A Time Capsule - Stray Dogs On Susan's Floor

[wendylangley]

Yesterday a friend asked me when I came to love John Denver's music. I instantly re-turned to a time-capsule I hadn't visited in some time. The JD question is answered in the capsule, but the time . . .

I posted this under Favorite Songs today, but have felt led to share it here. This song is embedded in me. It has become part of me and everywhere I've played since.

It's not just a "favorite," but an experience that runs deep into the soul.

"Like crippled ships that made it through the storm and finally reached a quiet shore, the Homeless found a Home on Susan's Floor."

One of the few songs Gord did not write, yet brought to absolute life like none other.

And now, The Time Capsule:

The early 70s; North Shore Lake Tahoe; a gentle young lady - called herself Sam - took in Stray Dogs.

They would drape themselves all over the furniture; pass the chips; pass the pipe; pass the guitar; and pass sweet fellowship.

The evening would begin to the soft John Denver and Poems, Prayers, and Promises floating from the stereo. Thus began the sharing, the caring, and the circle.

A breath would occasionally occur. Sam would play just the right song for the moment on the stereo. Then the Stray Dogs would resume their stories.

Sam would choose the time to bring the evening to a close W/ the playing of Shel Silverstein's beautiful lyric flowing from Gordon Lightfoot via the stereo.

The Stray Dogs would slowly move from the furniture to the floor, and become still - the Homeless found a Home On Susan's Floor.

As breathing came more deeply, Sam would play John Stewart and Chilly Winds - as those sweet dreams would come . . .

I can't sing those songs without seeing that scene so long ago - as present as breath - and for a priceless moment, young.

The Rez





------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

[The Rez]

Yesterday a friend asked me when I came to love John Denver's music. I instantly re-turned to a time-capsule I hadn't visited in some time. The JD question is answered in the capsule, but the time . . .

I posted this under Favorite Songs today, but have felt led to share it here. This song is embedded in me. It has become part of me and everywhere I've played since.

It's not just a "favorite," but an experience that runs deep into the soul.

"Like crippled ships that made it through the storm and finally reached a quiet shore, the Homeless found a Home on Susan's Floor."

One of the few songs Gord did not write, yet brought to absolute life like none other.

And now, The Time Capsule:

The early 70s; North Shore Lake Tahoe; a gentle young lady - called herself Sam - took in Stray Dogs.

They would drape themselves all over the furniture; pass the chips; pass the pipe; pass the guitar; and pass sweet fellowship.

The evening would begin to the soft John Denver and Poems, Prayers, and Promises floating from the stereo. Thus began the sharing, the caring, and the circle.

A breath would occasionally occur. Sam would play just the right song for the moment on the stereo. Then the Stray Dogs would resume their stories.

Sam would choose the time to bring the evening to a close W/ the playing of Shel Silverstein's beautiful lyric flowing from Gordon Lightfoot via the stereo.

The Stray Dogs would slowly move from the furniture to the floor, and become still - the Homeless found a Home On Susan's Floor.

As breathing came more deeply, Sam would play John Stewart and Chilly Winds - as those sweet dreams would come . . .

I can't sing those songs without seeing that scene so long ago - as present as breath - and for a priceless moment, young.

The Rez





------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

[The Rez]

PS: I didn't intend to post this ps, but realized it wouldn't be fair to Sam to not finish the time capsule.

Sam committed suicide in 1976 at her beloved Carnelian Bay. Only Sam knows why.

There really is no ending . . .

The Rez

------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

So Gord wasn't the one who wrote "On Susans Floor"?

So Gord wasn't the one who wrote "On Susans Floor"?

[The Rez]

On Susan's Floor was written by Shel Silverstein and Vince Matthews. One of the few not written by Gord. Bobby McGee, of course, would be another, and a few Dylan tunes early on.

But nobody, ('cept maybe Shel) could bring it to life like Gord. Every word flows as if from his own pen.

The Rez



------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

Red Velvet and I Used To Bee A Country Singer were not written by Gord either, don't think.

Red Velvet and I Used To Bee A Country Singer were not written by Gord either, don't think.

[The Rez]

I believe you are correct.

However, just so you'll know, my purpose in posting the Time-Capsule, was not to speak of the authorship of On Susan's Floor.

It was to put down in a friendly, safe place something I have very, very seldom shared. With only two people, others what the Stray Dogs were Gord and Alan. Shel had died.

Please don't put your attention of the details of the song, but on Sam and the Stray Dogs.

Gord could not have sung it more intimately, not touched us so extremely deeply.

A sharing of the heart - a dangerous thing to do: but then, life is dangerously present.

The Rez

------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

[The Rez]

When I get to be an old woman, which is going to be a very big surprise to my two ex wives and three sons who call me Dad, I do believe I'd like to be like Sam.

Maybe I'll just stay like I am and take in only female Stray Dogs.

Thank God for Susan's Floors, wherever they may be and whoever the proprietess. And, here's to the distaff side, too.

Lord Bless Them, for Lordy, where would some of us be without them,

The Rez



------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

[The Rez]

May I ask, please:

Have any of you experienced such place On Susan's Floor?

I would love to hear the tail.

The Rez

------------------
It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive

[Restless]

quote:Originally posted by Ducaire:
Red Velvet and I Used To Bee A Country Singer were not written by Gord either, don't think.

Red Velvet is by Ian Tyson whom discovered Gord in 1962. Gord and Ian together sang Alberta Bound and Four Strong winds at the opening ceremoniies to the Clagary Winter Olympics. Gord often sing Ians song "Farewell Nova Scotia" during his concerts too.
n

[Auburn Annie]

quote:Originally posted by paddletothesea:
Red Velvet is by Ian Tyson whom discovered Gord in 1962. Gord and Ian together sang Alberta Bound and Four Strong winds at the opening ceremoniies to the Clagary Winter Olympics. Gord often sing Ians song "Farewell Nova Scotia" during his concerts too.
n

Undoubtedly Ian Tyson recorded it - as have scores of others - but "Farewell to Nova Scotia" is a traditional song with no known author.

Edith Fowke says in The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs (1973, pp. 197-198):

19. Farewell to Nova Scotia
Creighton TSNS [Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia, 1950] 265


This has become the best known of all Nova Scotia songs, partly because the Halifax CBC television�@show, 'Singalong Jubilee', used it as a theme, and Catherine McKinnon recorded it. Helen Creighton collected it in the 1930s from half a dozen singers in the Petpeswick and Chezzetcook districts, some twenty-five miles east of Halifax: they told her that it was formerly sung in the schools. Mrs Carrie Grover learned it when she was a little girl in Nova Scotia as Adieu to Nova Scotia (208), and Marius Barbeau found another version in Beauce County, Quebec, as On the Banks of Jedddore (CAS 1). The tune is similar to one Cecil Sharp gives for The Lowlands Low.

[Auburn Annie]

quote:Originally posted by paddletothesea:
Red Velvet is by Ian Tyson whom discovered Gord in 1962. Gord and Ian together sang Alberta Bound and Four Strong winds at the opening ceremoniies to the Clagary Winter Olympics. Gord often sing Ians song "Farewell Nova Scotia" during his concerts too.
n

Undoubtedly Ian Tyson recorded it - as have scores of others - but "Farewell to Nova Scotia" is a traditional song with no known author.

Edith Fowke says in The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs (1973, pp. 197-198):

19. Farewell to Nova Scotia
Creighton TSNS [Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia, 1950] 265


This has become the best known of all Nova Scotia songs, partly because the Halifax CBC television�@show, 'Singalong Jubilee', used it as a theme, and Catherine McKinnon recorded it. Helen Creighton collected it in the 1930s from half a dozen singers in the Petpeswick and Chezzetcook districts, some twenty-five miles east of Halifax: they told her that it was formerly sung in the schools. Mrs Carrie Grover learned it when she was a little girl in Nova Scotia as Adieu to Nova Scotia (208), and Marius Barbeau found another version in Beauce County, Quebec, as On the Banks of Jedddore (CAS 1). The tune is similar to one Cecil Sharp gives for The Lowlands Low.