Grannies Theme Song—Climate Change
Tune: “MacNamara’s Band” Source: Fredericton Gaggle CSP = G (soh)
Oh! We are the Raging Grannies and we’ve come to make your day,
We don’t need invitations and we don’t need any pay,
We are old bats in funny hats and activists at large,
The problems of the world would fade . . . [hold]
If Grannies were in charge. We . . . [hold]
. . . sing to raise awareness of environmental rights,
We sing at summit meetings with our leaders in our sights,
A chain link fence won’t keep us out and jail won’t keep us in,
The Grannies keep on singing, and . . . [hold]
The Grannies always win. Oh . . . [hold]
[Slowly] . . . global warming’s insidious that's ominously clear
[Getting faster] Toxic fumes & toxic seas are things we have to fear
[a tempo] Getting off of fossil fuels is something we can do
It's really up to all of us . . . [hold]
To you, and you, and you!
[Or] The Offshore Petroleummm Board, too!
All Our Relations (Wolfville Raging Grannies) tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike (A below middle C)
The world is now facing adverse climate change
Clearcutting forests is more than just strange
The forests sink carbon and maintain the soil
We must not destroy them to curb burning oil.
We have to take care how we plan to reduce
Our over reliance on fossil fuel use
But cutting our forests down just to produce
A biomass option is surely abuse.
Production of oxygen's thanks to the trees
Without it we wouldn't be able to breathe
And when we burn trees to produce energy
We increase the greenhouse effect seriously.
All life is related in one giant web
The rocks, bugs and plants kept our ancestors fed
We have to learn how to live in harmony
And sing out our joy as the truth makes us free.
Burning the Trees (Wolfville Raging Grannies) tune: I'se the B'y (starting note E)
1. Acadian Forests keep the soil 3. Trees provide a carbon sink
From constantly eroding That mitigates global warming
Clearcutting big tracts of land Carbon reduction from biomass
Creates a dire foreboding. Is simply misinforming.
2. Trees replenish acquifers 4. Burning trees for energy ….
So we have drinking water That's not green – it's fiction
They are homes for wildlife Let's reduce our energy use
The deer and moose and otter. Relinquish our addiction!
Stop Your Freakin’ Frackin’ Drilling Tune: “Glory Glory Hallelujah”
Source: BP Oil Spill Protest (Florida Grannies) Revised by Wolfville Grannies (start Mid.C)
Can-ada’s addicted now to fossil fuel and oil,
And off-shore fracking’s threatening
All life in water and soil.
Subsea blowouts can't be timely capped; We all agree
We need clean energy!
CHORUS Oily tides put oil in motion
From oily oily corporations
Oily fish and birds die victims
Stop drilling off our shores
Stop your freakin frackin drilling; keep it off our seas,
We don’t want an accident to harm our fisheries,
Freakin’ frackin’ drilling has become a huge disease,
Stop drilling off our shores!
CHORUS Oily tides put oil in motion
From oily oily corporations
Oily fish and birds die victims
We need green energy.
Rights of Mother Nature Wolfville Raging Grannies Modified by South Shore Grannies Tune: I'se the B'y
1. De-velopment on land and sea 2. Global warming's over the top
Is hurting Mother Nature. Cause our habits haven’t changed yet.
When will people ever wise up We're Mining every fossil fuel
And see we can't replace her? To fill our cars and fighter jets.
3. We're addicted to energy use 4. Shell is drilling off-shore wells
Technology helps us get it. To extract gas from ocean floors
No time to test for long-term effects Risking spills and people’s lives
But few will now deny it. And ruining fisheries off our shores.
5. [sing slowly] Now's the time to stop and reflect [pause]
On the rights of Mother Na-ture [hold]
Leave fossil fuel in the ground
Pro-tect fish in the water.
Water Song (tune: She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain) (Wolfville Grannies) (starting note: A below middle C)
Oh, fresh water's getting scarcer every day.
Oh, fresh water's getting scarcer every day.
Oh, we’re wasting so much water
And we know we hadn’t oughter
Oh, fresh water's getting scarcer every day.
Oh, they’re pumping it by gallons every day
Which folks drink from plastic bottles every day
Oh, they're making some fast money.
The poor quality's not funny.
And they threaten public systems every day.
Oh, we're flushing drinking water down the toilet.
When the aquifers are gone we'll have to boil it
We're only thinking here and now,
And mother Earth is no cash cow
If we keep on, we're really gonna spoil it.
Oh, so what shall you and I be doing now?
How can we protect our water systems now?
We'll boycott bottled water
And flush less because we oughter
And we'll fight to protect water right now!
THERE ARE TREES Tune: Quartermaster's Store Original: Vancouver Grannies
Modified: C Morton, South Shore Gaggle Sept 11, 2017 CSP: low G (soh in C major)
There are trees, trees, soft and harwood trees
On the Land, unceded Land
There were trees, trees—
A few are left to stand:
It’s the Biomass Energy Plan—It’s a scam!
Some wits are dim. Does Government care
That forests are home to critters fair?
We need those trees for the critters fair.
People cut, cut, clear-cut all the trees
To the ground, to the ground
They want to cut, cut, clear-cut all the trees
Every root, stump, limb and leaf
Some wits are dim. Do Miller or Rankin care?
We need the forests to clean the air.
We need those trees to make fresh air.
People cut, cut, clear-cut all the trees
On the Land, unceded Land
They want to cut, cut, clear-cut all the trees
Destruction is their brand
Some minds are dull. They aren’t too bright!
To flatten forests is not their right!
To destroy health and home is not their right!
Divest, Divest Tune: “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go” CSP: G, (low soh) in C+
Original by Shirley Morrison (Jan 2014) Modified by Peggie Graham & Charlene Morton, March 2018 Opus April 1, 2019
1. Divest! Divest! 3. Invest! Invest!
From the Fossil fuel process Green energy’s the best
We spew out too much CO2 Take better care of sea and air
Earth needs a rest, a rest. Give Earth a rest!
2. Protest! Protest! 4. Arrest! Arrest!
Use fossil fuels much less. C.E.O’s who won’t address
Hey E-mera and NS Power The need to care for sea and air;
Earth needs a rest, a rest Love Earth! Divest!
Farewell to Big Oil Tune “Farewell to Nova Scotia” CSP: D Parody: P. Graham, C Morton, South Shore RG
Farewell to Nova Scotia the sea-bound coast
Let our fish-eries deep and dreary be
For when oil rigs blow their stacks and the water turns all black
We will ever heave a sigh and a wish for thee.
The pipelines are moving from the West
The birds are fleeing from every tree
All Nature suffers corporate conquest
So still there is no rest for me.
We grieve to lose our coastal land
We grieve to lose our fisheries
And the livelihoods we hold so dear
And the bonny, bonny beaches that we do adore.
The oceans they do beat with seismic sounds;
The Blue Whale must dive in “oil rigged” waves;
Fare thee well, fare thee well to noisy breeding grounds
It’s early in the morning as the whales die away
We have other choices for our e-conomy
We have other choices in democracy
For our rich sea life will be lost for you and me
If oil is tossed and turned in the deep dark sea.
Forest song Tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike Modified South Shore Raging Grannies, CSP: G (low doh)
Se-quester of carbon and beauty galore,
Well-managed forests give this and much more,
Growing strong saplings that reach to the sky;
Protecting, connecting all life to survive.
Chorus: Singing hackmatack, tamarack, larch is a pine.
You nourish the soil, filter water, and more
Provide us your roots to secure the Earth floor;
Your sa—cred lesson: The tre—e of life
A symbol of creation connecting all life
Chorus: Singing hackmatack, tamarack, larch is a pine.
Burning the biomass, clear-cuts and such
The value from that! is really not much.
It takes forest’s future for sho-rt term gain
Destroying our forests is really insane.
Chorus: Singing hackmatack, tamarack, larch is a pine.
Uranium Song (To the tune of O My Darling Clementine) Source: Wolfville gaggle
(starting note: middle C)
Chorus:
Oh my darling, Nova Scotia,
Do you want uranium mines?
Cancer-causing radiation
Unleashed on you for all times.
No safe levels of exposure
So the latest studies tell
But our government's invested
In the nuclear buy and sell.
At the mine they mill uranium
Grinding radioactive ore
Leaving most of the radiation -- (spoken – STRONG VOICED MEMBER) 85%
In tailings ponds for ever more.
No one knows how to trap these tailings
For two hundred thousand years
And radon gas drops deadly poisons
We'd be wise to have some fears. (look fearful)
Ninety-nine percent of uranium
Goes for weapons and for power
And they both increase the danger
That we'll kill all life on earth
(choking cough, holding throat).
Watch Marilyn for restarting song
Chorus
Oh my darling, Nova Scotia,
Do you want uranium mines?
Cancer-causing radiation
Unleashed on you for all times.
In your granite, there's uranium
Decomposing all the time
To escape that radiation (draw back)
Best to leave it underground (Motion downwards, following ‘Director’).
Times They are a Changin'
Come gather ‘round people, we want you to hear
‘bout threats to the earth,
they are something to fear
the world is on fire — Armageddon is near
This is urgent – no time for debating!
Our beautiful planet is dying, it’s clear
for the climate it is a-changing
Come liars, deniers who call it a hoax
Who pretend these disasters are nothing but jokes
When your children get asthma
and grandmother chokes
even Houston might admit he is faking
When the air that we breathe
is like three packs of smokes
then the climate, it is a-changing
The glaciers are melting, the forests will burn
and the great wheel of karma will finally turn
And the powerful now will later be spurned
’Cause it’s science and truth the world’s craving
Don’t say it’s too late to finally learn
that the climate, it is a-changing
Now Houston’s reversing the progress we’ve made
taking “energy” to ensure it
He loves his polluters, won’t stand in their way
But the people are angry – we’re raging
“Hands off! our environment!” that’s what we say
for the climate it is a-changing
We’ve got to change course immediately
with massive investments in clean energy
and lots of green jobs, for our economy
because life on earth is worth saving
Get clean off of carbon and let the earth breathe
for the climate, it is a cha -a-anging
Take Me out to the Clearcut.
Lyrics by: Victoria Grans
Gaggle: Victoria
Tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame
We’ll picnic on a few stumps.
I want you to know i’m a tree-farming nut
who thinks like a chainsaw that’s stuck in a rut.
Irving (port Hawkesbury paper?) gets a hip hooray.
They make black picnic grounds pay.
So it’s one, makes you two
dear investors, thank you.
You have spruced up our day!
Take me out to the clearcut
the timber’s been tidied away.
It’s been sold down the stream
in a business man’s dream.
It’s swell to stand here
in a landscape so clean.
So it’s off to lumbering elsewhere.
I’ll lumber you and you me.
It’s the buzz of the mill
that produces the thrill
worth a million trees!
Burning the Trees (Wolfville Raging Grannies)
2 verses tune: I’se the By
Verse three by Halifax Grannie Gaggle
Nov. 12, 2025,
1. Acadian Forests keep the soil
From constantly eroding
Clearcutting big tracts of land
Creates a dire foreboding.
2. Trees replenish acquifers
So we have drinking water
They are homes for wildlife
The deer and moose and otter.
3. Hunters mountain’s a sacred place
For moose and plants and humans,
never ever cut them down
Just leave the forest bloomin’
If You Want To Save Our Planet
Lyrics by: Davis CA gaggle
Gaggle: Davis, California
Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It
Date Written or Updated: 2025
If you want to save our planet, clap your hands.
If you want to save our planet, clap your hands.
It gets warmer every minute….so it’s time we all begin it.
If you want to save our planet, clap your hands.
If you want to save a glacier, clap your hands.
If you want to save a glacier, clap your hands.
If you get your power from solar…..you can save a bear that’s polar.
That’s a way to save the planet, clap your hands.
If you like to drink fresh water, clap your hands.
If you like to drink fresh water, clap your hands.
But-if your water is in plastic….. sure the outcome will be drastic.
Use your good canteen instead, and clap your hands.
If you want to save the forests, clap your hands.
If you want to save the forests, clap your hands.
They need to follow proper plans, no old growth, or sacred stands
Le-ave more trees standing on our land
If you want to save the earth from CO2,
If you want to save the earth from CO2,
Ride to work on your “bi-sickle”….. cut your gas down to a trickle,
There are lots of other things that we can do!
If you want to stop disasters getting worse,
If you want to stop disasters getting worse,
Leave petroleum in the ground…and keep those windmills spinning round
Failing now to act becomes a curse.
Which Side are you on – Original by Florence Reese 1931.
Lyrics by Halifax Grannie Gaggle,
Nov. 2025. For Shoulder to Shoulder Rally for Hunter’s Mountain. Nov. 15th, 2025.
Which side are you on, which side are you on?
Which side are you on? Tell me which side are you on?
Come all you good people and news to you I’ll tell
‘bout what’s on Hunter’s Mountain and who’s
gone there to dwell.
Which side are you on, which side are you on?
Sacred to the Mi'kmaq, protecting all the land,
We are treaty people, we’re here to take a stand.
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?
Tell me Which side are you on? which side are you on?
West Mabou and Hunters, they need more protection
We’re here to shout the names of those who need correction
Tell me Which side are you on, which side are you on?
Which side are you on, which side are you on?
Houston, Halman, Masland are names that you should know
They offer no solutions but “make the economy grow”
They offer no compassion, no understanding, no belief,
They take what is the Mi'kmaq’s and steal off like a thief.
Tell me Which side are you on, which side are you on?
Which side are you on , which side are you on?
Its a simple tune – you can hear it here if unfamiliar.
Clearcuts on Hunter's Mountain (tune: Take Me Out to the Ball Game)
(underlining indicates accented syllable in the tune)
Let's go out to the clear cut
Let's go out to the stumps
Ask what has happend to balsam fir,
Cedars, and bunnies and moose that were there.
Let's all stand with First Nations
And root, root, root for the land.
There are treaties that say we'll respect Mi'kmak rights
This requires a gigantic fight!!!
Tim Houston's Shame (tune: She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain)
Oh Tim Houston's up on Hunter's Mountain now
With a giant chainsaw cutting every bough
And he's golfing down in Mabou
Where the land protections he withdrew
And we demand that this be disallowed.
SONGS FOR SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22, 2025, AT HALIFAX SECURITY FORUM 2-4:00
1. GRANNIES THEME SONG (tune: MacNamara’s Band) with verse by Sue Adams, Antigonish
Gaggle
Oh, we are the Raging Grannies, and we’ve come to make your day
We don’t need invitations, and we don’t get any pay.
We are old bats in funny hats, and activists at large
The problems of the world would fade, If Grannies were in charge.
Chorus: Oh, the bombs go bang and the weapons clang,
and the Grannies have to rage
Communication is our game, And all the world’s a stage
For global peace and justice is the message that we bring,
The politicians tremble when the Grannies start to sing.
Well now there’s talk of Golden Domes and military might
When Trump begins to rant and rave, our leaders shake in fright
But think about Hiroshima, and Nagasaki too
‘Cause thoughts of peace, like butterflies, must rise from me and you.
Chorus:
Oh, we sing to raise awareness of our basic human rights
We sing to politicians, with the leaders in our sights,
A chain link fence won’t keep us out,
And jail won’t keep us in.
The Grannies keep on fighting and the GRANNIES ALWAYS WIN.
2. PEACE SONG Tune: All through the night (origin? former Halifax gaggle?)
Lives are lost, and countries damaged,
Terror unfurled.
Bombs and blame will never get us
Peace in the world.
While the nations grieve in sorrow,
People try to face tomorrow.
Keep the faith and join our call
For peace in the world.
Grannies sing for all who care for
Peace in the world.
Say to leaders of all nations,
Peace in the world.
We need faith, and trust, and kindness,
No more fighting, no more blindness.
Justice is the way to find us
Peace in the world.
3. Wasteful Miliary Spending
Lyrics by: Vicki Ryder Gaggle: Rochester SoF lo Tune: Frère Jacques
Death unending! Military spending!
What a waste! What a waste!
Reinstate some sanity,
Spend it for humanity,
Invest in jobs! Invest in peace!
Let’s build schools instead of bombs,
Let’s feed the poor! Let’s feed the poor!
Don’t spend all our taxes
To fight the “evil axis.”
Invest in schools! Invest in peace!
Missile shields and nuclear weapons —
What a waste! What a waste!
While we’re busy making war
We’re neglecting our own poor!
Invest in health! Invest in peace!
“Richest nations in the world!”
What a joke! Don’t make me choke!
Our kids are being left behind!
How can people be so blind?
Invest in peace! Invest in peace!
4. NO MORE WAR (tune: Ain’t got a barrel of money)
We’re just a gaggle of grannies, Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re telling you boys, We’re sick of your toys
NO MORE WAR!
With all the money we’re spending, Plus all the weapons we’re sending,
We’re going for broke, This isn’t a joke,
NO MORE WAR!
Sooo- we may be a gaggle of grannies, But we’ve gotten off of our fannies,
And we’re telling you now, We’re angry and how,
NO MORE WAR!
We really mean it NO MORE WAR
We mean precisely NO MORE WAR
We’ll say it nicely NO MORE WAR
Read our lips (silently mouth) NO MORE WAR!
5. VOW ANTI-MILITARY SPENDING (Halifax gaggle of old?) Tune: What shall we do with a
drunken sailor?)
What do they do with a trillion dollars (x3)
Every bloody morning?
Spend it on weapons and military (x3)
Every bloody morning.
What would we do with a trillion dollars (x3)
Every blessed morning?
Spend on housing, health, education (x3)
Every blessed morning!
NO MORE WAR (tune Ain’t got a barrel of money)
We’re just a gaggle of grannies, Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re telling you boys, We’re sick of your toys
NO MORE WAR!
With all the money we’re spending, Plus all the weapons we’re sending,
We’re going for broke, This isn’t a joke,
NO MORE WAR!
Though its a tradition, Its time for wars to cease
Let’s put them in remission, And give our efforts to PEACE.
Sooo we may be a gaggle of grannies, But we’ve gotten off of our fannies,
And we’re telling you now, We’re angry and how,
NO MORE WAR!
We really mean it NO MORE WAR
We mean precisely NO MORE WAR
We’ll say it nicely NO MORE WAR
Read our lips (silently mouth) NO MORE WAR!
SONGS OF THE RAGING GRANNIES https://raginggrannies.net
War vs Climate
Lyrics by: Sally-Alice Thompson and Marcy Matasick
Gaggle: New Mexico
Tune: Tennessee Waltz
Date Written or Updated: 11/03/2021
Where the hell does all this damnable CO2 come from,
that is dealing our earth such a blow?
Well, a lot of it comes from our acts of aggression
against countries we name as our foes
We must honor our earth, and its inhabitants
We must venerate all things alive
Stop demolishing our planet in the name of our “defense”
Let living things flourish and thrive!
Half our money and resources go to mass-destruction warheads,
(and) to bombers and choppers and tanks,
and to missiles, and to launch pads, ammunition, guns and armor,
and equipment that’s used by the ranks
What a terrible waste! What a terrible shame!
throwing resources at waging war
We must put all of that effort toward life-affirming aims,
to have anything worth living for
We have got to stop believing in “security” from warfare
because warfare won’t make us secure
Real security depends on good relations with others
and a planet that’s green, clean and pure
We must honor our earth, and its inhabitants
We must venerate all things alive
Stop demolishing our planet in the name of our “defense”
Let living things flourish and thrive!
Tim Houston's Shame (tune: She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain)
Oh Tim Houston's up on Hunter's Mountain now
With a giant chainsaw cutting every bough
And he's golfing down in Mabou
Where the land protections he withdrew
And we demand that this be disallowed.
Oh we'll miss our land and trees as earth declines
We'll be poisoned and be sick from all the mines
The profits won't be worth it
When big business gets the permits
And we'll all go out to protest his designs.
