Lyr Req: Along the French Shore

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: GUEST,John Leeder
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 05:00 PM

We've drawn a blank. Jim says:

"Sorry, John. This time you've definitely got the wrong guy. That line doesn't ring a bell at all. Besides which, I've never done Ontario folk songs."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Willie-O
Date: 06 Sep 00 - 08:46 AM

Thanks for your excellent detective work John & Malcolm. There's another song I've heard Jim sing that I'd like to ask him about--many years ago I saw him sing at an open stage in Ottawa. He performed an Ontario folk song in a minor key, about some high-living stranger coming to a farming community. There was a line about how us farmers had never heard of taking a drink so early in the day.

Well, they did call it Ontario the Good for a reason...

Ring any bells? Or can you pass this question to Jim for me?

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: GUEST,John Leeder
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 12:32 PM

I sent a copy of the putative lyrics above to Jim Payne, who recorded the song. He replied:

'Cape Bauld is down towards the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula [of Newfoundland]. I have two printed versions of this that Lem supplied. On one it says "supple" and the other says "subtle". I think I always say "supple". Also, on one version he says "ween", on the other "trow". I've heard him sing both, but I use "ween", since that's the one I heard him use most. He had someone type up all his lyrics for him, which may account for the subtle""/"supple" discrepancy, but there's not much room for that with "ween" and "trow".'

So I guess we can please ourselves with those choices.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Aug 00 - 02:08 PM

A midi of Lem Snow's tune goes to Alan's Mudcat Midi site.  Any ideas about the missing words?

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Willie-O
Date: 27 Aug 00 - 06:11 PM

Thanks for the lyrics Malcolm! I think I can fill in the blanks with a little digging.

And Mary, that's St Pierre et Miquelon. Maybe you're thinking of the Mull of KinTIRE? (Har har)

Newfoundland is rather too far from anywhere except Labrador to have been under the same jurisdiction in the pre-electronic age. They only joined Canada in 1949, under extreme economic and political pressure.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: mg
Date: 19 Aug 00 - 02:01 PM

two islands off the coast of Newfoundland are part of France...St. Pierre and Michelon??

Subject: Lyr Add: SAILING ALONG THE FRENCH SHORE (Lem Snow)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 19 Aug 00 - 10:44 AM

Though I hate posting lyrics with bits missing, this is the best I can do from the tape I have (Jim Payne singing, I think).  Perhaps some kind person could fill in the blanks...

SAILING ALONG THE FRENCH SHORE

(Lem Snow, 1903 - 1986)

When I was a young lad, just barely fourteen
A-seeking adventure and lore
I boarded a clipper, my dad was the skipper
That sailed all along the French Shore
Yes we sailed all along the French Shore.

We soon weighed the anchor and hoisted our sails
Straightway for Cape (?)
For which destination, without hesitation,
We sailed all along the French Shore
Yes we sailed all along the French Shore.

What beautiful vessels were sailing those days
Some bound for the North Labrador;
And so for this reason, (?) out there that season
They too sailed along the French Shore
Yes we sailed all along the French Shore.

On each ship a maiden was hired to cook,
A beautiful girl to adore;
So young and cavorting(?), all ready for courting
While sailing along the French Shore
Yes while sailing along the French Shore.

Being too young for courting, I soon did decide
To spy on the lovers on shore
I spied on a couple so loving and supple (subtle?)
While sailing along the French Shore
Yes while sailing along the French Shore.

Their actions peculiar appeared to me then
But now they're funny no more
Their hugging and kissing, oh what I'd been missing
While sailing along the French Shore
Yes while sailing along the French Shore.

One Sunday I trailed them over the hill
And saw what I ne'er saw before;
And the knowledge I gained forever remained
After sailing along the French Shore
After sailing along the French Shore.

This couple got married that very same Fall
As soon as the voyage was o'er;
Engendered, I'm certain, by secretly flirting
While sailing along the French Shore
Yes we sailed all along the French Shore.

This couple has children now, married I (?)
You see, they're not young any more;
Nor yet do they know that I witnessed the show
That they staged all along the French Shore
Yes while sailing along the French Shore

So this ends the story of those bonny days
Oh that I could live them once more!
With what I now know, I'd produce my own show
And I'd stage it along the French Shore
Yes I'd stage it along the French Shore.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Aug 00 - 01:04 AM

I know, I thought that too, but a lot of Evangaline stuff came up on the search. Perhaps at one time NS was a part of NF? I don't know, I'm just a stoopid Amerikan. Such as, see here, and here

Possibly part of a boundry dispute between NS and NF that is now resolved? Tis a puzzelment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Willie-O
Date: 19 Aug 00 - 12:32 AM

Thanks, Sorcha, but Evangeline (mythical Acadian heroine) was from Nova Scotia. (Wasn't she? I don't know what was happening to French-speaking Newfoundlanders at the time of the Acadian exile--since Newfoundland had never, to my knowledge, been under French control the circumstances would have been different I suspect.) I'm pretty sure this is a Newfoundland song.

W-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along the French Shore
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 11:30 PM

No luck with actual lyrics, but it does seem that the French Shore was where Evangialine was from. Try clicking here and filling out the form, you might get an answer. It's a Jim Payne "contact us" site.

Subject: Along the French Shore
From: Willie-O
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 12:48 PM

I'm looking for the words to a song I've heard Jim Payne of Newfoundland sing a couple of times:

"As we sailed all along the French shore, boys,
We sailed all along the French shore."

It's a mildly suggestive tale of a young lad who spied on a sailor and his lady love, who was working in the galley on the fishing schooner aboard which all the parties to the song were, you know, sailing along the French Shore. (That's a stretch of Nfld coast, I'm not sure which part.)

It's pretty funny and kind of sweet. The French Shore does not get anything useful in the DT.

Willie-O