The darling little black flies and all their cousins: mosquitoes, midges, deer flies, warble flies, and, not to be missed, the horse flies. I know them very well as am the entree to their fine dining experience. This song may be my anthem.
Working as a tree planter, you see every nasty insect there is. Horse and Deer flies are way worse than the blackfly. I even got bit by a millipede once. Your best friend out there is the dragonfly. They don't bite and they eat everything that does. 😀
I worked in Northern Manitoba, Thompson for 3 bloody years. They called it the Unholy Trinity; Deer Flies, Black Flies, and the man eater, “The Horse Fly”. Those dirty evil mother F#*kers.
When I was a planter I found the deer and horse flies really slow and I could feel them land and kill them. Black flies were sneaky little buggers. About two weeks into planting the first planter to spot the 1st dragon fly's arrival would yell "dragon fly!" to alert everyone that the calvary was coming to our rescue. :)
This is my ringtone. People get so mad when they hear it. I love it. I use to watch this at night when I should have been sleeping. Although now I think older cartoons have a lot of dark twist to them but still good to develop the mind of a child.
On a canoe trip on the French River, early one spring, a blackfly bite on the eyelid caused my right eye to swell shut for two days. It sure was fun walking through the woods with no depth perception. I stumbled over every damn root and stone on every portage.
Most people don't understand the northern black fly experience. I lived in Labrador for 10 years. Many people know of black fly season in southern parts of Canada or northern US. In those areas, once it gets summer hot, the black flies are gone. In northern Canada, where only a small percentage of Canadians live, the black fly season is June to September, because the summer never gets hot enough to kill them. The average summer temperature in Labrador, for example, is 17C or 63F. If you get away from highways and towns, and on a calm day, the black flies are as bad as the song says.
+A NTP So, what do you think of this Internet thing? I can help you with your keyboard. On the upper right corner of the keyboard, there is likely a green light by a capitol A. On the left side of the keyboard there is a button called "Caps Lock". If you hit that, then it will allow the keyboard to type in lower case by default.
Being a fellow Canadian, I appreciate Donald Teed's comment. And being from the Niagara Peninsula, I didn't realize they can go all summer. That is miserable! Now I live in Prince Edward Island, we could start another account about mosquitoes - they're as big as hawks and can carry away your tent while you're sleeping in it - ok I'm kidding
Damn. I'm from southern Ontario where there are no blackflies. The blackflies around the Sault were bad enough when I was treeplanting. Although for me it was the same experience, just mercifully much shorter; got up there on May 8, about a week before they got bad, and left on June 24, about a week after they died off. So most of my time up there, they were my constant companions. And it was a dry summer so they weren't that bad, but bad enough for me!
Chuchill Man July 1970. Blackflies had a selection of Northern Boy Scouts. stil love the outdoors,and the north coutry. And of course good Canuk music.
My Dad was part of the construction crew building one of the dams in that region. Oh the stories he would tell. And he'd sing me the Blackfly Song! Good memories! Thanks!
Come on, does nobody have a master version of this? High resulution? I'll pay for it. This is a classic work. God help us if it's just a matter of remastering. There have got to be some CBC higher resolution version! The blackfly hitting in morse code is gonna get you if you don't fly in with an original resolution.
Not true my friend. I’m 46 tomorrow and think there’s never been more animation/anime/cartoons etc of exceptional brilliance out there. Search ‘dark animated shorts’ if you think this is good, you’re in for a treat.
I think you'll notice a lot more content in all of the generations the closer you look. Isnt it adults doing most of what you love? ♡ Old people are amazing. Animation + music is amazing.
One of my camp councilors tought us this song. It’s the middle of the night and I just remembered it out of nowhere. He said he wanted to someday get someone who he could travel the world with to preform this song. He seemed very attached. Not in a bad way of corse! I honestly like it, I just want to know why it literally just suddenly popped into my head, in the middle of a Sunday night, while watching tv?
Working up In Moosonee near James Bay... I'd been a cottager all my life, thought I was prepared but no. They block out the sun. The blackfly swarms are worse than any camp I've been to. They will be pickin' my bones.
I just spent the day out there today on my atv racing through the forest to get away from the black fly with this song in my head. If you stand still long enough they will carry you away.
With the return of the Northlander train some poor schmuck is going to go through this whole thing, scene-by-scene. Wait, nope, the Abitibi is a Montreal train and has been in service for ages. Some schmuck has been going through this whole thing, play-by-play, probably once every decade or so by now.
Man, I remember seeing this all the time on YTV as a kid :D What a blast from the past. ...Funny story, as I watch this, I'm part of a Lovecraft/Cthulu inspired LARP (live action role play) set in north ontario (i-o i-o). I'm not sure which is more dangerous. The LARP town, with occasional freaky stuff like carnivore frogs breaking through from another universe to try to eat us all, or this song about abitibi with swarms of intelligent blackflies. :o
Mid 90’s Cartoon Network had show called ‘O Canada’ spotlighting the many animated shorts from the great white north. ”Blackfly” is the one I remember best thanks to it being about Wade Hemsworth’s folk song about North Ontar-i-o.
@@liamrusty_6809 Yes near Fraserdale north of Smooth Rock Falls (or is it Little Rock Falls). I was planting trees for Arbor and I persisted til the end. Black flies are the devil's legions.
+Tony Baloney Blackflies are strange in that they don't bite hard and don't itch as much as a mosquito, but when there are 1000 of them around you (not exaggeration), which is unique to northern wilderness areas, they can drive you mad. You'll find them in your ears, eyes, nostrils. You need to keep moving if there is a calm air. People in northern USA or southern Canada often believe they know the blackfly experience, but this song is about the northern wilderness experience, which is as maddening as the song depicts. It doesn't let up from June to September, unlike the season in the south which sees the black flies die off once temperatures rise. In the north, with summer days in the 50's to 70 F, the black fly persists for months.
I used to watch this in the school library in grade 3. On repeat. With a guy named Chris T. It was our thing. Now I’m watching it as an adults and see the dark humour!
Lived in northern Quebec for a few years as a kid. We would be sent out to pick wild blueberries, long pants, long sleeves and nylons over our heads... but still eaten by black flies... promises of blueberry pies can drive you to enter their territory.
Friends of the family used to fish in north Ontar-i-o, and they brought back a great insect repellent called Muskol. It was good stuff, too bad the little Ab survey crew didn't have it.
The fiddlin' bear was my favorite part. Just got turned onto this song by my Canadian buddy, Belleville/Picton area, lifelong camper ......and he pretty much gave me the lowdown on the little beasts. Good song...
I have to assume that 'joeyzola' was kidding about Orillia. I was born in Timmins and we moved to North Bay when I was 6. North Bay was called the Gateway to the North. Orillia was and is definitely Southern Ontario. Blackflies are only really bad for a few weeks in the spring, by mid-June they're pretty much done but I did work in the bush one spring and they were crazy!!! And lastly, Wade Hemsworth (the singer and writer) is a little-known Canadian treasure, also wrote the Log Driver's Waltz
Visited this area this past Christmas/New Year's week. Didn't have time to see the dams but really cool to see a video about the development of the area. Hoping to get back again during the summer. Gotta watch out for the black flies.
They used to play this every morning before the start of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) summer camp. At the time I was pretty annoyed hearing it every day, but now this brings back nostalgic feelings and memories every time I watch it. Anyone else have the same experience?
I heard this song back in the '60s, when I was a boy living in Yonkers, NY. It sung by a lady folk singer (I don't remember her name) on an educational program called "What's New?," which was broadcast on Channel 13, WNET (the PBS station in our area).
I finally met ONE... just ONE out at a barbq near the UBC area here in Vancouver. I saw this itty bitty fruit fly looking thing flying around me and I'm like , "hunh, never seen a fruit fly do THAT before?!" let it land on my arm. As I watch this little fruit fly thing in curiouslity ... well, it freaking BIT me! Like I mean BIT bit me! A little welling up of blood like a pinprick of ruby - I mashed it dead of course and was... well, I was outraged! XD (laughing now) There were more later - so we left early. Sheesh! SO, yeah... whole SWARMS of these things!!??? NO freaking thank you! My mum told me how we visited Ottawa when I was REALLY little, and how they had these bugs called 'no see em's' that would just breeze through the screens and everything to bite the living crap out of you. I, of course, don't remember this - but holy hannah! Only in Canada, eh? (laughing yet not laughing...) O_o
Northern Ontario is brutal, I was up there a few years ago during the summer. There were large black spots moving around that, upon closer inspection, were massive amounts of flies. If you got too close they wouldn't stop following you, no matter what you did. It can drive you mad.
"no-see-em's" are black flies. I live in Ontario, and growing up have heard them referred to by both names. Horseflies will give you a nasty bite too, but the black flies is just as bad an they are like 100 times smaller. Little bastards.
+Flying Mushroom In the late 90s there was a show on Cartoon Network called "O Canada" that was basically an anthology of Canadian animation. The Cat Came Back was another short frequently featured on the show. Not all of them were set to folk songs, but a lot were.
I heard this song ALL the time as a kid in the 90s. I can't recall where I heard it, and TV pops to mind, but i only remembered the part about him dying with them picking his bones and the "north ontar-i-o-i-o" lines. Then I forgot, until a friend posted something about hating blackflies on Facebook. Ah, good times.
I Just got back from a week up north about 1/2 hr west of Kapuskasing and then an hour and 45 mins down a logging road to Rufus lake Outfitters, the fishing was spectacular! But the bugs were mother fricken vicious!!!!!!!! Even in the boat you had to make sure you were at least a couple hundred feet from shore or theyyyy'dddd findddd youuuu!!! The only thing that seemed to help was either standing in the smoke from a smudge fire covered in grass, or Muskol! But I'll be going back next year.
The cartoon work is brilliant! I loved the black flies in scuba gear and the Busby Berkley dance number. I do think this is an adult cartoon though, I can see how it would creep out a small child.
I grew up on this stuff....we could handle darkness, sadness, subtext, sarcasm...Roal Dahl, bugs bunny, a very dark shirt feature by the nfb about loving your neighbor...
Article today in the Star got me here - favourite obscure songs that helped define Canada for some musicians - this was Bruce Cockburn's choice. This had somehow slipped from my memory but great to see and hear this again. Wonderful humour in the animation.
Haha! I grew up in North Ontario. 12 miles from Wawa. Moved to B.C. when I was 11. I remember my Mother would cut our hair as short as she could and shave my brothers' heads so we didn't have to deal with the black fly tangles in the summer. They were terrible. We'd have contests at night counting to see who had the most bites that day. They'd be in the hundreds:0)
I once went through Labrador City and Churchill Falls, Labrador, in the summer. I only had to deal with the black flies for about a day and even then they drove me crazy. They'd be waiting outside the doors of buildings for you to leave, and instantly get at your eyes, in your ears, and up your nose. I envied the person I saw taking a stroll wearing a full net around their head hanging from the rim of a wide-brimmed hat. They looked like a beekeeper going for a walk, but I was the one who felt like a fool.
Ha 75 and live in North Bay ON.. first beautiful sunny hot day this year and, yep, bitten by blackflies just standing in my garden, have five raised, sore, painful, itchy bites back of neck. Next it will be mosquitoes. Then horseflies... roll on Winter! Seriously, I think visitors to this area should be warned about them as they are viscious - my friend got one near her eye and eye area swollen up for a few days. Visiting campers etc are also at great risk and the poor animals in the bush are driven out onto the highways as the flies hide in grass and leaves etc. Some folk have screened in porches etc but yu cant even sit out side on a dock. Strange that they only bite certain people but as I say there should be some type of WARNING, its not funny and ruins an otherwise beautiful summer.
Damn. Black flies can be such terrors. In kindergarten I used to be afraid of flies in general because one bit off a piece of my skin from my little finger.
nice. Different from the version of the song I know, from years ago. Also, years ago I did work in the woods, in Northern BC, and in May those black flies were something!
in the early part of the cartoon the woman in the employment office pulls a piece of paper with the word Abitbi on it. Abitbi is a river in northern ontario with a damn on it which was initially built in 1933. It's probably that one. It's called the Abitbi Canyon Generating Station near Cochrane, Ontario.
On the globe Orillia (44°36′N latitude) is only about half way between the Equator (0°) & North Pole (90°N). North Bay (46°18′N) only claims to be "Gateway of the North". You've got paved 4-lane roads, traffic lights , 3 Timmy H's (+ WI-FI), a shopping mall, soil tomatoes can grow in, 6 months that are "not-winter" & you're an easy daily commute to T.O. You may have a few rocks, moose & bear, but you're so far south of the "49th", you "can see the U.S. from the back porch" in 3 directions!
DEET works for about 5 min here in MI. before you need more. That was with 40% ,I just ordered 100% deet and im going back to fly territory next week ,hope it works better
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The darling little black flies and all their cousins: mosquitoes, midges, deer flies, warble flies, and, not to be missed, the horse flies. I know them very well as am the entree to their fine dining experience. This song may be my anthem.
Working as a tree planter, you see every nasty insect there is. Horse and Deer flies are way worse than the blackfly. I even got bit by a millipede once. Your best friend out there is the dragonfly. They don't bite and they eat everything that does. 😀
And spiders!
I worked in Northern Manitoba, Thompson for 3 bloody years. They called it the Unholy Trinity; Deer Flies, Black Flies, and the man eater, “The Horse Fly”. Those dirty evil mother F#*kers.
When I was a planter I found the deer and horse flies really slow and I could feel them land and kill them. Black flies were sneaky little buggers. About two weeks into planting the first planter to spot the 1st dragon fly's arrival would yell "dragon fly!" to alert everyone that the calvary was coming to our rescue. :)
This little short is so nostalgic and beautiful... In a dark, twisted way.
Well said
This is my ringtone. People get so mad when they hear it. I love it. I use to watch this at night when I should have been sleeping. Although now I think older cartoons have a lot of dark twist to them but still good to develop the mind of a child.
On a canoe trip on the French River, early one spring, a blackfly bite on the eyelid caused my right eye to swell shut for two days. It sure was fun walking through the woods with no depth perception. I stumbled over every damn root and stone on every portage.
A classic cartoon of one of the all time great Canadian modern folk songs.
I'm from Northern Ontario, and have been to Abitibi Canyon many of times, i can attest that this song is 100% true!
sitting here in the middle of the Northwest Territories....this song has never felt so appropriate....
Most people don't understand the northern black fly experience. I lived in Labrador for 10 years. Many people know of black fly season in southern parts of Canada or northern US. In those areas, once it gets summer hot, the black flies are gone. In northern Canada, where only a small percentage of Canadians live, the black fly season is June to September, because the summer never gets hot enough to kill them. The average summer temperature in Labrador, for example, is 17C or 63F. If you get away from highways and towns, and on a calm day, the black flies are as bad as the song says.
+A NTP So, what do you think of this Internet thing? I can help you with your keyboard. On the upper right corner of the keyboard, there is likely a green light by a capitol A. On the left side of the keyboard there is a button called "Caps Lock". If you hit that, then it will allow the keyboard to type in lower case by default.
Being a fellow Canadian, I appreciate Donald Teed's comment. And being from the Niagara Peninsula, I didn't realize they can go all summer. That is miserable! Now I live in Prince Edward Island, we could start another account about mosquitoes - they're as big as hawks and can carry away your tent while you're sleeping in it - ok I'm kidding
I'd rather not find out how bad they are thanks. I have enough trouble with deerflies and horseflies. :P
I am SO sorry for your experience. :o
Damn. I'm from southern Ontario where there are no blackflies. The blackflies around the Sault were bad enough when I was treeplanting. Although for me it was the same experience, just mercifully much shorter; got up there on May 8, about a week before they got bad, and left on June 24, about a week after they died off. So most of my time up there, they were my constant companions. And it was a dry summer so they weren't that bad, but bad enough for me!
Chuchill Man July 1970. Blackflies had a selection of Northern Boy Scouts. stil love the outdoors,and the north coutry. And of course good Canuk music.
My Dad was part of the construction crew building one of the dams in that region. Oh the stories he would tell. And he'd sing me the Blackfly Song! Good memories! Thanks!
I grew up in Detroit listening to Fred Penner sing this. Nostalgia trip!
Proud to have lived in Ontario, proud to be a Canadian
Come on, does nobody have a master version of this? High resulution? I'll pay for it. This is a classic work. God help us if it's just a matter of remastering. There have got to be some CBC higher resolution version!
The blackfly hitting in morse code is gonna get you if you don't fly in with an original resolution.
ruclips.net/video/f389hIxZAOc/видео.html
This is high resolution for the 1930's.
I’d get in touch with the NFB . . .
Black fly's are the best.
They keep the city folk out of the woods
Adam Cleaver yep they do... Great title for a song lol
Them city folk don't know what they in for
Trick: Wear long pants and tuck them into your socks. Also buy a bug jacket with a screen over your face (they sell them at the Bass Pro Shop).
Once got bit by a mosquito the size of a shoe. Thing nearly took off my arm
Growing up, I always thought the words were "I'll die with a black fly, pickin' my NOSE".
Lol I thought it was balls until I saw the lyrics!
Adults do not understand how important animation is. Ridiculous how amazing this is music+animation.
Not true my friend. I’m 46 tomorrow and think there’s never been more animation/anime/cartoons etc of exceptional brilliance out there. Search ‘dark animated shorts’ if you think this is good, you’re in for a treat.
I think you'll notice a lot more content in all of the generations the closer you look. Isnt it adults doing most of what you love? ♡ Old people are amazing. Animation + music is amazing.
One of my camp councilors tought us this song. It’s the middle of the night and I just remembered it out of nowhere. He said he wanted to someday get someone who he could travel the world with to preform this song. He seemed very attached. Not in a bad way of corse! I honestly like it, I just want to know why it literally just suddenly popped into my head, in the middle of a Sunday night, while watching tv?
Working up In Moosonee near James Bay... I'd been a cottager all my life, thought I was prepared but no. They block out the sun. The blackfly swarms are worse than any camp I've been to. They will be pickin' my bones.
Hahaha....loved this ..I'm from N. Ontario...pickin' the bones? Absolutely true, and I've got the bloody scars to prove it!!
This is one of the best songs of all time.
When I was younger I was always scared of the skeleton at the end
Dude, spoilers
I just spent the day out there today on my atv racing through the forest to get away from the black fly with this song in my head. If you stand still long enough they will carry you away.
And next, The Log Driver’s Waltz or maybe The Cat Came Back
The golden trio
With the return of the Northlander train some poor schmuck is going to go through this whole thing, scene-by-scene.
Wait, nope, the Abitibi is a Montreal train and has been in service for ages. Some schmuck has been going through this whole thing, play-by-play, probably once every decade or so by now.
One of the great CFB classics, right up there with the Hockey Sweater, the Log driver’s waltz and the Cat came back
Man, I remember seeing this all the time on YTV as a kid :D What a blast from the past.
...Funny story, as I watch this, I'm part of a Lovecraft/Cthulu inspired LARP (live action role play) set in north ontario (i-o i-o). I'm not sure which is more dangerous. The LARP town, with occasional freaky stuff like carnivore frogs breaking through from another universe to try to eat us all, or this song about abitibi with swarms of intelligent blackflies. :o
Mid 90’s Cartoon Network had show called ‘O Canada’ spotlighting the many animated shorts from the great white north. ”Blackfly” is the one I remember best thanks to it being about Wade Hemsworth’s folk song about North Ontar-i-o.
I planted trees near Fraserdale in the summer of 1993. This was on the Little Ab and every word of the song is true.
That's amazing. You were at the little Ab!
@@liamrusty_6809 Yes near Fraserdale north of Smooth Rock Falls (or is it Little Rock Falls). I was planting trees for Arbor and I persisted til the end. Black flies are the devil's legions.
This one scared the shit out of me when I was a kid
Singing this song keeps you somewhat sane. Why were there over 100 on my kayak in Killarney? I thought they enjoy body heat, CO2 and dark colors? 🤣
They were on vacation
i saw this in 2000-01 or so and i was tripping balls. havent been able to get it out of my head since
This song has been stuck in my head since 2009 and at this point I've accepted I'm dying with it.
Ah, black flies. The Canadian airforce at work. I love being Canadian XD
5*^ Awesome video. National Film Board Canada makes their films accessible to all Canadians. Thanks for sharing. :-)
Everytime I listen to this song, I smile!
Me too Emily
Holy crap, what a blast from the past. My teacher used to play this song all the way back in Kindergarten! Nostalgia is a wonderful thing
This terrified me as a kid
Same. I had to learn this in elementary school. This gave little me nightmares.
At least they weren't horsefly or deerfly. Them and mosquitoes are just the unholy trinity of horrible insects.
+Tony Baloney Blackflies are strange in that they don't bite hard and don't itch as much as a mosquito, but when there are 1000 of them around you (not exaggeration), which is unique to northern wilderness areas, they can drive you mad. You'll find them in your ears, eyes, nostrils. You need to keep moving if there is a calm air. People in northern USA or southern Canada often believe they know the blackfly experience, but this song is about the northern wilderness experience, which is as maddening as the song depicts. It doesn't let up from June to September, unlike the season in the south which sees the black flies die off once temperatures rise. In the north, with summer days in the 50's to 70 F, the black fly persists for months.
I agree, deer and horseflies are pretty evil
"that's one way to stop the buzzin'..." charles bronson, "Death Hunt"~~lol. "...people in northern usa or southern canada...". uh-huh. right.
horseflies get you when you move and the deerflies when you stop!
Horseflies take chunks of you
I used to watch this in the school library in grade 3. On repeat. With a guy named Chris T. It was our thing.
Now I’m watching it as an adults and see the dark humour!
Lived in northern Quebec for a few years as a kid. We would be sent out to pick wild blueberries, long pants, long sleeves and nylons over our heads... but still eaten by black flies... promises of blueberry pies can drive you to enter their territory.
I live in North Ontario! I have always loved this song.
I sing this when I'm paddling in Algonquin every year. Cheers!
Friends of the family used to fish in north Ontar-i-o, and they brought back a great insect repellent called Muskol. It was good stuff, too bad the little Ab survey crew didn't have it.
ITS SO CUTE ,,,BUT VERY TRUE ,,YES THEY LIVE IN ONTARIO ,,PESTY LITTLE THINGS ..,,,.THANKS FOR POSTING THIS SONG ,,
..ROLLANDE
Watched this many times. Absolutely enjoyed it... for good old healthy humor. I feel sorry for you, supersensitive modern gals and guys.
I just like stumbled across this trying to find something, and i can't get it out of my head now....
I remember going down to my school's library to watch short films like this back in fifth-grade. So many memories...
Ah man I had this on VHS along with the cat came back and a weird piano cartoon. Thanks so much for the nostalgia!
There's a DVD version.
Really? Do you know the name of it? Thanks!
It is called "Animation Greats." It's on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/Animation-Greats/dp/B00000ID20.
Thanks so much, man!
Filmflicker Cinema jkkkkkkk
The fiddlin' bear was my favorite part. Just got turned onto this song by my Canadian buddy, Belleville/Picton area, lifelong camper ......and he pretty much gave me the lowdown on the little beasts. Good song...
Man does this bring back memories from childhood.
I have to assume that 'joeyzola' was kidding about Orillia. I was born in Timmins and we moved to North Bay when I was 6. North Bay was called the Gateway to the North. Orillia was and is definitely Southern Ontario.
Blackflies are only really bad for a few weeks in the spring, by mid-June they're pretty much done but I did work in the bush one spring and they were crazy!!!
And lastly, Wade Hemsworth (the singer and writer) is a little-known Canadian treasure, also wrote the Log Driver's Waltz
I've lived in Siberia for a while and this song gives me flashbacks..
Living in Moosonee here, NORTH of where this song takes place (on the Abitibi River)
Are they as bad as the song says? 😅
Visited this area this past Christmas/New Year's week. Didn't have time to see the dams but really cool to see a video about the development of the area. Hoping to get back again during the summer. Gotta watch out for the black flies.
The only place i ever got away from blackfly's in Canada was on the coast of B.C. and then there was mosquitoes...
I watched this for years.:) Never gets old.
They used to play this every morning before the start of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) summer camp. At the time I was pretty annoyed hearing it every day, but now this brings back nostalgic feelings and memories every time I watch it. Anyone else have the same experience?
theme to my childhood at camp
its pretty fun to sing this with other Canadians in different countries .. unity !
A part of our heritage.
Some heritage! Ever been covered in the bites? LOL
❤👍
In A Violent Nature brought me here!!!
I heard this song back in the '60s, when I was a boy living in Yonkers, NY. It sung by a lady folk singer (I don't remember her name) on an educational program called "What's New?," which was broadcast on Channel 13, WNET (the PBS station in our area).
I remember this cartoon as a kid, from Zagreb animated film festival. I started learning guitar with this song.
Thank you, added to favourites in Goodbye Sandfly, amazing mix of desperation and humour.
I finally met ONE... just ONE out at a barbq near the UBC area here in Vancouver. I saw this itty bitty fruit fly looking thing flying around me and I'm like , "hunh, never seen a fruit fly do THAT before?!" let it land on my arm.
As I watch this little fruit fly thing in curiouslity ... well, it freaking BIT me! Like I mean BIT bit me! A little welling up of blood like a pinprick of ruby - I mashed it dead of course and was... well, I was outraged! XD (laughing now) There were more later - so we left early. Sheesh!
SO, yeah... whole SWARMS of these things!!??? NO freaking thank you!
My mum told me how we visited Ottawa when I was REALLY little, and how they had these bugs called 'no see em's' that would just breeze through the screens and everything to bite the living crap out of you. I, of course, don't remember this - but holy hannah!
Only in Canada, eh? (laughing yet not laughing...)
O_o
Northern Ontario is brutal, I was up there a few years ago during the summer. There were large black spots moving around that, upon closer inspection, were massive amounts of flies. If you got too close they wouldn't stop following you, no matter what you did. It can drive you mad.
"no-see-em's" are black flies. I live in Ontario, and growing up have heard them referred to by both names. Horseflies will give you a nasty bite too, but the black flies is just as bad an they are like 100 times smaller. Little bastards.
Amy Hearn I live in Vancouver! Finally found a fellow who lived in Vancouver!
As an American I dont know how my parents found this video to show me. The whole collection was called The Cat Came Back.
+Flying Mushroom In the late 90s there was a show on Cartoon Network called "O Canada" that was basically an anthology of Canadian animation. The Cat Came Back was another short frequently featured on the show. Not all of them were set to folk songs, but a lot were.
This song and cartoon bring back so many memories LOL
I remember seeing this on TV when I was a kid.
Thank you for posting this❤❤❤👍
Absolutely brilliant! I wish had those animation chops and the brilliant team who put this together. The song is perfect too! Thanks for sharing!
I heard this song ALL the time as a kid in the 90s. I can't recall where I heard it, and TV pops to mind, but i only remembered the part about him dying with them picking his bones and the "north ontar-i-o-i-o" lines. Then I forgot, until a friend posted something about hating blackflies on Facebook.
Ah, good times.
There needs to be a metal cover of this...
fuck ya there should be! wanna start a band?
Ask Leo Moracchioli to cover it. Check him out.
I Just got back from a week up north about 1/2 hr west of Kapuskasing and then an hour and 45 mins down a logging road to Rufus lake Outfitters, the fishing was spectacular! But the bugs were mother fricken vicious!!!!!!!! Even in the boat you had to make sure you were at least a couple hundred feet from shore or theyyyy'dddd findddd youuuu!!! The only thing that seemed to help was either standing in the smoke from a smudge fire covered in grass, or Muskol! But I'll be going back next year.
The cartoon work is brilliant! I loved the black flies in scuba gear and the Busby Berkley dance number. I do think this is an adult cartoon though, I can see how it would creep out a small child.
My fave black-fly character in this is the telegraph operator. "Food is coming!"
I grew up on this stuff....we could handle darkness, sadness, subtext, sarcasm...Roal Dahl, bugs bunny, a very dark shirt feature by the nfb about loving your neighbor...
Article today in the Star got me here - favourite obscure songs that helped define Canada for some musicians - this was Bruce Cockburn's choice. This had somehow slipped from my memory but great to see and hear this again. Wonderful humour in the animation.
i remember listening/singing this song all through my younger years in elementary school.
Haha! I grew up in North Ontario. 12 miles from Wawa. Moved to B.C. when I was 11. I remember my Mother would cut our hair as short as she could and shave my brothers' heads so we didn't have to deal with the black fly tangles in the summer. They were terrible. We'd have contests at night counting to see who had the most bites that day. They'd be in the hundreds:0)
Saw this on pbs when I was 13/14.I loved it ...great song the best animation.luv it still
I once went through Labrador City and Churchill Falls, Labrador, in the summer. I only had to deal with the black flies for about a day and even then they drove me crazy. They'd be waiting outside the doors of buildings for you to leave, and instantly get at your eyes, in your ears, and up your nose. I envied the person I saw taking a stroll wearing a full net around their head hanging from the rim of a wide-brimmed hat. They looked like a beekeeper going for a walk, but I was the one who felt like a fool.
this song is hilarious! It was stuck in my head today.
Ha 75 and live in North Bay ON.. first beautiful sunny hot day this year and, yep, bitten by blackflies just standing in my garden, have five raised, sore, painful, itchy bites back of neck. Next it will be mosquitoes. Then horseflies... roll on Winter! Seriously, I think visitors to this area should be warned about them as they are viscious - my friend got one near her eye and eye area swollen up for a few days. Visiting campers etc are also at great risk and the poor animals in the bush are driven out onto the highways as the flies hide in grass and leaves etc. Some folk have screened in porches etc but yu cant even sit out side on a dock. Strange that they only bite certain people but as I say there should be some type of WARNING, its not funny and ruins an otherwise beautiful summer.
OMG I,m Literally 10 Years Old Again When I View This.....Thank You So Much For The Melancholy Feelings!
moments turned to memories...bittersweet
Damn. Black flies can be such terrors. In kindergarten I used to be afraid of flies in general because one bit off a piece of my skin from my little finger.
catchy tune n dancing skeleton in the ending was a nice touch: D
My substitute teacher sang this whilst playing a guitar when I was in 6th or 7th grade. She was one hell of a singer.
Remember those young boys. Their lives ahead of them. SASK.
nice.
Different from the version of the song I know, from years ago.
Also, years ago I did work in the woods, in Northern BC, and in May those black flies were something!
And the flies swarmed heavy, it was hard to catch a breath
As you staggered up and down the trail talkin' to yourself
I feel itchy
Northern Canada really is a special brand of hell. I feel itchy just thinking about it.
Amasing song! I just remember every my summer, haha
in the early part of the cartoon the woman in the employment office pulls a piece of paper with the word Abitbi on it. Abitbi is a river in northern ontario with a damn on it which was initially built in 1933. It's probably that one. It's called the Abitbi Canyon Generating Station near Cochrane, Ontario.
I’d love to find chords to play this around the northern Ontario campfire.
Gotta love this song once I hear it everyday!
On the globe Orillia (44°36′N latitude) is only about half way between the Equator (0°) & North Pole (90°N). North Bay (46°18′N) only claims to be "Gateway of the North".
You've got paved 4-lane roads, traffic lights , 3 Timmy H's (+ WI-FI), a shopping mall, soil tomatoes can grow in, 6 months that are "not-winter" & you're an easy daily commute to T.O.
You may have a few rocks, moose & bear, but you're so far south of the "49th", you "can see the U.S. from the back porch" in 3 directions!
Constantly in my head
HAHAHA 3 years ago
Big Hazard Six HAHAHA 2 years ago
I find this yesterday and kan't stop watching this. The little black flys must be the same som knott her in Norway.
DEET works for about 5 min here in MI. before you need more. That was with 40% ,I just ordered 100% deet and im going back to fly territory next week ,hope it works better
Takes me back to my childhood. We used to study.this song in elementray school.
I heard this song at Busch Gardens and I swore he said I will die with a blackfly lickin my balls.