I am a Newfoundlander who works in Alberta's oil industries. That stink he spoke of in his song is the smell of money in these parts, and many have made the association between the two. But every now and then there is a warm Chinook wind that carries up and over the rockies to the west and with it salt air from the ocean. When this happens you can watch my fellow eastern countrymen turn their nose up and breathe deeply. It makes us more homesick than you can imagine. This song gives me that same feeling every time I hear it. I know Stan isn't with us anymore and will never read this comment but I have to write it anyway. Thanks for giving us a piece of home to remind us where we come from. Rest in peace Stan Rogers.
Some context for non-Canadians. At several points in recent history, Atlantic Cod populations have crashed and threatened the livelihoods of many East Coast (Maritime) Canadians, who had been fishing the waters there for centuries. Faced with the difficult choice of staying in their hometown, which had no work and no fish, or move their entire lives West for work, often in the Alberta Oilpatch, many chose the later. This exodus was met with much condemnation and insults from those who remained. Stan Roger's parents were born in the Maritimes, and he spent much time there in his youth. This topic likely hit very close to home for him.
The same theme is heard in "free in the harbour" but from the perspective of a resident of the coastal towns witnessing the mass exodus of people to the west.
@@jrgenm.dsollie4849 He's sympathetic not mocking. Hes speaking of a life independence and working for your own self work. "The goverment dole will rot your soul" being a referance to choosing not to take goverment aid but work in unsavory conditions to keep your self respect.
Left my hometown in Texas to join the Air Force and work with munitions, got sent to the UK, met my wife, and now I'm in Vegas breathing in the desert dust and looking at the dirty brown hills. I really do miss the green and the woods and streams and I don't like airman clothes
@@ebinecksdee9872 I'm happy for you, awesome. How old are you? I'm 24. I know a woman from Scarborough in Yorkshire a couple years older than me. We met on Tumblr. She was really in bad shape like you wouldn't believe like a they/them occultist vegan suicidal anorexic all these conditions like, I won't bother explaining, but in the past couple years she has a long way to go but her health across the board is a lot better and she's a real English patriot and Orthodox Christian now haha. Also super beautiful. Anyway, I know Norwich because of Ashens haha. As for Vegas, I don't know if you have a Twitter but the famous anthropological autist Nemets (look him up, General Wrangel avatar) lives there and he posts a lot of interesting insights on pretty much everything related to people. Why am I telling you all this? Idk. Pepe avatar maybe. I pray the best for both of you. Cool for not giving into the anti British memes by tranny Redditors etc.
A few months ago my great uncle died of complications related to dementia. Having worked everywhere in the US from coalfields in Kentucky and Pennsylvania to gold mines in Alaska and the Yukon, this song really makes me think of his life and work throughout his years. He was a hard man and survived everything from cancer to brain injuries, and always had stories of the places he worked. Most of all, he loved God, his family, and his nation, and I believe this is what gave him motivation all those years in the mines. Always remember the men who helped work and build this country - our fortunes now were their hardships then. Rest easy uncle Bob.
@@slauge I think that's the tough bit, seeing what you are going through as part of a bugger narrative. When I'm going through something tough, I detach myself in some ways and see myself as a character in a story. Then I can ask myself what, objectively would be the best thing to do in any given scenario is. Did Stan ever work out west or is he singing about others? In any case, I bet his shifts just felt like piss as much as yours, he just took the time to change it into something else, a story and a song. Maybe there is something you could transform yours into? I try to think of things I create "would this be able to tell my story to my unborn child?" Then I fail, but I try haha
Much respect for your great uncle. "For freedom Christ has set you free." " If the Son of man sets you free you are free indeed." Living a life filled with love for God and family is a life well lived friend.
I think that was a creative decision on Corb Lund's part, his group is known as "the Hurtin' Albertans" and this song is about a man moving from an Atlantic provence in eastern Canada to an oil refinery in Alberta so I would imagine that a younger Corb Lund would likely have really enjoyed this song in his youth as it was bound to be popular out there
I'm getting hired into a blue-collar construction trade while watching my best friend going to university for a four-year finance degree halfway across the country. i got a little sad listening to this because i probably wont see him till after he finishes his degree ;-;
I had that feelings deciding to take a career in plumbing after dropping out of college. Plumbing is something I like and gives me what I was looking for in a career, but it’s hard to shake the stigma of being “an idiot” and leaving behind a college education
@@TheDanrox110 I'm at college and half the people here are doing something useless and being kept in a childish state of mind because their parents pay for everything. Nobody's an "idiot" for taking another path.
When I first got to Ft Hood after basic, I listened to this song at reception barracks. it helped me. Despite what should have felt like a great accomplishment, I was standing halfway across the world from my home, and it all felt so empty. I smoked a cigar in the parking lot and just thought. 2 years later , having seen the cracks in the system and no longer being in the service, it feels different. I felt far from home then, but now sitting in my old hometown, I feel the same. I thought i missed my family but living with someone whos never acknowledged you as a person besides your mistakes, is honestly not that different from the Army. My stepfather is exactly that, a stepfather. hes been with my mother my entire life but never once has treated me like a person. I signed up to die in the desert for fucking oil as some fucked way of gaining his approval and that didnt even work. Im ranting on the internet, but if you take anything out of this, dont join the military looking for something you dont have. You wont find it there.
"Smell that fresh air. It smells like Fort McMurray and the oil sands"- Me to my friend from Fort McMurray who is from Newfoundland whenever I visit him up in Fort Mac
I was without a job for a couple weeks, feeling anxious every day, knowing I could take unemployment. My family suggested I do. I didn’t. I got another job, full time, 18 bucks an hour. Man this song makes me feel good about it too.
This song doesn't lie, have gone form Centrelink to a manual labour job it might be hard and there are days you wish you didn't have to go, but the felling and self-respect that you have earned your pay is better any day.
I got a similar thing going. Went from being a server in a coffee shop, but after it was shut down due to the pandemic im now working in a grain mill. I come home covered in oat dust, I spit loogies with bits of flax in them and my back and arms ache, but if it just doesn't feel so good to know I damn well earned my paycheck and helping the local farmers.
Mate, retail worker of 5 years here, this is what I think every day. Regardless of the repetitive work, or when customers treat you like an emotional punching bag, or you get called in for another weekend shift, or covering for the same coworkers on the reg, I still earn my money.
Doesn't even have to be manual labor, it just has to be fulfilling. Moving total stations and doing traverses isn't all that hard, but when you take that last backsight and everything lines up right on, there's no feeling on earth quite like it.
I quit college to get work, then I got fired and moved to the next state to chase a paycheck. Kept chasing checks until I got where I am now at a lumber mill. Visited my hometown for only a few hours when I had to go back for a funeral. The nostalgia was almost vicious in it's intensity. I fear that if I visit again, I won't bring myself to leave.
I'm from Alberta and I grew up listening to this song. The melody seems completely inherent and natural, like everyone should know what note comes after the previous. Amazing
I see this song as a man who decided to leave a comfortable life behind to an uncertain future. This song has been a sort of theme song for me as I’m looking to move across the world to an uncertain future. I know it’s not exactly what he meant, but I still love this song so much
its pretty neat how these songs capture the struggles and grind of the common people. where all wojacks in the end. just a another pay check and another day of work
Left the green hills and countryside over a thousand miles east behind me for a supposed technical career, spent my time in the field doing nightly repairs on the telecoms of the southwest on the aerials or in the manholes flipping the coin of freezing and frying. Miss the hills and streams. Updated: Got a better job back in the woods and streams after a few years in the dust.
Used to work 12 hour swing at an ethanol plant. Dont know why or how i miss it, but I do. I've never seen that kind of tired before in my life. But id take it back in a heartbeat. Loved every second
"I often take these night-shift walks When the foreman's not around I turn my back on the coolin' stacks And make for open ground Out beyond the fuel-plant fence Where the rockets make no sound I forget the stink and I always think Back to that Earthly town I remember back six years ago This Martian life I chose And every day the news would say Some factory’s going to close Well, I could have stayed to take the dough But I’m not one of those I take nothing free, and that makes me An idiot, I suppose So I bid farewell to the Earthly town I never more will see But work I must so I eat this dust And breathe refinery Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams And I don’t like spacesuit clothes But I like being free, and that makes me An idiot, I suppose So come all you fine young fellows Who’ve been beaten to the ground This Martian life’s no paradise But it’s better than lying down Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green And the hills are dirty brown But the government dough will rot your soul Back there in your home town So bid farewell to the Earthly town You never more will see There’s self-respect and a steady check In this refinery You will miss the green and the woods and streams And red dust will fill your nose But you’ll be free, and just like me An idiot, I suppose"
Hey bro don’t know if you’ll read this, but this video got me into Stan Rogers, who has had a major effect on my life this last year. I used to be angry at the world and wanted to lash out, but his song The House of Orange really made me rethink things. Thank you for this video, may we all be idiots and find our way
I may not be Canadian or working in a oilfield. I live in Michigan and work sanitation for a casino but I can't help but relate to the song in a way. I used to spend my summers as a kid in the great north woods with my grandma and see the great lake superior and smell that fresh air and lake water. This was the first year I didn't set foot up there. I'm 18 and miss being a kid back when I could be free to visit grandma and just get away from the harshness of life and just relax. Now I'm stuck down here working a profession I don't like that much but I'm making my own money got my own insurance now. I just wish I could see grandma and see the great north woods.
For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield, but your bleeding out on your back in a rice field, remembering-as the light fades from your eyes-just how beautiful the night sky can be
Got out of the Marines and I've worked factories ever since. Unemployment just wouldn't feel right. Edit: I've officially been working in my current factory for five years, and I've moved up from a starting position at $10 an hour to TIG welding furniture frames for $20 an hour. God is good, and the government will rot your soul.
When the government has forgotten you, when your country has written you off, remember all the other boys fighting to make it. The politicians can close our oil fields, our fisheries, our woods, but they will never command our spirits. We are all brothers. 🇨🇦
Yeah that's right, what's productivity without natural resource exploitation? How can we give meaning to our lives except by contradicting expert opinions about what's good for human flourishing? It's too bad there aren't any votes for the politicians who want to keep the oil fields, fisheries, and timberlands open come-what-may. Oh wait...
Urbanites can’t fathom young, rural men who started with less education, money, and opportunity than them becoming more successful. That’s why the urban majority voted to end resource jobs in so many prosperous sectors. Wage earning boys have been forgotten both by their government, and by their “nation.”
My Grandpa passed away recently. Him and his family landed in Montreal. They all worked for transportation from rail to airlines. He was losing his mind to dementia. I wasn't there for him in the end. He passed away due to Covid complications in a home. I was far and hadn't seen him for about a year's time. I wish I could've been there to take away some of the fear. This song reminds me of him.
If you want more of this heritage, consider checking out some of the old Irish Folk tunes. Fields of Athenry, Finnegan's Wake, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya. Irish Folk tunes inspired many a sea shanty, country song and ballad to the pain of man.
your nation leads the world in survelliance technology on their citizens and you have some of the most confusing gun laws in the world, you were free 300 hundred years ago
@@jackspies444 Confusing yes, they shouldn't exist at all. They're completely arbitrary and don't prevent crime. When it comes to surveillance the Patriot Act is a monstrosity that shouldn't have ever been passed, but they just distracted everyone with the impeachment everyone knew wouldn't pass while passing the Patriot Act again.
@@admiralmudkip9836 look im not the biggest fan of your nation or her people but i do have sympathies for you, it is bad what the NSA and other government organisations are doing to their citizens
As a graduate student at a university, who writes and researches until my brain is putty, does little else, and constantly has to finesse my finances to stave off debt for another year in the hopes of making enough money to live well by doing nothing other than talk about the things I've learned in some esoteric, distant future... The thought that just a generation ago, practically everyone just worked for a living and that was it, is almost surreal to me.
Fatherless Foreman has laid off half the staff, you're working overtime for reduced pay, ankle deep in unidentified sludge and your face is as yellow as a chemical fire.
I live in east Texas but work in west Texas, I definitely feel like this songs trying to tell me to get out of my line of work but I am the idiot I suppose,
This is such a rare thing to see even mentioned but I love this song, I learned it when I moved to Wyoming and it is one of my favorites to play in my own style.
Sadly enough there's now a lot of us that are leaving Alberta. The work isn't there anymore unless you're in one of the trades that's hiring, all other provinces have jobs for people with degrees and I guess I'm an idiot for choosing a livelihood over home soil.
I came from the swamp of southeast Texas, went to work in the chemical refineries out to the west just a shred where the air was dank and heavy. They paid for my degrees, then made me come back. I’ll be a doctor soon, but I’ll go back to the refinery when I’m done with that. That makes me an idiot see, just an idiot I suppose.
Witch of the Westmorland but you've been wounded in battle The Jeanie C but your ship is sinking in the storm Harris and the Mare but you just want to go home Dear Old Stan but you're remembering the greatest folk singer who ever lived
While I haven't moved quite as West as someone from the Maritimes to Alberta, moving from Sask to Alberta and leaving behind everyone and everything certainly gives this song special meaning to me. At least I like cowboy clothes while I get grimy and dirty.
I know this one personally... I work at FedEx as a package handler; you can see the air in there its so dirty. I Always take a shower when I get home because I am generally scared I will catch the measles or somethin' along those lines!
@@jamesshaw3500 it's called hazard pay, the greater the hazard the more pay you should be offered And measles is not going to be deadly but yeah if you're dealing with a hazard on a daily basis by all means you should get paid more
I am a Newfoundlander who works in Alberta's oil industries. That stink he spoke of in his song is the smell of money in these parts, and many have made the association between the two. But every now and then there is a warm Chinook wind that carries up and over the rockies to the west and with it salt air from the ocean. When this happens you can watch my fellow eastern countrymen turn their nose up and breathe deeply. It makes us more homesick than you can imagine. This song gives me that same feeling every time I hear it. I know Stan isn't with us anymore and will never read this comment but I have to write it anyway. Thanks for giving us a piece of home to remind us where we come from. Rest in peace Stan Rogers.
Got a little bit o shit in my eyes thinking about back home.
Farewell to Nova Scotia
I know it's silly, but it kinda makes me feel a little bit bad for being Albertan...
Im also from newfoundland!
Newfie here too. Living in BC. Song hits hard and makes you think about everyone you left behind.
Please stop hurting our planet with your satan industry.
Some context for non-Canadians. At several points in recent history, Atlantic Cod populations have crashed and threatened the livelihoods of many East Coast (Maritime) Canadians, who had been fishing the waters there for centuries. Faced with the difficult choice of staying in their hometown, which had no work and no fish, or move their entire lives West for work, often in the Alberta Oilpatch, many chose the later. This exodus was met with much condemnation and insults from those who remained.
Stan Roger's parents were born in the Maritimes, and he spent much time there in his youth. This topic likely hit very close to home for him.
The same theme is heard in "free in the harbour" but from the perspective of a resident of the coastal towns witnessing the mass exodus of people to the west.
Canadians wear cowboy clothes in the west?
But what is Rogers perspective? Is he sympathetic to those who moved westward? When he says that they are free for a steady check, is he mocking them?
@@jrgenm.dsollie4849 He's sympathetic not mocking. Hes speaking of a life independence and working for your own self work. "The goverment dole will rot your soul" being a referance to choosing not to take goverment aid but work in unsavory conditions to keep your self respect.
Paper mill dont exist in Dalhousie no more.
1 dislike is from the foreman
kek
Even the foreman understands the importance of this songs message
It's a long way to Tipperary but you're in a shell crater with the last of your division
Oh Lord please this one
great idea but what in God's name is your pfp.
@@IshijimaKairo idk
@@LancashireAndYorkshire its amazing, sauce?
@@hismajestysshitpostcommite9579 can't remember, sorry.
Left my hometown in Texas to join the Air Force and work with munitions, got sent to the UK, met my wife, and now I'm in Vegas breathing in the desert dust and looking at the dirty brown hills. I really do miss the green and the woods and streams and I don't like airman clothes
You got a qt British wife really? What happened, happy for you, I have my own story potentially there...
@@seronymus yep, a Norwich girl. As to why I'm in Vegas, needs of the air force unfortunately
@@ebinecksdee9872 I'm happy for you, awesome. How old are you? I'm 24. I know a woman from Scarborough in Yorkshire a couple years older than me. We met on Tumblr. She was really in bad shape like you wouldn't believe like a they/them occultist vegan suicidal anorexic all these conditions like, I won't bother explaining, but in the past couple years she has a long way to go but her health across the board is a lot better and she's a real English patriot and Orthodox Christian now haha. Also super beautiful. Anyway, I know Norwich because of Ashens haha. As for Vegas, I don't know if you have a Twitter but the famous anthropological autist Nemets (look him up, General Wrangel avatar) lives there and he posts a lot of interesting insights on pretty much everything related to people. Why am I telling you all this? Idk. Pepe avatar maybe. I pray the best for both of you. Cool for not giving into the anti British memes by tranny Redditors etc.
I do love me a good Sea Shantie, but I love me more a good Cowboy campfire Song.
What if told you Stan Rogers is the king of both
If you like this song listen to buckaroo man
I do love Marty Robbins but the sea will always have my heart. *Thus Stan Rogers*
Look up Dave Stamey. Real Cowboy.
i prefer irish folk
absolutely based Stan Rogers posting
Left university to become a welder instead of getting a degree in history. My knees hurt and Im always tired, but I couldn’t be happier!
college is overrated. I think you made a good choice
I'd kill for one of the Chemical Worker's Song
Seconded
Seconded by an actual chemical worker.
Also second this
Seconded
Stan Roger's Fisherman's Wharf but you're having flashbacks to the good old days while tourists are annoying you
A few months ago my great uncle died of complications related to dementia. Having worked everywhere in the US from coalfields in Kentucky and Pennsylvania to gold mines in Alaska and the Yukon, this song really makes me think of his life and work throughout his years. He was a hard man and survived everything from cancer to brain injuries, and always had stories of the places he worked. Most of all, he loved God, his family, and his nation, and I believe this is what gave him motivation all those years in the mines.
Always remember the men who helped work and build this country - our fortunes now were their hardships then. Rest easy uncle Bob.
It sounds like he was a strong man, may he rest in peace.
Thanks for telling the story. To a struggling guy like myself, that kind of tale is always inspirational.
@@slauge I think that's the tough bit, seeing what you are going through as part of a bugger narrative. When I'm going through something tough, I detach myself in some ways and see myself as a character in a story. Then I can ask myself what, objectively would be the best thing to do in any given scenario is.
Did Stan ever work out west or is he singing about others? In any case, I bet his shifts just felt like piss as much as yours, he just took the time to change it into something else, a story and a song.
Maybe there is something you could transform yours into? I try to think of things I create "would this be able to tell my story to my unborn child?" Then I fail, but I try haha
Hi Sam you seem a bit familiar do you have a Twitter or tumblr?
Much respect for your great uncle. "For freedom Christ has set you free." " If the Son of man sets you free you are free indeed." Living a life filled with love for God and family is a life well lived friend.
You can buy a lot of things, but self respect ain't one of them.
If the tune sounds familiar, it's because it's also used in the song, "I Wanna be in the Calvary" by Corb Lund. Check it out, great song!
yes i fucking digg that song too, and reckoned it had a similiar or even the same tune
I couldnt figure out if they were the same tune lol thanks.
I knew I've head it before!
I think that was a creative decision on Corb Lund's part, his group is known as "the Hurtin' Albertans" and this song is about a man moving from an Atlantic provence in eastern Canada to an oil refinery in Alberta so I would imagine that a younger Corb Lund would likely have really enjoyed this song in his youth as it was bound to be popular out there
Love that song, didn’t notice till now
I'm getting hired into a blue-collar construction trade while watching my best friend going to university for a four-year finance degree halfway across the country.
i got a little sad listening to this because i probably wont see him till after he finishes his degree ;-;
It may be a long while but it’s not forever, i hope the best of you friend and i hope you find your way
I had that feelings deciding to take a career in plumbing after dropping out of college. Plumbing is something I like and gives me what I was looking for in a career, but it’s hard to shake the stigma of being “an idiot” and leaving behind a college education
Make sure he doesn't get turned into a communist while he's at the indoctrination hubs
@@TheDanrox110 I'm at college and half the people here are doing something useless and being kept in a childish state of mind because their parents pay for everything. Nobody's an "idiot" for taking another path.
being an idiot does not make you any less wise my friend. You will see your friend again. You just stay strong and work hard. You got this
When I first got to Ft Hood after basic, I listened to this song at reception barracks. it helped me. Despite what should have felt like a great accomplishment, I was standing halfway across the world from my home, and it all felt so empty. I smoked a cigar in the parking lot and just thought. 2 years later , having seen the cracks in the system and no longer being in the service, it feels different. I felt far from home then, but now sitting in my old hometown, I feel the same. I thought i missed my family but living with someone whos never acknowledged you as a person besides your mistakes, is honestly not that different from the Army. My stepfather is exactly that, a stepfather. hes been with my mother my entire life but never once has treated me like a person. I signed up to die in the desert for fucking oil as some fucked way of gaining his approval and that didnt even work. Im ranting on the internet, but if you take anything out of this, dont join the military looking for something you dont have. You wont find it there.
I hope that you can find true fulfilment eventually my guy, you'll be in my prayers.
The part about missing forests and streams makes me think about a man who moved to the wild west to escape the industrial age in America
Big iron but you're an Arizona ranger taking the law into your own hands
this
yes
well if you're a ranger you're the law anyways. Considering how many of the rangers and sheriffs were often outlaws
yeah
Big Iron? The Remington 1858 and nearly all other 19th century revolvers had brass frames and Damascus steel barrels.
@@pinkhead6857890 wrought iron barrel*
For the record, Alberta has a lot of really nice green, woods and streams
Back in the 70s and 80s the industrial areas were a lot dirtier
"Smell that fresh air. It smells like Fort McMurray and the oil sands"- Me to my friend from Fort McMurray who is from Newfoundland whenever I visit him up in Fort Mac
I was without a job for a couple weeks, feeling anxious every day, knowing I could take unemployment. My family suggested I do. I didn’t. I got another job, full time, 18 bucks an hour. Man this song makes me feel good about it too.
Hey, good for you my guy!
@@lejammiedodgere Love these videos, and yours are high class man, thank you!
This song doesn't lie, have gone form Centrelink to a manual labour job it might be hard and there are days you wish you didn't have to go, but the felling and self-respect that you have earned your pay is better any day.
I got a similar thing going. Went from being a server in a coffee shop, but after it was shut down due to the pandemic im now working in a grain mill. I come home covered in oat dust, I spit loogies with bits of flax in them and my back and arms ache, but if it just doesn't feel so good to know I damn well earned my paycheck and helping the local farmers.
Mate, retail worker of 5 years here, this is what I think every day. Regardless of the repetitive work, or when customers treat you like an emotional punching bag, or you get called in for another weekend shift, or covering for the same coworkers on the reg, I still earn my money.
@@BenjiQ575 Always enjoyed trips to Bundy
Same turned 18 in March and went to work right away in a Insulation Plant for my first ever job, it’s dirty work but I feel like I earn my money
Doesn't even have to be manual labor, it just has to be fulfilling. Moving total stations and doing traverses isn't all that hard, but when you take that last backsight and everything lines up right on, there's no feeling on earth quite like it.
Just finished a 22 hour shift. Did my last lock patrol while listening to this. Im tired down to my core.
Just got my first steady job, working in lumber. caught myself humming this today while climbing a "secure" ladder.
I hope you're okay 2 years later and didn't climb too many ladders!
I quit college to get work, then I got fired and moved to the next state to chase a paycheck. Kept chasing checks until I got where I am now at a lumber mill.
Visited my hometown for only a few hours when I had to go back for a funeral. The nostalgia was almost vicious in it's intensity. I fear that if I visit again, I won't bring myself to leave.
I'm from Alberta and I grew up listening to this song. The melody seems completely inherent and natural, like everyone should know what note comes after the previous.
Amazing
I see this song as a man who decided to leave a comfortable life behind to an uncertain future. This song has been a sort of theme song for me as I’m looking to move across the world to an uncertain future. I know it’s not exactly what he meant, but I still love this song so much
I made it!
@@coltonberry985 Nice work man! I hope I'll make it too.
its pretty neat how these songs capture the struggles and grind of the common people.
where all wojacks in the end. just a another pay check and another day of work
Still 10 times better than working in an Amazon giga-warehouse.
Country roads but your returning back to your home town
Left the green hills and countryside over a thousand miles east behind me for a supposed technical career, spent my time in the field doing nightly repairs on the telecoms of the southwest on the aerials or in the manholes flipping the coin of freezing and frying. Miss the hills and streams.
Updated: Got a better job back in the woods and streams after a few years in the dust.
Good to hear my guy
Used to work 12 hour swing at an ethanol plant. Dont know why or how i miss it, but I do. I've never seen that kind of tired before in my life. But id take it back in a heartbeat. Loved every second
What did you do for half a day making ethanol?
I worked on a diamond drill in a gold mine, it was so ass. Make more money doing far easier work
Local Mars colonists thinks of Earth as he builds.
"I often take these night-shift walks
When the foreman's not around
I turn my back on the coolin' stacks
And make for open ground
Out beyond the fuel-plant fence
Where the rockets make no sound
I forget the stink and I always think
Back to that Earthly town
I remember back six years ago
This Martian life I chose
And every day the news would say
Some factory’s going to close
Well, I could have stayed to take the dough
But I’m not one of those
I take nothing free, and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
So I bid farewell to the Earthly town
I never more will see
But work I must so I eat this dust
And breathe refinery
Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams
And I don’t like spacesuit clothes
But I like being free, and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose
So come all you fine young fellows
Who’ve been beaten to the ground
This Martian life’s no paradise
But it’s better than lying down
Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green
And the hills are dirty brown
But the government dough will rot your soul
Back there in your home town
So bid farewell to the Earthly town
You never more will see
There’s self-respect and a steady check
In this refinery
You will miss the green and the woods and streams
And red dust will fill your nose
But you’ll be free, and just like me
An idiot, I suppose"
How dare you make me have a new favorite song. I haven't been able to get this out of my head for 4 days.
Hehe
Spanish Ladies but you're drinking to the health of each true-hearted lass
A leaf showed me Stan Rogers a few months ago and he’s become one of my favorite singers.
Wish he was still here man.
Stan Rogers posting is never a bad Idea
Hey bro don’t know if you’ll read this, but this video got me into Stan Rogers, who has had a major effect on my life this last year. I used to be angry at the world and wanted to lash out, but his song The House of Orange really made me rethink things. Thank you for this video, may we all be idiots and find our way
I may not be Canadian or working in a oilfield. I live in Michigan and work sanitation for a casino but I can't help but relate to the song in a way. I used to spend my summers as a kid in the great north woods with my grandma and see the great lake superior and smell that fresh air and lake water. This was the first year I didn't set foot up there. I'm 18 and miss being a kid back when I could be free to visit grandma and just get away from the harshness of life and just relax. Now I'm stuck down here working a profession I don't like that much but I'm making my own money got my own insurance now. I just wish I could see grandma and see the great north woods.
For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield, but your bleeding out on your back in a rice field, remembering-as the light fades from your eyes-just how beautiful the night sky can be
Got out of the Marines and I've worked factories ever since. Unemployment just wouldn't feel right.
Edit: I've officially been working in my current factory for five years, and I've moved up from a starting position at $10 an hour to TIG welding furniture frames for $20 an hour. God is good, and the government will rot your soul.
Makes me wanna decline the dole, but nobody's offering
When the government has forgotten you, when your country has written you off, remember all the other boys fighting to make it. The politicians can close our oil fields, our fisheries, our woods, but they will never command our spirits. We are all brothers. 🇨🇦
Yeah that's right, what's productivity without natural resource exploitation? How can we give meaning to our lives except by contradicting expert opinions about what's good for human flourishing? It's too bad there aren't any votes for the politicians who want to keep the oil fields, fisheries, and timberlands open come-what-may. Oh wait...
Urbanites can’t fathom young, rural men who started with less education, money, and opportunity than them becoming more successful. That’s why the urban majority voted to end resource jobs in so many prosperous sectors. Wage earning boys have been forgotten both by their government, and by their “nation.”
@@mattfrankman The bourgeoisie have always hated the working man, it is a universal constant among them.
"We should maintain outdated, destructive and unprofitable industry centers because the local community is dependent on them."
@@artemis7271 "I don't need oil! I take the bus!"
I work in a factory and this hits home too well.
Stan Rogers is my all-time favourite solo artist, please keep making more of these
My Grandpa passed away recently. Him and his family landed in Montreal. They all worked for transportation from rail to airlines. He was losing his mind to dementia. I wasn't there for him in the end. He passed away due to Covid complications in a home. I was far and hadn't seen him for about a year's time. I wish I could've been there to take away some of the fear. This song reminds me of him.
May he Rest In Peace.
theres not enough stan rogers on the radio
Here I lay in my 28th year, still not being "one of those". Dole money is a poison.
Yep glad I got the job I have, even if it might eventually kill me.
@@m1llsy227 government can't hand out the feeling of a good hard day's work.
@@markdavis180 that's a disease of the economic system
This music is great for coming home on Friday night just feeling tired and sitting down and listening to this remind you of all your struggles
when the fellas are drillin’ for oil and one of them starts singing this fine tune
This right here is what speaks to my soul.
Could you do Mary Ellen Carter, if you're gonna keep doing Stan Rogers?
I'll add it to the list!
Yes, PLEASE.
Mary Ellen Carter but you're on a lifeboat
@@theamericanrevolution3684 ahh mate look up the story of Robert Cusick. Pretty similar situation to what you described. Super interesting
Mary Ellen Carter but you're just about ready to prove them all wrong
You're doing the Lord's work, pal
Could you do The Chemical Workers' Song by Great Big Sea but you're knee-deep in cyanide and sick with a caustic burn?
I love to see the number of Stan Rogers songs getting use here!
I knew that cowboys would be the natural place for the sea shanties with the boys to go
If you want more of this heritage, consider checking out some of the old Irish Folk tunes. Fields of Athenry, Finnegan's Wake, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya. Irish Folk tunes inspired many a sea shanty, country song and ballad to the pain of man.
@@BenjiQ575 I'll check it out!
Just realised that this has the same tune as I Wanna Be in the Cavalry by Corb Lund. Wonderful music.
I'm happy to see this😁
I'm not from Alberta but off shore rigs are close enough to home and so is the exon refinery!
The hard work of the trades always pays off, Structural welder and fabricator
Down the road but you're on your way to a city to sing about the hills in spring and the rivers that bend
"But I like being free and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose"
Me talking to literally any european.
Underatted coment right here l
your nation leads the world in survelliance technology on their citizens and you have some of the most confusing gun laws in the world, you were free 300 hundred years ago
@@jackspies444 Confusing yes, they shouldn't exist at all. They're completely arbitrary and don't prevent crime. When it comes to surveillance the Patriot Act is a monstrosity that shouldn't have ever been passed, but they just distracted everyone with the impeachment everyone knew wouldn't pass while passing the Patriot Act again.
@@admiralmudkip9836 look im not the biggest fan of your nation or her people but i do have sympathies for you, it is bad what the NSA and other government organisations are doing to their citizens
@Lex Bright Raven
Stuffing however many fake ballots in the box (sorry "Fortifying the Election") will do that to a Republic
Roll the Old Chariot Along, but you're receiving a damn good flogging and it's doing a lot of harm.
Ive been obessed with his music for four years and i finally get some good food
That feel when your western life that you chose is being taken away.
As a graduate student at a university, who writes and researches until my brain is putty, does little else, and constantly has to finesse my finances to stave off debt for another year in the hopes of making enough money to live well by doing nothing other than talk about the things I've learned in some esoteric, distant future...
The thought that just a generation ago, practically everyone just worked for a living and that was it, is almost surreal to me.
Love these. Poor wojak always smiling differently, always a flag or flame moving in the background. Just great.
Fatherless Foreman has laid off half the staff, you're working overtime for reduced pay, ankle deep in unidentified sludge and your face is as yellow as a chemical fire.
This is my favorite Stan Rogers song! Love it!
I think of the men in Beaumont and Pasedena, Texas when I hear this song. Thanks boys, for working them refineries
and Deerpark.
I live in east Texas but work in west Texas, I definitely feel like this songs trying to tell me to get out of my line of work but I am the idiot I suppose,
This song is the only reason why I didn't go insane yet. Sure I hate my work but hey I'm my own man.
stan rogers memes, never thought I would see the day
Not sure why, but the subtle changes to the background sounds of the songs makes them hit so different
This is such a rare thing to see even mentioned but I love this song, I learned it when I moved to Wyoming and it is one of my favorites to play in my own style.
Farewell to Nova Scotia but you’re happy to get back to the Emerald Isle
Sadly enough there's now a lot of us that are leaving Alberta. The work isn't there anymore unless you're in one of the trades that's hiring, all other provinces have jobs for people with degrees and I guess I'm an idiot for choosing a livelihood over home soil.
never knew how much i needed stan rogers shitposting in my life lmao
It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.
I came from the swamp of southeast Texas, went to work in the chemical refineries out to the west just a shred where the air was dank and heavy. They paid for my degrees, then made me come back. I’ll be a doctor soon, but I’ll go back to the refinery when I’m done with that.
That makes me an idiot see, just an idiot I suppose.
Good old Stan, gone but not forgotten.
Witch of the Westmorland but you've been wounded in battle
The Jeanie C but your ship is sinking in the storm
Harris and the Mare but you just want to go home
Dear Old Stan but you're remembering the greatest folk singer who ever lived
Ah. It's not that time of year any longer I see.
This just hits home really hard.
God bless the late Stan Rogers.
Johnny comes marching home but you're Johnny and didn't come marching home
May Stan Rogers rest in peace, excellent vid too
While I haven't moved quite as West as someone from the Maritimes to Alberta, moving from Sask to Alberta and leaving behind everyone and everything certainly gives this song special meaning to me. At least I like cowboy clothes while I get grimy and dirty.
Stan Roger's "Leave her Johnny" but you're leaving port and setting sail.
Excellent work lad! Went above and beyond all expectations yet again! God bless ya!
I can practically smell the tar sands right now
Always glad when anyone posts anything Stan Rogers. Looking forward to your next videos!
As a refinery welder I approve
Dam I'm form west Texas and working in the oilfield almost all my life and this shit just hits home
randy dandy-oh but you’ve just left shore and are heading for the horn, perhaps?
If you keep em coming, I'll keep watching:
...aaaand subbed.
Make and Break Harbour but your on the abandoned docks, picking up the broken fishing nets
I listen to this when doing math, and it really helps.
I've left my arts and charity funding job today to go work for construction and labor; this song seems to fit
I know this one personally... I work at FedEx as a package handler; you can see the air in there its so dirty. I Always take a shower when I get home because I am generally scared I will catch the measles or somethin' along those lines!
There's self respect in your steady check
@@rejvaik00 That might be, but what is respect when your dead?
@@jamesshaw3500 it's called hazard pay, the greater the hazard the more pay you should be offered
And measles is not going to be deadly but yeah if you're dealing with a hazard on a daily basis by all means you should get paid more
God bless Alberta.
I like listening to this, it makes me feel at peace :) thanks Le Jammie Dodgere!