Have you ever heard a GL song that you probably wouldn't have liked half as good if it were not for one small bit of lyrics? In [Sometimes I Wish, the last line "Your leavin' right now" really blew me away after I got into the song.

[This message has been edited by DMD3 (edited September 19, 2004).]

In a case of the simplest lyric and or line,I wasn't that crazy about "Tattoo" until Gordon says one word at the end of the Verses....."Good-Night."

I don't know what it is about it that makes the song more appealing,it just makes it work better. I guess it kind of punctuates the lyrics that came before it. I think that must be it. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

Later,"D". http://www.corfid.com/ubb/cool.gif

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"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." ;) - Borderstone

B, I completely agree with that. It's almost like an "amen", just emphasizing everything he said before that...

Look out LSH,you're being followed! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/wink.gif Thank you. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif I blush at compliments. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/redface.gif

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"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." ;) - Borderstone

In Carefree Highway. the first verse, there's a line thats says "She left me not knowin what to do" That almost made me cry bcuse it described my girlfriend when i first talked to her in person.

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Sidney Freedmen

'Sit Down Young Stranger' and visit The Home Page Of Gordon Lightfoot

Okay did nobody notice that DMD3 actually used have and half correctly? Congrats DMD3 you must have been studying this summer.

quote:Originally posted by brink:
Okay did nobody notice that DMD3 actually used have and half correctly? Congrats DMD3 you must have been studying this summer.Deb you don't half have a nerve. You are really are wicked!!



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My Gordon Lightfoot webring
starts at
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

"Wishing this was all a dream, And I'd find you sleeping when I wake", from Lookin' At The Rain is something we can ALL probably relate to.

"Let love take a holiday" from Stay Loose is also some advice I've been following (and would suggest anyone else going thru a rough time to follow) ;)

"Late about dusk I would start to think, One more day had been lost, Nothing I'd say ever seem to convey how I felt, With that I had dealt" from Welcome To Try. Again, describes the human emotion fully in a nutshell. :)

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Washin' the bullshit down - Watchman's Gone, who hasn't had to do that in their lives.

Once inside we found a curious moonbeam doing dances on the floor -Now and Then, what a great line, who but Gord would have thought up that line and made it fit so nicely in a song.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

You got it SU&DIL

Also,
Song For A Winter’s Night
"I read again between the lines upon each page
The words of love you sent me"

For me personally,


Well it doesn't exactly bring a tear to the eye or produce a lump in the throat but that line hits me each time I hear it as Gord's "on-tme" trains kept me awake while I was in Hornepayne. I wrote about the experience in my blog below.


Yuri

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

On "Is there Anyone Home" , the line that clinches the mood piece for me is "you got that feelin' in your soul" - your right- seems in many songs one phrase or line alters or caps what you like, or might not have liked until.....

Another one for me is in one of the 18 rarities in songbook, disc4, "Always on the Bright Side" - the highly descriptive line that says more than one hears on the surface first time around , roughly: "seen between two shipwrecked eyes" - very "ethereal" as Gord is fond of saying it seems.

Then again, one line can take away from a song, or distract temporarily from what otherwise is interesting or captivating in a comfortable way. I think this sometimes comes up in his highly "gotta think about that one for a year or two" songs with a seemingly unrelated or otherwise obscure reference in a lyrically complicated song such as "Too Many Clues in this Room".

In it, the lyrics, while complicated metaphors to the point of almost being obtuse are being digested mentally by the listener, along comes a bit of a "burp" so to speak when he refers to (roughly): "when his crew through his ba**s to the sharks".....

OOOOkAAAY, we're all adults, and far be it for me to question the lyrics in the Man's choice of salty sea-dog references, but that one just takes me by surprise enought to stop my ex-cogitation pending on the "space shuttle ends where the subway begins, there's a train leavin' soon" or something similar too that, and I'm still mentally chewing over the metaphorical possibilities there, when I hear nothing that should shock a grown man who's heard it all, just not all on Gord's albums ! Keeps us on our toes ! And thats good ! A very atypical song for Gord.

But in the same song - a "I love it" clincher comes up conversely that overshadows any potential obscurity to me otherwise. Roughly "in an old sea-man's chest, full of charts" MAPS MAPS ! Navigtional maps with bathymetry (sea-bed topographic contours) ok thats cool ... I'm with that song , now man.... LOL
good thread idea DMD3 - geo steve

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

"It was out in Arizona where her heard the lady listening." From 10 Degrees and Getting Colder. I don't know how you can hear somebody listen, but what a magnificent line! It catches my attention every time.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Scott - I'd guess the 10 degrees and Getting Colder listening thing might be more discernable BECAUSE of the very cold air... You know how when a person is out in the snow, and its so cold the inside of nose freezes when its ( for me) about 3 -5 degrees or colder, typically when I was snowshoeing, and in Colorado the air is drier, too most of the time. So.......-

Well, all these minor physics would logically combine to the point that one could easily hear another thinking through the rarified air, as sound carries so in these conditions.....( pregnant pause...waiting for response.....) OK ok I am only kidding, of course I know one can't hear another thinking LOL... for a moment though I almost convinced myself though, I am so gullable around me.... small lol . They say a good sense of humour is very important......... ok I'm outta here. a hehe
~geo steve

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

and now, these several years later (since the Harmony release) that crushing line is the final lyric, from that last track, that Gord has left us hanging on

can't say I'm that excited about a Massey Live CD, gimme more originals Gord, even if it's a collection of unpolished LP cast offs:)

ok, to contribute to the thread, I'd add (from On the High Seas):

"and when all is said and done, is there no rainbow's end?"

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Great Thread You All... Enjoyed it very much.

"If You Could Read My Mind" is probably my second favorite and it would be great without this line but I really like...

"When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail"

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

You mean there's a new album finally in the makes?

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Thanks for the laugh Geo Steve. Scott

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Once again, my same old obsession with "Is There Anyone Home" - a line.... to wit

"I've been around, for a have... (er wait a minute...half...) a hundred days" (and then it gets a little hard to discern but sounds like- "never shopped, or shot those kites" nah...j/k- doesn't really meet the thread criteria - but I thought I'd throw in a clincher line for me that is unique phraseology -as in "How long you been around these parts Pilgrim?" - Oh , I dunno, I rekin' ITS BEEN A HALF A HUNDRED DAYS - lessee here - that'd be fifty, wait, no, yeah that is 50. Makes a man think, that line. And I had to half fun with the have/half ambiguity I no knuthing of just halfin' fun :) LOL
~ geo steve

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

I would agree with Wes about If You Could Read My Mind "When you reach the part where the heartaches come The hero would be me But heroes often fail" I used this verse as an illustration during Communion mediation on the first anniversary, of 9/11. I said what makes a hero? The success or the effort? I pointed out it has to be the effort.

Also a very vivid image comes from The Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle..

"Jump down, jump down!" the captain cries
"We'll save you if we can!"
Then the paint on his funnels is a-fryin'" It almost burns the image of the desperation
of the fire into your brain.

Another great line "She lights the sun and conjures up the rain" from She's not the Same

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

KHester,

Wish there was no 9-11, but what you said was a great analogy on that one year anniversary.

It just goes to show how amazing Gordon Lightfoot is, and how important his writings are.

GL is NOT appreciated enough by the music community.

I like this thread, as I wrote before, and probably all of us could go down a list of his songs, (not just one or two) and pick out a line here or there that really hits home.

Wes

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

There are many, but one I can think of right now is from "Affair on Eighth Avenue":
"We came through a doorway somewhere in the night"

It's the unspecific nature of it -- it could by ANY doorway, metaphorical as well as literal. And also the dominance of night.

Louise

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

"For every child with eyes that smile there'll be ten more cryin'" There are of course, many more but I went with what first popped in my head.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

This is like jumping into a minefield with no way out other than the delightful.
There are so many it's almost impossible to make a choice without going into the collection song by song which would glorious but the interruptions would take away the moments of joy.
"I have no gold to give her, Nor gowns of soft crimson hue, Nor poems of love nor rhymes to bring her, Into my heart so strong so true. When will you love me as I love you."
That lyric is taken from the song "A Minor Ballad" from Gord's earlier work and the reason why I chose it is because it is my favorite Gordon Lightfoot song today as it was for yesterday and if this lumpy throat doesn't subside it will continue to be the fav for tomorrow and probably continue on from there as well. After all the song is among a class act of others on that recording (The Way I Feel) including "Song For A Winter's Night." Pretty hard to top that. Funny what lyrics can do to you though isn't it? Ron J.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

"This rented car never went so far
But with each passing mile one more dream had turned to clay"
-Somewhere U.S.A.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Gord is so poetic and expressive, which is why I think he is the best composer in the world:

The song "Protocol" in my opinion might be one of Gord's most overlooked songs with very powerful lyrical force

Protocol:
"Was God in town for the Roman games, Was he there when the deals were signed?"

From the Fitz where Gord expresses tangible thoughts in an incredibly poetic way:
"...Superior sings in the rooms of her ice water mansion"

From Old Dan's Records where he captures the magic of a special family event:
"High above the fireplace, there's a smile on old Dan's face"

From Seven Island Suite, although I've known this song since it came out on the Sundown album, it connected to my heart in a powerful new way after 9-11:
"Every nation's gonna be shaken, put it together, don't let it slip"

There are so, so many more, but I'll leave it there for now.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Have to echo some previous comments.

"I've been on the town washing the bullshit down" adds a sort of kicker to a pretty plain, though one I like a lot, song.

Also, "heroes often fail" is such an intense line. Pretty mature too.

Race Among The Ruins is full of them for me though, so many sections just speak to me like, "The road to love is littered by the bones of other ones, who by the magic of the moment were mysteriously undone". Just great!

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Hi all. Like this thread. Finally made my way back here. Some of you may know me as Gardendor. I switched servers and found that only way to post was to register under different user name. So here I am and here is my contribution:

from LOOKING AT THE RAIN - "Feeling the pain of love lost running through my brain." and "Looking at the dawn, knowing it's wrong still
thinking of your love that's gone."
IF I COULD - "If I could tame all the fleeting perceptions I hold"
TATTOO - "You know time doesn't wait for nobody to find what they're after."
ALL I'M AFTER - "... is to be the flame in your tattoo.

There are so many more, but I need to go now.

Dorothea

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

That DMD3 who started this thread was a nice young fella. Wonder what he's up to these days ? A few lines that light my fire, and show another side of GL, from Baby Step Back...

Still I don't kneel down
I was born to fight
So you'd best leave me alone
Maybe I'll get much more than I need
Or much less than I should own

I love his love songs as much as the next person but I also enjoy the songs that allow us a glimpse of the 'total package'. He is not a one dimensional artist and that's why we love him.

Bill :)

OK I can't fib on a Sunday morning - I know what DMD3 is up to these days, LOL.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Yarmouth Castle becomes more than a ship with this line:

"Oh Lord," she groans, "I'm burning!"
"Let someone understand"

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

This topic should be called "what line do you like the most in each song". There are so many cool words to his songs...well to any songwriter for that part. Sometimes we listen to a song just of a specific line..at least I do. I usually scream out the line when singing along with Gord.

Oh the list is long. I agree with many of the previous posters too. Very good selection.

You know the songs...here's the lines,

"where many of the dead men, too silent to be real"

"all that remains are the faces and the names and the wives and the sons and the daughthers" WOW!

" you might even find them on the Young and the Restless too".


"the dust cloud on the edge of town is me"; been there and still doing it.

"if you plan to face tomorrow, do it soon"

"is it wrong to be in love, could it be the finest love we've ever seen"

""where the green dark forest is too silent to be real"

"I bought you a dime diamond ring"

"the river is the melody, the sky is the refrain" very good!

"he was standing by the highway with a sign that just said 'mother' "

"shut up and deal, im losin"

"if i cant stop this tremblin hand from reachin for the phone, i'll be reachin for the bottle lord before this day is done" sounds like my household

"

"

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

I love this thread too, and BILLW, I too like that side of the total package as you say well of Gord, in the "tougher", he "ain't no lightweight to be kicked around" side of him that, I think is what the reviewer meant that spoke of Gord's "Broad-brimmed" read: "Cowboy-tuff hand" to me - side of Gord. I love that song Watchman's (Gone) - I think as has been said many times it could have been a good single.

Similarly - yes - in Baby Step Back , same idea, and I would add: Endless Wire - "so don't go foolin' around" et al. I here more and more on that song the more I read corfid. I did not like it when I first bought EW in '77 I believe, because it represented to me at the time the transition from the *great* introduction of new (electric) instrumentation of Summertime Dream LP fame in change, pushing further into "plugged in" and much less acoustic near-rock of many EW songs. But... I love several of the songs on that album, not surprisingly the more traditional Gord (of earlier 70's) sounding:
Tatto
Whispers of The North

I'd add to this thread a some lines I like a lot:

-I'm committing blaspheme by going by memory, not checking lyrics boards, but it adds to my enjoyment of thinking of his songs in my mind.....thanks for indulging my poor memory. :

as was said - you know the songs - here are the lines:

"If you get a tip than you better tell it to an Eskimo"

"If you make a mistake don't ya (ya better not?) make it twice"

"you got that feelin in your soul"

"like any wandering minstrel, I've gone in the house of a thousand delights" (forgive me)

"I've been around for a half a hundred days"

"soon I will go forth...to that wild and barren land, where nature takes its course"

"Out on the road, like a low-down Joe, and the bar where we are is so cool I'd.like to stay...Misunderstood, like I knew I would be.."

"anybody with a wish to wander could not fail but to be aroused""

"its red and its blue, and its more than one colour, it goes on forever, for just a few dollars, good night.."

"so she took herself in to her room, and she turned the bedsheets down, and cried into the silken folds, upon her wedding gown"

"you are like a wish come true.. I'm counting on you"

"to the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze"

"and we saw leaves had fallen on the beds where trees are born.."

"through two shipwrecked eyes I come to see you"

"fortune will not find you in your mansion turned to gold"

"love alone will keep me breathing.... all through the night"

"nesting like two eagles in the trees"

" this rented car never went so far but with each passing mile one more dream had turned to clay"

"everybody's in step with the season"

"Christmas dawns and the snow lets up and the sun hits the handle on her heirloom cup"

"anyone inside know my name"

"In think I heard....someone stirrin'.... I think I heard, someone stirrin'.. think I heard..."

"turn around dont look down there's a man behind you with a gun"

"there's a light around you, i've come to switch it on"


"dont be ashamed if you feel a lot warmer in your heart, you got that feelin in your soul"

"everything I had to give, I've given to you"

" laughing eyes and smiling face..it seems so lucky just to have the right of telling you with all my might....your beautiful tonight"


".... she lies....forgotten......"

".....I'm telling you that you're beautiful................[violins]......"

Holy God his music gets to me..... I miss Merry so much.......... I am sorry to wax on,,,,,

geo steve out

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

I just stumbled on this thread and like it a lot!

One word I always thought added such imagery is in Home From the Forest.
"She touched his grizzled fingers and she called him by his name." ~GL

And from Fine as Fine Can Be (written for his daughter I believe)
"You're like bees are for buzzing, you're as fine as fine can be." ~GL

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

This is slightly off-topic:
this is Kris Kristofferson talking about Johnny Cash singing "Sunday Morning Coming Down' on TV and the impact to the meaning of a song with ONE word ..: Stoned vs. home

http://www.cmt.com/videos/interview/...udio-330.jhtml

song:
http://www.cmt.com/videos/unplugged/...ing-down.jhtml

at this link are several clips of Kris talking about Johnny Cash..
http://www.cmt.com/news/unplugged-at...offerson.jhtml

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Another favorite from Knotty Pine, when he sings "she cries turpentine."

In context . . .

"She leans with the wind, she cries turpentine, sometimes she nettles me but I don't mind." ~GL

The whole song is laced with imagery (methinks), and it opens right up front with those lines....

Has anyone seen the live performance from the '86 Ian & Sylvia reunion? I love it! Gordon with his guitar, looking as handsome as ever, I might add.:)

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Sorry, I couldn't stop with just one. The single line in each verse is in bold.

From Shadows
There's a shadow on the moon and the waters here below, do not shine the way they should but I love you just in case you didn't know.

From Morning Glory
It seems like only yesterday
she married me and carried me away
I found out what life was all about
Morning Glory threw me out.

From The Gypsy (One of the most underrated songs in G.L.'s line-up)
And now I see with due respect,
The more we learn the worse we get
So if you feel you've no regrets
Go have your fortune read.

From Drink Yer Glasses Empty
We'd like to take life over again,
When time of war has passed away into the rain
And watch a John Wayne movie to remind us of the plains...

From All the Lovely Ladies
To all the ones who learn to live with being second guessed,
Whose job it is to give more than they get.

From Hi'way Songs
When I stand on my own sod, it feels so good to be home by God
The winter wind has turned my head, but I always came out warm somehow. (This is the song I always play when I am heading north to Georgian Bay from Pennsylvania. While I am not from Canada, this song always makes me feel like I'm coming home).

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours, from Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald. As if the tune wouldn't already have grabbed your attention, this line is sure to make your eyes water.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

So many. For me, I could write till I get carpel tunnel. Here's a few for you.

"I don't want to own the key,to some ghostly mansion where souls are set free" Holy Sh..! Its the tone of his voice when he sings this line that really works me over.

"Where does the love of God go when the waves turn the minutes to hours?" If you havent seen Lake Superior in her ugly mood, you need to!

"...lying back in her satin dress in a room where you do what you don't confess". Brilliant!

" I bought you a dime diamond ring". Wealth in the eyes of a child! Good job Gord.

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

"the future looks alright" (instead of "tonight")

in Mountains & Marian

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

From: Mountains and Maryann

no explanation needed...
:redface:
:biggrin:

There'll be hot blooded mountain love to satisfy my soul
and
For the hot blooded mountain love is calling me again

Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better
 

Char !:redface:

I can't believe you did that reference from Mountains and Marianne ! lol

You won't believe this, but I had my young, and VERY precocious niece "Lil' Margaret" - to distinguish her from my mother-in-law Margaret, sitting on my lap in front of the Computer. I was showing her a few vistories, then a few pages where there a few maps I made, and explanations with my name, and we sounded out my name together. She said then, "thatsth (missing front teeth) you, Uncle thteve, you're sthilly...'...lol (she's 7, I think....1st or 2nd grade...and way-good on reading... and reads very well for her age). So then I keyed into corfid, let her pick a thread really just by clicking it - that was more fun than anything, and this thread and page popped up.

She calls GL music "George music" - because everytime our friend George used to come over to Merry and my house, he'd play Lightfoot, and she heard him a few times and associates Gord's voice with George; hence the George music.

Well, in this thread, we are reading a few posts together, I pre-screened them , so far so good, harmless, the she starts sounding out yours Char on "Hot-blooded mountain love and so forth", and I try to steer her away from that one, the way she asks Q's and insists on knowing what she reads means (which is good...but..lol) she kept pulling my finger back on to your post, moving it word by word as she sounded out everything, no matter my attempts to dissuade her, she'd start mock-crying...and she'd start getting red-faced with a little "put-on" Shirley Temple-style mock anger, and when she read yours, I thought I'd just say it was simply about nice love.... awwwww :rolleyes::redface: but Noooo

She says "Uncle Steve, you're turning red and acting silly, what does this mean, and she points again to hot-blooded mountain love...after she sounded it out... so i try again "well sweety see its about real nice people that love each other, , thats all... "Uncle Steve....WHAT DOES Hot Bloodeed Mountain Love MEAN . DID someone skin their knees and have a boo-booo ?(oh boy...)

Char - what was I supposed to say ?
Earlier I had told my sister-in-law, Renee , that when we were gonna look at the 'Puter..as Lil' Margaret says, I'd show her only safe stuff, and I thought I could count on Corfid for sure to avoid an embarrassment, and some George Music ..... but NOOOOOO lol

Oh man the discussion later at the dinner table "Uncle Stheve says, that, that theres thith man. who loves thith very nithe woman... and I GOT TO READ WHAT UNCLE thEVE DIDN'T WANT ME TO READ...and all it was was somebody skinned their knees and got a boo boo.....he hehe he...and Uncle theve was ALL RED IN THE FACE, HE WAS THILLY.. ! mOMMY CAN i SHOW YOU THE GEORGE MUSIC 'PUTER WORDS i READ ? uNCLE tHTEVE DIDNLT WANT ME TOO, BUT i COULD ANYWAY,..CAUTHE YOU THAID THO EARLIER Mommy, (Renee Loves Gordon , too, Minnesotoans....)She shot me alook at the dinner table of "what in the HELL did you have her reading you stupid oaf!!!" er uhh eruuh yeah it was just about boo-boos on their knees, er I mean his knee, no ... her knee... one of ;em... no biggee... and she looks at me angry at first, Lil' Margaret is holding both hands over her mouth seeing she instigated something, but she wasn't sure what.......and started giggling and forgot the whole thing.......phew....

Until desert. In the kitchen. I made my move to get out of there (when woman are in the kitchen they DON'T want men in their way, right/ NOOooo...

She (Renee) starts waggling the cake knife while she's grilling me..
but.... but.. no you see... she ... i tried to... but ..but she kep reading it.....
she doesn;t know.... and their really wasn;t anything bAD AT ALL in it..... "then why was she giggling and you ooked down at your food ?" -because I was embarrassed that she saw me turning red, hoping she wouldn't notice I was trying to get her to not read this real nice lady moderator CHAR's post about apretty Lightfoot song, it was totally harmless... unh hunhhh,, oh-man oh0man.... I am really in it now

.... Uncle thteve, protector of good kids eyes and ears,,,,, oh well... it really was OK of course,,,its just she knew I ws embarrased aboout something...... thats all that was funny to her....nothihg bad about boo-boo's, no,no, I MEAN bloody knees, or I mean a bloody knee thats all.... going back out in hallway... you know the song Mountains and Marianne, its totally harmless...... then why were you embarrased ?/? huh ? great, Steve.,...

CHAR !!!!! DANG IT... PURVEYOR and Moderator of decency, goodness, and the ...north American way !! and George Music, I mean Lightfoot ! DANG it.....

You got me in good on this one.....lol....oh boy lol:mad::redface::p:rolleyes::rolleyes: