I don't mean to be depressing gang.But I'm curious.How many of you can't sing all the way through one of Gordons' songs without crying?
Which one(s)? Personally,I can't make it all the way through Gords version of 'Changes'(Yes,I know it was written by Phil Ochs).There just something about that song that makes me loose it everytime
I hear it.
patybear

[ December 01, 2006, 19:04: Message edited by: patybear ]

I don't mean to be depressing gang.But I'm curious.How many of you can't sing all the way through one of Gordons' songs without crying?
Which one(s)? Personally,I can't make it all the way through Gords version of 'Changes'(Yes,I know it was written by Phil Ochs).There just something about that song that makes me loose it everytime
I hear it.
patybear

[ December 01, 2006, 19:04: Message edited by: patybear ]

dont make me cry, but the A passing ship comes close

For me it's Looking at the Rain. Don Quixote is in my car right now, and when I hear that song, I can tear up on the spot.

Any closing song that makes the CD eject and brings silence to a room moments ago flooding my world with Lightfoot. It's the following silence that brings tears to my eyes!

...but seriously folks, I agree with 'formerlylavender' above and 'Looking At The Rain" puts a lump in my throat each time.

I shared the story of my connection to this song with this group years ago.

"Now and Then"

"Song for a Winter's Night" about missing someone you truly love & "Home from the Forest" about a drunk, homeless man who lost his wife & children to his addiction(the "forest"). At the end, before he dies, a vision of her and his children appears to him, those he lost(to the "forest", the booze)....That's how I interpret that one. Just my opinion...
Melody

Home From the Forest makes me cry sometimes as does Sit Down Young Stranger...When he did SDYS at Massey it was jaw droppingly spectacular...
it's a heartbreaker of a song... Both songs evoke such vivid images/emotions of true loneliness...

Very true Charlene...

I meant to add that I interpret the "long forgotten Soldier" as lonley, forgotten "Man", who has lost his way...due to his addiction. The "forest" is a beautiful place initially, "where the wild flowers did bloom" but the man takes the wrong path in his life and the forest becomes a dark, sinister place. Again, my own interpretation...
Melody

Too late for prayin' is the one that tugs at my heart. m.

Circle Of Steel, Drifters, and Looking At The Rain can make me come pretty close when I'm in the correct mood.

Song for a Winter's Night
I Heard You Talking in Your Sleep (heartbreaking!)

BEAUTIFUL always did make me cry for sentimental reasons...now when I hear it in concert it's because he just soars when he sings it....it took a while to get used to the 'new' version but unless I play a CD I don't really remember it...The new version is truly beautiful...

Clouds of Loneliness can choke me up and "In My Fashion" can too....along with APPT....I hurt for him when I hear him sing such sad lyrics....

'I'm not s'posed to care' is the biggie for me.
'Clouds of Loneliness' - that one hurts!
'Home from the Forest' so, so sad.

Canary Yellow Canoe...

Just kidding. How's about Tattoo, Home from the Forest, Miguel, If Children had Wings? They all come close...

None yet !

Bill :)

Even his "sad" songs make me smile, go figure.

Pussywillows Cattails also can make me come close to crying. The lyrics are not that sad but the tune reminds me of days gone by (the ones that you cannot get back, and wish like h*ll you could) :(

Not as many as before. The only one that still can pierce my cool (no matter how hard I try )is "Too late For Prayin'". :( *sniff!

Some come close but I hold it together to the end. :)

Talking about "Too Late For Prayin", watch this film (kind of long) and then give that song a listen. :(


For each child with eyes that smile
They'll be 10 more cryin'

If Children Had Wings... also, oddly, Welcome To Try comes close... it leaves a lump in my throat.

hmmm, well, when Gord opened in Hamilton with Spanish Moss, unaccompanied, just his pluckin and strained vocal ...oh boy, that was a throat lump moment, that tune hit like never before

...whenever i hear that decending "so I'm rolling north thinkin' of the ways things might have been..." well, as usual, the seamless blend of lyric, reality, chord progression and melody make the eyes gloss up a bit ...not sure if it's joy or sorrow

but ditto to a prior post, too late for prayin - well, i cannot remember exactly weeping during or following a good listen but still, such impact (up there with 'not supposed to care', eh, bru? ...killer stuff, also)

i think one reason may also be the association i have given it to my first exposure and listening to some of the net gang picking away and singing this tune at a char-b-que :) kenyon 'shea' did some smooth, gentle soloing

i later remember getting out the axe, cockily and giving that tasty solo a go myself

ok, now THAT's when, not the song, but my entire butchered attempt led to the good wail ...heh

but back to serious, the lyric "for each child with eyes that smile there'll be ten more crying" hits hard

all interesting pics... so many neat threads to catch up on

Gord's last lyric(s) to us left me hanging and got me right down especially during that first long awaited listening, quite a damper

"...you're leaving right now..."

can't wait for a new album or more releases from the vaults... 'stone cold sober' certainly no to tapper either

cheers,
jimmy

It has always been Home From the Forest. Tom's video of that chokes me up.

Well when I was at a GL concert in Sept., Early Morning Rain made me cry. It was emotional, not because of the lyrics or melody, but just because it was my first Lightfoot concert and it's the opening song on a CD I play every day in my car, and it just hit me hard (but good) that I was actually seeing and hearing Gordon Lightfoot live, in person, the real thing, FINALLY! They were happy tears!

Clouds of Loneliness gets to me. I don't think there's really a song out there that makes me cry. But the emotions in that song are so potent.

Hi Friends. First of all let me say that it's great to be able to come here and connect with all the wonderful folks again. This topic has lots of latitude for discussion about just what kind of sensation gets generated when we become so emotionally involved that we're brought to tears by a piece of artistic work. This happened to me recently at a symphonic performance here at the Orpheum theatre(Gord played there in 1999) in Vancouver. My wife asked me why I was crying and I told her I was overcome with joy. How else could it be explained? But the topic does tend to make one think a little more deeply as it's not just your average cry shall we say over the death of a family pet as an example. It's very different and when I tried to gather the thoughts going on at the time, a whole bunch of stuff kicked in beginning with the anticipation factor of getting ready for the concert and how lucky I was to live within a twenty minute walk to a beautiful well preserved old theatre and being able to sit there and absorb the cacophony of symphony musicians getting ready to play their beautiful acoustic instruments while waiting for the conductor to come out and then hearing that very first note. I guess it's all about being able to have this as part of your life's experience and how thankful and fortunate one really is. This could go on and on but getting back to Gord's songs; yes, "In My Fashion" can well me up pretty good. There's something about a recitation during a song that finds it's way into the emotional core and ingites a spasm that only a cryful episode seems to be able to contain. The first line: "Now Take A Look At Me." That's a powerful statement and a fearless one also. How many times has he sung that song, and in front of thousands of people? He's not hiding anything. The man is baring his soul in that one line. That does it for me. Of course being a guy who's gone through similar experiences as he has during his life registers pretty well also. You've done it, the very best you could do, and the home fires are still burning. So why not sing it out? It's a fantastic piece of work and I can still hear it ringin'in my head. For me it's another great experience that has come my way in life for which I am very thankful. Bring on the throat constrictors and the tear wellers. Ron J.

Very nice comments, Lighthead, and how true. Regarding the song "In My Fashion" I just think it is so typical of Gord to turn a topic like "How I Did It" or "How I've Lived My Life" into the beautifully simple statement "In My Fashion." What a classy guy.

Thanks Gitchigumee. Just browsed through your earlier post on Dec 1st and I hear the sentiments you reflected which seem to fall in line with the ones I was trying to make. The appreciation of the complete package tends to draw on the emotional end of oneself and seems to ignite the fuel created inside when it reaches a certain level. The beauty is though, the explosion created is not a damaging one, nor a sorrowful one either. Simply joyous. This is a really great topic for guys like who like to ramble on. Cheers, Ron J.

Hi ColoradoSue. "Stone Cold Sober." Yes, that's one that did a number on me, big time, as well. I'd never heard it before till my wife, Marian bought me the "Songbook" collection for my birthday and when the time was right I sat down alone in my room and listened to every tune on those recordings one by one. There were several numbers done on me that day as well by a few of those tunes especially some of the earlier ones which I hadn't heard for a while and I think that alone helped contribute to the joy of it all. But that one song placed me onto a magic carpet and swept me back to those days he was talking about in that piece of work. I felt the hurt, the pain, the joy, and the wishing of how I wanted to be back there again, Stone Cold Sober, wishing how I could have that all back, those beautiful women, those moments of ultimate joy, staying up all night, we were all so young, and so in love. Even now I don't play that one unless I can find the space to fit it into the mindset that I need to have in order for it to bring out the full potential of quality that it really has. I'm so happy that Gord put this one out there. Ron J.

Oh yeah, Gordon has made me get teary-eyed a few times. Here are a few that get me all choked up.

If You Could Read My Mind: I don't think any song expresses the pain, confusion and heartache of a divorce/breakup any better than this.

Miguel: Not only is the story very poignant but the melody is haunting and tugs at your emotions.

Talking in Your Sleep: The lyrics say it all in this one. Is there anything more sad and depressing than lying next to your sleeping beloved while listening to them talk about there secret love? Me thinks not... :(

Go My Way: this may not be a "sad song" per se but there is a sweet sort of longing in the words and something about that line "Why must I sail my ship alone without a friend??" that gets me each time.

Oddly enough - The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle can put a lump in my throat.

I find the lyrics so powerful - sometimes it seems I'm on that boat with those poor souls going down with the ship in some sort of hellish inferno.

This topic keeps coming back to me as I think of all the Lightfoot tunes that are out there and I think I've heard them all, at least the ones that are readily available, but one is never sure. Some of my songwriter friends every once in a while will pull one out of the pack and it can send me off into a tailspin. I guess it's all about the power of song. "DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW." That's another Lightfoot tune that registers it's tally on my scale and it's up there pretty high. It's an incredibly beautiful song with a fantastic arrangement and for the folks in "our age group," during the sixties there was an influx of maritimers(Eastern Canada folks) arriving in Toronto looking for a better life. I was one of them in my early twenties, and just up and left the comfort zone of living with my parents, arriving in the big city not even knowing how to boil water. But Gordon Lightfoot was there with his music and I knew right from that moment I had found a comfort zone that, unbeknownst to me at the time, was to carry me through to this day. To say I got hooked on Lightfoot would be an understatement. My Mom is still alive and well back East and I reflect back every now and then on that lyric: "but the letters that you write, in the faded winter light, they tell her, they tell her that you've got ten dollars and you'll be alright, (or "your rent cost eight") and when you get straight, you're gonna' come back East some day." That's me re-living the past. I can't even let myself get NEAR a cry on that one. It would put me over the top, especially this time of year. I just spoke with her today and she's right as rain. I'm a very lucky guy to have a Mom this long and we only get one in this life. You kind of have to understand what things were like during the sixties in Toronto as well. Gord went down East and entertained all those folks from the remote villages on the Southern shore of Nfld. so when he wrote those kind of songs he had a scope on what he what he was doing with his work. He registered with those folks and thay gave it back to him in appreciation of his contribution. I met more Newfies in the bars in Toronto than I knew back home in Nfld. The talk always included back home, your Mom, the family etc. Not surprising Gord came up with that song. He knew how to read his audience and gave them exactly what they came to hear and I'm so happy that I was part of all that in those early days. Merry Christmas,, Ron J.

Merry Christmas, Ron - one of my favorites as well. His voice is vintage, with a hint of Glenn Yarborough, and you're right - he knows about being away from home and family.

Three songs come to mind, the first - If You Could Read My Mind. In concert, I close my eyes when he sings this & I hear how beautiful his voice is. It's the first song I knew by him, so part nostalgia & just how beautiful he sounds. Brings tears to my eyes but in a good way.

I can't even listen to Home From the Forest, too sad for me.

Another beautiful song, A Painter Passing Through, some of the lyrics... But I love this song.

I get close to crying with I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE, PUSSYWILLOWS CATTAILS, IF CHILDREN HAD WINGS... to name a few.

What really made me cry were the songs he didn't sing at the cancelled Harris, Michigan concert in September.

Boo hoo.

Happy Holidays everyone!

I get close to crying with I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE, PUSSYWILLOWS CATTAILS, IF CHILDREN HAD WINGS... to name a few.

What really made me cry were the songs he didn't sing at the cancelled Harris, Michigan concert in September.

Boo hoo.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Tatoo.

Time has been wasting away ...

I'll go from the gut, and list the five that come to mind most readily:

Home From The Forest
Too Late For Prayin'
I'm Not Suppose to Care
If Children Had Wings
That Same Old Obsession

Re: Which Gordon Lightfoot song makes you cry?
 

Bringing this topic back to the top....

Quite a few of them get me a little misty-eyed (like "The Last Time I Saw Her" and "Clouds of Lonliness"). But in "The Patriot's Dream"... the line "She cried into the silken folds of her new wedding gown" ALWAYS brings on the tears! Also the line in another verse: "How could she tell those children that their father was shot down?" The whole song is especially apropos to the current times (i.e., the war in Iraq).

Re: Which Gordon Lightfoot song makes you cry?
 

Shadows