Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is best known for writing hits like “Sundown,” “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” In a career that spans five decades, twenty studio albums, and several “best of,” “greatest hits,” or “Gord’s Gold” compilations, there’s a bottomless pit of lesser-known Gordon Lightfoot songs that meet the high standards. of composition established by his well-known hits. In this first of a series of articles dedicated to the not-so-great hits of this brilliant songwriter, we’ll take a look at “Circle of Steel” and examine what makes this piece so timeless and important.

Recorded for Gordon Lightfoot’s hit album “Sundown” in 1974, the song “Circle of Steel” represents another side of Lightfoot’s songwriting. While Gordon’s theme often involves love, lost love, nature, travel, self-actualization, etc., “Circle of Steel” takes us downtown at Christmas. And what we found isn’t exactly what one expects to hear during the holiday season. Yes, there are some “sounds of the season” and there is snowfall and there are even references to Christmas morning and family heirlooms. But this particular “Christmas song” paints a more realistic picture of what some Christmases are like in certain places.

The beautiful opening of the song features Lightfoot’s recognizable fingerpicking on acoustic guitar set to the sound of a recorder blowing the melody of the song’s impending verses. The lyrics provide the perfect mood for a Christmas song as Lightfoot sings “Tall windows flicker down through the snow. A moment you know. Sights and sounds of people milling around, everyone’s keeping up with the season”. However, it isn’t long before the mood changes, as Lightfoot deftly leads us to a particular apartment. The home of a “welfare case” where Gordon notes that “rats run around like they own the place…”

So we find ourselves in the apartment of a family fighting for welfare at Christmas. But apparently the next door neighbors aren’t having a good time either. Lightfoot paints the image of the song “Deck the Halls” across the walls of the “next-door flat where they yell all day. She knocks over her bottle of gin until it’s gone. The boy is strong. A week, a day they’ll “. Take her away because they know about all her bad clothes.

The final verse of the song finds the mother explaining to her son why his father is in jail: “Your father’s pride was his means of providing and he’s serving three years for that…” before the song song solve by repeating the opening verse. As listeners, we were a bit flabbergasted (for lack of a better term) as we just heard a very catchy melody, almost “happy” mood, sounds of the recorder (courtesy of wind player Jack Zaza) and a holiday “vibe”. However, these musical “goodies” are balanced by lyrics that paint a very real (and bleak) picture. In essence, Lightfoot has musically “tricked” us into thinking of something real over the holidays.

By honestly taking a real theme and juxtaposing it against an upbeat, happy, or “positive” melody, Gordon Lightfoot is able to deliver Circle of Steel’s serious and intense message and make the listener really enjoy receiving it. The next time he considers recording a Christmas “mix” CD, he might consider adding “Circle of Steel.” The message of this song is important, real, universal and would certainly make anyone (with a soul) take a break. The key to a great composition…