Leaving The Fishing Behind

— Len Wallace

Atlantic cod live in the cold waters of the northern seas. In the late 1400s Europeans exploring Newfoundland and Labrador noted that large numbers of cod frequented coastal waters, were easy to catch, and wonderful to eat. In the late 1500s hundreds of Basque vessels parcticipated in the cod fishery. By the 1700s dried and salted cod was a staple food throughout Europe, the American colonies, and the Mediterranean. Over the centuries, fishermen successfully developed more efficient techniques for finding, catching, and processing this seemingly unlimited, highly sought after resource. In 1992 the Canadian government, alarmed by studies reporting the decline of the cod stocks to the point that they were on the verge of becoming commercially extinct, imposed a moratorium on cod fishing in sections of Newfoundland-Labrador. This moratorium remains in place.

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Len Wallace . . .

Leaving The Fishing Behind

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I'm an honest fisherman just like my Dad
And I follow the fisherman's trade.
It's rough workin' hard when you search for the cod
From dawn to the closing of day.

Where the wind hurls its curses at you in the morn,
And blows them from sea to the land.
But you're back to your work and hauling the beds,
Till the sun shines its mercies again.

Now the silvery treaure I took from the ocean
And pockets of cash on the shore.
But what do you do when the fishing is gone
And your boat ploughs the white waves no more?

And what have you got when you can't farm the waters?
I'll say it's no fault of my own.
For the bad times that come that come to the poor island folk
When they're facing the high tide alone.

Now 250 a week is our government pay
No work to be found for the band.
And I grounded my boat to the government call
Tell me what life is that for a man?

As when the sea's in your blood you can't throw
      it away
It's your life, it's your living, your soul.
What is a life when it passes you by
As you wait for the government dole?

I'm an honest fisherman bent by the fortune
Of the work that is no longer mine.
I'm losing my trade to the drought of the sea
Leaving the fishing behind.

I'm an honest fisherman bent by the fortune
Of the work that is no longer mine.
I'm losing the fight to the drought of the sea
Leaving the fishing behind.

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Personnel: Len Wallace, vocals, accordian; Martin Smit, acoustic guitar; Eric Rosenbaum, producer; Chuck Reynolds, recording engineer; John Robinson, Tracy Holmes, recording assistant; R & R Productions, studio; Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, liner notes.

Len Wallace is a member of AFM Local 1000.

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Songs not otherwise attributed were recorded at the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange in 2001, 2003, 2004, or 2005 at the National Labor College/George Meany Center, Silver Spring, Maryland. Engineers: Bob Barnes, Ellis Boal, Charlie Ray Fetty III, Joe Jencks, Ray Korona, George Mann, Dave Sless, Isaac Wilson.

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