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Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)

01 Apr 98 - 10:59 AM (#24906)
Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF THE FRANK SLIDE (Robert Gard)
From: Sheye

My first encounter with the mudcat was trying to find these lyrics. Got 'em!

BALLAD OF THE FRANK SLIDE
(Robert Gard)

On a grim and tragic morning
In nineteen hundred three
A little babe lay weeping
A pitiful sight to see.
A pitiful sight was she, was she
There in the shiv'ring morning.

Around the babe was a sea of stones,
A million ton or more,
That slid right off the mountain top
With a horrifying roar.
With a horrifying roar they tore,
There in the shiv'ring morning.

The night-shift was coming out of the mine,
They found their exit fouled.
Should have known that something was very wrong
For a dog that was with them howled,
Sat right up and howled and howled,
There in the shiv'ring morning.

The boys went down with many a tear
For their wives and children are mourned,
And not a one who came out of the mine
Had a bite of breakfast to eat,
Had a bite of breakfast to eat, to eat,
There in the shiv'ring morning.

The baby girl that lay on the rock,
'Twas a wonder she never dies,
There was only one thing the folks could do,
They named her "Frankie Slide"
They named her "Frankie Slide" they did,
There in the shiv'ring morning.

And when she grew to a maiden fair,
She knew that she'd someday abide
Along somewhere in the Crow's Nest Pass
Where they tell of the great Frank Slide.
They tell of the great Frank Slide, they do,
There in the shiv'ring morning.

Robert Gard 1959

31 Oct 02 - 04:55 PM (#815475)
Subject: RE: Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide
From: GUEST,janice cole

I have been looking for this since before I started college and I turned 60 last monday.

A partial version was sung in the George Washington University Folksong group in the early 60's.

Thanks

01 Nov 02 - 09:26 AM (#815966)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide
From: masato sakurai

"Omar Blondahl was only one of many younger men who followed Ives' model not only in image, style, and repertoire but also in an occupational pattern that combined radio, drama, and public concerts. When he arrived in Newfoundland these patterns were already well established in his life. His folksong repertoire included, in addition to a considerable number of Ives' songs, several of his own from western Canada: Robert Gard's "The Ballad of the Frank Slide," about an Alberta town destroyed by a landslide in 1903, and "The Lost Lemon Mine," an Alberta prospecting saga." (From Omar Blondahl's Contribution to the Newfoundland Folksong Canon by Neil Rosenberg)

~Masato

11 Oct 11 - 05:48 PM (#3237445)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide
From: GUEST,GUEST Clocksinp

The version I'm familiar with was a moving rendition sung by the folksinger Ed McCurdy on a vinyl recording in the late 60's or early 70"s. Since vandals choose to destroy my collection, I've been, unsuccessfully, seeking a copy in digital format. It was one of my favorites.

11 Oct 11 - 11:07 PM (#3237572)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide
From: Sandy Mc Lean

Stompin'Tom Connors also wrote a song about that event; "How The Mountain Came Down."
I've travelled the Crow's Nest Pass and witnessed the path of destruction and the rubble that still covers the valley floor.

01 Jul 15 - 04:13 AM (#3720189)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST

I've been searching for a recording on Youtube with no luck but found this at http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/b02.htm\

Ballad of Frank Slide
Anderson, Casey. Goin' Places, Elektra EKL 192, LP (1960), trk# A.05 (Frank Slide)
Dobson, Bonnie. She's Like a Swallow, Prestige Folklore FL 14015, LP (1963), trk# B.02 (Frankie Slide)
McCurdy, Ed. Folk Singer, Dawn DLP 1127, LP (1956c), trk# B.01
Troy, David. At the Gate of the Horn, Strand SLS 1117, LP (196?), trk# B.06

01 Jul 15 - 07:43 AM (#3720220)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,#

http://citizenfreak.com/titles/276638-dobson-bonnie-she-s-like-a-swallow

You can hear Bonnie Dobson singing the song at that link.

01 Jul 15 - 07:57 AM (#3720223)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,#

I found another take of the song at a Univ of Arkansas site but something in the download froze my machine. Now I can't re-find the site. This golden age crap isn't all it's s'posed to be.

01 Jul 15 - 09:18 AM (#3720246)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,#

A minor amendment to the history of the Frank Slide (Turtle Mountain).

Alberta did not enter the Canadian confederation until 1905 (along with Saskatchewan). In 1903, Frank was in the Northwest Territories in what was called the District of Alberta. Those wishing to see maps may go to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Alberta

01 Jul 15 - 11:19 AM (#3720268)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,DrWord

While we have this thread revived, I'll add an amendment to Guest#'s.
As a place name Crowsnest is a single apostropheless proper noun.
Thanks for the lyrics & links.
Keep on pickin'
dennis

02 Jul 15 - 09:24 AM (#3720523)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,#

As an historical ballad, Robert Edward Gard's 'Ballad of the Frank Slide' is fairly inaccurate. Approximately 80 people died when the slide occurred and from what I can gather it took less than a minute and a half from start to finish. Also,

"Gard, Robert. "Six Alberta Folklore Plays: Twelve-Foot Davis; Hatfield the Rainmaker; Midnight; Ballad of Johnny Dunn; A Church on the River; Ballad of the Frank Slide." Written while Gard was at the University of Alberta." from http://www.gardfoundation.org/plays.html

'A rockslide from Turtle Mountain, which in 1903 buried much of the little town of Frank, Alta, was the subject years later of Robert Gard's "Ballad of the Frank Slide" (BMI Canada 1949) and Stompin' Tom Connors' "How the Mountain Came Down." ' from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/disaster-songs-emc/

HOWever, the date of the song likely goes back to 1946 or earlier. A Google of    Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)   will bring up many pages that talk about it as both a radio drama and a song. Anyway, that's it from me for now.

30 Apr 20 - 12:59 AM (#4049471)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST

Are these not the lyrics to the Ed McCurdy song, "Ballad of Frank Slide", from 1958? If not, they're awfully close.

30 Apr 20 - 10:06 AM (#4049557)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,Starship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm_SABAekw0

Pretty song about the Frank Slide.

24 Apr 22 - 03:24 PM (#4140105)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: GUEST,allan ayers

In 2002 I flew from England to Calgary … i had blindfolded..put a pin in an Atlas ..and promised myself I would go to ……. it landed on Crows nest pass. ( had not a clue where it was .. so flew to Calgary .. hired a car and drove the pass.
Saw a turn off for Frank slide
All alone , no one else around and awed and humbled by first taste of Canada… and the awful feeling of walking on huge boulders over buried people and houses.
Sat down on rusted old machinery to roll a cig. .. and a Chipmunk sat next to me and Chattered..   I had only seen Walt Disney chipmunks .. I thought they were as big as cats!
not tiny and charming.
For three months I travelled Prince George to El Paso and New Orleans .
I am 74 .. but the Majestic Rockies , Crows nest pass and Frank slide will be with me until I shuffle. Canada … what a glorious Country!

24 Apr 22 - 06:05 PM (#4140121)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballad of the Frank Slide (Robert Gard)
From: Stilly River Sage

The song doesn't bother with the truth, but often times those kinds of ballads are more romantic than accurate. There never was a baby girl as the lone survivor.

1903: 90 seconds of terror in the Frank rockslide (CBC 2003)

Here's a comparable modern day slide: Voices of the Oso Landslide: Anatomy of a Landslide | IN Close