I was reminded of my feelings on the two medleys while watching my newly acquired tape of the concert in Reno. I think it was a nice idea to put I'm Not Sayin' and Ribbon Of Darkness together in a medley, but I don't think Gord had the same success with For Lovin' Me/Did She Mention My Name? I don't think this one works well for a few reasons. This may be a personal bias, but DSMMN is one of my favorite songs and I just can't stand for it being shortened. The DSMMN part isn't the same song anymore, it becomes just this guy realizing that he made a mistake with the attitude he had in For Lovin' Me (sound familiar?), it's just the same theme as I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon Of Darkness.
Also, he changed the song a bit when he combined it with For Lovin' Me on GG2. While I actually prefer some of the rerecordings on GG2 to the originals, DSMMN isn't one of them. I think the original is the best in this case.
So I think he should have left these two separate. I don't know why he wanted to combine them and do basically the same thing that had already been done with I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon Of Darkness. I thought perhaps it is because he seems to feel bad about the chauvinistic nature of both I'm Not Sayin' and For Lovin' Me. The medleys change the message to reflect an understanding that such a pompous attitude will come around again to hurt you. But I think the message works well in the first one and the second medley then is not needed.
What do you all think?

I was reminded of my feelings on the two medleys while watching my newly acquired tape of the concert in Reno. I think it was a nice idea to put I'm Not Sayin' and Ribbon Of Darkness together in a medley, but I don't think Gord had the same success with For Lovin' Me/Did She Mention My Name? I don't think this one works well for a few reasons. This may be a personal bias, but DSMMN is one of my favorite songs and I just can't stand for it being shortened. The DSMMN part isn't the same song anymore, it becomes just this guy realizing that he made a mistake with the attitude he had in For Lovin' Me (sound familiar?), it's just the same theme as I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon Of Darkness.
Also, he changed the song a bit when he combined it with For Lovin' Me on GG2. While I actually prefer some of the rerecordings on GG2 to the originals, DSMMN isn't one of them. I think the original is the best in this case.
So I think he should have left these two separate. I don't know why he wanted to combine them and do basically the same thing that had already been done with I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon Of Darkness. I thought perhaps it is because he seems to feel bad about the chauvinistic nature of both I'm Not Sayin' and For Lovin' Me. The medleys change the message to reflect an understanding that such a pompous attitude will come around again to hurt you. But I think the message works well in the first one and the second medley then is not needed.
What do you all think?

I'm inclined to agree with you. I kind of wish he'd left well enough alone with the medleys which I think originated as a way of packing as much essential material into a live show as he could. I completely agree with the fact that "Did She Mention My Name" is diminished by its inclusion with "For Lovin' Me" and does not deserve such a fate.

I know Gord's kind of embarassed about the attitude od "For Lovin' Me" and "I'm Not Sayin'" but what are you going to do? I guess it's part of living your life on that big a stage. A lot of us said and believed dumb things (present company excluded, of course)whe we were younger but don't have such silliness sitting in millions of record collections around the world.....

I'm inclined to agree with you. I kind of wish he'd left well enough alone with the medleys which I think originated as a way of packing as much essential material into a live show as he could. I completely agree with the fact that "Did She Mention My Name" is diminished by its inclusion with "For Lovin' Me" and does not deserve such a fate.

I know Gord's kind of embarassed about the attitude od "For Lovin' Me" and "I'm Not Sayin'" but what are you going to do? I guess it's part of living your life on that big a stage. A lot of us said and believed dumb things (present company excluded, of course)whe we were younger but don't have such silliness sitting in millions of record collections around the world.....

All true, but I don't think Gord really should be so sensitive about the message of his "chauvinistic" songs. Although he may have written them during a time when he was a different man, I don't think that means he should try to change the message via the "medley method." Regardless of the attitude, we all agree that they are still well written songs with nice melodies. So he shouldn't be afraid to play them individually. We all want to hear them and I think most everyone understands that they don't reflect Gord's present personal attitudes.

All true, but I don't think Gord really should be so sensitive about the message of his "chauvinistic" songs. Although he may have written them during a time when he was a different man, I don't think that means he should try to change the message via the "medley method." Regardless of the attitude, we all agree that they are still well written songs with nice melodies. So he shouldn't be afraid to play them individually. We all want to hear them and I think most everyone understands that they don't reflect Gord's present personal attitudes.

Gordon is a gentleman in every sense of the words and he feels bad that he might offend any of his fans. Those times were different then. I agree that he should not feel guilty about these songs but being the person he is, he does.

Gordon is a gentleman in every sense of the words and he feels bad that he might offend any of his fans. Those times were different then. I agree that he should not feel guilty about these songs but being the person he is, he does.