The Spell Of The Yukon

[labelwench]

This is an amazing cover of Life In A Northern Town, by three youngsters, who call themselves Dave's Highway. Beautiful harmony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6GX4KQy3JI


Life in a Northern Town

A Salvation Army band played
And the children drank lemonade
And the morning lasted all day,
All day
And through an open window came
Like Sinatra in a younger day,
Pushing the town away
Ah -

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.

They sat on the stoney ground
And he took a cigarette out
And everyone else came down
To listen.
He said "In winter 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And the Beatles."

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.
Ah hey ma ma ma
All the work shut down.

The evening had turned to rain
Watch the water roll down the drain,
As we followed him down
To the station
And though he never would wave goodbye,
You could see it written in his eyes
As the train rolled out of sight
Bye-bye.

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.

[austintorn@aol.com]

Some spell 'Yukon' as "yuk" (it's all slush) and some as "Yuk it on, baby!" (I love it here!).

[labelwench]

Dream Academy's version of Life In A Northern Town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UPmE...eature=related

[labelwench]

Some spell 'Yukon' as "yuk" (it's all slush) and some as "Yuk it on, baby!" (I love it here!).

Ah, yes, Austin. You would definitely be identified as a Cheechako in these parts, lol....

[austintorn@aol.com]

(I survived Chicago in the winter. Does that count?)

[labelwench]

(I survived Chicago in the winter. Does that count?)

Only if you have complete and total knowledge of 'Snow Fleas'. It will soon be time, here in Yukon, when the place shall be just 'hopping' with the species known as Collembola, which are actually a 'Springtail', one of the most ancient and numerous species on the planet.

http://membracid.wordpress.com/2010/...st-snow-fleas/

[labelwench]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Ik-...eature=related

Just Another Winter's Tale - The Moody Blues

[G_burnett]

i have heard a lot about the Yukon, it is the only place in the world they use a mouse trap for the mosquitoes ...
kind regards graham

and i still think you were in Wells Anna twenty or so years ago .. lol there is just not that many redheads there out of 200 people lol

[Bogie]

The world being a big place, not everyone may have opportunity to see it all in a lifetime, and many are tied to the land or their commitments and so may not journey far from home.

I awoke in the middle of the night, and it occurred to me, that with the technology of the internet, and the forebearance of the owner of this forum, that I might share some of the scenery and the history of Yukon with any who would enjoy this journey with me.

The Spell Of The Yukon, is a poem by Robert Service, made here into a music video by Les McLaughlin and Tracey Brown.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbPTH...eature=related

Welcome to my home......

Hi LW. I loved that Youtube clip, "The Spell of the Yukon". I do have a hearing problem so I Googled the lyrics and read along with the music video the second time through. Thanks for posting it and I look forward to working my way through this thread. Here are the lyrics for anyone who is similarly afflicted :

The Spell of the Yukon


I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.

No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)
It's the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it's a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth -- and I'm one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it's been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.

I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That's plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I've watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o' the world piled on top.

The summer -- no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness --
O God! how I'm stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I've bade 'em good-by -- but I can't.

There's a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There's a land -- oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back -- and I will.

They're making my money diminish;
I'm sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish
I'll pike to the Yukon again.
I'll fight -- and you bet it's no sham-fight;
It's hell! -- but I've been there before;
And it's better than this by a damsite --
So me for the Yukon once more.

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

[labelwench]

i have heard a lot about the Yukon, it is the only place in the world they use a mouse trap for the mosquitoes ...
kind regards graham

and i still think you were in Wells Anna twenty or so years ago .. lol there is just not that many redheads there out of 200 people lol

Truly, this is a land of magic and mystery.....

Though not as mysterious as where you would place me twenty years ago?

Unless I am called to prove my whereabouts of that time before a court of law, let it be as you imagine, and I trust the memories are fond....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwgXB...eature=related