Gee, I hate to bring up what might be a downer for some folks...especially those who have profound interpretations of this lovely little ditty...but I think "Daylight Katy" was probably one of Gord's many "long goodbye" songs about Cathy Evelyn Smith (later infamous for John Belushi's death). If it was written in about 1976, as I suspect, she was living with (and getting drugs for) Richard Manuel of The Band on the beach near LA.
At that time I was a much bigger fan of The Band than Gord, and I remember wondering why he was not at The Last Waltz on November 25, 1976. They had Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Gord's old buddy Ronnie Hawkins as nods to their roots, and Gord certainly was (and is) the Big Kahuna of Canuck singer/songwriters. It even would have fit in with his tour schedule, as posted on Wayne Francis's "Lightfoot!" site. Then I learned about Cathy Smith and that little mystery was solved. (She also was with Band drummer Levon Helm in the late 60s--before her romance with GL--and had a child with LH that she later put up for adoption.)
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