"In Days of Yore": CANADIAN SCHOOL REUNION

POST #6

PARODY-LYRICS
ORIGINAL SONG:  "The Maple Leaf Forever", by Alexander Muir, modified
lyrics by Vladimir Radian 1997.
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2013, updated 2015, 2017, and 2018.

FURTHER SONGS ON THE SAME THEME: For other nostalgic takes on Canada's national hymns, you can view (and sing along with) ...
post #22 (February 2014) The Maple Leaf Ad Infinitum  
post #65 (January 2015)  Flight of the Loonie
post #181 (June 2018)  Something to Groan About

            

 

Grade 8 classes
Cedarvale Public School, 1958.

You can also view these lyrics and commentary (without images or chords)  displayed on a parody-lyrics website at AmIRight.com Post "Canadian Reunion". 

CANADIAN REUNION

(to the tune of "The Maple Leaf Forever")

While young and frail at Poplarvale

Our mentors taught Muir's stirring song;

It eulogized forefathers’ feats,

Didn’t help us to belong.

As baby-boomers, second-gen,

Homes shaped by cookie-cutters;

Its patriotic sentiments

Maple Leaf Gardens
Carlton Street, Toronto

Dismissed those of our mothers.

No copyright, no fleur-de-lys;

Of insight only traces - 

Muir's “Maple Leaf” excluded half

Our country’s founding races.

       

Though reg’ments touted it their tune,

And Anglo journals ranted,

Decades ago, “O Canada”

Muir’s time-worn chant supplanted.

More recent play: ere Y-2-K,

Ann Murray sings
Maple Leaf Gardens

February, 2013

The C-B-C a contest ran;
So flourished a new pluralist "Leaf"
By songwright Vlad Radian. 

Its fabled British glory tamed,
No heaven or hegemony;
Olympic Closing half-time showed,
While "O (Canada)" did Ceremonies. 

Its reassembled mission clear, 
A newfound "Feuille" quite clever --
Anne Murray sang, The Gardens closed: 
The Maple Leafs forever.        

Five decades late, we congregate,

Our Grade Eight class remembered,  

No “Maple” hymn heard in the gym  - 

The song’s appeal now severed.

Reprise:

Last year Muir's ancient fabled tree

Was felled by stormy weather*.

Still sometimes heard, but seldom hymned -- 

The Maple Leaf Forever. 

* an ancient maple, that presumably had inspired

 Muir’s lyrics, was destroyed by a storm in July 2013.

HOTLINKS TO OTHER CANADIAN-THEMED SONG-POSTINGS

An Alien Heading South

Big Rob Rehab Clinic

Canadian Reunion (see below)

Canoeing Lesson

I've Got Anagrams, Eh?

Flight of the Loonie

FOP-Shop Wine

Mergerwocky

Off-Patent Drug #19

Prattle of New Orleans

Suburbs' Guy

The Maple Leaf Ad Infinitum 

This Land Has Anagrams 

TTC Voices

Vancouver's Isle

..AND A FEW LIMERICK-BASED SONGS

Shania Twain's "Verse": An anthem for limericists

Canada Day 2015 (singable limericks)

Singable Medley #3: Limericks About Chemainus, B.C. 

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.) 

  

The reunion committee meets years later (November 2018) at Toronto's Le Paradis Restaurant
Present (left to right) R. Ruskin, D.  Mandel-Ross, H. Abrams, M. Greenstein,
G. Coniglio-Hurwitz, E. Kirzner; A. Gans (photographer)