If you like a beautiful song with meaningful lyrics you won’t do better than - Paul Brady, The Island - react to the animated version. Your insight is magic, like your juxtaposition comment on simplicity and depth. Ta. 👍👍🏽
@@brittreacts even if you don't react to it, check out Gordon's song Ode to Big Blue. It's a song about a whale, and it's just wonderful. Rather haunting.
@@redtick79 A troubadour is a singing POET, Dylan is widely considered the latest great American poet. Which is why I drew the distinction for Chapin who is a story teller but only Cats In The Cradle was adapted from a poem. As far as I know Diamond has written 0 poems.
I'm 58 and love all of Gordon Lightfoots music ❤ I have also been a huge fan of his for 50+ years. He released his first album the month and year I was born! I believe I was like 5-6 years old before I actually heard of him and his music.
The lyrics came to Lightfoot one summer in 1969 while he was sitting in his empty house in Toronto that was up for sale. It was a letter written to his then wife whom he had loved and was ultimately losing at the time. “I was going through some emotional trauma leading up to a separation, and that manifested itself in that particular song on that particular afternoon,” said Lightfoot of the song in 2010, remembering the moment he wrote it more than 40 years earlier. “I’ll never forget the afternoon.”
When my soulmate passed when we were young, I have never wanted to read that book again because the "endings just too hard to take" I've been alone now for 38 years. Every day I still miss my Terri ❤️
"I don't know where we went wrong, but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back . . . " saddest line in any song I've ever heard. After decades I still tear up at that line.
Hi Britt. Subscriber here. I saw Gordon live many years ago. RIP May, 2023 at 84. The 1970s and 1980s were the “peak” of songs with true “lyrics”. Much love, prayers and support. Bruce 🎷🙏🏼🇺🇸
Anyone who says they're a fan of Gordon Lighfoot is class in my books! One of the great singer/songwriters to come out of the 60's and 70's - brilliant and captivating lyrics that really paint a picture of what he wants you to see in your mind. Simple rhythmic patterns that lull you in. "Sundown", "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "Carefree Highway", and so many more. We lost one of our best national storytellers recently. Glad you discovered him and are keeping his music alive!
My mom passed away in February. Gordon Lightfoot was her favorite singer/songwriter, and I cannot hear him without remembering that his was the one concert I remember her seeing live. The man was a master of song-crafting and of vocal performance. One of the very best. Loved your reaction.
@@6916dog spent many an evening in a small Fredericton pub (in the 70’s) listening to Stan Rogers live. Saw him in Whitehorse (at the Copper King) and in Victoria (don’t remember which pub it’s been long ago closed). Played Barrett’s Privateers to death! Loved Stan Rogers (and his fiddler brother Garnet) and was very sad when he died so tragically. Also loved Bruce Cockburn’s music.
He had a beautifully developed control of his voice,wonderful rich story telling and talented guitarist. He stood on stage taking everyone on a journey. To see him in small clubs - wonderful
Used to watch "The Midnight Special" every week. "Why do I like this song so much?" I don't know, Britt. But I have too ever since it came out. Always a big fan of Mr. Lightfoot.
Such heart-rending poetry...I've been the ghost amid the spectrum of relationships too many times across 58 years...'til I finally gave up. Please listen to the studio (bless you😊) version of this song with lyrics. ...and no Elvis...pure Gordon.
A Canadian national treasure we still miss. Glad his amazing music is living on and finding new fans, he deserves it. One of the many things we Canadians love about Gordon is that Canada always remained his home. When he passed away he was still living in the Rosedale home (VERY nice Toronto neighborhood) he bought in the 70’s. Toronto is where is career launched and it remained his home. We have a younger national treasure who’s doing the same, Michael Buble, a Burnaby BC boy whose main home is just blocks from his childhood home and about five minutes from where I live. He’s often seen around town and always has a smile and greeting for everyone. Both classy Canadian musical icons who’s hometowns love having them and never bother them, they could/can live their lives as normally as possible.
He was a perfectionist who agonized over every word of the lyrics he wrote and the music that accompanied it. He was, in many ways, a tortured artist in the traditional sense and he drank hard and lived hard, but by all accounts, he was a most kind and humble person and just a down to earth, blue-collar kind of guy, and, I think, his music is a reflection of all of those things. Hia music and lyrics and his singing and interpretation were simple and yet had such great meaning and were also as complicated in many ways as a grand symphony. He is another Canadian treasure who belongs to the world. Thank you for sharing, commenting, and enjoying.
Good description ! I know it's hard to condense so much into a short comment. The doc I saw on Prime about him showed the little desk where he wrote a lot of his great songs and it was amazing to picture him sitting there and working hard for countless hours. He was real old school, working out each note and chord on music sheets. The clincher for me was picking up his "Don Quixote" album at a used record store and finding every song was great.
He later changed "the feeling that you lack" to "the feeling that we lack" after his daughter said original ignored his faults in divorce and seemed to blame mom.
This song was a smash hit! The studio version is even better. Listen to that one and notice the string and guitar fills! The arrangement is a masterpiece! He would need a full orchestra to do the same in concert. The album this came out one also was fire! Not a bad song on it! I think it was called Minstrel of the Dawn (another great song!).
The album was originally titled "Sit Down Young Stranger," then was changed to "If You Could Read My Mind" after this song started to get massive airplay.
@@folkmusic99 Thanks! I'd forgotten that. Sit Down Young Stranger is another great song too! It would be hard to find a bad one by Gordon Lightfoot though.
One of Lightfoot's most personal songs, "If You Could Read My Mind" is about the breakup of his first marriage - a common theme in many of his songs. In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as "a song about the failure of marriage." Peace out.
So, about Elvis and Lightfoot... Elvis was a fan who covered Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain." Same song was also covered by Bob Dylan (who - others have correctly mentioned - said Lightfoot was one of his favourite song-writers), as by fellow Canadian music legend, Neil Young. About Lightfoot, Dylan was once quoted as saying: ""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." Elvis also covered Lightfoot's 1966 hit, "For Lovin' Me." So did folk icons Peter, Paul, and Mary, and country music icon, Johnny Cash. Now you're going to have to react to Lightfoot's BOTH Early Morning Rain AND For Lovin' Me," aren't you? ; )
Speaking of Johnny Cash, I have an original story for you. A few years back I had a neighbour named Tommy Hunter, who was known as "Canada's Country Gentleman." He was the host of a country-themed variety show that enjoyed a 27-year-run on Canada's national broadcaster, the CBC. For over a decade before that, he led a similar show called Canada's Country Ho Down." Back in the early '60's, a young Lightfoot came to work as a guitarist for the TV show's house band - where he met Hunter. Hunter was very well known in North America's country music scene and had many of its legends perform on his shows, including Johnny Cash's mother, Maybelle Carter. If you're seen the Cash biopic, Walk the Line, you'll know that he met his former wife, June Carter Cash, working the circuit that also included "Mother Maybelle" and her family. Carter was a pioneering legend in country music credited by many as having helped transfer the guitar into a lead instrument in the 20's and 30's. So, back to Lightfoot. As Tommy recalled it to me, after one of the evenings on which Maybelle Carter appeared as the headline guest on Country Ho Down, Gordon came up to Tommy and asked him about the particular style in which she plucked her guitar, so Tommy showed it to him. A few years later, Lightfoot employed Mother Maybelle's technique with great success, which can be heard on most of the songs from his 1966 debut album (and beyond). Nifty, eh?
Nick, I am also a nurse. Helped set up first NICU at a University Hospital on Texas. Am 78 now...and I have luxuriated in their gorgeous voices all my life. Deep dive on these guys. You will not be disappointed.
Some suggestions for your listening pleasure : "Affair on 8th Avenue", "Beautiful", "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", "The Last Time I Saw Her" "Ode to Big Blue", "Old Dan's Records", "Heaven Help the Devil", "Shadows", 14 Karat Gold", "Your Love's Return (Song for Stephen Foster)", "Make Way For The Lady", "Spanish Moss", Bitter Green", Carefree Highway", "Minstrel of the Dawn", "All the Lovely Ladies", "Ode to Big Blue", "Christian Island (Georgian Bay)". "Dream Street Rose", "Endless Wire", "Ghosts of Cape Horn", If Children Had Wings", "I'm Not Supposed to Care", "Is There Anyone Home", "Looking at the Rain", "Now and Then", "A Passing Ship", "Race Among the Ruins", Rainy Day People", "Softly", "Song for a Winter's Night", "Stone Cold Sober", "Talking in Your Sleep", "Triangle", "Thank You for the Promises", "Summertime Dream", "She's Not the Same", " On the High Seas", "Pussywillows, Cat-Tails", " If You Need Me"... -These are just a few that come to mind. Give these a listen, and I think you will see why I say that Gord is alone at the top. There are singer-songwriters, and there is Gordon Lightfoot
Oh yeah, it went down on The Midnight Special. I was born in '60 in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois, and when The Midnight Special hit the airwaves in the '70's I stayed up late every week to watch it. It was my window on the world of music! Thanks for sharing this one, Britt. 🙂
I really appreciate your thoughtful reactions Britt. You bring your unique personality, and blend it with both your personal perspective, and with the perspective and knowledge that you've gained from your past professional background in the music industry. All of these parts combine in a really lovely way, and you've created a positive, caring, and informative environment for your subscribers, and for those who always watch but have yet to subscribe(bombastic side-eye) lol. Thanks for taking time away from your little one and your hubby to tend to us, it's always a good time! ✌️ & 🫶 from 🇨🇦 aye!
I have been a Gordon Lightfoot fan for decades. Have not heard this version before of this song. Thanks for playing and reacting to it. God Bless you. Sans emogi
Wow, I was just rewatching you other Gordon Lightfoot reactions today. Please give "RainyDay People" and "Carefree Highway" a listen. Thank you....🤧and bless you.
Gordon was a great and unique musical talent for sure !! Glad you are listening. One of his I have always loved is Early Morning Rain. Give it a listen Britt, you will like I believe
Written by the late Gordon Lightfoot. He did write songs intended for Elvis Presley. Lightfoot was in the supergroup Northern Lights. He sang the opening line to Tears Are Not Enough. Northern Lights also had Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. When Bob Dylan went electric at the Norfolk Festival, he was pummeled with boos for being "less than authentic " with that instrument. Gordon Lightfoot was 1 of the singers there. Yet, he stuck with him. His big reward was being the presenter as the June's gave Gordon Lightfoot a lifetime achievement award 👏. The late Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and others sang with Gordon Lightfoot. Suggested duet videos 📹: 1 Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot sing Thank You for Loving Me. 2 Northern Lights perform Tears Are Not Enough with musician names.
Bless you. I love this song. It is a realization of the ending of the relationship, but not in a blaming way. He says if you could read my mind, and also if I could read your mind so he is trying to understand he too. Maybe she was looking for him to be something more and her expectations he couldn't live up to. Now that he couldn't be that hero she wanted to save her her she has lost interest and now he is ghosted. By the lyrics it sounds as of he is sitting in her presence and these thoughts are going through his mind as he is looking at her. Man being ghosted while you are in the same room. She is looking past him and he can't be what she wants. Great song one 9f my favorite radio songs growing up.
Absolutely beautiful Masterpiece. Brings me to 8yrs old and seeing my father's last year of life play out. At the end of the day however this song is about his divorce.
This song showcases what I see as country music. This is a song about his life and a part of which he spent a lot of time trying to understand. He explains his part of something very personal to him and his life. Good really good country artists tell real stories from the heart, the kind you can relate to, you can feel deep down inside yourself. Mr. Lightfoot is a great story teller and a great person.
This reminds me so much of cleaning days when i would go inside as a kid. My mother would be cleaning house with Gordon , the Eagles or Elvis playing through the house.
Great reaction to a classic song. Another brilliant one by Gordon is: "The Last Time I Saw Her Face", stunningly beautiful, and poignantly emotional. One of his best of all time...
“I wish I could play guitar.” Then learn! I give lessons via FaceTime/Zoom/Skype/Messenger/WhatsApp if you’re interested. I’ve taught people from 5 to 70 years old! Now for my Gordon Lightfoot story: When I was a baby, my parents took me to a Gordon Lightfoot concert (I guess they couldn’t find a babysitter) and I just smiled and listened quietly while he played but if he took too long between songs, I’d start to cry. Then he broke a string and as Gordon replaced the string he talked to the audience but I really started crying. He said, “Take it easy, kid, I’m going as fast as I can!” After the show, an usher came up to my parents and asked if I was the crying baby. They said “yes” and the usher said “Well, Mr Lightfoot would like to meet him.” He took us backstage and Gordon Lightfoot held me and tickled my feet. I still have the autograph, he wrote “To Kevin. Love, Gordon Lightfoot”
The lyrics were originally "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that YOU lack" but his daughter ask him to change it to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that WE lack"
Gordan had a life full of struggle and pain. It came out in all of his wonderful stories wrapped up in his music. There is a seasonal song called "Circle of steel" It is a sad song but explains the hardships the Canadian people had to endure.
I saw Lightfoot in concert a few times, he did not go for the showy show, just him and his band making memorable music. Once in college the audience was so small he invited us to come up and sit on the stage. At that time it was just him and stand up bass, I think he was just getting started. This was sometime around 1971
Great reaction Britt!! It resonates with you because of the emotion, honesty & heart in the lyrics, coupled with the simple musical arrangement! It resonates because you can feel what Gordon felt - it's real to him (it was regarding the ending of his first marriage), and as he sings it, it becomes real to us! Gordon Lightfoot (RIP) had that unique ability in all that he wrote and sung. A true Canadian, and global treasure in songwriting!
There's a video on UA-cam of Carole King singing this song to a huge crowd in Hyde Park, London, in 2016, and they are all singing along, and know all the words. She actually stops singing at one point and just lets the crowd sing it. It is very moving. I had no idea she was so popular in England. It was a crowd of all ages, so her popularity continues through generations.
I'm probably one of your first subs I think your first "midnight Special" performance was "Fool Around and Fell In Love" The Midnight Special was my generations MTV in the 70s or even social media because friends would get together to watch a band that Friday night in a lot of instances the first time we ever seen a band live. After the midnight Special the harder bands would come on a show called "Don kirshner's rock concert" Then Television would go off the air about 1:30 am with the national anthem and not come back on until at 6am with the farm report. Most days the television went off the air at 12am people today would explode if everything went off at midnight people would Storm the Whitehouse and demand that there life turned back on😂😂😂 By the way I remember it being called "The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack" he would howl and had a very raspy voice I think he was a radio DJ.. But now it's just called the midnight Special. Does anyone else remember that. Or is it the "Mandela Effect"😮
I thought by the thumbnail that this would actually be his song "Beautiful" ! - Just two years younger than this and not as well known to the general listening public, still a favorite classic for long-time Lightfoot fans.
You love this song so much because it's a near perfect song... and yes, as a young Canadian boy in the 70's Gordon Lightfoot did seem bigger than life. On another note (pardon the pun) your hair looks GREAT today.
You asked, "Why do I love this song?". Probably because it is one of the best songs ever written, and performed by the genius who wrote it. Join the club - you are not the only one who loves it. It has been one of my favorites since I first heard it years ago.
I appreciate the way you zoom in on the lyrics. Lightfoot's music is extraordinary but his lyrics are pure poetry. He could just have easily just focused on poetry, but we are all blessed that he chose not to. In this song, the subtext explores the conventional ideas about love. The narrator feels a deep, profound love, but not the woman he loves. She has much more superficial emotions, so he uses analogies she can relate to. It can be a sleazy "romance novel" love, the kind you see at the checkout stands at the drugstore. Or the movie script love story, which ends when the movie ends, and no one has to deal with the love and loss of the poor guy who "gets burned in a three way script." He realizes that the woman he loves lacks depth ("the feelings that you lack") but loves her anyway. He says he doesn't understand where they went wrong, but the lyrics indicate that he does, even if on a purely unconscious level. I could spend the rest of my life trying to unpack Gordon Lightfoot's amazing lyrics and only just scratch the surface.
I played a coffee house as a teen. Early on the only songwriter I knew the songs of was Gordon Lightfoot. I had a songbook- an actually song book of his songs outlining the lyrics and chords I practiced from, and at the bottom of one song- it might have been this one- was the notation from Lightfoot, "The song sounds best if you can Travis pick. If you can't do that, strum. If you can't do that, get a job." :)
True Canadian legend, we lost a treasure the day he passed. A few songs of his to listen to 'The Canadian Railroad Trilogy' or 'The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald' My grandpa was a big fan and I grew up listening to him.
Gordon had a real gift for creating songs that people could relate to, in the lyrics and the musicianship and the vocal phrasing. He made memorable tunes that you could sing along with, which is the hallmark of a great artist. RIP, Gordo.
I've read that after this song became a hit, his daughter asked him to change the line "the feelings that you lack" (his ex-wife) to "the feelings that we lack". He sang it that way for the rest of his life.
I think what you're responding to in Gordon Lightfoot is his folk heritage. His songs are very story driven and lyric intensive ... Whereas a lot of pop and rock songs focus on emotions and as opposed to story or character and repeat the hook/chorus/drum/bass over and over. Obviously, rock and pop engage us wonderfully on an emotional and physical (dance, sex) level. I can't imagine any hard core grinding action taking place to a Gordon Lightfoot song, but can imagine the seduction part, the intellectual part of it all being facilitated.
I always feel like the chorus melody here was lifted by Whitney in the chorus for “the greatest love of all” “And I will never be set free” … “you can’t take away my dignity”
Whitney did not write that song, it was Dolly Parton's song in 1974, so she would be the one who "lifted" anything. but among many "lifted" lyric phrases, the most common phrase would be "I Love You." You can't have a lawsuit with that lol.
@@thomastimlin1724What? Dolly Parton wrote, "I Will Always Love You" not "The Greatest Love Of All" and they are talking about the melody/chorus not the phrase "I love you."
@@thomastimlin1724 wrong - Michael Masser wrote the song. And when I went to look up more information to support my theory - Gordon Lightfoot sued Michael Masser in 1987 for copyright infringement and it was settled out of court and Masser publically apologized.
@@rsw1227 right - it’s the melody i thought was similar. And he is wrong on all levels because I looked up some additional information to support my thoughts and it turned out that Lightfoot actually sued the writer - Michael Masser for infringement, alleging that 24 bars of melody were shared
How do I sent you a video to react to?
Comment it!
@@brittreacts ua-cam.com/video/1MevYCdn5S8/v-deo.html Try these guys on for size. I think you are going to like them.
@@brittreacts He's too bashful.
If you like a beautiful song with meaningful lyrics you won’t do better than - Paul Brady, The Island - react to the animated version.
Your insight is magic, like your juxtaposition comment on simplicity and depth. Ta. 👍👍🏽
@@brittreacts even if you don't react to it, check out Gordon's song Ode to Big Blue. It's a song about a whale, and it's just wonderful. Rather haunting.
"Gordon Lightfoot died without ever having written a bad song." - Bob Dylan
Bob was a big fan.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot 5 ti,es in concert in the the 70's. HE WAS THE BEST 💗 💙
If Niel Diamond is THE American Troubadour, then surely Gordon Lightfoot is THE Canadian Troubadour. Love them both.
Uhm... You mean Bob Dylan? Or maybe Harry Chapin as the greatest storyteller ever. Diamond is an icon but not a troubadour.
@@chetstevensq No I meant who I picked. Being a Troubadour requires you to be able to sing, Bob Dylan does not meet the criteria.
@@redtick79 A troubadour is a singing POET, Dylan is widely considered the latest great American poet. Which is why I drew the distinction for Chapin who is a story teller but only Cats In The Cradle was adapted from a poem. As far as I know Diamond has written 0 poems.
I thought Neil Diamond was the Jewish Elvis.
Neil Diamond is Jewish Elvis.
You’ll never find a bad Gordon Lightfoot song, he was a true artist. I’m almost 64 years old and have been a fan of his for 50 years.
Bob Dylan was asked about Gordon Lightfoot and said this - "Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever.”
I'm 58 and love all of Gordon Lightfoots music ❤ I have also been a huge fan of his for 50+ years. He released his first album the month and year I was born! I believe I was like 5-6 years old before I actually heard of him and his music.
Bless you, even your sneeze is cute!
The lyrics came to Lightfoot one summer in 1969 while he was sitting in his empty house in Toronto that was up for sale. It was a letter written to his then wife whom he had loved and was ultimately losing at the time. “I was going through some emotional trauma leading up to a separation, and that manifested itself in that particular song on that particular afternoon,” said Lightfoot of the song in 2010, remembering the moment he wrote it more than 40 years earlier. “I’ll never forget the afternoon.”
Wow!
One of the most beautiful songs ever written. Listen to the studio version next to get the full experience.
Yes but not from Gord's Gold. That album was too overproduced. Go back to the original studio release.
Agree. Sounds much more haunting. Genius.
Gordon Lightfoot is one of the singer/storytellers. Jim Croce is right there too
Yes she needs to react to Operator
A Canadian icon . Brilliant Songwriter. 🇨🇦
When my soulmate passed when we were young, I have never wanted to read that book again because the "endings just too hard to take"
I've been alone now for 38 years.
Every day I still miss my Terri ❤️
So sorry, but hopefully you have some wonderful memories
Im right there with you
One of Canada greatest gift to the world. He is one of the greatest story tellers. Good reaction
"I don't know where we went wrong, but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back . . . " saddest line in any song I've ever heard. After decades I still tear up at that line.
Same. I recall this line sometimes and it evens outside the song
Hi Britt. Subscriber here. I saw Gordon live many years ago. RIP May, 2023 at 84. The 1970s and 1980s were the “peak” of songs with true “lyrics”. Much love, prayers and support. Bruce 🎷🙏🏼🇺🇸
Anyone who says they're a fan of Gordon Lighfoot is class in my books! One of the great singer/songwriters to come out of the 60's and 70's - brilliant and captivating lyrics that really paint a picture of what he wants you to see in your mind. Simple rhythmic patterns that lull you in. "Sundown", "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "Carefree Highway", and so many more. We lost one of our best national storytellers recently. Glad you discovered him and are keeping his music alive!
Love him,a true musician, The best thing ever to come out of Canada ❤
My mom passed away in February. Gordon Lightfoot was her favorite singer/songwriter, and I cannot hear him without remembering that his was the one concert I remember her seeing live. The man was a master of song-crafting and of vocal performance. One of the very best. Loved your reaction.
He has always been one of my favorites. His song entitled "Beautiful" is just that. Highly recommend and suggest it.
Gordon Lightfoot, along with Joni Mitchell could be considered the "Poet Laureates" of Canada. No finer examples of singer/songwriter artists.
Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Gord Downie....just saying. Love Gordon Lightfoot the most though
@@6916dog I would add Stan Rogers to that list.
Bruce Cockburn, Bryan Adams…
SBel65 those 2 would not be on my list but they both had some good songs. Love Stan Rogers
@@6916dog spent many an evening in a small Fredericton pub (in the 70’s) listening to Stan Rogers live. Saw him in Whitehorse (at the Copper King) and in Victoria (don’t remember which pub it’s been long ago closed). Played Barrett’s Privateers to death! Loved Stan Rogers (and his fiddler brother Garnet) and was very sad when he died so tragically. Also loved Bruce Cockburn’s music.
Gordon Lightfoot wrote and sang so MANY beautiful songs which.shocked me.
He had a beautifully developed control of his voice,wonderful rich story telling and talented guitarist. He stood on stage taking everyone on a journey. To see him in small clubs - wonderful
I will be 66 next week so heard and loved a lot of music in my life! This really is a great song from the days that music was great!
@billtaylor3382 Happy Early Birthday!
@@selectronium Thank you so much! Peace and Love!
Hi Bill! Hope you have a fantastic birthday! I will be 67 in June! LOVE Gordon Lightfoot’s music! Peace and Blessings to you and yours from Australia.
@@wendyryder2708 Ty Wendy! and peace and love to you!
Used to watch "The Midnight Special" every week. "Why do I like this song so much?" I don't know, Britt. But I have too ever since it came out. Always a big fan of Mr. Lightfoot.
If you liked this one, Britt, you'll love "Early Morning Rain" by him.
Trying to load the Telegram app. It's going slowly. I'll check back in a while.
Such heart-rending poetry...I've been the ghost amid the spectrum of relationships too many times across 58 years...'til I finally gave up.
Please listen to the studio (bless you😊) version of this song with lyrics.
...and no Elvis...pure Gordon.
A Canadian national treasure we still miss. Glad his amazing music is living on and finding new fans, he deserves it. One of the many things we Canadians love about Gordon is that Canada always remained his home. When he passed away he was still living in the Rosedale home (VERY nice Toronto neighborhood) he bought in the 70’s. Toronto is where is career launched and it remained his home. We have a younger national treasure who’s doing the same, Michael Buble, a Burnaby BC boy whose main home is just blocks from his childhood home and about five minutes from where I live. He’s often seen around town and always has a smile and greeting for everyone. Both classy Canadian musical icons who’s hometowns love having them and never bother them, they could/can live their lives as normally as possible.
He was a perfectionist who agonized over every word of the lyrics he wrote and the music that accompanied it.
He was, in many ways, a tortured artist in the traditional sense and he drank hard and lived hard, but by all accounts, he was a most kind and humble person and just a down to earth, blue-collar kind of guy, and, I think, his music is a reflection of all of those things.
Hia music and lyrics and his singing and interpretation were simple and yet had such great meaning and were also as complicated in many ways as a grand symphony.
He is another Canadian treasure who belongs to the world.
Thank you for sharing, commenting, and enjoying.
Good description ! I know it's hard to condense so much into a short comment. The doc I saw on Prime about him showed the little desk where he wrote a lot of his great songs and it was amazing to picture him sitting there and working hard for countless hours. He was real old school, working out each note and chord on music sheets. The clincher for me was picking up his "Don Quixote" album at a used record store and finding every song was great.
He later changed "the feeling that you lack" to "the feeling that we lack" after his daughter said original ignored his faults in divorce and seemed to blame mom.
This song was a smash hit! The studio version is even better. Listen to that one and notice the string and guitar fills! The arrangement is a masterpiece! He would need a full orchestra to do the same in concert. The album this came out one also was fire! Not a bad song on it! I think it was called Minstrel of the Dawn (another great song!).
The album was originally titled "Sit Down Young Stranger," then was changed to "If You Could Read My Mind" after this song started to get massive airplay.
@@folkmusic99 Thanks! I'd forgotten that. Sit Down Young Stranger is another great song too! It would be hard to find a bad one by Gordon Lightfoot though.
One of Lightfoot's most personal songs, "If You Could Read My Mind" is about the breakup of his first marriage - a common theme in many of his songs. In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as "a song about the failure of marriage." Peace out.
Gordon Lightfoot is a masterclass on poetry in song. Whether you dig the genre/style of music or not, the man can write the lyrics.
It is so cool, to hear someone fall in love with music I have lived long enough to have heard as a new release. Thanks
The album version is phenomenal, and a real heartbreaker at the end.
Thank You Britt for covering Gordon Lightfoot, such a CDN Icon. May he R.I.P.! (Great Reaction Too!)
Proud Canadian here. Grew up to listening to Gordon Lightfoot on record with my parents. You can literally breathe his lyrics.
This song was from his heart. It was based on a personal relationship.
So, about Elvis and Lightfoot... Elvis was a fan who covered Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain." Same song was also covered by Bob Dylan (who - others have correctly mentioned - said Lightfoot was one of his favourite song-writers), as by fellow Canadian music legend, Neil Young. About Lightfoot, Dylan was once quoted as saying: ""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."
Elvis also covered Lightfoot's 1966 hit, "For Lovin' Me." So did folk icons Peter, Paul, and Mary, and country music icon, Johnny Cash.
Now you're going to have to react to Lightfoot's BOTH Early Morning Rain AND For Lovin' Me," aren't you?
; )
Speaking of Johnny Cash, I have an original story for you. A few years back I had a neighbour named Tommy Hunter, who was known as "Canada's Country Gentleman." He was the host of a country-themed variety show that enjoyed a 27-year-run on Canada's national broadcaster, the CBC. For over a decade before that, he led a similar show called Canada's Country Ho Down." Back in the early '60's, a young Lightfoot came to work as a guitarist for the TV show's house band - where he met Hunter.
Hunter was very well known in North America's country music scene and had many of its legends perform on his shows, including Johnny Cash's mother, Maybelle Carter. If you're seen the Cash biopic, Walk the Line, you'll know that he met his former wife, June Carter Cash, working the circuit that also included "Mother Maybelle" and her family. Carter was a pioneering legend in country music credited by many as having helped transfer the guitar into a lead instrument in the 20's and 30's.
So, back to Lightfoot. As Tommy recalled it to me, after one of the evenings on which Maybelle Carter appeared as the headline guest on Country Ho Down, Gordon came up to Tommy and asked him about the particular style in which she plucked her guitar, so Tommy showed it to him. A few years later, Lightfoot employed Mother Maybelle's technique with great success, which can be heard on most of the songs from his 1966 debut album (and beyond).
Nifty, eh?
I love his voice and lyrics. All of the music I’ve heard of his is so beautiful ❤. GOD BLESS YOU!
Rest in Peace Gordon, I love you and miss you so much. ❤
It's hauntingly beautiful 🖤
One of the most covered songs of all-time, over 100 times!
Nick, I am also a nurse. Helped set up first NICU at a University Hospital on Texas. Am 78 now...and I have luxuriated in their gorgeous voices all my life. Deep dive on these guys. You will not be disappointed.
Seeing Gordon live was one of the joys of my life. An excellent singer songwriter who lays his soul out for all to see.
Pussywillows, Cattails, and Roses, is a gorgeous masterpiece.
Some suggestions for your listening pleasure :
"Affair on 8th Avenue", "Beautiful", "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", "The Last Time I Saw Her" "Ode to Big Blue", "Old Dan's Records", "Heaven Help the Devil", "Shadows", 14 Karat Gold", "Your Love's Return (Song for Stephen Foster)", "Make Way For The Lady", "Spanish Moss", Bitter Green", Carefree Highway", "Minstrel of the Dawn", "All the Lovely Ladies", "Ode to Big Blue", "Christian Island (Georgian Bay)". "Dream Street Rose", "Endless Wire", "Ghosts of Cape Horn", If Children Had Wings", "I'm Not Supposed to Care", "Is There Anyone Home", "Looking at the Rain", "Now and Then", "A Passing Ship", "Race Among the Ruins", Rainy Day People", "Softly", "Song for a Winter's Night", "Stone Cold Sober", "Talking in Your Sleep", "Triangle", "Thank You for the Promises", "Summertime Dream", "She's Not the Same", " On the High Seas", "Pussywillows, Cat-Tails", " If You Need Me"...
-These are just a few that come to mind.
Give these a listen, and I think you will see why I say that Gord is alone at the top.
There are singer-songwriters, and there is Gordon Lightfoot
Oh yeah, it went down on The Midnight Special. I was born in '60 in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois, and when The Midnight Special hit the airwaves in the '70's I stayed up late every week to watch it. It was my window on the world of music! Thanks for sharing this one, Britt. 🙂
Very cool!
I really appreciate your thoughtful reactions Britt. You bring your unique personality, and blend it with both your personal perspective, and with the perspective and knowledge that you've gained from your past professional background in the music industry. All of these parts combine in a really lovely way, and you've created a positive, caring, and informative environment for your subscribers, and for those who always watch but have yet to subscribe(bombastic side-eye) lol. Thanks for taking time away from your little one and your hubby to tend to us, it's always a good time! ✌️ & 🫶 from 🇨🇦 aye!
Musical poet of the highest order! All Canadians must be so proud of him! If he was Australian (as I am) he’d be worshipped ♥️ RIP Gordon 🙏
Gorgeous voice! Gifted poet, stunning musician. He was a major party animal chick magnate.
Gordon Lightfoot, Harry Chapin, Dan Fogelberg. My favorite story tellers from my young adulthood.
Yep! And Dan Fogelberg’s “Changing Horses” (in the middle of the stream) is so good.
Jim Croce could be added too!
Watch the studio version of the Eagles " I can't tell you why".
You forgot to say please.
I have been a Gordon Lightfoot fan for decades. Have not heard this version before of this song.
Thanks for playing and reacting to it.
God Bless you. Sans emogi
Gordon always had a way to tell a sad story without making you feel depressed, logical, but not without emotion. Balanced.
Wow, I was just rewatching you other Gordon Lightfoot reactions today. Please give "RainyDay People" and "Carefree Highway" a listen. Thank you....🤧and bless you.
Was that "The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald" reaction?
@@louisejohnson6057 and Sundown
Both great songs i put Rainy Day People in the Patreon requests of the week draw a few weeks back. Brit is one of those Rainy Day People.
I don't think anyone ever wrote a more beautiful song than this. The vocals and guitar are exquisite. They broke the mold with this man.
Gordon was a great and unique musical talent for sure !! Glad you are listening. One of his I have always loved is Early Morning Rain. Give it a listen Britt, you will like I believe
If no one's mentioned this already, there is a story to it. It was basically a eulogy to his marriage which had recently come to an end.
Written by the late Gordon Lightfoot. He did write songs intended for Elvis Presley.
Lightfoot was in the supergroup Northern Lights. He sang the opening line to Tears Are Not Enough. Northern Lights also had Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
When Bob Dylan went electric at the Norfolk Festival, he was pummeled with boos for being "less than authentic " with that instrument. Gordon Lightfoot was 1 of the singers there. Yet, he stuck with him. His big reward was being the presenter as the June's gave Gordon Lightfoot a lifetime achievement award 👏.
The late Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and others sang with Gordon Lightfoot.
Suggested duet videos 📹: 1 Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot sing Thank You for Loving Me. 2 Northern Lights perform Tears Are Not Enough with musician names.
I have never heard a live from him before. Absolutely beautiful ❤
🤧 God bless you 😊
Gordon Lightfoot was a great songwriter! So may amazing songs.
My parents used to dance to this song in our living room. Such great times and amazing music!
Bless you. I love this song. It is a realization of the ending of the relationship, but not in a blaming way. He says if you could read my mind, and also if I could read your mind so he is trying to understand he too. Maybe she was looking for him to be something more and her expectations he couldn't live up to. Now that he couldn't be that hero she wanted to save her her she has lost interest and now he is ghosted. By the lyrics it sounds as of he is sitting in her presence and these thoughts are going through his mind as he is looking at her. Man being ghosted while you are in the same room. She is looking past him and he can't be what she wants. Great song one 9f my favorite radio songs growing up.
Absolutely beautiful Masterpiece. Brings me to 8yrs old and seeing my father's last year of life play out.
At the end of the day however this song is about his divorce.
This song showcases what I see as country music. This is a song about his life and a part of which he spent a lot of time trying to understand. He explains his part of something very personal to him and his life. Good really good country artists tell real stories from the heart, the kind you can relate to, you can feel deep down inside yourself. Mr. Lightfoot is a great story teller and a great person.
This reminds me so much of cleaning days when i would go inside as a kid. My mother would be cleaning house with Gordon , the Eagles or Elvis playing through the house.
Dating myself, but I had the good fortune to see him live at SPAC in Saratoga Springs, NY back in the 70,s. ❤️❤️
Beautiful voice I have loved since the 70's. Some people still don't know about him.
Great reaction to a classic song. Another brilliant one by Gordon is: "The Last Time I Saw Her Face", stunningly beautiful, and poignantly emotional. One of his best of all time...
I used to watch the midnight special as young teen before I could go out on Saturday nights and I could sleep in on Sunday morning.
Lightfoot is a Canadian Great song writer and singer.
“I wish I could play guitar.”
Then learn! I give lessons via FaceTime/Zoom/Skype/Messenger/WhatsApp if you’re interested. I’ve taught people from 5 to 70 years old!
Now for my Gordon Lightfoot story:
When I was a baby, my parents took me to a Gordon Lightfoot concert (I guess they couldn’t find a babysitter) and I just smiled and listened quietly while he played but if he took too long between songs, I’d start to cry. Then he broke a string and as Gordon replaced the string he talked to the audience but I really started crying. He said, “Take it easy, kid, I’m going as fast as I can!” After the show, an usher came up to my parents and asked if I was the crying baby. They said “yes” and the usher said “Well, Mr Lightfoot would like to meet him.” He took us backstage and Gordon Lightfoot held me and tickled my feet. I still have the autograph, he wrote “To Kevin. Love, Gordon Lightfoot”
Wow! How cool is that!
ELVIS ACTUALLY DID A COVER OF GORDONS Early morning rain , great song great songwriter.
The lyrics were originally "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that YOU lack" but his daughter ask him to change it to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that WE lack"
Please listen to "Song for a Winter's Night". But save it for cold weather. You will make it a holiday favorite.
Love Gordon...just an amazing singer/song writer. RIP.
Gordan had a life full of struggle and pain. It came out in all of his wonderful stories wrapped up in his music. There is a seasonal song called "Circle of steel" It is a sad song but explains the hardships the Canadian people had to endure.
I was delighted to see him in concert 2 times at the Yavapai Performance Hall in Prescott Az. So wonderful❤
I saw Gordon in concert 2 times in the 1990’s in Prescott Az. Delightful! ❤
I saw Lightfoot in concert a few times, he did not go for the showy show, just him and his band making memorable music. Once in college the audience was so small he invited us to come up and sit on the stage. At that time it was just him and stand up bass, I think he was just getting started. This was sometime around 1971
Great reaction Britt!! It resonates with you because of the emotion, honesty & heart in the lyrics, coupled with the simple musical arrangement! It resonates because you can feel what Gordon felt - it's real to him (it was regarding the ending of his first marriage), and as he sings it, it becomes real to us!
Gordon Lightfoot (RIP) had that unique ability in all that he wrote and sung. A true Canadian, and global treasure in songwriting!
There's a video on UA-cam of Carole King singing this song to a huge crowd in Hyde Park, London, in 2016, and they are all singing along, and know all the words. She actually stops singing at one point and just lets the crowd sing it. It is very moving. I had no idea she was so popular in England. It was a crowd of all ages, so her popularity continues through generations.
Gordon was one of my all time favorites. Just saw him one time but it was something I treasure to this day
Thx Britt! Such a beautiful song. This melody is so unique. Always makes me feel like it just drifts along. Bless you.😊
I'm probably one of your first subs I think your first "midnight Special" performance was "Fool Around and Fell In Love"
The Midnight Special was my generations MTV in the 70s or even social media because friends would get together to watch a band that Friday night in a lot of instances the first time we ever seen a band live. After the midnight Special the harder bands would come on a show called
"Don kirshner's rock concert"
Then Television would go off the air about 1:30 am with the national anthem and not come back on until at 6am with the farm report. Most days the television went off the air at 12am people today would explode if everything went off at midnight people would Storm the Whitehouse and demand that there life turned back on😂😂😂 By the way I remember it being called "The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack" he would howl and had a very raspy voice I think he was a radio DJ.. But now it's just called the midnight Special. Does anyone else remember that. Or is it the "Mandela Effect"😮
I thought by the thumbnail that this would actually be his song "Beautiful" ! - Just two years younger than this and not as well known to the general listening public, still a favorite classic for long-time Lightfoot fans.
Gordon Lightfoot had beautiful vocals 😢great songwriter
My absolute favorite Lightfoot song. When we lost him this past year, we lost a treasure. 😢Subscribing. Loved your reaction to this.
My All time Fav song... ❤️🇨🇦❤️🙏
My 1st fav song, was like 7, with my head up against the radio. !!!
You love this song so much because it's a near perfect song... and yes, as a young Canadian boy in the 70's Gordon Lightfoot did seem bigger than life. On another note (pardon the pun) your hair looks GREAT today.
You asked, "Why do I love this song?". Probably because it is one of the best songs ever written, and performed by the genius who wrote it. Join the club - you are not the only one who loves it. It has been one of my favorites since I first heard it years ago.
I appreciate the way you zoom in on the lyrics. Lightfoot's music is extraordinary but his lyrics are pure poetry. He could just have easily just focused on poetry, but we are all blessed that he chose not to. In this song, the subtext explores the conventional ideas about love. The narrator feels a deep, profound love, but not the woman he loves. She has much more superficial emotions, so he uses analogies she can relate to. It can be a sleazy "romance novel" love, the kind you see at the checkout stands at the drugstore. Or the movie script love story, which ends when the movie ends, and no one has to deal with the love and loss of the poor guy who "gets burned in a three way script." He realizes that the woman he loves lacks depth ("the feelings that you lack") but loves her anyway. He says he doesn't understand where they went wrong, but the lyrics indicate that he does, even if on a purely unconscious level. I could spend the rest of my life trying to unpack Gordon Lightfoot's amazing lyrics and only just scratch the surface.
I played a coffee house as a teen. Early on the only songwriter I knew the songs of was Gordon Lightfoot. I had a songbook- an actually song book of his songs outlining the lyrics and chords I practiced from, and at the bottom of one song- it might have been this one- was the notation from Lightfoot, "The song sounds best if you can Travis pick. If you can't do that, strum. If you can't do that, get a job." :)
One of my favorites of his.
I know Gordon sang Rainy day people but I've always felt his music was rainy day music. Anything he wrote, on a rainy day, just makes the day better.
True Canadian legend, we lost a treasure the day he passed. A few songs of his to listen to 'The Canadian Railroad Trilogy' or 'The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald' My grandpa was a big fan and I grew up listening to him.
Gordon had a real gift for creating songs that people could relate to, in the lyrics and the musicianship and the vocal phrasing. He made memorable tunes that you could sing along with, which is the hallmark of a great artist. RIP, Gordo.
These lyrics are incredible! His album, Don Quixote, is flawless from start to finish. One of the greatest albums ever written.
I'm a 70s kid, he always sounded to me like a troubadour from medieval times, like in the Lord of the rings...Lightfoot could be a Hobbit name.
I was just looking for a reaction to this song and BAM you pop up! 😅❤
Some of my friends saw him at a small venue years ago. They said even the guys were throwing their panties on the stage during this song performance.
I've read that after this song became a hit, his daughter asked him to change the line "the feelings that you lack" (his ex-wife) to "the feelings that we lack". He sang it that way for the rest of his life.
I think what you're responding to in Gordon Lightfoot is his folk heritage. His songs are very story driven and lyric intensive ... Whereas a lot of pop and rock songs focus on emotions and as opposed to story or character and repeat the hook/chorus/drum/bass over and over. Obviously, rock and pop engage us wonderfully on an emotional and physical (dance, sex) level. I can't imagine any hard core grinding action taking place to a Gordon Lightfoot song, but can imagine the seduction part, the intellectual part of it all being facilitated.
I always feel like the chorus melody here was lifted by Whitney in the chorus for “the greatest love of all”
“And I will never be set free” … “you can’t take away my dignity”
Whitney did not write that song, it was Dolly Parton's song in 1974, so she would be the one who "lifted" anything. but among many "lifted" lyric phrases, the most common phrase would be "I Love You." You can't have a lawsuit with that lol.
@@thomastimlin1724What? Dolly Parton wrote, "I Will Always Love You" not "The Greatest Love Of All" and they are talking about the melody/chorus not the phrase "I love you."
@@thomastimlin1724 wrong - Michael Masser wrote the song. And when I went to look up more information to support my theory - Gordon Lightfoot sued Michael Masser in 1987 for copyright infringement and it was settled out of court and Masser publically apologized.
@@rsw1227 right - it’s the melody i thought was similar. And he is wrong on all levels because I looked up some additional information to support my thoughts and it turned out that Lightfoot actually sued the writer - Michael Masser for infringement, alleging that 24 bars of melody were shared
The exact same sequence was also lifted by Springsteen for Born To Run.
This is one of THE all-time greatest love lost/breakup songs. Gord was a genius!