Canadian disaster songs: research project

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 04:31 AM

Loss Of The Truxton And Pollux This is about two ships which went aground in Newfoundland during a storm in 1942.
^^
Atlantic Blue written by Ron Hynes, recorded by several. It's not immediately obvious, but this is about the sinking of the oil rig Ocean Ranger in 1982.

I also have the lyrics for Train Wreck at Almonte mentioned above. They're on my other computer, but I can post them if they are wanted.

I have more, but they are on that other computer, so for now I can't post them.

Subject: Lyr Add: DEATH AT GIANT MINE (Steve Lacey)
From: CeltArctic
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 01:18 AM

Here's one from my neck of the woods. In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, during a terrible labour dispute at one of our gold mines, 9 men were killed in an explosion that was found to have been intentionally caused.

Steve Lacey of Yellowknife (who also sings with me in a quartette called Ceilidh Friends) wrote "The Death at Giant Mine" within a week of the disaster.

DEATH AT GIANT MINE (C) Steve Lacey^^

'Twas the eighteenth of September; 'twas the year of '92.
The strike had gone on far too long as Yellowknifers knew.
Some men had kept the picket line, while other men had crossed.
But no one in this city guessed how much the strike would cost.

CHORUS: A hard rock miner's work is cold and dangerous at best.
A man on strike still has to pay his bills like all the rest.
The owners have to keep their eye upon the bottom line.
But nine men didn't have to die that day at Giant Mine.

Nine men started down the shaft to go to work that day.
They traveled in an open car, the ordinary way.
Some were locals, some were not, & some had crossed the line,
But none would ever walk out from the depths of Giant Mine. CHORUS:

Explosives lying on the tracks on which the mine-car rolled;
No warning for the men who died there in the dark and cold.
No need to call for rescue teams; there was nothing they could do.
Nothing left but angry pain that quickly spread and grew. CHORUS:

Was it a striker trying just to scare the scabs away?
Was it the owner's carelessness that killed those men that day?
Was it some crazy loner who had once worked underground?
This city won't find peace until these answers can be found.

Actually, although the police charged a man with the murder of the 9 men, many people do not trust the crime has been fully solved.

Moira Cameron

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 12:55 AM

"The Southern Cross" was sung by Jack Dalton, Codroy, 1960, in Peacock, "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, vol. 3, p. 973-974. The variant has a different tune from the one in Greenleaf and Mansfield, "Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland," which is the version written down by Lizzie Rose, 1929.

Peacock's volumes have several 'wrecks' and many 'losses:
The Wreck of the Morrissey
The Wreck of the Semmity
The "Union" from St. John's
The Spring of '97 (ship not named)
There are 15 'losses':
The Loss of the Atlantic
The Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney
The Loss of the Bruce
The Loss of the City of Quebec
The Loss of the Danny Goodwin
The Loss of the Eliza
The Loss of the Jewel (listed above)
The Loss of the John Harvey
The Loss of the Jubal Cain
The Loss of the Rammelly
The Loss of the Regalis (mis-spelled Regalus in list?)
The Loss of the Riseover
The Loss of the Sailor's Home
The Loss of the Shamrock

The Sally's Cove Tragedy
George's Banks (ship Morning Bloom lost many crew, other ships sunk in storm, 1868)

How many deaths make a disaster? ?

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: Marion
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:55 PM

Here's a link to the lyrics to James Keelaghan's "Hillcrest Mine". It's a great song, but I'm not sure that it's "about" that mining disaster - it seems to be a more general warning about the perils of mining.

Marion

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: Marion
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:48 PM

Hi Mary. You'd better tell him how to spell your name, eh?

Thanks for the additions, Sandy and HiHo.

Jeremiah - I think Jeannie C. is fictional too, isn't it?

Jon - well, he says he's looking for corrections as well as additions, so it's helpful to point out the fictional ones. When I asked about how he was defining Canadian disaster songs, he said the disaster should include Canadians as victims or rescuers (hence the inclusion of Titanic and Sept. 11 songs), even if the songwriter isn't Canadian. I'm not sure about whether he's interested in Canadian writer's songs about non-Canadian events.

Marion

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: GUEST,Jon Bartlett
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:39 PM

I'd like to add a whole slew of songs, but don't know what you mean by "disaster". e.g. Mary Ellen Carter - ship sunk,no deaths, and fictional. While you're at it, what is Canadian about Springsteen's "Into the fire"? You mean maybe songs made by canadians about disasters elsewhere? Springsteen still wouldn't fit.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: Lyr Add: WESTRAY REMEMBERED (A. McLean)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM

Hi from Cape Breton Marion,^^
This is one that I have written.
Sandy


WESTRAY REMEMBERED
(A. McLean)
May 9, 1992.................5:18 am

Listen to me, friends, and a sad tale I'll tell
How a mighty explosion rose up straight from Hell
And swept through a coal mine as it passed on its way
And 26 men died down in Westray that day;
Yes, 26 men died down in Westray that day.

When the government inspectors were down in the mine,
They ignored all the coal dust and the shortage of lime,
And the methane detectors that were screwed up, they say,
So 26 men died down in Westray that day.

When the rescue team went down to search in that mine,
A path of destruction was what they would find.
15 bodies was all they recovered that time.
11 are buried still down in that mine.

Some high politicians, at first they did cry,
But their greatest concern was to cover their hides,
And the rot in the system meant that no one would pay.
Our courts they did fail us so badly that way.

The bosses and owners, they walked away free,
Thumbing their noses at the inquiry,
But someday in Heaven before God's great throne
There'll be no escaping when sins are atoned.

Now you've heard my story and a sad tale I did tell,
How a mighty explosion rose up straight from Hell
And swept through a coal mine as it passed on its way,
And 26 men died down in Westray that day.
Yes, 26 men died down in Westray that day.

(c)2000 A. McLean,
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:19 PM

"Mary Ellen Carter" is fictional (which doesn't preclude it from being a truly great song).

Subject: Lyr Add: RESCUE AT MOOSE RIVER GOLD MINE
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:18 PM

again from memory: Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia, Canada

RESCUE AT MOOSE RIVER GOLD MINE
^^
Way down in old Nova Scotia
Moose River it seemed was the name
Three Canadians on Easter Sunday
To a tumbled down gold mine they came

They descended the mine for inspection
Never dreamed fate trailed close at hand
With a crash that gave them no warning
They were trapped in that mine there to die.

Great men from all over the country
Volunteered to give up their lives
They slaved with unceasing effort
It seemed that death they defied.

On Monday they got their first message
From the men prisoned far far below
Can you help us they heard the men calling
Our suffering God only knows.

Next message filled all hearts with sorrow
As they heard them say one pal is gone
We are trying our best to hold on, boys.
Do your best. Don't make it too long.

On Sunday they got their last message
A miner out of breath brought the news
We've won the great fight he was shouting
At last we have dug our way through.

Now friends my story is ending
With hardships of many a day
But the rescue will go down in history
Of the gold mine down Moose River way.

Subject: Lyr Add: JAM ON JERRY'S ROCK
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 06:02 PM

Do not know if this is what you are looking for. Here are the lyrics from memory of a song out of the lumber camps on the East Coast.

JAM ON JERRY'S ROCK

Come all you true born shanty boys, and listen while I relate
Concerning a young river man, and his untimely fate;
Concerning a young river man, who manly true and brave,
'Twas on a jam on Jerry's Rock, he met a watery grave.

'Twas on a Sunday morning, in the springtime of the year.
The logs were piled up mountains. we could not get them clear.
The foreman said, "turn out, my boys, with hearts devoid of fear.
We'll break that jam on Jerry's Rock, and for town we'll steer."

Now some of them were willing, while others they were not,
For to work on jams on Sunday, they did not think their plight.
'Twas six of our brave shanty boys did volunteer to go
To break a jam on Jerry's Rock with their foreman Jack Monroe.

They had not rolled off many logs when they heard his clear voice say,
"I'll have you boys be on your guard. this jam will soon give away."
These words were scarcely uttered when the jam did break and go,
And it carried off these six brave boys, with their foreman young Monroe.

When the rest of our brave shanty boys the sad news come to hear,
To search for their brave comrades to the river banks did steer.
In searching for their dead comrades, to their sad grief and woe,
All crushed and bleeding on a rock was that of young Monroe.

They took him from his watery grave, brushed back his raven hair.
There was one fair form among them whose moans did rent the air.
This one fair from among them was a girl from town
Whose moans and cries they pierced the sky, for her true love that was drowned.

Miss Clara was a noble girl, the river man's true friend.
She with her widowed mother dear lived by the river bend;
And the wages of her own true love the boss to her did pay,
And the shanty boys for her made up a generous purse next day.

They buried him with sorrow deep. 'Twas on the first of May.
Come all you true born shanty boys and for your comrades pray.
Engraved upon a hemlock tree, that by the grave did grow,
Was the name and date of the sad fate, of this young man Monroe.

Miss Clara did not long survive to worry and to grief,
For in less than six months afterward, death came to her relief.
And when this time had come to pass and she was call to go,
The last favor she requested was to lay by young Monroe.

Now come all you true born shanty boys, who would like to go and see
These two green mounds by the river side, where stands a hemlock tree.
Neath its branches wavering in the breeze, two lovers there lay low.
They are Miss Clara Dinnis, and her true love Jack Monroe.

Subject: RE: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 05:21 PM

Cool..I am on the list. Canada, especially Newfoundland, has some great songs about their terrible disasters. I also have one about a ship that went down with men from Cape Broyal...I think it is Broyal rather than Royal but would not totally swear to it. mg

Subject: Canadian disaster songs:research project
From: Marion
Date: 19 Jun 06 - 05:01 PM

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
[e-mail] If my mailbox jams use [e-mail]
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]