Yes, that's exactly what he meant. And he makes no secret of the fact that he had a drinking problem; and that he finally quit, cold turkey, in 1982. As you see from his lyrics many years earlier (look back even further, in fact), he was well aware of the problem but it took him many years to combat it. However, sadly, there are many people who don't have the strength to ever quit; Gord deserves a lot of credit for having left that behind.
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Valerie Magee
Visit my GL web site at
gordonlightfoot.com and Cathy Cowette's site at
cathycowette.com