Okay, I’m over-thinking it. But, it was those very words from Gordon Lightfoot’s #1 hit “Sundown” that determined which album I’d buy with my birthday money in 1974. I had narrowed the field down to three in late October of that year: Eric Clapton’s “461 Ocean Boulevard,” The Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” and Gordon’s “Sundown.”

Clapton’s LP featured his cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” which provided me with my first taste of reggae. I was intrigued by it. Critics were optimistic about “Ocean Boulevard” because Clapton had recorded it as a newly-clean musician, having just kicked his three-year heroin addiction. I already owned a lot Clapton records from his Cream and Derek and the Dominos heyday; I’d buy this later.

The Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll” yielded one single, the title song. I’d already got my rocks off with the Stones’ masterful four-pack that began with 1969’s “Let it Bleed” and steamrolled through “Exile on Main Street” in 1972. Could their vinyl output get any better? I didn’t think so. I’d pass on this one. It was actually the fabulous album cover that piqued my interest. It was designed by Guy Peellaert, who, along with music writer Nik Cohn, had published a delicious book of fantasy rock star art called “Rock Dreams.”

In the end I chose Gordon’s folky “Sundown,” his only #1 hit album in the U.S. It was a bit of a departure for me at that time. The only material of this quasi-acoustic nature that I played with regularity came from Bob Dylan. In 1974 I was swept up in Bowie’s world of decadent dystopia (I had recently purchased “Diamond Dogs,” which featured songs like “1984” and “We are the Dead”), and was beginning my obsession with Queen’s sartorially scrumptious Freddie Mercury following the band’s release of “Killer Queen.” Dynamite with a laser beam.

Other than the title track, which influenced my buying decision, I wasn’t familiar with a single song on the “Sundown” album when I bought it at the Penn Traffic (“PT”) department store during a shopping trip with my mom a few days before my 15th birthday. In fact, up until then I wasn’t acquainted with any of his work, other than the sad, dreamy “If You Could Read My Mind.” But I ended up loving that particular birthday album and played it often. Songs like “Circle of Steel” and “The Watchman’s Gone” were rainy-day moody tunes. And oh, his low-key earthy voice really got to me. Bob Dylan once said, “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever. ”

So who was the hard lovin’ woman of “Sundown” who made her man feel so mean? It’s long rumored to have been groupie/backup singer Cathy Smith, who later went to prison for injecting John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982. Gordon said she was “the one woman in my life who most hurt me.” I guess she did a lot of damage in rooms where you do what you don’t confess.

Here’s the gorgeous “Circle of Steel.” With lyrics like “a child is born to a welfare case, where the rats run around like they own the place,” maybe Gordo’s work isn’t really so far removed from Bowie’s songs of post-apocalyptic society.

Here’s Gordon with a live version of “Sundown.”  It has a sexy vibe, don’t you think?

© Dana Spiardi, Nov 17, 2015

“Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day.” – Bob Dylan

“I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever. ” – Bob Dylan

“I’ve always been trying to write songs like Lightfoot. A song of mine like “Come Monday’ is a direct result of me trying to write a Gordon Lightfoot song.” – Jimmy Buffett

“Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is an extremely fine piece of songwriting. ” – Johnny Cash

“Gordon Lightfoot has created some of the most beautiful and lasting music of our time. He is Bob Dylan’s favorite singer/songwriter – high praise from the best of us, applauded by the rest of us.” – Kris Kristofferson

“Gordon Lightfoot looms pretty large in my life as a writer and an artist in general. I never travel anywhere without at least two of his records with me.” – Ron Sexsmith

“When my first album came out in 1986 my manager called and said that we’re really big in Canada. I thought it all had to do with that great singer-songwriter tradition up there and when you have that discussion, it all comes back to one guy, Gordon Lightfoot, it all has to come back to Gordon Lightfoot.” – Steve Earle

“I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It’s just so really good to me. It’s just like that’s what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song.” – John Prine

“I was a Gordon Lightfoot fan before he ever had a song out. You just knew he was pure talent and he was going to be successful. Gordon has written and recorded some of the greatest music ever.” – Ronnie Hawkins

“He’s a great, great songwriter and a great man. I love everything about him and he’s eccentric on top of that. I don’t know him real well, but I feel like I do. He did a show at my high school, in fact, I was walking to the show and a Cadillac pulled up, window rolled down and it was the man himself who said, ‘How do we get to the Ancaster High School?’ I said, ‘Follow me.’ And it was a beautiful show. It was ever so simple. It was in the gym.” – Daniel Lanois

Here’s one of my favorite Gordon songs. Oh, sometimes I think it’s a sin, when I feel like I’m winning when I’m losin’ again.

 © Dana Spiardi, Nov 17, 2012