Gordon Lightfoot
I think it was in high school sometime. Yeah. Mom was cleaning the house and had put on some music. Whatever it was, I knew I had heard it before. I asked Mom who was singing. "Gordon Lightfoot," she replied, "we've been listening to him for years. We used to listen to him when you were just a little guy!"

The song was "Rainbow Trout." It's a very melodious song, and once you're heard it a few times, you recognize it. At least, I did. I have met a few Rainbow Trout in my day; they made me smile, if with a touch of sorrow. Sometimes I think I'm like Gordon's Trout:
In the name of love she came
This foolish, winsome girl
She was all decked out like a rainbow trout
Swimmin' upstream in the world
Gordon Lightfoot is now my favorite musician for a variety of reasons:
  • He's vintage. He seems to represent to me a period gone by, a period that I wish I had been a part of.
  • He's just like me. Gordon's songs are basically of two varieties: emotionally charged ballads (ie poor little allison) and careless joyrides, (ie alberta bound). If I were going to make a dichotomy of myself, One part would be intense and one serene. Gordon's joyrides speak to my serene side, the side that could care less and just wants to take it easy. Then His lovesongs...very poignant, sometimes bitter, or poetic or remorseful. They often reflect my intensity. It's easy to get to feeling down when you think like that, but Gordon's FUN songs, like Bend in the Water, Alberta Bound, and Songs the Mistrel Sang all make my spirits rise.
  • He's a Lover. Besides the rest of his songs, his love songs I have attached special importance to, to...all the loves of my life. He had the fortune of living before the time of AIDS, and being the loverman that the rest of us can't really be anymore. see my thoughts about "vintage" above. Even so, listening to Gordon's songs is like listening to my own love-ography!
    I bet you all have songs you attach to certain people, right? And it happens two different ways: one, is playing at a critical juncture of your life. two, the words just make too much sense!
  • He points to my childhood I already mentioned how I started listening to him, but songs like The Pony Man, Brave Mountaineers and Don Quixote make me think of growing up...back home at Pineway.... :) very happy times for me...
  • He's a Poet. Oh the lines! the beautiful combinations of words...go see Matt's Page and just look around! the rainbow trout chorus is above, but there's so much more! :)

    well anyway, enough of my idolatry - Matt Fifer has put up The Definitive Gordon Lightfoot Page, so if you are looking for info, it's there!

    Actually, as of 1998, it's here.

    Dylan's Main Page
    dylan@sccs.swarthmore.edu