In a lame attempt to invent a unique topic, I offer this: What is your uppermost favorite "MOMENT" from a Lightfoot song? My favorite may clarify the question... The moment that, to this day, never fails to send shivers is at 3:06 of "Beautiful" when the violins play those last three or four high notes. (I wish Gordon would still utilize real violins, not synthesizers.)

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And I will always love
that sound until the day
I die.

"And the sound of the beans boiling through the evergreens" from borderstone. That chord change in their after the key change does it for me.

My moment comes from what I have declared my favorite song by default, Carefree Highway. The second line of the first verse, "I wonder how the old folks are tonight." This line is why I started listening to Gord in the first place. I love the feeling it gives me and the picture it forms in my mind. And part of what makes it special for me is how Gord's voice drops a little for that last word, "tonight." (I know he's just hitting the note that was written for that word, but it just sounds great, (this is me showing my knowledge of music)). His particular tone of voice on the original recording is, to me, just perfect.

Any part of "Triangle" does it for me because it's such an 'out there' kind of song. The whole groove of the thing is un-like the rest of his music; in a neat way, though.

Or the line in "Restless": I can feel the restless yearning of those geese as off they roam.

Everything about CHRISTIAN ISLAND for me. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

In Don Quixote on the last passage when instead of rounding out the verse as before, it shifts to "then in a blaze of tangled hooves...". I've always thought that was one of the coolest moments.

The line that always makes me smile is - A tuna fish turned to a mermaid in bed and said
"There goes another sandbar" - from Triangle. Love it.

Hey, SilverHeels, I'm surprised to see you chose the whole of Christian Island http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Some people join the party, and others say goodnight.

Great topic. I guess I am not alone. This is exactly why some songs do it for us and others do not. It's called the "Payoff." That portion of a song, that hook, that melody, that phrase that keeps us coming back. I replay the last chorus of Don Quixote. "And in a blaze of tangled hooves, he gallups off across the dusty plain..." Also the entire cut of Minstrel. The strings in Song For A Winters Night. I could go on. Put on some headphones and listen to the strings, listen to the guitar, listen to the voice,over and over again, late at night, with a glass of single malt in hand...

Painter,
I knew you'd be surprised at my choice! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/wink.gif

Restless, great topic. If you don't mind, I would like to bring a fav moment of a song from a fav concert.

I wonder if anyone ever see him do this before in concert?

After singing "If you could read my mind", the place was going crazy with applause and it wouldn't stop. GL went right back up to the mic and went back into it with "I don't know where we went wrong...etc." The place went even more crazy.

It was a special moment. This was at the "Front Row" theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. The theatre does not exist anymore.

Chris in Virginia, keep the glass in your hand, make sure the single malt ends up elsewhere.......

i would have to say Edmund Fitz on gold #2 about {1:30} into the song when the drums first flare up. Also in "the way i feel" when he says "Who's babes have flown to come no more". there is not many Gord songs I can sit through and not love a part of it. Great Topic

You're absolutely right, Paddle. That's a very profound "moment" of silence which, even on disc, gets me every time.

One of many for me is the last line of "Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle". The song is a chronological and graphic account of a maritime tragedy. The destruction and peril increase with each verse, reaching the ultimate where the people who weren't trapped below decks are jumping into the sea to escape the flames. Her ulimate demise is summed up with the surreal "Like a toy ship on a millpond she burned all thru the night, then slipped 'neath the waves in the morning"

[This message has been edited by Brian 57 (edited June 20, 2002).]

Brian 57, re the Yarmouth Castle, you may be aware of this, but I will mention it anyway. If you call up www.lostliners.com/ the last liner under "Select a ship" is Yarmouth Castle. This gives a graphic account of the incident. It also shows how accurate Gordon's account is.

Red Shea's guitar fills on "Miguel" from "Summer Side...", Gordon's harmony vocals on all the choruses of "Circle Is Small" (the Endless Wire version), the vocals on "Fine As Fine..." & "Bells Of the Evening" in combination with Gord's piano work make these two of his saddest works. The intro to "That Same Old Obsession".
These are just some of my favourite moments.
By the way, when I say "saddest works", I mean emotionally speaking, not saddest as in bad.

James Hill

as for his saddest works, it would have to be the whole SSOL album. especially songs like Same old loverman and Miguel

mende

"A Lawman came to capture him, the gun jumped in his hand..." My favourite moment from "Miguel". Possibly my favourite GL song.