Gordon Lightfoot--Sundown (1974)

     Love and/or sex are two subjects that have been the main source of songwriters from the beginnings of time. Longing for it, looking for it, what to do if you get it,...any variation of the subject has been explored. Our song for the day deals with love, but perhaps a more seamier side....

     Cathy Smith had spent much of the 60's in a relationship with Levon Helm (from the Band), and most of the 60's were spent traveling with The Hawks then later The Band. In the early 70's she began a relationship with Gordon Lightfoot, who was married at the time. The marriage crumbled, and he was racked with jealousy throughout their time together. The song 'Sundown' was written with Smith in mind. After a few years she went back to Helm, but is most infamously known as the woman who injected John Belushi with his lethal injection of cocaine and heroin.....

     Lightfoot had been on the top 10 before with, "If You Could Read My Mind" in 1970. But starting with, "Sundown" and ending with "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" he had a four song, two year run on the top 40. At the age of 72, he continues to write and to perform albeit at a slower rate. He had not recorded since 2004.