Go-Go Round

Album: The Way I Feel (1966)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song tells the story of a go-go dancer at a club who falls in love with a singer she dances for. When it's time for him to move on, he leaves her behind, brokenhearted.

    Go-go dancers were big in the '60s, seen dancing on stage during concerts. In Toronto where Gordon Lightfoot lived there was a club called Le Coq d'Or with go-go dancers that often accompanied his friend, Ronnie Hawkins, when he performed. (Hawkins' backing back later evolved into The Band).

    "He was playing a place downtown that had girls in gilded cages, who would dance while the band played," Lightfoot explained in his Complete Greatest Hits collection. "It was about dealing with feelings of a go-go dancer, falling in love. And then, of course, she gets left holding the bag."
  • Lightfoot was just getting started as a solo artist at this point, but did have two chart hits under his belt with songs recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary: "For Lovin' Me" and "Early Morning Rain." "Go-Go Round" was released as a single from his second album, The Way I Feel. The song went to #27 in his native Canada and got some exposure in America when the disc jockey Scott Muni played it on the New York City radio station WNEW.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees

Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn YankeesSongwriter Interviews

Revisit the awesome glory of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees: cheesily-acted videos, catchy guitar licks, long hair, and lyrics that are just plain relatable.

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.

Randy Newman

Randy NewmanSongwriting Legends

Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.