Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 06:41 PM

At G.S. camp in the 50's, Southern California we called it "Great Lakes Regional"

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 09:29 PM

It's called Blue Waters

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 09:41 PM

I am 45, and I just woke from a dream with that song ( land of the silver birch) on my lips. I have no idea why.    I learned it in the 4th grade, in Lake shore Maryland, in music class. I was a cub scout too but we never sang it., so strange, so I jumped on google, typed the chorus, and there you all were. amazing ...... thanks

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: meself
Date: 29 Oct 09 - 11:57 PM

That's a different, though similar, song.

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,a grandma
Date: 29 Oct 09 - 11:51 PM

My children learned the song at school many years ago
they had a verse:
My paddle keen and white
hushing like silver
swift as the wild goose flight
dip ,dip , and swing

dip,dip and swing it back.
hushing like silver
swift as the wild goose flight.
Dip, dip and swing

Subject: chords? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,cas29
Date: 14 May 07 - 07:45 AM

Hi, I'm in a funny situation!
I'm an English teacher in Italy and my students want to have a sing-a-long campfire style!

I am at best a mediocre guitar player and could really use some help with the chords for this one.

Please and thank you?
:)

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Cats
Date: 05 May 07 - 04:07 PM

I learned it when I was working as a counsellor at Sebago and Little Wohelo, the Luther Gulick Summer camps back in the 1970's. If you go onto their website you can hear it sung today!

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,Old boy scout in Ontario
Date: 05 May 07 - 03:46 PM

Thank you. My grandson learned only the first verse at school in Alberta, and I know we sang more of it at camps in the 1950s and 60s. These are the words I remember. I will pass this all onto him. Again, my thanks.

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 26 Mar 06 - 02:53 AM

Kathy there are a couple of threads already on Land of Oden.
Look here.

Robyn

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From:
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 07:19 PM

Anyone know of a song called "In The Land of Oden"? It's an old Girl Scout/Folk song, I learned at Girl Scout Camp Hidden Falls, in Dingman's Ferry, PA, back in the 70's, when I was a camper.I was able to pick up a few chords on the guitar, and it was an easy one to play.I remember the first verse, only.

In the land of Oden
There stands a mountain,
10,000 miles in the air
Once every million years,
A little bird comes winging
Sharpens its beak
and quickly disappears
and quickly disappears.

I would love to know the rest of the verses! It was the one song I learned how to play on guitar, and now some 30 plus years later, I am going to learn to play guitar. Thanks! Kathy

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From:
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 04:22 PM

You are still missing one verse about being old and grey - I found i-1st first verse land of the sliver birch, home of the beaver, land where the mighty moose wanders at will
2nd - My heart grows sick for you, here on the prarrie, I will return once more, hills of the north.
3rd High on a rocky ledge, I'll build my wigwan, close to the forest edge, quiet and still
4th Swift as a silverfish, canoe of birch bark, thy mighty waterways carry me forth
5th my hair is silver now, my boes are weary, I shall return no more, hills of the north.
chorus: Blue lakes and rocky shore, I will return once more
Bum Ba ti bum bum, (repeat), bum bum bum
Yes the title is Land of the Silver Birch
I have a whole archive of songs from the 1950's - early 1960's and what I don't have my friend has in Pennsylvania where I grew up and these were sung at Camp Pine Grove - a magical place

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,lcclark
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 11:38 AM

This is my favorite camp song from Girl Scout Summer Camp in Prescott,Arizona (in the early 60's). I am a teacher and at this very moment my students are learning to love this song also. There is an beautiful version of the song on Red Grammer's CD "Down the Do Re Mi" The words differ some. Available at:
http://www.redgrammer.com

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Metchosin
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 03:02 AM

Well at least some of you got to sing songs in Scouts and Guides. When I attended the only songs to come from our stiff lipped old Brown Owl was O Canada and God Save the Queen.

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:32 PM

If we must have threads on this horror, the full effect is there only if it is sung. Listen, if your stomach is strong, here: Silver Birch

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 02:07 PM

I come from the land of the silver birch
And the home of the beaver
But I'll find no better how e'er I search
How could I ever leave her?

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 06:08 AM

I can't provide an earlier citation than that above, but to copy a post in the other thread:

"Listed in "The Hackney Scout Song Book (1957)" (Where it was included for the first time, following the 1922 edition) as a 'Red Indian canoeing song'"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 01:37 PM

Not just a Girl Scout song. I learned it in the Boy Scouts. This was pre 1967ish when we were still called Boy scouts in the UK

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: GUEST,Sooz (at work)
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 08:13 AM

We used to sing it in our rural English primary school around 1960. We sang it as a round and enjoyed it greatly (although that might have been due to the final extra loud boom we sometimes got away with!)

Subject: RE: Name of this song? (Land of the Silver Birch)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 02:26 AM

This is one of those Girl Scout songs my kid sister sang to death; and now I know every word, whether I like it or not. Like most of the Girl Scout favorites we've collected (see crosslinks above), its origins are a puzzle. This one, though, does have an entry in the Traditional Ballad Index, with one songbook citation - it appears in Folk Songs of Canada (1954), by Edith Fulton Fowke (Literary Editor) and Richard Johnston (Music Editor). If somebody has that book, please let us know if we have Fowke's lyrics, and where she got the song from. I'm betting that the Fowke version is in the entry above that was taken from Barry Taylor's Canadian tunebook, http://members.shaw.ca/tunebook/birch.htm.
-Joe Offer-

---

Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Land of the Silver Birch

DESCRIPTION: A pseudo-Indian ode to northern lands: "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more." The singer ends by promising to build a wigwam in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: homesickness return nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 190-191, "Land of the Silver Birch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4550
Notes: For some reason, we learned this in elementary school in Minnesota. I can't imagine why. - RBW
File: FJ190

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song? (Answe
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 10:05 PM

Sorry it took so long, I was eating while I typed. :)

Sigurd

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song? (Answe
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 08:41 PM

Of course asking a question in a thread often throws up extra infirmation you wouldn't get directly from the DT, or different versions of a song.

That was pretty impressive speed-answering!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: open mike
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 04:15 PM

also in future posts to this forum you will get
EVEN BETTER results if the thread title is more
specific (such as containing the lyrics you are
searching for, etc.) so people get an idea BEFORE
they open it what it is about. again, welcome.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: open mike
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 03:09 PM

welcome guest grodin
sign up and become a member
the search feature here will
usually answer your question
the D.T. referst to the
Digital Tradition..the data
base wehich contains lyrics
and sometimes also chords and
midi sounds of nearly 10,000
songs and tunes . the forum
is this message board. you
can enter the chat room and
exchange individual messages
with other members if you
pick a nick name and register
for free.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 02:26 PM

In the Forum, this goes back to nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.
Thread 5721, Lyr. Req: Land of the Silver Birch: Silver Birch

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 12:30 PM

Wow, You guys know your stuff in here! A few minutes and I get my answer. Thanks a bunch!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: Stephen R.
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 12:29 PM

From http://members.shaw.ca/tunebook/birch.htm, which also has a midi file of the tune. Canadian it is.

Land of the Silver Birch

Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose wanders at will
Blue lake and rocky shore
I will return once more.

   Refrain
   Boom de de boom boom
   Boom de de boom boom
   Boom de de boom boom
   Bo-o-o-o-m

Down in the forest, deep in the lowlands
My heart cries out for thee, hills of the north
Blue lake and rocky shore
I will return once more.

High on a rocky ledge I'll build my wigwam
Close by the water's edge, silent and still
Blue lake and rocky shore
I will return once more.

Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose wanders at will
Blue lake and rocky shore
I will return once more.

Stephen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 12:21 PM

Land of the Silver Birch

    * Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver,
    * Where still the mighty moose wanders at will.

Chorus

    * 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-m-m-m-m.

    * Down in the forest, deep in the lowlands,
    * My heart cries out for thee, hills of the north.

    * Swift as a silver fish, canoe of birch bark,
    * Thy mighty waterways carry me forth.

    * High on a rocky ledge I'll build my wigwam,
    * Close by the water's edge, silent and still.

Its a popular scout song.
http://www.kidslist.uc.edu/kidslist/gs/neil/nsong1_006.html

Subject: Lyr Req: What is the name of this song?
From: GUEST,Grodin
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 12:15 PM

I am try to figure out the name of a tradition folk song (maybe Canadian origin) that has these words. All I can remember from elementary school are these words.

Blue sky and rocky shore, I will return once more...
Boom didi boom boom, boom didi boom bomm,
booooom booooom boom.

Thanks for the help!