lightfoot imgery
steven m dunbar
Lightfoot imagery and more rambling on my part..... -
After reading Angie's posting on the Patriot's dream imagery and
follow-ups, I got to thinking about the Don Quixote album and Sundown
album in this vein. I listened to them tonight on CD, and was struck by
the mental paintings that the songs evoke images of. A few:
Circle of Steel - Cold snowy dawn in England at sunrise, Christmas
time; a sort of Dickens-like setting, almost blue-delft (spelling ?)
colors. The "and the sun hits the handle of her heirloom cup" is
particularly striking imagery. Wintertime, snow, blueish light. I have
never known what the actual "circle of steel" is supposed to be. Its
probably quite obvious, and I will smack my forehead when someone
kindly tells me :) A roulette wheel ?
Don Quixote - leather, horses, a leather-bound bible, saddles and tack,
the rusty cross, sword, sunset, summer, hardwood forests, the
dickens-like (again) setting of the beggar stemming (?) for gold....i
picture in an English Pub.
Seven Island Suite - Autumn, a bay, Islands, hardwood forests, walking
on leaves crunching underfoot, sunsets, dawn, haze, smell of leaves...
Is there anyone home (in this house made of stone) - a walk down an old
road to an old deserted stone house, a man with a gun, the house of a
thousand delights...hmmm...interesting one...definately a mood song, as
is seven-island suite.
Brave Mountaineers - autumn (again !), a barn with trestels, a loft,
children sleeping, quilts, card games, leaves scuttling around in the
wind...
Beautiful - this song is so down-right beautiful and pleasing to listen
to it is almost a drug. It is my wife and my "song". I see pictures of
those that I love when I listen to it, smiling women I have known over
the years.
In general: these are two albums where a mood is struck; i can't quite
put my finger on it, but Sundown is more of an autumn album ( although
winter and summer appear , too), and Don Quixote is more of a summer
album (although autumn and winter appear as well). Maybe its even the
colors on the album covers - DQ has more green, Sundown has more autumn
golds , browns, and yellows. Both albums conjure strong moods that of
course vary by song. I find them both among the most pleasing to of
Gord's to listen to for quality of voice, and the attention to detail
in each song, with recording technique, background vocals, and
orchestration.
Miscellaneous Ramblings on GL Music, not a short read.... -
One of the things I always liked the most about GL in the 70's was
the orchestration (genuine). This is very relaxing to me, and is
something noteably lacking in the music industry in the 90's. It is
characteristic of his 70's work when the budget for recording and
production was larger than 60's GL. His music was still acoustic in
1970 - 1975, although I realize electric instruments were introduced in
Summertime dream, and Sundown, maybe even Cold on the Shoulder, but
those still had an acoustic "feel".
In the 80's and 90's, GL's music had less genuine orchestration,
and more synthesized sounds, etc, at least that is what it sounds like
to me. I am not a student of music or music theory, and am not
qualified to analyze the sounds and instruments, but I hear what I
hear. I like all Gord's music fanatically, but find the UA 60's period
to be hard to listen to, and perhaps closer to what some detractors of
GL's music often call "tin-pan". Of course, the classics such as
Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Early Morning Rain, and Ribbon of Darkness,
etc., are masterpieces, but rather what I refer to is the overall sound
of the 60's stuff and production arrangements, instrumentation, and
comparative lack of maturity to Gord's voice that distinguished the
70's work..
The 70's stuff has so much more production value and
instrumentation, harmony, and strong smoothly-flowing melodies that
were memorable. I find these production values to make the music more
pleasing to listen to. Perhaps that is what detractors mean by
"folk-muzak". I LIKE it. Muzak it aint. In fact, when I first
actually heard butchered GL songs ON Muzak, (not GL's recordings), I
about gagged. There is nothing more cloying than Muzak-like
department-store and elevator music debauching rock and folk music to
homogenize it for the masses. One notable exception I have heard in
this genre is the muzak ( i think) rendition of "Beatiful". It is
strictly instrumental, is genuinely nice to listen to, with real
orchestration and strings. Hard to make that melody sound bad, though.
I breathed a big sigh of relief when Gord returned to acoustic in
'Waiting for You". Bravo Gord !. I am ashamed to admit that during the
1978 - 1992 period , I would fast forward ( or now on CD skip..)
through the electric songs, or particularly those that had even a hint
of rock sound to them. On East of Midnight, I'll Tag Along, A Lesson
In Love, and Anything for Love may not have been all acoustic, but had
such pleasing melodies to listen to that they became favorites of mine.
On Salute, same for Whispers of the North, Romance, Tattoo - the same
good qualities. On Endless Wire - Daylight Katy, Dreamland, Sweet
Guinivere, and If Children had wings - same great qualities. Waiting
for You - my favorites hands-down - Restless, Ring them Bells, Drink
Yer Glasses Empty. The Nick Decaro string section stuff in the 70's
was excellent orchestration, and Gord's arrangements, too. The only
time I have liked the synthesized instrumentation was on the album
Sundown, where for example in Seven Island Suite it was used to great
advantage. Give me a real orchestra or at least a string section to
bring a tear to my eye any day.
I was not surprised to heard in the GL website FAQ's by Wayne
Francis that Gord turned down a request to do soundtrack work on the
Tolkien animated "Lord of the Rings" movie. As i mentioned in a
previous posting, my friends and I always thought he should do a
Tolkien-inspired album, perhaps this odd notion was conjured by the
song Don Quixote, and other medieval-based lyrincs in other works of
his; knights in Armor, that sort of thing... . I had not read of the
soundtrack thing until after posting that comment, what a surprise.
I can't emphasize enough how much relaxation, inspiration, and
enjoyment I have gotten over the years from Gord's work. Funny too, how
some of my friends in the 70's in high-school and college made fun of
me for listening to Gord while they were listening to Aerosmith and Led
Zeppelin now come back to me and say nostalgicly " you remember all
that Gordon Lightfoot stuff you listened to back then.... well uhm..
could I borrow some fo those albuls to tape... you see I uh...." hehe.
Takes some longer to come around than others to quality music. :). If
you have read this far, thanks for indulging me in this. Thats all for
now....
- Steve , a.k.a "Mapgeek" in IRC on the 'net.
Wayne Francis
In article <5kf0kn$a...@sjx-ixn4.ix.netcom.com>,
gis...@ix.netcom.com(steven m dunbar) wrote:
> Circle of Steel - Cold snowy dawn in England at sunrise, Christmas
>time; a sort of Dickens-like setting, almost blue-delft (spelling ?)
>colors. The "and the sun hits the handle of her heirloom cup" is
>particularly striking imagery. Wintertime, snow, blueish light. I have
>never known what the actual "circle of steel" is supposed to be.
The term,"Circle Of Steel" for me, always symbolized the coldness of a large
city, especially around the holidays, that surrounds and overwhelms those
who are down on their luck, like the young woman in this song. It's easy to
feel small and insignificant in a large city - even when you're not down on
your luck!
I picture Toronto in that song, mainly because I know GL lives there and I'm
sure drew his inspiration from those surroundings. In an unreleased song, In
My Time, from that same period, Lightfoot again sets his story of a down and
out individual in a large city at Christmas time. I think that since
Lightfoot was brought up in a small town, he was sensitive to what he
discovered in Toronto and elsewhere and those feelings surfaced in the above
two songs as well as Home From The Forest and possibly even Black Day In
July, although it was written in response to the race riots in Detroit in
1967.
Wayne
Wayne Francis
I think Steven's point regarding orchestration on later day records to be
accurate. The Shadows album was probably the last album where "real"
orchestration was employed, with Dean Parks taking over as arranger from
Nick DeCaro in that case.
I personally feel that similar moods can be and are created with the
synthesized keyboard sounds. For example, on Ecstacy Made Easy, I always
enjoy listening for the final verse when the synth strings come in and bring
the song to a wistful conclusion. But, it's all a matter of preference. I
like the old arrangements, but it's hard to argue with Lightfoot because
when he hired a keyboard player in 1980, in combination with the explosion
in synthesizer technology, he could then recreate his old "real" string
arrangements on stage and still use the keyboards to build his new
arrangements. A trade-off most certainly was made, but I don't think at the
overall expense of the trademark Lightfoot sound. Lightfoot uses great
restraint in his employment of synths, as he did with live strings, I feel,
so since the strings never overwhelmed the 70's arrangements previously, it
makes the transition to synthesizers much smoother.
Wayne
Donnie Budd
For some reason "Circle of Steel" always makes me think of Chicago. I
have no earthly idea why. (It's permanently etched in my Christmas
experience. It's part of my "drive all night from Texas to Michigan
for the holidays" tape.)
Donnie
Roger W Guinn
--
Ok, Steve-Where do you live. We dersparately need to get together and fill our cups
"with the whiskey of the highlands" and Drink SEVERAL glasses empty!
Here's to the GREAT STUFF-with a little of the 60's thrown in for spice!
Roger W Guinn, PE
Structural Analysis, Vibration, Loads, Stress
"Take-off's are optional. Landings are Mandatory"
Lee Lewis
In article <Pine.HPP.3.95.970509...@kilovolt.eecs.wsu.edu>,
"Karl W. Schneider" <ksch...@eecs.wsu.edu> wrote:
>
>Same here. Maybe it's some subconscious connection to Mac Davis' "In The
>Ghetto" (performed by Elvis, I believe).
>
>-- Karl
>
>
Lynn M. Oatman
In article <Pine.HPP.3.95.970509...@kilovolt.eecs.wsu.edu>,
"Karl W. Schneider" <ksch...@eecs.wsu.edu> wrote:
>
>On Thu, 8 May 1997, Donnie Budd wrote:
>
>> For some reason "Circle of Steel" always makes me think of Chicago. I
>> have no earthly idea why. (It's permanently etched in my Christmas
>> experience. It's part of my "drive all night from Texas to Michigan
>> for the holidays" tape.)
>>
>> Donnie
>>
>>
>
>Ghetto" (performed by Elvis, I believe).
>
>-- Karl
Elvis who? :)))
Mac DAvis (then known as Scott DAvis) did a pretty good job of it himself.
This song always makes me think of Dickens, as someone previously mentioned.
It is one of my very favorites.
Daylight Katy...I was about to say it was my favorite song, but gosh if
someone asked me what my favorite GL song was I'd have to say I couldn't
decide...anyway, when I hear that song I'm sitting in Saratoga State park
having a picnic lunch and somewhere across the way Gord is having his
soundcheck/rehearsal for what will be the most fabulous concert I have ever
attended anywhere. I can see the rocks of the stone wall behind my friend's
head and we are both very quiet. A very special moment, especially because
he didn't sing it that night.
lynn
>