These two songs seem to be about the same woman. Does anyone know if they are? The positioning of them on the album works very well. At first, he's really heartbroken and despondent and then he's angry and bitter, giving her the, "good riddance!" boot.
I wouldn't attempt to put actual meaning regarding actual people in all of his songs. A friend of mine Rick Haynes once who "Anne" was from "Carefree Highway." Rick replied that while Carefree Highway is a road outside of Pheonix, Anne wasn't anybody other than a name that phonetically seemed to fit...
I think Ribbon of Darkness was an attempt to write a song in the mold of Marty Robbins, who ended up recording it. I never thought "Oh LInda" was that great--even Gord himself views certain songs as filler...While certain pieces are clearly the work of genius (like, in my opinion--the entire album "Summer Side of Life") Gord had some bad creative days..."Daisy Doo" for example...