Just Seems Apropos
. . . for today.
If you’re having a rough day because of the holiday, maybe you’ll want to skip viewing this.
Leave it to a Canadian national treasure to “get it right”. IMO, anyway.
Category: Pointless blather, We Remember, Who knows
This is the one of his I like best
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=gordon+lightfoot+wreck+of+edmund+fitzgerald&view=detail&mid=626B2F0C928CAFA79B93626B2F0C928CAFA79B93&FORM=VIRE
“Wreck” is a great tune, and IMO clearly one of Lightfoot’s best. But “Summer Side” just seems more apropos for Memorial Day.
YGBSM. I’m surfing the net and have Croce, Lightfoot, Meatloaf, Eagles and Fogelberg playing in the background. Favorite song: Eagles ‘The Heart of The Matter’. Best Lightfoot: Soo many. Same for Fogelberg and Eagles and Meatloaf. Music is out of this world wonderful.
And they don’t write it like they use to.
Hondo’s music posts have often helped to populate my MP3 player, often with tunes I would never have heard of otherwise.
(I was alive in the 70’s but not paying attention to the music.)
From my point of view, don’t be shy about naming a few of those “bests.”
Croce is one of my go-to’s as well…
If you’re like me and can’t understand what you’re hearing, here’s the lyrics to the song.
________________________________
“SUMMER SIDE OF LIFE”
He came down through fields of green
On the summer side of life
His love was ripe
There was no illusions
On the summer side of life
Only tenderness
And if you saw him now
You’d wonder why he would cry
The whole day long
There was young girls everywhere
On the summer side of life
They talked all night
To the young men that they knew
On the summer side of life
Goin’ off to fight
And if you saw them now
You’d wonder why they would cry
The whole day long
He came down through fields of green
On the summer side of life
He prayed all night
Then he walked into a house
Where love had been misplaced
His chance to waste
And if you saw him now
You’d wonder why he would cry
The whole day long
And if you saw him now
You’d wonder why
And if you saw him now
You’d wonder why
And if you saw him now
You’d wonder why
________________________________
NOTE: When posting a song, ALWAYS include the lyrics, because a lot of us elderly war veterans have hearing problems.
Forgot how good Lightfoot is. Thanks Hondo.
So had I – until a recent long road trip. Grabbed a Lightfoot “best of” collection almost as an afterthought on the way out the door.
It managed to displace Zevon in the CD player for much of the trip. That reminded me how damn good the man is.
Canada’s advocate must have had first choice when God was determining where on North America Lightfoot and Dylan would be born.
Seen Lightfoot x3, most recently a few months back in Florida. He doesn’t have the vocals he once had, but nevermind, he still brings enough of his A game to get my vote as the best ballads singer of his generation. He also wrote much/most of his stuff. Any ‘best of’ artist listing w/o Lightfoot is woefully inadequate. Someone I feel is equally good who has been gone now about 8 years is Fogelberg, who died of CA. I feel he is very much overlooked.
That is truly one of Lightfoot’s best songs. Being one of those people who likes the more obscure things; my personal Lightfoot song is titled “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” or something close to that.
HONDO: Zevon is just plain old truly awesome.
I always tip my hat to a blind Canuck song-writer this time of year – follow the link to “A Pittance of Time”, but be prepared for the room getting ‘dusty’ and causing your eyes to water….
And the link….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kX_3y3u5Uo
Sorry, eyes were watering…
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/terry_kelly/a_pittance_of_time.html
They fought and some died for their homeland.
They fought and some died, now it’s our land.
Look at his little child; there’s no fear in her eyes.
Could he not show respect for other dads who have died?
Take two minutes, would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who went over.
In peace may they rest, may we never
Forget why they died.
It’s a pittance of time.
God forgive me for wanting to strike him.
Give me strength so as not to be like him.
My heart pounds in my breast, fingers pressed to my lips,
My throat wants to bawl out, my tongue barely resists.
But two minutes I will bide.
It’s a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who went over.
In peace may they rest.
May we never forget why they died.
It’s a pittance of time.
Read the letters and poems of the heroes at home.
They have casualties, battles, and fears of their own.
There’s a price to be paid if you go, if you stay.
Freedom’s fought for and won in numerous ways.
Take two minutes, would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls all over.
May we never forget, our young become vets.
At the end of the line,
It’s a pittance of time.
It takes courage to fight in your own war.
It takes courage to fight someone else’s war.
Our peacekeepers tell of their own living hell.
They bring hope to foreign lands that hate mongers can’t kill.
Take two minutes, would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who go over.
In peacetime our best still don battle dress
And lay their lives on the line.
It’s a pittance of time
In peace may they rest,
Lest we forget why they died,
Take a pittance of time.
Can’t tell you how many years ago I saved that to CD maybe 10 years ago; listen to it every few months.
You know you have done things right when your daughter texts you with pictures of your family’s graves in Arlington on Memorial Day. Think her mother must have done all the heavy lifting.