Saturday, June 17, 2017

"Song of the Paddle" Theme Song *





I would put money down that any fan of this film has said to themselves "I love this song...how can I get a copy?" And for years I have searched up and down. I have come across other people on youtube, or in camping and canoeing forums on the same mission. To no luck.

The song, written by Folk singer songwriter David Campbell is a beautiful flow of words that place you into the wilderness, and calms your soul. David Campbell has a youtube page filled to the brim with folk songs, but none are the song from the film. People have littered his comments with request for the piece, but to no response from David.

My wife loves to sing to our Son before bed, and this song is a frequent one that comes up. So serene, so warming and sounds great just singing the words.  I have had the idea of pulling it from the film for year, but finally did it.

It was a bit of a task, no so much pulling the song, but arranging it in a fashion that is is a complete song. If you unfamiliar with the film and the song, it goes like this:

The opening has the first Chorus and the humming section as one 2 min long song for the opening theme. Then about 5 or so minutes in there is a more subdued chorus and fades out and that's it. So the task was how to arrange this in a flowing song. Well as you can see I stuck the humming at the end, and blending the second chorus in the middle. I think I nailed it the best you can, from a song that might originally been two takes completely and transformed them in to one track for your listening pleasure.  Maybe one day we will have access to the real song...with a real title. Enjoy.

* I do not own this music, NFB does.