I'm not sure if anyone has ever referenced this video here before or not... but the other day I was looking around on YouTube.com for this Canadian short film that used to be on television all the time when I was growing up so I could show it to my non-Canadian husband... It's called the "Log Driver's Waltz" and it's a cute little short. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing up here is because at one point the log-driver picks up a concertina and plays it for a while as he floats downstream on a log. It's not really a big deal or anything, but it seemed to me that maybe someone here might get a wee kick out of it. Hope so!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2zAUbe_7fNA

Gretchen,

That was delightful! The URL takes you to the actual 1979 film itself, which is about 3 minutes long. It starts out looking like a black and white documentary of log-drivers, and then becomes a colorful animation featuring the Canadian folk song by Wade Hemsworth, (who was said to have been a great dancer) "The Log Driver's Waltz." The log driver, wearing the requisite jeans and plaid shirt, does play the concertina briefly while coasting along on a log (about two-fifths the way through).

I found the words and music to "The Log Driver's Waltz" here.

The Log Driver's Waltz
(Wade Hemsworth)

If you should 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.

Chorus: For he goes birling down a-down the white water;
That's where the log driver learns to step lightly.
It's birling down, a-down white water;
A log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

When the drive's nearly over, I like to go down
To see all the lads while they work on the river.
I know that come evening they'll be in the town
And we all want to waltz with a log driver.

To please both my parents I've had to give way
And dance with the doctors and merchants and lawyers.
Their manners are fine but their feet are of clay
For there's none with the style of a log driver.

I've had my chances with all sorts of men
But none is so fine as my lad on the river.
So when the drive's over, if he asks me again,
I think I will marry my log driver.

Copyright Wade Hemsworth
Recorded by Kate and Anna McGarrigle for animated
cartoon "Log Driver's Waltz" by Canada's National
Film Board.

Cute! I know several people in my area who sing this song, including my wife Deborah Sandler, but I wasn't aware of the video. I'm almost positive that it's an accordion being played in the background rather than a concertina. That's the instrument that one of the McGarrigle sisters (who are credited with the music) plays on old LP I have of theirs...but it's always nice to hear a concertina as well as see one.

Daniel

I certainly did! Thanks.

My canadian pals told me it's a famous short and one has done a paper on the animator, Eunice McCauley, in school.
They were inocent times in Canada in the 70es, weren't they?
Considering the phrazes in the song, repeated over and over, they have such different connotations today! I would consider this song inappropriate around my house. What a sore state of affairs we dragged ouselves into.
Or may be I'm naive and the song IS suggestive. Canadians out there?
Can you shed the light?
P.S.
National Film Board of Canada is behind it. Glad they're back. Here's one fine example of Big Brother looking after you with good results. There are more.
If you guys are interested, there are tapes with NFBC animated shorts on them. You wan't regret.
Now to start you on, check out this short: "Crac" by Frederic Back.
The background music is french canadian.

I can't find anything -- not any word or phrase in the entire song -- that I would consider at all inappropriate for anyone of any age, except maybe religious fundamentalists who consider dancing itself to be a sin. Whatever "connotations" you're talking about, I don't think I've ever encountered them, so I suspect that any inappropriateness is in your mind, not in the song itself.

But maybe I'm wrong. Could you elucidate in a private email?

Something happened with your profile window, it's stretched and there is no options visible. I can't send you any personal email. But have you checked "Crac"?

Check it out where? I've used Google to search for it, and I find a number of places where I can buy a video or DVD that has it, but so far I haven't found a place where I can just view it, like "Log Driver's Waltz".

I remember learning about log drivers at school but this is the first footage I have seen of it.
Good stuff. I guess "The Log Driver's Waltz" is in 'tree/four' time.

Pete

I saw this film in 1983 or 84 (twice) and fell in love with it. I have been searching for it ever since. I didn't know the filmmaker's name until now, though.

Yes, and the tune "Puncheon Floor" is in tree/floor time.

And "Apples in Winter" and "Cook in the Kitchen" are both in six/ate.

And (at least in O'Neill's), the "Trumpet Hornpipe" is notated in toot/four .

How's about The Flight of the Bumble-bee, thats in Hive/four..

ithink its freestroke, lets hope things went swimmingly for all concerned.the skibbereen eagle.

"I saw this film in 1983 or 84 (twice) and fell in love with it. I have been searching for it ever since. I didn't know the filmmaker's name until now, though."

Let me see if I have it on VHS. I'll make a copy for you. But the quality will be so-so.
I'm sure if you contact National Film Board of Canada, or Expanded Entertainment - they may have it on DVD.

]
"Check it out where? I've used Google to search for it, and I find a number of places where I can buy a video or DVD that has it, but so far I haven't found a place where I can just view it, like "Log Driver's Waltz"

Well, it's a bit too long for just viewing on the Internet. It's an epic animated "short".
Just like you can't view entire films by Youri Norshteyn, another super animation director. They don't do tiny shorts. But I'll ask my friend, may be he knows more than me.
There are a few internet sites about animation. Try some search under Animation, or NFBC, or Canadian Animation. But I'd just go ahead and buy a DVD. You wan't regret. It's one of the films that suits all tastes, a true work of art. Back made another epic animated "short", I think it's called "The River", which is good, but I wouldn't recommend it to everybody. It's a bit long and repetitive.

Not necessary, thanks. Since my last post I have googled it with Back's name added to the search criteria and discovered many places where I can buy the DVD.
It's 15 minutes long, according to several sites.

Guys

It's available now if anybody is still interested. It can be downloaded too. It's a nice story.
Crac - Frederic Back (1981)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=25...h&plindex=0

As is Black Flies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIMameR5aqo
I believe this is also written by the same Wade Hemsworth.

Sometimes good things take a while

Thanks
Leo

Yes, Hemsworth wrote the Black Fly. There's a fine version of it on a 1994 album by Nightingale, and you can hear a 2-minute sample here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/nightingalevt1