Northwest Passage: link and song

[amedia]

There was an exciting news story a little while ago about the finding of the HMS Investigator, the ship that was sent out in the mid-1850's to try to find what became of Franklin, who was looking for the Northwest Passage:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/28/hms-investigator-ship-los_n_662813.html

In honor of this event, a song!



Northwest Passage from the album Victory Sings at Sea.

The song was written by the incomparable folk artist Stan Rogers. Here are the words:

Chorus:


Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.


Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.

And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.

Comments

[surranndie.livejournal.com]

....I have had that song memorized for oh, at least seven years or so. Also have a copy of it on my 'puter, of course. Ah, Due South. *thinks loving thoughts of RayK and Fraser and riding their dog sled into the sunset together*

ETA: OH! And also, this: http://surranndie.livejournal.com/54228.html

[amedia.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten that there was a Due South connection! (I'm not sure if I ever knew it, actually, but it does sound vaguely familiar now that you mention it.)

I have only the vaguest familiarity with Due South, primarily from watching songvids, reading stories in multifandom zines, and hanging out with akite. :-)

[surranndie.livejournal.com]

Hee! YES! It's actually the only reason I know about the Franklin Expedition. In the last episode of the series, while the boys are chasing the bad guys up in Canada, they get stuck in the wilderness. Fraser starts talking about how if they get out of there, the two of them are going to go on a grand adventure and search for the Hand of Franklin. The whole song is used as the end credits.

Here is a relevant clip:

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

*sighs happily* This show is just...*whimper*. So beautiful. (Naturally, I can rec dozens of extraordinary vids for this fandom, as it is one of my absolute all-time favorites.)

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post! I had no idea this had occurred, and to then find you linked to this beautiful song, along with adding in the lyrics, was delightful.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

So glad you enjoyed, and thanks for commenting! :-D

[gillianinoz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the song - it's magic!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome!

[chorale.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the song. The lyrics are great. I'll play it later on when my computer isn't giving me fits about having multiple apps open, darn it!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Good luck with your computer - I hope it soon behaves better for you!

[chorale.livejournal.com]

I have played the song now; several times in fact. I love it.

[In case you reply without looking at my icon, it is of Zoë from Firefly and Serenity in a Trek uniform. Just thought I'd show it off a little. A friend posted the entire Serenity crew in Trek uniforms formatted as an aged poster. I'll send you an attachment of it as I still don't know how to post pics here to LJ.]

[amedia.livejournal.com]

OMG! What an awesome icon! I'll look forward to the attachment. :-)

I'm so glad you liked the song! I don't think I have any other Stan Rogers tunes in electronic format. I think we have a couple of his albums, and I know we have a wonderful album that his brother Garnet, also a noted folksinger, did with Archie Fisher, but it's on vinyl.

[chorale.livejournal.com]

I adore your icon of the Doctor!

My dear madame, your household really needs a USB turntable. We have one, but we haven't yet gotten around to finding the right kind of software to make it compatible with a Mac. (It's a source of considerable frustration for me, but not quite enough to make me to sit down for a couple of days hunting on the Web.)

[amedia.livejournal.com]

My dear madame, your household really needs a USB turntable.

Okay, this is scary - it's like you're in my head! :-) I've been ogling them. Especially the ones that claim they can put the files directly onto an iPod! (I'm a little dubious, however, unless they've got better software than what I use. I can't always trust RipEditBurn's track splitter; it tends to mistake pauses in a song for a sign that the song is over and a new one has started, and it sometimes has trouble recognizing that a new track has begun if there's continuous applause.)

It's just a relatively low priority for me right now. Once we get a new receiver, we can hook up the turntable and listen to records indefinitely - they have a longer shelf life than, say, cassettes. I've been digitizing a number of my old cassettes, especially things that I can't get on CD or mp3, like the "Alice" soundtrack or the Technical Difficulties albums.

Next I want to get a video card and an external hard drive and a whole new computer and digitize some stuff we have on VHS, like the Enya music videos and the Shining Time Station Christmas special and heaven only knows what else.

[feroxargentea]

Oh, thanks for the song :-)

*is now awash with Due South nostalgia*

[amedia.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! :-)