Okay... go back... way back...
Do you remember the first GL song that grabbed your attention and turned you into a GL fan for life?

For me, even though I'd heard him in the late 60s, the one song that really got my attention was IYCRMM. I remember watching a show on CHSH out of ST. John, NB. Gord was on a stool, in the spotlight, with guitar in hand, and I was totally in awe. I sat on the floor in front of the TV and watched, and it hooked me forever. If I remember correctly, we still had a black and white TV at the time. Now, I just wish I could remember the name of the show. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember Anne Murray introducing him.

Okay... go back... way back...
Do you remember the first GL song that grabbed your attention and turned you into a GL fan for life?

For me, even though I'd heard him in the late 60s, the one song that really got my attention was IYCRMM. I remember watching a show on CHSH out of ST. John, NB. Gord was on a stool, in the spotlight, with guitar in hand, and I was totally in awe. I sat on the floor in front of the TV and watched, and it hooked me forever. If I remember correctly, we still had a black and white TV at the time. Now, I just wish I could remember the name of the show. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember Anne Murray introducing him.

I've always known Sundown for as long as i could remember but the first time I really started liking Gord was when I was about 15. I was camping close to North Bay with family and one of my cousins had Gord in the background while we were around the fire. I asked what it was and he said "This is the Don Quixote album. There is nothing like listening to Gord while out in the bush." And it is true. Hearing Gord makes me think of the outdoors, and being in the outdoors makes me think of Gord.

Early Morning Rain. I first heard it via Peter Paul & Mary (I think) but it was Judy Collins' version on the Recollections album that got me reading credits and wondering who was this Gordon Lightfoot? Started with Lightfoot! and never looked back.

Early Morning Rain. I first heard it via Peter Paul & Mary (I think) but it was Judy Collins' version on the Recollections album that got me reading credits and wondering who was this Gordon Lightfoot? Started with Lightfoot! and never looked back.

Oh, I'd heard EMR a bunch of times in the '60s, but I didn't know Gord wrote. I remember thinking, when I got Gord's Gold, that he did a nice cover of it.

"Black Day In July," was my first GL song I knew. From listening to it on the radio. Went and bought the album, that the song was on ,"Did She Mention My Name.'After that it was all Lightfoot, up to this day...Jesse. :)

"Black Day In July," was my first GL song I knew. From listening to it on the radio. Went and bought the album, that the song was on ,"Did She Mention My Name.'After that it was all Lightfoot, up to this day...Jesse. :)

For me it was "Home From The Forest". I was listening to a CW station in Yuma,AZ, the song played (I can't remember if it was a cover version or the original), and the DJ said that the song was written by "a" Gordon Lightfoot. I had never heard of him, but I loved the song. That was the beginning.

RMD

Now this is a tough call. Although at age 6,I 1st heard Sundown on an Erie,PA rdaio station back in 1974,that's not the time I became a fan.

I did hear,"IYCRMM","Wreck" and "Carefree Highway" on Kool Fm here in Phx. in the 80s... but I still didn't become an overall fan.

Even heard "Anything For Love" on AC radio in 1986,but then I was in high school and more into Bryan Adams. In 1993,I bought used copies of EW,Sundown,COTS & SummerT. Dr. but I never gave them a full listen.

In fact it really wasn't "one" song that did it,it was the "Songbook collection. Mostly the 60's & 70s tracks but the really good 80s songs like "Shadows" & "Forgive Me Lord" certainly helped,as well as tracks from WFY & Painter.

So,it really was a slow process,that finally broke through on Aug. 7th,2001 when I bought and listened to that collection. Making me a 100% fan for 5 years now. ;)

IYCRMM on CHUM radio in Toronto...
hooked for life!

IYCRMM on CHUM radio in Toronto...
hooked for life!

probably IYCRMM broadcast on the legendary WNEW-FM out of NYC when the song was new. I thought he sounded great. But I was cash-poor at the time and it wasn't until I heard and bought Don Quixote and nearly wore it out that I became a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic or Fan for short. Wow time flies, eh ?

Bill :)

Carefree Highway.

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

OK.

I've told versions of this before, so forgive me if it seems old.

My younger sister discovered Gord first. I'd heard IYCRMM on the radio, but she bought the album. I was 15 and learning the guitar. I'd been listening to other artists and learning chords and songs, but it was on this LP that I began to hear the mixture of guitars, voice, lyrics and variety of styles the really began to hook me.

We had a big RCA console stereo in the living room, and my sister liked to put on an album and sit in a rocker and just listen and rock to the songs. We she put on "Fleetfoot," as my mother called him, I'd come downstairs to listen. I'd only miss the first line or two of Minstrel of the Dawn. This would really tick my sister off, as I was intruding on her space. She didn't do it to me when I put on Simon and Garfunkel, so why couldn't I leave her alone when she came to listen to Gord?

But I really needed to listen. The weaving of Red Shea's guitar with Gord's, was something I had to listen to.

Sometimes my sister got up and turned the record off. She wasn't going to listen with her big brother in the room, wrecking her mood. And since I had, of course, forbidden her to touch any of MY stuff, I couldn't very well put the record on and play it myself. (At least not when she was home...)

This went on for some time. She got Summer Side Of Life and the second album of the UA songs. It didn't make it any better.

Suddenly she wanted James Taylor's Mud Slide Slim album and Carole King's Tapestry and the Gordon Lightfoot records became MINE!!! MINE!!! MINE!!! She no longer cared that I listened to them.

I bought Don Quixote soon after, and the rest they say...

First time I've heard that one. Wonderful story!
Thanks!
MINE!!! MINE!!! MINE!!! ROFL..

Brink says "ditto".

It's been a long time since I've been here, but I'm going to see him tomorrow(!!!) night.
First song: IYCRMM, when my sister brought Sit Down Young Stranger home from college.

It's been a long time since I've been here, but I'm going to see him tomorrow(!!!) night.
First song: IYCRMM, when my sister brought Sit Down Young Stranger home from college.

Fabulous story Mike, I loved it especially the part of MINE!!! MINE!!! MINE!!! Haven't we all felt that way from time to time.

At least you had great taste in music, Mike. At that time, I was listening to Alice Cooper, Rolling Stones, and a few other hard rock groups from the '70s. It was the 'in' thing to do. But when I sat down to play the guitar, I always played S&G, PP&M, Jim Croce... the folkier/soft rock musicians.

Have fun tonight, Rona! Please do let us know a setlist, well anything different from the ones already posted at least. A review and anything else exciting. Have a great time!

I can recall hearing Black Day In July on KNEW-FM in the summer of 1969, prior to Woodstock (because I also recall spots for ticket sales for that event at the same time). However I didn't really get into GL until SDYS was released. It remains my favorite album followed by Don Quixote. Guess the emotional ties to what was happening for me are the reason these two top my list (late teens, early 20's).

RW...

I can recall hearing Black Day In July on KNEW-FM in the summer of 1969, prior to Woodstock (because I also recall spots for ticket sales for that event at the same time). However I didn't really get into GL until SDYS was released. It remains my favorite album followed by Don Quixote. Guess the emotional ties to what was happening for me are the reason these two top my list (late teens, early 20's).

RW...

I'm glad everyone liked the story.

Cathy, I listened to other stuff too. I liked the Beatles, up through Rubber Soul anyway, Mike Nesmith of the Monkees' stuff, (The First National Band) and some of Glen Campbell's less syrupy stuff. There were the Byrds, Jim Croce, etc. Didn't go in for James Taylor, (my sister liked him too much!) It was Gord's mix that just struck me right.

And the rest they say...