The Way I Feel

February 22, 2015 • 6:50 am

I haven’t forgotten about Gordon Lightfoot week; but the songs may appear episodically. We’re listening to music from his first and greatest album, Lightfoot!, which came out in 1966, when I was a junior in high school. “The Way I Feel,” a moving lament for broken love, uses the nature similes common in Lightfoot songs.

And notice the cowboy boots on the album cover:

gordon-lightfoot-1966

28 thoughts on “The Way I Feel”

  1. As much as I enjoy it when you share these gems from your youth, I can’t help but to think that this is the wrong medium. As handy as youtube is, or an ipod/iphone, or any other newer technology, this particular style of music requires something more. The vinyl record, of course.

    In order to gain the full effect, I need that wonderful sweet smell of the album cover, the big, full, tangible artwork, the warm ambient hum of the stereo, and of course the audible drop, pop, and crackle of the needle on the first grooves before the music starts… it lends itself to the full listening experience in a way that our digitally compressed, mobile, always at arms reach music culture does not.

    I’m sure I’m not the only one to think so (but I might be one of the younger ones) and really, what is it about the smell of album cover cardboard?

    1. I definitely miss album covers.

      I tried to relive the glory of vinyl a few years back by purchasing a nice turntable and preamp.

      And I definitely missed album covers.

      I’ll take the quality and convenience of digital any day. And the availability – it’s the only way I could easily be listening to what I’m listening to right now – New Riders of the Purple Sage at the Capitol Theater in 1970, complete with Jerry Garcia on pedal steel.

      1. convenience indeed, even just thinking about how I will be moving my several box loads of albums yet again, my back aches and my legs quiver…

        still, discovering my parents’ smallish collection, including, of course, the White Album, extremely worn and crackling, the cool creepiness of Zappa’s Hot Rats, and yes, that trippy hippie world that opened up when I discovered the Grateful Dead via their copy of Anthem of the Sun.

    2. The most exquisite audio recording format ever produced is the “indestructible celluloid” cylinder and I shall brook no argument thereupon, not even from the (in my view, benighted) enthusiasts of Mr. Edison’s hard wax cylinders!

    3. Yup, I felt the same way, no doubt cued by the photo itself on the youtube link of the vinyl version of the album.

      I have a pretty elaborate sound system with a great digital front end, but my turntable/vinyl system affords it’s own unique experience that I also love. (And how crazy is it that vinyl sales leaping up every year as CD and even digital music sales continue to plunge! It’s amazing how many new acts put out their stuff on vinyl as well as digital).

    1. That’s what I thought the first time I heard the Wayfaring Stranger and I was sure that I’d heard Fotheringay do it on their only album, but when I re-listened it was a cover of The Way I Feel.

  4. I’ll hold the album cover, enjoy the artwork and bouquet but listen to a digital version that allows me to hear all the instruments more clearly, has a better signal to noise ratio, is devoid of intrusive snaps and pops and doesn’t further deteriorate every time I play it. In so doing, I avoid the expense of diamond stylus replacements,the tedium of microscopically examining the stylus for wear and the hassle of realigning the cartridge.

    1. I wholeheartedly agree… this one sounds so rich and velvety with earphones on. Only way to listen to music on one’s computer, unless there’s hookup to a decent sound system.

  7. Love Gordon Lightfoot! Great song, great post.

    I had no choice but to look up “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” because reasons. And I came away from Wikipedia with a nugget that really underscores the free-for-all that was mid/late 1970’s radio: the song was preceded at #1 on the singles charts by “Rock’n Me” by Steve Miller Band, and succeeded by “Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright)” by Rod Stewart. Remarkable! (November, 1976, BTW – nearly 40 years old.)

  8. Jerry I’m very grateful for today’s Lightfoot offering. It’s been a tough day with work and this piece offered such a wonderful moment of solitude and beauty.

    I’m much more familiar with Lightfoot from the 70’s, and now I have to seek out the “Lightfoot” album with this song.

    (On vinyl LP if I can find it!…for the full time-travel nostalgia experience).

    It’s interesting that Lightfoot later on garnered a reputation as a bit of an a-hole,
    though when I saw him perform in the 90’s he seemed so sweet and amiable.

  9. My grandson visited us once and asked about an “antique” where some kind of circular thing went round and round and played music. No, really, he was serious, he wasn’t trying to pull our leg or whatever. So I had to go to the basement and find some vinyl to put on the turntable (it wasn’t Lightfoot, though,it was The Pretenders).

    Also, about Lightfoot, I always think of particular songs and not albums. I have a bunch of favorites, many of which I’m sure are favorites due to nostalgia.

  10. Also we saw Lightfoot in concert a few times, early and late in his career. And I should state that the Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point on Lake Superior plays (or played–I haven’t been there in some years) his “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

    I really liked the album “If You Could Read My Mind,” which wasn’t the original title but now I can’t remember the original “Sit Down Young Stranger,” maybe?

    1. I really liked the album “If You Could Read My Mind,” which wasn’t the original title but now I can’t remember the original “Sit Down Young Stranger,” maybe?

      Yes, that’s it. The song “Sit Down Young Stranger”, BTW, is about an American draft dodger.

  11. Gordon sang Alberta Bound at the opening of the 1988 winter olympics in Calgary. I just Utubed it then went to itunes and bought it. Memories!

  12. If you’re interested in another great Canadian singer/songwriter, I’d suggest checking out Stan Rogers. He was more of a traditionalist than Lightfoot, Mitchell, Young, etc. and perhaps as a result never achieved the same degree of popular success, especially outside of Canada. But his body of work is very strong, though sadly small due to his early death (from a fire on a plane.)

    You can sample some of his best songs here:

    2. The last verse of “Mary Ellen Carter” still makes me cry. A personal gut-wrench topped by triumph.

    3. I barely heard two lines of verse before setting this aside to truly savor, later — it sounded that good! Thank you. This is going to be sweet!

  13. Take the velvety voice of Gordon Lightfoot, carry it a step or two further, and I think you get Randy Travis, which might be part of why I love both their voices and music so much.

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