Hi Charlene,
I'll have to add another quote from this article:
Like many of his songs, For Lovin' Me was intensely personal. "I didn't know what I was doing when I wrote that song. All I knew was that my marriage was breaking up. It didn't break up until five years later but I knew it was breaking up, and some songs predict your own outcome."
At the time, For Lovin' Me was regarded as a strong folk-song, but now it is loathed in feminist tracts on rock. It is the classic example of the songwriter as a male chauvinist pig - is Gordon amused at the way it has been interpreted?
"Not amused, no. I don't want to come off like a male chauvinist pig at all! Now when I listen to it, I think, 'My god, did I say that?' The line 'I got a hundred more like you' indicates that I was a pretty busy guy. I was known to court more than one women at a time. It led to confusion and deceit and I gave it up when I was 45. You have to tell too many lies when you are going with too many women at the same time."
Personally, I think it is a good song and I like it, but I can understand why Gordon Lightfoot doesn't want to play it anymore.
I guess for him it's part of a chapter of his life that was closed quite a while ago.
|