PARODY-LYRICS
| Young canoeist in the bow, Sunset on Bass Lake, Ontario |
Key lyrics from the original, retained in the parody version, include lines in the chorus about a "Quebec girl" and "fleur de lis". Murphey is in fact married to a Québécoise, and, as the song's protagonist presumably wishes to take her on a trip of rediscovery to the nostalgia-generating "lost river" of his youth. For those interested, the original song is displayed in ukulele-friendly format on our sister-blog.
SONG-LYRIC UNDERPINNINGS: On our song-blog you can find an earlier concoction entitled "Canoeing Lesson (Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe)", based on the original song "I Do, etc." by ABBA, 1975. This earlier song also builds on Berton's concept of the relevance of canoeing to Canadian identity.
"A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe", Pierre Berton, eminent Canadian journalist, editor, historian and author.
PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, December 2018, based on the precedents of song-lyrics and limerick verses, with a few new twists.
As is usually the case with song-lyrics, we have simultaneously provided suggested chords for ukulele, guitar or whatever-stringed-instruments for the parody and for the original lyrics on our music-buff site "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE". To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Lost Country" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.
"LOST COUNTRY" (Canadian Canoeing Nostalgia)
(to the tune of "Lost River" by M. M. Murphey)
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| M. M. Murphey songwriter and performer |
That you'll need to find a spot
To escape (no use stewin'),
Where it's cool for canoein'.
Paddle straight and go faster
When the J-stroke you'll master.
Once you learn what you're doin'
Seek your spirit's renewin'.
A Canadian's someone who
Can make love in a canoe.
He knows lots of good strokes
And can thwart ogling folks.
Starting foreplay, he'll untether,
He'll move sideways with the feather;
He'll avert curious eyes
With a series of pries.
CHORUS: Oh, lost country, now I'm paddlin' back
To those thousands of lakes,
That beau paysage I've lacked*.
Oh Quebec girl come with me,
Oh, ma belle, ma fleur de lis,
Northern vision in our mind,
That Pierre Berton defined.
Now at heart our Rose did hate
Tryin' to make the boat go straight.
Paddlin' lessons were a battle
'Til some tricks she learned (don't tattle!)
In the stern she could discern
That instructors might well yearn
To teach Trudeau's stroke, fiddle-faddle
While she straddled their paddle.
Repeat CHORUS
Now at heart our Rose did hate
Tryin' to make the boat go straight.
Paddlin' lessons were a battle
'Til some tricks she learned (don't tattle!)
In the stern she could discern
That instructors might well yearn
To teach Trudeau's stroke, fiddle-faddle
While she straddled their paddle.
Repeat CHORUS
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