Lyrics/tune Correction - Kettle Valley Line

16 Jun 09 - 07:35 PM (#2658128)
Subject: Lyrics Correction - Kettle Valley Line
From: llareggyb (inactive)

This is a minor correction to the DT lyrics to The Kettle Valley Line, as sung by Stan Triggs himself, and posted on the BC Govt site http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/folklore/folklore/worksong/kettle.htm, link courtesy of The British Columbia Folklore Society (http://www.folklore.bc.ca/folksongs.htm).

Verse 2:

I order my meals through the ventilator...
They taste no worse, and saves tippin' the waiter...

- Tony Patriarche

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(Full text from link added by Joe Offer)

The Kettle Valley Line

Location: Hope, B.C. to Lethbridge, Alberta
Date: about 1917
Informant: From the singing of John Bartlett & Rika Ruebsaat
Source: Songs and Stories of Canada. Richmond, B.C.: Provincial Educational Media Centre, Ministry of Education, 1980.

Historical Notes

I always ride upon the roof
On the Kettle Valley line.

(Repeat first two lines of every verse)

I always ride upon the roof,
I could ride inside, but what's the use?
So I always ride upon the roof
On the Kettle Valley Line.

I order my meals through the ventilator
On the Kettle Valley Line.
I order my meals through the ventilator,
They taste no worse, and save tippin' the waiter,
So I order my meals through the ventilator
On the Kettle Valley Line.

I buy a sandwich from the cook
On the Kettle Valley Line.
I buy a sandwich from the cook,
And he pockets my money, the dirty crook,
When I buy a sandwich from the cook
On the Kettle Valley Line.

The railway bulls are gentlemen
On the Kettle Valley Line.
The railway bulls are gentlemen,
We'll never see their like again:
Yes the railway bulls are gentlemen
On the Kettle Valley Line.

They tip their hats and they call you "Sir"
On the Kettle Valley Line.
They tip their hats and call you "Sir",
Then chuck you in the local stir,
But they tip their hats and call you "Sir"
On the Kettle Valley Line.

Repeat first verse.

Editor's note: "Railway bulls" were the railway police. The "Stir" was the jail.

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Click to play

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16 Jun 09 - 07:37 PM (#2658129)
Subject: RE: Lyrics Correction - Kettle Valley Line
From: llareggyb (inactive)

MIDI tune - I am also sending an updated MIDI file to Joe Offer.

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16 Jun 09 - 08:29 PM (#2658169)
Subject: RE: Lyrics/tune Correction - Kettle Valley Line
From: Joe Offer

Click to play

This tune sounds very familiar. What other songs use it?

Thanks, Tony.
-Joe-

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17 Jun 09 - 12:29 PM (#2658643)
Subject: RE: Lyrics/tune Correction - Kettle Valley Line
From: Stewart

Here's the version sung by Jerry Middaugh (click on the title) in Seattle, on the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society web page.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

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