Tag Archives: Gordon Lightfoot

♫ Beautiful ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I was looking for a Rolling Stones’ song I might not have yet played, but found none that I particularly liked.  So, I switched to Gordon Lightfoot and found this one that I have always loved … don’t know why I haven’t played it before!  But … I found naught more than a brief mention over at SongFacts, my usual ‘go-to’ place for music trivia.  So, I dug a little deeper and found a blog, Poppaculture’s Blog, where there was a post from ten years ago all about Lightfoot in general, and this song in particular …

“Beautiful” is simply that—a gorgeous love song wrapped in the simplicity of an acoustic arrangement and accented by the lush timbre of Lightfoot’s poetic resonance. This has always been a personal favorite.

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1938. Valerie Magee writes on Lightfoot’s website: “His parents recognized and encouraged his interest in music; his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto … was just before he turned 13, as the winner of a competition for boys with unchanged voices. After a background in barbershop quartets, and as a member of a duo, Lightfoot struck out on his own in the early 60s.”

Sadly, Poppaculture seems to have quit blogging in 2018, but he did almost exclusively music posts while he did blog.

This song charted at #13 in Canada and #58 in the U.S., but did not make the charts in the UK as far as I can find.  Too bad … I think it’s … Beautiful!

Beautiful
Gordon Lightfoot

At times I just don’t know
How you could be anything but beautiful
I think that I was made for you
And you were made for me

And I know that I won’t ever change
‘Cause we’ve been friends
Through rain or shine
For such a long, long time

Laughing eyes and smiling face
It seems so lucky just to have the right
Of telling you with all my might
You’re beautiful tonight

And I know that you will never stray
‘Cause you’ve been that way
From day to day
For such a long, long time

And when you hold me tight
How could life be anything but beautiful
I think that I was made for you
And you were made for me

And I know that I won’t ever change
‘Cause we’ve been friends
Through rain or shine
For such a long, long time

And I must say it means so much to me
To be the one who’s telling you
I’m telling you
That you’re beautiful

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot

♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music, Social commentary

Today’s song is brought to you courtesy of our friend Keith, who planted numerous earworms yesterday with his fun post titled, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then – an encore post”.  Check it out if you haven’t already seen it!  And now, for today’s offering …

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “I never thought I could feel this way and I got to say that I just don’t get it; I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost you can see

If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
The story always ends
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feeling that you left

I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music, Tributes

This is the song I intended to play yesterday, before I learned of the death of David Crosby and felt the need to do a brief tribute to him and his music.  I seem to be in “Gordon Lightfoot mode” this week, and this is one of his best, in my opinion.

Edmund-Fitzgerald-2On November 10, 1975 a crew of 29 died when the 729-foot ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald foundered in 80 mile-an-hour winds and blinding snow squalls with wave heights up to 25 feet on Lake Superior.  So … why did Lightfoot write a song about it?

lightfoot“The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself. And it was quite an undertaking to do that. I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old. I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music. That’s where the melody comes from, from an old Irish folk song.”

Over the years Lightfoot has made several small alterations to the song either at the behest of families of those who perished or to correct an error of fact, although he has never altered the copyrighted lyrics.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T’was the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin’
Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya
At seven p.m., a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it’s been good to know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when ‘is lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the maritime sailors’ cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Rainy Day People ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under music

In response to my playing of John Denver’s Calypso yesterday, our friend Clive commented:

“The best thing about this for me was the montage YouTube give us at the end of the song! Gordon Lightfoot, S&G, Juice Newton, The Monkees, Glen Campbell, and the mix of ‘Take It Easy Rock.’ Some possible suggestions for you there, I think.”

Sometimes I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but I got his message, so naturally I went in search of!  I figured I’d start at the beginning of the list, and the first one I hit on was this, by Gordon Lightfoot.  Luckily, I’ve only played this once, almost exactly 4 years ago in February 2019.  So, this one’s for you, Clive!

There is almost no trivia I can find on this one by Gordon Lightfoot, other than when he was once asked who his rainy day people are, he replied ….

“That one is so easy, it’s the family. It’s the extended family. They are the rainy day people.”

I read the lyrics, listened to the music, and … I have lots of ‘rainy day people’ … if you are reading this today, you’re most likely one of them, and I thank you from the core of my being.  Love ‘n hugs to you all …

Rainy Day People
Gordon Lightfoot

Rainy day people always seem to know when it’s time to call
Rainy day people don’t talk
They just listen till they’ve heard it all
Rainy day lovers don’t lie when they tell you
They’ve been down like you
Rainy day people don’t mind if you’re cryin’ a tear or two

If you get lonely, all you really need is that rainy day love
Rainy day people all know there’s no sorrow
They can’t rise above
Rainy day lovers don’t love any others
That would not be kind
Rainy day people all know how it hangs
On their peace of mind

Rainy day lovers don’t lie when they tell you
They’ve been down there, too
Rainy day people don’t mind if you’re cryin’ a tear or two

Rainy day people always seem to know
When you’re feelin’ blue
High stepping strutters who land in the gutters
Sometimes need one, too
Take it or leave it or try to believe it,
If you’ve been down too long,
Rainy day lovers don’t hide love inside, they just pass it on

Rainy day lovers don’t hide love inside, they just pass it on

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
Rainy Day People lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Sundown ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under music

Our friend Keith posted about Gordon Lightfoot yesterday and ever since, my memory dial has been tuned to Lightfoot songs!  Digging back through my archives, I last played this on two years ago, so you should be ready for a redux by now, yes?

The inspiration for this song, released in 1974, came from Lightfoot worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home writing songs.  Well heck … I’d have a problem if my significant other was hanging out in bars all day too!

“I had this girlfriend one time, and I was at home working, at my desk, working at my songwriting which I had been doing all week since I was on a roll, and my girlfriend was somewhere drinking, drinking somewhere. So I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her, because she was pretty good lookin’! As a matter of fact, it was written just around Sundown, just as the sun was setting, behind the farm I had rented to use as a place to write the album.”

Turned out the girlfriend he was with at the time was Cathy Smith.  They were together only 3 years, but Ms. Smith was charged in 1986 with administering the fatal dose of heroine that killed actor John Belushi, and spent 15 months in prison.  Methinks he was well shed of her!

Sundown
Gordon Lightfoot

I can see her lyin’ back in her satin dress
In a room where ya do what ya don’t confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you beenn creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs

She’s been lookin’ like a queen in a sailor’s dream
And she don’t always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin’ is your first mistake
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

I can see her lookin’ fast in her faded jeans
She’s a hard lovin’ woman, got me feelin’ mean
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
Sundown lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Me & Bobby McGee ♫

Posted on by under music

Me_and_Bobby_McGee_-_Janis_JoplinA few nights ago I played a song, Summertime, and the version I played was by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong — two of my favourites.  A couple of readers noted that Janis Joplin had also covered the song, and they liked her version.  I listened, but still prefer the Ella/Louis one.  However, while Janis Joplin was not among my favourites growing up, but she had a few songs that I really liked and that have stuck with me through the years.  Me & Bobby McGee is at the top of that list.  Coincidentally, our friend John Howell mentioned this one in a comment yesterday, and thus it seemed to be kismet that I play this here tonight!

Written by Kris Kristofferson and songwriter Fred Foster, it was originally sung by Roger Miller.  Often misinterpreted as a love song for Janis Joplin, the real inspiration behind Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ was his producer and co-writer Fred Foster and a young secretary named Barbara McKee. Joplin’s version was released after her death from a heroin overdose in 1970.  The song has been recorded by many since, including Waylon Jennings, Grateful Dead, Kristofferson himself, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Gordon Lightfoot, and Miranda Lambert.  But in my mind, none do it justice so well as Janis Joplin.

Me and Bobby McGee
Janis Joplin

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin’ for a train
And I’s feelin’ near as faded as my jeans
Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained
It rode us all the way to New Orleans

I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna
I was playin’ soft while Bobby sang the blues, yeah
Windshield wipers slappin’ time, I was holdin’ Bobby’s hand in mine
We sang every song that driver knew

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free, no no
And, feelin’ good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know, feelin’ good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee

From the Kentucky coal mine to the California sun
There Bobby shared the secrets of my soul
Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done
Yeah, Bobby baby kept me from the cold

One day up near Salinas, Lord, I let him slip away
He’s lookin’ for that home, and I hope he finds it
But, I’d trade all of my tomorrows, for a single yesterday
To be holdin’ Bobby’s body next to mine

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’, that’s all that Bobby left me, yeah
But, feelin’ good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
Hey, feelin’ good was good enough for me, mm-hmm
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee

La da da
La da da da
La da da da da da da da
La da da da da da da da
Bobby McGee, yeah

La da da da da da da
La da da da da da da
La da da da da da da
Bobby McGee, yeah

La da La la da da la da da la da da
La da da da da da da da da
Hey, my Bobby
Oh, my Bobby McGee, yeah

La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Hey, my Bobby
Oh, my Bobby McGee, yeah

Well, I call him my lover, call him my man
I said, I call him my lover did the best I can, c’mon
Hey now, Bobby now
Hey now, Bobby McGee, yeah

Woo
La da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la la
Hey, hey, hey Bobby McGee, yeah
La da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la da, la
Hey, hey, hey, Bobby McGee, yeah

Songwriters: Fred L Foster / Kris Kristofferson
Me and Bobby McGee lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫

Posted on by under music, Social commentary

I had a number of songs in my head to play for you tonight, but … turns out I’ve played them all.  So, I happened across one by Gordon Lightfoot that somehow I haven’t yet played, and it happens to be one I like!

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “I never thought I could feel this way and I got to say that I just don’t get it; I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost you can see

If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
The story always ends
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feeling that you left

I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Rainy Day People ♫

Posted on by under music

The mind wanders … at 2:00 a.m. … at age 68 … at times when it is troubled.  I was rolling smokes tonight … a pain, but it saves me around $2,000 per year, so well worth it … and I found myself humming this one.  Why?  I dunno.

There is almost no trivia I can find on this one by Gordon Lightfoot, other than when he was once asked who his rainy day people are, he replied ….

“That one is so easy, it’s the family. It’s the extended family. They are the rainy day people.”

I read the lyrics, listened to the music, and … I have lots of ‘rainy day people’ … if you are reading this today, you’re most likely one of them, and I thank you from the core of my being.  Love ‘n hugs to you all …

Rainy Day People
Gordon Lightfoot

Rainy day people always seem to know when it’s time to call
Rainy day people don’t talk
They just listen till they’ve heard it all
Rainy day lovers don’t lie when they tell you
They’ve been down like you
Rainy day people don’t mind if you’re cryin’ a tear or two

If you get lonely, all you really need is that rainy day love
Rainy day people all know there’s no sorrow
They can’t rise above
Rainy day lovers don’t love any others
That would not be kind
Rainy day people all know how it hangs
On their peace of mind

Rainy day lovers don’t lie when they tell you
They’ve been down there, too
Rainy day people don’t mind if you’re cryin’ a tear or two

Rainy day people always seem to know
When you’re feelin’ blue
High stepping strutters who land in the gutters
Sometimes need one, too
Take it or leave it or try to believe it,
If you’ve been down too long,
Rainy day lovers don’t hide love inside, they just pass it on

Rainy day lovers don’t hide love inside, they just pass it on

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
Rainy Day People lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald ♫

Posted on by under music

I must have had Gordon Lightfoot on my mind today, for I was determined that once I settled in to do my music post, I would play Sundown … had it looping through my semi-empty head for an hour or two during the evening.  And then … bummer … I already played it this year.  Okay, then … how about The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?  Hmmm … that, or … Rainy Day People?  Decisions, decisions … okay, it’s settled, If You Could Read My Mind it is!  Don’t ask.Edmund-Fitzgerald-2On November 10, 1975 a crew of 29 died when the 729-foot ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald foundered in 80 mile-an-hour winds and blinding snow squalls with wave heights up to 25 feet on Lake Superior.  So … why did Lightfoot write a song about it?

lightfoot“The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself. And it was quite an undertaking to do that. I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old. I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music. That’s where the melody comes from, from an old Irish folk song.”

Over the years Lightfoot has made several small alterations to the song either at the behest of families of those who perished or to correct an error of fact, although he has never altered the copyrighted lyrics.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T’was the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin’
Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya
At seven p.m., a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it’s been good to know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when ‘is lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the maritime sailors’ cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Sundown ♫

Posted on by under music

The inspiration for this song, released in 1974, came from Lightfoot worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home writing songs.  Well heck … I’d have a problem if my significant other was hanging out in bars all day too!

“I had this girlfriend one time, and I was at home working, at my desk, working at my songwriting which I had been doing all week since I was on a roll, and my girlfriend was somewhere drinking, drinking somewhere. So I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her, because she was pretty good lookin’! As a matter of fact, it was written just around Sundown, just as the sun was setting, behind the farm I had rented to use as a place to write the album.”

Turned out the girlfriend he was with at the time was Cathy Smith.  They were together only 3 years, but Ms. Smith was charged in 1986 with administering the fatal dose of heroine that killed actor John Belushi, and spent 15 months in prison.  Methinks he was well shed of her!

Sundown
Gordon Lightfoot

I can see her lyin’ back in her satin dress
In a room where ya do what ya don’t confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you beenn creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs

She’s been lookin’ like a queen in a sailor’s dream
And she don’t always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin’ is your first mistake
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

I can see her lookin’ fast in her faded jeans
She’s a hard lovin’ woman, got me feelin’ mean
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
Sundown lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc