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Calling All Canadians


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At some point later this summer, (provided I haven't forgotten how to use all of my sound editors) I will produce an update to Sound of Music. It will include "White Cliffs of Dover" and "Don't Let's be Beastly to the Germans", more Edith Piaf, and some rousing Polish military music.

But as things stand, I don't have any Canadian period music. Nothing. Nada. Zippo.

I refuse to use "Oh Canada". That's much too obvious and very lame.

So I'm appealing to anyone who has Canadian parents or grandparents, or who knows someone Canadian from that generation, to please try and find out what they were listening to during the war years. Glenn Miller is not an acceptable answer.

If I don't hear anything credible from anyone I'll be forced to have dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village run by a bunch of French Canadian folksingers. Their music is probably not period but lots of fun, and I can still remember how my stomach felt a week after I ate their food last summer. So please, please don't make me eat ersatz gluten in the East Village just because you've all been brainwashed by this myth that there's no such thing as indigenous Canadian culture.

I know I'll get at least one good French Canadian folksong along with my indigestion. But if I get nothing from any of you for the Anglo side I'll bury my frustration by using Nelson Eddie and Jeanette McDonald.

So please save me from myself, before I mod again...

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Maple Leaf Forever is good.

Most popular music was American or British - Canadian troops in England listened to what the rest listened to.

I have a book of Canadian wartime songs, but usually they are American or British popular tunes with Canadian words added (and usually filthy at that). Canadian popular culture really had no national scope, and was very regional - ie "I'se the Bye" is an example of a Newfoundland folk song (and they didn't join Canada until 1949).

Vera Lynn is popular with veterans today, because she was popular then. Glenn Miller, big band stuff, all good, but nothing "Canadian" about it. In the days before TV, Canada was simply too big a country to have much of a popular culture of its own - but I am far from being an expert and stand open to correction.

Pub tunes were popular among Canadian troops in England also - Knees Up Mother Brown, for example.

Canadian soldier songs like the Quartermaster song were not really "popular" by any stretch of the imagination, though many British ones made their way onto radio and the popular culture of the time - ie Bless 'Em All, Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major, etc. The lines are blurry between barracks songs and popular culture songs that civvie radios played.

Highland regiments marched to Glenwhorple, but I know of no wartime recordings of that song.

Lili Marlene was popular, and the soldiers in Italy sang D-Day Dodgers to its melody. The Canadians had their own version of D-Day Dodgers, and the CBC has recordings of it somewhere - it is different from the British Version.

We are the D-Day Dodgers

In Sunny Italy

Always on the vino,

Always on the spree....

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment sang a song to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, about their CO Jim Stone

"You'll go alone Stone, You'll go alone Stone, You'll go a marching to Burma alone...."

Sung after the defeat of Germany, and the request for volunteers for the Pacific.

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I would suggest writing to some Canadian universities, actually, where the popular culture experts reside. The University of Calgary has a Canadian Studies department and I bet that if one of the professors knew you were really serious about finding out some info, they would be pleased to help you.

There had to be SOME kind of national Canadian popular culture (though even today, there really isn't much of one besides NHL hockey and DaVinci's Inquest!!!) but it is not something that gets popularized the way US and British 1940s pop culture gets popularized. I think even back then, Canadian composers and performers were in the shadow of the "big stars" from the US and UK.

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Originally posted by tailz:

Maple Leaf Forever is comes most readily to mind... if you need it, I have an excellent version from the 48th Highland Pipe & Drum....

Even at that, it is something that does not speak for Quebec, in fact, speaks entirely against them.

In days of yore, from Britain's shore,

Wolfe, the dauntless hero came

And planted firm Britannia's flag on Canada's wide domain

Long may it wave, our boast our pride, and joined in love together,

The thistle, shamrock, rose entwine

The Maple Leaf, Forever...

We all know what Wolfe did....and we know the fleur de lys ain't in there anywhere! '-)

I bet the Welsh are miffed that the Leek is not mentioned either.

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I've now managed to get my hands on MP3's of some Guy Lombardo, as well as Frank Sinatra singing I'll never Smile Again.

I haven't encountered MP3's of any of the other songs mentioned, so for them to get considered I'll need some more help, guys. I've only got a military band version of Maple Leaf Forever, and I'm afraid that doesn't really cut it.

I'll also entertain a good version of "When I'm calling You..."

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Sorry, all I can think of is Guy Lombardo.

I'd agree that there wasn't a homogeneous "Canadian Culture" during WW2. Much of what was present was from the 'old-country' (and that would vary depending on the region), or what was pop-culture at the time (therefore British, American, or our adaptaions of the pop style).

Sorry I couldn't help, but it is an interesting thread though.

-R

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