Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - Which Gordon Lightfoot song makes you cry?

Ginny · 12-21-2006, 11:09 PM

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.

12-21-2006, 11:09 PM	#32
Ginny Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 83	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.