The Film’s Music

The film’s musical score is based on the Scottish folk song “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean.” This song has become the theme for the film. The original lyrics of the lament represent the European immigrants who came to Tod Inlet. A modern composition by a young Scottish composer, Jennifer Austin, who was inspired by the original, introduces the film. Several instrumental and sung versions of the ballad also occur during the film.

The group Gatlicha, especially composer and lead vocalist Kuljit Sodhi, has prepared a special Sikh version of the “bonnie” music, as well as other Indian/Sikh music for the film. Other music using Chinese instruments, especially the erhu, complement the multicultural nature of the film.

At the end of the film, we hear a local version of “My Bonnie” called “Nothing But Concrete,” with special lyrics from the old British Columbia Cement Company’s “Community Song Book.”

My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean (original lyrics)
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

Chorus:
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

From the British Columbia Cement Company’s “Community Song Book”

Nothing But Concrete (Tune: “My Bonnie Lies”)

The Children of Israel in Egypt
Made brick in four thousand B.C.,
But we have escaped out of bondage,
It’s nothing but concrete for me.

Chorus:
Concrete, concrete, nothing but concrete for me, for me
Concrete, concrete, nothing but concrete for me.

Don’t build a cottage of lumber,
I want something modern, you see,
And building of lumber’s a blunder,
It’s nothing but concrete for me.

Chorus

Don’t spoil any roads with macadam,
For that is as frail as can be;
As long as I’m paying the taxes
It’s nothing but concrete for me.

Chorus

In picking the dates for our lifetime
The fates worked with kindly intent
In placing us here on this planet
To live in the age of cement.

Chorus