The path to finding songs can be oddly circuitous. I was doing some research on The Chad Mitchell Trio, specifically the years during which John Denver was a member. I was curious about how the group changed once Denver joined, so listened to what I think is the first album on which he participates, a 1965 offering called “The Way It’s Going to Be.” I was intrigued to see a cut called “Song for Canada.”
The lyrics were obviously political in some sense, but I couldn’t quite figure out the context. A bit more research led me to a Globe and Mail (a Toronto daily) article which appeared in 2000.
The song was written in the mid-1960s, by Ian Tyson (of Ian & Sylvia) and well known Canadian media personality Peter Gzowski. As the Globe piece explains, “after the Quiet Revolution was under way in Quebec …the song has English Canada speaking to French Canada, asking for tolerance and understanding and promising a future together.”
For those unfamiliar with Canadian history, the Quiet Revolution is a name given to a period in 1960s of major social and political changes in the province of Quebec, including the secularization of Quebec society and government, the creation of a welfare state, and political realignment of the politics of the province into federalist and separatist factions, i.e., those who wanted to remain a part of Canada and those who wanted to move towards independence – a question that has not been fully resolved to this day.
With that context, the lyrics make sense, and I continue to learn things about a country I have called home for almost forty years.
How come we can’t talk to each other anymore?
Why can’t you see I’m changing too?
We’ve got by far too long to end it feeling wronged
And I still share too much with you
This is live version by Ian & Sylvia at the Newport Folk Festival, though I am not sure of the year.