Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - One single line of lyrics makes the song much better

geodeticman.5 · 07-21-2008, 12:11 AM

On "Is there Anyone Home" , the line that clinches the mood piece for me is "you got that feelin' in your soul" - your right- seems in many songs one phrase or line alters or caps what you like, or might not have liked until.....

Another one for me is in one of the 18 rarities in songbook, disc4, "Always on the Bright Side" - the highly descriptive line that says more than one hears on the surface first time around , roughly: "seen between two shipwrecked eyes" - very "ethereal" as Gord is fond of saying it seems.

Then again, one line can take away from a song, or distract temporarily from what otherwise is interesting or captivating in a comfortable way. I think this sometimes comes up in his highly "gotta think about that one for a year or two" songs with a seemingly unrelated or otherwise obscure reference in a lyrically complicated song such as "Too Many Clues in this Room".

In it, the lyrics, while complicated metaphors to the point of almost being obtuse are being digested mentally by the listener, along comes a bit of a "burp" so to speak when he refers to (roughly): "when his crew through his ba**s to the sharks".....

OOOOkAAAY, we're all adults, and far be it for me to question the lyrics in the Man's choice of salty sea-dog references, but that one just takes me by surprise enought to stop my ex-cogitation pending on the "space shuttle ends where the subway begins, there's a train leavin' soon" or something similar too that, and I'm still mentally chewing over the metaphorical possibilities there, when I hear nothing that should shock a grown man who's heard it all, just not all on Gord's albums ! Keeps us on our toes ! And thats good ! A very atypical song for Gord.

But in the same song - a "I love it" clincher comes up conversely that overshadows any potential obscurity to me otherwise. Roughly "in an old sea-man's chest, full of charts" MAPS MAPS ! Navigtional maps with bathymetry (sea-bed topographic contours) ok thats cool ... I'm with that song , now man.... LOL
good thread idea DMD3 - geo steve

07-21-2008, 12:11 AM	#11
geodeticman.5 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Eastern Slope urban corridor, Colo. USA Posts: 1,007	Re: One single line of lyrics makes the song much better On "Is there Anyone Home" , the line that clinches the mood piece for me is "you got that feelin' in your soul" - your right- seems in many songs one phrase or line alters or caps what you like, or might not have liked until..... Another one for me is in one of the 18 rarities in songbook, disc4, "Always on the Bright Side" - the highly descriptive line that says more than one hears on the surface first time around , roughly: "seen between two shipwrecked eyes" - very "ethereal" as Gord is fond of saying it seems. Then again, one line can take away from a song, or distract temporarily from what otherwise is interesting or captivating in a comfortable way. I think this sometimes comes up in his highly "gotta think about that one for a year or two" songs with a seemingly unrelated or otherwise obscure reference in a lyrically complicated song such as "Too Many Clues in this Room". In it, the lyrics, while complicated metaphors to the point of almost being obtuse are being digested mentally by the listener, along comes a bit of a "burp" so to speak when he refers to (roughly): "when his crew through his ba**s to the sharks"..... OOOOkAAAY, we're all adults, and far be it for me to question the lyrics in the Man's choice of salty sea-dog references, but that one just takes me by surprise enought to stop my ex-cogitation pending on the "space shuttle ends where the subway begins, there's a train leavin' soon" or something similar too that, and I'm still mentally chewing over the metaphorical possibilities there, when I hear nothing that should shock a grown man who's heard it all, just not all on Gord's albums ! Keeps us on our toes ! And thats good ! A very atypical song for Gord. But in the same song - a "I love it" clincher comes up conversely that overshadows any potential obscurity to me otherwise. Roughly "in an old sea-man's chest, full of charts" MAPS MAPS ! Navigtional maps with bathymetry (sea-bed topographic contours) ok thats cool ... I'm with that song , now man.... LOL good thread idea DMD3 - geo steve