Favourite Gordon Lightfoot tune?

[HEyHEY]

I've done someting similar before...but not in poll format. Gordon is the best early morning drive through through the country music EVER! And the best Whiskey Drinking music when you are with only two other friends and it's a cold winter's night....or a summer's evening. When do you like to listen to Gord?

[Swede]

1. I grew up listening to Gordon

it's some fine fine music

[HEyHEY]

4. very delicate

I love listening to his picking

[blondeatlast]

18. "Carefree Highway." I live about 3 miles from the so-named

highway--and it was named that BEFORE he wrote the song. There really is something about traveling that highway, especially westward to the I-17 out of Phoenix, that lends itself to the song.

And I LOVE Phoenix.

[Mikimouse]

2. Tough choice

Voted for Edmund Fitzgerald, but Carefree Highway is a very close second. Best time to listen, anytime is good, but best is on a snowy early evening with a good fire in the fireplace.

[HEyHEY]

3. Oh that makes me lust for Winter

A cup of tea...fire......maybe a book or just looking out the window

[Mikimouse]

8. You're a person after my own heart

curled up in my favorite chair, with a small blanket over the legs, with a good book, and one of my cats in my lap. Gotta be able to see the snow fall though. Think softly falling large wet flakes with spruce trees covered and a distant light shining through the boughs.

[HEyHEY]

9. And the possible fear/hope that the power goes out

that's when I feel coziest

[Mikimouse]

11. Sounds like old times....

been there, done that, enjoyed it immensely (that is, until the power outage lasted for two weeks, then it started to get old).

[HEyHEY]

12. And the stereo doesn't work

Actually a power outage would wreck the whole lightfoot thing..unless you have a battery powered backup! :-)

[Mikimouse]

20. Have generator, will travel

they call me pluggitin.

[Bunny]

5. If you could read my mind love

what a tale my thoughts could tell.

[brook]

14. Yes.

Definitely agree with you!

[RebelOne]

45. Me, too

His best song ever.

[CanuckAmok]

42. Just like a paperback novel,

the kind the drugstore sells...

[ewagner]

51. aahhhh

Brings back great memories.

Would have suggested that but 'Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald' has special meaning to me after living in a city where 13 of the crew membbers came from. ( Moved into town the night the Fitzgerald went down.)

on edit: anybody who has lived around Lake Superior understands the mystical nature of that Lake....it's awesome! Lightfoot's song captures the erie, mystical tone.

[LuLu550]

6. sorry

I used to like Gordon alot and then I got married to someone who listened to nothing else and would listen to the same song over and over and over until I thought I would go mad! I divorced the guy but still have bad memories of begining stuck in the car for hours listening to the same few tunes. (on the positive side, I know all the words!)

[HEyHEY]

7. Gordon broke up your marriage?

that bastard

[LuLu550]

10. No, no, no, you silly head!

:bounce: I divorced the guy because he was an asshole. That he ruined my ability to listen to perfectly good music is just one example of his asshole-ness.
Interestingly enough, my ex took our daughter (16 years old) to summer camp over the summer and when she got home all she could talk about was the torture of listening to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald for two and a half hours.

[HEyHEY]

13. wow

I go on music kicks...but I mean...thats unreal

[LuLu550]

15. yeah...

he was pretty bad...I could never listen to the same song more than twice in a row, no matter how much I like it.

[booksenkatz]

16. I love GL...

It was hard to grow up in Tx as a GL fan, no one seemed to like him much down there. I was pleased when I moved to Michigan a few years ago and found out that they frequently play even some of GL's lesser known songs over the loudspeaker in the stores around here!

Anyway, my vote would be ALL OF THE ABOVE, but I have a particular affinity for Summertime Dream and If You Could Read My Mind. It's hard to pick, it depends on my mood!

[ForrestGump]

17. I chose "Sundown," but "Early Morning Rain," by Elvis,

is probably my favorite of the Gordon Lightfoot songs I've heard. I mean, I love Elvis' performances of it, but it's also just a cool song that very often has a great deal of meaning to me, lyrically.

I haven't heard Gordon Lightfoot's performance of the song. He's written some great stuff, and recorded them so well.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

37. GMTA, forrest

I agree with that one.

[ForrestGump]

39. Yep, you DO have a great mind

:D

And great taste, obviously.

Actually, "Carefree Highway" has been going around in my head lately...it's a great one, too, and you know how that highway feeling gets into the old bloodstream once you've enjoyed it via motorsickle.

Ride safe, and have fun: whether around sundown or in the early morning rain, may all your rides be along that carefree highway.

[Sagan]

19. Mountains and Maryann or The House You Live In

Summertime Dream is good, too!

I love Gordon Lightfoot. Been a big fan for years.

"And the prairie towns go sailing by--
Saskatchewan, here's mud in yer eye
I'm leaving you behind..."

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. Christian Island

I’m sailing down the summer wind
I got whiskers on my chin
And I like the mood I’m in
As I while away the time of day
In the lee of christian island
Tall and strong she dips and reels
I call her silver heels
And she tells me how she feels
She’s a good old boat and she’ll stay afloat
Through the toughest gales and keep smilin’
But for one more day she would like to stay
In the lee of christian island

I’m sailing down the summer day
Where the fish and seagulls play
I put my troubles all away
And when the gales comes up I’ll fill my cup
With the whiskey of the highlands
She’s a good old ship and she’ll make the trip
From the lee of christian island

Tall and strong she slips along
I sing for her a song
And she leans into the wind
She’s a good old boat and she’ll stay afloat
Through the toughest gales and keep smilin’
When the summer ends we will rest again
In the lee of christian island

[Jose Diablo]

22. Cherokee Bend my favorite GL tune

[tokenlib]

23. Canadian Railroad Trilogy

Something about the song strikes me as almost "patriotic". It expresses the vast expanses of Canada--and the nature of the people who built the country.

[ironflange]

26. I second that

CRT is the greatest. You have expressed it very well.

[HEyHEY]

28. I think you are the only albertan here!

Welcome to DU

[Terwilliger]

24. other: Beautiful

but I like WotEF and Sundown also

[MaineDem]

25. Early Morning Rain

I like Ian and Sylvia's version, too.

[Fridays Child]

30. Ditto and...

...ditto. And on the same I & S album, I love "Darcy Farrow."

[Mass_Liberal]

27. I like

the canadian railroad whatsit

[scarlet_owl]

29. All the Lovley Ladies

[Loyal]

31. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,

because it's the only one I've ever heard. :)

[HEyHEY]

32. Really!

Checkoout some of his stuff seriously..wright down the names on the pole..do you have kazaa?

[Loyal]

34. Yep, I do.

I'm going to do that. :)

[HEyHEY]

35. let me know how you make out

listen to the guitar especially it'll make you wish you lived in an old farmhouse and were perpetually drinking tea in the morning looking over a wheat field

[sspiderjohn]

33. Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle

nm

[Zorro]

49. Yes Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle gets my vote, too

For those of you that haven't heard it, it's on his live early recording and precedes Fitzgerald by about ten years.

I really like "Apology" from that same album a lot, too.

Virtually every one of Gordon's first dozen albums are outstanding, showcasing excellent songwriting and musicianship. For those of you that aren't that familiar with him, I encourage you to get one of his albums and be enthralled with his talent and intelligence.

Been a fan for almost 40 years. Lightfoot is an exceptional songwriter, with many, many tunes that touch one's heart.

[Dogmudgeon]

36. That Same Old Obsession -and- Pussywillows, Cat-Tails

And a big old honkin' bounce for Gord.

I listen to his stuff when I want to get so depressed I could die. The crazy thing is that this usually brings me out of depression in about two hours.

That Same Old Obsession is about lost love. It was a hit in Canada, but barely broke the charts in the USA. Pussywillows, Cat-Tails was on his first or second album, I think, and "reminds" me of the first few hours after one dies.

But nobody ever accused me of being a paragon of mental stability.

--bkl

[MrPrax]

38. What no Alberta Bound? n/t

[regnaD kciN]

40. My choice(s)...

Shadows, Affair on Eighth Avenue, and virtually everything on the Don Quixote and Summertime Dream albums.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

48. There a good pick...

I had no way of picking out a single song that I like, so picking an entire album is a good choice. I'd go with Don Quixote.

I suggested to my then-fiance that we have The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as the first dance at our wedding. She nixed the idea, but married me anyway!

[MSchreader]

41. On this list, there is no question

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". As a Michigan boy, I think it's illegal not to like the song.

The other song/set by Lightfoot I like is the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy".

Martin

[CanuckAmok]

43. if you could read my mind... n/t

[VOX]

44. "Early Morning Rain"...

In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
I'm a long way from home and I miss my loved one so
In the early morning rain with nowhere to go.

Cut on runway number nine, big 707 set to go
I'm stuck here on the ground, where the cold winds blow
The liquor tasted good and the women all were fast
There she goes, my friend, she's rolling down at last.

Hear the mighty engines roar, see the silver bird on high
She's away and westward bound, far above the clouds she'll fly
Where the morning rain don't fall and the sun always shines
She'll be flying over my home in about three hours time.

This old airport's got me down, it's no earthly good to me
Because I'm stuck here on the ground, cold and drunk as I might be
You can't hop a jet plane like you can a freight train
So I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain.

[chiburb]

52. The version I remember had...

"But I'm stuck here on the grass, where the pavement never grows..."

Maybe Peter, Paul, and Mary?

Anyway, this song gets my vote too.

[punpirate]

46. Gordon Lightfoot's reputation came from his...

... first album (which I still have on vinyl). And, the signature tune on that album was:

Early Morning Rain.

Drunk, fucked up, broke, watching others leave on a plane he can't afford. Written from experience, it sounds like.

Cheers.

[Wonk]

47. Other: Race among the ruins

(snip)

When you wake up to the promise
Of your dream world comin' true
With one less friend to call on
Was it someone that I knew
Away you will go sailin'
In a race among the ruins
If you plan to face tomorrow
Do it soon

[mac56]

50. Second for "Race Among The Ruins"

Actually, the whole "Summertime Dream" album. Great stuff.

[mac56]

53. Also "Ten Degrees And Getting Colder"

Now he's traded off his Martin
But his troubles are not over
For his feet are almost frozen
And the sun is sinkin' low
Won't you listen to me brother
If you ever loved your mother
Please pull off on the shoulder
If you're goin' Milwaukee way
It's ten degrees and getting colder
Down by Boulder dam today

[DinahMoeHum]

54. "Don Quixote" - what acoustic guitar work!!

Enough to make anybody want to try to play a 6-stringer (or a 12-stringer)

:bounce:

[Dulcinea]

55. I voted for Sundown.....

....but my almost-2-year-old loves "Edmund Fitzgerald." Seriously. I sing it to her when I wash her hair. It calms her down.