V’la L’bon Vent

COUNTRY: Canada
LANGUAGE: French
GENRE: Acadian Folk

A classic Acadian folk song — once popular among eastern Canadian hunters and trappers — that tells the troubling tale of a prince and the sad demise of a duck.

“V’la L’Bon Vent” is one of those grand old folk songs that performers have interpreted in literally thousands of ways over the years. In most versions the story of the song seems to the similar; three ducks swim in a pond behind a house–a black one, a white one, and another duck whose coloring doesn’t seem to warrant mention. Then king’s son happens along and, with little reason, shoots the white duck. Either the duck just passes on or, in a magical turn, doesn’t bleed, but instead spews diamonds, gold and jewels. The king’s son is excited about the riches, but the lyrics of the song question the worth of wealth relative to the joy of keeping a living duck. In class we’re going to sing the song as both “V’la L’Bon  Vent” and “Go Good Wind.” Wounded ducks or not, the McDades’ version of “V’la L’Bon Vent” rocks.

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Lyrics of All Around This World version

V’la l’bon vent, V’la joli vent
V’la l’bon vent, M’amie m’appelle
V’la l’bon vent, V’la joli vent
V’la l’bon vent, M’amie m’appelle

Go good wind, go pretty wind
Go good wind, M’amie m’appelle
Go good wind, Go pretty wind
Go good wind, M’amie m’appelle

Behind our house there is a pond
Three ducks swam there all day long

One day the king’s son happened by
he shot the ducks, no one knows why

What do we need with riches dear?
We’d rather have our white duck here

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