Bryan Adams trolls Trump again with latest single about Lake Ontario

Bryan Adams made his mark in the 1980s, when it wasn’t unusual for the airwaves and record shops to be dotted with songs of activism, protest and social conscience (Springsteen to Sting, U2 to Tracy Chapman, the Specials to Public Enemy, just to name a few).

Apart from co-writing Tears Are Not Enough, Canada’s turn at famine relief, social concern wasn’t really the Bryan Adams vibe during his Cuts Like a Knife heyday.

So it’s interesting that Adams, now 66, is sharpening his knife to cut apart Donald Trump and his MAGA legacy. On Canada Day, he released a single called 51st State, which mocked Trump’s interest in turning all of Canada into one American state.

This week, Adams is back with another punch to Trump.

Lake Ontario is a song about the lake of the same name — and makes fun of how Trump wants it to be rebranded, to use a Trumpism, permanently and in his own image, as Lake America.

Take a look at the song’s second verse:

But things weren’t going his way in Iran
So like a baby tossing the toys from the pram
He may have thought it best to throw a low blow
And create a real dog and pony show
But it feels like another distraction
While the Epstein files were getting traction
One day they’ll come out and we’ll say “there you go”
And then we’ll all dive into Lake Ontario

Ouch.

One of the digs in the song, at least in my opinion: Adams doesn’t even use Trump’s name. He doesn’t need to. I wonder if that’s a way of further trolling an attention-craving president.

Look, no one is going to confuse Bryan Adams with Billy Bragg, but it’s something to see Adams step into a more political arena.

Lake Ontario will be one of the songs on Adams’s next album, How’s It Goin’, coming out on Nov. 6 — just three days after the U.S. midterms, incidentally. Not a surprise he got a jump on the moment by putting Lake Ontario out ahead of time.

A playlist updated

You can hear Lake Ontario in the video above, and you can also catch it now in the updated Dot Dot Dot playlist I’ve been gradually compiling since reviving my old blog earlier this year. It includes all of the songs mentioned here on the blog, including tunes that remind me of friends I’ve lost, instrumentals that get my heart rate going, covers that surprise and delight, and much more. (Maybe it’s coincidence, but Bryan Adams’s number on this list is … 69.)