As one who was born in North Ontaryao, let me say that this is THE most rural Canadian thing that has ever created. It captures the experience perfectly.
In Argentina, I knew about this gem back in the 90's thanks to a local TV program called 'Caloi en su Tinta', a show dedicated to animation shorts from all around the world.
Same era and format it fell into my lap in England. Possibly the same show / different translation. Fortunately I VHS taped it and was able to listen to this song over and over again. Until I lost the tape. Contacted the Canadian ministry for culture (or whatever they're called) when I got my first computer - soliciting a hard copy of the audio. They asked me what I wanted it for. I couldn't muster the will to reply to such stupidity. Eventually sorted myself out with a digital file. Probably the most valuable lesson I learned from having a computer (and I learned it early on): never take 'no' for an answer.
Here to chime in as another person who's had this song in their head for some decades now. I saw it on late-night cable TV (I think Comedy Central?) in Alabama USA in the mid to late 90s. So glad to have rediscovered it today!
Herbert In the UK it was shown on a similar show called Stay Tooned, starring Tony Robinson. (I remember he had a mini rant at the end about how there should be more arts funding for this kind of thing in the UK, and then apologising for getting political. Only found out as an adult that he’s very political indeed!)
This guy came to my elementary school during cultural day & sang it for my class. I had seen this cartoon several times by then, and it made me the happiest 2nd grader in the building to sing along to it in person. Thank you, Mr. Hemsworth.
What memories this one brings back, from Wade Hemsworth, the guy who wrote the Logdriver's Waltz and a few other good ones. Thank God for the National Film Board of Canada.
I so vividly remember that day in 1991 on Morningside with Peter Gzowski when Wade Hemsworth and the McGarrigle Sisters appeared from CBC’S Montreal studio to perform that marvellous song. I invitited the McGarrigles to appear on the show and in our story meeting Gzowski protested that they'd never do it. That they were too fussy. They were a dream when they appeared with a studio full of musicians and Hemsworth from Montreal. Radio magic.
Saw this late night on Channel 4 (UK) back in about ‘92 at 10 years old and never forgot the chorus. Here I am in 2018 tracking it down again. Got to love the Internet, this song is still great!
I'm from Croatia. I remember have this taped on VHS tape because it was showing in Animavizija TV show (World festival of animated movies) back here in 1991 when the war was going on. I remember as a kid listened to it over and over again (although I didn't like country music at the time). Couldn't understand half of the lyrics (I still don't) but I loved it! (I still do)
My grandfather worked on a survey crew in north Ontario, though not on the Abitibi river. He said the blackflies sometimes got so dense they would blot out the sun.
I was treeplanting up around the Sault in 2001, during a relatively dry summer, so they weren't that 'bad', according to others. Even so, dear god. One day, a guy who always refused to spray on DEET while planting was screaming and begging for it from me. I tossed him my 97% pure bottle. (The Musk Oil or Off 40% stuff does nothing.)
@@squamish4244 As someone who grew up in the Algoma district, dry summers are lovely. If you have not been up here during a wet summer then you haven't felt the full extent of the black flies, the spring is even worse
@@Shrek-bj2js Yeah, in my six weeks in Algoma in May-June, the weather was incredible. It rained maybe six times, amazingly almost all when we were not in camp or sleeping. Only once getting up in the morning and once when we were out planting. It was sun, sun, sun - I don't even know if we had one overcast day. I heard stories of weeks of rain from previous seasons and if it had been like that I would have just quit. And of course, black flies much worse than I encountered. My southern Ontario ass still found the bugs apocalyptic. I would slam the shovel into the swamp and black flies would fly out of it. A horse fly was busy tearing a chunk out of my neck and I was so pissed I grabbed it and ate it. One night I went to wash my dishes in the lake and I heard a sound lie a distant freight train. I looked out over the lake and saw a haze over it. I realized it was *fucking tens of thousands of mosquitos.* LOL! I was just smart about it and always blasted on the radioactive 97% DEET that comes in the small bottles. I heard the next season had snow! But I had sworn off treeplanting forever after the first season so there you go :)
I learned this tune early in the 60's in Los Angeles. Moved "back east" 1974. Attended a folk club's sing-around; spent two minutes explaining everything I did not know about this unimaginably rare folk song; started in. When I hesitated slightly before the chorus, they all started in without me...... A prized memory to this day. Still sing it, of course. Introduce it as "the Adirondack, Ontario, New England National Bird."
I live now in Southeastern Ontario, but grew up in NS. Playing softball as a kid, If the ball went into the alder brush the batter automatically got a home run cause no one was dumb enough to go after it! The blackfies were bad enough on the field; you were a goner if you went into the brush!
This song is brilliant and the animation is fantastic! I revisit this every year during blackfly season! They always seem their worst when I am trying to plant a garden and I have been chased right into the house running, jumping, dancing and flailing my arms about! It is accurate!
My mom's house is basically beside a swamp in the spring, which means swarms of bugs. So after a few years living there she's now ended up doing her massive amounts of gardening (she has an acre of land and it's ALL garden. I don't know how she even keeps it all maintained) in a full-on mosquito/fly mesh suit and face-hood! Looks ridiculous but it was a serious lifesaver for her, except they'll still whack into you all over and drive you nuts anyway.
@@SoundShinobiYuki They never bit me through the t-shirt or pants, but attacked the neck, the bottom of my torso, the ends of the sleeves, anywhere there was more warmth. But I wasn't messing around - I carried 95% DEET with me at all times. So powerful it can melt plastic over time. But it worked. They would hover, but they wouldn't land. Just wash it all off every night. Although some nights I went to sleep without bothering to wash my face - ewwww. But I was 22, what the hell :D
Canadian as well, used to love watching these National Film Board of Canada music videos or simple anime that would show inbetween Super-channel movies (anyone remember that?). The animations would always be wild and interesting.
Geez!! You must know the Browns and the Collier's! ... Unless you ARE the Browns or the Collier's... Still stopping for blueberries on the Polar Bear Express run?
@Tracy D Fraserdale was the postal code for the train stop where everything was mailed. Abitibi Canyon was 2.5 miles from that train station stop. It was named after the Little Abitibi River.
sorry CBC is too busy pushing propaganda these days instead of showing canadian talent and good content. "we" at cbc encourage you to tell us your trans genderfluid racial minority immigrant blah blah blah though.
@@SeekerGoldstone the community was closed after Hydro assessed the cost of operation of the community and found it was more financially viable to have crews ship in from Timmins, Kapuskasing and Smooth Rock Falls
@@DerekParcher I dont think I understand the local community. By the time it was shut down, wasnt it it's own established community? Like... don't people still live there with their families? There's still a gas station and grocery, right?
@@SeekerGoldstone the community was built to support the construction of dams and their maintenance in the area. When Hydro reassessed the value of the community, it was found that it would be more cost efficient to automate the system and have crews to maintain the damn come from places like Timmins Ontario. At this point there're only a handful of buildings remaining are the Village originally stood. All these buildings are owned by Ontario Hydro. There are no stores for gas stations remaining. The village itself was completely removed between 1981 and 1982. I hope this clears it up a little bit more for you.
Love this song. Have met the little sob's more than I care for. Threatened to give my niece to them one time in north Ontario on one of our road trips from the West Coast. She had been acting up a lot. Gave her the choice: behave or she would meet her little cousins in one minute. She looked out the window at the clouds of the hungry buggers trying to get in then checked to see if I meant business. We had peace and quiet for the next 200 km. The irony is that I am the one tortured by all the flying vampires.
Born and raised in Northern Ontario. Everything in this video is true! My father worked at the Little Abitibi power station when he was a young man. I know this song tells it like it is!
When I was a child in the early 2000s this came on the T.v and we used to sing it all the time were from Manitoba Canada and I still sing it today didn’t know it was on UA-cam.... Canada!!!
We have these in Northern Quebec too! Spent summers there and had scarred legs by the end from black fly bites and mosquito bites! Oh yes, and let's not forget the deer flies and horse flies!
They used to play this every morning before the start of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) summer camp. At the time I was pretty annoyed hearing it every day, but now this brings back nostalgic feelings and memories every time I watch it. Anyone else have the same experience?
This song has been stuck in my head for years and I never knew from where. I STILL don't. I'm American and none of the channels I watched as a kid would show something like this. But, glad I had the epiphany to finally look it up while humming the song. Maybe now it can finally rest.
@@sailor7sakura It was regularly broadcasted by the mid/late 90s in Ontario on Teletoon (channel 50 where I grew up) and YTV (channel 25 in my case) between shows and commercials alongside the likes of heritage minutes, house hippos and other Canadian animated shorts and other public service stuff like Body Break. There were also those weird 3D animated shorts that to my knowledge never had a name. I don't even know how to describe them beyond that... but if you know you know. They were all set to music... They looked like the show Reboot, were 2-3 minutes long, and were generally surreal. One had a fish that starts to fly in order to be with a bird that dives into water to be with the fish, another one was just a bunch of strange plants that each made different sounds and formed a sort of orchestra playing a song that remains in my head to this day, another was a bee flying through a forest. Yeah... Canadian TV circa 1995-2000 or so was weird and awesome. I miss those days.
When I was little, we had this VHS compilation of all the NFB shorts (I guess one of our neighbours used to work there and sold it at a garage sale or something). Blackfly always played first, and was one of my all time favourites ❤
This was on Cartoon Network, maybe adult swim even, back in the early 2000s. As a child, this made me think Canada was infested with killer flies lmfaooo
One of our great cultural iconic films! It is indeed all true! :o) I sing this song on my summer canoe trips in north Ontar-ri-oh (and elsewhere in northern Canada) - never gets old!
Great Stuff - he was one of the guys I used to listen to on Old Rawhide, on CBC then one day Old Rawhide played one of my songs... but I owed a lot to Hemsworth and artists like him. From Alec Somerville, who wrote all the lyrics for the Brothers-in-Law albums. Now almost 88 and pickin' and singin' in Ireland.
Having lived in the north Ontario logging camps from birth to 5 yrs of age, I well knew of these little evil bugs lol.. I still know them well here in the boonies of Ontario... a friend of mine would play guitar and sing this song every Blackfly season.. entertaining!
We get them bad in NB too. I moved 4000kms west to AB to get away from them lol. I've tried to explain to people who have never been back east what an absolute scourge blackflies are, and the best I can do is call up this animation. It is painfully true to life.
I worked one summer in the northern woods of Pickle Lake, Ontario (near Sioux Lookout). The black flies were definitely trying to pick at my bones.....in North Ontar I O I O!
I remember being in grade 2 (I think) and we learned this and a bunch of other Canadian folk songs and the line "I'll die with the blackfly picking my bones" scared the shit out of me because I took it too literally lmao
Brings up memories of treeplanting in 2001 in Algoma District. Dear god, those apocalyptic motherf*ckers attacked in hordes. And it was a dry year, so apparently they weren't even that bad! Well, I only treeplanted once. Never, ever again. The job was so absurd in so many ways that blackflies were only one of the reasons, and not even the biggest, that I never went back.
I spent three summers working up in the bush. One of our duties was digging holes for box privies, which we'd constructed and would install, but digging the holes was the worst part. If we weren't being swarmed by blackflies, we were being attacked by mosquitoes. You can't win. Unfortunately we weren't working during the blessed relief of September. Oh, and a dry year means nothing to them. The water's more of a mosquito thing. Blackflies like hot, sunny May days. The wet summer was actually not bad at all for blackflies, but the mosquitoes were ferocious.
4:35 Hmmm, a tap-dancing skeleton. Don't see that everyday. I wish Cartoon Network had kept their O Canada Block on. I saw this for the first time in '97 on that channel. We don't get cool stuff from Canada that often here in the states.
This song really isn't the same without the backup singers, foley work and extra instruments. It's what plays in our heads as we sing it to ourselves. And of course, the wonderful animation, with references to Larson's "The Far Side" scattered about.
Our program head in Geomatics (aka. surveying) would play this for us city kids before our first summer taking jobs in northern Canada. I didn't realize how realistic the whole thing was.
I first heard this way back in the early sixties , caught it again on one of those NFB shorts that were on tv sometime with my own kids in the nineties when one of the kid channels were putting shorts on after their cartoons , YTV I think it was and it still is fun to hear after all this time ! By the way the grandkids are next for the introduction since I still catch my two humming it now and again !
I spent several summers as a kid up in the Canadian Shield (not QUITE Northern Ontario, but almost out of the south and still quite remote), and yyyyep, the blackflies. WERE. AWFUL. If I didn't basically become a moose all day (aka, sit in the lake up to my neck from dawn to dusk) I had to go out covered in a mosquito hood, jacket and so much bugspray we went through an entire case of it over a summer between three people. We were living mostly in lakeshore cabins, and we also wound up sleeping under mosquito nets. And I STILL would get dozens of bites from the mosquitos and flies every day to the point I stopped even itching from the bites for a few years. I don't even know how my parents dealt with it, they had to actually WORK with the little ****ers swarming around every day!
At a Cadet camp here in Newfoundland, so many damned flies a few of us swore they were biting at us in their dreams. None of us had mosquito nets, and we had one bottle of bug spray for every 5 people. I could still feel them crawling through my hair when I got home from camp. Itched like a bitch!
I went for a week long canoe camp in Ontario. One kid almost drowned because he went swimming in his bug jacket and that winter I still found myself slapping at imaginary blackflies 😂
I used to watch this animated short at a TV show back in México along with several of Norman McLaren and Richard Condie's works and loved them. Sadly most torontonians I know have no clue about this song.
Absolutely awesome short! A true and honest piece of unrivaled folk-Canadiana. My first view of it was back in late 1980's as an undergrad during a film appreciation session (this short won many awards), BUT was not my first run in with the little blackflies.... Too many stories to tell about that in a short utube comment... :D
As one who was born in North Ontaryao, let me say that this is THE most rural Canadian thing that has ever created. It captures the experience perfectly.
Reminds me of my childhood in N Ontario too! Virginiatown and Kirkland Lake! Great memories. ❤️
@@laurasalo6160 Haha, I was born in Kirkland Lake! Didn't live there long though, but I went back there a few times while my grandparents still lived.
Same for me. Reminds me of the cottage life down Wattabeag road. Timmins here for me.
Englehart, Marathon, and Sudbury.....need I say more lol
@@Christine-wi1dl Sturgeon Falls, Sudbury, and Espanola experience here!!!
I saw/heard this on uk tv about 30+ years ago - snippets of it have been lodged in my memories ever since
In Argentina, I knew about this gem back in the 90's thanks to a local TV program called 'Caloi en su Tinta', a show dedicated to animation shorts from all around the world.
Same era and format it fell into my lap in England. Possibly the same show / different translation. Fortunately I VHS taped it and was able to listen to this song over and over again. Until I lost the tape. Contacted the Canadian ministry for culture (or whatever they're called) when I got my first computer - soliciting a hard copy of the audio. They asked me what I wanted it for. I couldn't muster the will to reply to such stupidity. Eventually sorted myself out with a digital file. Probably the most valuable lesson I learned from having a computer (and I learned it early on): never take 'no' for an answer.
Buenardo
I watched it as well as a little kid, for some reason I remember that he had a strange affinity towards Czechoslovakian animation.
Here to chime in as another person who's had this song in their head for some decades now. I saw it on late-night cable TV (I think Comedy Central?) in Alabama USA in the mid to late 90s. So glad to have rediscovered it today!
Herbert In the UK it was shown on a similar show called Stay Tooned, starring Tony Robinson. (I remember he had a mini rant at the end about how there should be more arts funding for this kind of thing in the UK, and then apologising for getting political. Only found out as an adult that he’s very political indeed!)
This guy came to my elementary school during cultural day & sang it for my class. I had seen this cartoon several times by then, and it made me the happiest 2nd grader in the building to sing along to it in person. Thank you, Mr. Hemsworth.
Hi from Siberia. We also have so wonderful experience every summer
Now this is going to be stuck in my head for another 30 years
Been stuck in my head for 30 years, be stuck 30 years more.
Is this a problem?
I think of this song every spring. I live approx 4 1/2 hours north of Toronto. 🤣
First time eh?
What memories this one brings back, from Wade Hemsworth, the guy who wrote the Logdriver's Waltz and a few other good ones. Thank God for the National Film Board of Canada.
I wish they still made little cartoons like this.
Also, Long Live Public Libraries. All Hail!
I so vividly remember that day in 1991 on Morningside with Peter Gzowski when Wade Hemsworth and the McGarrigle Sisters appeared from CBC’S Montreal studio to perform that marvellous song. I invitited the McGarrigles to appear on the show and in our story meeting Gzowski protested that they'd never do it. That they were too fussy. They were a dream when they appeared with a studio full of musicians and Hemsworth from Montreal. Radio magic.
Saw this late night on Channel 4 (UK) back in about ‘92 at 10 years old and never forgot the chorus.
Here I am in 2018 tracking it down again. Got to love the Internet, this song is still great!
It's not exaggerating either. Black flies are how you get tortured in hell.
To this day, this has got to be one of the most popular short films at the ROM summer camp in Toronto
yup, i remember
my love for this song came from that camp 🥲
YES!!!! This one, the cat came back, and the sweater
As it should be!
Factssss
Oh man! I remember this video from my childhood! We had a show called Oh! Canada down here in the states that showed Canadian shorts like this.
I'm from Croatia. I remember have this taped on VHS tape because it was showing in Animavizija TV show (World festival of animated movies) back here in 1991 when the war was going on. I remember as a kid listened to it over and over again (although I didn't like country music at the time). Couldn't understand half of the lyrics (I still don't) but I loved it! (I still do)
That show must have given you such a hilarious perspective on Canadian life! XD
Как круто
@Jaime Litteken wanna know what else will make you dance? Walking through a cloud of black flies. Lol
My grandfather worked on a survey crew in north Ontario, though not on the Abitibi river. He said the blackflies sometimes got so dense they would blot out the sun.
I was treeplanting up around the Sault in 2001, during a relatively dry summer, so they weren't that 'bad', according to others. Even so, dear god. One day, a guy who always refused to spray on DEET while planting was screaming and begging for it from me. I tossed him my 97% pure bottle. (The Musk Oil or Off 40% stuff does nothing.)
@@squamish4244 As someone who grew up in the Algoma district, dry summers are lovely. If you have not been up here during a wet summer then you haven't felt the full extent of the black flies, the spring is even worse
@@Shrek-bj2js Yeah, in my six weeks in Algoma in May-June, the weather was incredible. It rained maybe six times, amazingly almost all when we were not in camp or sleeping. Only once getting up in the morning and once when we were out planting. It was sun, sun, sun - I don't even know if we had one overcast day. I heard stories of weeks of rain from previous seasons and if it had been like that I would have just quit. And of course, black flies much worse than I encountered.
My southern Ontario ass still found the bugs apocalyptic. I would slam the shovel into the swamp and black flies would fly out of it. A horse fly was busy tearing a chunk out of my neck and I was so pissed I grabbed it and ate it. One night I went to wash my dishes in the lake and I heard a sound lie a distant freight train. I looked out over the lake and saw a haze over it. I realized it was *fucking tens of thousands of mosquitos.* LOL!
I was just smart about it and always blasted on the radioactive 97% DEET that comes in the small bottles.
I heard the next season had snow! But I had sworn off treeplanting forever after the first season so there you go :)
We call it the Day of Black Sun
This was broadcasted on Cartoon Network's O Canada ! on Sunday nights frequently when I was a kid ! This takes me back.
this song was part of my childhood
I learned this tune early in the 60's in Los Angeles. Moved "back east" 1974. Attended a folk club's sing-around; spent two minutes explaining everything I did not know about this unimaginably rare folk song; started in. When I hesitated slightly before the chorus, they all started in without me......
A prized memory to this day. Still sing it, of course. Introduce it as "the Adirondack, Ontario, New England National Bird."
This used to be a “filler” in between kids shows instead of a commercial. I remember seeing it on tv in the early 2000’s
That company title sequence is just great
I live now in Southeastern Ontario, but grew up in NS. Playing softball as a kid, If the ball went into the alder brush the batter automatically got a home run cause no one was dumb enough to go after it! The blackfies were bad enough on the field; you were a goner if you went into the brush!
This song is brilliant and the animation is fantastic! I revisit this every year during blackfly season! They always seem their worst when I am trying to plant a garden and I have been chased right into the house running, jumping, dancing and flailing my arms about! It is accurate!
My mom's house is basically beside a swamp in the spring, which means swarms of bugs. So after a few years living there she's now ended up doing her massive amounts of gardening (she has an acre of land and it's ALL garden. I don't know how she even keeps it all maintained) in a full-on mosquito/fly mesh suit and face-hood! Looks ridiculous but it was a serious lifesaver for her, except they'll still whack into you all over and drive you nuts anyway.
@@SoundShinobiYuki They never bit me through the t-shirt or pants, but attacked the neck, the bottom of my torso, the ends of the sleeves, anywhere there was more warmth. But I wasn't messing around - I carried 95% DEET with me at all times. So powerful it can melt plastic over time. But it worked. They would hover, but they wouldn't land. Just wash it all off every night. Although some nights I went to sleep without bothering to wash my face - ewwww. But I was 22, what the hell :D
Got them here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan near Lake Superior. May & June are horrible, finally bought a headnet, which helps.
As Canadian as beavers or maple leaves. Neat animation, neat song...Just neat.
Huh. Neat.
Canadian as well, used to love watching these National Film Board of Canada music videos or simple anime that would show inbetween Super-channel movies (anyone remember that?). The animations would always be wild and interesting.
I grew up in the community that this song is about. The result of the surveying created 7 dams and a tiny village called Abitibi Canyon.
Derek Parcher same
That’s very cool
Geez!! You must know the Browns and the Collier's! ... Unless you ARE the Browns or the Collier's...
Still stopping for blueberries on the Polar Bear Express run?
@Tracy D Fraserdale was the postal code for the train stop where everything was mailed. Abitibi Canyon was 2.5 miles from that train station stop. It was named after the Little Abitibi River.
Went to school in Abitibi Canyon
Why so little views after all the years? This song is great!
Put this back on TV please.
burn it to a CD & play it on your puter. :)
Never mind TV-- put it in the movie theatres!!!
sorry CBC is too busy pushing propaganda these days instead of showing canadian talent and good content. "we" at cbc encourage you to tell us your trans genderfluid racial minority immigrant blah blah blah though.
Loved the blackfly getting after the NFB logo at the beginning of the film! It sets the tone for this lovely little movie!
I lived in Abitibi Canyon for 17 years, and every word of that song is true!
Hey Bob, when did you living in Abitibi Canyon? We live there from 69 until it closed.
@@DerekParcher Why was it closed?
@@SeekerGoldstone the community was closed after Hydro assessed the cost of operation of the community and found it was more financially viable to have crews ship in from Timmins, Kapuskasing and Smooth Rock Falls
@@DerekParcher I dont think I understand the local community. By the time it was shut down, wasnt it it's own established community?
Like... don't people still live there with their families? There's still a gas station and grocery, right?
@@SeekerGoldstone the community was built to support the construction of dams and their maintenance in the area. When Hydro reassessed the value of the community, it was found that it would be more cost efficient to automate the system and have crews to maintain the damn come from places like Timmins Ontario. At this point there're only a handful of buildings remaining are the Village originally stood. All these buildings are owned by Ontario Hydro. There are no stores for gas stations remaining. The village itself was completely removed between 1981 and 1982. I hope this clears it up a little bit more for you.
The McGarrigle sisters! Learn something new every day.
25 years ago my music class sung this with gusto was our fav song we sung it over and over again
Lyrical genius and sublime instrumentation. None of the many tribute recordings come close.
Twas early in the spring when I decide to go
For to work up in the woods in North Ontar-i-o;
And the unemployment office said they'd send me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew
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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
And the man Black Tobey was the captain of the crew
And he said, I'm gonna tell you boys, what we're gonna do:
They want to build a power dam; we must find a way
For to make the Little Ab flow around the other way
With 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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
So we survey to the east, survey to the west,
Couldn't make our minds up how to do it best;
Little Ab, Little Ab, what shall I do?
I'm all but goin' crazy with the survey crew
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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
It was blackfly, blackfly, everywhere,
A-crawlin' in your whiskers, crawlin' in your hair;
Swimmin' in the soup, swimmin' in the tea,
And the devil take the blackfly, let me be.
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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
Black Tobey fell to swearin'; the work went slow,
The state of our morale was a-gettin' pretty low;
The flies swarmed heavy; hard to catch your breath,
As you staggered up and down the trail a-talkin' to yourself
With 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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
Well now, the bull cook's name was Blind River Joe,
If it hadn't been for him we'd 've never pulled through;
'Cause he bound up our bruises and he kidded us for fun,
And he lathered us with bacon grease and balsam gum.
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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
And at last the job was over; Black Tobey said we're through
With the Little Abitibi and the survey crew!
'Twas a wonderful experience and this I know:
I'll never go again to North Ontar-i-o
With 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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
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-i-o-i-o, in North Ontar-i-o.
####.... Wade Hemsworth ....####
Recorded by Wade Hemsworth (Folk Songs Of The Canadian North Woods, trk#12, ©1955 Folkways Records & Service Corp., New York, NY, FW 6821, Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. R 55-370). Also recorded by Wade Hemsworth as Blackfly Song (The Songs Of Wade Hemsworth, trk#3, 1995, CD produced by Penny Rose and edited by Simon Pressey for Good Noise).
See more songs by Wade Hemsworth.
Liner notes: Anyone who spends a summer in the northern bush country will sympathize with the sentiment Wade Hemsworth has expressed in this song, which tells the tribulations of a survey trip on the Little Abitibi, a tributary of the more famous Abitibi River which flows into James Bay. Wade says: "We were on a survey for the Ontario Hydro Electric Commission when this song was born. The flies affected some of the boys so badly that they had to stop work 'til the swelling of their faces subsided so that they could see. Incidentally, Tobey Colpitts, who is the 'Black Tobay' of the song is still surveying for the Ontario Hydro [1955].
GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador
Hey, I wonder if I'm related to Tobey Colpitts?
Thank you..six years later 😊
I remember the first day I ever saw this, I must have been 6 or 7 and was amazed no one else I knew heard the song. I love singing it in the summer xD
A friend showed me this song several years ago and I’m eternally grateful. Thanks, Alec.
Love this song. Have met the little sob's more than I care for. Threatened to give my niece to them one time in north Ontario on one of our road trips from the West Coast. She had been acting up a lot. Gave her the choice: behave or she would meet her little cousins in one minute. She looked out the window at the clouds of the hungry buggers trying to get in then checked to see if I meant business. We had peace and quiet for the next 200 km. The irony is that I am the one tortured by all the flying vampires.
Born and raised in Northern Ontario. Everything in this video is true! My father worked at the Little Abitibi power station when he was a young man. I know this song tells it like it is!
Between this, the logging song and the cat song. I don't know which I like better.
All are gems!
The cat came back? 😂
If I watch one, I will watch the other two. Happens every time. Not a chance I'll complain, three fabulous pieces of animation. (Catchy songs too!)
And that 'Don't shake your eyeballs at me,lady!' cartoon. What a time that was to be a kid in Canada 🥰
When I was a child in the early 2000s this came on the T.v and we used to sing it all the time were from Manitoba Canada and I still sing it today didn’t know it was on UA-cam.... Canada!!!
Thanks again to NFB and the wonderful Canadian artists.
We have these in Northern Quebec too! Spent summers there and had scarred legs by the end from black fly bites and mosquito bites! Oh yes, and let's not forget the deer flies and horse flies!
And Manitoba, yikes!
This song is straight fire bro
Memories....born in 88 east coast canada. Love it
Canada has the most talented black flies.
You just have to watch out for their leader. It's the one that crawls into your tent in the middle of the night to psychologically torture you.
Lolololollolololol😂
😂
Saw this on Danish TV ages ago, I remember it scared the shit out of me. Really classic tune though.
They are worse than any song can convey! :S
How is it that as a 46 year old Ontarian, this is the first time I have ever seen or heard of this one?
They used to play this every morning before the start of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) summer camp. At the time I was pretty annoyed hearing it every day, but now this brings back nostalgic feelings and memories every time I watch it. Anyone else have the same experience?
ohmy god yes
I'm so glad to see other people have these memories as well
Oh-yeah, oh-yeah, oh-yeah….
Grew up in Tunder Bay, lots o’ black-flies fer sure eh!!!
Keep on truckin’ 🇨🇦
This song has been stuck in my head for years and I never knew from where. I STILL don't. I'm American and none of the channels I watched as a kid would show something like this. But, glad I had the epiphany to finally look it up while humming the song. Maybe now it can finally rest.
It was on adult swim which is cartoon network. It just popped up in my head today so I had to hear it again.
Growing up in Ontario in the 90s, I heard it the first time on a kids' songs CD. We didn't get adult swim until much later...
@@sailor7sakura It was regularly broadcasted by the mid/late 90s in Ontario on Teletoon (channel 50 where I grew up) and YTV (channel 25 in my case) between shows and commercials alongside the likes of heritage minutes, house hippos and other Canadian animated shorts and other public service stuff like Body Break.
There were also those weird 3D animated shorts that to my knowledge never had a name. I don't even know how to describe them beyond that... but if you know you know. They were all set to music... They looked like the show Reboot, were 2-3 minutes long, and were generally surreal. One had a fish that starts to fly in order to be with a bird that dives into water to be with the fish, another one was just a bunch of strange plants that each made different sounds and formed a sort of orchestra playing a song that remains in my head to this day, another was a bee flying through a forest. Yeah... Canadian TV circa 1995-2000 or so was weird and awesome. I miss those days.
I’m 26 ... learned this in grade 3 LOL
Still finding myself singing ‘the black fly... the little black fly’ 😂
I am also the same age. We must’ve seen it at the same time. I still sing this song! Canadian thru and thru! Cheers!
@@angryoldman9140 My music teacher taught us this so I wouldn’t be surprised if most of us knew it :)
when i was little, i was terrified of the skeleton at the end he gave nightmares lol
When I was little, we had this VHS compilation of all the NFB shorts (I guess one of our neighbours used to work there and sold it at a garage sale or something). Blackfly always played first, and was one of my all time favourites ❤
Nostalgia! I haven't seen this in years. It has always been one of my favourites. :) -born in '78.
This aired on KCTS9 as part of a kids block when i was kid. I looked for the longest time. So happy i found this!!!!
I also have memories of this from my childhood. What an age we lie in, eh ?
This was on Cartoon Network, maybe adult swim even, back in the early 2000s. As a child, this made me think Canada was infested with killer flies lmfaooo
not all of it, only some of it :D
It's one of the reasons 90% of Canadians live within 150km of the US border.🤷♂️
One of our great cultural iconic films! It is indeed all true! :o) I sing this song on my summer canoe trips in north Ontar-ri-oh (and elsewhere in northern Canada) - never gets old!
This and The Hockey Sweater.
I always loved this animation, "The Big Snit", and "The Cat Came Back", all wonderful animations from Canada!
@@gavoskaambrose3812 There was one with a rocking chair...
I'm hours away from sea
In a blackfly season you *know it,* there's so many of them for no reason and it's a NIGHTMARE. Like literal black clouds of them.
Great Stuff - he was one of the guys I used to listen to on Old Rawhide, on CBC then one day Old Rawhide played one of my songs... but I owed a lot to Hemsworth and artists like him. From Alec Somerville, who wrote all the lyrics for the Brothers-in-Law albums. Now almost 88 and pickin' and singin' in Ireland.
In A Violent Nature has a cover of this in the credits. Instantly reminded me of this video from my childhood
I really liked that movies ending, and the song from the movie is on youtube
The NFBC is a treasure. This and The Cat Came Back are two of the very best animated songs.
Having lived in the north Ontario logging camps from birth to 5 yrs of age, I well knew of these little evil bugs lol.. I still know them well here in the boonies of Ontario... a friend of mine would play guitar and sing this song every Blackfly season.. entertaining!
In this year are 70 years old of this song, I love this song, thanks for this NFB, you are wonderful!, excellent day.
We get them bad in NB too. I moved 4000kms west to AB to get away from them lol. I've tried to explain to people who have never been back east what an absolute scourge blackflies are, and the best I can do is call up this animation. It is painfully true to life.
Mom was having some trouble with the black flies when she was mowing the lawn today. Decided to show her this, and it got a big laugh!
I worked one summer in the northern woods of Pickle Lake, Ontario (near Sioux Lookout). The black flies were definitely trying to pick at my bones.....in North Ontar I O I O!
I remember being in grade 2 (I think) and we learned this and a bunch of other Canadian folk songs and the line "I'll die with the blackfly picking my bones" scared the shit out of me because I took it too literally lmao
Brings up memories of treeplanting in 2001 in Algoma District. Dear god, those apocalyptic motherf*ckers attacked in hordes. And it was a dry year, so apparently they weren't even that bad!
Well, I only treeplanted once. Never, ever again. The job was so absurd in so many ways that blackflies were only one of the reasons, and not even the biggest, that I never went back.
I spent three summers working up in the bush. One of our duties was digging holes for box privies, which we'd constructed and would install, but digging the holes was the worst part. If we weren't being swarmed by blackflies, we were being attacked by mosquitoes. You can't win. Unfortunately we weren't working during the blessed relief of September.
Oh, and a dry year means nothing to them. The water's more of a mosquito thing. Blackflies like hot, sunny May days. The wet summer was actually not bad at all for blackflies, but the mosquitoes were ferocious.
I have never been able to get enough of this song!! Watching it in autumn/winter in Onterrible is always a good reminder to enjoy it!
4:35 Hmmm, a tap-dancing skeleton. Don't see that everyday. I wish Cartoon Network had kept their O Canada Block on. I saw this for the first time in '97 on that channel. We don't get cool stuff from Canada that often here in the states.
oh Canada... (I'm canadian)
The show was called "O Canada"
Take your norn McDonald and enjoy it!
I think that's a representation of a jointed wooden doll that is suspended from the top of its head and manipulated by a foot to appear to dance.
Many don't remember this show on Cartoon Network. It's sad
Love Folk Songs Especially Canadian Folk Songs This Song Is Catchy As Hell Gonna Be Listening To This On Repeat For Awhile !!
People will be singing this for a thousand years.
I missed this film.
Thanks for uploading. I used to see this along with The Log Driver's Waltz on CBC all the time when I was I kid. Good memories.
I hope you went looking for the Log Driver's Waltz on you tube. I have a copy and I think I saw it here once. I used to tease my dad with it...
you learn something every day! great song too.
Sung this song in choir back in the 70's...
Nice cartoon and song👍👍👍 I like Canada🇨🇦 greetings from Russia
This song really isn't the same without the backup singers, foley work and extra instruments. It's what plays in our heads as we sing it to ourselves.
And of course, the wonderful animation, with references to Larson's "The Far Side" scattered about.
This song is so great. My parasitology professor shared it. I'm surprised there aren't millions of views!!!!!!!!!
Our program head in Geomatics (aka. surveying) would play this for us city kids before our first summer taking jobs in northern Canada. I didn't realize how realistic the whole thing was.
@@telus2004 lol
I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan and we too get clouds of them. When you start to eat them,as they eat you, it’s time to head inside!
When I first saw this video back in grade four, I was disturbed.
Brilliant animation and very clever lyrics! And so true! Especially up in northern BC!
What a wonderful animations from Canada. So powerful !
I first heard this way back in the early sixties , caught it again on one of those NFB shorts that were on tv sometime with my own kids in the nineties when one of the kid channels were putting shorts on after their cartoons , YTV I think it was and it still is fun to hear after all this time ! By the way the grandkids are next for the introduction since I still catch my two humming it now and again !
I love it! Now I'll have that song stuck in my head wherever I go, pickin' my bones...
The soundtrack of my childhood!
I spend a night after discovering this shorts 😂😂😂 these are amazing, if only todays tvs were so good.
"Hinterland who's who" were another series of well loved shorts in Canada.
All I can ask is: WHY? Why go there?
And all I can say is what a charming video! And convincing...No plans to go to North Ontario....ever.
I went on a canoe trip there. The bugs were somehow even worse than in Manitoba but totally worth it.
@@andynonymous6769 I am afraid the bugs would do me in. You are clearly an intrepid traveller!
Always will love this one and I sure know what he means! Brilliant song and animation!!!
man that is a badass fiddle.
Jesus christ this song is old. I remember seeing it on TV as a kid haha
I watch this every year to remind me of my heritage, lol. Now I live in SoCal!
I spent several summers as a kid up in the Canadian Shield (not QUITE Northern Ontario, but almost out of the south and still quite remote), and yyyyep, the blackflies. WERE. AWFUL. If I didn't basically become a moose all day (aka, sit in the lake up to my neck from dawn to dusk) I had to go out covered in a mosquito hood, jacket and so much bugspray we went through an entire case of it over a summer between three people. We were living mostly in lakeshore cabins, and we also wound up sleeping under mosquito nets. And I STILL would get dozens of bites from the mosquitos and flies every day to the point I stopped even itching from the bites for a few years. I don't even know how my parents dealt with it, they had to actually WORK with the little ****ers swarming around every day!
At a Cadet camp here in Newfoundland, so many damned flies a few of us swore they were biting at us in their dreams. None of us had mosquito nets, and we had one bottle of bug spray for every 5 people. I could still feel them crawling through my hair when I got home from camp. Itched like a bitch!
I went for a week long canoe camp in Ontario. One kid almost drowned because he went swimming in his bug jacket and that winter I still found myself slapping at imaginary blackflies 😂
Would really like a metal cover of this songs, I don't know but the chorus is so powerfull and the song itself too
Love this tune
Lol. "I'll die with the black flies picking my bones." 😂😂😂
swear to god he says 'picking my balls'
I was just standing by the Abi-tibi dam. Fine work fellas. I miss Iroquois Falls already.
Man, I haven't seen this since it was on an episode of O'Canada on CN must have been either 97 or 98.
This, log driver, the cat came back and the big snit were my childhood.
I remember watching this in elementary school during music class
I used to watch this animated short at a TV show back in México along with several of Norman McLaren and Richard Condie's works and loved them. Sadly most torontonians I know have no clue about this song.
Toronto isn't Canada. The GTA is not Canada.
This is Canada.
Absolutely awesome short! A true and honest piece of unrivaled folk-Canadiana. My first view of it was back in late 1980's as an undergrad during a film appreciation session (this short won many awards), BUT was not my first run in with the little blackflies.... Too many stories to tell about that in a short utube comment... :D
This is quite nostalgic for me
truly brought me back to my child hood. love you dad!