There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
when the green dark forest was too silent to be real
But time has no beginnings and hist’ry has no bounds
as to this verdant country they came from all around
They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forests tall
built the mines, the mills and the factories for the good of us all
The lyrics above begin Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” which Johnny Cash called “an extremely fine piece of songwriting.”
Bob Dylan named Gordon Lightfoot his favorite singer/songwriter. I think I agree. “Everytime I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever,” he said. “Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day.”
The Canadian Broadcasting company commissioned the song by the country’s special son for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967 to start Canada’s centennial year. It took him three days to write, and it has a slow tempo middle section between faster paced beginning and end sections.
Lightfoot was an inspired and inspiring choice. The song describes the building of the trans-Canada Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1880s, a dozen years after Leland Stanford drove the golden spike to celebrate our first trans-continental railroad. Its awesome lyrics and sound herald the optimism of the railroad age in the opening stanzas.
For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road runnin’ from the sea to the sea
Bringin’ the goods to young growin’ land
all up through the seaports and into their hands
Look away said they across this mighty land
from the eastern shore to the western strand
Bring in the workers and bring up the rails
we gotta lay down tracks and tear up the trails
Open ‘er heart let the life blood flow
gotta get on our way ‘cause we’re movin’ too slow
His lyrics also tell the cost in blood, sweat and sorrow in the poignant slow middle section:
Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin’
The stars, they come stealin’ at the close of the day
Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping
beyond the dark oceans in a place far away
We are the navies who work upon the railway
Swingin’ our hammers in the bright blazin’ sun
Livin’ on stew and drinkin’ bad whiskey
bendin’ our backs ‘til the long day is done
A navvy, mainly a British term, was a laborer employed in the excavation and construction of a road, railroad or canal. We can learn a few things from our northern neighbors.
In the final again upbeat section, he returns to the optimistic vision:
So over the mountains and over the plains
Into the muskeg and into the rain
up the St. Lawrence all the way to Gaspe
swingin’ our hammers and drawin’ our pay
Layin’ ‘em in and tyin’ ‘em down
away to the bunkhouse and into the town
a dollar a day and a place for my head
a drink to the livin’ a toast to the dead
Oh the song of the future has been sung
all the battles have been won
On the mountain tops we stand
all the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
with our teardrops and our toil
Again learning from the folks to the north: the muskeg is a North American swamp or bog consisting of a mixture of water and partly dead vegetation, frequently covered by a layer of sphagnum or other mosses.
The final verse unites both themes:
For there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
…
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
And many are the dead men too silent … to be real
Pierre Berton, who wrote “The National Dream” and “The Last Spike,” two bestselling books about the railway, said, “You know, Gord, you said as much in that song as I said in my book.”
