Hi folks. I found an interesting request at the bottom of another thread and am reposting it under a new title to get more attention. I will ask the researcher to return to this thread when it has run its course, so you can answer here instead of emailing him.

"I am working on a study of Canadian disaster songs and would be pleased to hear from anyone who knows anything about such songs including the title, name of the artist, where we can find the words, what it is about etc. At the moment we have close to 100 songs some more complete than others. The complete list is pasted to this message. We have just started this work so I am sure the list contains errors -- corections are welcome.
Our goal is to see whether these songs accurately reflect the incidents they sing about. [Other studies show this is not true for movies and fiction -- but our initial research suggests it may be true for folk songs.]
Joe Scanlon,
Professor Emeritus and Director,
Emergency Communcations Research Unit,
Carleton University
jscanlon@ccs.carleton.ca If my mailbox jams use Joe.Scanlon@talk21.cm
Suggestions as to who we might usefully contact would also be welcome


Note from Marion:
I emailed Joe to ask how Canadian is Canadian and how disastrous is disastrous, and he responded:
" have already written an article comparing fictional and non-fictional
accounts of the Halifax explosion. I thought it would be interesting to
look at disaster music. The fiction distorts what actually happened --
and quite seriously. Our goal is to see if the songs do the same.
Our definition is songs about incidents in Canada or incidents
involving Canadians whether that meant Canadians were involved (e.g. a
Canadian boat lost at sea) or that Canada was in on the response --
this includes Titanic -- since 200 bodies were brought to Halifax and
stored at the Mayflower Curling Club.

Mass death related to war is not being included.

We are not writing a proposal to look at pandemic death -- there is
almost no literature. I have written about the handling of the dead
from the Halifax explosion and studied the Gander air crash.\"

Songs

"(The) Ballad of the Frank Slide" Robert Gard [Rocks from Turtle Mountain came crashing down on Frank, Alberta ?April 29, 1902]

"(The) Ballad of Springhill" Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl THIS SONG WAS RECORDED BY MORE THAN ONE GROUP [Presumably the third Springhill, Nova Scotia mine disaster ?October 23, 1958]

"(The) Ballad of Springhill" Peter, Paul and Mary THIS SONG WAS RECORDED BY MORE THAN ONE GROUP [Presumably the third Springhill, Nova Scotia mine disaster ?October 23, 1958]

"(And the) Bridge Came Tumblin' Down" Stompin' Tom Connors [Second Narrows Bridge Collapse in Vancouver ?June 17, 1958]

"Cape Royal Disaster" Stan McDonald

"Captain Torres" James Keelaghan [The ship sunk in 1989 and was romanticized by Silver Don Cameron is his book Wind, Whales and Whisky ?39 dead, 23 from Captain Torres]

"La catastrophe de l'Empress of Ireland" Cyrice Dufour [This song has been issued by Radio Canada and is on the CD "Chants et complaintes maritimes de
Terres francaises d'Amerique" presumably another source of songs]

"Crashing Down" Tanglefoot [Another song about the Frank slide] The singers say they tell a tangential story that is in fact fiction.

"Disaster at Glace Bay" Bill Smith, Bill and Country Emotions

"(The) Empress of Ireland" Brian Morton's [This is in his CD "A Lonely Cairn of Stones"]

"Empress of Ireland" Susan Lawrence [This has been non-commercially recorded by
Sweet Tyme].

"Fire in the Mine" Stompin' Tom Connors [Not sure what incident this is}

"'(The) Flemmings of Torbay' Unknown CLEARLY FROM NEWFOUNDLAND

"(The) Foundering of the Asia" Unknown THIS IS ALSO AN INCIDENT ON THE GREAT LAKES

"Frank Slide" (The) Travellers

"(The) Greenland Disaster" Jim Rice WE HAVE THE WORDS 1898 INCIDENT

"The Halifax Explosion" Unknown [The December 6, 1917 explosion in Halifax harbour, Canada's only catastrophe]

"Hillcrest Mine" James Keelaghan [There were a series of gas explosions in the Hillcrest mine in Hillcrest, Alberta, 189 miners killed ?June 9, 1914]

"Hinton Train Disaster" Wiz Bryant [This is in the album Spirit of the North - LP 1986]

"How the Mountain Came Down" Stompin' Tom Connors [Presumably this is about the Frank Slide] The album is called Tragedy Trail

"Huntsville Fire" Gordon, James (with Tamarack) [A Major fire in 1904]

"Into the fire" Bruce Springsteen [The song is about the firefighters' response to the attack on the World Trade Center in 9/11]

"I will bring you home" Marion Parsons A song about the Newfoundland sealing disaster

"(The) Jennie C" Stan Rogers THIS IS AN INCIDENT NOT IN OUR LIST, PRESUMABLY NOT A MASS DEATH INCIDENT

"La Complainte de Springhill" Unknown" [Presumably the third Springhill, Nova Scotia mine disaster ?October 23, 1958]

Lady Franklin's Lament" Unknown THIS IS ABOUT THE LOSS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC IN 1845

"Lanark Fire" Mac Beattie [This is in the album This Ottawa Valley of Mine]

"(The) Last Goodbye" Bruce Moss [On the sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger ?February

"Let's Roll" Neil Young [This is about the passengers on the hijacked plane which crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11]

"(The) Loss of the Jewel" Unknown THIS ALSO INVOLVED A RESCUE?

"(The) Loss of the Maggie Hunter" Unknown THIS IS ABOUT AN INCIDENT ON THE GREAT LAKES

"(The) Loss of the Ocean Ranger" Cal Cavendish THIS MIGHT BE THE SAME SONG AS THE ONE RECORDED BY MARY GARBEY [The sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger off the coast of Newfoundland 15 Feb 1982]

"The) Loss of the Regalus'" Unknown Ship lost off Cape Race

"(The) Loss of the schooner Antelope" Unknown ANOTHER INCIDENT ON THE GREAT LAKES

"Mack Wilson" James Gordon [Canadian crew on the S.S. Friar Rock Torpedoed in
WW2]

"(The) Mary Ellen Carter" Men of the Deeps

"Mary Ellen Carter" Stan Rogers

"Miracle of Colliery Two" Jack Kingston [This is about the survival of miners in the third Springhill Mine Disaster]

"(The) Miramichi Fire" Unknown Words by John Jardine [This is about a fire which swept through the Miramichi region of New Brunswick in 1825]

"My Brother's Fate New Waterford's Fatal Day" Unknown July 25, 1917 Explosion in Dominion Mine at New Waterford

"Newfoundland Sealers" Gallaher, Bill

"New Waterford's Fateful Day" Unknown" July 25, 1917 Explosion in Dominion Mine at New Waterford

"No. 12 New Waterford" Unknown July 25, 1917 Explosion in Dominion Mine at New Waterford

"No. 26 Mine Disaster" Men of the Deep DON'T KNOW WHAT INCIDENT THIS IS

"Noronic Disaster" Jack Kingston

"(The) Ocean Ranger" Mary Garbey [On the sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger ?February 14, 1982]

"Ocean Ranger" Wiz Bryant

"(The) Omen" Unknown THIS IS ALSO ABOUT NEW WATERFORD

"(The) Ottawa Fire" Morris Manley THIS IS ANOTHER INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITION. THERE WERE SEVERAL MAJOR FIRES IN OTTAWA BUT THIS ONE PREDATES 1900

"(The) Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" Unknown [This dates somewhere in the 19th Century]

"Remember Me" Dan McKinnon Recorded in 1997 [A song based on survivor's accounts from the 1917 Halifax explosion]

"Seven Bells Waltzes" Dulder, F. [THIS IS APPARENTLY INSTRUMENTS ONLY ?BUT IT IS ABOUT THE MIRAMICHI FIRE WHICH STARTED OCTOBER 5TH 1825]

"(The) Southern Cross" Unknown [There is an article about this event]

"Springhill Mine Disaster" Joe King [In his 1993 album Sings Songs of the Maritimes]

"(The) Springhill Mine Disaster Song" Val MacDonald [MacDonald is the daughter of one the survivors of the third Springhill mine disaster and the song was written by her father, Maurice Ruddick, and recorded 50 years later.]

"Springhill Mine Explosion" Jack Kingston [This is about the second Springhill mine disaster]

"The 24th in 26" Unknown Another song about the incident in Glace Bay in 1979

"Train Wreck at Almonte" Mac Beattie and the Ottawa Valley Melodiers [A troop train crashed into a standing passenger train at Almonte, Ontario ?December 27, 1942]

"Train Wreck at Almonte" Barry Luft and Tim Rogers [Songs of the Iron Rail ?1983]

"Westray" Sarah Harmer IT IS NOT CLEAR IF SHE SANG THIS AS A SINGLE WHILE WITH WEEPING TILE OR THE GROUP DID IT [Mine disaster at the Westray mine ?May 9, 1992]

"Westray" Weeping Tile [Mine disaster at the Westray mine ?May 9, 1992]

"When that Great Ship went Down" Vesey and William Smith [This is the one about Titanic which sank in the Atlantic in 1912]

"(The) Wreck of the Athens Queen" Stan Rogers

"Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" Gordon Lightfoot [The ship sank in Lake Superior on November 1, 1975]

"Wreck of the John Harvey" Stompin' Tom Connors

"Wreck of the John Harvey" The Dorymen [On the LP 20 Great Hits of Newfoundland]

"(The) Wreck of the Julie Plante" Unknown THIS SUPPOSED TOOK PLACE ON LAC ST. PIERRE AND WAS SUNG BY LUMBERJACKS.

"(The) Wreck of the Steamship Ethie'" WORDS BY MAUDE ROBERTS SIMMONS THIS ONE APPARENTLY INVOLVES A RESCUE,

"Wreck of the Tammy Anne" Stompin' Tom Connors

"Young, Young Man" Modabo [This is on the Newfoundland Sealing Disaster].

"'Your Last Goodbye" Ted Rowe THIS COULD BE THE SAME SONG THAT WAS RECORDED BY BRUCE MOSS [On the sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger ?February 14, 1982]