"I'm Not Sayin'" is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

. It was released as single A-side in 1965 and on his 1966 debut album Lightfoot!

Lightfoot!

-External links:*...

. The lyrics detail the singer's promise: not that he can necessarily love the subject, or be true to the subject, but only that he can try to do so. The single peaked at #12 in Canada in June 1965.

In late May 1965, Nico

Nico

Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...

 recorded a version of the song released on Immediate Records

Immediate Records

Immediate Records was a British record label, started in 1965 by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Tony Calder and concentrating on the London-based blues and R&B scene.-History:...

. Her version is stylistically reminiscent of the work of Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....

. The single only garnered limited success. This version of the song features Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

, then a studio musician, on the 12-string guitar. The promo film was shot at West India Docks in London.

Other artists who have recorded this song include Turley Richards

Turley Richards

Turley Richards is an American singer and guitarist.Richards was blinded in the left eye at the age of four in an archery accident, and lost sight in the right eye as well some years later. He first began playing in a group called The Five Pearls while still a teen in the 1950s...

 and Ian Campbell Folk Group

Ian Campbell Folk Group

The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most popular and respected folk groups of the British folk revival of the 1960s. The group made many appearances on radio, television, and at national and international venues and festivals. They performed a mixture of British traditional folk music and...

.

On Lightfoot's 1975 platinum compilation LP Gord's Gold

Gord's Gold

Gord's Gold is a compilation album released by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot in 1975.It was the first Lightfoot compilation to feature music from his Warner Bros. Records. The album was originally released as a two-record album featuring re-recordings of his United Artists hits...

, the song appears in a re-recorded medley with "Ribbon of Darkness

Ribbon of Darkness

"Ribbon of Darkness" is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot that was released in 1965 as a single by Marty Robbins. The song was Robbins' eleventh number one on the U.S...

". Lightfoot's 1969 live album Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert

Sunday Concert is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's fifth album, released in 1969 on the United Artists label. It was Lightfoot's first live album and until the release of a live DVD in 2002, remained Lightfoot's only officially released live recording...

also features a medley of the two songs.

Nico's version was one of the Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

 chosen by former Smiths frontman Morrissey

Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...

 on the show broadcast 29 November 2009 on BBC Radio Four.