“Sundown,” by Gordon Lightfoot, from the album of the same name released in 1974. I was a junior in high school! Almost 50 years ago. This is really slow music, but this kind of folk-rock slow music was very popular at the same time that we were listening to very hard rock. They both went down quite easily back in the day. People didn’t have all the weird music prejudices that came, sadly, with punk rock.
These are some nice, very simple lyrics. The song is about a very tempestuous and at times violent relationship he had with a crazy woman named Cathy Smith, who was probably had Borderline Personality Disorder. She was as groupie who was also a drug dealer to the rich and famous in LA. As a groupie, she had a love child with someone in the group The Band, but no one could be sure who it was among three possible men because she had slept with all of them.
She was in his John Belushi’s room at the Chateau Marmont the night he died. She sold him the cocaine and heroin that killed him and she was the one who injected him with the speedball that results when combine those two drugs. She fled to Canada but was later extradited to LA, where she was tried on involuntary manslaughter. She served only 15 months before she was released. These are the type of crazy bitches that you run into in the rock and roll and groupie scene.
I’ve driven by that hotel on Sunset Boulevard right next to Beverly Hills many times. It’s a very famous hotel in LA known to be popular with music and rock stars. However, looking at the outside of it, though it looks very nice, there’s nothing outrageous fancy about it. It’s just this nice low level pink hotel with a swimming pool.
I can see her lyin’ back in her satin dress In a room where ya do what ya don’t confess
Sundown you better take care If I find you beenn creepin’ ’round my back stairs Sundown ya better take care If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs
She’s been 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 you better take care If I find you been 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 you better take care If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs Sundown you better take care If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs Sometimes I think it’s a sin When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again
