We continue on with the songs of Gordon Lightfoot from his first (and best) album “Lightfoot!“, released in 1966. “Pride of Man,” was written by Hamilton Camp (1934-2005), and is one of only three cuts on the album not composed by Lightfoot. It’s religious—almost like the book of Deuteronomy set to music—but it’s still a great song.
Pride of Man
March 2, 2015 • 6:30 am
Thanks! I knew this song only from the Quicksilver Messenger Service version.
Yikes – I’m not sure that deuteronomy goes with music.
Lightfoot himself has said he considers his best album to be Summer Side of Life (1971), but that’s just his opinion of course… ;^)
First concert I attended at University of Waterloo, as Frosh was a Gordon Lightfoot concert. Haven’t thought about that in years!
Nice sound. Kind of apt to these interesting times too.
Here’s a website you may like. Plug in your birth date and get the #1 song on that day. Mine was ‘Ole Buttermilk Sky’ by Kay Kyser and his Orchestra.
http://playback.fm/birthday-song
That’s fine if you were born in the 60s/early 70s but if you were born in the 80s it’s not nearly as cool 🙁
Always liked Tony Rice’s version of this song. His voice is different but equally good, and the guitar is seems so effortless and amazing.
So glad to see Lightfoot’s achievements noted. He was always fine and undervalued, in my view. A fine songwriter and an excellent guitar player. One of my favorites.
That’s actually a great thing to do with religion. There’s no more reason to take seriously the story the song tells than you would any other ballad, like, say, Ghost Riders in the Sky. But it provides a great excuse for a mournful and wretched tale of woe.
b&
Yep. Religion and religious language has made for some great music. Even though I’m not as crazy about the blues as some, the great blues songs are about half shagging, half religion. Same with a lot of American folk and country. Even irreligious musicians like Nick Cave and Spiritualized co-opt religious language and imagery in their songs,
I think in a secular age if a lyric uses religious tropes it doesn’t necessarily mean that the lyricist is Christian – in rock and roll they generally serve as a kind of intelligible shorthand for the ‘transcendental’ and the numinous. There’s tons of religious imagery in my favourite music but I don’t think any of it is there because the artist is religious – it’s just a kind of metaphorical shorthand for something that in reality is too abstract and chilly to put in a song. There’s a reason why religion is such an effective meme – it manages to boil down some very powerful and complex emotions into child-like imagery that anyone can understand(as long as they don’t look too hard).
The greatest Mass of the 20th century was written by a gay atheist Jew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tjsKzhpSwE
Cheers,
b&
Sub
I couldn’t follow the lyrics properly because they keep coming close to being about the ISIS atrocities in the museums, where ancient glories are now broken into dust and lost forever.
Religion poisons everything.
I’ll probably upset all the Lightfoot fans on this, and previous GL threads,but my favourite GL “performance” was staged by SCTV,(Second City TV),a Canadian TV program back in the 70s or 80s.They produced a segment entitled”Every song ever written,sung by Gordon Lightfoot”.The melody of all the songs was identical, which I thought was very insightful and in full accordance with my own view of GL’s style.
For a slightly different experience, check out Quicksilver Messenger Service’s version of this song. Never knew that Lightfoot had recorded it as well…