Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - New Video Coming: "Looking At The Rain" Intro/Finale

horizonfound · 09-10-2019, 01:20 PM

"Looking At The Rain" is one of my favorite songs of all time..let alone Gordon Lightfoot songs. Clearly, for Eric Clapton , this is the case as well; or, he wouldn't have chosen it for this project and performed it with such faithfulness to Gordon's original (including even the feel of Gordon's guitar part!). Thank you for alerting us to his cover-version!

In a private email here, when I announced I would do this video/tutorial, I was informed that there was an earlier 1969 radio show iteration of the song that was a featured track on the 2 CD set: "Gordon Lightfoot: "Skip Weshner Radio Show 1968-1970." It's cool to hear an early version before Gordon worked the song into it's final form: the guitar part features finger-picking with the individual notes in succession rather than the notes being plucked together in pairs as in the LP version (as seen in my video intro). The late great under-appreciated Mickey Newbury developed his entire self-taught right-hand technique around that 2-finger plucking technique (on a gut string Ramirez guitar) that I'll cover in future videos. Gordon's right-hand technique is really superb. He has great chops, and some eccentric rhythms he'll employ to add variety (including when he simply strums!). His other-worldly voice captures most of the attention (as well it should); but, not at the expense of his songwriting and guitar playing prowess...it's all of a piece even if it's unheralded by the general listener. WE appreciate every bit of it, don't we? Another point of interest, in that 1969 radio version, is the difference in the chords for the following line (Capo 2!): "..waiting for a line [Bm] to fall [F#m], [Bm] telling you that it's [F#m] all a, big mis-take [Em]...Three years later, in finished form for the LP, the chords had evolved as follows (Capo 1): "..waiting for a line [Bm] to fall [Am7], [Gmaj7] telling you that it's all it's [D/F#] all a, big mis-take [Em]...". Both versions work; but, the final version is far superior and one of the most clever chord transitions in Gordon's entire canon of work (in my humble opinion anyway). What do you folks think?

09-10-2019, 01:20 PM	#7
horizonfound Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Modesto,CA, USA Posts: 31	Re: New Video Coming: "Looking At The Rain" Intro/Finale "Looking At The Rain" is one of my favorite songs of all time..let alone Gordon Lightfoot songs. Clearly, for Eric Clapton , this is the case as well; or, he wouldn't have chosen it for this project and performed it with such faithfulness to Gordon's original (including even the feel of Gordon's guitar part!). Thank you for alerting us to his cover-version! In a private email here, when I announced I would do this video/tutorial, I was informed that there was an earlier 1969 radio show iteration of the song that was a featured track on the 2 CD set: "Gordon Lightfoot: "Skip Weshner Radio Show 1968-1970." It's cool to hear an early version before Gordon worked the song into it's final form: the guitar part features finger-picking with the individual notes in succession rather than the notes being plucked together in pairs as in the LP version (as seen in my video intro). The late great under-appreciated Mickey Newbury developed his entire self-taught right-hand technique around that 2-finger plucking technique (on a gut string Ramirez guitar) that I'll cover in future videos. Gordon's right-hand technique is really superb. He has great chops, and some eccentric rhythms he'll employ to add variety (including when he simply strums!). His other-worldly voice captures most of the attention (as well it should); but, not at the expense of his songwriting and guitar playing prowess...it's all of a piece even if it's unheralded by the general listener. WE appreciate every bit of it, don't we? Another point of interest, in that 1969 radio version, is the difference in the chords for the following line (Capo 2!): "..waiting for a line [Bm] to fall [F#m], [Bm] telling you that it's [F#m] all a, big mis-take [Em]...Three years later, in finished form for the LP, the chords had evolved as follows (Capo 1): "..waiting for a line [Bm] to fall [Am7], [Gmaj7] telling you that it's all it's [D/F#] all a, big mis-take [Em]...". Both versions work; but, the final version is far superior and one of the most clever chord transitions in Gordon's entire canon of work (in my humble opinion anyway). What do you folks think? Last edited by horizonfound; 09-10-2019 at 08:01 PM.