Your the only one....really!!

[AZroute74]

Does any of your friends or co-workers,associates,family members,neighbors,bosses...E.T.C think G.L. music or general folk music or even country music sux!! or ask you," how can you listen to that garbage"? How does that make you feel?

[Riffstorm]

Does any of your friends or co-workers,associates,family members,neighbors,bosses...E.T.C think G.L. music or general folk music or even country music sux!! or ask you," how can you listen to that garbage"? How does that make you feel?

[FrankV1]

Riffstorm,
My wife likes him.My children are not great music fans in general.Communications with people over the years about Gord leave me this impression. He is respected but not considered a fashionable artist.

[FrankV1]

Riffstorm,
My wife likes him.My children are not great music fans in general.Communications with people over the years about Gord leave me this impression. He is respected but not considered a fashionable artist.

[Gaby]

No-one I know has even heard of him which seems incredible to me.
This is going to sound awfully elitist but I put it down to intellectual laziness.
I recently made a compilation cd for a friend, of GL and Warren Zevon, to encourage her to get into them. She loved the WZ but found GL ‘difficult’. Well, I love Warren Zevon, too but there is not (imho) the same thoughtful and poetic imagery in his songwriting as in GL’s. Maybe you do have to try harder to appreciate GL and some people are not prepared to travel that extra mile.
On the other hand, I made a compilation cd of GL (complete with snazzy artwork et al. I hope to god it never turns up on eBay) for my sister’s Christmas stocking (Yes, we still have stockings, even at our age) and she adores it and it goes everywhere with her. She’s already bought Sundown and I’ll give her Songbook for her birthday.
My mother used to love hearing me try to play Edmund Fitzgerald in my teens so I’ve just bought her his Complete Greatest Hits.
Maybe I shall have to make GL my personal crusade for 2004.

[TheWatchman]

Everybody I know of knows who he is. Except some younger probably.

[Gaby]

I'm in the UK, 'tho'. He reaaly doesn't get the same (any) exposure. Pity.

[AZroute74]

Thanks everyone for your comments .

[Riffstorm]

Thanks everyone for your comments .

[joveski]

none of my friends seem to know who he his but one guy said he likes Salute when i played a few track. he said that the intro to broken dreams sounds like the intro to a potential 80s sitcom - who am i to disagree? http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

[violet Blue Horse]

She found GL "difficult"? Compared to Zevon? Warren Zevon is not the easiest song writer to take sometimes. It seems people either appreciated his irony and attitude or they depised it. There's not much to depise or dislike in Lightfood lyrics.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gaby:
[B]No-one I know has even heard of him which seems incredible to me.
This is going to sound awfully elitist but I put it down to intellectual laziness.
I recently made a compilation cd for a friend, of GL and Warren Zevon, to encourage her to get into them. She loved the WZ but found GL ‘difficult’.

[violet Blue Horse]

She found GL "difficult"? Compared to Zevon? Warren Zevon is not the easiest song writer to take sometimes. It seems people either appreciated his irony and attitude or they depised it. There's not much to depise or dislike in Lightfood lyrics.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gaby:
[B]No-one I know has even heard of him which seems incredible to me.
This is going to sound awfully elitist but I put it down to intellectual laziness.
I recently made a compilation cd for a friend, of GL and Warren Zevon, to encourage her to get into them. She loved the WZ but found GL ‘difficult’.

[Gaby]

quote:Originally posted by violet Blue Horse:
It seems people either appreciated his irony and attitude or they depised it.

Violet, I think maybe she missed quite a bit of Zevon and took him on a purely basic level. Perhaps I targeted the wrong person.

Story. - The other day, my daughter and I were sitting on my bed listening to Keep Me In Your Heart. We sneaked a look at each other and we both had tears streaming down our faces. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

[joveski]

i really love dirty life and times on the latest album. very catchy/upbeat, but at the same time, he was singing about his looming death. very touchy song. love it!

[Gaby]

Joveski.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door - Sung with an evil grin by a man you know is dying – Crazy! I loved this album.
Rub Me Raw – reminded me of a line in one of GL’s dirtier songs – fun.

I have a clipping about The Wind which I’ll post for you in Small Talk. (Already gone off topic too long.) It might encourage some others to give it a go.

[Steve DeRosa]

Some of my younger friends (20's or so) say "Gordon, who?". Most of my older friends (40's or there abouts) say "Yeah, I used to listen to him...saw him in concert once in the 70's...what ever became of him?". The only people that I know who really like him "then and now" are the people on this board! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Oma]

Some of my younger friends (20's or so) say "Gordon, who?". Most of my older friends (40's or there abouts) say "Yeah, I used to listen to him...saw him in concert once in the 70's...what ever became of him?". The only people that I know who really like him "then and now" are the people on this board! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Borderstone]

Two friends I have (they are a couple) both share the same opinion. They think GL is lame,corny,old-fashioned,boring,you-name it! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

The woman (they asked me not to use their names here) heard the opening line of,"A Minor Ballad" and exclaimed,"Dorky!"
The guy just simply says,"G-- that sucks!!

Oh well,they're both a decade younger than me so I don't expect them to get it. http://www.corfid.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Funny thing though,I never criticize anything they or others listen to. (Not directly anyway. Been me,later! http://www.corfid.com/ubb/cool.gif

------------------
Borderstone,gonna post some lines tonight!:D

[TheWatchman]

I have always thought that the overwhelming majority of Lightfoot fans are educated, middle to upper class and generally have some knowledge of or some sort of musical background. Consider the source. Gord's music is above what they are capable of understanding.

I'm not saying that people are none of the above if you do not like Lightfoot. When people only hear one song much less the intro to one and instantly criticize it, I know they have little to no music knowledge or appreciation of music. It's just asinine to criticize Lightfoot. Again, always consider the source when one criticizes music without really even knowing what the artist is about.

[Cathy]

I really think the problem is a lack of exposure on this side of the border. Ask any Canadian, no matter what age, if they know who Gordon Ligthfoot is, and most of them will say they know of him. Step on this side of the border and ask the same question, and most people will say, "Gordon Light what.. who?" It seems that he has a very dedicated group of fans, but other than that, people don't know of him unless you sing a bar of Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, or Wreck. I often think, "Oh, you poor soul. You don't have any idea what you've missed."

I think the fan websites have helped his exposure some. I remember back before I had access to the Internet, I didn't have a clue that Gord was still touring and recording. I thought of him as a has-been, a relic from the 70s. I honestly did not know that he had recorded anything after Summertime Dream. You know, life kept me busy and I didn't really keep up with him. I was literally shocked when I found Val's and Wayne's websites and discovered that I had missed two decades of great music. Since that time, I've turned a great many people on to his music. My mother and all of her friends started buying Lightfoot CDs, as did my fiddling friends, many guitar playing friends and musicians I associate with online. Even my young employees know who Gordon Lightfoot is, and a good many of them even LIKE him!

Cathy http://www.cathycowette.com

[Gaby]

quote:Originally posted by Borderstone:
Two friends I have (they are a couple) both share the same opinion. They think GL is lame,corny,old-fashioned,boring,you-name it!

I think Borderstone’s friends belong to the gimme, gimme generation.

Maybe we could think of them as the protagonists of A Minor Ballad (She’s not really interested in him, but she might be if he flashes his credit card for a few designer dresses-gowns of soft crimson hue etc.)

Yes, when you start to listen to A Minor Ballad you could think - trite, lovey-dovey, etc.

Delve deeper, though, and you realise that this song has its roots in many centuries of English ballad making. (It t’was a young lad and his lass – with a hey and a ho and a hey nonny no.)

The word troubadour is frequently attached to GL without very much thought (I believe) being given to its true derivation. A troubadour was a lyrical poet in Southern France during the 11th-13th centuries. Many noble knights pledged their allegiance and undying love to Eleanor of Aquitaine (Wife of Henry the second of England).

She, supposedly, set up the Courts of Love in Poitiers (her capital). Here, the knights professed their love for their ladies in verse and song.

During the following centuries these songs became part and parcel of the English venacular tradition.

Ergo – we can trace the songwriting of Gordon Lightfoot back to eleventh century France.

Fanciful?

I don’t think so!

[AZroute74]

i think most g.l. fans picture themselves singing his tunes with an imagination that they can sound and duplicate his soft spoken voice. I'am not refering to people that have already a singing voice that's established through singing experience. Cause I sure can't sing.When people who can't sing, usually they hear dogs pearch there voice in diseray or disbelief. My voice on the other hand can bend steel!!

[Riffstorm]

i think most g.l. fans picture themselves singing his tunes with an imagination that they can sound and duplicate his soft spoken voice. I'am not refering to people that have already a singing voice that's established through singing experience. Cause I sure can't sing.When people who can't sing, usually they hear dogs pearch there voice in diseray or disbelief. My voice on the other hand can bend steel!!

[fowlesjohn]

Gaby, that was very nice... you are quite the scholar in this area. Bravo. I had not known of the courts of love, but, now it makes Gords songs even nobler. Cathy I like you spent a lifetime raising kids, being a wife and teaching school, so I missed most, if not all, music for a long while. Now, my life seems more balanced, there is space and need for music. I find myself more tolerant of other music voices, also.

[gwen snyder]

Gaby, that was very nice... you are quite the scholar in this area. Bravo. I had not known of the courts of love, but, now it makes Gords songs even nobler. Cathy I like you spent a lifetime raising kids, being a wife and teaching school, so I missed most, if not all, music for a long while. Now, my life seems more balanced, there is space and need for music. I find myself more tolerant of other music voices, also.

[Morgus]

Hi, all...

Beating a dead horse here in more than one way, I know, because by posting a reply, I'm resurrecting a topic that is maybe a little older than other topics, and because I'm saying things I've basically already said in other threads. Please excuse that. But I'm glad Riffstorm started this thread, and I wanted to say something to it.

Young people nowadays want to listen not to music but to noise. My brother and I were just talking last night while watching American Idol. We noticed that to succeed and be sent to the next round, (at the risk of coming across racist) a young singer has to sound Black, whether he/she is black or not. Rapping, singing a single syllable on twelve different notes, or whatever. Please understand, there is nothing wrong with Black music; what I have a problem with is people pretending to be something they're not. That and the fact that GL himself wouldn't have a chance against that smart-@$$ Simon.

My mother is listening to some kind of stuff I don't understand because it has no melody and no lyrics, just random vocal sounds. How can music like that "speak" to me, which is what is best about GL's work? She is, however, starting to leave me alone and let me listen, and not complaining as much when I come to this board. I got really bad sick again last night. I think that made her understand I **need** it.

[AZroute74]

Hi, all...

Beating a dead horse here in more than one way, I know, because by posting a reply, I'm resurrecting a topic that is maybe a little older than other topics, and because I'm saying things I've basically already said in other threads. Please excuse that. But I'm glad Riffstorm started this thread, and I wanted to say something to it.

Young people nowadays want to listen not to music but to noise. My brother and I were just talking last night while watching American Idol. We noticed that to succeed and be sent to the next round, (at the risk of coming across racist) a young singer has to sound Black, whether he/she is black or not. Rapping, singing a single syllable on twelve different notes, or whatever. Please understand, there is nothing wrong with Black music; what I have a problem with is people pretending to be something they're not. That and the fact that GL himself wouldn't have a chance against that smart-@$$ Simon.

My mother is listening to some kind of stuff I don't understand because it has no melody and no lyrics, just random vocal sounds. How can music like that "speak" to me, which is what is best about GL's work? She is, however, starting to leave me alone and let me listen, and not complaining as much when I come to this board. I got really bad sick again last night. I think that made her understand I **need** it.

[Auburn Annie]

What they're lacking is melody. Verbiage set to a sing/song chant may be an art form of sorts but melodic music it's not (I have the same problem with John Cage.) And yes, that trilling is less than thrilling - I suggest they have a contest to see if any of the Idol contestants can sing an American standard song - any one - using only single notes, no glissando, no rills or trills, no ululation, and unless they're channeling Ethel Merman, no belting. Vocal pyrotechnics call attention to the singer and detract from the song - which is, of course, the reason they do it.

[Auburn Annie]

What they're lacking is melody. Verbiage set to a sing/song chant may be an art form of sorts but melodic music it's not (I have the same problem with John Cage.) And yes, that trilling is less than thrilling - I suggest they have a contest to see if any of the Idol contestants can sing an American standard song - any one - using only single notes, no glissando, no rills or trills, no ululation, and unless they're channeling Ethel Merman, no belting. Vocal pyrotechnics call attention to the singer and detract from the song - which is, of course, the reason they do it.

[TheWatchman]

I think they are talented singers, but they tend to showcase their range too much and is just sounds stupid.

You know how they make fun of the hair bands on VH1? They will be doing the same for these singers who sing really high and low while singing the same word. I can't find the words to describe it but it is annoying.

[muklucannie]

I refer to that type of non-stop note singing as "Vocal Acrobatics". I can't stand it....
char

[Char1]

I refer to that type of non-stop note singing as "Vocal Acrobatics". I can't stand it....
char

[DMD3]

No one I know hardly even know who Gord is!

[DMD3]

No one I know hardly even know who Gord is!

[Morgus]

My daughters (18 & 20) probably don't know--which is a serious parenting oversight on my part.

[AZroute74]

My daughters (18 & 20) probably don't know--which is a serious parenting oversight on my part.

[Morgus]

Just had a realization about my non-fan mother, who doesn't like GL, who prefers to listen to stuff with no melody, and who herself sings in three or four different keys at once (none of which are the right one).

She's tone deaf! Of course! That would explain everything!

I wonder how many non-fans are just plain tone deaf?

[This message has been edited by AZroute74 (edited February 04, 2004).]

[AZroute74]

Just had a realization about my non-fan mother, who doesn't like GL, who prefers to listen to stuff with no melody, and who herself sings in three or four different keys at once (none of which are the right one).

She's tone deaf! Of course! That would explain everything!

I wonder how many non-fans are just plain tone deaf?

[This message has been edited by AZroute74 (edited February 04, 2004).]