The Power of Music & Memory

Last Friday while working at my parttime job at the bookstore (hey, an author needs other jobs if she wants to eat regularly), the usual question came up: what music should we play today?

Since Canada Day/July 1st was only a few days away, I thought of these two much-loved Canadian folk songs (and National Film Board animated short films) from my youth…

The Log Driver’s Waltz

• PLOT: a Log Driver’s occupation (the transporting of felled timber by walking or running on logs as they float downriver) has the physical agility of a dancer.
• WORD FUN: The word “birling” is often misheard as “whirling” or “twirling.” “Birl” is an old Scots verb meaning “to cause to revolve.” In modern English, it means “to cause a floating log to rotate by treading.” Today, birling is a competitive sport.
• THE SONG: written by Wade Hemsworth, a Canadian folk singer and songwriter who also studied painting at the Ontario College of Art and spent World War II serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
• THE FILM: made by animator/director John Weldon and the National Film Board (NFB) in 1979. Watch the NFB’s The Log Driver’s Waltz at www.nfb.ca/film/log_drivers_waltz

The Log Driver’s Waltz

First Verse 

If you ask any girl from the parish around
What pleases her most from her head to her toes
She’ll say I’m not sure that it’s business of yours
But I do like to waltz with a log driver

Chorus

For he goes birling down and down white water
That’s where the log driver learns to step lightly
Yes, birling down and down white water
The log driver’s waltz pleases girls completely

Black Fly

• PLOT: being tormented by black flies while working in Northern Ontario’s wilderness.
• WORD FUN: “Ontario” is stretched to “On-terr-eye-oh-eye-oh.”
• THE SONG: the original was written by Wade Hemsworth in 1949. The second version with a different tempo and accompanying vocals by Kate & Anna McGarrigle was made into an animated short film.
• THE FILM: made by animator/director Christopher Hinton and the National Film Board in 1991 and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992. Watch the NFB’s Blackfly at www.nfb.ca/film/blackfly

Blackfly

First Verse

‘Twas early in the spring when I decided to go
To work up in the woods in North Ontario
And the unemployment office said they’d send me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew

Chorus

And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go
I’ll die with the black fly a-pickin’ my bones

In North Ontar-eye-o-eye-o, In North Ontar-eye-o

What’s your favorite Canadian Song?

Looking for something Canadian to listen to today? Try Heritage Minutes or Canada Vignettes or (warning – includes mild swearing!) the fun Canadian song The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor,