Talk:Runnin' Back to Saskatoon

Dead external links to Allmusic website – January 2011
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I would like to suggest that the following sentence is not established beyond argument:

Places mentioned in the song are Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Broadview, and Moosomin, which are all in Saskatchewan, as well as three cities in Alberta — Red Deer, Hanna, and Medicine Hat, one in British Columbia —Terrace, and Hong Kong.

I would suggest that neither Broadview nor Hanna are part of the intended lyric.

While lyric sites are notoriously non-authoritative, this site's rendering of the songs chorus lyrics matches my hearing of the song:


 * Moose Jaw saw a few, Moosomin too
 * Runnin' back to Saskatoon
 * Red Deer, Terrace and a Medicine Hat
 * Sing another prairie tune
 * Sing another prairie tune

Other sites such as this render it as


 * Moose Jaw, Broadview, Moosomin too
 * Runnin' back to Saskatoon
 * Red Deer, Terrace, Hanna, Medicine Hat

which comports with your text.

While it is impossible to say which is right, I'll say this in support of my contention.

1. Broadview vs "saw a few": the latter is vaguely humorous in keeping with the spirit of the song. And listening to the song (this site has the clearest version), one can definitely hear an 'S' sound rather than a "B" in that position

2. Hanna vs. "and a":  The latter is a common device in rock lyrics e.g. 'A one and a two and a three'. While meaning no offense to the good citizens of Hanna, AB, I think the latter is more likely. They were writing a song, not a list of every possible town on the Canadian Prairie. Moose Jaw, Red Deer, and Medicine Hat are much more well-known than Hanna.

While nothing but written lyrics would be authoritative, lacking that, Wikipedia should indicate somehow that Broadview and Hanna are possibilities rather than definitively mentioned in the lyric. These references have not always been included in past versions of this article.

Stevecoh1 (talk) 18:21, 8 August 2018 (UTC)