"The Last Time I saw Her Face"

[Lunaray]

Greetings, new member here!

I've always wondered about "The Last Time I saw Her Face", a song from one of Gordon's early albums. It's a hauntingly beautiful song, but it's very sad. Anyone know what the story is behind this song, was it written about someone he was close to?

Thanks,
Ray

[johnfowles]

Greetings, new member here!

I've always wondered about "The Last Time I saw Her Face", a song from one of Gordon's early albums. It's a hauntingly beautiful song, but it's very sad. Anyone know what the story is behind this song, was it written about someone he was close to?

Thanks,
Ray


Welcome to the forums Ray. I trust that the "luna" part of your screenname is not a shortened version of the word for somebody who is a few marbles short!
Like you Ray... back in 1966 I was immediately drawn to Gord's hauntingly beautiful rendition (it was indeed only the second Gord recording I ever heard, after the sadly neglected Spin Spin that is, but if you read the small print you should spot what has been pointed out on this forum many times before it is one of the very few songs that Gord has recorded that were not as he once put it in concert his own "original shit" (sic) as it was in fact written by Ewan McColl and a google will reveal that he wrote in in honour of his wife (Peggy Seeger) see the inevitable wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewan_MacColl:-
Peggy herself is the sister of the redoubtable "we shall overcome" Pete; see another wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger
This has been a Public Information posting brought to you by
"Sir" John Fowles Bt

[Auburn Annie]

A little confusion here. "The Last Time I Saw Her" is Gord's. See first verse:

The last time I saw her face, her eyes were bathed in starlight and her hair hung long
The last time she spoke to me, her lips were like the scented flowers inside a rain-drenched forest
But that was so long ago that I can scarcely feel the way I felt before
And if time could heal the wounds, I would tear the threads away that I might bleed some more.

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is Ewan McColl's song for Peggy Seeger. See first verse:


The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the night and the empty skies my love
To the night and the empty skies


The conflation is understandable; I've always thought they should be paired. Both are lovely, with McColl's a tender celebration of love found and Gord's a painful memory of love lost.

[Lunaray]

Welcome to the forums Ray. I trust that the "luna" part of your screenname is not a shortened version of the word for somebody who is a few marbles short!
Like you Ray... back in 1966 I was immediately drawn to Gord's hauntingly beautiful rendition (it was indeed only the second Gord recording I ever heard, after the sadly neglected Spin Spin that is, but if you read the small print you should spot what has been pointed out on this forum many times before it is one of the very few songs that Gord has recorded that were not as he once put it in concert his own "original shit" (sic) as it was in fact written by Ewan McColl and a google will reveal that he wrote in in honour of his wife (Peggy Seeger) see the inevitable wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewan_MacColl:-
Peggy herself is the sister of the redoubtable "we shall overcome" Pete; see another wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger
This has been a Public Information posting brought to you by
"Sir" John Fowles Bt
No, the "Luna" stands for moon, not lunatic!:biggrin:

I know all about "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Ewan MacColl, except that I don't remember Gordon Lightfoot doing a cover of it.

Read the song title! :)

[Auburn Annie]

It's on a number of albums:

Lightfoot!, Early Morning Rain, A Lightfoot Collection,Fantastic Lightfoot Vol II., Over 60 Minutes with ...and The United Artists Collection- CD I

[Lunaray]

It's on a number of albums:

Lightfoot!, Early Morning Rain, A Lightfoot Collection,Fantastic Lightfoot Vol II., Over 60 Minutes with ...and The United Artists Collection- CD I
Thanks Annie, I probably even have it on one of my old vinyls!

Getting back to my original question though, I don't suppose you know how I might find some information about "The Last Time I Saw Her Face", do you?

[closetcanadian]

Welcome to the forum Lunaray. In reply to your question, Lightfoot himself offers this insight from the Songbook liner notes:

"It's about the breakup of a marriage. In a way, you're predicting what's going to take place, and then it happens. In some sense you play the scene out in your mind, and after the fact, it hits you how close you were to the mark. It makes it a little tough to perform sometimes, but not enough to keep a great song down. In a way, it covers the same ground that "If You Could Read My Mind" did years later."

I believe he wrote this song prior to the breakup of his first marriage so it appears he was a bit prophetic. I think some fans interpret the line about the headstone to indicate an actual fatality but I always suspected that lyric was a metaphor for the end of a relationship. I thought "Last Time I Saw Her" was the opposing bookend to his earlier song, "Softly." The latter song extolls the heady exhiliration of the beginnings of a love affair while the former laments it's loss. Both great songs!

Enjoy your time here at corfid. There are many friendly, knowledgeable GL fans here.

[Lunaray]

Thanks ClosetC,

That does indeed shed some light on it, and yes, I thought the reference to a "battered marking stone" meant a death. But having gone through a very painful divorce once myself, I can relate to losing someone you love as being like a death.

Ray

[louisemnnpls]

Welcome to the forum Lunaray--------

I thought "Last Time I Saw Her" was the opposing bookend to his earlier song, "Softly." The latter song extolls the heady exhiliration of the beginnings of a love affair while the former laments it's loss. Both great songs!

Awesome analysis "closetcanadian" and "Welcome!!" Lunaray.

[johnfowles]

A little confusion here. "The Last Time I Saw Her" is Gord's. .
Thank you Annie for puting me right here
Boy is my face red this morning, I trust that all here will forgive me and agree that it was an understandable confusion on my part as the two song titles are so very similar.But to complete the picture on "The Last Time" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8nSKimHkSY ), no nothing to do with Messrs Jagger and Richard's hit, Gord's song was such a wonderful demonstration vehicle for his voice and range in its prime it is no wonder that it must be a very long time since he performed it live. One such latish example is the great radio broadcast from WNEW New York in 1978 the folkfest benefit concert a pretty unique concert as Wayne describes it:-
"Recorded live at Folkworks in New York, Lightfoot headlined a benefit
that also included Tom Rush and Bonnie Koloc, among others on the
program. Lightfoot was backed by Terry Clements on acoustic guitar
and Rick Haynes on bass. Mike and Barry had the day off."
(I wonder if Tom did his GL like "Remember" song on that occasion??)
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot/images/Folkfest_13_sep_1987_front.jpg
Rather plain Black and white CD artwork I found somewhere
My own version of a cd cover
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot/images/folkfest_front.jpg

Oops I 'll have to edit that as somehow I got the date wrong!!!
whatever this was a very nice recording in which a little straining in Gord's voice is offset by beautiful guitar work from what was on that ocasion a three piece band of Gord Rick and Terry so it is a very much simpler and"cleaner" sound than the fully orchestrated album version originally released on the Did She Mention My Name album (as included in the Songbook boxset)
This has been a Public Apology posting from
"Sir" John Fowles Bt
Late Breaking News
Very interesting when I went to preview this posting the both pictures as you can see had an information bar added above them which clearly and most helpfully said:-
"This image has been resized click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 650x650"
My uploaded pictures were indeed 650 square (I had resized both using MGI Photosuite and I had meant to use 640 square but in a hurry I misentered 650 square.
Florian has therefore wonderfully introduced an automatic resizing facility that obviously will limit every picture being displayed to 640 square. Wonderbar!! That is one less detail I will need to explain a workaround for in my tutorial Thanks Florian

[Don Quixote]

I remember that benefit concert; I happened to be at my parents' house in NJ, so I was listening to the NYC stations, and all of a sudden there was Gord on the radio. As I recall, (it's been 20 years, but I think I'm correct) after he finished "The Last Time", he made some kind of remark like "Not bad for an old guy", or some such thing; you could tell he was proud of that rendition of the song which does take quite a bit of range.

I've been a bit out of touch lately--family and work issues. Just got back from 2 weeks in Peru and Chile, and missed the earthquake by less than a day--whew! It'll take some time to get used to the new forum format, but as always, thanks, Florian, for all your efforts.

Regards to all,
DQ

[Affair on Touhy Ave.]

I thought "Last Time I Saw Her" was the opposing bookend to his earlier song, "Softly." The latter song extolls the heady exhiliration of the beginnings of a love affair while the former laments it's loss. Both great songs!

Awesome analysis "closetcanadian" and "Welcome!!" Lunaray.


Both songs seem to have the same guitar work.

Of couse with Sofly I'm only
failiar with the GG re-recording but perhaps both versions of softly aren't all that much different.

and

[Borderstone]

Since Lunaray's question's been answered,I'll just say welcome to the family. ;)

[Lunaray]

Thanks for all of the warm welcomes! And sorry I got the title wrong, should be "The Last Time I Saw Her"

[brink-]

I remember that benefit concert; I happened to be at my parents' house in NJ, so I was listening to the NYC stations, and all of a sudden there was Gord on the radio. As I recall, (it's been 20 years, but I think I'm correct) after he finished "The Last Time", he made some kind of remark like "Not bad for an old guy", or some such thing; you could tell he was proud of that rendition of the song which does take quite a bit of range.

I've been a bit out of touch lately--family and work issues. Just got back from 2 weeks in Peru and Chile, and missed the earthquake by less than a day--whew! It'll take some time to get used to the new forum format, but as always, thanks, Florian, for all your efforts.

Regards to all,
DQ

glad you made it to the new house DQ. Also nice timing, glad you made it back safely.

[ELizabeth]

Welcome Lunarays (sp.?). 'The Last Time I Saw Her Face' is one of my favorites. Hang around and enjoy!