Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon (Steve Hites)

Subject: Lyr Req: 'Ballad of the Yukon'
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 08:02 PM

Cross-posting like crazy here. This request was just posted in Maplepost:


THIS IS POSTED FOR ONE OF OUR ALASKAN NEIGHBOURS - CAN YOU HELP??

From: "Michael Jones"
Date: August 26, 2006 2:31:14 PM PDT

I'm trying to track down some information about a song I haven't heard in nearly 20 years.

I believe it is called "Ballad of the Yukon." The opening lyrics go
something like ...
"Look to the north country, up where few men have been.
Look ahead to the virgin country. There's gold upon the wind."

I'm wondering if you can point in the direction of finding out the title, who wrote, and where I can get a recording of it.

Any help is appreciated.

Michael Jones
Anchorage, AK

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Ballad of the Yukon'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 08:45 PM

Hi, Michael - Looks like a song with that name was used in an interpretive slide show at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway:

Complementing the movies and music was a ten-minute slide show, entitled "The Klondike Gold Rush," that was shown once an hour. Accompanying the lapse-dissolve slide production was a score written by Skagway resident Steve Hites. During the mid-1970s, Hites had written a number of songs with a historical theme. NPS personnel were sufficiently impressed by his music that they invited him to the agency's Harpers Ferry Center. Here he composed a medley of three of his songs--"Gay '90s," "Diggin'," and "Ballad of the Yukon"--that served as the slide show's sound track. The show remained a staple of the interpretive program through the summer of 1987.
(footnote 2) In July 1978, Hites recorded several of his songs at Juneau's Red Dog Saloon. The songs appeared that December on the album Yukon Legacy.

Stop at the National Park Service headquarters in Anchorage. I'm not sure who exactly can help you, but I think if you ask to talk to one of the historians, they can lead you to the right person. I had to interview a number of the historians there about ten years ago, and they were delightful people. If you come up with it, please stop back and post the song for us, it you can.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Ballad of the Yukon'
From: nutty
Date: 27 Aug 06 - 07:24 AM

Steve Hites who it appears wrote the song can be contacted here

Skagway Street Car Company

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Ballad of the Yukon'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 01:06 AM

Looks like Steve Hites' recording of BALLAD OF THE YUKON is included in a compilation album called "Alaska Hit Singles."

The album is listed in the catalog of radio station KZSU, Stanford, CA.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: Peace
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 01:15 AM

Sound clip of Steve Hites here.
"Ballad of the White Pass and Yukon Route".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: Peace
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 01:20 AM

Photo of Steve Hites here.

From

http://www.skagwaynews.com/boatspecialpage.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: Peace
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 01:31 AM

Steve Hites - Inside Passage

1    North to Alaska
2    Save the Whales/Drunken Sailor
3    Gay '90s
4    Ballad of the Yukon
5    Diggin'
6    Big Mike Heney
7    First Steamboat to Dawson
8    Ben My Chree
9    Slow Boat to Skagway
10    Squaws Along the Yukon
11    The Frozen Logger
12    [Alaska History Monologue]
13    Alaska Flag Song


http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:1xAmIXzzZ3wJ:www.lyricstemple.com/mp3/allmp3/Inma-Serrano/157287.html+Steve+Hites,+Inside+pa

Supposed to be able to download the CD at that site, but I don't know how that stuff works. So be circumspect.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 03:41 AM

I bought the CD "Inside Passage" from Steve Hites in Skagway last month - he came aboard our cruise ship and performed a most entertaining show about the gold rush times. So at least one copy of the CD has made it to Oz.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 03:50 AM

Care to transcribe "Ballad of the Yukon" for us, Jennie? Is it the song that was originally requested?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 07:23 AM

The CD unfortunately doesn't have an insert with words, I could write them out but it would take a lot of listening and writing as the song runs for 3 minutes 39 seconds. As the original request was from Anchorage, and Steve Hites lives in Skagway (which is just down the road from Anchorage) it might just be easier to contact Steve direct? He seemed a nice bloke when I spoke to him after his performance - didn't have a lot of time to chat as he had to run to another performance on another ship, but was quite happy to give me the CD and wait for the money to arrive from Oz. It has been sent, by the way! An interesting souvenir of a wonderful holiday.

Cheers
Jennie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of the Yukon
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 02:54 AM

I've heard from Steve Hites & he's going to send me the lyrics. He seems quite pleased at the interest in his song.

I'll post them, along with a sunnary of other messages as soon as I get them.

Gawd, I love the internet & you fine folks!

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF THE YUKON (Steve Hites)
From: GUEST,Steve Hites
Date: 01 Sep 06 - 02:05 PM

"BALLAD OF THE YUKON" by Steve Hites, Skagway, Alaska (c) 1972

Look to the North Country
Up where few men have been
Listen there in the virgin country
There's gold upon the wind

And the wind blows 'cross the countryside
Spreadin' the word both far and wide
There's riches here for the takin'
The dreamers are a-wakin' to the cry

CHORUS: Lift up my feet and I'm movin' along
Be by horse or by ship or by train
The golden hills at the end of the trail
Resound to the sound of my name

Up through the coastal mountains
The cold wind blowin' at my back
Pull my coat around my shoulders
'Twould be a sin to turn back.

Look at all the eager faces
Drained empty from the strain
A pick in one hand, a pan in the other
With metal more precious than grain

(Chorus)

And the snow is black with blood
Count the corpses of the dead
Stiff and lifeless in the snow
In death I wonder if they know

But others followed, thousands more
Opened up that Yukon door
They took the millions from the ground
And laid five hundred bodies down

(Chorus)

(END)

Thanks for your interest in this old tune. I have been performing it as part of my "North to Alaska" show on board the cruise ships that come into Skagway for over 20 years (I think I will have had 243 shows this summer alone, so I will have done the song 243 times by the end of the summer), and it has been on three different albums since 1978 (in three versions). This is the version I from my CD "Inside Passage" (2001), and the version I have been performing for the shows.