11-03-2016, 12:12 PM
I am also struck by the concreteness of the songs on this album. There seem to be so many opportunities where the lyrics and the imagery could spill over like a typical Gord butterscotch river, but he doesn't and you can almost hear and feel him reining himself in to serve the song. The tightest example for me is Secret Path and the freezing rain and windbreaker imagery. As much as I love songs like As Makeshift as We Are, The Kids Don't Get It, and The Bastard which are like goops of expressionistic lyrics flung at the music, it is really something to hear and feel the focus that he is deliberately bringing to these songs.
I have been thinking a lot about Gord Downie vs. John K. Samson and their approach to songwriting since reading the John K. piece from Macleans over the summer and maybe I'm stealing this from something I read there or read about it, but I have this picture of them both trying to cross a river from one side to the next with each song. John K. Samson is on top of the river, jumping from lily pad to rock to floating bits of debris like Frogger picking his way across, concentrating on the details in everything. Gord typically dives in an swims underwater most of the way, swirling around, coming up for air occasionally, and then torpedoing back underwater and touching the opposite bank with his fingertips. But on Secret Path, he is more minute and focussed and precise, using a practised front crawl to get across efficiently and effectively.
Maybe too much swimming imagery.
ct
I have been thinking a lot about Gord Downie vs. John K. Samson and their approach to songwriting since reading the John K. piece from Macleans over the summer and maybe I'm stealing this from something I read there or read about it, but I have this picture of them both trying to cross a river from one side to the next with each song. John K. Samson is on top of the river, jumping from lily pad to rock to floating bits of debris like Frogger picking his way across, concentrating on the details in everything. Gord typically dives in an swims underwater most of the way, swirling around, coming up for air occasionally, and then torpedoing back underwater and touching the opposite bank with his fingertips. But on Secret Path, he is more minute and focussed and precise, using a practised front crawl to get across efficiently and effectively.
Maybe too much swimming imagery.
ct