Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown

I first noticed  Candian Gordon Lightfoot riding in the car with my sister …with the AM radio station playing this song. Sundown got a lot of airplay back then. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #33 in the UK in 1974.

The inspiration for this song was his girlfriend Cathy Smith who would later have a romantic relationship with Richard Manuel of The Band and a fatal encounter with John Belushi.

Hard to believe but Gordon turned 80 last month. 

 

From Songfacts.

The inspiration for this song came from Lightfoot worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home writing songs. He recalled during a Reddit AMA: “I had this girlfriend one time, and I was at home working, at my desk, working at my songwriting which I had been doing all week since I was on a roll, and my girlfriend was somewhere drinking, drinking somewhere. So I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her, because she was pretty good lookin’!”

“As a matter of fact, it was written just around Sundown,” he added, “just as the sun was setting, behind the farm I had rented to use as a place to write the album.”

Lightfoot most likely wrote this about the stormy relationship with his one time girlfriend Cathy Smith, who was later sentenced for delivering a lethal dose of heroin to John Belushi.

 

Sundown

I can see her lyin’ back in her satin dress
In a room where ya do what ya don’t confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you beenn creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs

She’s been lookin’ like a queen in a sailor’s dream
And she don’t always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin’ is your first mistake
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

I can see her lookin’ fast in her faded jeans
She’s a hard lovin’ woman, got me feelin’ mean
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

21 thoughts on “Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown”

  2. I never knew that is who Sundown was likely about, or that the Belushi woman was connected to Gordon. I’m floored. The song was always a haunting one, and that was years before what transpired with Belushi.

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    1. I wish it was an easier way of finding them…I remembered the post but not when you published it… and I finally found it.
      She haunted Richard Manuel also

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      1. I designed it so there’s a search by tags…but (I only recently succumbed to ‘peer pressure’ & got a smart phone …90% of what I write & post is on laptop) I see the site looks diff on a phone & maynot have that which is a nuisance.

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      2. Your site is awesome. I like the way it looks. Lol on the Smart Phone… yea in my work I have to be connected at all times. I’ve had one since they came out.
        Man I’ll start searching by name and the name of your site…I haven’t tried that.

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      3. Dave… I just did this search “a sound day” + lightfoot and it came up… I didn’t know you could do that on a wordpress search…So I have it now…sorry to bother you.

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  4. Gordon Lightfoot one of the best storytellers and musical artists ever. Didn’t know this song was about her or that she was the one who gave drugs to Belushi. AND she haunted Richard Manuel. Starting to sound like that wench who was messing with George Harrison and EC.

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    1. What I think happens sometimes is only a few of a great artist’s works get radioplay and if you don’t know they exist because of it, you don’t buy the records. I think of the very few “hits” Bob Dylan had on the radio. “Lay Lady Lay” was one but would you pick that one to be representative of the artist? Probably not and you probably wouldn’t look much further for other music of his if this was all you’d heard.

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