Quote:
Originally Posted by Oh, Linda
Not sure if this is off thread (I'm going with the 'and more' part of your thread title), but worth noting would be the themes of moonbeans and sunbeams...
"Moonbeam(s)" appears three times: once in East of Midnight (The road is paved with moonbeams, there are faces that I knew ~GL); once in Now and Then (Once inside we found a curious moonbeam doing dancing on the floor ~GL) and again in No Mistake About It (She's the shine in every moonbeam~GL). "Sunbeams" appears in The Pony Man (and we're safely in our beds again when the sunbeams kiss the sky~GL). Many other references to the sun and the moon....I'm finding all of this quite fascinating....
I must say that your Fun Quizzers thread you've got going has made me take a much closer look (and listen!) at each song's words and meaning, making me realize all the more how truly extraordinary Gordon's songwriting is. I can't think of anyone who's done it better, and for as long as he has, with such lasting meaning and impact. I really can't.
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Roger all the above Linda; notably the SAME/SIMILAR impact that reviweing hundreds of his songs day and night while...gettng...beter...and having a blast ! - his music has been a a large part of my life's soundtrack starting with my fist girlfrend when I was 14; she's an att'y now in Ohio, and when that tender age I bought Sundown. I grew entranced with GL with album immediately, had been listening to Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, etc., and had only recenlty gotten into JT and Fire n Rain album. That caused me to look farther into a relatively tight genre at the time - pop-quality melodically interesting, singer-songwriters who could REALLY SING folk with a GOOD voice; meaningful lyrics (at 14, many I would not appreciate for years, and in cases decades to come) and have the "pop" -gasp' element of richly produced (not 2 much) of orchestrations and textures /tapestries/stand-outs of the Carole King.JT/Gordon/J Croce/John Prine/Carly Simon crowd that "all had a friend" - except that seemingly -a loner, who's music absolutely mystified me......Gordon's of course..... I bought it for the major cruising-catchy song Sundown B4 I really knew what he was/did, and after the LP, was hooked for life, 36 years of listening non-stop to same and each new album over and over. Spent a life time trying to broaden my pallette of music, and find other artists LIKE Gord, COULD not DO IT.
If Gord could have cranked out an album every 6 months I never would have needed to buy anything else with tomato-picking money and lawn mowing $ 2. Took me 'bout a week for album money.....and I'd keep looking in folk for anyone whocould even hold a canfle - and in the sum total of factors - voice/lyrics/compositional ability/formal training/orchestration in those big old Koss 3 pound environment chamber headphones - man I was GONE on his music.... then I learned its therapuetic value - broke up with my first serious (as far as 16 can b serious.llol) girlfriend.
It was then I learned of what he could help me get thru - and he has ever since in all event-crashes possible in life and love, lost loved ones, starting to eye anew, blessed distraction from major medical can't move for 3 months at a time....his music was my strongest "medicine" while in pain....still is....these are all oft spoken words in greater part...arguably cliches...but who can fault the truth ? His music/voice/orchestral arrangments - all formally trained in him at Westlake College, that TEXTURE and the lyrcial TAPESTRY - all said a thousand times of him and I'll say them 1001'st time each one...Its like HEARING MYSELF THINK when I listen to him...that elusive "everyman" quality in him as one pundit aptly described...that made him instantly identifiable with...but also enough of mystery - esoteric songs...metaphor and allegory,
and then his real-life explits impressed the cr** out ofme - the 600 mile sub-arctic sea-kayak and canoeing treks, the backpacking, things I KNOW the character and body strength it takes to do...made him more real for me..yet even more of an iconic legend in my own youg mind.... my Dad, now passed, tookk me on backpacks/canoe trips/wilderness winter treks.etc. age 14 - 18 and taught me my love of maps..
.point is i identified with an allready incredible songwriter even further when I learned of his wilderness exploits - notably the 6-800 mile 60degree + latitude rowing expeditions for months.... and i IMAGINED HIS personal exploits in shall we say other areas as famous and rich and women going gaga over him and all; lol..well in the young mind of a 14 - 18 yr old, I tried hard to even look like him, grew my beard in High School - almost caused a riot with Admin but parents backed me up... High-5 DAD!
but I still listened to his music moreover love LOST...lol.....so then when I got maried at 23 the personal naivete-based idol turned as did I into an adult and real person 4 me, and admiree him all the more ever since...seeing as how he stopped drinking and was re-building his life +/- 2 years from the year I got married and transformed from an adverturing.travelling/try ALMOST almost anythin once if legal....but naive young man, into a ethics-based family man and husband who took his vows seriously...and had our daughter.....continued college for years to come.....kept listening, each year hearing something more..... I can still put the Sundown CD on now at 50 , and feel the 14 -yr old wonder in my ears and mind over this legend who's music is so unique HE DEFINES HIS OWN GENRE.
Fortunately she and I both loved his music (good thing..lol) for the 29 more year she lived ) and now his music soothes my mourning side, and i know I'll pick myself up, dust myself off, and start myself all over again (sound lie a song ?lol) - and I'll continue to be a man as Dad said, my Son.
. And ole Gord'll still be singing the soundtrack in the background...while I work like a soul inspired again...take a deep breath....and start all over again.....
. I have somewhat broadened my musical pallete ovew the years, but primarily 'cause I THOUGHT it was unheathy to listen exclusively to one artist. Still likely is. SO I listen to others, but wait like a dentist's drill til its over, and Gord is back in the CD-tray
and now on the PC and Laptop....and I really love making "mood/theme !!!" CD's custom burn..like so many corfidites do... Say , What of one with birds...naw I 'spect the concept you initially thought would make a good one "critters" - woulld encompass birds as well. What a great concept. !
and it makes your thread make even more natural sense.... Your thread will go far grasshopper...lol....my thread is probably living out its natural lifetime....500 posts vs 5000 views 10:1 ration , by looking at the norm, is a common ratio, but extremely fortunate totals - not from a competititve POV, at all, but rather, from a "Iam really glad they are enjoying it" level, with that yardstick !
Keep up the excellent thread - you've done the equivalent of producing a TV hit that has its strength in diversity of setting - like for example stargate. They can have a new "theme" every weak - with a central focus - the gate and the team (GL here in your thread). I don't watch stargate - but my son-in-law does... and when I watch it with him - I realize that is their forte ! My concept has inherant limitations on the other hand - the number of songs in his body of work formost and fist ....(despite my sneeking my favourite songs back in more than once..lol)-
actually not intentionally - but hearing the songs in my head to extract the clue portions - now formally checking them B4 I post new Clues....lol...they still come from my head initially- so inherantly my favourites re-appear....I have to forcibly listen in my mind to the UA period, and the '79- '89 period....and then I learn new ways to appreciate a period I liked less is all.
Congrats in your concept. Spin the dial say to....wind next week, and you have an all new game,,EXCELLLENT. I am glad if this thread felt like any sort of springboard. Collectively, I really think we are adding(I hope) to the enjoyment through the players efforts far more so than our own, but a measureable impact 2 enjoyment has been made IMO - I hope. I think so. Roger all the above Houston, ! now..back to biz.... 6! new song clues = 5 plus a rarity again.
