Origin: Fresh Water Whaling / Farewell Superior...

Subject: Lyr Add: FRESH WATER WHALING (from Scott Alarik)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 10:21 PM

Over a year ago I mentioned this song in a "favorite lines" thread. I learned it from Mary Benson in Portland, Oregon in 1982, and she said Si Kahn had written it. I've always wondered about that, as it doesn't sound like him, and I would think it was written by a Minnesotan. I'm sure The Truth Is Out There -- does anyone know?

The story that went with the song is that it came from the days long ago when the St. Lawrence Seaway went all the way to the Great Lakes, and whales could be found in Lake Superior. These are the words as I remember them; any authentic corrections would be welcome.

Aloha,
Mark

FRESH WATER WHALING
by Si Kahn, or somebody else who taught it to him

When I was just a tiny lad, no bigger than a youth
I'd walk along the seawall, where the water meets Duluth
The whaling ships were coming in, the wind would fill the sails
And I'd dream of going hunting for those fresh water whales

CHORUS
Oh, the wailing of the women
As they watch the sails grow smaller from the Minnesota shore
And the young men are dreaming
We'll go fresh water whaling and we won't come home no more

The first ship that I sailed on was called the great St. Paul
Her old sod sides were sturdy and her cornstalk masts were tall
The skipper was an older man, though well preserved with rum
Which he'd only started drinking when a perch bit off his thumb

CHORUS

At night we'd hear the barking of the fresh water seals
For the passage round Bemidji, well, we'd put the boat on wheels
We polished all the decoys with bowling alley wax
And we lined our trusty whaling clubs with extra rows of tacks

CHORUS

The sea was still and silent, though the waves were wild and tall
As we launched our wooden decoys just offshore from old St. Paul
We didn't want to scare the whales, we muffled oars with care
Rowed out to the horizon...and we dropped our anchor there

CHORUS

For forty days and thirty nights, our hunger pangs grew rough
For the last whale had been hunted down, God hadn't made enough
The decoys were our only hope, we were a desperate bunch
So we sawed them into plank steaks, and we broiled them for lunch

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 10:52 AM

I do remember Si Kahn performing this song at the Wheatland festival in Michigan some time in the 1970's. Unless Si grew up in Minnesota, I doubt that he wrote it; there are too many geographical curiosities that would only occur to natives or may be summer people; for example "Bemidji" is a lake in the middle of the state, nowhere near Lake Superior where one would expect to find whales at sport and play. I suppose we could ask Si if he remembers who he got it from; he does edit a column in Sing Out!.

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 11:31 AM

Hey Guest R&G-C, you mean around the Bemidji Triangle, where all those snowmobiles keep disappearing? I heard all about it on Radio Free Fargo. *g* Mary (who's not from Minnesota, either)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 12:53 PM

Nice one, Mary. And before Joe asks, I will try this weekend to get the tune to him in a format that will let him magically post it here.
Charlie, why don't you pull up a cookie and set a spell? That is to say, join the Mudcat!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: raredance
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 09:02 PM

Well I have to admit I have never heard this item on Radio Free Fargo and I am only a couple hours drive from Bemidji. Right in downtown Bemidji (it's a town as well as a lake) there is a giant statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe. These lyrics, however, are steeped with the kind of tall tale imagry that would make old Paul proud. And if ye be expecting to find whales at sport and play in Lake Superior, you're a prime candidate for more of these tales. About the only way that would happen is if the cargo bay door had broken open when they were airlifting the "Free Willy" orca from the west coast to Iceland. "Shore lunch" is big up here and so are decoys (both waterfowl and fish) but we normally eat the walleye rather than the plank steak. The St Lawrence Seaway connects Lake Superior to the ocean today, it wasn't completed until the Eisenhower administration. I suppose if you can have prairie schooners you can have sod ships and maybe they are related. All in all looks like a fun song and I'd like to have the whole thing and a tune.

rich r

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 09:10 PM

Would somebody e mail Si Kahn and ask him? I'll bet he would answer.

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 09:42 PM

OK, I sent an e mail to his US agent, we'll see what happens.......

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 01:28 AM

I connect this song immediately to Scott Alarik--who IS from Minnesota. Scott is currently the folk critic for the Boston Globe. I'll e-mail him about this.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 11:55 AM

Looks like we're gettin' close to the real culprit. The tune I've been using is adapted from Jez Lowe's "Black Diamonds" which works quite well.

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: raredance
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 02:51 PM

Not on the two Alarik albums I have: "Stories" and "Scott Alarik with the New Prairie Ramblers". Hope he gets back to Art

rich r

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 05:10 PM

No answer yet. But Scott also did do a fine album of Christmas songs for Wisconsin Public Radio and Tom Martn-Erickson.

Also has a wonderful CD recorded live at Club Passim (mostly) in Cambridge, MA. It's called THIRTY and that refers to his years in folk music---the first 15 as a performer and the last 15 as a folk writer for the Globe.

Art

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 07:56 PM

While we are eagerly awaiting the resolution of this great hunt, I offer a missing final verse to the song which I found in the back of an old lumberjack cookbook purchased at a garage sale in the U.P.:

Now when we limped back to Duluth, they all did stand and stare,
We looked so thin and ragged, our lives they did despair;
But unlike the Flying Dutchman, whose story you'll recall,
We've all resettled in Minneapolis, do our hunting at the Mall. (CHO)


CI

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Trapper
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 11:43 AM

I heard Scott Alarik do this song at the Minneapolis Folk Festival in '79, and I'd always assumed it was his.

- Al

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 12:41 PM

Well, Scott, it looks like we're closing in on you. Soon we'll be setting the iron into your thick hide and then we'll see if you can still run!

Oh, oddly enough, the U.P. cookbook (mentioned above) had a different chorus for the song:

Chorus:

Oh, the wailing of the women, I can still recall,
As they watched our sails grow smaller, from the old seawall;
We young men were determined to heed our fathers' call,
We'd go fresh-water whaling, or not come back at all.

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 02:10 PM

Scott says he thinks it started with an introduction (monologue) he used to do off the top of his head. Right now I can't type out the whole e-mail. Maybe later. I've forwarded it to KatLaughing and maybe there is an easy way to post the e-mail into this thread. I hope there might be that possibility.

Art

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 02:49 PM

Here ya go, Art, just as you sent it to me. Thanks for the opportunity to help, my friend.

Scott's reply to Art's email:

The whole idea began as an introduction to a song I wrote in the late '70s about people living by the sea, a broken-token ballad on my first album called "Crazy Annie's Basket." I began discussing "the halcyon days of fresh-water whaling, when mighty sailing ships sailed up and down the Mississippi River in search of the elusive Walleyed Whale" as a way of explaining why a Minnesotan would be writing songs about sailors.

My chief "source" for fresh-water whaling lore was Dr. Ingemar Thovaldson, curator of the Hibbing Whale Museum and author of the timeworn classic on the fresh water whaling trade, "Harpoons on the Red River: The Hungry Winter of '47." He was the one who informed me that my uncle Willmar Alarik had been a legendary whaler, among the best harpoon men to ever live in Duluth, until he was tragically cut down in a fresh water whaling accident, when a decoy fell on him.

Well, I was blathering about all that at the Old Dominion Folk Festival in Norfolk, Virginia one year, and Si Kahn heard me. According to his letter to me a few short weeks later, he had been hired by the American Society of Dermatologists to perform traditional songs about their trade at a convention, and so had gone to the Smithsonian to research. There, misfiled among a file of Scottish Eczema ballads, he claimed to have found "Farewell, Superior Sperm," which Dr. Thovaldson said was the finest - indeed, the only - example of an authentic fresh water whaling ballad he had ever seen. I learned it immediately and sang it for years. I actually heard from him recently he is preparing an album of his funny songs and plans to finally record "Farewell, Superior Sperm."

> There were also a couple of midwestern folk musicians in the '80s whose names escape me - I never did meet them - who did a bit and song about fresh-water whaling. I never knew if it had been inspired by my nonsense.

What is this discussion group and what has the discussion about it been?

Nice to hear from you, ol' pard. Take care, Scott

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:05 PM

I just had a doctor apointment get cancelled---------so here goes...

Mr. Alarik wrote>

The whole idea began as an introduction to a song I wrote in the 70s about people living by the sea, a broken-token ballad on my first album called "Crazy Annie's Basket." I began by discussing the halcyon days of fresh-water whaling, when mighty sailing ships sailed up and down the Mississippi River in search of the ellusive Walleyed Whale --- as a way of explaining why a Minnesotan would be writing songs about sailors.
My chief source for fresh-water whaling lore was Dr. Ingemar Thorvaldson, currator of the Hibbing Whale Museum and author of the time-worn classic on the fresh-water whaling trade, "Harpoons On The Red River : The Hungry Winter of '47" He was the one who informed me that my Uncle Willmar Alarik had been a legendary whaler, among the best harpoon men to ever live in Duluth, until he was tragically cut down in a fresh-water whaling accident, when a decoy fell on him.
Well, I was blathering about that at The Old Dominion Folk Festival in Norfolk, VA one year, and Si Kahn heard me. According to his letter to me a few short weeks later, he had been hired for the American Society of Dermatologists to perform taditional songs about their trade at a convention, and so had gone to the Smithsonian to do research. There, misfiled among a file of Scottish Eczema Ballads, he claimed to have found "FAREWELL SUPERIOR SPERM" which Dr. Thorvaldson said was the finest --indeed, the only -- example of an authentic fresh-water whaling ballad he had ever seen. I learned it immediately and sang it for years. I actually heard from him recently and he is preparing an album of his funny songs and plans to finally record, "FAREWELL SUPERIOR SPERM"

There were also a couple of midwestern folk musicians in the '80s whose names escape me - I never did meet them - who did a bit and a song about fresh-water whaling. I never knew if it had been inspired by my nonsense.
What is this Mudcat Discussion group and what has the discussion about it been? Nice to hear from you, ol' pard, Take care, Scott

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:11 PM

Kat, I should've got to you before starting to type it all out. But thank you anyway. Yours looks better than mine. And I resisted embellishing the tale with some puns and quips. Now, I'm really glad. Scott's tale is great enough all on it's own.

I have told him about Mudcat and given him the locale.

Art

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:12 PM

Art - you didn't *type* that whole thing did you? Please tell me you used cut and paste....

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:15 PM

What is "cut and paste"??? ;-)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:17 PM

That's alright, Art...just glad to see another great story about a great song on here. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:24 PM

Cut and paste is highlighting complete sections of text and transferring them in a couple clicks of a mouse button to another program. in most programs on PC's these days if you highlight text and press ctrl-c or right click on the mouse and choose "copy" - you can then go to your other program or document and press ctrl-v or right click "paste" and get everything at once. Mac's have a simiair procedure.

saves a lot of wear and tear on the keyboard - and a lot of proofreading, especialy when qouting.

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:28 PM

Not only that,

I had to turn on my other computer so I could see the e-mail on one screen while posting the copy on the other screen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Art

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:32 PM

MMario, he's pulling yer leg, darlin'...*BG*

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:35 PM

Grateful thanks to all of the above for a whale of a tale!

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:37 PM

Mudcat strikes again! Thanks, everybody! I really like the way this guy thinks. By the way, I just sent Joe Offer a Noteworthy Composer version of the tune to the song as I learned it, since Charlie asked me for it. I hope Joe or somebody can post a usable link to the tune on this thread. Still working on getting a more MIDI-friendly program.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 03:59 PM

*phew* (hey, y'never know. And when you work in computer support you NEVER assume they're joking...)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 04:04 PM

MMario, that's right, I forgot you were in Support!when my friend was in Chicago she picked a up a funny red button which had sticky backing, so that one could put it on their keyboard. I can't remeber if it said "Panic" or "Oh, shit!" but the sentiments were pretty much the same. I imagine quite a few users wish there were such a button!:-)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: radriano
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 04:43 PM

Mark, thanks for this post. Looks like a great song - can't wait to hear the tune. I love all the contributions that pour in from all over the country (not to mention other countries as well).

I passed on hellos from you at our monthly singers circle here. Hope you can make it to the San Francisco Bay Area sometime soon.

Richard

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: raredance
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 06:32 PM

Are we still without a tune?

rich r

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 01:46 AM

Tune has been sent to Alan of Australia, and should appear at Mudcat MIDIs presently. Mark called me from Hawaii and sang it to my voice mail. Then he sent me a Noteworthy file, muttering and grumbling about how difficult it is to use Noteworthy with a keyboard. He did a great job, though. Sings well, too.

Thanks, Mark!

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 01:57 AM

(at least Art is not Bill Cosby........)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 10:37 AM

I also, sometimes use SILLY PUTTY spread on the computer screen to pull the copy off of one computer and to "stick it" onto the other screen. It works real well in a pinch. But your, what was it, "cut and paste" idea sounds real good. I will try it soon.

I also roll the text on the silly putty up into a ball and toss it out the window where it bounces high enough that my friend Duffo Papadriandricockapopoulis (from Greece) can stick his hand out of his third floor apartment and grab it to stick on his computer screen.

This way we avoid a need for electricity. Saves us a ton of money.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 10:52 AM

I always knew this song as "Farewell Superior Sperm."

Bat Goddess (who was born up between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan)

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 10:54 AM

Art, maybe you should consider a new product that the Japanese whale researchers have recently developed called SILLY BLUBBER. I have to confess I came across this reference as a fluke, while scanning a Green Peace newsletter in my meditation chamber.

Say, when is Si Kahn going to claim his credit for this ballad? Should we draft a commemoration?

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 07:11 PM

Art, I like your Silly Putty idea. I have to keep writing to Compaq to send me new LCD screens for my laptop because after I cut them they don't work anymore. And my scissors are ruined.

Joe, I was not grumbling. That was the rain you heard on your voicemail.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Who wrote 'Fresh Water Whaling'?
From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 08:34 AM

The tune, the tune! I want it now!

"To find that tune," our captain cried,
"It fills me heart full sore,
But to gain the tune before next noon
Would cheer me ten times more, brave boys,
Would cheer me ten times more."