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Duncan is a songwriter and playwright living on Cape Breton Island. His songs are made available to serious music publishers and recording artists who are looki
turn it into a hit.
for artist information along with a variety of links to Duncan's original playscripts and songs.
Song Info
Genre
Charts
Peak #222
Peak in subgenre #41
Author
Words & Music by Duncan Wells
Rights
2007
Uploaded
October 21, 2009
Track Files
MP3
MP3 6.0 MB • 128 kbps • 6:33
Story behind the song
I watched a few videos concerning the seal hunt in Newfoundland and did a little research. If you're on the side of the protestors you'll probably tell me my research is flawed, but that's ok too. May, 2010: Here is an update on the "story behind the song". A few years back a friend of mine asked if he could make a video from A Sealer's Lament. Recently he contacted me to tell me that some people who oppose the seal hunt are quite angry about it. He even went as far as suggesting that I remove the song from Soundclick because of threats being made. I haven't received any threats over the song but, as a writer I am usually quite pleased to see any of my playscripts or songs generate an emotional response. If anybody is upset because I took a side on this issue I want you to know, as a songwriter, I would be happy to write a song from an opposing point of view which, hopefully, could also be used in a video. For me, this is just another song.
Lyrics
A Sealer's Lament
I followed in me father's footsteps back there in me younger life
Tryina' to make a livin' off the sea
With little education, an' me darlin' pregnant wife
I settled in to raise my family
We were hard workin' people, blood and sweat was all we knew
Born into a way of livin', tell me what's a man to do?
Except try to survive, with the changin' of the tides
And in the end I'll be buried neath the ocean
T'was in 1969 when the news come to our shore
There was a movie star, from somewhere down in France
While my darlin' wife and me, now with four mouths to feed
But the movie star she didn't care about that.
The camera it was rollin, there was poison from her mouth
Spreadin' hatred on my family when she knew nothing about
A way of life she'd never know or care to figure out
She was stealin' food from off my families table
On the television news and in the glossy magazines
She used photographs attacking decent people
Baby seals in coats of white, showin' blood upon the ice
As if blood was not the price paid for survival
Then protesters come, over head, by ship and boat
But not one of those bastards paid the mortgage on my house
They made us out as animals, there was nothin' we could do
So off we went, led like lambs to slaughter,
Now the pictures all were graphic, and the white coats they were cute
Was no denyin' that the camera loved their faces
But the tragedy concludes that mother nature may be cruel
In a way, there is no understandin'
I'm tryin' to make a livin' to the chantin' of a mob
A helicopter's hoverin' and I'm just tryin' to do my job
I wish they'd just go home, and let me make a decent wage
For upon it my family is dependin'
Soon the fashion industry, buckled neath the camera glare
Refusin' now to purchase pelts we harvest
The government gave up, and the quota's all were cut
And the movie star she went back to her mansion
As 6 million white coats grew an' ate 6 million tons of fish
We all knew that the ocean couldn't take much more of this
And the scientists who study all the fishes in the sea
Were findin' there weren't many left to study.
Now this is a cod fish, they once filled the ocean
But their numbers have dwindled in years
And confounded now by the huge seal population
Whose appetite scientists feared
They filled up their bellies, and gorged upon spawn
And when it was all over the cod fish were gone
And so were the protesters, every f*** in' one
To feast upon their self congratulations
Now many years had passed, an' we suffered through our tears
An we figured now that the worst was over
But a new face hit the news, she was determined with her views
And she drug along her poor misguided husband
She was smilin' for the camera, she was playin' to the crowds
Oh those pretty baby seals we gotta stop the slaughter now
I'm just a native fisherman, I ain't no murderer
But that's what she told the television camera
These bastards filled the presses
With bull sh** and propaganda
Tryin' to point their finger somewhere else
After rapin' mother nature of her fair and balanced manner
Just to get some recognition or themselves
Their f*** in' ugly faces showed up on the TV screen
Rich an' famous whores and hangers on and in between
While they did photo ops and interviews, the poor were left to dream
What it's like to be just like them.
So a curse upon their souls,
they forgot the golden rule
Never carin' 'bout what they did unto others
Should they live to be like me with a life upon the sea,
I hope they're looking through the eyes of their mothers
While me, the wife and family we got no where else to go
So we struggled to survive, to keep the fires burnin' home
While these self righteous bastards, well they don't care to know
What's happ'nin when the camera's are gone
I followed in me father's footsteps
back there in me younger life
Tryin' to make a livin' off the sea
