Re-examining Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2021
- The Canadian Railroad Trilogy was commissioned by the CBC in 1967 to mark the country's centennial and has become one of Gordon Lightfoot's signature songs. But there's more to the story than that. CBC Creator Network's Noah Lefevre (of Polyphonic) explains it all in this new video essay.
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As an American who's always admired Canada, this has added some much-appreciated historical perspective to my view of the country. I still love Canada, but it's good to recognize that every country has its inconvenient history.
It's only inconvenient if we make it so. People today will likely be criticised for the things we consider perfectly normal and proper today
@yuppiesfrom , Canadians (Including me) tend to be a bit smug about our history. Although our history is not quite as violent as American history, it's hardly pristine.
@@johnhead1643- loss of life won’t ever be considered ‘proper’. The many thousands of Chinese men who were lured in with the promise of wealth and then treated like dogs. Lives lost because of blasting. Oh well, we’ll just bring in another ship load of workers. You consider that ‘normal and proper’? I love my country but I think it still has many stories that people would not like to see the light of day
Thanks for this. I've always thought you could hear irony and ambivalence in Lightfoot's lyrics and voice, indicating he understood that not all Progress is always good for everyone. There's a reason why his work is mentioned in the same breath as Dylan's and why they were friends and mutual admirers.
The first time I really listened to the lyrics of this song, I started weeping. I was driving through the Yakima River canyon in WA state a couple of summers ago. I was no stranger to the historical facts about the treatment of the First Nations people and the Asian immigrant labor that built many of the western railroad's lines in the US and Canada. The song moved me tears as I heard it as a tribute to those to people and the lost natural beauty, especially that last couple of lines.
I always felt that the song's 3 parts intentionally contrasted the gusto and exuberance of the westward expansion, against the toil and sacrifice of the real laborers, with the last segment leaving the listener to weigh the costs of progress, and remember those who could not share their story.
I came across this page today, while reminiscing about this song after hearing of Gordon's passing. I wish I could hear his thoughts on the matter, as I am sure that he wrote the lyrics specifically to be both a celebration of Canada, and a tribute to the workers at the same time. That is the beauty of art.
I agree; I always detected an ambivalent undertone, which is especially impressive because this was a commissioned song that was supposed to be celebratory (signing in with my daughter's ID but I'm a 1948 model guy).
Fabulous documentary. As an American, I find it also fascinating how the railroad construction across Canada paralleled the same construction across the USA: the business interests, the driving off of indiginous people, the poor treatment of Chinese workers, the legislation to prevent them from immigrating. And yes, also all the good things: the uniting of the country, the economic boom it created, the creation of a great nation that welcomed people from all over the world and gave them a better life.
Canada and the US are two sides of the same coin
His songs were like reflective discussions of which you never tire. 😎
What an incredibly beautiful story and song. The distinct parts to the song bring a different emotion to that part of the story. Amazing song.
I appreciated this so much. There is so much meaning here I might not have agreed with, and ending this visit with another perspective. I do always try to.
Your narrative is compelling.
I did not know Polyphonic made a piece on Gorden Lightfoot for CBC. He's my fave music channel.
One of my all-time faves. In this more enlightened day and age, I still love it, with a guilty, broken heart.
Oh get over yourself... broken heart hahaha.
Excellent piece of work
Great photo essay about an iconic song and I hope it opens up more discussion on our disturbing history.
It must be so satisfying for people today (specially the CBC) from the pinnacle of wisdom they consider they are at to criticise people from the past and their actions. Just be aware that future generations may judge you just as harshly for your actions today that you cosider to be perdectly proper and normal.
Never judge history except in the context of the times in which it occurred.
As for progress in general, I have to ask, is it better that man discovers more about the universe, that he walks on the moon and more or that man stays in a constant state of balance struggling to survive in a hard but beautiful nature. So far, it seems to me, that despite the costs and even turmoil, my mind and soul prefers the prior idea.
A very good analysis of the song and the history of Canada's railroad and its impact on its people.
I agree totally.
.....do LOVE this MASTERPIECE - but, as a [distant] American relation of both Riel - with my OWN deep, INSTINCTIVE appreciation for First Nations cultures and LIKELY, MacDonald (still trying to determine even if he was ALSO Clan Ranald like me) I've NEVER lost sight of such PAINFUL considerations since DISCOVERING as much, a half-decade-plus ago.....
What then, if anything, happened to the countless Irish who were an enormous part of this? Lightfoot, himself, stated that the middle section of the song was heavily influenced by, "The Rose of Tralee"
Why are navvies called navvies?
Who were the navvies? The word 'navvy' came from the 'navigators' who built the first navigation canals in the 18th century, at the very dawn of the Industrial Revolution. By the standards of the day they were well paid, but their work was hard and often very dangerous.
The navvies were basically the engineers, surveyors etc.
@@jimwiskus8862 The term "navvy" was short for "navigational engineer", which was, I suspect, intended as an ironic euphemism for the hard labourers who build the edifices on which the industrial revolution was, in turn, built.
Here for Polyphonic
The Navi..... refers to Chinese labour brought to the west coast to provide labour, Navi refers to the Blue clothing they wore
Fantastic video!
Lightfoot's Trilogy is a Canadian masterpiece as was the railroad whose birth it chronicles. It's important for the Chinese and Indigenous contributions and stories to be told and Lightfoot's piece alludes to both, acknowledging that Canada's history begins "long before the white man" and acknowledging the navvies who were "brought in" from "beyond the dark ocean in a land far away" who were paid "a dollar a day" while the white navvies made $2.50 and who "drank a toast" to their dead comrades, blown up in dynamite "accidents". Canadians by and large acknowledge and are grateful for the contributions and sacrifices made by those who were mistreated and who suffered injustice and don't want that history to be glossed over or forgotten. On the other hand, they also don't buy the Marxist 'woke' narrative that Canada is a horrible and irredeemable racist country. On the contrary, Canadians see room for improvement, are learning from the mistakes of the past, and building a country that consistently is ranked in the top two or three countries to live and a country that welcomes refugees like Alphonso Davies' family.
It wasn’t dynamite, it was Nitro Glycerine. The Chinese workers were offered a dollar to carry the Nitro to the spot that was to be blown. Some made it back, some didn’t.
Canada's finest poet
It might be a toss up with Leonard Cohen, but Gordon is my favourite.
It just blew my mind when I head polyphonic start talking
The building of the Transcontinental Railroad is important in America's story of itself too. In fact, the only line in Lightfoot's song that refers unambiguously to Canada is the one about going "up the Saint Lawrence all the way to Gaspé" - and it is a bit inaccurate, as the railway line to Gaspé actually diverges from the St. Lawrence around Rivière du Loup.
Oh just stop nitpicking
So the CBC will commission toppling Lightfoot's statue?
''we need to dig up those skeletons'' did you mean that literally or figuratively because it (sadly) works both ways
Great job Noah 😂
I always thought “ open her heart, let the life blood flow” was a reference to letting the life that preceded the building of the country, flow. In other words, killing what and who lived beforehand. It’s a beautiful song, and I didn’t feel it ducked the misery and murder done on behalf of the railroad captains of industry ( the robber barons ), and the Canadian government, which was in a hurry to use the railroad to keep US imperialism at bay.
Colonialism isn’t pretty.
And what of the migrant workers the robber barons continue to use these very days? Or the fact corporations hire full time employees as part time? Something you didn’t see in the seventies.
As always, it comes down to the powerful few mercilessly using the powerless to line their pockets.
Well done, Poly.
What many people don't realize is that Gordon Lightfoot has worked with David Suzuki and other Environmental Advocates in Canada for years. He has also been a staunch supporter of First Nation Rights. The person who put this video essay together might actually try reading something about Gordon Lightfoot. There is nothing like slamming people you know nothing about. He shouldn't make the assumption that Lightfoot didn't or doesn't know this history. He is a savvy and well-read man. I abhor work that has an overt negative Political Agenda. As someone said on this page: Canada is a work in progress. Many assumptions were made in this video. He makes one in particular: that Lightfoot chose the subject of the Trilogy. He did not. He was commissioned to write specifically about the Railroad.
It is clear in the song that Lightfoot knew the history well, and reminded listeners that all was not a source of pride in the push across the country. Remember, 1967 was our Centennial, and it was a time when national pride was high, before the truth of our past was as well-known as it is today. Canadian Railroad Trilogy was revolutionary for its time and should hold a special place in our awakening.
.....Suzuki, SCARES me - ESPECIALLY with how VERY bad things have GOTTEN up THERE (British Columbia, MOST of ALL - and likely NOT a coincidence.....)
Where in the video does he slam Lightfoot? Where does he imply Lightfoot doesn't know history? Was it before or after the part where he mentions Lightfoot making historical references?
Many are the dead men, too silent to be real...
Bailed at 2 minutes. Thank you sir may I have another!
There were a lot of big words ... Maybe they'll redo it in anime with monosyllabic grunts for other audiences ...
Sept. 72
Let's all dwell on the sins of the past so we need not deal with the sins of the present. The death of 4+ million innocents. Too silent to be real.
I agree that Canada like many other nations is a work in progress. The CBC seems to accept no good within our historical past. This is trendy/sexy for the CBC in this era. The issue of excessive and extreme negativism, masked as journalism of the highest standard, is a problem that has many wanting to withdraw tax payer support for the CBC, at least CBC News. Some feel the CBC views our country as a social experiment consistently gone wrong. It seems it is the job of the CBC to induce feelings of guilt and make the majority ashamed. No CBC investigative reporter will look at the violence children from all backgrounds endured in the 19th and 20th Century. A very violent era for children in general. It can only be first nations children who were abused in Canada. Simply put the executive leadership of CBC News Division has been looking through one set of lenses for a long time. Perhaps their eyes should be checked?
This is the wrong forum for venting your far-right BS.
Indigenous people have paid the price in every country not just Canada. Don't knock a song that was made to gather the people together.
What would've happened to those Chinese labourers if they had stayed in China?
This documentary leaves one with the impression that the government policies of the past were both discriminatory and outright evil in its treatment of visible minorities . White masters exploiting native peoples, Chinese etc. for the purpose of industrial wealth and expansion. These policies we endemic throughout the history of the development industrialization . In Canadian history one has only to look at the treatment of Scottish and Irish who were forced off their lands in Ireland and Scotland ( the Highland Clearances are but one example) transported Canadian colonies only to be exploited once again in places like the coal mines of Cape Breton. Remember the past, yes, make efforts to make amends for past sins , yes, but do not marinate ourselves in the past at the expense of efforts to focus on the present and make improvements for the future. The ultra rich still control over 90% of the wealth in most industrialized nations while striving to limit the rights of the rest of us ; while resisting every effort to share their wealth with everyone else. Lightfoot's song recalls the history of the building of the Great Railway, it's not a protest song. Remember he was creating a product for his employer who commissioned the song ..... namely the CBC ! AND THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED !!!!!!
It is incredibly annoying when a young person with an annoying voice intonation thinks they are "informing a nation" about their own past. Nothing this guy says is anything that Canadians do not already know. We already know about the Indigenous pre-history, we already know about the Chinese labour abuse. This is getting so @#$ing old. History is complex. And it is not fair to say that without the Canadian Railroad, Indigenous Canadians would have been better off.......under the Americans. Further he calls it a humanitarian tragedy.......and it was for a small number of indigenous.......but it was a relief for the global population who started to enjoy affordable food once the American and Canadian Prairies came online within the span of a few decades. When "white men" in the 1800's used the word "progress" they literally meant maybe we could eliminate famine forever by over-producing food.......and this is EXACTLY what they went and accomplished. This has about as much insight and value as a high school socials project.....this does not belong on the CBC.
The photo with the inscription 15,000 Chinese. These men were actually Japanese, not Chinese and they were not involved in railroad constructions.
Bad use of a photo of yet another stain on Canada's history. Back to Llightfoot and the Trilogy. I turned 12 in 1967 whilst visiting Expo '67. I can't begin to explain the pride and potential that young Canadians felt back then as we celebrated a hundred years after Canada's creation. So much has to be rethought now.
The world is very different today because North Americans (Americans and Canadians) pursued Lebensraum less than a century before Hitler.
This is awful. It focuses almost exclusively on the bad things that happened and does not acknowledge without qualification that Canada had been a work in progress continually improving and getting better as a beacon of hope in this world, when acknowledging acts of sin from the past. We cannot dwell in the past so much that it kills out glorious future. The CBC needs to express hope and promise not gloom and guilt if we are to arrive where we all want to be. Why not include some of the wonderful things we have done for our people, whether legislation or decrees that have made our country great, like our Bill of Rights or the continual accomodation of the indigenous peoples or Quebec. The CBC needs to be far more in touch with its citizens as it was in 1967 when it commissioned Gordon Lightfoot for this beautiful hopeful trilogy.
Great Post... I thought the same when I listened.. Shame on the host of this viedo..
Well, you will notice that the narrator does point out how the railroad made Canada great, that Canada saved his own ancestors' lives, that it welcomed people from all over the world. I don't see this video as a big downer at all. It celebrates the great things that the railroad brought to Canada. He just reminds us that it all came at a cost, and with some terrible crimes against the Chinese and the indiginous peoples. It sounds to me like he just wants people to accept both truths about Canada's history. Didn't sound gloomy or "slamming" to me at all.
What the CBC needs to do is TELL THE TRUTH.
The irony of course is that Canada would’ve never been a country without the railroad, but the indigenous peoples would have not been able to accomplish that by themselves and without big bucks as well. Of course it’s not right that people suffered and died but unfortunately slavery has been, is, and will continue to be a part of human history as long as one group has more money and resources than another and can politically dictate favoritism. The young narrator is akin to “old man screaming at cloud” by solely paying lip service to a topic through the use of computers and other devices which are themselves more than likely (in part) made by indentured child slaves in China. Oh, the irony. I’m not saying that knowledge is a bad thing and that history needs full exposure, but I fully hope that he will walk the walk and go live off the land in the freezing wilds of Canada as it existed before when the indigenous peoples ruled, raising his own food and cutting down trees for heating rather than enjoying the benefits of slavery and using the backs of others to further his current comfortable existence. Obviously that’s what a vocal, principled person would do to morally combat such outrage. But of course he won’t.
I expected more insight into the song itself. Instead it's mostly a rant of humans cruelty to other humans. These conditions still exist, i.e. the Uyghurs in China, and in America, over 50,000 have crossed the border and are working in factories and other venues under abhorrent conditions yet we turn a blind eye. As the RUSH song says "Plus ca change
Plus c'est la meme chose".
Without the transcontinental railroad, there'd be no Canada. A great national accomplishment. You can let your heart bleed all you want to purge your guilty conscience about the Indians, but I feel no guilt.
"Those who haven't learned from history's past are doomed to repeat it."
Natives attacking each other? Crow against Sioux? Blackfeet attacking Shoshone? Get your history right!
The song is great. This clip is not.
You took a magnificent work and attempted to use it to further your agenda, albeit unsuccessfully. History, like everyone who had a hand in it, is not perfect. Perhaps it is better to examine the skeletons in your own closet than to project those skeletons onto a history you are attempting to write.
Re-examining is not trashing.
You don’t like your racism examined, do you?
I always get caught on the bit about how the land wasn't real before white people got here. Like that's not even subtext.
OR it could be in reference to before ANY humans reached the continent. Or he when mentions how the land was "too quite to be real" he meaning before the railway, as rail engines are pretty damn loud.
But no, you're a modern puritan who wants to burn every book and great work that doesn't conform to your new era ways
@@trexlord1 "long before the white man" is the actual lyric
@@jcunningham8041 A portion of a line.
Long before the white man and long before the wheel. It's trying to paint a picture of ancient history, not centuries ago but millennia. Wheel was invented long before the ancient Siberians crossed the land bridge to the American continent and became the native americans.
Again, you just hate a proud and fair nation and wish to destroy its society, and one of the avenues of attack is tearing down its great works of art
@@trexlord1Hey man, if you're not able to handle a single detail making a good song more complicated that you want, I don't think you're gonna like knowing about the history of human rights in Canada.
@@jcunningham8041 You want to despoil the great works of a great society
And I shall summarize my feeling about the "dark past" both my country and our northern neighbor's.
"I have come to terms with our 'dark' past. It was based"
We were no worse than others of our time, and in many ways far greater. Everyone's past is just as bloody if not more. Sorry we were more successful.
great song your premise is based upon guilt. Guilt is self imposed. "Thriving nations" prior to contact false. This is rubbish on its face Gordon Lightfoot song will stand on its own with out your woke tiatribe.
The song is great , the using of it to further this authors perspective is trash.
Your spot on. Its so clear.. No country is perfect, but compare Canada to nearly any other Nation, Be Proud Canada..
Canada IS great! But just like the United States, it has done some terrible things while advancing that greatness. The author isn't selling an agenda. He's giving a pretty truthful account of history, and of the phrases in the song.