#11: Nova Heart by the Spoons

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: July 1982
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Nova Heart”
Lyrics: “Nova Heart”

The Spoons were a band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario. After several lineup changes they released their debut album, Stick Figure Neighbourhood. But they had to wait until 1982 with the release of their second album, Arias & Symphonies to get national attention. By that time the band consisted of Spoons co-founders Gordon Deppe (on lead vocals and guitar) and Sandy Horne on bass and vocals. The Spoons second drummer, Derrick Ross, joined the band in late 1979. The keyboard player, Rob Preuss, was the band’s second keyboard player after Brett Wickens departed.

The debut single from Arias & Symphonies was “Nova Heart”.

“Nova Heart” was written by Gordon Deppe. The song contemplates the legacy that past generations have established for the young to behold. The “architects of the world” have designed the streets (inferring the buildings and dwellings lining each street) and towns around the world. A compliment is paid: “You’ve served us well.” “But,” the singer cautions the emerging generation “soon we’ll be on our own.” Moreover, what has been established is only temporary. The singer is going to sleep, “as things come apart,” and “hide in your nova heart.”

A nova is a transient astronomical event. This causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently “new” star (“nova” being Latin for “new”) that slowly fades over weeks or months. So, if you are hiding or sleeping in a nova heart, the newness, the brightness and energy that the nova heart at first expresses would only slowly start to fade in the following weeks or months. Eventually, the person hiding or sleeping in a nova heart would find themselves in the location of something that had now vanished. If a nova event produces a white dwarf and begins to orbit in a certain range over a day, or number of days, in centuries past people thought it was a new star. In the Milky Way about 25 to 75 nova events occur yearly. Using the metaphor, a nova heart would be something one thinks is a heart that turns out not to be a real heart after all. It would only be something that has a beat that resembles a heartbeat, but ceases to beat after a number of weeks or months.

Gordon Deppe writes in the second verse:
Gentlemen of the world
I read your books and look at your art.
Hesitantly, gentlemen of the world,
You want to educate our young.
But soon they’ll be, they’ll be on their own.

Faced with the transience of the accomplishments of past generations, the singer contents themselves with this thought: “that this nova won’t burn out.” Of course, what a nova does exactly is burn out. So, they are contenting themselves with faith that this nova will beat the odds and not behave the way novas almost always do. Still, there is also the phenomena of recurrent novae which experience multiple eruptions. In these rare instances, the nova will return intermittently over decades or centuries. Perhaps the adage, absence makes the heart grow fonder could apply here.

T Coronae Borealis was discovered by Irish astronomer John Birmingham in 1866, in the Corona Borealis constellation in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a 10th magnitude star and is said to have been observed in 1217, 1787, 1866, and 1946. The Smithsonian magazine reports the nova star has likely erupted every 80 years or so. It is expected to flare again in 2024 sometime between May and September.

In Joni Mitchell’s song “A Case Of You” she sings:
Just before our love got lost you said,
“I am as constant as a Northern Star,”
And I said, “Constantly in the darkness.
Where’s that at?
If you want me I’ll be in the bar.”

Her lover imagines his love is like the Northern Star. But her apprehension of his remark casts things differently. We cling to images and metaphors to ease our minds and bring us comfort. But more often than not they are transient as a nova, fading fast.

“Nova Heart” peaked at #4 in Hamilton (ON), and #7 in Toronto, #14 in Montreal and #18 in Kitchener (ON).

A followup single from Arias & Symphonies was the title track which climbed to #18 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart for Canada. A Third single, “Smiling In Winter” reached the Top 30. It also topped the alternative radio chart on CFMB in Montreal in December 1982.

In 1983, The Spoons released Talkback and from the album came a Top 30 hit across Canada titled “Old Emotions”. Talkback  cracked the Top 30 on the pop album charts in Canada.

In 1984, Gordon Deppe released a solo album titled Listen to the City. The album was a soundtrack for a Canadian dramatic film of the same name which featured Sandy Horne as part of the cast. While the album was officially Gordon Deppe’s solo effort, he was supported in the recording studio with Derrick Ross, Rob Preuss and Sandy Horne. The lead single from the album, “Tell No Lies”, peaked at #34 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada. A second single from the album, “Romantic Traffic”, was a modest success, peaking at #55 on the RPM Canadian Top 100 Singles chart in 1985.

By 1985 it was reported in the news that The Spoons were now featured on TV commercials for Thrifty’s grocery stores, Maxwells coffee brand and Pepsi-Cola.

In 1986, both Derrick Ross and Rob Preuss left the band. Preuss played on the Honeymoon Suite 1988 album Racing After Midnight. He also played keyboards for the musicals Cats and Miss Saigon, both at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. In 2012, Preuss was the associate music director for Mamma Mia! at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City in 2001.

Derrick Ross became head of indie label, FRE Records, and eventually became Vice President of EMI Music Canada.

Meanwhile, The Spoons released Bridges Over Borders. The album was a commercial flop which failed to crack the Top 100 on the RPM pop album chart in Canada. Three singles released from the album also failed to catch on.

A fifth studio album, Vertigo Tango, was released in 1988. Two minor hits, “When Time Turns Around” and “Waterline” charted on the RPM Top 100, but failed to crack the Top 40 in Canada.

Through the 1980s, Gordon Deppe was a programmer for the 1980s music channel on Galaxie digital radio.

In 2011, the Spoons consisting of Gordon Deppe and Sandy Horn released the band’s first album since 1988 titled Static in Transmission. They followed up with their ninth studio album in 2019 titled New Day New World. The two original co-founders were joined in the studio by Chris McNeill on drums and Casey MQ on keyboards.

In addition to being a bandmate with The Spoons, Gordon Deppe started up two sideline bands called Five Star Fall, and the Lost Boys. While Sandy Horne formed two sideline bands, Hurricane Jane and Dog Won’t Bite.

Since 2018, Gordon Deppe has also been performing with A Flock of Seagulls.

July 31, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
T-MAK, “The Spoons and Images In Vogue Concert Announcement and Interview,” Tmakworld.com, September 25, 2013.
Ezzy Pearson and Chris Lintott, “T Coronae Borealis nova could become a ‘new star’ in the sky any day now, and will be as bright as the North Star,” BBC, May 7, 2024.
Post Punk Monk, “Rob Pruess, Interviewed On 40 years Of ‘Arias & Symphonies’ And Beyond [part 1],” postpunkmonk.com, November 7, 2022.
“Spoons: An Interview with Gordon Deppe,” musiclifemamgazine.net, March 29, 2015.
John Beaudin, “The Spoons Sandy Horne on Dealing with Fame,” johnbeaudin.com, March 22, 2022.
Mary Belgraver, “Commercial Band Does Commercials,” 1985.
Will Sullivan, “A Rare Nova Explosion Will Soon Bring a ‘New Star’ to the Night Sky—How to Catch a Glimpse,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 19, 2024.