See also
- Blackfly , a 1991 Oscar-nominated adaptation of another Wade Hemsworth song
- Canadian folklore
- Canada: A People's History
- Heritage Minutes
- The Greatest Canadian
- Hinterland Who's Who
| "The Log Driver's Waltz" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Wade Hemsworth | |
| Language | English |
| Songwriter(s) | Wade Hemsworth |
| Composer(s) | Wade Hemsworth |
The Log Driver's Waltz is a Canadian folk song, written by Wade Hemsworth. The Log Driver's Waltz is also a Canadian animated film [1] from the National Film Board, released in 1979 as part of its Canada Vignettes series. [2]
The song celebrates the profession of log driving, a practice in the lumber industry which involved transporting felled timber by having workers walk or run on the logs as they floated down rivers. This occupation required a great deal of strength and physical agility, and Hemsworth was struck by how much the sight of log drivers at work resembled dancing.
The song's chorus is:
For he goes birling down and down the white water
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly
It's birling down, and down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
The lyrics are often misheard as "whirling" or "twirling" instead of "birling". "Birl" is an old Scots verb meaning "to revolve or cause to revolve", and in modern English means "to cause a floating log to rotate by treading". Today, birling survives as a competitive sport.
The song also contains considerable double-entendre, beginning with the sentiments of the opening stanza:
If you ask any girl from the parish around,
What pleases her most from her head to her toes;
She'll say, "I'm not sure that it's business of yours,But I do like to waltz with a log driver."
Many artists have recorded renditions of the song, which is an enduring classic of Canadian music. The most famous version, by Kate & Anna McGarrigle and the Mountain City Four, was the soundtrack for a 1979 animated short film by the National Film Board. Captain Tractor's version of the song was also a popular alternative rock hit in the late 1990s. The Hidden Cameras, an indie pop band from Canada, recorded a version of the song on their 2016 release, Home On Native Land.
Log Driver's Waltz, the 1979 animated adaptation, was directed by John Weldon. [3] The animation is set to the recording of the song by Kate & Anna McGarrigle with, and as part of, The Mountain City Four. The film is one of the most-requested in the entire collection of the National Film Board of Canada. The NFB also produced a French version of the film, "La valse du maître draveur", with lyrics translated by Philippe Tatartcheff, the McGarrigle sisters' longtime collaborator. [4]
The National Film Board of Canada is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.
Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle were a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed until Kate's death on January 18, 2010.
Philippe Tatartcheff is a Canadian poet and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist who wrote French language songs recorded by folk duo Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
Albert Wade Hemsworth was a Canadian folk singer and songwriter. Although he was not a prolific composer, having written only about 20 songs during his entire career, several of his songs – most notably "The Wild Goose", "The Black Fly Song" and "The Log Driver's Waltz" – are among the most enduring classics in the history of Canadian folk music.
George Garnett Dunning was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for producing and directing the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.
"The Blackfly Song" is a song by Wade Hemsworth, written in 1949, about being tormented by black flies while working in the wilds of Northern Ontario. It is an enduring classic of Canadian folk music, covered by a variety of other artists. A new version of the song which had a completely different tempo than the original, was made into an animated short film entitled Blackfly by Christopher Hinton and the National Film Board in 1991, and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 64th Academy Awards, and for Best Animated Short at the 13th Genie Awards, in 1992.
O Canada is a Canadian animated television anthology series, broadcast in the United States, and all across the Asia-Pacific region on Cartoon Network. O Canada was the first Canadian cartoon series to air on Cartoon Network. The show also frequently aired in Canada on Teletoon, but not as much as it did in the United States on Cartoon Network.
The Mountain City Four were a Canadian folk music group, based in Montreal and active from 1963 to 1967. The group consisted of Jack Nissenson, Peter Weldon, Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle. They are primarily remembered for popularizing a number of songs by Wade Hemsworth, including the National Film Board animated short The Log Driver's Waltz, as well as for Nissenson's recording of Bob Dylan's 1962 Finjan Club concert in Montreal.
Special Delivery is a 1978 animated short film made at the National Film Board of Canada which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film as well as first prize at Animafest Zagreb. It was directed by Eunice Macaulay and John Weldon. An English and a French-language version were released.
John Weldon is a Canadian actor, composer, animator and movie director, known for his National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated shorts.
Noël Noël is a 22-minute animated short produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 2003 as a Christmas special. It was directed by Nicola Lemay and written by Martin Barry. The English-language version was adapted by John Weldon and narrated by Leslie Nielsen. The original French-language version was narrated by Benoît Brière.
Gerald Potterton was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.
Blake is a 1969 Canadian short documentary film produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The film was directed by Bill Mason, and his fellow filmmaker Blake James, who pilots his own aircraft and lives by a unique code. Blake is Mason's cinematic testimonial to his friend and his "hobo of the skies" lifestyle.
Canada Vignettes are a series of short films by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), some of which aired on CBC Television and other Canadian broadcasters as interstitial programs. The vignettes became popular because of their cultural depiction of Canada, and because they represented its changing state, such as the vignette Faces which was made to represent the increasing cultural and ethnic diversity of Canada. The Log Driver's Waltz directed by John Weldon set to the recording of the song by Kate & Anna McGarrigle with, and as part of, The Mountain City Four is one of the most-requested items contained in the collection by the National Film Board of Canada. A similar series was later produced in the 1990s, however the name was changed to Heritage Minutes.
Christopher Hinton is a Canadian film animator, film director and professor, living in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Hinton's films have won international awards and been twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: in 1991 for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film Blackfly and in 2003 for his independently made short Nibbles. Hinton won a Genie Award for his 2004 short film cNote. He began freelancing for the NFB in Winnipeg in the 1970s. He has written and directed over a dozen films for The National Film Board of Canada, CBC, & Sesame Street. Recent films, Flux (NFB,2003), cNote, Chroma Concerto (2007), and Compression (2008), explore the boundaries of narrative and abstraction and the integration of contemporary media into the moving image. He was a full-time professor in the Animation Program at Concordia University.
Clyde Henry Productions is a Canadian film, stop-motion animation, puppetry and illustration firm consisting of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. Formed in 1997, the team is responsible for the animated shorts Madame Tutli-Putli, winner of the Genie Award for Best Animated Short, and Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life, both co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
Robert Verrall is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.
Odditties is a compilation album released by Querbeservice in late 2010. It features unreleased versions of songs that Kate & Anna McGarrigle had recorded on analogue tapes for various projects between 1973 and 1990.
Blackfly is a 1991 Canadian animated short from Christopher Hinton, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and based on "The Black Fly Song" by Wade Hemsworth. It was nominated for an Academy Award and Genie Award for Best Animated Short. The version of the song used in the film features back-up vocals from Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
Eunice Macaulay was a British-born Academy Award–winning animator whose credits range from animation to writing, directing, and producing.
