Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown

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I can see her lyin' back in her satin dress
In a room where ya do what ya don't confess
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs

She's bin lookin' 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 feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again

I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again

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Lyrics submitted by grouping

Track duration: 03:34

"Sundown" as written by Gordon Lightfoot

Lyrics © Moose Music Ltd./Early Morning Music Ltd.

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Sundown song meanings
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29 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:He's imagining a certain woman that he has been with and he is very sexually and emotionally attracted to, but who now eludes him. He's angry with himself for his feelings, and possibly with her behavior too, and anxietous with regret for what he cannot attain satisfactorily. It depresses him. Depression is anger turned inwards and can be debilitating. He knows this from experience. "Sundown" is a metaphor for the coming darkness of depression and he is trying to warn it off as he thinks about the woman he can no longer have in a way that will allow him to happy with himself.
    Flag Brokenfooton September 22, 2012   Link
  • -1
    My Opinion:There are rumours that "Sundown" was inspired by his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith, later more infamously known for her involvement in the death of John Belushi. Lightfoot has commented in interviews that she was "the one woman in my life who most hurt me
    Flag XXX729on June 27, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:For sure it's about a man who is wondering what his woman is doing when he's not with her. But even more so, it seems to me, to be about a man who is with a woman, whom he knows is cheating on him and he is singing about the different feelings he is having.

    1st verse: Picturing his woman seducing the man. Warning the other man that if he finds him at his house, then there's gonna be a reckoning.

    2nd verse: Describing the way his woman has been dressing/looking lately since the affair started and how their communication has gone to crap. He's begun to dull himself with drugs or alcohol.

    3rd verse: Understanding how the other man can be tempted and seduced by her, because it may have been how the singer started his relationship with the woman (by cheating). The singer wonders why he settles for this.

    4th verse: Angry with his woman about how she dresses to entice other men and how he's constantly getting angry at her for it.
    Flag Redensteinon April 14, 2012   Link
    • 2 Replies
  • +1
    General Comment:I always thought this was about Miss Kitty-off of Gunsmoke- a madame of a brothel...
    I used to sing this when we had a "sundowner"...yeah better take care they will
    beat the heck out of ya if ya aren't on guard man!
    Great song. :)
    Flag Thia007on November 26, 2011   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:I think both TheToner and Audiophile are correct- all you have to do is replace "alchohol addiction" with just "addiction", and you guys have really made the same interperatation. So the song is about his addiction either to alchohol, or to a woman/love/relationship, or even drugs if that's what makes the listener relate to the song. A good songwriter or poet writes something with the expectation that thier listeners will make their own assertions. So the song was most probably written from lightfoot's own point of view about his relationship- but he chose to use language that allowed more people to relate to it by likening that situation to any other addicts situation. So in short- i think you're BOTH completely right at the same time!! If anyone has heard nine inch nails "with teeth" its pretty similar but a little more obvious- he uses a woman as a personification of his drug addiction
    Flag backwoodsbarbieon August 09, 2010   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:billybayou is also correct.
    Flag XUPNon July 24, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Audiophile65 is most correct. It is partially about Gordon's jealous rage being in a destructive relationship with a woman (Cathy Smith) who he thought, at times, was the love of his life. Mostly, the basic theme of the song is the destuctive effect it was having on him and his ego/ self-esteem when he wrote the song. (His girlfriend was notorious for "getting around". He wrote this song while home alone and his girlfriend was out clubbing late at night without him).
    Flag XUPNon July 24, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:It's presumed the Lost episode 0607, Sundown, which is Sayid-centric, is named for this song. In that case, who's Sundown in the episode?
    Flag copperbeechon March 03, 2010   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:To TheToner

    I really like your very interesting interpretation, but, according to a 2008 interview, it is not what Gordon had in mind.

    According to what Gordon said in the interview, the song is about his passionate relationship with Cathy Smith. Smith was a groupie, a drug addict, and had, shall we say, "committment problems". She would later become infamous for giving John Belushi the lethal speedball injection (she served 15 months in prison for that).

    I do think that the line

    "Sometimes I think it's a shame
    When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain"

    is a specific reference to drinking....it works in this song because Gordon was drinking A LOT when he was in a realtionship with Smith.

    The line "got me feelin' mean" no doubt is a reference to the time he (according to Wikopedia) punched Smith in the face and broke her cheek bone.

    I think it is interesting that two of Lightfoot's biggest hits, "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Sundown" are sort of "book ends". IYCRMM is about being in a relationship with a woman who has lost interest in sex, and Sundown is about being in a realtionship with a woman who enoys a lot of sex, but if you do not keep a close eye on her, she will stray.


    Flag Audiophile65on January 29, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:Wow...I always heard that this song symbolizes the darkness that comes with the end of most relationships..
    Flag danman21on August 19, 2009   Link

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