Comments on: Friday Five: Alaska

By: scooter

scooter — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:57:16 +0000

NM wrote “Saginaw Michigan” is probably my favorite country song about Alaska.
I saw Jimmie Dale Gilmore the other day and he sang that song- great song

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:02:55 +0000

My favorite John Denver song about Alaska is “The Wrangle Mountain Song” due to it’s high yodel content! (lol)

I love Hank Thompson’s “Squaws Along The Yukon” partly because by today’s standards it is very politically incorrect! If any pretty salmon colored eskimo gal wants to sit upon my knee, well that’s just fine with me! (lol) That may be the only song that compares a woman’s body to parts of an airplane. Hmm…

By: Arlene

Arlene — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:19:09 +0000

I also like “Denali, Not McKinley” by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:13:01 +0000

“Springtime In Alaska” was Johnny Horton’s first #1 hit. “North to Alaska” was the title song to a John Wayne movie a year or so later–Presumably, the earlier record spurred the producers of the movie to choose Horton to sing the song.

Horton is a guy who should be inducted into the H-o-F. To my mind, one thing that puts him over is staying power. Aside from his influence on later artists, like Yoakam, Horton’s own records have been continually played for the last six decades and you still occasionally hear them today in all sorts of places.

By: nm

nm — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:05:32 +0000

“Saginaw Michigan” is probably my favorite country song about Alaska. But if we’re venturing a little farther afield musically, I think I like Michelle Shocked’s “Anchorage” even better.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:04:08 +0000

Note that Sergeant Preston was, as Barry says, a Mountie, meaning that the Yukon in that title refers to the Canadian province, not the river that runs through the state of Alaska.

“When It’s Springtime In Alaska” was, of course, a big hit for Johnny Horton, compared to whose version the Cash/Carter one is, sadly, pretty humdrum. I had in mind that it was a follow-up to “North To Alaska,” but I see that it was actually the other way around.

The Del McCoury Band’s “White Pass Railroad,” on their Family Circle album, is based on actual Alaskan history.

By: timeo

timeo — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:07:49 +0000

Of course, you are right LOS: I forgot the mention of Cheechakos, as well as the last line of “The Squaws ALONG the Yukon”: “Carry me back to old Alaska.” And the song came along around the time of Alaska statehood (as did the Horton songs), so there would be a reason the 49th state was on Thompson’s mind.

By: Barry Mazor

Barry Mazor — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:06:14 +0000

And “Sgt Preston of the Yukon” refers, some of a certain age will well-remember, to a kids-oriented adventure show (they had those) of the mid-1950s by that name. He was a mountie, and we learned about mounties, sort of. He said “Mush; mush! On you huskies!” a lot.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:52:35 +0000

“Squaw” has never been a synonym for eskimo but that Hank Thompson song is definitely about Alaska, not Oklahoma. Not that it’s likely to be embraced by the Alaska Tourism Board, either.

By: timeo

timeo — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:24:14 +0000

I used to think Hank Thompson’s “Squaws Upon the Yukon” was an Alaska-based song, and that “squaws” was just a synonym for Eskimo. But, recently I met someone from Yukon, Oklahoma, which I had never heard of before. Given Thompson’s Oklahoma roots, I suspect that song was not about Alaska after all. In that vein, the only other county-ish song with something Alaska in the title that comes to mind is Ray Stevens’ “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.” Alaska plays a key role in Lefty Frizzell’s “Saginaw, Michigan” (the protagonist prospects in Alaska, then sells his father-in-law a bogus gold mine).