One single line of lyrics makes the song much better

Have you ever heard a GL song that you probably wouldn't have liked half as good if it were not for one small bit of lyrics? In [Sometimes I Wish, the last line "Your leavin' right now" really blew me away after I got into the song.

[This message has been edited by DMD3 (edited September 19, 2004).]

[Borderstone]

In a case of the simplest lyric and or line,I wasn't that crazy about "Tattoo" until Gordon says one word at the end of the Verses....."Good-Night."

I don't know what it is about it that makes the song more appealing,it just makes it work better. I guess it kind of punctuates the lyrics that came before it. I think that must be it.

Later,"D".

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"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." - Borderstone

[LSH]

B, I completely agree with that. It's almost like an "amen", just emphasizing everything he said before that...

[Borderstone]

Look out LSH,you're being followed! Thank you. I blush at compliments.

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"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." - Borderstone

[Sidney Freedmen]

In Carefree Highway. the first verse, there's a line thats says "She left me not knowin what to do" That almost made me cry bcuse it described my girlfriend when i first talked to her in person.

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Sidney Freedmen

'Sit Down Young Stranger' and visit The Home Page Of Gordon Lightfoot

[brink]

Okay did nobody notice that DMD3 actually used have and half correctly? Congrats DMD3 you must have been studying this summer.

[johnfowles]

quote:Originally posted by brink:
Okay did nobody notice that DMD3 actually used have and half correctly? Congrats DMD3 you must have been studying this summer.Deb you don't half have a nerve. You are really are wicked!!



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My Gordon Lightfoot webring
starts at
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

"Wishing this was all a dream, And I'd find you sleeping when I wake", from Lookin' At The Rain is something we can ALL probably relate to.

"Let love take a holiday" from Stay Loose is also some advice I've been following (and would suggest anyone else going thru a rough time to follow)

"Late about dusk I would start to think, One more day had been lost, Nothing I'd say ever seem to convey how I felt, With that I had dealt" from Welcome To Try. Again, describes the human emotion fully in a nutshell.

[brink-]

Washin' the bullshit down - Watchman's Gone, who hasn't had to do that in their lives.

Once inside we found a curious moonbeam doing dances on the floor -Now and Then, what a great line, who but Gord would have thought up that line and made it fit so nicely in a song.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin'

"Wishing this was all a dream, And I'd find you sleeping when I wake", from Lookin' At The Rain is something we can ALL probably relate to.

You got it SU&DIL

Also,
Song For A Winter’s Night
"I read again between the lines upon each page
The words of love you sent me"

For me personally,

"Was it up in Hornepayne where the trains run on time"

Well it doesn't exactly bring a tear to the eye or produce a lump in the throat but that line hits me each time I hear it as Gord's "on-tme" trains kept me awake while I was in Hornepayne. I wrote about the experience in my blog below.

http://missinaibi-yuri.blogspot.com/...ibi-river.html

Yuri

[geodeticman.5]

On "Is there Anyone Home" , the line that clinches the mood piece for me is "you got that feelin' in your soul" - your right- seems in many songs one phrase or line alters or caps what you like, or might not have liked until.....

Another one for me is in one of the 18 rarities in songbook, disc4, "Always on the Bright Side" - the highly descriptive line that says more than one hears on the surface first time around , roughly: "seen between two shipwrecked eyes" - very "ethereal" as Gord is fond of saying it seems.

Then again, one line can take away from a song, or distract temporarily from what otherwise is interesting or captivating in a comfortable way. I think this sometimes comes up in his highly "gotta think about that one for a year or two" songs with a seemingly unrelated or otherwise obscure reference in a lyrically complicated song such as "Too Many Clues in this Room".

In it, the lyrics, while complicated metaphors to the point of almost being obtuse are being digested mentally by the listener, along comes a bit of a "burp" so to speak when he refers to (roughly): "when his crew through his ba**s to the sharks".....

OOOOkAAAY, we're all adults, and far be it for me to question the lyrics in the Man's choice of salty sea-dog references, but that one just takes me by surprise enought to stop my ex-cogitation pending on the "space shuttle ends where the subway begins, there's a train leavin' soon" or something similar too that, and I'm still mentally chewing over the metaphorical possibilities there, when I hear nothing that should shock a grown man who's heard it all, just not all on Gord's albums ! Keeps us on our toes ! And thats good ! A very atypical song for Gord.

But in the same song - a "I love it" clincher comes up conversely that overshadows any potential obscurity to me otherwise. Roughly "in an old sea-man's chest, full of charts" MAPS MAPS ! Navigtional maps with bathymetry (sea-bed topographic contours) ok thats cool ... I'm with that song , now man.... LOL
good thread idea DMD3 - geo steve

[Scott Mac]

"It was out in Arizona where her heard the lady listening." From 10 Degrees and Getting Colder. I don't know how you can hear somebody listen, but what a magnificent line! It catches my attention every time.

[geodeticman.5]

Scott - I'd guess the 10 degrees and Getting Colder listening thing might be more discernable BECAUSE of the very cold air... You know how when a person is out in the snow, and its so cold the inside of nose freezes when its ( for me) about 3 -5 degrees or colder, typically when I was snowshoeing, and in Colorado the air is drier, too most of the time. So.......-

Well, all these minor physics would logically combine to the point that one could easily hear another thinking through the rarified air, as sound carries so in these conditions.....( pregnant pause...waiting for response.....) OK ok I am only kidding, of course I know one can't hear another thinking LOL... for a moment though I almost convinced myself though, I am so gullable around me.... small lol . They say a good sense of humour is very important......... ok I'm outta here. a hehe
~geo steve

[jj]

Originally Posted by DMD3

Have you ever heard a GL song that you probably wouldn't have liked half as good if it were not for one small bit of lyrics? In [Sometimes I Wish, the last line "Your leavin' right now" really blew me away after I got into the song.

[This message has been edited by DMD3 (edited September 19, 2004).]

and now, these several years later (since the Harmony release) that crushing line is the final lyric, from that last track, that Gord has left us hanging on

can't say I'm that excited about a Massey Live CD, gimme more originals Gord, even if it's a collection of unpolished LP cast offs

ok, to contribute to the thread, I'd add (from On the High Seas):

"and when all is said and done, is there no rainbow's end?"

[Wes Steele]

Great Thread You All... Enjoyed it very much.

"If You Could Read My Mind" is probably my second favorite and it would be great without this line but I really like...

"When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail"

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

Originally Posted by jj

and now, these several years later (since the Harmony release) that crushing line is the final lyric, from that last track, that Gord has left us hanging on

can't say I'm that excited about a Massey Live CD, gimme more originals Gord, even if it's a collection of unpolished LP cast offs

ok, to contribute to the thread, I'd add (from On the High Seas):

"and when all is said and done, is there no rainbow's end?"

You mean there's a new album finally in the makes?

[Scott Mac]

Originally Posted by geodeticman.5

Scott - I'd guess the 10 degrees and Getting Colder listening thing might be more discernable BECAUSE of the very cold air... You know how when a person is out in the snow, and its so cold the inside of nose freezes when its ( for me) about 3 -5 degrees or colder, typically when I was snowshoeing, and in Colorado the air is drier, too most of the time. So.......-

Well, all these minor physics would logically combine to the point that one could easily hear another thinking through the rarified air, as sound carries so in these conditions.....( pregnant pause...waiting for response.....) OK ok I am only kidding, of course I know one can't hear another thinking LOL... for a moment though I almost convinced myself though, I am so gullable around me.... small lol . They say a good sense of humour is very important......... ok I'm outta here. a hehe
~geo steve

Thanks for the laugh Geo Steve. Scott

[geodeticman.5]

Once again, my same old obsession with "Is There Anyone Home" - a line.... to wit

"I've been around, for a have... (er wait a minute...half...) a hundred days" (and then it gets a little hard to discern but sounds like- "never shopped, or shot those kites" nah...j/k- doesn't really meet the thread criteria - but I thought I'd throw in a clincher line for me that is unique phraseology -as in "How long you been around these parts Pilgrim?" - Oh , I dunno, I rekin' ITS BEEN A HALF A HUNDRED DAYS - lessee here - that'd be fifty, wait, no, yeah that is 50. Makes a man think, that line. And I had to half fun with the have/half ambiguity I no knuthing of just halfin' fun LOL
~ geo steve

[KHester]

I would agree with Wes about If You Could Read My Mind "When you reach the part where the heartaches come The hero would be me But heroes often fail" I used this verse as an illustration during Communion mediation on the first anniversary, of 9/11. I said what makes a hero? The success or the effort? I pointed out it has to be the effort.

Also a very vivid image comes from The Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle..

"Jump down, jump down!" the captain cries
"We'll save you if we can!"
Then the paint on his funnels is a-fryin'" It almost burns the image of the desperation
of the fire into your brain.

Another great line "She lights the sun and conjures up the rain" from She's not the Same

[Wes Steele]

KHester,

Wish there was no 9-11, but what you said was a great analogy on that one year anniversary.

It just goes to show how amazing Gordon Lightfoot is, and how important his writings are.

GL is NOT appreciated enough by the music community.

I like this thread, as I wrote before, and probably all of us could go down a list of his songs, (not just one or two) and pick out a line here or there that really hits home.

Wes

[Louise]

There are many, but one I can think of right now is from "Affair on Eighth Avenue":
"We came through a doorway somewhere in the night"

It's the unspecific nature of it -- it could by ANY doorway, metaphorical as well as literal. And also the dominance of night.

Louise

[Paul Farnham]

"For every child with eyes that smile there'll be ten more cryin'" There are of course, many more but I went with what first popped in my head.

[lighthead2toe]

This is like jumping into a minefield with no way out other than the delightful.
There are so many it's almost impossible to make a choice without going into the collection song by song which would glorious but the interruptions would take away the moments of joy.
"I have no gold to give her, Nor gowns of soft crimson hue, Nor poems of love nor rhymes to bring her, Into my heart so strong so true. When will you love me as I love you."
That lyric is taken from the song "A Minor Ballad" from Gord's earlier work and the reason why I chose it is because it is my favorite Gordon Lightfoot song today as it was for yesterday and if this lumpy throat doesn't subside it will continue to be the fav for tomorrow and probably continue on from there as well. After all the song is among a class act of others on that recording (The Way I Feel) including "Song For A Winter's Night." Pretty hard to top that. Funny what lyrics can do to you though isn't it? Ron J.

[imported_Next_Saturday]

"This rented car never went so far
But with each passing mile one more dream had turned to clay"
-Somewhere U.S.A.

[Tim]

Gord is so poetic and expressive, which is why I think he is the best composer in the world:

The song "Protocol" in my opinion might be one of Gord's most overlooked songs with very powerful lyrical force

Protocol:
"Was God in town for the Roman games, Was he there when the deals were signed?"

From the Fitz where Gord expresses tangible thoughts in an incredibly poetic way:
"...Superior sings in the rooms of her ice water mansion"

From Old Dan's Records where he captures the magic of a special family event:
"High above the fireplace, there's a smile on old Dan's face"

From Seven Island Suite, although I've known this song since it came out on the Sundown album, it connected to my heart in a powerful new way after 9-11:
"Every nation's gonna be shaken, put it together, don't let it slip"

There are so, so many more, but I'll leave it there for now.