"Patio Lanterns" is a song by
Canadian rock musician
Kim Mitchell that was first released as a single in June 1986 and later appeared in the 1986 album ''
Shakin' Like a Human Being
''Shakin' Like a Human Being'' is the second solo album by Canadian rock musician Kim Mitchell, released in 1986. This album was released in Canada on Alert Records and on Atlantic Records in the US. The album won the Juno Award for Album of th ...
''. An acoustic recording of the song was released as a single in 1995 and also included in the album ''
Greatest Hits'' released the same year. By 1996, the song had been broadcast on
Canadian radio stations more than 100,000 times. The song was described by the
CBC as "quintessentially Canadian".
Background
Partially written by Mitchell while driving around
Toronto in his van, it almost was left off the album.
Critical reception
The song was reviewed by ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' in the 21 June 1986 issue, and was described as "contorted imagery presented in a
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
soundalike manner". In 2008, Lynn Peppas of the
Welland Tribune
The ''Welland Tribune'' is a daily newspaper that services Welland, Ontario and surrounding area. The ''Tribune'' was one of several Postmedia Network newspapers purchased by Torstar in a transaction between the two companies which concluded on ...
stated that "Patio Lanterns" and other Mitchell songs ("Go for Soda", "All We Are", and "Rock 'n' Roll Duty") are "timeless summer rock anthems".
In the article ''Across the Great Divide'', author Barry Grant states that Canadian
rock and roll differentiates itself from American rock and roll by its use of
ironic subversiveness applied to the pop culture American genre. Jeannette Sloniowski and Joan Nicks state that "Patio Lanterns" fit that model, one of the few songs by popular Canadian rock musicians to do so. (They argue that most Canadian rock ironists are cult figures, not popular ones.)
Music video
The
music video created for the song has been described as "a lighthearted piece". It includes concert footage commingled with "conceptual sequences centering on a summer patio party". It was directed by Stephen Reynolds, produced by Allan Weinrib, and edited by Chris Cooper.
Chart performance
The song debuted on Billboard's album rock tracks on 26 July 1986 at position 50. It peaked at position 36 for two weeks, and remained on the Billboard album rock tracks chart for six weeks. For the week ending 14 August 1986, the song had reached #20 on ''The Record'' charts in Canada.
Peak positions
Notes
References
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{{Kim Mitchell, state=autocollapse
1986 songs
1986 singles
Kim Mitchell songs
Songs with lyrics by Pye Dubois