Song of the Week – Summer Wages, Ian & Sylvia

Ignored             Obscured              Restored

Today’s SotW is a beautiful “end of summer” song.  “Summer Wages”, written by Ian Tyson, also seems appropriate as we celebrate Labor Day.  The song has been recorded many times by many artists, including twice by Tyson himself.  The version I like is technically by Ian & Sylvia, from their album So Much for Dreaming (1967), though I don’t hear Sylvia contributing her trademark harmony vocals.

So what is this song about?

Never hit 17 when you play against the dealer
Oh, you know that the odds won’t ride with you
Never leave your woman alone when your friends are out to steal her
Years are gambled and lost like summer wages

And we’ll keep rollin’ on ’til we get to Vancouver
And the woman that I love who’s livin’ there
It’s been six long months and more since I’ve seen her
Maybe gambled and gone like summer wages

In all the beer parlors all down along Main Street
The dreams of the seasons are all spilled down on the floor
Of the big stands of timber just waitin’ for fallin’
And the hustlers standin’ watchfully waitin’ by the door


So I’ll work on the towboats with my slippery city shoes
Which I swore I would never do again
Through the grey fogbound straits where the cedars stand watchin’
I’ll be far off and gone like summer wages

Ah, she’s a woman so fine, I may never try to find her
For the good memories of what we had before
They should never be changed, for they’re all that I’ll take with me
Now I’ve gambled and lost my summer wages


So never hit 17 when you play against the dealer
For you know that the odds won’t ride with you
Never leave your woman alone when your friends are out to steal her
Years are gambled and lost like summer wages

Years are gambled and lost like summer wages

To me, this is a story of a young man that left his girlfriend back home in Vancouver to take a summer job (as a lumberjack?) to earn money for their future together.  But he blows it and loses all his earnings on a gambling spree.  Now he must go home with his tail between his legs and admit his failure.  He wonders if she will even still be there for him since he’s wise enough to know you should “never leave your woman alone when your friends are out to steal her.”

But it is the ambiguities that I cherish about this song.  I wonder, was the woman he left his girlfriend or, was she someone he desired and hoped to impress when he returned home triumphantly (though that was not to be)?  Could he bear to return home and discover she was in a relationship with one of his friends?  He even thinks about not returning home (“I may never try to find her”) to keep his memories of her intact.  That too makes me question if the relationship was real in the first place.  If there was true love between them, wouldn’t she forgive his mistakes and welcome him back after being away for over 6 months?

As a team, Ian & Sylvia wrote a few other top-notch compositions such as “Four Strong Winds”, “Someday Soon” (popularized by Judy Collins), and “You Were on My Mind” which was a #3 hit for We Five.

I always assumed the mockumentary A Mighty Wind was inspired by Ian & Sylvia, connecting their “Four Strong Winds” and Canadian roots to the writers and cast of the film.  But I was surprised that the Wikipedia page for A Mighty Wind doesn’t mention that the Mitch & Mickey characters were a parody of Ian & Sylvia.  But I think my speculation holds up!

Enjoy… until next week.

2 thoughts on “Song of the Week – Summer Wages, Ian & Sylvia

  1. Great song, and the only non-original song my band, Rob Carlson and Benefit Street, performed live. I guess that says something about our regard for this gem. Thank you for the post!

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