Turnaround (Entire Album)

Booklet foreword:
"Canadian artists can be divided into ironists and passionists. Ironists are in the majority. It suits our national predicament of feeling overshadowed by smug, powerful others. Irony is also the default attitude of most modern culture. There's irony in Stan Rogers' writing, but at his core he was a passionist.

Passion imbues his songs, whether the contexts are private and intimate or public and historic. You hear that intensity in solemn refrain, 'Who will know the Bluenose in the sun?' about the schooner 'portrayed on every dime'; or in the dirge-like, 'The Jeanie C.', about a fisherman whose 'whole life has been taken' as his ship sinks.

But there's just as much fervor at the sight of a crazy lady dancing on a train, which explodes into, 'I wanna listen to Joni Mitchell on the radio'. This is a man with a surfeit of passion. In 'Try Like the Devil', he agonizes over the 'little smell of success' he's had so far. We can even hear the screaming of the 'demons on my shoulder'.

He didn't wait for history to provide weight of profundity to his subjects; he supplied it himself. 'Front Runner' has a touch of the Depression anthem 'Buddy Can You Spare a Dime', but without the background of the 1930s. It merely concerns an old acquaintance he happened to meet. 'The Jeannie C.' is the Titanic going down, it's a little fishing boat. Yet you feel a classic, primordial sense of nature humbling its arrogant creations as he sings; 'What I found made my heart stop cold/ For every seam poured water'.

'The Song of the Candle' captures the awful frustration of having what seems like a brilliant idea and being unable to capture it on paper, 'Taken from the mold, while it still can run/ A candle may not keep you from the cold'. It's a great song about the misery of failing to write a song, 'underneath my hands this night has slipped away and it leaves me as empty as this page'. It will have to stand for all the songs he wasn't able to give us due to his sudden death at the ridiculously early age of 33."

-Rick Salutin

Track Listing:

1: Dark Eyed Molly
2: Oh No, Not I
3: Second Effort
4: Bluenose
5: The Jeannie C.
6: So Blue
7: Front Runner
8: Song of the Candle
9: Try Like the Devil
10: Turnaround

Best way to buy Stan's music and music by other Canadian artists:

[sallyadams]

I am a very proud Canadian, but Stan Rogers makes me just a little more proud. What a terrible loss, not just for Canada, but for everyone that loves a great singing story teller.

[doughaak]

I got to see Stan twice before his passing. What a great writer and voice!

[kadi]

The Jeannie C, , , make me speechless, , , the love, the values of life, , , just great

[awww]

The song "Bluenose" was the first song I ever heard from Stan. As many can testify, the song nailed me to the floor. And my launch into the music of Stan Rogers began! I listened to nothing but Stan for roughly 3 years. Because some of his songs demand replay after replay. Extremely Canadian, extremely powerful and just an extreme tragedy he was taken from us way too early. But with each new fan, and the joy he brought, I'm sure he is grinning up in Heaven.

[dangolpossum]

0:00 Dark Eyed Molly
3:35 Oh No, Not I
7:15 Second Effort
10:35 Bluenose
14:20 The Jeannie C.
20:13 So Blue
23:25 Front Runner
27:29 Song of the Candle
34:08 Try Like the Devil
37:14 Turnaround

[judithbliss]

My family and I have all been staunch Stan fans since my mother came back from visiting her relatives years ago..maybe 1975 or so..and brought his music back to Vermont. Stan lives on in my family and we have bred a new generation of fans in our children now grown and playing his music to their children. I hope to see a resurgence of folk music in my lifetime.

[kadi]

and Turnaround remembers me of an other Candadian Legend, , , Terry Fox, , rest both in peace, , you shall never be forgotten and your spirit lives forever!

[too]

When Yanks say us Canucks didn't do much ...I always say Stan Rogers! It shuts them up right quick.

[statelyelms]

*_Bluenose_*

_Once again with the tide she slips her lines_
_Turns her head and comes awake_
_Where she lay so still there at Privateer's Wharf_
_Now she quickly gathers way_
_She will range far south from the harbour mouth_
_And rejoice with every wave_
_Who will know the Bluenose in the sun_
_Feel her bow rise free of Mother Sea_
_In a sunburst cloud of spray_
_That stings the cheek while the rigging will speak_
_Of sea-miles gone away_
_She is always best under full press_
_Hard over as she'll lay_
_And who will know the Bluenose in the sun?_ (x2)
_That proud, fast Queen of the Grand Banks Fleet_
_Portrayed on every dime_
_Knew hard work in her time... hard work in every line_
_The rich men's toys of the Gloucester boys_
_With their token bit of cod_
_They snapped their spars and strained to pass her by_
_But she left them all behind_
_Now her namesake remains to show what she has been_
_What every schoolboy remembers and will not come again_
_To think she's the last of the Grand Banks Schooners_
_That fed so many men_
_And who will know the Bluenose in the sun?_ (x2)
_So does she not take wing like a living thing_
_Child of the moving tide?_
_See her pass with grace on the water's face_
_With clean and quiet pride_
_Our own tall ship of great renown still lifts unto the sky_
_Who will know the Bluenose in the sun?_ (x3)
_Know the Bluenose in the sun?_ (x2)

[XXXXHHHHHTTTTTHHHHHH]

I'll never know what we struck, but strike we did like Thunder. John price give a cry and pitched over side. Gets me every time.

[MrBytorr]

The title track was almost excluded from this album. Stan had written it 9 or so years before. In a lot of ways, a lot of the songs were like that; bits and pieces from his past that he took and made into an album. After Fogarty's Cove (which was largely written from the beginning of the concept), he wanted to distance himself somewhat from being just a Maritime sensation, so he went for a more traditional folk approach. I'm real glad it was included, this is perhaps Stan's most heartfelt and true-to-heart album.

[pudops]

I got this album on vinyl at taz record's in Bedford Nova Scotia best buy i have made so far!!!

[RenaRoo]

Turnaround (the track) touches my heart. It’s such a beautiful and emotional song.

[garymct]

Yours was the open road, the bitter song, the heavy load that I couldn't share though the offer was there every time you turned around.

[DPG]

Stunning album. I am an expat Brit, and frankly Canada is huge, anti-democratic disappointment. Little in Canada should impress anyone, except the scenery. But this is true genius and the highest quality.

[gigachadtjk]

You vill listen to Stan Rogers und you vill be happy

[amberwoodstudio]

❤️ I remember those days when the Atlantic fishies was going to hell.