"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don't confess
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
She's been lookin' like a queen in a sailor's dream
And she don't always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I'd find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
In a room where you do what you don't confess
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
She's been lookin' like a queen in a sailor's dream
And she don't always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I'd find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown, you'd better take care
If I find you've been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
Lyrics submitted by grouping, edited by damnteuton, razajac, radiotoast
Sundown Lyrics as written by Gordon Lightfoot
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A lot of people thought Lightfoot wrote this about his wife. In an April 1975 Crawdaddy magazine article, he explained: "All it is, is a thought about a situation where someone is wondering what his loved one is doing at the moment. He doesn't quite know where she is. He's not ready to give up on her, either, and that's about all I got to say about that." -from songfacts.com
Yeah, well the thing about songFACTS.com is that it's a misnomer--there's lots of misleading twaddle on there.<br /> In any case, this is probably right, but nevertheless, Gord sings about what he knows and he was having a lot of woman troubles around then, about just the sort he's singing.
To TheToner
I really like your very interesting interpretation, but, according to a 2008 interview, it is not what Gordon had in mind.
According to what Gordon said in the interview, the song is about his passionate relationship with Cathy Smith. Smith was a groupie, a drug addict, and had, shall we say, "committment problems". She would later become infamous for giving John Belushi the lethal speedball injection (she served 15 months in prison for that).
I do think that the line
"Sometimes I think it's a shame When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain"
is a specific reference to drinking....it works in this song because Gordon was drinking A LOT when he was in a realtionship with Smith.
The line "got me feelin' mean" no doubt is a reference to the time he (according to Wikopedia) punched Smith in the face and broke her cheek bone.
I think it is interesting that two of Lightfoot's biggest hits, "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Sundown" are sort of "book ends". IYCRMM is about being in a relationship with a woman who has lost interest in sex, and Sundown is about being in a realtionship with a woman who enoys a lot of sex, but if you do not keep a close eye on her, she will stray.
@Audiophile65 I know you posted this four years ago but I want to thank you for that. I've always wondered who the hell he was singing about and to me it was obvious it was about his suspicions of her cheating. We've all been there.
@Audiophile65 -<br /> <br /> Some others have the tone right, and there's one interesting interpretation, but you have it right, Audiophile65. Back in the day it was pretty well known, but for more than one reason (including the tragedy you cited) Gordon avoided talking about Cathy Smith, at least until he was good and ready to do so.
@Audiophile65 "Smith was a groupie, a drug addict, and had, shall we say, "committment problems". " Uhhhhh, wasn't he MARRIED?!
The lyrics should read "satin" not "faded" in the first line...
Gordon Lightfoot is a recovering alcoholic. He's talking about his drinking/alcoholism in an allegorical manner, giving liquor the role of a prostitute/mistress in his life.
I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don't confess
Sundown you better take care If I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs
She's been lookin' like a queen in a sailor's dream
And she don't always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it's a shame When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown you better take care If I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin again
I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain Sundown you better take care If I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs Sundown you better take care If I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs Sometimes I think it's a sin When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
All the pieces fit for this interpretation. For so long I believed the song to be about the futile male quest to harness the love of a desirable woman exclusively and to fend off the legion of pursuers. "I can picture every move that a man could make." <br /> <br /> While the conundrum of one man retaining the singular affections of an exquisite woman, capable of enchanting all of those who cross her path, remains unresolved, I bow to Toner's interpretation that alcohol is the true object of desire in this piece. As to the question of which subject is more destructive, that is another matter entirely, and the two forces working together would be the ruin of any man.
You may have cracked the code....
I think TheToner's interpretation is great! Great poets like Lightfoot unconsciously imbed several layers of meaning in their work. While he was writing something deeply personal (of which the narrative in Sundown is) the universality of the allure and awful consequences of alcohol abuse emerged as well. Where have all the good song writers gone?
For sure it's about a man who is wondering what his woman is doing when he's not with her. But even more so, it seems to me, to be about a man who is with a woman, whom he knows is cheating on him and he is singing about the different feelings he is having.
1st verse: Picturing his woman seducing the man. Warning the other man that if he finds him at his house, then there's gonna be a reckoning.
2nd verse: Describing the way his woman has been dressing/looking lately since the affair started and how their communication has gone to crap. He's begun to dull himself with drugs or alcohol.
3rd verse: Understanding how the other man can be tempted and seduced by her, because it may have been how the singer started his relationship with the woman (by cheating). The singer wonders why he settles for this.
4th verse: Angry with his woman about how she dresses to entice other men and how he's constantly getting angry at her for it.
Not so sure, but I suspect Sundown is a ballad about the objectification of a woman/women and the resulting problems: obsession/drinking/addiction, frustration, blame, distrust, paranoia. Not to say that the woman doesn't play upon the objectification.<br /> <br /> Take the third stanza, after having described her lustful beauty (a sailor's dream, laying back, satin dress, room/confess, etc): <br /> <br /> <b><i>"I can picture every move that a man could make, GETTING LOST IN HER LOVING IS YOUR FIRST MISTAKE."</b></i><br /> <br /> Likely can't get the woman if one's mind sees only the prize. Keep doing it, the frustration builds.
Wonderfully insightful. Thanks.
If you've ever been both the cheated-on and the "other guy" you feel these lyrics. It's about a sneaking around relationship that should be physical, but that leads to emotional "Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake"
Almost always leads to heartache for someone, regardless.
I almost preferred TheToner's allegorical interpretation of Mr. Lightfoot's alchoholism. But I can't reconcile the notion of the threat. (sundown you better take care). Who is he warning? The bottle? Perhaps the lyric is more literal than metaphorical. See some of his other lyrics, he's not real complicated. Or maybe that's just me. Not complicated.
I think both TheToner and Audiophile are correct- all you have to do is replace "alchohol addiction" with just "addiction", and you guys have really made the same interperatation. So the song is about his addiction either to alchohol, or to a woman/love/relationship, or even drugs if that's what makes the listener relate to the song. A good songwriter or poet writes something with the expectation that thier listeners will make their own assertions. So the song was most probably written from lightfoot's own point of view about his relationship- but he chose to use language that allowed more people to relate to it by likening that situation to any other addicts situation. So in short- i think you're BOTH completely right at the same time!! If anyone has heard nine inch nails "with teeth" its pretty similar but a little more obvious- he uses a woman as a personification of his drug addiction
It's definitely about addiction. As I sing the song with my guitar I can't help feeling that Sundown is a metaphor for the experimentation of the 60's era, the hope and that whole scene coming to an end. By 1974 people weren't wanting to revisit the things they did in the 60's or let them come "creeping 'round my back stairs." As an American culture do we have the resolve, the moral strength, to do that again- with our addictions, with our denial, etc? In the second year of this recession I see signs of a willingness from the media. On ABC news in the evening there are stories suggesting an underlying national humility (albeit the nightly Cialis ads)... and yet a sold out, crack-heading attitude on the American Music Awards...
The first urge is to think sundown is a prostitute. But JeffKaos71's reference I think holds water. Re-read the lyrics and you see that he never really claims sundown to be a prostitute.
"In a room where you do what you don't confess" .. I always thought was a dead giveaway reference to prostitution.
However, not too many married couples confess to what goes on in their bedroom .. hence the wife theory could be consistent with this line. I don't see any other line that supports the prostitution theory any stronger - and now we've debunked its veracity. So the wife theory definitely holds sway in my mind.
In fact, in the prostitute scenario, how does "you better take care If I find you been creepin' 'round my back stairs" get interpretted? I've never completely reconciled that one.
However, in the wife theory .. that line makes complete sense .. he's warning his wife that she better not be fooling around in their own bedroom or house.
Also, I'm w/ defunct that the lines to which he refers are pretty F'ing awesome. Really cuts to the chase, sends chills deep into your soul (especially if you've ever worn the same shoes as sundown's lover)
Combined with Jeff's comment about the Crawdaddy 1975 quote, I'd say that these lyrics are about a woman he loves being unfaithful to him or his fearing that she's being unfaithful.
I love the alcoholism allegory explanation, but I don't believe that's what's going on in this song. Although, being in love with an unfaithful person is very much like being "addicted" to something.
I like two lines in this song:
"I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress In a room where you do what you don't confess"
and...
"Sometimes I think it's a sin When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin again"
in my opinion that is songwriting at its finest.
I must agree...kinda feel that way about the second part..it applies to so much..
@defunct To me I think he is over thinking things! My boyfriend send me this song and I am a loyal woman! I think that people who cheat think that others are doing that too!<br />