Early Morning Rain

The singer is stranded at an airport in the early morning rain, a long way from home, with a dollar in his hand and his pockets full of sand. He watches a big 707 on runway number nine roll and lift off, westward bound above the clouds, and reckons it will be flying over his home in about three hours. He admits the liquor tasted good and the women were fast, and he is cold and drunk on the ground; the closing verse turns on the gap between old and new travel, since you can’t jump a big jet plane the way you can an old freight train.

Other singers had it on record before Lightfoot did. Ian & Sylvia’s version was on the Canadian charts in the summer of 1965, Judy Collins put it on Judy Collins’ Fifth Album (Elektra, August 1965), and Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in August 1965 and reached No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lightfoot’s own recording appeared on his first album, Lightfoot!, in 1966. That year George Hamilton IV’s country version reached No. 9 on the US country chart. Bob Dylan recorded it for Self Portrait (1970), and Elvis Presley recorded it and sang it often on stage.

Bluegrass bands began recording it before the decade was out. Orange Blossom Sound included it on their Epic album in 1969; Emerson & Waldron opened Bluegrass Session (Rebel, 1970) with it, Cliff Waldron singing lead over Bill Emerson, Mike Auldridge and John Duffey; and the Bluegrass Alliance cut it for Newgrass the same year. Mac Wiseman recorded it in Charlotte for Mac Wiseman Sings Gordon Lightfoot (CMH, 1977), Tony Rice included it on Me & My Guitar (Rounder, 1986), and Tim O’Brien on Fiddler’s Green (Sugar Hill, 2005).