Songs That Mention Canadian Places

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 10:10 PM

In Bob Gibson & Tom Paxton's "Box of Candy & Piece of Fruit" (in the DigiTrad), the hero starts out in a coffeehouse in Toronto.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: topical tom
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 03:29 PM

"Prince Edward Island is Heaven to Me".

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Frank_Finn
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 08:16 AM

The song called "The Green Fields of Amerikay" mentions some Canadian places but mentions no American places
Here is a verse

There's wine in Toronto at a penny a bottle
The gin in New Brunswick's a penny a glass,
There's ale in that famed town they call Montreal, boys,
The devil be with us if we dont take a glass

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 07:59 AM

Just heard again, this week, for the first time in many years The Star of Logy Bay , an old favourite of mine.

Regards

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:40 PM

I was GUEST 12 Jul 08 - 01:31 PM

Another geography lesson from Hank Snow. Canadian Pacific

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:35 PM

Hank doing it

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:31 PM

How about the ultimate place name song written by Nova Scotian, Hank Snow?

I've been everywhere

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:11 PM

Sorry. That's Folklore In America, which I suppose means folklore in the United States of America.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:08 PM

Here's the lyrics and notes about a 19th century {and possibly earlier} children's ring [circle] game that mention a Canadian place name:

"A similar ring game [to "My Pretty Little Pink"] is described by JAF {Journal of American Folklore], 1892, 118, reprinted in Folklore in American, 184, as "Quebec Town." The opening lines are:

We are marching down to Quebec town,
Where the drums and fifes are beating;
The Americans have gained the day,
And the British are retreating.

The description states that the "song was sung by the whole company [of children], as it marched around one person, who ws blindfolded, and seated in a chair placed in the center of the room. He or she then selected a partner by touching one of the ring with a long stick held for that purpose". In some versions the person selected won a kiss. Tune supplied by the editors."

-snip-

These notes-including the paragraph beginning with the word "The description"-are from a reproduced page of a book I don't believe that I own. Unfortunately, this page somehow got separated from the title page & publisher of the book itself. Therefore, I'm unable to say which book it is. However, given that note and others on the two pages I have, this is from a book or chapter of a book about American children's recreational activities. That certainly narrows the field quite a bit.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: john f weldon
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:54 PM

Most songs by Wade Hemsworth...

Land of the Muskeg & the Shining Birch Tree
Montreal (actual name of the song)
Blackflies (North Ontario)

etc etc

Lots of songs recorded and/or written by Flapjack, such as
Manitoulin Boy
etc etc

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: topical tom
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:31 PM

Wade Hemsworth's "The Black Flies of Ontario"

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Neil D
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:17 PM

Jack Campin, my bad. I typed that in a hurry because I was just going out take the grandkids to a carnival which is going on, literally, right outside my door this weekend. Really. Even now there is a Beatles "tribute" band playing not 50 feet from where I sit. And I had just posted elsewhere about Irish pints. So excuse my befuddlement. Of course I meant to type Canadian placenames.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: CupOfTea
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:16 PM

Song for the Mira and other songs by the Cape Breton songwriter Allister MacGillivray for sheer love of place.

For just plain silly: "Mermaid of Ontario" by Shel Silverstein & Pat Dailey A favorite around Lake Erie - has been recorded by Lee Murdock - whose exploration of Great Lakes songs isn't limited to the American Side - many of his (serious) songs have Canadian context and place names.

Eileen McGann's Requiem only mentions "north Ontario" but her repertoire might be worth looking into- I've only got her on cassette & can't dig that out right now.

David Mallet's Ballad of St. Anne's Reel mentions Prince Edward Island

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 08:54 PM

I believe there is a Canadian version of "This Land is Your Land" which mentions various cities and sites. Also, Alan Mills recorded a Canadian version of "Old Sod Shanty on the Plain', but I don't know if it mentions a particular place.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: topical tom
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 08:52 PM

A very moving and beautiful song by David Francey, "The Flowers of Saskatchewan":


        
        FLOWERS OF SASKATCHEWAN

The sun was shining on the English Channel
On a ferry off the coast of France
It was summer and a pleasant morning
And high above gulls wheeled and danced
And high above the cliffs of morning
The gun emplacements had stood in ranks
I walked over to the railing
And I heard the ghosts of the Calgary Tanks
And I remembered pictures I'd seen
In history books and magazines
Of three men standing, smoking, staring
Among the dead men on a rocky beach
And in the light of that pleasant morning
As we sailed under the cliffs above
I thought of all their silent prayers
And the final thoughts of the ones they loved
That they left behind at prairie stations
Waving to their pride and joy
Waving to the smiling faces
Smiling faces on the soldier boys of?
No waves of grain would claim the fallen
Just the channel cold and grey as steel
And no return to the rolling prairie
And a silent cross on a lonely field
The sun was shining on the rolling prairie
Far from the channel, cold and grey
Shone on the families, friends and lovers
Of the prairie boys who fell that day
But they could not know on that sunny morning
The future held for them no joy
They'd wait in vain at prairie stations
Wait in vain for their soldier boys


Words and Music: ©David Francey (1998)

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 08:05 PM

Adrien, mon ami, I have many influences in my musical life. Brendan, young though he may be, is one of the very important ones. I love his ability to interpret a song, and his instrumental virtuousity is worthy of great praise. There is a wonderful song about growing up Irish, and Roman Catholic, called "All I Remember". I have spent a very long time trying to do this with the same effect that Brendan does, but I cannot. Devil and the Bailiff, the same. He simply has the way of them. And when he does a ballad, he is able to draw out every emotion that the song needs drawn out. I am, unabashedly and finally, a fan.

I remember when I was performing in Toronto for Rick's CD release. We did that as a live performance on CIUT, and streamed it on the Internet. I mentioned Brendan, and this fella comes up to me and asks me if I knew "A Song For The Road", by Brendan. I said, "sure, I absolutely love that but Brendan didna write it, Holmes Hooke did". He said, "I know, I'm Holmes Hooke". We had a great laugh. That was a helluva night. All the great Borealis talents were there, plus a few others. I was very honored to perform with them.

But ..... do yourself a favor. Never ..... may I repeat this .....never ...... follow Ken Whitely onstage. LOL.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 07:39 PM

LBT, "Mouth of the Tobique" is relatively modern - the composer must still be alive - and nearly always with that sort of tune the story behind the title is not only well-documented, it's widely used in stage patter. For some of us, it would be worth knowing what it is. Maybe the jerky rhythm in the third part is a fish on a line?

Neil D: I didn't say anything about Irish placenames. Cape Breton's culture is predominantly Scottish, and in placenames Scotland features much more strongly than Ireland across the whole of Canada, for that matter. "Miss Forbes's Farewell to Banff" is not about the Rockies.

If you were to include only one instrumental tune I would pick Paul Cranford's beautiful fiddle lament "The Graveyard of the Gulf", about the shipwrecks in the Gulf of St Lawrence (something he spent a long time thinking about in his job as a lighthouse keeper).

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Beer
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:56 PM

Mick,
I have a picture of Brendan and me which I cherish very much. What a wonderful person, gifted writer and voice. Far From Their Homes a truly tragic song with great imagery.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:14 PM

And, of course, my favorite Stan Rogers song, and I love so many of his, was about Citadel Hill in Halifax. While it never mentions the town, every single verse mentions places in the town. Here are the lyrics:

It was in the spring this year of grace
With new life pushing through
That I looked from the citadel down to the narrows and asked what it's coming to
Isaw percanegan concrete and glass
right down to the water line
I have heard an old song down on Fisherman's Wharf
Can I sing it just one time

With half-closed eyes against the sun
for the warm wind giving thank
I imagine the years of the warm laden schooners splashing home from the grand banks
But a lass lays done in the harbor sun
With her picture on a dime
I have heard an old song down on Fisherman's Wharf
Can i sing it just one time
CHORUS:
And haul away and heave her ho
These songs are sung no more
No boats to sing them for
No sails to sing them for
Now there lies a steady stream of tourists passing through
We trade it always for the new
Always for the new
Always for the new, for the new

Now you ask "What's this romantic boy,
Who laments what's done and gone?"
There was no romance on a cold winter ocean and the gale sang an awful song
But my father knew of wind and tide, and my blood is merit time
And I heard an old song down on Fisherman's Wharf
Can I sing it just one time

CHORUS

(Repeat first verse)

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Neil D
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:10 PM

Yes Azizi, I'se the b'y is Newfoundland English for I'm the boy.
Jack Campin says there are loads of instrumental songs with Irish placenames in the title. I'm assuming that the Metis fiddle tune and dance,Red River Jig, refers to a Red River in Manitoba.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 06:09 PM

In my opinion the finest song of the Coffin Ships ever written was Brendan Nolan's "Far From Their Homes", in which the brave and compassionate Canadians, and the place they lived in, figure prominently. Here are the lyrics:

FAR FROM THEIR HOME
A SONG OF GROSSE ILE

^DOH WE LEFT OUR HOMES AND TRAVELLED, THOUGH ^GMANY NOT KNOW WHERE WE ^ALIE.
THEY ^DSAID TWAS A LAND OF PROMISE, BUT ^GFEW SAW IT ^DWITH THEIR OWN ^AEYES.
FOR ITS ^BmHERE ON THIS SAD LONELY ^AISLAND, WHERE THE ^GWIND BLOWS COLD TO THE ^ABONE.
WE ^DREST IN IT'S SOIL FOR^GGOTTEN, ^DFAR ^AAWAY FROM OUR ^DHOME

^DON THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF JUNE, OUR ^GPACKET IT SET ^ASAIL.
^DDOWN THE EASTERN COAST WE WOUND, PAST ^GWEXFORD ^DAND ^AKINSALE
TILL ^BmSADLY THE SUNSET ^AFADED ^GGENTLY FROM OUR ^AEYES.
AND THE ^DLIGHTS OF THE SOUTHWEST ^GFLICKERED AWAY, AS WE ^DSAID OUR ^ALAST GOODDBYE.

OH IT'S HARD TO DESCRIBE THE SUFFERING, AS THIS AWFUL VOYAGE BEGAN.
TWO WEEKS OUT TO SEA, WE HAD LOST 10 OR MORE AS THE FEVER TOOK THE STRONGEST OF MEN.
AND THE HOLDS WERE BATTENED FOR DAYS ON END, TO STIFLE THE SICKNESS BELOW.
WHILE THE WATERS OF THE OCEAN SWALLOWED OUR DEAD, FAR AWAY FROM THEIR HOME.

(WHISTLE INTERLUDE)

THOUGH OUR SPIRITS THEY WERE WEARY, AS THE GREAT BROAD RIVER BEGAN.
AND A WHALE ROSE UP FROM THE WATERS, AS WE SAILED INTO THIS NEW LAND.
WITH IT'S HILLSIDES THAT SLOPED TOWARD THE SHORELINE AND VILLAGES CRADLED WITHIN.
WE PRAYED THAT THESE PEOPLE COULD PITY OUR PLIGHT,AND FIND A NEW HOME FOR OUR KIN.

WITHIN SIGHT OF GROSSE ILE, WE WERE ANCHORED FAR OFF ASHORE.
FOR MANY MORE SHIPS LAY WAITING, AND WE'ED STAY MAYBE FIVE DAYS OR MORE.
FOR THE LOST ONES OUTNUMBERED THE LIVING, AND A TERRIBLE SIGHT IT WAS PLAIN.
AS A PACKET FLOATED OUT IN THE BAY, WITH IT'S HUMAN CARGO AFLAME.

AND THE SHEDS OVERFLOWED WITH THE SUFFERING, AND THEIR CRIES PIERCED THE SILENCE AT NIGHT.
AND THESE BRAVE ONES WHO TENDED THESE TRAVELLERS, SOME PAID WITH THEIR LIVES IN THE FIGHT.
AND I'VE LOST MY OWN ON THIS ISLAND AND MY OWN CANDLE'S NEAR DIED AWAY.
TO HAVE TRAVELLED SO FAR ON OUR JOURNEY, HUMBLE VOYAGERS TOGETHER WE'LL STAY.

(WHISTLE INTERLUDE)

JE M'APPELLE LEO QUINN, MES ANCETRES SONT ICI.
ENTERRES SUR GROSSE ILE, QUI FAIT FACE A MA VILLE MONTMAGANY
MES SOUVENIRS NE SONT QUE DES FANTOMES, QUI SURVOLLENT ET DANSET DANS LE VENT.
ILS DEMANDENT QU'ON SE SOUVIENS D'EUX, MEME SI CE N'EST QU'EN CHANTANT.

THERE ARE NO BOATS TIED IN THE RIVER, AND THE CROSS STANDS GAUNT ON THE HILL.
NO WRETCHED SHADOWS TROD FROM THE SHORE, TO THE FEVER SHEDS NOW THAT LIE STILL.
JUST THE WHITE MARKERS GUARD THEIR MEMORY, NO NAMES CARVED IN GRANITE OR STONE.
AND THE LONG GRASS WAVES TO THE WIND AS SHE BLOWS, OER THESE BRAVE ONES FAR FROM THEIR HOME.
AND THE LONG GRASS WAVES TO THE WIND AS SHE BLOWS, OER THESE BRAVE ONES FAR FROM THEIR HOME.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Lord Batman's Kitchener
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:54 PM

Just maybe someone was inspired enough to want to call the reel Mouth of the Tobique, tht's good enough for me.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:52 PM

Loads of instrumental tunes with Canadian placenames in their titles. Look at Paul Cranford's Lighthouse Music site for the Cape Breton ones (though it can sometimes be hard to work out whether the tune was originally meant to relate to a place in Canada or to the place in Scotland it was named after).

I tried looking for the Mouth of the Tobique on Google Earth (it's the name of a syncopated reel often used for contra dancing). It's a boring river junction surrounded by swamp which seems to be known only to sport fishermen. So how on earth did it get a tune named after it?

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Gulliver
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:48 PM

This old Irish song mentions "Canadian Woods". Dunno which ones, or where they are, but they're in Canada. Sung by the late, great, Dermot O'Brien on YouTube here.

Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

Deep in Canadian woods we´ve, met
From one bright island flown;
Great is the land we tread but yet
Our hearts are with our own
And ere we leave this shanty small,
While fades the autumn day
We´ll toast old Ireland, dear old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

We´ve heard her faults a hundred times,
The new ones and the old,
In songs and sermons, rants and rhymes,
Enlarged some fifty-fold.
But take them all, the great and small,
And this we´ve got to say:
Here´s dear old Ireland, good old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, hurrah!

We´ve seen the wedding and the wake,
The pattern and the fair,
The lithe young frames at the dear old games
In the kindly Irish air;
And the loud "Hurroo!", we´ve heard it too,
And the thundering "Clear the way!"
Here´s old Ireland, dear old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

And well we know in cool grey eyes,
When the hard day´s work is o´er,
How soft and sweet are the words that greet
The friends who meet once more:
With "Mary Machree!" and "My Pat, ´tis thee!"
And "My own heart night and day!"
And fond old Ireland, dear old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

And happy and bright are the groups that pass
From their peaceful homes for miles
O´er the fields and roads and the hills to Mass,
When Sunday morning smiles!
And deep the zeal their true hearts feel
When low they kneel to pray,
In dear old Ireland, blessed old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

But deep in Canadian woods we´ve met,
And we never may see again
The dear old isle where our hearts are set
And our first fond hopes remain!
But come fill up another cup,
And with every sup we´ll say:
Here´s loved old Ireland, good old Ireland,
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:12 PM

Both Ian Tyson and Gordon Lightfoot have dwelt on Canadian themes in their songs. But what I remember best is the imagery in their music, the references to Canada's native people, the unique landmarks, lakes and watercourses - a real sense of place that tells the listener he or she is in a different land (unless, of course, you happen to be Canadian). There is a real pride of place in their writing.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Zhenya
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:08 PM

Sorry - that last message about Harbour Grace was from me. I forgot I had to clear my cookies to unfreeze my system a few minutes ago.
Zhenya

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 02:06 PM

From one version of the Irish song, The Green Fields of America (place names are sometimes in a different order in the verse):

There's rum in Toronto at a shilling a bottle
There's ale in New Brunswick at a penny a glass
There's wine in that fine town they call Montreal, boys
And the devil be with us, if we don't take a glass


And this one is from Newfoundland. See the link for the whole version, which mentions some additional places, but here's the first verse:

Harbour Grace


Harbour Grace is a very nice place
And so is the Bay of Islands,
So we give three cheers for Carbonear
When the boys come home from swilin'.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Hi Lo
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:34 PM

I am sorry Azizi, of course I should heve given artists names..so here thet are..You're so vain -Carly Simon, Cidadel Hill, of this I am not sure but I have heard many people do it. Cape Breton Lullaby-Catherine MacKinnon, Farewell to Nova Scotia, lots of versions of this but Catherine Ms, version is the best known.She's called Nova Scotia-Rita MacNiel, The Following by Stan Rodgers-Barretts Privateers, Forgartys Cove, Bluenose In The Sun, Rawdon Hills.Gillis Mountain, The Rankins, Ballad of Springhill-ewan mccoll. Orangedale Whistle is also by the Rankins, Caledonia is from a song sung by Ambie Thomas but is best known in the version by Norma Waterson. These all have to do with places in the Prov. of Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada.
Red Brother, Red Sister is by Bruce Cockburn, Four Stong Winds and Brave Wolf are sung by Ian and Sylvia. Woman of Labrador has been covered many times but I am most familiar with the version by Pamela Morgan.Bud The Spud and Sudbury Saturday Night are both by Tom Connors.Escarpment Blues is by Sarah Harner, Song for Sharon is by Joni Mitchell.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE CASCA AND THE WHITEHORSE BURNED DOWN
From: ClaireBear
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:26 PM

"Valparaiso in a Rowboat" by Zeke Hoskins is about Windsor, Ontario.

"Lonely Yukon Stars," my favorite Riders in the Sky song, is of course about the Yukon Territory.

Numerous Stringband songs I know or half-know are about places in Canada.

Here's one Stringband song I believe I know by heart. It's about the demise, in Whitehorse by arson in 1974, of two of the last sternwheelers on the Yukon River (you can read about this event, and see photos, here. I love everything about this song, but especially the small positive vignette Bob was able to pull out of this sad story:

THE CASCA AND THE WHITEHORSE BURNED DOWN
By Bob Bossin

We could smell the smoke just as soon as we awoke
On a ridge running east from town
I put the coffee on, a thermos took along
When the Casca and the Whitehorse burned down.

The city volunteers pumped water from the river
To try and hose the old boats down
But the old wood was so dry and the flames they rose so high
That the Casca and the Whitehorse burned down.

"Fire!" he cried. "Fire on the river!"
Muddy waters rollin' deep and brown
Old man callin' down along the river
When the Casca and the Whitehorse burned down.

Old Captain Jim O'Hara he was sittin' in a lawnchair
And damned if that old man didn't laugh.
He pointed to the smoke, a-rising from the stack
And said, "When did you last see that?"

Fifteen cord to Dawson and a hundred comin' back
Look down how those muddy waters roll
The churning paddlewheel raisin' rainbows in the wake
And hear that old steamwhistle blow.

Fireweed, the perfume of the smoke
Muddy waters rollin' deep and brown
Pink ladies down in Dawson all come out to watch the boats
When the Casca and the Whitehorse come down.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Beer
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:20 PM

Honest Working Man Written by ? Sung by Catherine McKinnon (sp.)



chorus:
    'Way down in East Cape Breton, where they knit the sock and mitten
    Chezzetcook is represented by the husky black and tan.
    May they never be rejected, and home rule be protected
    And always be connected with the honest working man!

1. What raises high my dander, next door lives a Newfoundlander
   Whose wire you cannot stand her, since high living she began,
   Along with the railroad rackers, also the codfish packers,
   Who steal the cheese and crackers from the honest working man.

2. When leaves fall in the autumn and fish freeze to the bottom,
   They take a three-ton schooner and go round the western shore;
   They load her with provisions, hard tack and codfish mizzens,
   The like I never heard of since the downfall of Bras d'Or.

3. The man who mixes mortar gets a dollar and a quarter,
   The sugar-factory worker, he gets a dollar ten,
   While there's my next-door neighbor, who subsists on outside labour,
   In the winter scarcely earns enough to feed a sickly hen.

4. They cross the Bay of Fundy, they reach her ona Monday:
   Do you see my brother Angus? Now tell me if you can.
   He was once a soap-box greasman, but now he is a policeman
   Because he could not earn a living as an honest working man.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:05 PM

Here's a plethora, eh?:


Songs About Canada

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Selchie - (RH)
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 01:02 PM

Tanglefoot's Vimy:

http://www.tanglefootmusic.com/music/lyrics/mtw.htm#vimy

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,David
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:57 PM

Chris Hastings and Huw Pudner have got a song called "The Galway Kate" which is about the famine ships leaving Ireland for North America.St Mary's Bay in Newfoundland gets a mention in the last verse.
David

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Lord Batman's Kitchener
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:52 PM

EP- extended play 45 rpm, with generally four tracks

Examples:
The Beatles

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:48 PM

Songs are such a great way to learn about history, culture, and geography :o)

Thanks to all who have posted on this thread thus far!

My preference is that people post lyrics, comments, questions and/or video clips of songs and not just lists of song titles. But "whatever rocks your boat" since it's "different strokes for different folks"* :o))


* These are just some attempted witticism. As I'm still stuck on the I'se the B'y" song. NeilD, thanks for that information about that song which I didn't know until I started hanging out on Mudcat towards the end of 2004. And I just figured out today that "b'y" in that song is a contraction of the word "boy"-or at least I think it is...

**

Also special thanks to Hilo for asking the question about Willy Dunn. And another special thanks Ron Bankley for sharing the lyrics to your song. Is there a song clip of it online and if so would you provide a link so we can hear it?

**
Btw, rasberry cream, what's an "EP"?

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:32 PM

To bring in a province that's yet to be mentioned (I think) there's 'Peter Emberley' which tells how young Peter (from PEI) goes to New Brunswick and is killed in an accident whilst working in the lumber industry. It mentions his burial place as Boiestown, about 40 miles from Fredricton.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:26 PM

Maidstone is in Sask. I believe that Joni M. was either born there or raised there.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:23 PM

Here's one from Vancouver Island, Azizi, that I posted a number of years ago and which still doesn't seem to be in the DT        

Are You From Bevan?        

Location: Vancouver Island
Date: 1912 to 1915 (see notes)
Informant: Words and Music by Phil Thomas
Source: Thomas, Philip J. Songs of the Pacific Northwest.
Saanichton, B.C.: Hancock House Publishers Ltd., 1979. 131.

Are You From Bevan?

Well, hello, stranger, how do you do?
There's something I'd like to say to you.
You seem surprised I recognize;
I'm no company stool but I just surmise
You're from the place I'm longing to be.
Your smiling face seems to say to me
You're from the island, your land and my land,
So tell me can it be-

Chorus
Are you from Bevan? I said from Bevan
Where those fields of stumps they beckon to me.
I'm glad to see you!
Tell me how be you,
And those friends I'm longing to see?
If you're from Union Bay or Courtenay or Cumberland
Any place below that Bevan second dam-
Are you from Bevan? I said from Bevan,
'Cause I'm from Bevan too!

Now it was way back in 19 and 12
Our gas committee was put on the shelf.
First we walked out, then we were locked out-
Then by a foul we were all but knocked out.
Our union miners faced guns and jail,
Hundreds of us were held without bail, But by August 1914 our labor they were courting,
But they blacklisted me-

Chorus

"Are You From Bevan?" is a mixture of nostalgia and grim recollection. The song tells in brief the story of a two-year episode in the long struggle of the coal miners of Vancouver Island to have the major mine owners accept their right to form a union.

In the song a man-no longer a coal miner on the island-hails another whom he remembers from one of the colliery communities in the Cumberland area. He recalls the incident which precipitated the two-year dispute, the firing and blacklisting of the miners' representative on a Gas Committee at one of the Dominion Collieries' mines. He then tells of the men's reaction in Cumberland in September, 1912, where the blacklisted miner had sought work only to be turned away by the management.

They took a joint "holiday" to protest this discrimination and to discuss what further they should do. The next day the management ordered them to take their tools from the mine unless they would sign individual two-year contracts. The song then refers to the "foul" that nearly knocked them out.

The "foul" was collusion in strike-breaking activities between the provincial government of McBride and Bowser and the owners of Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd.

The strike-breaking included: employment in Cumberland of imported miners and Chinese labourers whom the employers were able to intimidate; turning a mine and its townsite into an armed camp with special police and eventually with militia; condoning of armed strike-breakers at Extension, near Nanaimo, when there was no evidence to suggest that the strikers were armed or intending to arm themselves; arrest by duplicity of men gathered in Nanaimo in peaceful assembly; and finally maintaining military rule over the entire mining area to ensure that no union organization could possibly succeed."*

*From -Philip Thomas, Songs of the Pacific Northwest

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 12:06 PM

Ron Hynes and Murray MacLaughlin's 'No Chnage in Me' has the great opening line of:

You could shoot off a cannon in the middle of Bond
And attract no attention in downtown St John's

There's also Gary O'Driscoll's 'Out from St Leonards' which as well as the place named in the title also mentions Placentia and Stephenville (and Toslow, and Toronto)

Both are Newfoundland songs of course.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:56 AM

Joni Mitchell mentions Maidstone in Song For Sharon on Hejira. I think that Maidstone is in Canada. It's also my hometown in Kent (UK).

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: bankley
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:38 AM

Willie is a First Nations singer/songwriter/film-maker...Micmac,, one of the first to sing about this land from an Aboriginal perspective..
there's was only a handful in the 60's... Buffy, Floyd Westerman, Peter LaFarge, Pat Sky, Jesse Ed Davis, Shingoose.... that's all I can think of.... now there's hundreds... good to see... and Willie is still truckin' along.... a close friend...

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Songs of The Underground Railroad
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:33 AM

Oh righteous Father,
Wilt thou pity me,
And aid me to Canada,
Where all the slaves are free!

Source: The Story of Underground Railroad by Conrad Stein

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:25 AM

Please, who is Willy Dunn ?

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: bankley
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:21 AM

'John McLean' ,
'Great Lakes People',
'Pontiac',
'Ballad of Louis Riel',
'The Covenant Chain'
'Big Bear'
'Ballad of Crowfoot'

just a few written by Willie Dunn

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: bubblyrat
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 11:07 AM

Alberta Bound ( Gordon Lightfoot ) , is especially good, as it mentions, as well as the eponymous province, the city of Toronto , where, apparently, you can get a "Honey", ( if you have the money ). I had one once (from Scarborough ,in "Tronner" ), and she was very nice, too !!

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:51 AM

Here is a video for Canadian Railroad Trilogy with some beautiful images of Canada.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,rasberry cream
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:36 AM

Picking up from another thread on this board, Boo Hewerdine recorded a song called 'Ontario' which kinda qualifies. It's on an EP he did a couple of years back.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:23 AM

Woman of Labrador, Red Brother, Red Sister.

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: cetmst
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:20 AM

Just a few from a cursory search:
Where the Peace River Flows
Ballad of New Scotland, ca 1750
Fire on the Water - ship disasters, Great Lakes, Montreal
Maid of Tidehead
Yukon Steve and Alaska Ann
Montreal - Wade Hemsworth
Montreal December '89 - Judy Small
Ballad of St. Ann's Reel
Scarborough Settler's Lament
Black Fly - Wade Hemsworth, Ontario
Canadian Railroad Trilogy - Gordon Lightfoot
Banks of Newfoundland
Winnipeg Whore
Alberta Homesteader
Sally Greer - Quebec
Prince Edward Island Murder

Subject: RE: Songs That Mention Canadian Places
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 10:17 AM

Azizi, just a little piece of pedantic trivia, which may also add to historic knowledge of Canada. The song I'se the B'y does list Canadian place names now, but didn't when it originated. How can this be you ask? All of the place names in the song are in Newfoundland which was not part of Canada until 1949. Newfies like to say that's when Canada decided to join THEM. Since the song is much older than 1949 places like Fogo, Twillingate, Moreton's Harbor and Bonavista were not Canadian then, but are now.
   Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned "Canadian Railway Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot.