She Be She Strike

Eskimo Radio MP3s: Ayatollah Khomeini, You Are My Sunshine, Labatt's Beer Ad, Heart of Stone, Marijuana Humor.

The story and the tapes began circulating around the cassette underground in the early-eighties: an Inuit Radio station operated in Northern Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was vacated by its regular staff due to a CBC strike, and the station was temporarily programmed by its Eskimo janitor and his buddies. The phrase "She Be She Strike" (CBC Strike) can be heard repeatedly on portions of the tape which are not excerpted here, but the truth may never be known until the language can be identified and a native speaker translates the entire recording, hint hint.

The story isn't too far-fetched though; the CBC operates dozens of Inuit radio stations through it's Northern Service, and the record shows that they've had their fair share of strikes over the years. You can listen to some of the Inuit stations over the net these days, like this daytime-only station (Windows Media feed).

Track One: OK, I'm Singing To You, Ayatollah Khomeini - And that's just what our janitor friend does, after some mixed Inuit-English shout-outs to "Barney, and uh, Rosey, And hello to you Bruce and Matt (more Inuit) I'm happy to you. OK, I'm singing to you Ayatollah Khomeini." This track dates the strike to 1979-1980, when Khomeini was all over the news because of the Iranian hostage crisis.

Track Two: You Are My Sunshine - The definitive Inuit version of the state song of Louisiana, performed on harmonica, jews harp and vocal, sans guitar. 

Track Three: Labatts Beer Commercial - That's what it sounds like anyway. Maybe the regular engineers took the commercials home with them, or the temporary staff set up a temporary sales office to hawk some ad time.

Track Four: Heart of Stone - Performed live on the radio and soon to be released as a bonus track on the Canadian reissue of Hot Rocks.

Track Five: Eskimo Marijuana Humor - Testiment to the ubiquity of Cheech and Chong and marijuana jokes in general throughout the Seventies, or public service announcement? You decide. If you listen closely, you may hear the term "Lebanese Ragweed" and "Marijuana." One things for sure - there's at least one copy of Frank Zappa's Dynamo Hum north of the 60th parallel.

UPDATE: I posted the longer, thirty minute long version of She Be She Strike here.

Comments

[Jeff T]

Often the only station on TV with something interesting playing here in Canada is the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network or APTN. This is especially true at 9:30 Thursdays when the program Inuit Mittatin broadcasts, it's blurb reads "This program sets out to find the funniest, quirkiest Inuit in the communities of Nunavut. What is so distinct about Inuit humour? What role does humour play in Inuit life?". This is easily the greatest TV show around and it's absence on the internet is surprising. I'm going to tape it tonight and blog it when I get some free time. Thanks for the inuit stuff Ken, our public stations tend to be at there best during strikes, including when the hockey broadcasters went on strike and the games were aired with no commentary or on-screen graphics.

[Jeff T]

Oh yeah, the language is Inuktitut. I don't know anybody who speaks it, but a Russian may be able to figure some out.

[MacDonald Daniel]

Please blog this. And gods bless WFMU.

[MacDonald Daniel]

...and Jeff T...

[Christina Linklater]

If anyone can and will translate She Be She Strike, it's Mick Mallon of the Nunavut Arctic College, in Iqaluit.

There is also a circumpolar institute in Paris, France, but they'd be less likely to grasp the humour of the situation, I reckon.

[azaro]

Nice piece of Canadian history! That version of "Sunshine" is brilliant. Makes me think of something I would have heard on Brave New Waves (CBC) on a hot summer night at 3am about 15 years ago. Wonder if you could email the tracks to the Inuit town where it was recorded... Now that would be cool.

[M-J Milloy]

Why don't you try to contact someone at CBC North? There are some likely suspects here: http://www.cbc.ca/north/contact/index.html

[bhouston]

The sound quality is phenomenal for "tapes" from the 80s. I for one am a little suspicious as to their origins. Can UFMU share how they got a hold of these tapes?

[Station Manager Ken]

I came across the tapes from artist John Oswald of plunderphonics fame. The tapes sound normal for well recorded cassette tapes, I think.

This posting has attracted the attention of people from the CBC, who are as curious as all of us to get the full story. When someone has translated the excerpts up here, I'll report back. I offered them the full tape, but they wanted to first translate these excerpts.

-ken

[Sir Mildred Pierce]

Do you think you can make an mp3 of the full tapes? I'd be VERY interested in getting a copy of that. I used to live in rural Alaska and I loved listening to the radio up there when it was Inuit programming, hearing that language is very soothing for me.

I think as a matter of historical record it would be nice to get the complete recordings online.

[Adam Clare]

I don't see how that could be a Labatts commercial as CBC radio is commercial free as it is public radio. And this sounds like the CBC left the door open to the public to really make it public!

[A. Fox]

It's not like there aren't living native speakers of Inuktitut one could ask.

[Ron Bock]

FYI: Ayatollah Khomeni is set to the old Band Aids jingle - I am stuck on Band Aids, cause Band Aid's stuck on me.

[pucklermuskau]

i definately second a request for a full length mp3. This is great stuff, very samplable. Much obliged...

...Leif

[Station Manager Ken]

I will post an MP3 of the entire tape within a few days. -ken

[Patrick Nagle]

Hello Station Manager Ken:

Station Manager Pat here... I may be able to help you solve the mystery around these recordings... I'm the manager for CBC Radio here in the Eastern Arctic.... and I think know where these clips come from. I'd love to hear the full recording you have, as it would help me and my Inuit colleagues here pin it down a little better.

Can you email me the mp3 of the full recording?
I'll get back once we've been able to verify... you may have a rare copy of one of the great moments in arctic free-form radio!

Patrick Nagle
CBC North Nunavut
Iqaluit, Nunavut Canada

[Station Manager Ken]

I just posted the longer version of She Be She Strike on this post. I also posted three other great Inuit songs by Tumasi Quissa. -ken

[Mark Kardos]

You speculate the strike was 1979 - 1980. I suspect it was the strike that occured during the spring and summer of 1981, when the technicians walked out in the middle of an NHL broadcast.

[bruce strau]

If anyone can and will translate She Be She Strike, it's Mick Mallon of the Nunavut Arctic College, in Iqaluit.

There is also a circumpolar institute in Paris, France, but they'd be less likely to grasp the humour of the situation, I reckon.

[ralph]

The story is revealed!

[amaujaq's frend]

thanx. i askking friend juusi help me rite tu yuu. i am villy much tank yuu lisening to mii.............sorry for taking over but he was taking at least twenty minutes to write his stuff and asked me to write for him. i personally am amazed of his stamina. he looks to be over 90 and claims to be much more. he says he wants to speak with (sheila ??) after the strike is over about the tapes and hoping to get his songs on cb or dvd.
\
he says he remembers watching tv around 1983 nhl play offs when the crew went on strike and focussed their cameras on the ice and walked off (the great 80's strike) started.

he simply went to the station and turned the mike on and did a make up play by play and announced the montreal canadians had won the stanley cup. rankin inlet people went on the street and had their biggest celebration ever. he also said he got many free hand out beers. he also says that he is sorry to all the montreal fans because they never won that year or any other year since.

..........i take it frum juusi, monterleal is guut tiim. koivo meens piss in eskimo. wen they donn 't win i am koivo off. good joking yes??

gooden by now. juusi sleeping now.

[Michael]

Station Manager Ken: The "marijuana" track features Frank Zappa's "Zomby Woof," not "Dinah-Moe Humm". You can hear the name twice between the announcer's fade-outs. And you call yourself a manager! (Luckily, actually playing FZ's music on the air could count towards your penance)

[Silu & Kass]

My boyfriend helped me translate what the guy in the Marijuana humour broadcast said. He couldn't figure out the first line but the rest of it basically goes like this: "Buy these herbs, they're really good to smoke, they don't make you drunk, they don't make you stupid. Whoever wants to smoke, buy Lebanese marijuana. They're not stiff, they're easy to roll."

[Darren Oyukuluk]

Stop calling us "ESKIMOS", in the traditional world you wouldn't call a black guy the "N" word in front of him because of the fact that it was a different race that gave the name, thats how it is with the word "ESKIMO" its a racist way of saying "INUIT" our ancestors called themselves "INUIT" and not the Eskimos, and its always better to accept that and not give some other name that you would understand like you guys gave our ancestors numbers as names its vary disrespectful just like how the RCMP would make an "INUK" the target for cruelty. I'm guessing that they don't even consider cruelty to there dogs.

[geronimo inutiq]

ok! i just relistened to this in honour of my CBC performance tomorrow... to put me in the mood.... and it seems i understood it more than the first time i listened.

the ayatollah khomeini song is about the ayatollah being very bearded and hairy and scraggly thus probably having lice and the singer wants to help him take out his lice!

this is gold btw pure gold