Hey all, Gord's appearance at Live 8 prompted me to reacquaint myself with his music. I always loved this tune and wondered what it meant. I stumbled on this thread through a Google search. I know its an old thread but I'd like to throw in my two cents.
Circle of Steel is a song of hope.
Lightfoot bookends the song with the "rows of lights" verse. Also the song takes it's title from this section so clearly it is important and understanding it is key to understanding the song. But notice how vague it is in comparison with the rest of the verses. I submit that Lightfoot does this on purpose. His point: What is suggested in this verse is more important than what it actually "means". This verse is all about mileau, setting and theme. Consider the line "a time you know". Its like Lightfoot is saying, "Come on, do I need to paint you a picture here? You know what I'm talking about." If I'm right about that then focusing too closely will cause you to miss the meaning. It's a 'big picture' sort of thing. To equate the "great big wheel" with a roulette wheel makes that mistake.
What this verse suggests is a city setting. I like Jimmie Will's take that the "rows of lights in a circle of steel" is the view of a city from an airplane" .... follow me on this.
It is Christmas Eve 1972. Gordon has been doing music for over 10 years by now and he's experienced sucess. His travels have taken him to many places and he's seen just about everything there is to see. On the cab ride to the airport they had to go through the "low income" district followed by (or preceded by) the "shopper's district" as well. Gord's mind begins churning over this odd juxtaposition of settings against a Christmas backdrop.
He gets on the plane and it takes off and his eyes wander out the window and try to locate the low-rent high-rises his cab had passed by. He notices the streetlights make relatively straight lines in spoke-like fashion from the center of the city and it hits him ... "rows of lights in a circle of ..."
Its "steel" not concrete. Life is hard. Life is unbending and cold. Concrete is to obvious in this context. If you ask the people in those high-rises life is like steel, not concrete. And its not only hard but its a bit of a crap shoot. He had just seen wealth within a half mile of poverty. What seperates the denizens of one building from another other than cruel fate? And possibly bad choices (which are like 'gambles')? He moves on to the body of the song.
The body of the song (verse 2, 3 and 4) is not a series of vignettes. It is one thread (Albeit one thread with overtones). He paints a picture of a child (not a boy or girl but a "child"), born to a poor family, right around Christmas time. A family where the father is 'absent'. Now people, come on ... "a time you know" ... poor mother .. child born in humble situation .. at CHRISTMAS ... clearly there are Christian overtones here. But more on that later.
Notice that the mother appears to deliver the child in her apartment (where the rats run around) and if its not actually on Christmas Eve it is certainly close because we have this sense that "everyone is in step with the season" from the intro. Apparently that includes the doctor who comes and goes on the double. A little commentary on the pace of the holiday season there? I argue that the doctor was there to deliver the kid and it was indeed Christmas Eve. Doctor's don't make house calls to low rent housing for a "bad cough" and I assume it was the doctor's proclamation that "the child is strong". WHo else would say it? So a kid is born on December 24th to a mother so poor that she could not get to the hospital ... either that or she was so drunk that she did not want to get in trouble at the hospital for drinking excessively while pregnant.
How does she and her child spend the rest of their Christmas Eve? She drinks an entire bottle of gin (or finishes it) as her neighbors (who are normally shouting at one another all day and night) are singing a Christmas carol. Depending on your perspective this is either a sarcastic line or a hopeful line. Still no mention of the father but we begin to suspect why this woman drinks so heavily.
The next morning is Christmas. She awakes with a hangover as the sunlight plays on an heirloom cup she has. She considers the cup and considers the promise that life held at one point and is reminded of how she got where she is. They didn't always live there. They had a future that is now only a memory symbolized by this cup. She grabs her baby and tells it about the father. Apparently the father was too proud to accept welfare adn sohe took matters into his own hands. What sort of crime gains you three years? Armed robbery maybe? Clearly its not murder. So here you have the bad choices. His was to first let his pride get in the way and second to commit the crime. Hers was to hitch-up with the wrong guy. Who's to sat that she wouldn't be on the other side of the tracks had the great big wheel hitched her up with someone else.
We see a hint of the child's future as well in the previous verse. It will be in and out of state care because of the notriety of the mother's behavior. She is not a casual drunk. That's why I mentioned the idea that the mother was afraid to go the hospital.
So, why would I say that this is a song of hope? Because "the child is strong". Despite its "weak" parents, despite its surroundings the child is strong. Considering the loose parallel between this child and Christ there is no other way to read the story here. Poverty is not genetic. And whereas life can be cold and difficult there is always the potential of beauty from ashes. Especially at the Christmas time of the year. Inevitably when the present is difficult we tend to consider the past and the future much more readily. So Lightfoot transitions back to the first verse and strangely this time when we hear it we are left with a strong sense of potential rather than actual. And it is a sense of potential than does not ignore the actual but rather acknowledges and overcomes it. That, my friends, is the definition of hope.
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