charlene
11-08-2012, 12:28 AM
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?content=189607
Canadian folk icon still a workaholic at 74
By Joanne Huffa
GORDON LIGHTFOOT at Massey Hall (178 Victoria), Wednesday to Saturday (November 14 to 17), 8 pm. $45-$85. RTH, TM. See listing.
Gordon Lightfoot has always been dichotomous. For example, the staple of AM radio in the 70s and 80s tends to write lyrics that contrast sharply with his warm voice and mellifluous guitars, like Sundown’s menacing “You better take care” chorus.
Despite chart-topping pop success and being covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Mary Margaret O’Hara, he’s still often categorized as a folksinger. And though the first 20 years of his performing life were whisky-soaked and turbulent, he has always maintained an intense work ethic, including playing annual multi-night concerts at Massey Hall.
It’s easy to feel comfortable with the Orillia-born-and-raised singer who turns 74 on November 17. Dressed in jeans and a sweater and sitting on a couch in the foyer of his Toronto home, he’s relaxed, and his dark eyes glint whenever something strikes him as funny.
He speaks candidly, revealing his legendary perfectionism when he says, “I do not have a tuning crew; I do not have extra guitars standing offstage, because I like to tune my own instruments.”
But while he takes pride in having a tight, perfectly tuned band, he speaks of songwriting the way any worker would speak of being on the job.
“After a while it became more structured because it had to,” Lightfoot says. “I began relying on ideas that I’d perhaps worked on earlier but hadn’t worked out, so I’d take them to fulfilment. Remember, I was always under contract. I was under contract to record companies for 33 years, and I had a band and two families by then and, boy, I had to do it.”
Many of Lightfoot’s songs have become Canadian institutions: If You Could Read My Mind, The Circle Is Small, Cotton Jenny, among others. They’ve endured, though at the time Lightfoot was striving for chart success.
“I knew it with Sundown. I knew that song was going to be a hit when I wrote it.”
Released in 1974, Sundown went to #1 on the Billboard chart. Although a fair amount has been written about the events that inspired it, when asked about it Lightfoot offers a less specific but still revealing explanation.
“It’s about unrequited love,” he says. “I’ve been there several times now.”
music@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/nowtorontomusic
Canadian folk icon still a workaholic at 74
By Joanne Huffa
GORDON LIGHTFOOT at Massey Hall (178 Victoria), Wednesday to Saturday (November 14 to 17), 8 pm. $45-$85. RTH, TM. See listing.
Gordon Lightfoot has always been dichotomous. For example, the staple of AM radio in the 70s and 80s tends to write lyrics that contrast sharply with his warm voice and mellifluous guitars, like Sundown’s menacing “You better take care” chorus.
Despite chart-topping pop success and being covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Mary Margaret O’Hara, he’s still often categorized as a folksinger. And though the first 20 years of his performing life were whisky-soaked and turbulent, he has always maintained an intense work ethic, including playing annual multi-night concerts at Massey Hall.
It’s easy to feel comfortable with the Orillia-born-and-raised singer who turns 74 on November 17. Dressed in jeans and a sweater and sitting on a couch in the foyer of his Toronto home, he’s relaxed, and his dark eyes glint whenever something strikes him as funny.
He speaks candidly, revealing his legendary perfectionism when he says, “I do not have a tuning crew; I do not have extra guitars standing offstage, because I like to tune my own instruments.”
But while he takes pride in having a tight, perfectly tuned band, he speaks of songwriting the way any worker would speak of being on the job.
“After a while it became more structured because it had to,” Lightfoot says. “I began relying on ideas that I’d perhaps worked on earlier but hadn’t worked out, so I’d take them to fulfilment. Remember, I was always under contract. I was under contract to record companies for 33 years, and I had a band and two families by then and, boy, I had to do it.”
Many of Lightfoot’s songs have become Canadian institutions: If You Could Read My Mind, The Circle Is Small, Cotton Jenny, among others. They’ve endured, though at the time Lightfoot was striving for chart success.
“I knew it with Sundown. I knew that song was going to be a hit when I wrote it.”
Released in 1974, Sundown went to #1 on the Billboard chart. Although a fair amount has been written about the events that inspired it, when asked about it Lightfoot offers a less specific but still revealing explanation.
“It’s about unrequited love,” he says. “I’ve been there several times now.”
music@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/nowtorontomusic