This song is
the masterpiece of Lightfoot’s illustrious career, which is certainly not
damning with faint praise. The song was actually commissioned by the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for a special New Year’s Day broadcast kicking
off Canada’s centennial year. It’s an extremely ambitious work, with three
distinct parts (hence the “Trilogy” in the title), with the initial two reprised
at the end. Starting with the opening line – “There was a time in this fair
land when the railroad did not run” – Lightfoot describes the majestic beauty
of his native land, the excitement of its growth and development, and the promise
that the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad would bring. Many might have
stopped there, leaving things in a feel-good, heart-warming bowl of mush.
Gordon, however, spends much of the song recognizing and celebrating those who
were on the front lines of the operation, and shying away from neither the
physical (“Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun … bendin' our backs
till the long days are done”) nor emotional (“Across the wide prairie our loved
ones lie sleeping beyond the dark oceans in a place far away”) costs. And I don’t
think anyone else would have ended a commissioned song for a government agency
with the line “Many are the dead men, too silent to be real.”
With
apologies to Little Feat, Warren Zevon, Steve Goodman, and many others, this
one gets my vote for the best train song of all time.
I remember when Brent Gardner offered his opinion that Lightfoot's Sundown sounded like he was singing in the wrong key. You got VERY upset.
ReplyDeleteHmmm -- can't say I remember that one. ;-)
DeleteBack when we were testing ourselves with flip sides and follow-ups, I do remember Brent (seriously) asking me, "Who did 'Hey Jude'?"
Also remember you stumping me on the follow-up to Merrilee Rush's "Angel of the Morning" ...