievers" (in Dan's phrase), each in his clever, creative way.
Daniel Sr. was disappointed that Dan wanted to become a singer and he gave him a rough time. His long-haired son left home at 17 and persisted in following his instincts. He was soon making a living with his pen and voice, occasionally singing in Peterborough coffee houses as he scratched his way toward larger kinds of recognition. They would soon come.
Meanwhile, the younger Larry's progress was a little more conventional. Setting out determinedly to be a writer, he earned a BA and a Master's degree, paying his dues by undertaking various kinds of writing until his break-though novel,Any Known Blood,appeared in 1997. He makes cogent and wonderful fun of his struggles in that important novel.
To consider the Hill brothers now is to be very impressed indeed. Emerging from Don Mills, both have come into their own as Canadian artists and citizens in ways that would have made their demanding father very proud.
Dan's new CD Intimate and his compelling memoir, I Am My Father's Son (2009) are matched by Larry's highly successful third novel,The Book of Negroes (2005), the sales of which now approach half a million copies in Canada and have led to the recent publication of a new Illustrated Edition.
Early on, Daniel Sr. laid down a template in the form of a family rule. If either Dan or Larry wanted something very, very much, he had to write a letter to his parents explaining his reasons in detail. Responsible and thoughtful articulation was encouraged in the Hill household.
Parents today might well think of adopting this clever plan.
Daniel Hill Sr. died in 2003. He lived long enough, however, to know the directions in which his boys were heading and to see much evidence of their achievements.
As both Dan and Larry have made clear in their writings, family has played a fundamental role on their personal evolutions.
Pain, antagonisms, misunderstandings, and pressures there were aplenty, but the results have been both moving and impressive. Just take the time to readAny Known Bloodor to listen to the song that Dan wrote for his father and was able to sing to him in his final weeks.
Michael Peterman is a Professor Emeritus, Department of English Literature, Trent University.
