Am I nuts?

[ANTHONY ROBERSON]

Am I the only one on here who HONESTLY doesn't go a day without putting some Lightfoot on? I'm serious, THERE'S NOT A DAY where I don't come into work, sit down, get on the computer and click a Lightfoot album on. On weekends, I have an online jazz station going on in the bedroom, but in the car......SHADOWS, SALUTE, or my homemade compilation CD gets played.

I'm not nuts am I? I'm not going to be painting a loon on my forehead and asking for Gord's blessing in the near future am I?

[Acadia]

I don't think it's nuts. Just last night I listened to Triangle roughly 15 times in a row, the day before it was Waiting For You, same thing. Oddly enough each listen of the song seemed to provide some new aural nuance I had previously missed. Lots of other groups or artists just start to sound like noise after that many listens, not Lightfoot though.

[bjm7777]

Originally Posted by ANTHONY ROBERSON

I'm not nuts am I? I'm not going to be painting a loon on my forehead and asking for Gord's blessing in the near future am I?

Would that be so bad?

Seriously though, I keep "Songbook" in my crew truck and the co-workers have commented on the times I have individual cd's - "Jeez, every time I sit in your truck you have a different Gordie cd", one guy groaned, a couple fo weeks ago. The new guy told me yesterday that "Songbook" was great music, a fellow in his late 20's. Another co-worker calls me a hippie because of the Gord's Gold in the cd player.

I dunno... I think the world's nuts. Lightheads are perfectly sane, loons or no loons.

[RM]

Originally Posted by ANTHONY ROBERSON

I'm not going to be painting a loon on my forehead and asking for Gord's blessing in the near future am I?

Not trying to be an alarmist, but there have been reports of such behavior. However, none of those reports can be verified. You might want to keep an eye on "it" though.

Try switching........jazz at work, Lightfoot in the bedroom, etc.

Hope that helps.

[joveski]

you aint nuts!. i made a compilation of the rarities from Songbook that i listen to more than any of his normal albums

[teherie]

I just played Inspiration Lady three times on my Martin OM (great chord progression when played finger style). Check out his video on youtube.

Next, I powered through Early Morning Rain on my 12 string. That's after listening to DQ on the way to and from work today. My son was home on leave two weeks ago and told me that he was emotionally impacted driving home from work with Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on his I-Pod a couple of weeks ago. Is being nuts hereditary.

[formerlylavender]

You are NOT nuts! I, too, listen to Gord daily. I always have two CDs in the car - always chronologically - and one CD (random) in my CD player by the kitchen. Ask my kids - they can vouch for me. Sometimes if I go into a store or something and come back out, they will have changed to the radio or whatever. Very annoying! Why do they have ipods? Leave Gord alone.

[TC]

Well...to be honest, sometimes I don't listen to Gord for months at a time. Am I nuts?

TC

[bjm7777]

Originally Posted by TC

Well...to be honest, sometimes I don't listen to Gord for months at a time. Am I nuts?

TC

Yeah, YOU'RE nuts! NO! WAIT! I was only JOKING! How insensitive of me!

A balanced listening ear is actually healthy. However, if you listen to Cat Stevens for example, the balanced thought process is: "How would Gord do this song?", or "Would Gord play in a different key?", or "Should Gord even bother playing it?". This may cure your problem of months on end of no Gord in the CD player. But then, as in all cognitive behavior therapy, you first need to see the problem...
Glad I could help.

[charlene]

Originally Posted by TC

Well...to be honest, sometimes I don't listen to Gord for months at a time. Am I nuts?

TC

sounds like me! and I KNOW I'm not nuts..

[Tim]

While we are being so open and baring our souls

Here's anothe sympton of being "nuts" that I sometimes exhibit: Sometimes I will go for quite a while without listening a GL tune. Then, when I hear it gain, a song may leap out and hit me hard, just like it was brand new to me, even though I've known the song existed for years. It's just that it will mean something new to me years later. It's like rediscovering a work of art and I have to play it on the guitar again, again and again, just like it was a new discovery. Most recently this has happened when listening to the songs:

Thank You for the Promises
The Gypsy
Heaven Help the Devil
Now and Then
Protocol

Is there a cure for this? Or should I just sit back and enjoy the illness?

[charlene]

Originally Posted by Tim

While we are being so open and baring our souls

Here's anothe sympton of being "nuts" that I sometimes exhibit: Sometimes I will go for quite a while without listening a GL tune. Then, when I hear it gain, a song may leap out and hit me hard, just like it was brand new to me, even though I've known the song existed for years. It's just that it will mean something new to me years later. It's like rediscovering a work of art and I have to play it on the guitar again, again and again, just like it was a new discovery. Most recently this has happened when listening to the songs:

Thank You for the Promises
The Gypsy
Heaven Help the Devil
Now and Then
Protocol

Is there a cure for this? Or should I just sit back and enjoy the illness?

This is how i feel about a lot of tunes I will play and hear for the first time in a long time. It can be like hearing it for the first time and I wil re-play it over and over because the cd player is the only musical instrument I can play.
that's fine group of songs you've listed.
i may just give them a listen tomorrow.

[RM]

Originally Posted by Tim

It's just that it will mean something new to me years later.

I've also found that to be the case, especially in the early days. Since Lightfoot is 13 years older than I am, he was talking about things from a 30 year-old's perspective while I was in my latter teens. The music was always captivating, but it took a while to fully appreciate the lyrics.

[bjm7777]

Well, I have perused through more of these posts about being nuts. What I am seeing is a common thread here in the stories shared here at what I now call Lightfoot Anonymous.

Step One: I admit that I am always playing Gordon Lightfoot music and my life has become unmanageable.
Step Two: I came to believe that a power greater than me can restore me to sanity....

Wait a minute......No, I think I'll just keep playing his music. I think we're all NORMAL here......

[Yuri]

Nuts? ….Doc, I need help!
My problem is that I can't separate Gord's lyrics from My daily reality!
You see Doc, if a word or object is found in Gord‘s lyrics and I encounter that word or object in my daily travels, it triggers an irrepressible desire to hum that tune. So far I sing it to myself - you know, big grin, vacant stare, arms wrapped around my knees, rocking back and forth with a few mumbled words escaping 'Now & Then'. How soon before a confused and concerned pubic stand back with eyebrows raised, then dial 911 as they look on with unenlightened pity? Yet, for me it's pure Rapture!

If I pass a Hotel, I wonder if it is of the 'Hangdog' or 'No' variety - then on deciding, I hum the appropriate tune. Look, a 'Boathouse'-hummmmm, it has a second floor, I wonder if Susan is up there, Hummm.......

Take a trip through the supermarket and the tunes I hum change as I pass 'Biscuits', 'Strawberries' (wild or otherwise), Seafood Dept? - 'Rainbow Trout', or 'Shellfish'. Wine!-Is it Blackberry?, - hummm..................., Clothes (Saturday's????) - jewellery store??? I bet they carry 14K, hummmmm

Home Depot, surely no Gord in there?.....'Windowpanes' & 'Walls', brooms for your 'Cobwebs & Dust' - not to mention that 'Painter Passing Through' carrying a can of Sherwin-Willams. Two-By-Fours made of 'Knotty Pine'!! Hummmmm, La, La, La,….Hummmmm…..

Is that Circle is 'Small' or 'of Steel'? – the song begins to play in my head. From ‘Tattoos’ to ‘Triangles’ to ‘Shadows’, if I see it, I’ll hum it!

God help me if it starts raining because the synapses can't handle 'Early Morning', 'Looking At' and 'People' all at once!
It's a 'Black Day' when my 'Unsettled Ways' have left me 'Restless' and all I really want is some 'Tranquility'
You get the picture. So tell me Doc, am I nuts??? Hummmmmmm, La, La, La….

[bjm7777]

Too funny, Yuri. What a great post.

[timetraveler]

Originally Posted by ANTHONY ROBERSON

Am I the only one on here who HONESTLY doesn't go a day without putting some Lightfoot on? I'm serious, THERE'S NOT A DAY where I don't come into work, sit down, get on the computer and click a Lightfoot album on. On weekends, I have an online jazz station going on in the bedroom, but in the car......SHADOWS, SALUTE, or my homemade compilation CD gets played.

I'm not nuts am I? I'm not going to be painting a loon on my forehead and asking for Gord's blessing in the near future am I?

I don't know about the painting a loon on your forehead thing, but no, you're not nuts. Myself, whenever I put one of his discs in to relax with, I end up drifting off to sleep & feeling as if I'm a bird, like an eagle for instance, flying high, proud & free.