Great Canadian Songbook Part 2 (Period 7)
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Which song should represent Canada?
Scenario: The National Anthem has been recalled. Which song should now represent Canada?
– should represent “Canadian Values”; somewhat patriotic
– use some sort of “Canadian” instrument
– artist must be Canadian
– unbiased
– represent Canadian culture
– unoffensive
– no profanity
– not too long
– catchy, must be memorable
– must be about national treasures/culture
– Canadian produced
– must not be a comparison or negative and should be positive
– represents diversity
– should represent diverse Canadian values
Your task will be to answer the following in the comments section of your block’s Songbook. Listen to as many of the songs as you can and read their justification.
1. Vote for a song based on the criteria above and explain why.
2. Vote for another song, we’ll call this “personal fave”, may or may not be your original song but a song that you like and why.
3. Most importantly, INITIAL your comment.
Luba – “Let It Go”
I nominate this song as Canada’s song because its catchy and I was child of the 80s.
K’NAAN- “Wavin’ Flag”
This song “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan contains many points that Canadians value. K’naan is a Canadian- Somali poet whose song lyrics can often be associated with political values. The title of this song “Wavin’ flag” displays patriotism and pride of the nation.
Freedom is a key theme stressed throughout the song. Compared to many countries, Canada does have more rights regarding freedom of speech, travel, and religion, etc. This is one of the many reasons immigrants come to Canada as they have more liberty of what they can do. It is also why many Canadians have “their head[s] lift’in”, taking pride of being from this country.
Not only can this song be applied to Canadian values, it can be applied to the power of our nation. Our country is only 150 years old and this youth can be depicted in the lyrics “when I get older I will be stronger” where “I” refers to Canada. Overtime, if we maintain and build upon our values, Canada will only grow stronger as a nation. This catchy song “Wavin’ Flag” promotes not only freedom and pride, it also brings together people, creating unity and “champions”. JT
Michael Buble – “The Maple Leaf Forever”
“The Maple Leaf Forever” is a song written by Michael Bublé, premiering at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Games hosted in Vancouver, Canada. The song represents our country in many different ways, from our scenery, to our ideology, to our national symbol, The Maple Leaf. There are many lines that depict Canada’s scenery, such as “land of blue unending skies, mountains strong and sparkling snow” and “blue skies and stormy weather”, among others. Our ideology is shown through “a scent of freedom in the wind” and “of courage, peace, and quiet strength”. The former quote exemplifies freedom, a trait that connects all Canadians. The latter quote shows many different Canadian ideals, courage, peace, and quiet strength.” The words “Maple Leaf” is repeated time and time again throughout the song, solidifying its significance as Canada’s national symbol. by FW
Michael Bublé ft. Bryan Adams – “After All”
“After all” is a duet written by Michael Bublé, a Canadian artist born in Burnaby, BC, and another Canadian artist, Bryan Adams, a vancouverite. Bublé had always thought of Adams as an idol from his home town and seize this chance to perform a duet with him.
In addition to being written and sung by two Canadian authors, “After all” represents Canada’s history and our current unity. Many people were “dreamin’” of coming to Canada to gain freedom of their own, and to achieve the “dreams” they had, since Canada was seen with a land of opportunity and profit. Yet, Canada has had our share of “shadows” that darken our light, we have wronged many groups in horrible ways. Such as the residential schools, Chinese immigration act and the mistreatment of the Japanese during WWII. Now we’ve come so much further in terms of reconciliation and equality, we “believe that” we can right those wrongs we’ve committed. Canada has “untied” many people and culture, we “catch [others] when [fall]” and create a nation that will “[stand] tall” above others in equality and justice.SF
Celine Dion – “I’m Alive”
“I’m Alive” is a song by a famous Canadian singer-songwriter, Celine Dion. This song describes Canadian values because it has several topics that represent Canada, such as freedom, how “[people] get wings to fly”. They let their citizens have a great amount of freedom and rights compared to other countries, which benefits all citizens of Canada. It also has gender equality topics as well, how “Women [are] on clouds above”, how they are not treated like slaves or possessions, but as themselves, without the patriarchal, stereotypical treatment. “ I just drift away, All my worries die, I’m glad that I’m alive”, describes how Canada made people drift away from their home countries, how their worries die as they’re glad that they’re alive to live in this safe, wonderful, country.
I think that this song should be included into the class’s Canadian Songbook because it represents and describes many features that Canadian government and society has today, such as fair treatment and freedom. This song is also by a well known Canadian artist, who represents Canada in a positive way and leads us to a better image, therefore I think that this song should be included in the class’s Canadian Songbook. JW
K’naan – “Wavin’ Flag”
I think this song should be in the great Canadian songbook because this song expresses attributes that are true to Canada like, fighting through hard times and having success, freedom, and the love and support that we all provide for each other. Some lines that show these characteristics are, “When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin flag,” and, “But out of the darkness, I came the farthest, among the hardest survival” these lyrics show how Canadians haven’t always been perfect and had to fight in order to get where we are today. These lyrics also show how a symbol of living in Canada is freedom, and with the freedom, we all get stronger as a country which leads to our success as Canadians. When the song says, “I heard them say, love is the way, love is the answer, that’s what they say” they’re talking about how when times are tough, to make it through, we all have to stick together and by doing that, we grow to love each other and when we love each other, we can all work and cooperate together as a team and country. Overall, I think this song shows a lot of Canadian pride and would be a good song to be in the great Canadian songbook. SG
The Tragically Hip – “Looking for a Place to Happen”
In this song, the “Tragically Hip” sing about the discovery and nature of Canada. They depict Canada as a “masterpiece with it’s galley of gods,” and as a place in which it’d be a “shame to leave.” However, the song takes turn, when negative connotations like the “garbage-bag tree” is mentioned, and how they’ll “paint a scene, from memory, so [they’d] know who murdered [them].” This represents how Canada, a beautiful and peaceful country, changed when Europeans took over the land, and deprived the Aboriginals of their rights and culture. The Tragically Hip also mention “Jacques Cartier,” who was the first explorer to discover modern-day, Canada. The Tragically Hip roughly mentions, “No [Cartier is] not the first to show, we’ve all been here since, God, who knows?” The song was written in 1993, and the last residential school was closed in 1996, showing that the band had wrote this song, when they were witnessing the hardships themselves, making it that much more meaningful. This song should be in the Canadian songbook, as it mentions the first people who lived on Canada, and how it was their land, not the Europeans. It briefly shows Canada’s history and how it came to be – the roots- and how the Aboriginals were treated later on, even when it is their land. This song represents Canada, as it shows the beauty of it, but also, the suffering it had to go through to get to where it is today.
Tom Cochrane and performed by Rascal Flatts – “Life is a Highway”
“Life is a Highway,” is well known for being the song used in the animated movie, “Cars”. It was written by a Canadian artist name Rascal Flatts. The song might indirectly describe Canada, however the lyrics can somewhat summarise the country.
In “Life is a Highway”, the lyrics describe Canada in many different ways. The main line of this song is “life is like a highway”, and Canada is like a highway in many ways. Highways are filled with different cars, all going at different rates. Most of them however are at a fast paste. Highways lead to many other roads and paths.Canada is a fast developing country with many different types of people; different people with different dreams, culture, and many more. While driving down the highway, people can see the change in scenery. Just like Canada, there are many different regions. If a person drives down the highway of Canada, they can see a vast of different views. These land regions include the Western Cordillera Region, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, Hudson Bay Lowlands, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, Appalachian Region, Arctic Lowlands, and the Innuitian Mountains. Many people depend on the highway, like Canada many other countries also depend on Canada. Canada helped out in many wars. Some basketball(was invented by Canadians) players depend on playing ball to live, many cars depend on the highway to get to their destiny. “Through all these cities through all these towns”; Canada has many cities and many towns.
All songs have a meaning and some songs’ meanings can be interpreted in many ways. “Life is a Highway”, is a song that describes what is like to be on the highway. I used the image of the highway, to describe Canada. After all, Canada is much like a highway, a place with different cars at different rates, a world with a variety of different people with different dreams and goals to be achieved. AS
The song “Life is a Highway” is a great example of representing Canada. The first line, “Life’s like a road that you travel on” is like living in Canada. We have so many different “roads” that we can go on that will open more opportunities to everyone. The lyric “Where the brave are free and loves soar” represents all of our rights as citizens. We are lucky to have the freedom to go anywhere we want as many countries aren’t as fortunate. “Through all these cities and all these towns” represents all of the different cultures that are represented in Canada. The line “A misunderstanding once, but now we look in the eye” represents the mistakes Canada has made in the past. The horrible things done to people that are now being fixed. Even though the artist isn’t Canadian, I think the lyrics have great metaphors about Canada. WC
Rest of My Life- Sloan
This song expresses how people think about where they are going to settle down when they planned to immigrate to other countries. Furthermore, the lyric “One thing I know about, The rest of my life: I know that I’ll be living it in Canada,” directly shows that Canada is a well developed country, that a lot of people would like to settle in. The song also demonstrated the author’s strong opinion on how Canada is his best country to live in, with the equally between people and number of freedoms. LL
Michael Mitchell – “Canada Is”
Canada Is has a great representation of what most Canadians would view their country as. The Rocky Mountains, one of the most iconic locations in Canada, is apart of the first line of the chorus. Prince Edward Island, a location often referred to the “Birthplace of Confederation” symbolizes how Canada was able to unite and form the country we now know. In the fourth line of the chorus, “la belle provence” translating to a beautiful province, often used to describe Quebec, displays another side of Canada. Throughout the song there are many lines that describe how Canada welcomes people to this great land. This portrays the merging of different religions and cultures to form Canada. Another commonly occurring theme was love and peace. Canada is often considered one of the most peaceful countries in the world almost never involved in wars for themselves. The song Canada Is should definitely be apart of the Canadian Songbook, as it exactly showcases how Canada is viewed by other countries around the globe. KW
I think “Canada Is…” by Michael Mitchell belongs in the Canadian song book for various reasons. Sung by a Canadian singer, the song shows an educational and humorous side, about the land and values of Canada. Michael sings about Canada being a peaceful and free country with no chains on our boarders. In my opinion these are very relevant to our beliefs and somethings that Canada stands for. MR
Michael Mitchell – “Canada in My Pocket”
“Canada in My Pocket” by Michael Mitchell is a timeless classic song of our childhood elementary years. This song is significant because it depicts our Canadian coins as national emblems. The first chorus “I’ve got Canada in my pocket. A little bit of history. A penny, and a nickel. And a quarter and a dime. Mean a lot to you and me. It’s more than pocket money. They’re the symbols of our land. They’re pictures of important things. For which this country stands.” says it all. I nominate this song to be in the “Canada Songbook” because it talks about something very important and special to Canada, the coin, which is separate from other countries with its individuality, uniqueness, and meaning. This song definitely deserves more recognition than many other Canada related songs due to its deep and insightful meaning. VZ
I think the song “Canada In My Pocket”, by Canadian artist, Michael Mitchell, should be featured in the class songbook because it features information behind the meaning of the symbols on our currency, a part of our everyday life. This includes the beaver(nickel), the maple leaf(penny), the schooner(dime), and the cariboo(quarter). As the chorus goes, “I’ve got Canada in my pocket, a little bit of history. A penny, and a nickel, and a quarter, and a dime, mean a lot to you and me. It’s more than pocket money, they’re the symbols of our land. They’re pictures of important things, for which this country stands.” MW
This song is very important to Canadian culture because it’s talking about how great Canada is. The song expresses how Canada started and why it’s so great to live here. The song explains why our money is a symbol to our country too. It’s talking about important animals like the beaver and moose that are the heart of our country. This song also talks about the past and kind of explains Canada’s history in a few sentence. It’s very important to me because I love learning about history and I think history in a song is even better. DU
Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings
I nominate the song, “Wheat Kings” by The Tragically Hip, because it directly describes a theme in Canadian history. It tells the story of a dark moment where a 17 year old was wrongly accused of rape and murder of 21 year old Gail Miller. He had to serve 23 years in prison until he was released in 1992, and in 1997, he was cleared of the wrong accusation. This relates to a Canadian theme of injustice because a mistake was made by the Supreme Court of Canada who chose an innocent person and put him in jail. The Supreme Court is now a lot more methodical in the process of accusing people to make sure that things like this do not happen again. In verse four it says, “You can’t be fond of living in the past”. I agree with this lyric line because I believe that you cannot change some parts of the past, but you can affect the future of others. Therefore, I think that this should go in the songbook because this is one of many wrong accusations to look back upon, and hope that this event does not repeat itself in the future. JLa
Anne Murray – “Wintery Feeling”
In this song, “Wintery Feeling”, it follows the “letter” from Anne Murray, the artist of this song, to her friend back in California. Throughout the song, it’s a description of the weather in Canada to her friend and how it feels whenever there’s a snowfall. She starts out with describing Montreal with its silver skies during the night and how cozy it feels to watch the snowflakes falling. This feeling makes sense with Canada’s constant snow falls and how everything just feels even more calmer and mellow in the night. I believe that when people think about what season of the year BEST represents Canada, it has got to be winter. So with this song that talks about how Canada does its beautiful snowfalls has to mean something about Canada in someway. JMC
Michael Buble – “I Believe in You”
“I Believe in You” is written by Canadian artist born in Vancouver, Michael Bublé. The main themes of the song are devotion and trust. The lyrics go “I believe in starting over, I can see that your heart is true, I believe in good things coming back to you.” Canadians value second chances and giving people another opportunity to change their life. This is seen in our legal system, as some corrupt countries do not have a stable government and fair punishment. It could also represent the injustices done during the time of the residential school, and how the Canadian government is now trying, and believe in “starting over.” and making things right. They have formed the truth and reconciliation commission in an effort to fix the atrocities done not so long ago.
Stompin Tom Conors – “The Good Old Hockey Game”
The song I chose for the songbook is “Good Old Hockey Game” by Stompin’ Tom Connors. I believe that it relates to Canada because the song is all about Hockey, which is one of our national sports. In the song, it expresses how Hockey can bring communities together, and how it is a fun sport for both the players and the audience. In one part of the song, the lyrics are “Someone roars, “Bobby Scores!”. Those lyrics relate to Canada because I assume that by Bobby they mean Bobby Orr who is a famous Canadian hockey player.
Sam Roberts – “The Canadian Dream”
“The Canadian Dream,” by Canadian Artist Sam Roberts, is a song that represents Canada as seen by someone that’s not from Canada. This song should be in the Canadian songbook for the accurate description of what Canada looks like to the world. One line in the song defines the stereotypical view of the cold land known as Canada. “Frozen land, Frozen minds. Frozen hands and Frozen time”, all shows how the world views Canada as a “Frozen” place. How Canadians are “Cold” when in reality they’re warm and lively, clearly defined by a fine and lively tune in the song. There’s another line in the song that’s very true as well. “I went out on the street today. The Canadian dream was as far as it’s ever been”. This line shows that despite Canada always trying to be a country that’s accepting and free, the reality is that the “Dream” is still much farther away. Not everyone in Canada is treated with respect and receives freedom. The Québécoise is often seen as a rogue province, always trying to split up with Canada. In reality, they’re only trying to make sure their culture does not get stamped out. This song takes several jabs at the “Canada” from outside views, while trying to send the message that Canada is in fact very different.
Classified – “Oh Canada”
I think “Oh… Canada” by Classified, a Canadian artist, belongs in the Great Canadian Songbook because the artist depicts all of Canada’s greatest characteristics like the Rocky Mountains and the very nice scenery.
He also points out how Canada has invented Yahtzee, the lightbulb, hockey (and how Canada made the best hockey players) and of course, Canada’s love for poutine and beavers.
John Lennon – “Imagine”
I picked the song “Imagine” by John Lennon because I think it represents how Canada is special. The song is about unity and coming together as one. I related it to Canada because of our openness to accept others, like the Syrian refugees.
Tragically Hip – “Fifty Mission Cap”
One of the most well known bands that originated from Canada was the 6 person group “Tragically Hip”. Out of their huge range of 10+ albums one song in specific stood out to me. It was the on the 1992 album titled “Fully completely”. The song is called “Fifty Mission Cap” and oh lord it’s the most Canadian thing I’ve heard in a long time. First of all, it’s about hockey. A hockey card to be exact. The song starts with a story about a hockey player who got lost on a fishing trip, who scored his last goal in Toronto which made them (Maple Leafs) win the Stanley Cup. We then figure out that he comes back in 96. And all that was read on the back of a hockey card. I don’t know how you can listen to that and think about the US, or Mongolia for all I care. This song is literally every Canadian kid growing up in Canada…ever. This song keeps on going and repeating itself but with a few ad-libs here and there, nothing too complex. But come on; it has hockey, hockey cards, even fishing in it. The only thing it’s missing is a hot plate of freshly made poutine. DK
Earth Rare – “In Canada”
“In Canada” by Earth Rare was posted on youtube 3 years ago, sung by Chris Hadfield and David Hadfield. This is a song that mostly describes great Canadian nature and Canadian’s daily lives. The Early part of the song explains that Canada has big cities, but still have great nature such as lakes, trees and wild animals that live in the country. In the middle of the part, the song explains how everyone has different culture and perspectives, but then Canadian culture keeps them together. Middle part also explains a little bit about Canadian lives. After the middle part ends, this song describes Canadian lives very informatively, such as what we do on weekends or what we watch at night. Playing hockey, going to hiking, camping with friends, going to the beach, and having a barbeque party was in the lyrics and in the music video. PK
