Lyr Req: Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)

Subject: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From:
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 07:24 PM

thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 07:36 PM

What's all that about?

Dave Oestereich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 07:47 PM

Well, DaveO, I am guessing, from looking at her brief previous requests, that she is looking for the words to this song, which she can find by CLICKING HERE.

Grace, just a suggestion: you will get a lot friendlier and better response if you actually engage by posting a bit more in your initial thread message. We do try to stand on good manners, but it's not always easy when someone doesn't communicate much.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: search the net
From: cait
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 02:26 AM

http://www3.pei.sympatico.ca/wfrancis/lightfoot/

---

Lyrics sent by e-mail. -jro-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: Bluesman and kde
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 09:38 AM

Thanks, cait, for the URL. I have been trying to find the lyrics to "Spanish Moss" in the past week with no success, and found them on the site. Thanks also to you, kat, for the lyrics site. PBS had a special featuring him about a week ago. He is aging well, still has the voice and really put on a performance. His musicians were tops. Thanks to you two again....Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 12:25 AM

Here's some interesting info about the song "Sundown". Gordon Lightfoot came from Orillia, Ontario, Canada...my present place of residence. The title, "Sundown" refers to a friend he had as a young man. The friend's nickname was "Sundown" for some reason...and he was pretty notorious for having stolen one or two of Gord's girlfriends on occasion...and for having tried to steal others. Gord didn't appreciate it. That's why he says in the song...."Sundown, you better take care if I find you been creepin' round my back stairs". The song has also been linked to his love affair with Leona Boyd (the classical guitarist), who was apparently the girl in the satin dress. She also went out with Pierre Trudeau, our late and most highly esteemed prime minister for some time. Canadian gossip, eh? All this is written up in easily available biographies about Lightfoot, by the way, so I am not revealing anything terribly horrendous here...okay? The "Sundown" story is of particular interest mostly to Orillians.

I am not kidding, this is the real story as far as I know. As for Sundown, he apparently still lives in Orillia. I don't think I've ever met him. Lightfoot lives in Toronto, in a rich neighborhood called Rosedale.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 12:42 AM

Wait til hawk gives you his analysis of "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts"..............

BTW, I saw Carol's pictures of Orillia and I can see why Lightfoot got the hell out! 'Course I can't help but notice he ain't livin' HERE either.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 12:53 AM

Neither is Bob Dylan. I bet you're surprised that Billy Ray Cyrus hasn't moved in next door though, eh, Spaw? Right next to Cletus and the Reg boys.

Do I detect a note of skepticism here? For shame! My analysis of "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack of Hearts" was child's play. It's my analysis of "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" that really gets into the deep stuff...

If jou're really nice and jou kees my pantalones, I'll es-plane it to jou sometime, hombre.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: GUEST,Valerie Magee
Date: 20 May 01 - 08:30 AM

I know this is an old thread, so maybe there is no interest in it anymore, but - just for the record - that "story" about the origins of the song "Sundown" is total nonsense. The song is about infidelity and was based on a relationship he was having at the time. He wrote and recorded Sundown in 1973 (the single went to #1 in the spring of 1974). He didn't know of or meet Liona Boyd until early in 1975.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: GUEST,willie-o
Date: 20 May 01 - 11:40 AM

well, I don't know when he met Liona Boyd, but what I heard about Sundown was that it was about Cathy Evelyn Smith, a Toronto native who is best known for having injected John Belushi with a fatal speedball.

She lived with Lightfoot for awhile, then dumped him to move to the LA fast lane.

It's a measure of his personal loyalty that without publicity, he ended up paying her legal bills after the Belushi tragedy. This is detailed in his biography.

W-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 01 - 08:26 PM

Valerie - You may be right. I was simply repeating what was told to me by a present inhabitant of Orillia, who knew both Gordon Lightfoot and "Sundown" when they were all young men. For all I know, he may have gotten some of the chronological facts screwed up, but there was a guy here with the nickname "Sundown".

And yes, the song certainly was about infidelity....whose to whom, I can't say for sure.

Now it it's "total nonsense" you want, pick on some of my humorous threads, but fer chrissake leave the music threads alone! :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: sundown by gordon lightfoot
From: vlmagee
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 11:46 AM

Hi Little Hawk,

I didn't want to leave this thread hanging with no further reply, so here it is ...

Just so you know, I am the person who posted here as a "Guest" before I figured out the signup procedure. I absolutely didn't mean to "pick on" you when I used the word "nonsense". It was the story you heard that I was dismissing - and it is perhaps a good example of what happens when information is passed around as local lore. The woman was definitely not Liona Boyd so I said that and clarified the timeframe; I saw no reason to name the person it was, so I didn't.

Your observation about "whose to whom" is very astute. There is always a lot beneath the surface in a Lightfoot song.

The fact that there was a fellow nicknamed Sundown who lives in Orillia is very interesting. It doesn't change what the song is about, and it isn't about the guy with that nickname. But, Lightfoot thinks in puns and metaphors; can't avoid it - and that is part of his gift. So we can be sure that when he wrote the song, he got a little chuckle out of the fact that "Sundown" had still another meaning (after the literal meaning and as the metaphor he uses in the song). I often say that I am amazed when I uncover still another layer of meaning in one of his songs, and I would say that this is one more example of how very clever Lightfoot is.

It's nice to meet you. Maybe we will hook up at a Lightfoot concert one of these days. Just back from Massey, I am now eying those concerts in Ontario the second week of August ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot)
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 09:37 AM

I believe the love affair was with Cathy Smith (John Belushi overdose fame).