Free In The Harbour

(album: Northwest Passage - 1981)

Well, it's blackfish at play in Hermitage Bay
From Pushthrough across to Bois Island
They broach and they spout and they lift their flukes out
And they wave to a town that is dying
Now it's many's the boats that has plied on the foam
Hauling away! Hauling away!
But there's many more fellas been leaving their homes
Where the whales make free in the harbour

It's at Portage and Main you'll see them again
On their way to the hills of Alberta
With lop-sided grins, they waggle their chins
And they brag of the wage they'll be earning
Then it's quick, pull the string boys, and get the tool out
Haul it away! Haul it away!
But just two years ago you could hear the same shout
Where the whales make free in the harbour

Free in the harbour; the blackfish are sporting again
Free in the harbour; untroubled by comings and goings of men
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
Hauling away! Hauling away!
Now they're Calgary roughnecks from Hermitage Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour

Well, it's a living they've found, deep in the ground
And if there's doubts, it's best they ignore them
Nor think on the bones, the crosses and stones
Of their fathers that came there before them
In the taverns of Edmonton, fishermen shout
Haul it away! Haul it away!
They left three hundred years buried up the Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour

Free in the harbour; the blackfish are sporting again
Free in the harbour; untroubled by comings and goings of men
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
Hauling away! Hauling away!
Now they're Calgary roughnecks from Hermitage Bay
Where the whales make free in the harbour

Free in the harbour again