I heard Bob Bossin & Marie-Lynne Hammond on CBC last fall and was inspired to look up some old Stringband. I'd forgotten how good some of their songs were and what a diversity of material they covered. They did the radio show and a few? performances in B.C. to sellebrate a new two-CD set (best-of compilation) called "The Indispensable Stringband". The web site is at http://www.stringband.net/.

"Dief Will Be the Chief" is a Canadian classic, as was Dief himself (possibly our most cartoonable prime minister - but that's arguable, we've had a few).

I've transcribed "Dief Will Be the Chief" from the National Melodies LP (1975).


DIEF WILL BE THE CHIEF AGAIN
(by Bob Bossin)

In nineteen hundred and fifty-seven,
When you was just a kid in school,
And Cassius Clay was an amateur,
Boxing down in Louisville,
Dief come out of Prince Albert,
And he said he was a man with a dream,
Now in seventy-four Clay's the champ once more,
And I know Dief will be the Chief again.

[Chorus:]
Dief is the Chief, Dief is the Chief,
Dief will be the Chief again,
Everybody's happy back in '57,
And nobody's happy since then,
There was law in the land, order in the home,
Swimming in the river back then,
But I know in my heart, that Dief will be the Chief,
And a dollar worth a dollar again.

Well he lost in '25, and he lost in '26
And '29, but he never lost heart,
He lost in '33 and he lost in '38,
And the '40s was mostly dark,
But in '53 he married Olive,
And together they ruled the land,
And with Olive by his side, the queen of his heart,
Deif will be the Chief again.

[Chorus as above]

Now we got a man up in Ottawa,
He got cold water in his veins,
You know that he don't give a shit about you,
And he don't hear when you complain,
But Dief come out of Prince Albert,
He was raised in the prairie grain,
And he always had a hand for the working man,
Dief will be the Chief again.

[Revised Chorus:]
Dief is the Chief, Dief is the Chief,
Dief will be the Chief again,
Everybody's happy back in '57,
And nobody's happy since then,
There's a famine in the land, a mortgage on the home,
And strikes without any end,
But I know in my heart, that Dief will be the Chief,
And a dollar worth a dollar again.

He's Chief Walking Buffalo to the people of the Sioux,
Honorary Chief Eagle to the Cree,
He's a customary colonel up in Saskatoon,
And a personal acquaintance of the Queen,
He's about to stand a Kinsman, a Kiwanis man too,
And he's 80 on September 18,
And he always had a hand for the working man,
Dief will be the Chief again.