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....
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...
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....
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...