Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot.  A few years ago I was lucky to be present at a live performance by Gordon Lightfoot at the Genesee Theater in Waukegan.  The Genesee is a magnificent old theater, restored, perfect sight lines from any place in the house.  The atmosphere is apt for music performance, particularly folk, or rock n’ roll.  I do not remember if Lightfoot performed this song.  The tune is iconic, one of his most favorite.  The story told is one of universal human experience.  The narrative is about the high voltage emotion between male and female, especially at the stage in life when male testosterone creates irresistible attraction.  The male mind idealizes the other, as a one-of-a-kind “possession.” The female partner is imagined as goddess-like in the male mind.

“I must have her because without her, my life would not go on.”  The imagination projects the act of betrayal as grief, with rage as absolute as death.  The story is of a male mind contemplating the possibility of the infidelity of a partner.   His warning to the potentially offending competitor, Sundown, has lethal implication.  This, even though in his better judgment he knows he is overstepping the bounds of reason.

Getting lost in her loving is your first mistake —

and

Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winning when I’m losing again

Do I think the face of Helen of Troy was sufficient to launch a thousand ships?  I have no doubt. Did Helen have a clue about the extent of her power?  Not a chance!  (Careful with that power.)

This video is perfect.  It portrays the seductiveness of female to male, the raw magnetism of Nature’s impulse to procreate.  The glam photos are juxtaposed with paintings showing the starkness, the sharp-edged real of nature.  We prefer to imagine Nature with a patina of maternal consolation.  In truth Nature is a raw exchange of energy, blind cause and effect.  Life is survival, reverence and respect for the forces within us and external to us.

Enjoy!

Sundown

By Gordon Lightfoot

I can see her lying back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don’t confess

Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs
Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs

She’s been looking 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 feeling better when I’m feeling no pain
Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feeling better when I’m feeling no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her loving is your first mistake

Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winning when I’m losing again

I can see her looking fast in her faded jeans
She’s a hard loving woman, got me feeling mean

Sometimes I think it’s a shame
When I get feeling better when I’m feeling no pain
Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs
Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it’s a sin
When I feel like I’m winning when I’m losing again

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The backstory to the song:

In a 2008 interview, Lightfoot said:

I think my girlfriend was out with her friends one night at a bar while I was at home writing songs. I thought, ‘I wonder what she’s doing with her friends at that bar!’ It’s that kind of a feeling. ‘Where is my true love tonight? What is my true love doing?’  — wikipedia