Help with songs with Canadian content/theme

[averysmom]

Help! I am compiling a list of songs with Canadian content/theme for a school project for my class. It doesn't have to be written / performed by a Canadian, but has to reflect Canadian Identity (yes, this is a lame Social Studies outcome - LOL!) We're going to do some lyric study. And these are sixth graders, so I have to be careful with language!!!

Here's what I have so far... I need 25-30 songs in total - maybe a few extra for choice.

Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Canadian Railroad Trilogy

The Tragically Hip - Wheat Kings, 50 Mission Cap, Bobcaygeon

Great Big Sea - Ordinary Day

Sam Roberts - The Canadian Dream

The Weakerthons - One Great City

Stompin' Tom Connors - The Hockey song

Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage

unkknown - The Log Driver's Waltz - you know the cartoon that was played on the CBC.

Randy Bachman and Neil Young - Prairie Town

Irish Rovers- Farewell to Nova Scotia

Tom Cochrane - ??? Life is a Highway - I'd have to look at the lyrics!

The Rheostatics - We Went West, Saskatchewan

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie - The War of 1812

Spirit of the West - Far Too Canadian

Warren Zezon - Hit Somebody!

Thanks SO much!!!

 

[Northstar]

Lennie Gallant, Which way does the river run

Barenaked Ladies, If I had a million dollars (the bit about Kraft dinner is way Canadian)


You need some different groups' take on Canadian identity as well... something by Susan Aglukark? Some of the Caribbean/world music groups out of Toronto? I know you're looking for lyrics in English but I bet there's some songs out there.

Look through recent ECMA and Junos for inspiration!

 

[MikeJ]

I am a big Arrogant Worms fan. A lot of their music contains Canadian Themes; a good subset for you could include:

- The Last Saskatchewan Pirate (my favourite, as it's my home province)
- The Mountie Song
- Me Like Hockey
- Celine Dion (uh, maybe not for sixth graders... )
- Rocks and Trees
- Canada's Really Big

and a lot of others...

- Mike

 

[CdnDisneyNut]

This land is your land (Canadian version)

 

[FergusBC]

I am a big Arrogant Worms fan.

Ooooh...same here. Hoping to see them in town later this month Stay away from the 'use of the F word in Canada' though Although it is a great song.

Alan Frew (formerly of Glass Tiger did a nice one at the Hockey Day in Canada called "Free to Be"

And for some reason "The Lumberjack Song" from Monty Python comes to mind...

 

[tjbaggott]

How about the newest one made last year for Canada Day by a couple from Hamilton? "CANADIAN PLEASE"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQf13B8epw

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Lyrics

Chorus: Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast,
Let your mountains dark and dreary be.
For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed,
Will you ever heave a sigh or a wish for me?

The sun was setting in the west,
The birds were singing on every tree.
All nature seemed inclined to rest
But still there was no rest for me.

Chorus

I grieve to leave my native land,
I grieve to leave my comrades all,
And my parents whom I love so dear,
And the bonnie, bonnie lass/lad that I do adore.

Chorus

The drums they do beat and the wars to alarm,
The captain calls, and I must obey.
So farewell, farewell to Nova Scotia's charms,
For it's early in the morning and I'm far, far away.

Chorus

I have three brothers and they are at rest,
Their hands are folded on their breast.
But a poor simple sailor just like me,
Must be tossed and driven on the dark blue sea.

Chorus

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV0fTxyhq-U

The irony ... is that they are drinking Newfoundland Screech ....


'Farewell to Nova Scotia'. A sailor's lament sometimes identified as 'Nova Scotia Song'. Linda Christine Craig in her 'The Scottish origins of "Farewell to Nova Scotia"' (Dalhousie R, vol 58, 1978-9) shows that the song is derived from 'The Soldier's Adieu,' attributed to the Scottish weaver-poet Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), and that it is transformed into a sailor's song with an 'intensity which is completely absent from "The Soldier's Adieu"'.In the third quarter of the 20th century it became the best known of all Nova Scotia songs, partly because the Halifax CBC TV show 'Singalong Jubilee' (1961-74) used it as a theme and Catherine McKinnon recorded it (Something Old, Something New, Arc 256). Other recorded versions include those by Diane Oxner (Canadian Cavalcade CCLP-2005), Terry Kelly (Gun TKP-8391), Finnigan (Banana 1077), and Ian and Sylvia (Vanguard 23-24). Jack Sirulnikoff used it in his Nova Scotia Fantasy for band. G.V. Thompson published a version for choir or voice, with or without piano, in 1964 and an arrangement for band by Peter Riddle in 1978. Another choral version is included in Reflections of Canada.

Helen Creighton collected the song in the 1930s from a half-dozen singers in the Petpeswick and Chezzetcook districts, some 40 km east of Halifax; they told her it formerly was sung in the schools. She included it in Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia (Toronto 1950). Carrie B. Grover, who learned the song as a child in Nova Scotia, gives it in A Heritage of Song (Norwood, Pa, 1973) as 'Adieu to Nova Scotia,' and Marius Barbeau found a related song, 'On the Banks of the Jeddore,' in Beauce County, Que, and published it in the National Museum of Man's Come A Singing! in 1947.

source for the above:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001170

 

[LSmith]

I LOVE Farwell to Nova Scotia.

Another beautiful song is She's Called Nova Scotia sung by Rita McNeil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2krP7HQMGgo&feature=related

 

[Practically_Perfect]

Here's a few that I can think of off the top of my head:

Paul Brandt - Alberta Bound

Stompin' Tom - Bud the Spud

Corb Lund Band - The Truck got Stuck

***
Any chance for some French songs making it on the list? I'm sure there are some great french-language songs about Canada, Quebec, etc...

 

[averysmom]

How about the newest one made last year for Canada Day by a couple from Hamilton? "CANADIAN PLEASE"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQf13B8epw

This is the song that I am using to "kick off" the project - it is fabulous!

Thanks for the ideas everyone - keep it coming!!!

 

[dis_guy]

This is the song that I am using to "kick off" the project - it is fabulous!

Thanks for the ideas everyone - keep it coming!!!

Don't forget Mike Ford "Canada Wants You" vol 1 and 2. At mikeford.ca and on the iTunes music store.

 

[ABCanada]

Ian Tyson - Four Strong Winds
The Guess Who - American Woman

 

[Rita007]

Check out www.mikeford.ca

He used to be in Moxie Furvus (am I dating myself?) but now has all kinds of original songs about Canada. I'm in Teacher's College right now...you'll get huge pixie points for pointing this amazing source out I'm sure! Where else can you find a song about the Winnipeg General Strike or Expo '67?

 

[Kae]

Susie McNeil was on Rock Star INXS & she did an awesome song I think it was for the Olympics, it is on youtube

Kae

 

[averysmom]

Check out www.mikeford.ca

He used to be in Moxie Furvus (am I dating myself?) but now has all kinds of original songs about Canada. I'm in Teacher's College right now...you'll get huge pixie points for pointing this amazing source out I'm sure! Where else can you find a song about the Winnipeg General Strike or Expo '67?

Brilliant! Some of his lyrics are perfect for what I am doing!!! Thanks!!

Any more???

 

[Rita007]

Don't forget Mike Ford "Canada Wants You" vol 1 and 2. At mikeford.ca and on the iTunes music store.

So weird...I swear your post was not there on my first read through! Anyway...speaks well of Mike...he's awesome!!!!

Great minds think alike!

 

[trl1812]

Stompin Tom- C.A.N.A.D.A
Stompin Tom- Tillsonburg
Stompin Tom- The Black Donnellys
KD Lang
Tom Jackson from North of 60, Good singer.

 

[Gigi22]

I second the Arrogant Worms' "Last Saskatchewan Pirate"! It's quite a hoot! If you are looking for something in French you might want to try Gilles Vignault's "Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver".

 

[Nahanni]

Bruce Cockburn - Wondering Where the Lions Are
Shuffle Demons - Spadina Bus
Bob & Doug Mackenzie - Take Off

 

[alohamom]

What about Michael Mitchell-he is a Canadian childrens performer and many of his songs have cultural references in a very fun way, google him and you will see