The Ballad Of The Great Big Giant Fiddle
A song about a Great Big Giant Fiddle. Story below!
Duncan is a songwriter and playwright living on Cape Breton Island. His songs are made available to serious music publishers and recording artists who are looki
turn it into a hit.
for artist information along with a variety of links to Duncan's original playscripts and songs.
Story behind the song
They built a giant fiddle on the local government wharf a few years back. It's made of steel and built to scale. It's friggin' HUGE. We are an economically depressed area of the province of Nova Scotia (due to no fault of our own). The fiddle was built as a tribute to a lady named Joan Harris, but was also intended as a way to attract tourism. This song tells the story of how the great big giant fiddle saved the town from ruin and created an industry in and of itself.
Lyrics
Howdy folks, I'm glad you're all sittin' down
I wanna tell ya a tale about a hard luck town
they had a Steel Plant, had some coal mines
But things went bad and the well ran dry
Yeah, times was tough, it was startin' to hurt
It seemed everybody in that town, was outta work
They got a call center, but that didn’t help
An the whole darn town was sinkin’
But then one day came, it was a sunny morn, way back when, 2004
somebody down on the government wharf, they got a bright idea
Yeah, they had a vision, they had a dream
They’d get some money from ECB
and they'd pay a man to build for them
A great big giant fiddle
The Great Big Giant fiddle
Fifty five feet high, it stood on the ground
it weighed 20 thousand an' some odd pounds
you could see that thing for miles around
that great big giant fiddle
It was made of steel an' built to scale
it cold stand the worst November gale
an it faced Walmart, everyday
that great big giant fiddle
The Great Big Giant fiddle
So the plan was clear before their eyes
The plan was clear to merchandize
They’d put that fiddle on a t-shirt
And sell it for 25 bucks.
They’d have fiddle post cards, and key rings
Fiddle shaped candy and figurines
Put a sticker of a fiddle on everything
And that’s how they’d make back their money
The money that they spent on the fiddle
The great big giant fiddle
Yeah, they put it on lighters, put it on hats
They put that fiddle on a postage stamp
They crossed their fingers, sat right back
And waited for it all to happen
And so it happened, the tourists came
They told two friends, and like they say
They told two more and rumors spread
About the great big giant fiddle
Yeah, rumors swirled, just like I said
And before long it was mis-said
It could heal the sick, and raise the dead
That great big giant fiddle
The Great Big Giant fiddle
Then the cruise ships came, an word got round from Amsterdam to Boston Town
And before long the whole world heard about the great big giant fiddle
It was covered by the foreign press, the late night talk shows took the rest
And they made an overnight success of the great big giant fiddle
It was featured on the CBC, in all the glossy magazines
the world came to their door to see that great big giant fiddle
Then the town got rich, their lives had changed, the Mayor declared a holiday
They had a festival and a big parade for that great big giant fiddle.
FIDDLE BREAK
Yeah, one sweet day we’ll all look back
At the coal mines and the steel plant
At the call centers and the government grants
And say "what the hell were we thinkin’?"
Cos round here there’s one thing that we all know
The bagpipe’s king, but the fiddle is gold
and so that’s it, my story's told
about the great big giant fiddle
yeah, one day folks
we'll all look back at the town that was saved
By the great big giant fiddle
