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The Tao of Gordon Lightfoot: Still Going Strong at 75 (and For Good Reason)
HuffPost Canada ^ | September 4, 2014 | Joel Brokaw

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 ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: carefreehighway; coma; earlymorningrain; gordonlightfoot; ifyoucouldreadmymind; lightfoot; modernmusic; sundown
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To: machogirl

Carefree Hwy was the first roadtrip this TN boy made in Arizona. LAFB to Scottsdale. I didn’t have a clue what awaited me next. :^)


81 posted on 09/04/2014 8:37:03 PM PDT by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/?s)
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To: liberalh8ter

I hitchhiked across the Mackinaw Bridge just a few hours before the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in that 1975 November gale. The bridge had started swaying in the wind when we were crossing so I figured it was going to be a bad one. It was closed to traffic about an hour after I got across. That song still gives me chills every time I hear it.

Gord played regularly in Detroit back in the early 70’s. I loved seeing him live. Six years ago I saw him again in concert in Idaho Falls. He was still the same guy playing the same great songs but his voice had become thin which is to be expected at age 69. It must really be thin now.


82 posted on 09/04/2014 8:49:53 PM PDT by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: ex91B10
Chick tunes.

Not this chick.

When MGD and I were first married, a friend had tickets to see Gordon Lightfoot and invited us to go. It was the longest night of my life.

83 posted on 09/04/2014 9:11:38 PM PDT by Mygirlsmom (Obama Legacy: Bush's fault. Next guy's problem.)
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To: BobL

Many do, but the greatest appreciation is shown by the Dutch. Our war graves in the Netherlands are tended by schoolchildren.


84 posted on 09/04/2014 9:26:14 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: albertabound

LOL Yea he did your FR name also. I remember traveling with my parents back in the early 1970’s through western Canada and Alberta Bound was playing on local radios there. When Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald was a hit I was at Great Lakes NTC. I’ve always like his music both his lyrics and playing.


85 posted on 09/04/2014 10:37:27 PM PDT by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: cripplecreek
“Sundown” was a pretty big hit.

That's my personal Gord favorite.

86 posted on 09/04/2014 10:38:22 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: eyedigress

Nice drive :)


87 posted on 09/05/2014 3:09:33 AM PDT by machogirl
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To: Squawk 8888

“Many do, but the greatest appreciation is shown by the Dutch. Our war graves in the Netherlands are tended by schoolchildren.”

Nice, I couldn’t think of a classier way to show thanks.


88 posted on 09/05/2014 3:32:19 AM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
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To: BobL

Since WWII Canada has had very close relations with the Dutch. The Queen stayed in Ottawa during the Nazi occupation where she gave birth to one of her children; an Order-in-Council was issued declaring the delivery room to be Dutch soil. The friendship was cemented when Gen. Guy Simmonds booted the Nazis back to Germany. The Ottawa Tulip Festival was the result of Queen Juliana’s gratitude; all of the bulbs were a gift from the Dutch royal family.


89 posted on 09/05/2014 7:38:07 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: Squawk 8888

“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was my father’s favorite song when I was a kid.

That song is so haunting; “Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Hotel California” scared the snot out of me as a small fry and still kind of do!


90 posted on 09/05/2014 8:10:00 AM PDT by alphadoggie
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To: ifinnegan; Jack Hydrazine; Norm Lenhart; Salamander; spyone; To Hell With Poverty; locountry1dr; ...

“Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” I have always thought, is one of the most boldly conservative songs of all time.
http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=canadian+railroad+trilogy+


91 posted on 09/05/2014 8:23:22 AM PDT by golux
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To: Squawk 8888
Ghosts of Cape Horn
92 posted on 09/05/2014 8:39:04 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Throne and Altar! [In Jerusalem!!!])
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To: sheana
Dam I feel old!!!

Not old...seasoned.
:)
93 posted on 09/05/2014 11:21:50 AM PDT by novemberslady
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To: Squawk 8888

Very interesting. I suppose about as many Americans know of the town of Inuvik as know what you speak. I drove the Dempster Highway several decades ago. And until very recently, EVERY CANADIAN that I mentioned it to knew of Inuvik, and not a SINGLE AMERICAN knew of it. It was fun for me to talk it.

We have a lot in common, but we are far from identical twins - for example, how many Americans understand that Canadians were fighting and dying in Europe before Pearl Harbor, 2+ years before, to be exact? To us at the time, it was a “war in Europe”. To Canada it was already a WORLD WAR and (many) body bags were coming home.


94 posted on 09/05/2014 1:50:37 PM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
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To: bobo1
“Gordon Lightfoot & Ann Murray.”

Ann Murray's father gave birth to my father. Small world eh?

95 posted on 09/05/2014 4:42:38 PM PDT by HenpeckedCon (What pi$$es me off the most is that POS commie will get a State Funeral!)
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To: bobo1
I meant he was the doctor who gave birth to my father. He and Ann are 2nd cousins.
96 posted on 09/05/2014 4:46:28 PM PDT by HenpeckedCon (What pi$$es me off the most is that POS commie will get a State Funeral!)
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To: HenpeckedCon

Is that right! I love Ann Murray!


97 posted on 09/05/2014 6:18:28 PM PDT by bobo1 (progressives=commies/fascists)
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To: Squawk 8888

Gordon Lightfoot, if you read this, please know how awful we felt for you having to endure the rowdy crowd at Red Rocks amphitheater outside of Denver in the early 70’s when some drunken idiot threw a beer bottle at you and you left the stage and graciously came back to play 2 more songs.

Liquor was never allowed at Red Rocks after that.

Man, was that sad, for you especially, and for everyone who’d waited for hours in the hot sun. LOVE your perfect songs, which have endured and still inspire, and always will. Bought one of your Greatest Hits CDs earlier this year and it makes me feel young. Thank you for that.


98 posted on 09/05/2014 10:42:53 PM PDT by b9 (II Timothy 1:7)
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To: Squawk 8888; golux; Jack Hydrazine; Norm Lenhart; Salamander; spyone; To Hell With Poverty; ...
Never appreciated GL, except as a sailor, until after Leonard Cohen and Céline, both of whom, IMNVHO, are best used as Guantánamo-style torture music.

Now I get Gordon better, I think. Sorry.

99 posted on 09/06/2014 8:44:49 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (2014-2016. Whether The Republic lives or dies depends on the now-missing integrity of the the GOP.)
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To: Kenny Bunk

Tull’s “Too Old To Rock And Roll [Too Young To Die] was used to flush Noriega out of his hole.

I love Tull madly...but I totally get it.

:D

More here

http://darrengarnick.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/gitmo-boombox-music/


100 posted on 09/06/2014 9:00:23 PM PDT by Salamander (People will stare. Might as well make it worth their while.)
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