LAST TRAIN FOR SCHEFFERVILLE, cover Michel Rivard

[Jean Pierre]

I have always liked the songs Last train for. ...

I hesitated to publish this beautiful song of Michel Rivard because it is a ballad a little long, and in French.


As often with Michel Rivard the song tells a story,...the story of the mining town of Schefferville in the far reaches of Quebec...a town created from scratch in the 50's that saw its population grow to 6000 inhabitants and when the vein was exhausted the mining company decided to stop the exploitation and threw the 6000 inhabitants in the street. . and the town became a ghost town...and this is what always happens; the same consequences: a kind of gold rush (iron, copper, coal, lignite, oil, uranium...) where all forms of production and exploitation are furiously developed and then, when the vein is exhausted... Everything is thrown away and the profiteers go off to start their shenanigans again somewhere else; then, in a vague desert of ruins, the disenchanted people are left to survive as best they can... who had been uprooted to plant them there...

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

here the translation

There's been nothing at the Roxy for a few months
There's snow in the door of the old cinema
In the street a dog barks and thinks he's a wolf
Night falls on the city that gave me birth
At the brewery they sing louder than usual
For Johnny's party going south
But the south of Shefferville is not Jamaica
It's Quebec or Matane or New Brunswick

Last November they closed the mine
I saw my father crying on the kitchen table
It wasn't so much losing a job that was guaranteed
But to see the dream of thirty years fade away
When I came into the world they were newlyweds
Come to find love and prosperity
In a city invented by a big company
In the middle of the north, in the middle of the cold and in the middle of paradise

Today it hurts to see everyone leave
It's here that I was born, it's here that I want to die
With a case of twelve, a northern lights
And the woman of my life lying under the stars
Lying under the stars

I spent my youth in the woods
Hunting and fishing and drinking with the boys
A ski-doo between my legs and the grief in my heart
I became a man and I knew fear

In my father's footsteps I went to work
And the iron mine became a reality
Like the love of my wife and the warmth of my home
And the fear of having everything I've earned taken away

Today it hurts to see everyone go
It's here that I was born, it's here that I want to die
With a case of twelve a northern lights
And the woman of my life lying under the stars
Lying under the stars

And at the end of the line it's history that decides
If the weight of our dreams drags us down
I walked up the radar hill
I saw my city die under the northern sun

I'm not the one who can change the course of life
If there's no one left I'll leave too
And I'm the one who's gonna turn off the lights in the city
When the last train leaves for Sept-Iles
When the last train leaves for Sept-Iles

[BerryPatch]

Such wonderful music JP. Your production just keeps getting better and better. Beautiful cello and slide work here.

There's been a lot of towns in Canada that had a similar fate. Kitsault in British Columbia is another one. In the 80s there was some sort of issue at the mine and the entire populace was evacuated and never returned. The town is pretty much completely abandoned, yet perfectly preserved. I believe a small population "look after" the town but that's about it. Even a lot of the possessions of people are still in the houses because they thought they'd be back.

[TPB]

I love songs with a story line and this one is nice
Thanks Tim

[Jean Pierre]

..spécialement pour BP, car j'ai vu qu'il habitait le Nouveau Brunswick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbEnwwKFmYw

..the video I put on You tube with pictures of the Schefferville train

I also learned from Wikipedia that, if the Schefferville mining site had closed, the railway line was kept. The train is called the Tshiuetin, the train of the Great North, the line is more than 200km long and the trip between Schefferville and Sept-Iles takes more than 14 hours.

about the Tschiuetin https://www.n360.uqam.ca/v02-tshiuetin-train-grand-nord

[Rene Asologuitar]

I have always liked the songs Last train for. ...

I hesitated to publish this beautiful song of Michel Rivard because it is a ballad a little long, and in French.

++++++++++++++++++++

I am always enjoying your recordings, Jean!!!
Very emotional singing on this beautiful song, excellent harmonies as well!
Lovely production!!!
Thank you for sharing this beauty!

[Mike_S]

Such wonderful music JP. Your production just keeps getting better and better. Beautiful cello and slide work here.

Agreed, your productions are getting better and better. This is lovely. Love the banjo.

This whole story reminds me of something I read recently on the internet. We are led to believe this whole rush to get everyone onboard the green economy as quick as possible, green energy etc is a fantastic thing and we should ask no questions. But a lot of money is being made by certain companies taking advantage of the whole environmental thing. And who suffers? As ever the people with very little in the first place.

Sorry yes, the story I read talked about a country in Africa, I forget exactly which, where the latest craze was for all the locals including many young children to go mining for cobalt needed for car batteries. And a lot of these children have ended up dying in the process. Different game, same rules (none), same result.

-------

D'accord, vos productions sont de mieux en mieux. C'est adorable. J'adore le banjo.

Toute cette histoire me rappelle quelque chose que j'ai lu récemment sur Internet. Nous sommes amenés à croire que toute cette précipitation pour embarquer tout le monde dans l'économie verte aussi vite que possible, l'énergie verte, etc. est une chose fantastique et nous ne devrions pas poser de questions. Mais certaines entreprises gagnent beaucoup d'argent en profitant de toute cette histoire environnementale. Et qui souffre ? Comme toujours, les gens avec très peu en premier lieu.

Désolé oui, l'histoire que j'ai lue parlait d'un pays d'Afrique, j'oublie exactement lequel, où le dernier engouement était pour tous les habitants, y compris de nombreux jeunes enfants, d'aller extraire le cobalt nécessaire aux batteries de voiture. Et beaucoup de ces enfants ont fini par mourir dans le processus. Jeu différent, mêmes règles (aucune), même résultat.

(Google translate, apologies!)

Mike