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| Elvis Costello – Alison Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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I thought of it as a guy runs into a past GF. By the line she "was not impressed" by the look she gave him, I interpreted it as she had married up, maybe she's now a wealthy suburban matron. She's changed and he's sick of hearing all the "silly things" that she has to say. Such that he wants to turn off the light, i.e. end the conversation. He can't stand her new fake self, and her new life is killing her true self. He concludes with "my aim is true", that is, his assessment is right. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Never Too Close Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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Two people are best friends, add sleeping together into it, along with the understanding that it's an open relationship. It's poignant that they both dream of "belonging to each other" but neither one makes the commitment. They try never to be too close but the relationship is dying as they become jealous lovers. The song ends on a philosophical note, even though the dreams weren't fulfilled (one or the other couldn't live up to truthfulness), they meant no harm. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Knotty Pine Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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The genius of this song is it could be either about a tree or a woman. One example is she "nettles" him but he doesn't mind, only when "her branches lean beneath the snow". If he's referring to a tree, he could be talking about being pricked by pine needles and it's worse when they're hidden beneath the snow. If he's referring to a woman, it could be he doesn't mind her minor barbs but when she gets under his skin, he minds. In the final analysis, there are more good things about the knotty pine, be it tree or woman, that the writer likes. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Tattoo Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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This sweet tune was written in the 1980's when tattooing was not so common as now. Thus the presumed sailor tells his girl friend (in his mind because they are separated, he on sea, she on land) that he'd been drinking, got carried away, hence the rose tattoo in her honor. He has a little uncertainty on where their relationship stands since he says "Whatever you think of me, I'm still your friend". |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Broken Dreams Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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This is an exhilerating anthem of a person breaking free of false dreams promoted by "love songs, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and on movie screens". He also puts "money, fame and riches" in the same category, as being "for fools and kings" (i.e., people who are chasing pipe dreams and the powerful) because it turns them on, their broken dreams would be broken deals. One can intuit that the writer has had a negative experience, but instead of being depressed about it, they are looking at it positively, as a wind of change and freedom. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Only Love Would Know Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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This song explores the doubts about the partner's feelings towards one in a relationship. Does the "light of passion" for him still burn bright? The partner has another activity that takes her away from the writer. She "belongs to other eyes" and is "not likely to step aside" from this activity. He wonders if her promises and laughter when with him are true. He reflects that only love and trust are what he must rely on, and their mutual passion when together. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – On The High Seas Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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He's writing about someone he loved who seems to have permanently left. He wonders where she's gone, and it's obvious he has no idea given all the locales that are poetically imagined. A hint of why she left is given in the last verse "I don't want to own the key to some ghostly mansion", possibly a lack of extending commitment to the relationship on the writer's part? |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – In My Fashion Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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This song was Lightfoot's answer to critics after his well publicized divorce from his first wife. He says "in his fashion, in his own way" he's been a good man and a responsible parent. There's an unusual segue where he talks-sings about "do I look like the kind of fool who had to stand on a stool because of not coming to terms with a slide rule" which I think refers to him failing algebra in HS, so not graduating on time. He says take a look at him now, he's not that different from then (even though a successful singer-songwriter): still human, still prone to failure. However you judge him, he is resigned to being remembered "in my fashion, in my way". |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – I'll Prove My Love Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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This is a love song from a mature person. He attests his love with beautiful poetic couplets and then brings in elements of reality. There are times when they will be apart, see things differently ("you know best, I can't care less"), life isn't good ("any way the wind may blow", "the losing dice are tossed"), then in addition to proving his love, he will "make it up to you". |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Stay Loose Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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Prescription for heartache. The songwriter acknowledges the pain of the end of love; at turns takes a philosophical approach ("even the best of love must end") but says you shouldn't suppress the pain ("to be insane beyond belief is sometime the best relief"). Optimistic notes in "the clouds will pass" and "if it's wrong, you're gonna right it", strong and supportive to the hearbroken. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – It's Worth Believin' Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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A guy coming to grips with signs that his partner is wanting out of the relationship, and turning over possiblities...she's met someone new or someone old has come back, or when she goes out alone it's because she likes walking on the sand, and why is she crying when she thinks he's asleep? Each possibility concludes "I've got a funny feeling that it's me". Yes, that is definitely "worth believing". |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – She's Not The Same Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think of this as Part 2 of If You Could Read My Mind. The songwriter is recalling how he was "chained to a wishing well". Then a new love appeared behind him, "asking to be taken inside". And it was "a rainbow ride" for both of them for awhile. She's exciting, "a red hot kid", and he's fallen for her hard such that he's lost his pride. But the relationship soured. They've parted ways, he's concluded "she's not the same". He still has regret as he says he could never let yesterday go, consequently she appears in his dreams. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Heaven Help The Devil Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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One meaning of this song is the classic battle of good and evil that occurs within each of us, and in society as a whole. The chorus, "we have been captured by the thieves of the night, held for ransom if you please, heaven help the devil may he have unpleasant memories" asserts that even when we've been taken by evil, it's temporary and something in us struggles against it, and thus gives the devil unpleasant memories. The verses reinforce the goodness that the writer sees in mankind in spite of troubled times: "our love for each other", "don't wish to cause each other pain", "helpful to the ones in need". This is an uplifting message in spite of the somber tone and the curious title. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Race Among the Ruins Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This song for me is about mortality with a boat race as a metaphor for the journey of life. "You think you have the last laugh, now you know this can't be true"; death has the last laugh. So "you make the best of each new day". At times you think "your dream world's coming true" but then a friend dies ("Was it someone that I knew?"), reminding you of the temporariness of life and if you have plans "do it soon". You are sailing in a race among the ruins (people you've let go of, or who have died). You just continue on with "the best of all that's left, you know this cannot last". This being life. The last six lines may be autobiographical, Lightfoot ended up by his "virtue" (i.e., talent) providing entertainment ("playing jester") to his audiences. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – The House You Live In Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I read that this was Gordon's mother's favorite song of his. Thus I hear guiding advice that she gave him while he was growing up. Or what any parent would give their child. I particularly like when "you're down in the dumps, decide what it is that you need, is it money or love, is it learnin' to live, Or is it the mouth you must feed". Everyone must discover their motivation for keeping on living. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Ordinary Man Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think of this as autobiographical, and a theme he returns to in his songwriting time and time again, man on the road, and he has to be, due to his restless feeling. He wants his partner at home to understand. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Baby Step Back Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Applying to situations in my own life, I see it as a retort to those people who want to tell you how and what to do, but don't want to do the work themselves. So you tell them "either step up or step back". Also the writer is saying however he does it, he doesn't abandon his moral code ("I don't write no bad checks, I have no wish to repent") which whoever he's addressing the song to, may want him to. It could be a business deal he's being advised on: "Maybe I'll get much more than I need or much less than I should own", but he's not going to back down. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Carefree Highway Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This is a pretty clear-cut song about a long ago love, and regret that he let it slip away. What I find fascinating are the brief words that imply what's occurred in his life since Ann slipped away: "now the thing that I call living is just being satisfied with knowing I got no one left to blame'. Disillusionment with life and alienation from others, due to his always blaming others for his problems. Now he's alone and "has no one left to blame". |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Shadows Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think this is Lightfoot thinking about his lover at home while he's touring ("all around the town") or canoeing (nature references). He's re-affirming his love and anticipating their reunion. Meanwhile, he hopes she shares the same feelings, by going to her door and seeing the same moon, the same shadow, even though they are apart. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Endless Wire Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This is a very interesting song given the variation in lyrics and music between the verses and the chorus. Lightfoot was trying to venture into the rock genre, thus the toughness of the words and thrumming electric guitar of the verses. Then the chorus by contrast is a soaring romantic interlude, where he extolls "the heavenly night with you". But there is still melancholy as his soul is "burnt out", they are in the "black of a bottomless hole". Even his dreams are "second hand", it exhibits a world weariness, as if he's gone this route before, they're used dreams and scenes.
The last verse seems to identify Lightfoot personally, as he says "my life is an endless rhyme" which references his professional life at the time as obssesively writing songs, being under recording contract. Then the line "my love's a paperback dream" references his love life and links it to If You Could Read My Mind, which also refers to a woman's view of their relationship being like a paperback novel. Here he's saying his love is not real, it's a dream from a paperback. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – I'm Not Sayin/Ribbon of Darkness Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think Gordon Lightfoot ameliorated the first song (in which the man was brutally mean yet still "wanted his way") by making it Part 1 of a medley. Part 2, Ribbon of Darkness, is where the bully man gets his comeuppance since the woman has left him. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Affair On 8th Avenue Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I have the benefit of having read Lightfoot's biography so I know this song refers to a very brief affair he had in NYC, while married. I think he felt guilty about it so in the song had the woman ask the "the riddle" which in his mind justified his affair, i.e., who do the moments of our lives belong to but ourselves, what's wrong, what's right, should this liason be a secret I keep hidden? I don't believe this song made his performing setlist much in his later career, as he had changed and didn't want to be seen as a philanderer. Nonetheless, the song is hauntingly beautiful.
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| Gordon Lightfoot – Bitter Green Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think Lightfoot was influenced by traditional folk songs that have a sad tale to tell. In this case, Bitter Green's lover/husband has gone away and not returned, no one knows why. She's still waiting for him to come home. Others would have moved on, since it's been a long time. He eventually does come back, but she's died. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Just wanted to add a couple more things to the already excellent interpretations. The third stanza where he talks about a "three way script" I think refers to the writer's infidelity, especially since a previous line he admitted to "heroes often fail". So the third person is another woman, number two, who in the script, is "going to bring out all the good things in me". But he is self-aware and realistic enough to know this is fantasy, like a movie script, which is why he says "let's be real" and returns in the rest of the song to their relationship. And the sad conclusion, they just don't have feelings for each other anymore. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – A Painter Passing Through Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[TheOnlyLivingBoyInNY:52447] I’m struck by his observations about himself as well as his “don’t ask me”. Such as he was “obsessed” at one time or he was walking around like “Mister Cool”. There’s humility in this song. |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – A Tree Too Weak To Stand Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I think this song was written about the same woman who inspired Lightfoot to write Sundown, which spoke of his intense jealousy when she went out. Here he’s processing the end of the relationship and telling himself he’d be foolish to go back, I.e., “climb a tree too weak to stand”. He’s also aware of the irony of him penning love songs when he feels he’s defiled love with lust (been unfaithful?) and thus it’s better for him to be free instead of being monogamous. He owns up to his own choices, saying he wasn’t shamed by the world, alternatively, the world was in his hands. A honest assessment by the songwriter at a certain moment in his life. |
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