Free In The Harbour
Words & Music by Stan Rogers - Fogarty’s Cove
Music
(Recorded by Tom Lewis on Demand Performance)
There's blackfish at play in Hermitage
Bay
From Pushthrough across to Bois Island
They broach and they sprout, they lift their flukes out
And wave to a town that is dying.
Now it's many's the boat's plied on the foam
Hauling away, hauling away!
There's many more fellows been leaving their homes
Where the whales make free in the harbour.
It's at Portage and Main, you'll see them again
On their way to the hills of Alberta
With lop-sided grins, they waggle their chins
And brag of the wage they'll be earning.
Then it's, "Quick, pull the string boys, and get the tool out.
Haul it away! Haul it away!"
Just two years ago, you could hear the same shout
Where the whales make free in the harbour.
Chorus:
Free in the harbour
The blackfish are sporting again
Free in the harbour
Untroubled by comings and goings of men,
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
Hauling away, hauling away!
Now they're Calgary 'roughnecks' from Hermitage Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour.
Well, it's a living they've found, deep in the ground
If they've doubts, then it's best they ignore them
Nor think on the bones, the crosses and stones
Of their fathers who came there before them.
In the taverns of Edmonton, fishermen shout:
"Haul it away! Haul it away!"
They've left three hundred years buried up by the Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour.
Chorus:
Free in the harbour
The blackfish are sporting again
Free in the harbour
Untroubled by comings and goings of men.
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
Hauling away, hauling away!
Now they're Calgary roughnecks - from Hermitage Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour.
Free in the harbour ... again!
