Discography/Lyrics Page

2004 - stars shone on toronto

2005 - Canada Needs You (volume one)

2007 - Satellite Hotstove

2008 - Canada Needs You (volume two)

Albums can be purchased online at:

CD's can also be purchased in person at live shows.

Mike's featured with a dozen other Canoe-Friendly artists (incl. Tanglefoot, Ian Tamblyn, Nancy White) on an excellent Canoe Songs compilation CD. For more info go to http://www.canoesongs.ca/index.php.

Moxy Früvous Albums can be purchased in stores and the "C" Album
can be purchased at http://www.maplemusic.com

Lyrics to the songs from Satellite Hotstove can be downloaded by clicking here (PDF)

Lyrics to the songs from Canada Needs You volume one can be downloaded by clicking here (PDF)

Lyrics to the songs from Stars Shone on Toronto can be downloaded by clicking here (PDF)

Lyrics to the songs from Canada Needs You volume two are found below

                             Historical notes for volume two are on their way!!!

CREEPING BARRAGE

(words & music Mike Ford 2006)

Chalk catacombs and trenches

The flower of the dominion

Awaits the very second

When the guns throw up a wall of fire

On to Vimy Ridge

Beneath a burning camouflage

A final tot of rum then up and over

Under this creeping barrage

Bagpipes announce the moment

Of synchronized precision

From each mud-caked rehearsal

Through the cold and rats and lice and blood

Taking Vimy Ridge

Beneath a burning camouflage

The begging of the wounded and the moans

Lost under this creeping barrage

Here I am

Here I am

Here I am

A nation consecrated

In blood across the ocean

You took what could not be taken

In the cold and rats and lice and mud

Look down from Vimy Ridge

Beneath spent shells and camouflage

See the German boy your age your rank

Your face his face his eyes your eyes

His dreams crushed under

This creeping barrage

IN WINNIPEG

(words & music Mike Ford 2006)

Are you tired - of your slaving

And getting older - and getting nothing

We’ve been working - in the factories

Inside the big machines - with fire and grease

But we won’t move a muscle - ‘til they negotiate

And give us something - And answer our pleas

WE DON’T WANNA FIGHT OR CAUSE A FRIGHT

OR BREAK THE SYSTEM OVER NIGHT

WE WON’T STAY ON OUR KNEES AND BEG

WE’RE STANDING TALL IN WINNIPEG

They’ve given the sack to - the regular police force

They’re bringing in the specials - special police

Who are marching - with the mounties 500 strong

With sawed-off yokes and baseball bats - to sweep us from the streets

WE DON’T WANNA FIGHT OR CAUSE A FRIGHT

OR BREAK THE SYSTEM OVER NIGHT

WE WON’T STAY ON OUR KNEES AND BEG

WE’RE STANDING TALL IN WINNIPEG

We work six-day weeks for pennies     2 holy days off, if any

Being slaves for banks and profiteers but it’s our hands that work the gears

So thank you - Committee of A Thousand

For thinking there’s a Bolshevik - under every pillow

And thank you - for rounding up the aliens

The undesirables – like my friend and me

WHO DON’T WANNA FIGHT OR CAUSE A FRIGHT

OR BREAK THE SYSTEM OVER NIGHT

WE WON’T STAY ON OUR KNEES AND BEG

WE’RE STANDING TALL IN WINNIPEG

STANDING TALL IN WINNIPEG

TEA PARTY

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

There comes a time when it’s time to make choices

Steppin’ out together and raising our voices

Expected just to toil in nursery and kitchen

So the women of the nation set out on a mission

We got a right to teach our sisters what the facts is

Dignity, democracy and proper health practice

This world revolves on a feminine axis

Let’s have a cheer as the Famous Five relaxes at the

TEA PARTY - We Have Been Fighting for Equality at the

TEA PARTY – Give it up for sisters fighting for you and me

Stuck in their ways, stuck in the mud, stuck in tradition

Men thought they could laugh at this female exhibition

Stuck on their rules, stuck in their over-starched collars

While the women went a- marchin’ for respect and for dollars

You think their future is combustion in your pistons

But we aren’t jestin’ we are Suffragistin’

Huddle in your boys club and you look down your noses

We’re walkin’ and the rain and singin’ Bread & Roses at the

TEA PARTY – We Have Been Fighting for Equality at the

TEA PARTY – Give it up for sisters fighting for you and me

Sisters if we waited then still we’d be waiting

Grumbling and bowing and fumbling and hating

Instead we did our part with our hearts participating

Sorry little man - is that your pride I’m deflating at the

TEA PARTY – We Have Been Fighting for Equality at the

TEA PARTY – Give it up for sisters fighting for you and me

TEA PARTY - We Have Been Fighting for Equality at the

TEA PARTY - Tell the Parson I’m a Person and I’m Proud to be Preparin’ at the

TEA PARTY

TALKIN’ TEN LOST YEARS

(words & music Mike Ford 2004)

Let me tell ya little story ‘bout hobos and dust, kind-hearted people and hearts fulla rust A time when heartache made a big impression, talkin’ ‘bout Canada’s great depression(lasted ten years...seemed like a hundred and ten...well I guess years where longer back in those days)

Started when the wealthy were feelin’ fine, dancin’ the Charleston, drinkin’ up the wine, buyin’ up stocks, buyin’ things on credit, sayin’ we’re gonna be rich ‘cuz our broker said it - All of the sudden

everybody started cryin’ when the stock market crashed in 1929(wiped people out...they didn’t see it comin’...ye can’t blame ‘em, the didn’t have text messaging back then.)

Factories closed, folks got fired and a lot of bank accounts just plain expired Mother Nature dealt us some real big whoppers, 3 years of drought and swarms of grasshoppers(it was a plague...right across the prairies...

Folks lost their home and lost their farm and hung on to their decency and charm, Men took to hoppin’ on movin’ trains ridin’ out to Vancouver and right back again(lookin’ for work...anything to do...somebody’d hollar “hey, how’d ya like ta shovel slop for 50 cents a day in Winnepeg and you’d say mmmmmmmm...)

Ridin’ the rods, a popular form of travel, in a boxcar watchin’ things unravel, Huddlin’ with friends in a similar bind, sharin’ any scraps of food you might find Gatherin’ in hobo jungles at night, a fire, a song, and you could feel all right ‘Til three in the morning feel the police whip crack sayin’ get outta town and don’t ye come back

Now if you’d had a car before the Depression struck, chances are my friend you’d be in luck, Weren’t no gasoline you could afford to buy, but you could give automobile conversion a try, Tear off the engine, don’t need no fuel, just hook that thing up to a skinny old mule

A vehicle for days sunny or muggy, a contraption known as the Bennett Buggy(Named for the Prime Minister of the day...R.B. Bennett...they don’t name cars after Prime Ministers anymore, do they?...)

The Depression lasted pretty darn, longer even than me singin’ this Depression song At the end of the Thirties, relief came to the poor in the shape and form of the Second World War(Yehooo....celebration, we had a war...there’s nothin’ like a bit of bullets and bloodshed to keep your mind off your financial woes...)

So from coast to coast we gathered in session sayin’ sure hope we never have another depression It affected this country more than a bit, and it’s been said the Prairies were the hardest hit Maybe that’s why in later years it was Prairie folks who gave us some good ideas

About givin’ each Canadian their fair share and healin’ us for free with Medicare So if hard times hit, and they’re likely to, and some stranger’s holdin’ up a hand to you Ye don’t have to puzzle this ole Depression song through, just stop and help them out Who knows, maybe one day it’ll be known as the ‘Canadian thing to do’.

LET’S MOBILIZE !

(words & music Mike Ford 2008)

There’s a big kerfuffle overseas and it’s spreading just like a disease

Blitzkrieg boys are on attack, so lets rally ‘round the Union Jack

Get the Airfield’s hummin’ - and the drums a drummin’ - the Canucks are comin’

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

To the bugle call we’re havin’ a ball

To the reveille we jitterbug and that Hitler’s grave is already dug

Got ration cards, scrap metal drives, these are the best years of our lives

Napanee to Nanaimo, Okotoks to Esquimalt, Chilliwack to Richibucto

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

Those Wrens and Wacs are cuttin’ the slack

LET’S MOBILIZE !    Let’s walk the walk

LET’S MOBILIZE !    No careless talk

LET’S MOBILIZE !    And punch the clock

Pass the puck to Chuck and Janey Canuck



Ils veulent encore nous mettre à genou

              Regardez bien autours de vous

              Ou sont vos fils o vous chères mères

              Parti en guerre en Angleterre

              C’est fou ! C’est fou ! C’est complètement fou !

Halifax to Haileybury

We’re in a great big hurray

To fight the Führer’s fury

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

LET’S MOBILIZE !

Present!!!

CANADA DOESN’T NEED YOU

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

Race in the night to the dock to escape

From the boots to the boat quietly to the sea

Look for a port for a shore to alight

To arrive happy day but the eyes turn away

Crowd in the hold of the boat off the shore

Turn away refugee while the wind blows to say

Canada doesn’t need you

Canada doesn’t need you, no

Ice on the tarp of the stall public yard

Doing time ‘til the train all the eyes look away

Torn from the coast out of homes, fishing boats

To the shack evacuate, isolate, lock away

Sour sugar beet, no strawberries today

And tomorrow again will the wind blow to say

Canada doesn’t need you

Canada doesn’t need you, no, doesn’t need you

No, doesn’t need you

Footsteps ignore, step around on the ground

City street not the snow where you hunted and played

Torn from the north shorn of hair and of home

And of tongue not allowed in the land it was made

Oh what would it take not to hear ‘go away’

Would it help to be white, Cheerio as they say

Canada doesn’t need you

Canada doesn’t need you no, won’t receive you no, don’t believe you no

Doesn’t need you

JOEY SMALLWOOD

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

When depression hit Newfoundland - Knocked it flat upon its back

Folks lived on 6 cents a day - So walkin’ down the track

Came a little man from Gambo - Walked clear across all Newfoundland

Sayin’ Hello Friend - I’m Joey Smallwood

He called himself The Barrelman - Had Newspapers, Radio Shows

And from high up on the mast - He spoke at length like one who knows

He sought what was best for workers - Not just the 20 Millionaires

He never slept - Joey Smallwood

He studied what would happen if they joined with Canada

Came back and told the people of the island what he saw

Flew a float-plane to each harbour with a microphone in hand

He had eyes on the back of his head - Joey Smallwood

              It’s a good thing they invented radio

              So he’d have something to talk on

              A good thing they invented water

              So he’d have something to walk on

Well folks gathered in their kitchens - ‘Round the wireless, no-one stirred

And they followed the debating - Every single word

And some called him a sell-out - And every name in the book

He’d say it’s my way or the highway - Joey Smallwood

And so to conclude and finish - Premier Joey made the calls

For Pulp and Paper, Oil Refineries and of course big Churchill Falls

And when deals fell through he’d just laugh and look for other bets

And say “ I rule over an empire on which the concrete never sets”

Joey Smallwood

              It’s a good thing they invented radio

              So he’d have something to talk on

              A good thing they invented water

              So he’d have something to walk on

Joey Smallwood

MAURICE RICHARD

(words & music Mike Ford 2005)

Maurice Richard

They’ll never drag you down

We’ll carry your torch high

All through this town

On Ste-Catherine

I lit a bonfire for you

A sweet sidewalk sacrament

In gold red and blue

              For fifteen thousand at the Forum

              The centre of the storm

Is the saviour in all of our prayers



              Now in the big leagues I see

              So much celebrity

              And each one is a millionaire

              But where is the one to die for

              Like our silent matador

Maurice Richard

There’s another game on tonight

And if you could score just one more time

We’d feel alright

If you could score just one more time

I’d feel alright

EXPO 67 !

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

While the U.S. has been rattling their nuclear sabres

They wonder what’s got into their good gray neighbours

Who are throwing such a fun fantasmigorical bash

And it’s big and it’s bold and bilingual and brash

Allons Allons à Montreal          (A global Be-In)

Felicitons Montreal                     (Psychedelic on the St Lawrence!)

Say goodbye to famine, strife and war

And say hello to the groovy glow of a global cornacopia with goodies galore!

EXPO EXPO SIXTY SEVEN

EXPO EXPO SIXTY SEVEN

Terre des Hommes à Montreal              (it’s for you too, ladies!)

A la Maximum à Montreal                      (a now-a-go-go celebration!)

Au revoir to square and boring and uncool

And say bonjour avec amour to the wonders of the Polymer Molecule

EXPO EXPO SIXTY SEVEN

EXPO EXPO SIXTY SEVEN

Choose a movie’s ending at the Kino-Automat

Or say hello to Moshe Safdie and his cat at Habitat

Or have a Gander on what Gutenburg recorded his gazzette

Or ride a hovercraft or gondola or supersonic jet

Or see an engine whizzing winningly on Wankel Roteries

Or see a Dead Sea Scroll the only time it’s overseas

Or a Kaliedoscopic trip upon the trippy Gyrotron

To a spool of what was spun by Mr Ghandi though he’s gone

Or we can frolic and play footsie in a fountain of youth

Or bow before the Spare Part Man or holy Sacred Tooth

AND SEE HOW WE’LL ERACE ALL TOIL AND TROUBLE

AS YOU RIDE A MONO-RAIL INTO A GEODESIC SKYBREAK BUBBLE

Where every nation, creed and colour is your friend

But once we’ve seen tomorrow’s dream, how can we ever go back to the real world again

EXPO EXPO SIXTY SEVEN

(a transistorized utopia! The medium is the massage! The world of tomorrow today! Put down that mop Mrs. Canada! A computer smaller than a car! Those groovy peace-keepers! A hundred years young! Yeah! I’m There! See You in Montreal!)

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

Open up the border for the new harmonizin’

New World Order is on the horizon

Trickle-down, trickle-down throw yer wooden nickel down

Free market tore the mighty hammer and the sickle down

Fake left swing right economic satellite

Everything is on the table if yer able have a bite

OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

On the dotted line yer signin’ to the new reality

Build-a build-a better branch plant mentality

War Chest missile test, privatize all the rest

Integrate, deregulate, the destiny is manifest

Open up the mineshaft, lower the denominator

Get it for ya cheap if you sell it back an hour later

OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

              Everybody wave goodbye

              Everybody wave goodbye

              Everybody wave goodbye

              Goodbye

Survival of the first to bend and grovel to the captor

Outsource no remorse be the best adaptor

Genuflect genuflect to the holy NAFTA

Oil in the hills’a comin’ gushin’ once ye tapped ‘er

Download offload tearin’ up the railroad

Give us twenty years ye won’t recognize yer Postal Code

Slash the public purse for reversin’ the Niagara

Parliament is impotent, banks a’ got Viagra

Pass the legislation but the halls are fulla laughter

‘Cuz now you owe the corporation, or did you not read that chapter..?

OPEN FOR BUSINESS    OPEN FOR BUSINESS

              Everybody wave goodbye…

THE GIANTS (Clayoquot Trials)

(words & music Mike Ford 2008)

Rainforest grove ten thousand years old

Drips with creation and anticipation

Of the harvest machine but there in between

With a brother and a sister, stubborn resister

The Nuu-chah-nulth elder holds her hand

SHE’S STANDING UP FOR THE GIANTS

THAT TETHER THE EARTH AND THE SKY

SHE WON’T BE DETERRED IN THE WILL TO BE HEARD

NO, NOT AGAIN

Outside all laws, mechanical claws

Plan their next maneuver from a desk in Vancouver

But this confident crowd under gray Clayoquot cloud

Holds fast to the process of Martin and The Mahatma

SHE’S STANDING UP FOR THE GIANTS

THAT TETHER THE EARTH AND THE SKY

SHE WON’T BE DETERRED IN THE WILL TO BE HEARD

NO, NOT AGAIN

Could you believe the majesty

              There on the side of eternity ?

Dragged of with hooks for telephone books

By kings of extraction – they never counted on this reaction

HE’S PAINTING HIS FACE FOR THE RALLY

SHE’S PAINTING A SIGN FOR THE TRIAL

SITKA AND FIR WHERE THE MILLIONS ONCE WERE

AND ONCE MORE AGAIN

SHE’S STANDING UP FOR THE GIANTS

I’M GONNA ROAM AGAIN

(words & music Mike Ford 2007)

Schoolgirl blowing bubble gum

Blows a big balloon and pops it

Children ask her where she’s from

She spins a globe and with a finger stops it

“We got out when it got too rough

But when I see it again

I’ll share it with you my new friend”

I’M GONNA ROAM - I’M GONNA ROAM

See the big house, see the pride

20 rooms just for the filling

Precious goods from far and wide

Where the merchant’s make a killing

Will he ever have enough

To make his heart less empty

Here in the Land of Plenty?

I’M GONNA ROAM - I’M GONNA ROAM

Let’s rewrite the opera

Now that we’ve hung our leaders out to dry

The curtain rises Canada

But will you only close your eyes?

You might think you’ve seen enough

But a planet calls again

To share it with all our friends

I’M GONNA ROAM - I’M GONNA ROAM

Sing to me of where you’re from

The melody will paint a picture

Use the bright notes for the sun

We’ll make a syncopated scripture

I know I’ll never hear enough

Sing it loud again

Share it with me my new friend

I’M GONNA ROAM - I’M GONNA ROAM

Contents and Images © 2004 Mike Ford, All Rights Reserved
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