Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 14 Jun 19 - 02:50 AM

As far as I could tell, there are only two verses to this song and as I say in the information that goes with my video, it could be sung as a "round".
My Paddle's Keen and Bright

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 Jun 19 - 05:42 PM

I seem to remember it also being done as a round, with everyone finally ending up on the "Dip, dip and swing" line many times over.
Agree with Guest about "Land of the Silver Birch" being a differen song, tho built around the same few notes in different order!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Jun 19 - 11:16 PM

We all sang this at "camp Orkila:, in the San Juan Islands in the early 1950;s, bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 19 - 11:02 PM

Land of the Silver Birch is a different song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 19 - 10:50 PM

Wow oh wow - just searched for words to this to share with my grands .. all the comments to took me back to Camfire girls in California — what a lovely group commenting - and amazing images evoked! Thank you!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 09:07 PM

Back about 1961, my Boy Scout Camp was "lent" to the Girl Scouts. Our BSA leaders taught us this, which they had learned from the GSA:

Dip, dip, and swing your paddles
Flashing like silver,
Straight as the wild goose flies,
Dip, dip, and swing,
Dip, dip, and swing.

And that was all. Never knew there were more verses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:41 PM

Another version, lkely the one we all know:

Land of the silver birch,
Home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders at will [1]

Refrain:
Blue lake and rocky shore,
I will return once more
Boom de de boom boom, Boom de de boom boom, Boom de de boom boom, Boom boom.
Down in the forest,
deep in the lowlands,
my heart cries out for thee
hills of the north

Refrain
High on a rocky ledge,
I shall build a wigwam
Close to the water's edge,
Silent and still

Refrain

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST,Katt Parsons
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:37 PM

Little Dawn Boy Circle
Compiled by JoAnne Dennee
Now I walk in beauty
Beauty is before me,
Beauty is behind me,
Above and below me. (repeat)
Over the rainbow trail I go - On toes to 8 counts of drumbeat
Hither I wander, thither I wander -Drum and step deeply on hither, wither
Over the beautiful trial I go. - 8 counts on toes to drumbeat
(repeat)
Mother Earth's children rise in the morn
Mother Earth's children gather corn.
Dance to the wind, dance to the rain,
Dance to the Earth who gives us grain.
Mother Earth's children put feathers in their hair
Mother Earth's children string beans to wear.
Dance to the wind, dance to the rain,
Dance to the Earth who gives us grain.
Mother Earth's children walk softly as the deer,
To the hearth with the golden ear.
Dance to the wind, dance to the rain,
Dance to the Earth who gives us grain.
A little fire they will make
Bread of golden corn they'll bake.
Dance to the wind, dance to the rain,
Dance to the Earth who gives us grain.
Bread of golden corn they'll eat
Then Mother Earth's children fall fast asleep.
(humming softly) Dance to the wind, dance to the rain,
Dance to the Earth who gives us grain.
(Repeat 'Over the Rainbow Trail I go
Hither I wander, thither I wander
Over the beautiful trail I go." between all songs
and verses, same movements, no drumming.)
My paddle's keen and bright,
Flashing like silver.
Follow the wild goose flight,
Dip, dip and swing.
Dip, dip and swing it back, flashing like silver.
Follow the wild goose flight, dip, dip and swing.
Land of the silver birch,
Home of the beaver.
Wood where the mighty moose,
Wanders at will.
Green lakes and rocky shore,
I will return once more.
Follow the wild goose flight,
Dip, dip and swing.
Dip, dip and swing it back, flashing like silver,
Follow the wild goose flight, dip, dip and swing.
(Repeat verse.)
May we all fly like eagles
Flying so-o high
Circling the Universe
On wings of pure light
o witchi ti ti
Witchi ti o oh
o witchi ti ti
Witchi ti i oh
Witchi ti i oh
Witchi ti i o oh hoh
(Repeat verse.)
Mother Earth to you we're singing,
Listen to our song.
Thanks for golden harvest bringing,
Listen as we sing to you,
Sing to you, sing to you,
Songs of rain and sunshine.
On the trail where we are going
Ever will we sing.
When the winter comes with snowing
Still our hearts will sing to you,
Sing to you, sing to you,
Songs of rain and sunshine.
(Repeat verse.)
The moon on the one hand,
The sun on the other,
The moon is my sister,
The sun is my brother.
The moon on my left,
The sun on my right,
My brother "Good morning",
My sister "Good night".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 May 01 - 06:32 AM

Ahem.  That would be "mère et fille", of course...I ought never to try to be clever before midday.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 May 01 - 06:29 AM

In this case RUS is right, and the DT is wrong.  MacLeod wrote the poem The Road to the Isles "for the lads in France during the Great War" (his words).  There is no "Gaelic original", and the tune sounds far too "typically Scottish" to be traditional; I can't say for certain, but I see no reason at all to suppose that it was not written by Kennedy-Fraser mè et fille.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 May 01 - 04:16 AM

The HTML was almost right, Becky, but remember that links start with a href

Kaleea, with all due respect, I feel I must inform you that canoes rarely have oars - they have paddles. A very few canoes are fitted with oars and oarlocks, but most have only paddles.
-Joe Offer, Red Cross Canoeing Instructor-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 17 May 01 - 02:53 AM

RUS (Rise Up Singing) cites Margaret Embers McGee, 1918.

Their text is (slightly different from those above):

My paddle's keen & bright / flashing like silver
Follow the wild goose flight / dip, dip & swing

Dip, dip and swing her back / flashing like silver
Follow the wild goose track / dip, dip and swing

Early Girl Scouts?

The Lake Agnes fragment - a bit of The Far Northland (The Border Trail), here, which RUS has as an author unknown North American text for the Road to the Isles (which RUS has as words Kenneth MacLeod, music Patuffa Kennedy Fraser & Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser, published in 1917). The DT says they just collected and translated it.

Maybe early Scouts, all?

~ Becky in Tucson, who used to love them both at summer camp in Vermont. Sigh. (Triple digit high temps, here.)

Sure hope all the HTML worked!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Kaleea
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:25 AM

Here's how I learned it: chorus:

My paddle's keen and bright flashing with silver follow the wild goose flight dip dip and swing.

Verse: Dip dip and swing the oar flashing with silver moonlight bids to the shore dip dip and swing.

repeat chorus

I was taught that the flashing with silver denotes the water on the paddle or oar (especially looking silver at night), follow the wild goose flight means go south as it soon will be winter. Dip dip and swing means "paddle" two strokes quickly on one side of the birch bark canoe, then swing the paddle or oar to the other and do the same-repeatedly. And, of course, one can see the outline of the shoreline in the moonlight from out on the water in one's canoe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 11:02 PM

I just remembered some more, I think. If this is not actually part of the same song, Dad used to combine it with Dip, Dip. There is a tempo change with this part:

From Lake Agnes to Louisa to Kannipi we will go,
To see the loon and hear her plaintive wail;
And if you think within your heart
There's a swagger in me step
Then you've never been along the Border trail.

(Dad's dream was to make it to Great Slave Lake by canoe; he never made that one, but they did make it into Poobah Lake one year. He also paddled from the northern most Somers "camp" into Atikoken alone late one night to bring his boys fresh meat and salad.......Oh, gee, Dad, I miss you so)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:21 PM

No way, Sharon! Once it gets in there, it's there for days, trust me!, LOL! Now I've got it too........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST,Sharon
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:19 PM

Thanks for the incredibly quick response!!! this is great. With these couple more clues I may be able to find out some more. Might even be able to stop that tune going around and around in my head for the rest of the day!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:14 PM

Me too - Girl Guides, Suffolk, England, 1960's. Don't think there's any more either. Tattie B

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PADDLE SONG
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:09 PM

Oh golly--this takes me back. My dad took Scouts to Charlie Somers Canoe base in Minnesota lots of times, and we all learned this. Here, my friend, and thanks for the memories!

The Paddle Song
< 3 part round

Our paddles keen and bright,
Flashing like silver;
Swift as the wild goose flight,
Dip, dip, and swing.

Dip, dip, and swing them back,
Flashing like silver;
Swift as the wild goose flight,
Dip, dip and swing.

repeat

There might be more, but that is all I ever learned.

Subject: Dip, Dip and Swing...???
From: GUEST,Sharon
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:02 PM

Trying to remember the words to what I believe is a canoeing song, probably Canadian or French (voyageur). The only lyrics I can remember are "dip, dip and swing" which is part of the chorus, as well as "flashing with silver". Can anyone help me out?????!!!