Chord Req: We Owe it to the Pioneers - Tamarack

Subject: Chord Req: We Owe it to the Pioneers - Tamarack
From: Bee
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 02:51 PM

Someone's asked me if I could learn this tune, which isn't anywhere to be found on Mudcat, if I've searched correctly. I don't have it on CD or otherwise, and just barely know the tune from hearing it on CBC Galaxy Folkroots. If I have the chords, a few more 'listens' will probably do the trick. I didn't put 'lyrics add' in case I'm an idiot and it is already here, or shouldn't be. So if some nice person can tell me where to start, I'll be grateful.

We Owe it to the Pioneers

If they saw their squandered legacy they would surely be ashamed,
All they worked for all those years for we have given it all away
To the bankers and the bureaucrats and to the Conrad Blacks
We owe it to the pioneers to take this country back.

For the miners in Cape Breton toiling deep beneath ground,
Who never even made enough to buy the coals that they'd found,
The dustbowl farmers starving in their cold tarpaper shacks,
We owe it to the pioneers to take this country back.

Chorus:
Take back the spirit that was captured in
The canyons of concrete and glass,
Give it back to the lakes and the mountains and
The fields of prairie grass

To the migrant workers harvesting the crops with callused hands,
Who thought that they had made it to a fair and honest land,
To the labourers who cleared the swamps and laid the railroad tracks.
We owe it to the pioneers to take this country back.

For the women in the textile mills and the canning factories,
All those who dreamt some day they'd have respect and dignity.
For the natives on the Fraser drying salmon on their racks
We owe it to the pioneers to take this country back.

Chorus
And for those who scratched a living from this rocky, frozen earth.
Who thought they'd settled where you were not judged by your net worth.
Canadians who've fallen in between the corporate cracks
We owe it to the pioneers to take this country back.

I'm not really sold on the song, myself. The sentiment seems a bit forced, and I don't see why Conrad Black gets singled out over, say, the Irvings, other than being a good rhyme. However, the person who wants to hear me sing it is a good friend and I'd like to oblige.