I came expecting a whimsical song from the title and wound up finding something that made me do some serious soul searching about what I'm doing with my life. That's a fair trade-off, I suppose.
If you are ever in the audience when some folk-singer type does Barret's Privateers, and he does a good job and the audience resopnds well. And he asks "any requests?" Ask him for The Idiot and watch him squirm. Then if he does not know it or won't admit he knows it, let him loose by asking for Field Behind the Plow. It's almost as effective.
@@puppetsock glad to see people are still watching this. I only learned of him recently through listening to a few sea shanties, and now I can't stop trying new songs of his.
SWVWC discovering Stans music is like finding a long lost sweater you didn’t know you had lost. Feels wonderful putting it on. My parents introduced me to Stan when I was a young boy and never get tired of listening to him. It’s a shame he was taken from us far too soon.
Every lad who has left a life to head west, work the patch, in the cuts, or camps, knows and feels this song deep in their bones. A quintessential Canadian song. I spent 10 years going west, and with every contract and stint this song meant more and more to me. Like every song of his, a peak into the lives of the real hero's of this country.. those who decided to take a chance, have an adventure, and work their asses off.
This isn't easy to say, but to make my parents proud and happy I went off to college, graduated, worked my career, and hated it. I gave it all up to drive a big rig from left to right and top to bottom over this country and even though some days were rough and some gold....I loved it. Thirty years over the road. I'm now retired and every time I see a big long haul rig running hard my heart aches. And you know what? My parents were still proud and happy. God bless them, I miss them both everyday.
Verse 1 I often take these night shift walks When the foreman’s not around I turn my back on the cooling stacks And make for open ground Far out beyond the tank-farm fence Where the gas flare makes no sound I forget the stink and I always think Back to that Eastern town Verse 2 I remember back six years ago This western life I chose And every day the news would say Some factory’s going to close Well, I could have stayed to take the dole But I’m not one of those I take nothing free, and that makes me An idiot, I suppose Verse 3 So I bid farewell to the Eastern town I never more will see But work I must so I eat this dust And breathe refinery Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams And I don’t like cowboy clothes But I like being free and that makes me An idiot, I suppose Verse 4 So come all you fine young fellows Who’ve been beaten to the ground This western life’s no paradise But it’s better than lying down Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green And the hills are dirty brown But the government dole will rot your soul Back there in your home town Verse 5 So bid farewell to the Eastern town You never more will see There’s self-respect and a steady cheque In this refinery You will miss the green and the woods and streams And the dust will fill your nose But you’ll be free, and just like me An idiot, I suppose
I moved very far from my home in Canada to push myself and further my career. Every time I forget why I am where I am, and why I'm even bothering, I listen to this song.
This song hits home. I had to leave my little town of 100 people because no one was hiring welders and move to a large city (~10,000 people) (to me, being raised in a town where everyone knew everyone, that is huge). I miss that little place, but I'll be going back next week for Christmas, so that counts for something!
Soo Line you sound like me. Left my little town of a 100 ppl, moved across the country to a town of 10,000. Sadly, 13 years later, have yet to get home for Christmas
I'm a 20-year old living in Greece, but Roger's stuff really resonates with me. Whether it's his more fun songs, like "The Idiot" or "White Collar Holler", his historical and picturesque auditory depictions of rural Canada like "The Marry Ellen Carter" or "The field behind the plow", or his songs based on legends, like the "Giant, he has such an authentic simple quality to him. I've never been to Canada, but there are so many beautiful images I have been able to weave in my mind thanks to his songs.
Theres a strange attachment I have for this song, that is not in likeness to its true message... I left a well paying job in Ontario and moved to the maritimes to work harder and longer hours. But Now the hills are green and the air is clean, no dust fills my nose. And finally I am free, and some call me, an idiot, I suppose.
@@grunkythegrandpaofcheese5241 the original message is one of warning your way and not living off of welfare and giving up. It in no way is counter to the song theme.
Being from the maritimes myself, I can they are great arent they? And yes I do speak in form of the maritimes being as an old friend. Hope the pleasure is still outweighed by the pay my friend. That's why I'm in ontario. Every scotians pilgrimage. Lol
That's pretty cool, i have a couple Brazilian and Italian friends here in Canada and we have a lot of fun stumbling through all sorts of folk songs. Maybe i should try and turn them on to Stan.
I followed this path. I spent 10 years in Edmonton as a 'skilled tradesman' they never bothered to pay for. I'm home now, after the fire. I'll never go West again. Listen to the song, the words. Understand the truth of them. RIP, Stan.
The message of this song isn't "Don't live in the greens, come here and work in this factory 12 hours a day!" the message is more like "Do not rely on the government and others to feed you, stand on your own two feet, make money for yourself" if you make money in the greens, that is okay, as long as you don't rely on others
When I look across the ocean bay from where I live, I can see the refinery flame flare far in the distance. That's when I sometimes think about this song. I spent a short while at a refinery and a coal mine when they were trying to recruit future engineers. The gas flame turned night into day perpetually and even the very walls of the buildings were always vibrating from some unknown cause. I could not imagine working in this dirty forest of pipes and coal dust and the scent of rotten eggs for the rest of my life. Now I look at the flame in the night and feel grateful tmy life did not take me there. I was a moth that escaped attraction to the ligtht. Still, all work is honourable, no matter how lowly it might seem. It is the honour of a man to take care of himself and his family the best way he can, and to do the job with to the best of his ability. As Stan says, "the government dole will rot your soul back there in your hometown."
***** I think I know what you mean. Modern life is fundamentally flawed. I don't like having to choose the lesser between two evils, even if that is sometimes the only choice we have. What I do know is that it is very hard to escape when you find yourself at the very bottom of the human food chain, because everyone above you is is always stepping on your fingers, in your face, on your knuckles. For that I have much sympathy. Ultimately, we're left to do the best we can to rise from our circumstances, or stay where we are. I salute the man who tries.
James Carmody Apart from the fact that energy companies put the most time and money into reducing their carbon footprint and destructive practices (not least of all because that makes them more efficient), you got a lot else wrong here. It's not just about self-respect and coralling laziness to avoid going on the dole. If you rely on the government for money, what you're actually doing is taking away other taxpayers' hard-earned income. Also, the fact that you're so dismissive of the very concept of pride and personal responsibility is troubling. You improve the world one bit at a time by looking after your own affairs. You don't improve it by having beaurocrats redistribute wealth at the barrel of a gun. That kind of entitlement and avarice is what really rots one's soul, which is what Rogers is alluding to. Also, you missed the entire point of the song. It's not about seeking a fortune and petty remittance by working for "Big Oil" and "Rupert Murdoch" and "the corporations, maaaan!". It's about picking yourself up by the bootstraps by any means necessary. Get a job, reconnect with family, start exercising, etc. It's all about self-improvement, and most importantly not being a leech. Additionally, most people who hold these kinds of "conservative" (really classical liberal) values care about the environment as well. The two aren't mutually exclusive. But if you care more about animals than yourself or your fellow man, that just makes you a masochist, plain and simple. No-one wants to be around that. But again, it's large companies and wealthy public figures who are actually putting money into the causes you clearly support.
I remember when I discovered Stan Rogers and this song vividly; I know I’ll never have that same feeling but everytime I listen to this song I think about the pain I go through everyday from work, school, sports, and life, it’s no paradise but it’s definitely better than lying down
My life's the opposite of this song, I moved from Alberta to Ontario to get work in a factory, after getting laid off from the oil field. I miss the mountains so bad I could cry.
No my friend, not the opposite of this song. Were you opposite you'd have both arms around the government teet sucking off the hard working men willing to go where the work is. You sound more like one of those.
"You will miss the greens and the woods and streams, and the dust will fill your nose. But you'll be free and just like me, an idiot I suppose." I think this song is more about you than you might think.
There are benefits of being out west but I do miss my Newfoundland home. I love going for drives on grey wet days and listen to stuff like this and reminds
Great song great comments. We lost our ( rented ) home in Highlands NJ during Sandy, I had work, but nowhere to live so we moved to my now ex wife's hometown in Wyoming. I start just about every day of my life listening to this song to get motivation. I hate living here, but unless Im willing to leave my little 5 1/2 year old sweet little girl, I have to make it work. I love Stan's music. He keeps me going from heaven.
I left my parents' comfortable home, lush garden and a crap jobs market to go and study in a workshop full of dust and live in a shoebox in the city. Sing this all the time.
2:00....this was taken in Fort McMurray, Alberta, about 10 years ago. That road and many of those buildings have been torn up for years, but seeing that A&W sign and the banners on the light poles and the memories of that town just hit me all at once.
The army is posting me out to the west this song almost brings me to tears every time I listen to it oh how ill miss the east coast, im gonna miss the ocean and the salty spray from the bow of my sail boat
If ever a form of work was created by mankind to destroy you body, soul and mind, it is without a doubt 3 shift factory work. What another great song sung by the great Stan Rogers, may he rest in peace.
I miss the vivid story-telling Stan had in his songs. No one else can do this, it seems. About ordinary things: "...the government dole will rob your sole...".
@@benjaminluckinbill07 Haha nice, was about to make the same recommendation. Corb is the only lyricist that come close to the great Stan Rogers, in my opinion.
Traditional Canadian music has strong Celtic roots. You're not completely wrong by saying it sounds Irish. The Maritimes (English-speaking provinces bordering the Atlantic Ocean) have a strong Irish presence, because of the Great Famine in Ireland in the 19th century. Many Irish came to Canada for a new life, and brought their culture and music with them.
I used to do the same when working night shift in a horrible chemical factory, climb to the top of highest tower at 2 am meal time & when all was quiet sit looking over the Irish sea with a full moon reflecting as if off jet black oil.
I didn't discover Stan's music until about 3 months ago when it came up on my Pandora. Now I regret that I wasn't old enough to see him perform at least once. I went to my first folk music concert, The Clancy Brothers, the year he died. It was the year I turned nine and I had only ever heard music like that a few times on the local public radio station when I visited my aunt and uncle. I've been listening ever since and it remains, to this day, the music I always turn to when I need something to echo how I'm feeling because there is ALWAYS a song in this genre that will do that.
Now that oil is four dollars and seventy eight cents a barrel, I can understand if there's a lot of maritimers who will be taking this song a lot more literally.
Here is Stan himself from the lyrics booklet of the North-West Passage CD, on which this song first appeared: "Incidentally, the views expressed in one or two of these songs are not necessarily those of the author. They arise, rather, from those of the people I met whose stories inspired the tunes." Those who would ascribe to Stan the views expressed by the people in his songs might have trouble squaring the sentiments in this one with those of the fishing captain in "The Jeannie C" who decides, for emotional reasons, that he can go to sea no more despite being able to have a new boat built for him.
I dunno, man. I feel like the song can be taken either way. On the one hand, people want to work and feel like they're doing something with their life, rather than be paid to do nothing. So that's the "dole will rot your soul" viewpoint. But at the same time, here's Not-Stan, living in this miserable Albertan oil town that's pretty clearly also making him miserable. He's working, but for what? Just to work? It doesn't seem to be about the money. _Is_ he an idiot, for moving away from the place that he loves to one he hates so that he can continue to feel useful? Is it even doing THAT, is it even making him feel useful? You can take a lot from this song, which I feel is the whole point of ending the line with "I suppose". It's not necessarily about saying the singer is right or wrong, the point is thinking about it. No matter whether someone's working or not, there's always benefit to taking a moment to at least think about what you want to do with your life going forward.
Great song. I bet Stan would look great in a cowboy hat. Sorry I missed seeing him. All his songs are great. He should be inducted into the Canadian HALL OF FAME.
I've always preferred this version over the live one. In the live one Stan yucks it up a bit which is fine but the more sober delivery on Northwest Passage fit my mood better back when I first heard it in 1993. That year saw my economic stability disappear and I made the big move in the opposite direction to leave the place of my birth, Calgary, to move East ending up in Windsor ON. Needless to say the tale of dislocation played deeply in my psyche.
Just recently discovered this song. When I was a kid the Military moved us all over the place. As an adult I've moved where I needed to go for either school or work but I got the job done and am now close to retirement with a whole bunch of savings. I've never understood people who have what they call a "hometown" and refuse to leave it no matter what. Different mind set I guess.
Oh I'm a home town lover. Haven't felt comfort like I have in my Gaspé town. Here I am in Halifax, beautiful nonetheless but ill always find my way home one day
@@devinodulchaoinitigh5467 I have to say I've enjoyed both my business and pleasure visits to Canada. I'll be back up there soon, I brought up the idea of a Canadian vacation to the wife the other day. She's never been.
@@mikeknowles8017 I'm biased but I recommend Gaspé Quebec; French is difficult to understand if you aren't from there but if you like seafood beer and great views the Gaspé peninsula is goddamn beautiful. Although this whole country is beautiful. Except Winnipeg lol
I need a comforting hand to be near me I need a lady who is free and alive I ned the pleasure of eyes that can see me for all that I am I'm a man who has arrived in time Home grown michigan poet songwriter don't give up just yet!
Been there done that now I'm doing the opposite. Went west when I turned 18, busting tbe rankest broncs for a no good horse trader for 5 years before heading back home. Tried the "responsible" thing for 3 or 4 years and now I'm heading east every week to go do industrial maintenance in chicken plants. Looking at layoffs now unfortunately, and it might be time to knock a few years on a rig off my list of rough and tumble jobs.
@Zehyr1 I think you are dead-on the mark. Stan's song also brings to mind the movie and song, "Goin Down the Road" and in those days, several decades back, physical displacement seemed the way the loss occurred. At least you could know what hit you: today, you don't have to actually depart to be dispossessed of community. It's more like Joni Mitchell's oft-quoted phrase from Big Yellow Taxi, , "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Thanks Zephyr1
Ironically, a lot of the photos are of men on the rigs, not at the refineries at all. That being said, I've long loved this song for its realism about carving out a living in this land. We moved onward, away from family, just as our parents and grandparents had moved to the place we left. Life has been good; but we do look back at the places of our childhood.
@Frances386 True - I had very little success in locating useable photos at refieneries. However, Stan's song is meaningful for any Maritimer (and lots of others) who have had to go "down the road" for any kind of work. In the 20s and 30s, thousands headed to "Boston States" for industrial jobs. later came waves of migration to Toronto and the west. There is little in this song's core message that is refinery-bound.
I always detect sarcasm in this song, but at the same time, as someone who spent years in a desolate fishing town, on the dole, it really does rot your soul (lot of drugs in rural towns, the city folk romanticising it seem to overlook.) Unfortunately, I moved to the city and then COVID hit a month later, so it's even worse here, literally everything's shut down and there aren't that many good paying jobs, since Brexit has tanked the economy. A lot of zero hour contracts and crappy warehousing jobs it seems, but good luck getting by on that with these rent prices, haha. Better off on the dole from what I've heard about those working conditions. I miss the green and the woods and streams for sure. Tore the arse out of camping and hiking when the pristine wilderness was on my doorstep and not much else to do.
Not to mention that, if you math it out, the guy in the song would have gone out west no later than 1975, meaning there wouldn't even be the possibility of using modern technology to try to take some of the edge off the emotional impact of a tanked economy out in the boondocks.
I think to how my grandparents moved to Canada because of war in the country of their birth. Now I moved to Saskatchewan because it is more advantageous for my family. We are now used to it and love it here.
Dan Hellpful I'd rather be an independent idiot with self respect, than give up, sit around unemployed, complain, and ask other grownups to pay my way. Working hard, or in less-than-ideal conditions, and underpaid is a far easier path for me than becoming a quitter/loserexample for my daughters.
Dan Hellpful i would rather be an independent idiot with self-respect as I pound away at my shitty hard underpaid job I had to move away from my kids (only hours away, but I had to give up physical custody) to get. I always say that working harder than I ever expected to, in much worse circumstances than I ever expected, is far easier than admitting I'm a quitter/loser and expect other hardworking grown ups to pay my way. Not an example I will ever show my kids. Nope.
FolkPunk MusicJunkie This is just some reactionary, anti-working class nonsense. Bud, you left your kids to work some stupid job you didn't need to do. There's nothing self-respecting about making stupid and unnecessary sacrifices. If you had any self-respect, you'd realize that the system that put you in this situation fucked you and everyone else like you over, and seek to change it instead of bending over backwards and sacrificing yourself in order to do as it dictates. Instead, you turn on your fellows by calling those in similar situations quitters and losers because they aren't as willing to bend the knee. That kinda bootlicking isn't respectful in the slightest, it's disgusting. Being productive is great and all, but leaving your home and family just to contribute to filling some capitalist's wallet because that's the way things are isn't exactly a good example of strong, independent and free. Especially when you admit it's a shitty job and you are underpaid for your labour. Accepting that shit life isn't setting a good example for anyone. You're not a pack animal, or a tool to be shuffled around where needed, and exploited until you are labelled obsolete and discarded. You're a fucking human being, dude.
Stan said on "Home in Halifax" that the music to this song is like that of Morris dancing, which is English. There are obviously Celtic influences in Stan ("Giant"), but this is more contra-dancing. Very 17th-century.
Me before listening to this song: "What a dumb name for a song, but it's Stan Rogers so.... gotta be at least a bit good." After: "The fuck am I doing with my life?"
Hits home. Hits home hard. I'll take the oil fields of ND and AK over anything east of the Mississippi or west of the divide. Hard, brutal work, but wouldn't trade it for anything.
unbelievable. this guy lived the life he spoke of. a lost skill bases art that some one has to do, or take'er. work as you must or pass off the expense of you existence to someone else. then why. work to make the human experience better. work you bastards. it's in your soul to do more. progress for yourself/progress for civilization. do best
Bruce Guthro sang a beautiful interpretation of this at StanFest 2012. Things aren't any better here in NS than when this song was written. A solution would be to depend more on, and have government promote, the use of local economies by asking our big chain stores to use local sourcing.(slippery slope to communism?) Maybe reducing our 15% tax on most items would encourage people to shop in province.I wish that there was a freeze on immigration until everyone who's already here, has a job.
That's not how immigration works, if they can't come legally, they'll come illegally, you'll be spending money hand over first regardless to deal with it, and in the mean time you dry up diversity, as well as fresh minds... the majority of communication and technology companies rely on immigrants, as does the fields of science. The problem has always been the maritime economy traditionally was dependent on the ocean/sea... well 300 years of pollution, over-fishing and excess has dwindled the resources the sea can provide, so the tourist season is the next biggest economic dependent...and that lasts only a certain amount of time in the year. there's not a lot else the Maritime can do/provide sufficiently to bolster their economy. the internet and online stores have severely weakened chain stores and etc, which is why sears is closing, the Hudson bay company has seen hardship and that 15% tax is the only thing that allows your government to cover you in the winter and lean times...
I feel the same way in the US, I left the Navy and nothing would've made me happier than to return to my home state of Maine, however there were no jobs there in my field and I refuse to be a welfare person so I moved to the south, even I hate it here, it's flat and hot and swampy. But at least I can provide for my family
If I ever get access to a time machine, stopping Stan from boarding that plane will be the first thing I do. Such a terrible loss.
He'd probably prefer if you just stopped the electrical fire.
@@michaelvanleeuwen3802 I know how to tell a person not to board a plane. I don't know anything about aeronautical electrics.
@@RingtoneBasterds you can do that ? how ?
dude im gonna follow him...he died a hero
Just say I know you’re going to die on this plane
I came expecting a whimsical song from the title and wound up finding something that made me do some serious soul searching about what I'm doing with my life. That's a fair trade-off, I suppose.
If you are ever in the audience when some folk-singer type does Barret's Privateers, and he does a good job and the audience resopnds well. And he asks "any requests?" Ask him for The Idiot and watch him squirm. Then if he does not know it or won't admit he knows it, let him loose by asking for Field Behind the Plow. It's almost as effective.
@@puppetsock glad to see people are still watching this. I only learned of him recently through listening to a few sea shanties, and now I can't stop trying new songs of his.
@@swvwc8393 if you haven't heard Witch of the Westmore Land, or Northwest Passage, make sure to check those out asap!
@@Jesse__H I got them all, for the most part. Northwest, WotWL, Barrett's Privateers, The Idiot, the Mary Ellen Carter... All got em on an MP3 player
SWVWC discovering Stans music is like finding a long lost sweater you didn’t know you had lost. Feels wonderful putting it on.
My parents introduced me to Stan when I was a young boy and never get tired of listening to him. It’s a shame he was taken from us far too soon.
Every lad who has left a life to head west, work the patch, in the cuts, or camps, knows and feels this song deep in their bones.
A quintessential Canadian song. I spent 10 years going west, and with every contract and stint this song meant more and more to me.
Like every song of his, a peak into the lives of the real hero's of this country.. those who decided to take a chance, have an adventure, and work their asses off.
This isn't easy to say, but to make my parents proud and happy I went off to college, graduated, worked my career, and hated it. I gave it all up to drive a big rig from left to right and top to bottom over this country and even though some days were rough and some gold....I loved it. Thirty years over the road. I'm now retired and every time I see a big long haul rig running hard my heart aches. And you know what? My parents were still proud and happy. God bless them, I miss them both everyday.
3 years late, but I loved that story mate
I know what tore through his heart to find the right words for this piece.
Verse 1
I often take these night shift walks
When the foreman’s not around
I turn my back on the cooling stacks
And make for open ground
Far out beyond the tank-farm fence
Where the gas flare makes no sound
I forget the stink and I always think
Back to that Eastern town
Verse 2
I remember back six years ago
This western life I chose
And every day the news would say
Some factory’s going to close
Well, I could have stayed to take the dole
But I’m not one of those
I take nothing free, and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
Verse 3
So I bid farewell to the Eastern town
I never more will see
But work I must so I eat this dust
And breathe refinery
Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams
And I don’t like cowboy clothes
But I like being free and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
Verse 4
So come all you fine young fellows
Who’ve been beaten to the ground
This western life’s no paradise
But it’s better than lying down
Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green
And the hills are dirty brown
But the government dole will rot your soul
Back there in your home town
Verse 5
So bid farewell to the Eastern town
You never more will see
There’s self-respect and a steady cheque
In this refinery
You will miss the green and the woods and streams
And the dust will fill your nose
But you’ll be free, and just like me
An idiot, I suppose
Thanks for typing that! It really helped!
Stay strong brother and never give up.
I think it might be "another packery's going to close". As in fish packery.
Thank you
@@gregoryyoungmorris281 You know, the more I listen to it, I think you're right.
I moved very far from my home in Canada to push myself and further my career.
Every time I forget why I am where I am, and why I'm even bothering, I listen to this song.
I first discovered Stan Rogers not even a year ago and this song is now one of my favorites.
This song hits home. I had to leave my little town of 100 people because no one was hiring welders and move to a large city (~10,000 people) (to me, being raised in a town where everyone knew everyone, that is huge). I miss that little place, but I'll be going back next week for Christmas, so that counts for something!
Soo Line you sound like me. Left my little town of a 100 ppl, moved across the country to a town of 10,000. Sadly, 13 years later, have yet to get home for Christmas
im starting my aprenticeship for that right now. any recommendations for welding?
The Soo Line was one of the best roads ever
How was it? =)
I can' t help but think of 10k as homely. Contemplating moving into a western city, of 60k... that'd be a similar charge in magnitude.
I'm a 20-year old living in Greece, but Roger's stuff really resonates with me. Whether it's his more fun songs, like "The Idiot" or "White Collar Holler", his historical and picturesque auditory depictions of rural Canada like "The Marry Ellen Carter" or "The field behind the plow", or his songs based on legends, like the "Giant, he has such an authentic simple quality to him. I've never been to Canada, but there are so many beautiful images I have been able to weave in my mind thanks to his songs.
I'm across the pond in Turkey and I relate immensely, Stans stuff is timeless and everpresent.
Σε καταλαβαίνω απόλυτα φίλε μου χαχαχ
Thank you for the recommendations, are you Orthodox?
Theres a strange attachment I have for this song, that is not in likeness to its true message... I left a well paying job in Ontario and moved to the maritimes to work harder and longer hours. But Now the hills are green and the air is clean, no dust fills my nose. And finally I am free, and some call me, an idiot, I suppose.
I honestly think that is preferable to the original message, if a little naive.
@@grunkythegrandpaofcheese5241 the original message is one of warning your way and not living off of welfare and giving up. It in no way is counter to the song theme.
God bless
And here I sit after leaving the maritimes to come here to ontario to work. Enjoy the east my friend, I miss her so.
Being from the maritimes myself, I can they are great arent they? And yes I do speak in form of the maritimes being as an old friend. Hope the pleasure is still outweighed by the pay my friend. That's why I'm in ontario. Every scotians pilgrimage. Lol
For those who feels this song sounds familiar but can't put their finger on it, Corb Lund's "I wanna be in the Cavalry" uses the same tune.
I love both songs, but I never realized that. Does the tune have a name?
Didn’t Corb list Stan as a co-author on that song? I feel like I remember that being the case...
I'm not even Canadian, but I love this country and this song, it's so beautiful
Where ya from bud?
My grandparents are Italian but most of my family live in Brazil, unfortunately
That's pretty cool, i have a couple Brazilian and Italian friends here in Canada and we have a lot of fun stumbling through all sorts of folk songs. Maybe i should try and turn them on to Stan.
Yeah, you should, Stan is amazing. I really want to go to Canada, what do your friends work with that allowed them to go there?
Came as students for the most part. Usually if you can full time work it's not too hard to stay.
I followed this path. I spent 10 years in Edmonton as a 'skilled tradesman' they never bothered to pay for. I'm home now, after the fire. I'll never go West again. Listen to the song, the words. Understand the truth of them. RIP, Stan.
The message of this song isn't "Don't live in the greens, come here and work in this factory 12 hours a day!" the message is more like "Do not rely on the government and others to feed you, stand on your own two feet, make money for yourself" if you make money in the greens, that is okay, as long as you don't rely on others
When I look across the ocean bay from where I live, I can see the refinery flame flare far in the distance. That's when I sometimes think about this song. I spent a short while at a refinery and a coal mine when they were trying to recruit future engineers. The gas flame turned night into day perpetually and even the very walls of the buildings were always vibrating from some unknown cause. I could not imagine working in this dirty forest of pipes and coal dust and the scent of rotten eggs for the rest of my life. Now I look at the flame in the night and feel grateful tmy life did not take me there. I was a moth that escaped attraction to the ligtht. Still, all work is honourable, no matter how lowly it might seem. It is the honour of a man to take care of himself and his family the best way he can, and to do the job with to the best of his ability. As Stan says, "the government dole will rot your soul back there in your hometown."
***** ...Your post is as honest and moving as this song. Wishing you well, Laura.
+Herman Labuschagne Too true, too true.
***** I think I know what you mean. Modern life is fundamentally flawed. I don't like having to choose the lesser between two evils, even if that is sometimes the only choice we have. What I do know is that it is very hard to escape when you find yourself at the very bottom of the human food chain, because everyone above you is is always stepping on your fingers, in your face, on your knuckles. For that I have much sympathy. Ultimately, we're left to do the best we can to rise from our circumstances, or stay where we are. I salute the man who tries.
I like the way your summarized it ***** . It is a situation that offers no clean winning option.
James Carmody
Apart from the fact that energy companies put the most time and money into reducing their carbon footprint and destructive practices (not least of all because that makes them more efficient), you got a lot else wrong here. It's not just about self-respect and coralling laziness to avoid going on the dole. If you rely on the government for money, what you're actually doing is taking away other taxpayers' hard-earned income. Also, the fact that you're so dismissive of the very concept of pride and personal responsibility is troubling. You improve the world one bit at a time by looking after your own affairs. You don't improve it by having beaurocrats redistribute wealth at the barrel of a gun. That kind of entitlement and avarice is what really rots one's soul, which is what Rogers is alluding to.
Also, you missed the entire point of the song. It's not about seeking a fortune and petty remittance by working for "Big Oil" and "Rupert Murdoch" and "the corporations, maaaan!". It's about picking yourself up by the bootstraps by any means necessary. Get a job, reconnect with family, start exercising, etc. It's all about self-improvement, and most importantly not being a leech.
Additionally, most people who hold these kinds of "conservative" (really classical liberal) values care about the environment as well. The two aren't mutually exclusive. But if you care more about animals than yourself or your fellow man, that just makes you a masochist, plain and simple. No-one wants to be around that. But again, it's large companies and wealthy public figures who are actually putting money into the causes you clearly support.
This song only has 630,000 views? Deserves way more.
This one still to this day brings on a severe sense of homesickness...still as relevant as it ever was!
It’s hard to pick a favorite Stan Rogers song. He write poetry with catchy melodies. There is no way to write a better song.
I remember when I discovered Stan Rogers and this song vividly; I know I’ll never have that same feeling but everytime I listen to this song I think about the pain I go through everyday from work, school, sports, and life, it’s no paradise but it’s definitely better than lying down
My life's the opposite of this song, I moved from Alberta to Ontario to get work in a factory, after getting laid off from the oil field. I miss the mountains so bad I could cry.
No my friend, not the opposite of this song. Were you opposite you'd have both arms around the government teet sucking off the hard working men willing to go where the work is. You sound more like one of those.
"You will miss the greens and the woods and streams, and the dust will fill your nose. But you'll be free and just like me, an idiot I suppose."
I think this song is more about you than you might think.
I moved from BC to ontario and the mountains are calling me home I move back this summer
Stan Rogers is from the east coast but moved to Hamilton. The songs about his dad working in the refinery
I live in Cincinnati and I was here in 1983 when we lost one of the very best!
+Warren Huff Yes, one of the saddest days ever. I visit Cincinnati a lot and whenever I land at the airport I think about Stan.
There are benefits of being out west but I do miss my Newfoundland home. I love going for drives on grey wet days and listen to stuff like this and reminds
Great song great comments.
We lost our ( rented ) home in Highlands NJ during Sandy, I had work, but nowhere to live so we moved to my now ex wife's hometown in Wyoming. I start just about every day of my life listening to this song to get motivation.
I hate living here, but unless Im willing to leave my little 5 1/2 year old sweet little girl,
I have to make it work. I love Stan's music.
He keeps me going from heaven.
Just curious but why do you hate Wyoming? Down here in Colorado the crowds kinda make me want to move north
I left my parents' comfortable home, lush garden and a crap jobs market to go and study in a workshop full of dust and live in a shoebox in the city. Sing this all the time.
2:00....this was taken in Fort McMurray, Alberta, about 10 years ago. That road and many of those buildings have been torn up for years, but seeing that A&W sign and the banners on the light poles and the memories of that town just hit me all at once.
The army is posting me out to the west this song almost brings me to tears every time I listen to it oh how ill miss the east coast, im gonna miss the ocean and the salty spray from the bow of my sail boat
Lot of parallels between leaving for a job and leaving with the Army.
If ever a form of work was created by mankind to destroy you body, soul and mind, it is without a doubt 3 shift factory work.
What another great song sung by the great Stan Rogers, may he rest in peace.
Tears, every time...
just discovered this fantastic singer after watching an episode of northern exposure.
I miss the vivid story-telling Stan had in his songs. No one else can do this, it seems. About ordinary things: "...the government dole will rob your sole...".
Try out Corb Lund. He's got the right stuff.
@@benjaminluckinbill07
Haha nice, was about to make the same recommendation. Corb is the only lyricist that come close to the great Stan Rogers, in my opinion.
He's saying 'the government dole will rot your soul', but I guess it could be interpreted as having the shoes snatched off your feet too.
No matter whether you share their views, Stan Rogers had such a talent for capturing how people saw the world.
Traditional Canadian music has strong Celtic roots. You're not completely wrong by saying it sounds Irish. The Maritimes (English-speaking provinces bordering the Atlantic Ocean) have a strong Irish presence, because of the Great Famine in Ireland in the 19th century. Many Irish came to Canada for a new life, and brought their culture and music with them.
British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and French are who made this country and each day we lose more and more of what they created for us.
Not to mention their Scottish cousins that came over to Canada in great waves. There's a reason one of the provinces is called "Nova Scotia" haha
I used to do the same when working night shift in a horrible chemical factory, climb to the top of highest tower at 2 am meal time & when all was quiet sit looking over the Irish sea with a full moon reflecting as if off jet black oil.
I was lucky enough to see this legend in Toronto at a coffee house "Groaning Board". Such a tragic end for Stan. RIP
I didn't discover Stan's music until about 3 months ago when it came up on my Pandora. Now I regret that I wasn't old enough to see him perform at least once. I went to my first folk music concert, The Clancy Brothers, the year he died. It was the year I turned nine and I had only ever heard music like that a few times on the local public radio station when I visited my aunt and uncle. I've been listening ever since and it remains, to this day, the music I always turn to when I need something to echo how I'm feeling because there is ALWAYS a song in this genre that will do that.
Was it in the '70s? On Bay st? I was taking photographs then.
A man singing about home, could there be anything more beautiful?
Now that oil is four dollars and seventy eight cents a barrel, I can understand if there's a lot of maritimers who will be taking this song a lot more literally.
God bless the great stan rogers. Gone too soon. Forever missed.
This is going to be me soon. Getting an AAS in welding and leaving this tiny town that has no gainful employment opportunities.
Pandora played some of his songs on my Playlist and I was hooked!!!
What a wonderful song, it says it all.
Here is Stan himself from the lyrics booklet of the North-West Passage CD, on which this song first appeared: "Incidentally, the views expressed in one or two of these songs are not necessarily those of the author. They arise, rather, from those of the people I met whose stories inspired the tunes." Those who would ascribe to Stan the views expressed by the people in his songs might have trouble squaring the sentiments in this one with those of the fishing captain in "The Jeannie C" who decides, for emotional reasons, that he can go to sea no more despite being able to have a new boat built for him.
Stan you music will live forever.
i just found stan rogers he's awesome. to bad i was less then one year old when he died
Stan Rogers is an absolute LEGEND.
I work at an American Iron foundry (patriotic, eh). This is my theme song.
36 people took the dole.
Its probably more than 36 bro
I dunno, man. I feel like the song can be taken either way. On the one hand, people want to work and feel like they're doing something with their life, rather than be paid to do nothing. So that's the "dole will rot your soul" viewpoint.
But at the same time, here's Not-Stan, living in this miserable Albertan oil town that's pretty clearly also making him miserable. He's working, but for what? Just to work? It doesn't seem to be about the money. _Is_ he an idiot, for moving away from the place that he loves to one he hates so that he can continue to feel useful? Is it even doing THAT, is it even making him feel useful?
You can take a lot from this song, which I feel is the whole point of ending the line with "I suppose". It's not necessarily about saying the singer is right or wrong, the point is thinking about it. No matter whether someone's working or not, there's always benefit to taking a moment to at least think about what you want to do with your life going forward.
In 2020 everyone took it. Makes you wonder who owns our souls.
Shit. Might have to leave Ontario
Losing what you love due to "economic necessity"... even more an issue now then when Stan wrote this, years ago.
And this comment sadly aged like wine a decade later...
Its great to find a nice new song to listen to!!
Rest in Peace Stan. Your music lives forever.
Love this tune- Would sound lovely with bagpipes in the background. Hmm..
+Bob Gerard the tune was inspired by the Morris Dance tunes, so that might have something to do with it.
Thanks.Just googled them- Morris Dancers are great! Anyway I tried this tune on my Scottish Small Pipes but the scale is off.
I too miss my northern California coasts. From Mendocino, CA and now landlocked in Austin, TX.
And idiot I suppose.
Great song. I bet Stan would look great in a cowboy hat. Sorry I missed seeing him. All his songs are great. He should be inducted into the Canadian HALL OF FAME.
Great little video! Love the end with the drive across Canada.
just discovered this artist but he's a giant.
+John Turner
He sure is,John. I saw him and his band 4 times,and I cried the day he died. He was a real poet who captured the spirit of this country.
+John Wise Just started with his album Northwest Passage. He's up there with Lightfoot for me now. Music for the common man.
gotta say though stan shines on a cloud far higher than Lightfoot
I've always preferred this version over the live one. In the live one Stan yucks it up a bit which is fine but the more sober delivery on Northwest Passage fit my mood better back when I first heard it in 1993. That year saw my economic stability disappear and I made the big move in the opposite direction to leave the place of my birth, Calgary, to move East ending up in Windsor ON. Needless to say the tale of dislocation played deeply in my psyche.
Just recently discovered this song. When I was a kid the Military moved us all over the place. As an adult I've moved where I needed to go for either school or work but I got the job done and am now close to retirement with a whole bunch of savings. I've never understood people who have what they call a "hometown" and refuse to leave it no matter what. Different mind set I guess.
Oh I'm a home town lover. Haven't felt comfort like I have in my Gaspé town. Here I am in Halifax, beautiful nonetheless but ill always find my way home one day
@@devinodulchaoinitigh5467 I have to say I've enjoyed both my business and pleasure visits to Canada. I'll be back up there soon, I brought up the idea of a Canadian vacation to the wife the other day. She's never been.
@@mikeknowles8017 I'm biased but I recommend Gaspé Quebec; French is difficult to understand if you aren't from there but if you like seafood beer and great views the Gaspé peninsula is goddamn beautiful. Although this whole country is beautiful. Except Winnipeg lol
I feel ur pain! Although my parents left before me RIP! It was so comfortable then and now what do we look at!!! Gotta love Stan to make ya smile!
I need a comforting hand to be near me
I need a lady who is free and alive
I ned the pleasure of eyes that can see me
for all that I am
I'm a man who has arrived in time
Home grown michigan poet songwriter don't give up just yet!
R.I.P. Stan . You were a great artist.
I moved from Ohio to Los Angeles for a year and I hate it, and unlike the song I make way less money here too lol. Going home soon.
Should have tried Arizona
You couldnt pay me enough to live in LA, Id rather be in Ohio anywhere (Im in WNY)
Living in La is a soul wrenching experience. Nothing is worth living in such a horrible place.
An ideal of living that chased him to the ends of the earth, I suppose.
Been there done that now I'm doing the opposite. Went west when I turned 18, busting tbe rankest broncs for a no good horse trader for 5 years before heading back home. Tried the "responsible" thing for 3 or 4 years and now I'm heading east every week to go do industrial maintenance in chicken plants. Looking at layoffs now unfortunately, and it might be time to knock a few years on a rig off my list of rough and tumble jobs.
Excellent...EXCELLENT!!
Nice to see Mahone Bay NS in there!! Close to me! XO film maker! :)
I love all stan and his gtoup's recordings
@Zehyr1 I think you are dead-on the mark. Stan's song also brings to mind the movie and song, "Goin Down the Road" and in those days, several decades back, physical displacement seemed the way the loss occurred. At least you could know what hit you: today, you don't have to actually depart to be dispossessed of community. It's more like Joni Mitchell's oft-quoted phrase from Big Yellow Taxi, , "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Thanks Zephyr1
99% of the music I listen to is metal, but this is my second favorite song of all time
Ironically, a lot of the photos are of men on the rigs, not at the refineries at all.
That being said, I've long loved this song for its realism about carving out a living in this land. We moved onward, away from family, just as our parents and grandparents had moved to the place we left. Life has been good; but we do look back at the places of our childhood.
I moved from New England to Texas to find a better job. I haven't been back since.
I did the same thing, can't honestly stand it when I go back up there
damned good, thanks Stan.. . you're kids good too!
buy a few of cd's they are filled with great songs, they're still available on amazon on MP3 as well,not sure if his wife is still selling them....
@Frances386 True - I had very little success in locating useable photos at refieneries. However, Stan's song is meaningful for any Maritimer (and lots of others) who have had to go "down the road" for any kind of work. In the 20s and 30s, thousands headed to "Boston States" for industrial jobs. later came waves of migration to Toronto and the west. There is little in this song's core message that is refinery-bound.
This is awesome ^^ xD
Any one of his albums. I think the greatest compilation of his songs is his discography.
For better or worse this is one of my "literally me" songs
still relevant to maritimers today. sad but very real.
I miss the salt spray of my California coasts.I'm landlocked now too.I've joined the idiots , I suppose. :(
He sounds like Space Ghost.
soberchimera61 Space Ghost? Well, maybe more so than like Zorak.
Stan Rogers did sound a lot like George coe
I always detect sarcasm in this song, but at the same time, as someone who spent years in a desolate fishing town, on the dole, it really does rot your soul (lot of drugs in rural towns, the city folk romanticising it seem to overlook.)
Unfortunately, I moved to the city and then COVID hit a month later, so it's even worse here, literally everything's shut down and there aren't that many good paying jobs, since Brexit has tanked the economy. A lot of zero hour contracts and crappy warehousing jobs it seems, but good luck getting by on that with these rent prices, haha. Better off on the dole from what I've heard about those working conditions.
I miss the green and the woods and streams for sure. Tore the arse out of camping and hiking when the pristine wilderness was on my doorstep and not much else to do.
Not to mention that, if you math it out, the guy in the song would have gone out west no later than 1975, meaning there wouldn't even be the possibility of using modern technology to try to take some of the edge off the emotional impact of a tanked economy out in the boondocks.
It certainly will rot your soul, just look at old English mining towns for that.
you got that right! I was allright for a while Crying
I think to how my grandparents moved to Canada because of war in the country of their birth. Now I moved to Saskatchewan because it is more advantageous for my family. We are now used to it and love it here.
this song is straight class
borealisrecords website is where they sell his CDs.. the very best of stan rogers album is good
What if we all were idiots ?
+William Murray that's the truth
Dan Hellpful I'd rather be an independent idiot with self respect, than give up, sit around unemployed, complain, and ask other grownups to pay my way. Working hard, or in less-than-ideal conditions, and underpaid is a far easier path for me than becoming a quitter/loserexample for my daughters.
Dan Hellpful i would rather be an independent idiot with self-respect as I pound away at my shitty hard underpaid job I had to move away from my kids (only hours away, but I had to give up physical custody) to get. I always say that working harder than I ever expected to, in much worse circumstances than I ever expected, is far easier than admitting I'm a quitter/loser and expect other hardworking grown ups to pay my way. Not an example I will ever show my kids. Nope.
FolkPunk MusicJunkie This is just some reactionary, anti-working class nonsense.
Bud, you left your kids to work some stupid job you didn't need to do. There's nothing self-respecting about making stupid and unnecessary sacrifices.
If you had any self-respect, you'd realize that the system that put you in this situation fucked you and everyone else like you over, and seek to change it instead of bending over backwards and sacrificing yourself in order to do as it dictates. Instead, you turn on your fellows by calling those in similar situations quitters and losers because they aren't as willing to bend the knee. That kinda bootlicking isn't respectful in the slightest, it's disgusting.
Being productive is great and all, but leaving your home and family just to contribute to filling some capitalist's wallet because that's the way things are isn't exactly a good example of strong, independent and free. Especially when you admit it's a shitty job and you are underpaid for your labour. Accepting that shit life isn't setting a good example for anyone. You're not a pack animal, or a tool to be shuffled around where needed, and exploited until you are labelled obsolete and discarded. You're a fucking human being, dude.
I want to be in the cavalry
If you know you know
0:33 Mahone Bay!
Stan said on "Home in Halifax" that the music to this song is like that of Morris dancing, which is English. There are obviously Celtic influences in Stan ("Giant"), but this is more contra-dancing. Very 17th-century.
Makes you think about the "stimulus" checks
Fuckin right lol.
this melody is strikingly similar to corb Lund I want to be in the Calvary song.
yes. Stan was certainly a great inspiration to and influence on many Canadian performers.
Me before listening to this song: "What a dumb name for a song, but it's Stan Rogers so.... gotta be at least a bit good."
After: "The fuck am I doing with my life?"
I love Alberta!
+zzzwingzzz fucking ugly trolls up in this fucker
+zigsinclair What language are you attempting?
+zzzwingzzz Alberta is beautiful, the oil sands are not. But you gotta do what you gotta do to get by.
+Haldei I agree!
the only problem with alberta is its full of albertans VOTE MO BANGA!!
Hits home. Hits home hard.
I'll take the oil fields of ND and AK over anything east of the Mississippi or west of the divide.
Hard, brutal work, but wouldn't trade it for anything.
lol, no british colombia!
Has anyone else realised this sounds like a corb lund song from the "horse soldier, horse soldier" album?
I'm probably out of line here, but I suspect that Stan Rogers was a direct descendant of Anne of Green Gables.
unbelievable. this guy lived the life he spoke of. a lost skill bases art that some one has to do, or take'er. work as you must or pass off the expense of you existence to someone else. then why. work to make the human experience better. work you bastards. it's in your soul to do more. progress for yourself/progress for civilization. do best
Bruce Guthro sang a beautiful interpretation of this at StanFest 2012. Things aren't any better here in NS than when this song was written. A solution would be to depend more on, and have government promote, the use of local economies by asking our big chain stores to use local sourcing.(slippery slope to communism?) Maybe reducing our 15% tax on most items would encourage people to shop in province.I wish that there was a freeze on immigration until everyone who's already here, has a job.
That's not how immigration works, if they can't come legally, they'll come illegally, you'll be spending money hand over first regardless to deal with it, and in the mean time you dry up diversity, as well as fresh minds...
the majority of communication and technology companies rely on immigrants, as does the fields of science.
The problem has always been the maritime economy traditionally was dependent on the ocean/sea...
well 300 years of pollution, over-fishing and excess has dwindled the resources the sea can provide, so the tourist season is the next biggest economic dependent...and that lasts only a certain amount of time in the year.
there's not a lot else the Maritime can do/provide sufficiently to bolster their economy.
the internet and online stores have severely weakened chain stores and etc, which is why sears is closing, the Hudson bay company has seen hardship and that 15% tax is the only thing that allows your government to cover you in the winter and lean times...
I feel the same way in the US, I left the Navy and nothing would've made me happier than to return to my home state of Maine, however there were no jobs there in my field and I refuse to be a welfare person so I moved to the south, even I hate it here, it's flat and hot and swampy. But at least I can provide for my family