GORDON LIGHTFOOT

'SUNDOWN'

Sounds like a narrow escape to me! 
We never really 'got' Lightfoot over and the vagaries of fickle taste seems to be why some guys make it and others don't. Why Dylan and not Lightfoot? Well were I less generous I might put it down to the volume of talent and that Lightfoot was always destined to be top forty rather than top ten but hey. Just my opinion. This is fine and pleasant enough but the song lyrics bely the 'easy listening' melody for me. It would seem it is along the lines of vaguely draped attack on the 'devil woman' theme. There but for Belushi? Never but NEVER inject anyone with anything is a rule I find handy

On this day in music history: June 29, 1974 - “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1 week, also topping the Adult Contemporary chart for 2 weeks on June 8, 1974. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, it is the biggest hit for the Canadian born folk rock singer, songwriter and musician. The title track of his tenth album, the song is written about Lightfoot’s painful break up from former girlfriend Cathy Evelyn Smith, who later becomes infamous as the woman who kills comedian John Belushi in March of 1982, by injecting him with and accidentally overdosing him with a speed ball (a combination of heroin and cocaine). “Sundown” re-establishes Lightfoot in the US charts some three years after he scored his first hit with “If You Could Read My Mind”, having been sidelined in 1972 by a bout of Bell’s Palsy, partially paralyzing part of his face. Released as a single in late February of 1974, it becomes a hit on AC radio before crossing over to the pop Top 40. Entering the Hot 100 at #83 on April 13, 1974, it climbs to the top of the chart eleven weeks later. The huge success of “Sundown”, also propels the accompanying album (of the same name) to the top of the Billboard Top 200 for two weeks beginning on June 22, 1974. “Sundown” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

Help support the Behind The Grooves music blog with a donation by clicking on the link at: PayPal.Me/jharris1228