A couple quick ones, perhaps too easy to identify:
*
Too Late for Prayin' "Lord Abide, Let us stem the tide, of broken dreams,
sometimes it seems to tell us, its too late.... for prayin' "
- said by the Rolling Stone reviewer RM posted for us re: Too Late For Prayin' on the Sundown LP to be one of ,if not Lightfoot's MOST ambitious piece of work (paraphrased). Wow - high praise - is it in the company of CRT etc. ? I think so.... I do love that vistory.
* "
All the Lovely Ladies" from COTS -by memory - 'Bless you all and keep you on the road to tenderness; Heaven can be yours just for now' - and many refrains in the song in keeping with this theme citing "heavy rounders with a headache for their pains, afraid to go around the bend" & "To all those who answer to the letter of the law, and all the rest in prison by mistake, Bless you all and have the strength to let it pass"- paraphrased
- Interesting too, that in this song, we are left to speculate on the meaning of "all the handsome gentlemen with lovin' on their minds, strolling in to take the ladies home,... .. Heaven can be yours just for now ' -roughly, and without being distasteful, perhaps the most , *provocative* interpretation -might- be that "Heaven can be yours just for now" - is referring as much to do about, shall we say - satisfaction of adult desires of mature interaction being akin to a temporary sense of heaven-like feelings; -but- I think not
- I interpret Gord to mean that all of the people and situations cited of plight, and the stark contrast of the image of the elegantly-dressed ladies and gentlemen meeting in the parlour and "taking the ladies home" are both intended to be prayer-like genuine thoughts of well-wishing for the sense of, or perhaps temporary glimpse of what Heaven -might- be like on Earth metaphorically, for strength, or sense of being loved, or sense of being able to endure hardship if just given a glimpse.. , that one may finally have "someone [that]can relieve you of your chains" - evokes many possible metaphor and also literal feelings - hard to say.
I could try to "state what it means" - but I always smile to myself when someone does that in a post, perhaps unwittingly lending the impression of stating that they know the one and true interpretation of what Gord REALLY meant, or ocassionally intentionally so with knowledge of and intent of stating just that - which I consider to be hubris in the latter case, and naivete in the former.
I am always more... tuned in,, to the person who posts with the general understanding that this is their opinion, as the above are mine, and opinion only... far be it for me to lay claim to exactly what Lightfoot meant in this song.
It was said in another thread well, much the same as I mean - that a person's post sounded more like a "statement of fact" as opposed to one of opinion. Well put.
and one song so full of metaphor, allegory, and analogy , that it could be studied by students of spiritual poetry or philosophy for a lengthy paper... another perhaps Gord would refer to as he is want to do with "another ethereal song" -
* (The)
Soul is the Rock - from COTS. I won't even begin in this post to try with any sense
of brevity in an allready too-long posting
- this one is jam-packed with both an English teacher's examples of metaphor, a Philosophy professor's lengthy lecture, and
even a Professor of Theology studying the religious aspects of this song.
"Rain on the rock" - harmony "Rain on the Rock' .... "say what you like to do what ya do, everyone's sleeping now two by two" "nothing is disputed, yet nothing is disproved" - and one more ort of allegory this time - the recurring "cats in the shed" - I wonder what that one is meant about ?
Clearly - the rife references to the soul in this song would fill a whole , long post. In this sense, while I am not hesitant to state that I feel a lyrical strain is religious, I chose to use the term spiritual selectively , not categorically.
And this song to me, while others I have mentioned are *religious" to me, is more spiritual, in that the lyrics speak more of the soul and redemption in a personal sense, and the song is not full of biblical or more religious
per se prayer, verse, or lyrics.
It may be said to be independant of religion proper, and harken to that "deeper sense of sprituality" Spocksbrain spoke of. I don't know for sure. Maybe Gordon didn't either. Could not some his songs have been quesions to his own inner thoughts ? Interesting thought, too me.
great thread Char and Spocksbrain
longer post than I intended....so whats new ? LOL
OK -I'm holding my gloves up ! lol
~geo steve