LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

onstage last night (3-21-2013) and with Scott Goldman from The Grammy Museum.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...0,590034.story

By Randy Lewis
March 22, 2013, 4:35 p.m.

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot stopped in at the Grammy Museum on Thursday as part of a brief West Coast tour marking his 50th anniversary as a recording artist, engaging in a Q&A session before performing for about 45 minutes before a sold-out audience of 200. He also plays March 22 at the City National Grove in Anaheim.

The 74-year-old artist talked about his legacy as a songwriter -- “I’ve never heard a cover version of one of my songs that I didn’t like,” he said diplomatically to interviewer Scott Goldman of the Grammy Foundation. A prolific and much covered songwriter during the 1960s and 1970s, Lightfoot has had songs recorded by Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul & Mary and scores of others.

Asked to name his favorite, Lightfoot cited Presley’s version of “Early Morning Rain,” a song he told the crowd he wrote while living briefly in Los Angeles in 1958 to study jazz at the now-defunct Westlake College of Music in Hollywood.

“It was about going out and watching the planes take off and land at LAX,” Lightfoot said. “At that time, you could go right out onto the runways.”

He also noted changes he made to two of his most famous songs -- “If You Could Read My Mind” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” -- after they’d become major pop hits.

His daughter, he said, pointed out that a line in “If You Could Read my Mind,” written about the dissolution of his first marriage, would be more honest if he changed “you” to “we” in the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings you lack.” He said he’s subsequently always sung it as “we,” as he did Thursday night.

He also altered a line in the historically based ballad about the sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald after subsequent investigations altered conclusions about what caused it to go down during a winter storm in Lake Superior in 1975, killing all 29 crew members. Lightfoot’s song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 just nine months after the incident.

Fans chuckled when Lightfoot stuck out his tongue and offered a sour expression when talking about his early hit “For Lovin’ Me,” covered by Peter, Paul & Mary and others, saying he disliked the catty attitude he expressed in that song.

Lightfoot has never won a Grammy Award, but he has collected 16 Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammy. He also was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 by longtime Lightfoot fan Bob Dylan, who once said, “Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever.”

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

many pics - onstage and being interviewed: http://www.gettyimages.ca/Search/Sea...nguage=en-US#1

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

Loved all the photos on the link. Gord looks just great. Thanks for posting. Happy Easter everyone!!

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

ON Apr.7 Scott Goldman @ The Grammys said: "We should have highlights up at Grammy.com sometime in the next couple of weeks. Thanks!"

I'll keep checking!

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

Nice bunch of photos! I particularly like the one where Gord has his finger on his chin like he's thinking.
patybear

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

VIDEO is up - http://www.grammy.com/news/gordon-li...-grammy-museum

Gordon Lightfoot Visits The GRAMMY Museum

GRAMMY-nominated folk/rock legend performs and discusses his 1976 hit "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"
GRAMMYs staff
|GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 12:06 am

GRAMMY-nominated folk/rock legend Gordon Lightfoot recently participated in an installment of the GRAMMY Museum's An Evening With series. Before an intimate audience at the Museum's Clive Davis Theater, Lightfoot discussed his early music education and his 1976 hit "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," among other topics. Lightfoot also performed a brief set, including "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and his 1974 hit "Sundown."

"['The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald'] — it's a whole story unto itself, from start to finish, and it still goes on [to] this day," said Lightfoot.

Regarded as one of Canada's leading singer/songwriters, Lightfoot first gained acclaim in the 1960s penning hits for artists such as Peter, Paul And Mary and Marty Robbins. After signing with United Artists Records in 1966, Lightfoot released his debut album, Lightfoot! He followed with two classic albums, 1967's The Way I Feel and 1968's Did She Mention My Name? — the latter earned him his first career GRAMMY nomination for Best Folk Performance. He scored his first platinum and lone No. 1 album to date with 1974's Sundown, which featured the chart-topping title track and Top 10 hit "Carefree Highway." Cold On The Shoulder was released in 1975 and reached No. 10, followed by the platinum-selling Summertime Dream (1976, No. 12). Considered one of Lightfoot's finest albums, Summertime Dream featured "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," a ballad about the final hours of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior in 1975. The song garnered Lightfoot two GRAMMY nominations, including Song Of The Year, at the 19th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

In 1986 Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. That same year he released East Of Midnight, followed by Waiting For You (1993), A Painter Passing Through (1998) and Harmony (2004). Lightfoot's most recent album, 2012's All Live, features a collection of his greatest hits performed at Toronto's famed Massey Hall. Also in 2012, Lightfoot was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

Lightfoot is currently in the midst of a U.S. tour, with dates scheduled through November.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include Reel To Reel: Greenwich Village: Music That Defined A Generation (June 24).

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

thx for link, char:)

ouch, i'd be having sound guy add as much reverb or whatever modern enhancing effects are out there, to Gord's voice... not my favourite live song to hear the past few decades.... i doubt the Sundown vocal was much richer.... not sure what the rest of the setlist was but if it was anything like the Fallon then I'd bet IYCRMM was well delivered

i wonder what songs Gord sings best in this era...say a top 5? Restless?

it was likely a very enjoyable evening for any audience member, in hearing Gord talk of his career and having him vocally recite (ie. sing) so many wonderful lyrics to timeless melodies:)

certainly an intimate setting...that mix sounded perhaps too intimate...imo

Re: LA @ Grammy Museum concert pics-column
 

Hmm, you're right, it does sound like Gord is playing in a closet ...