Posted on 09/04/2014 5:17:30 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
At age 75, the legendary songwriter and beloved recording artist Gordon Lightfoot is still working hard and enjoying it more than ever. The creator of such standards as If You Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain, Carefree Highway and Sundown still performs upwards of eighty concerts a year in North America.
"We love the work" is the joyful mantra his associates hear him say all the time. Even after waking up from a six-week coma following a burst abdominal artery in 2002, Gordon worked from his hospital bed and polished the final tracks for his twentieth album. It would take exactly two and a half years before he would take the stage again, overcoming temporary hearing loss, vocal strain and diminished motor skills from the illness. "I could hardly play when I started getting into recovery. I practiced and practiced and kept practicing the guitar," Gordon recalled. "I think actually my guitar playing improved during that time." His voice alone took six months to hone back into performance quality.
These days, a schedule of mostly one-nighters that would grind down artists half his age is energizing for Gordon thanks to a fine tuned approach to living that he has perfected during the fifty plus years he has performed. The end result is a well-oiled, streamlined and virtually problem-free machine where neither resources nor time are wasted. The intention behind it all is to ensure the highest quality experience for every concertgoer.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
Same here, his voice is shot.
I love the song but you have to admit that “As the big freighters go, she was bigger than most,” is one of the oddest lines to be found in a pop song.
That song came out when I was in college. Loved it then, love it still. It was always a way to get your quarter’s worth out of the jukebox back in the day.
Actually, by WWII we were independent; the Statute of Westminster ended the last remnants of British authority over Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and a few other countries. The only power remaining with the British Parliamant after that was to amend our Constitution, for which it acted as a rubber stamp until 1982. Establishing George VI and his descendants as the royal line after Edward’s abdication required Ottawa’s approval, and Canada’s first formal declaration of war was against Germany in September 1939.
Back in November 1967 or ‘68 deer season was over and I stopped at the LCBO on Lakeshore Dr. in North Bay on the way home. There he was , standing in front of the whiskey section , a bottle in each hand. He played that night at the North Bay arena .
I drive it all the time as a 30 mile shortcut on the route from Scottsdale to Las Vegas. The stretch between I-17 and US 60 is classic Arizona, with lots of saguaros and very few buildings.
Any body that can play a 12 string at his age deserves my respect. I played one and it is a constant battle to keep your fingers callused. I’ve enjoyed his music for many years. He always had a classical sense.
The Watchman’s Gone
Don’t know if it’s about salvationor alcoholism but it’s good
I’ve loved Gordon Lightfoot since I was five years old.
Edmund Fotzgerald and Canadian Rail Trilogy
Good stuff
Mine too. The lyrics are haunting and made even more so by the style of the song; it’s rhythm and cadence reminiscent of old sea shanties – listening to it, you can almost feel the waves and the cold wind. And the song came out only a year after the loss of the Edmond Fitzgerald, something I remember a year earlier seeing the news reports (including the one at the beginning of the video) on TV.
The lyrics Lightfoot wrote take a few artistic liberties; something according to this he agonized about, but is still a fairly accurate depiction of a true event.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald
The video you posted does a great job of opening with the news report, some videos and pictures of the actual ship, videos of the finding of the wreck many years later and most poignantly, at the end, the names, ages and pictures of the 29 men who died. The song is a very fitting tribute.
I have treasured this Documentary about the Edmund Fitzgerald SHIPWRECK: The Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uOnnIv5Qs
It is Haunting and Beautiful. I am so pleased to have found it on YouTube.
Dam I feel old!!! Gordon light foot is 75? Unbelievable.
You go Gordon!
His version of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” almost brings tears to my eyes. And the sheer simple joy of songs like “Race Among the Ruins,”, “Cotton Jenny,” and “Old Dan’s Records” make them favorites.
But the best of all is “Don Quixote.”
Through the woodland, through the valley,
Comes a horseman wild and free ...
Went to a concert of his in the 70s. He was an excellent performer then. I’ve read he grew up singing in choirs at church. That must have helped form a brilliant musical (and poetic) mind.
I haven’t been on it in a long time. No car anymore, so no traveling in my home state. :(
I have always been a fan; but, many years ago, hubby and I went to see him in concert. He smoked a joint throughout the concert, he was sloppy in his playing and just didn't have much energy. This was at least 25 years ago. It kind of killed my enjoyment of his music for many years.
I have just begun to rediscover my old albums of his; and, my opinion is that this man is a poet. I'm glad I decided to listen to some of my old albums again and feel I have re-discovered Gordon Lightfoot.
It was the verse before that which I found most evocative:
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
If you have ever been at sea with worsening conditions, as I was up in the North Atlantic once, you can just feel the onset of awareness of the imminent changes in the weather, which on a smaller vessel, would probably be fear. (I was on a carrier, so I wasn’t in any danger of mishap, but you can see the way weather changes, and when it reaches a high state of fury, it is something to behold.)
In this stanza, the line “When the wave broke over the railing” is followed by a rolling slide guitar glissando that is so evocative of the rolling ocean to me, that it brings it home for me.
The other thing is, when I heard this song, with the echo, it always seemed to me he was singing this in the vast empty hold of a very large iron ship. It always seemed that way to me.
Thanks, I guess “technically independent” but still very close to England. Hopefully today’s Brits have some appreciation of the sacrifices you guys made.
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