Gordon Lightfoot: The Way I Feel

This week’s traditionally influenced feature, “The Way I Feel,” is from Gordon Lightfoot’s 1966 debut LP simply titled “Lightfoot.” It is the original recording of this tune that still holds up well in 2009.

In 1967, Lightfoot rerecorded the tune and it was the title cut from his second LP on the United Artists label. It is a bit over produced for my taste and prefer his original version as it shows off the beauty of his voice without the all of the heavy reverb.

 The Way I Feel - 1967 Version

I first heard this song in 1973 as performed by Fotheringay with Trevor Lucas singing the lead. It remains a personal favorite of mine and I'll be featuring this album in the near future.

Fotheringay's Version of "The Way I Feel"

My experience with Gord’s version occurred when I heard it at a girlfriend’s house in the early 1980s. She was a Gordon Lightfoot fan and had a number of his earlier UA albums. I, on the other hand, was more familiar with his later Reprise hits such as "If I Could Read Your Mind," “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Rainy Day People,” and the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” This became an important lesson in the repertoire of one of Canada’s national treasures.

Gordon’s baritone voice has always been a personal favorite of mine and I even had the opportunity to sing his song “Beautiful” at a friend’s wedding in 1982. I accompanied myself on my Finnish made, red España acoustic guitar.

In 1990, I used his “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” in a music unit for a proposed West Virginia 8th grade curriculum on the history of coal mining.  While the song has nothing to do with coal mining, it was used as part of a series of songs that chronicled industrial accidents and tragedies and compared these to coal mine disaster songs like the "Ballad of Spring Hill."

I hope you enjoy “The Way I Feel” and that it opens the door for you to explore his earlier recordings.

Lyrics

The way I feel is like a robin
Whose babes have flown to come no more!
Like a tall oak tree alone and crying
When the birds have flown and the nest is bare.

Now a woman – Lord, is like a young bird
And a tall oak tree is a young man`s heart.
Among it's boughs you find her nesting.
When the nights are cool she’s warm and dry!

Your coat of green, it will protect her.
Her wings will grow your love will too.
But all too soon your mighty branches
Will cease to hold her and she'll fly from you.

The way I feel is like a robin
Whose babes have flown to come no more!
Like a tall oak tree alone and crying
When the birds have flown and the nest is bare.

When the birds have flown and the nest is bare.