Gordon Lightfoot to play at IUP
By RANDY WELLS ,
rwells@indianagazette.net
Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008 11:10 AM EDT
Television and movie producers often use the phrase ``ripped from the headlines'' to emphasize how current their dramas are.
Songwriter Gordon Lightfoot could have done that in January 1976, several weeks after a giant ore freighter disappeared in a gale storm on Lake Superior.
``I was at home, here in Toronto, listening to the news at 11 o'clock at night,'' Lightfoot recalled last week. ``The news of the tragedy came on 3�½ hours after it took place'' - the Edmund Fitzgerald had gone to the bottom and taken all 29 of her crew with her.
``I had a melody and some chords that I'd been working with, and really not a story line,'' Lightfoot said. ``I sort of blended the story together with the idea I had for the music.
``I forgot about it for a couple of weeks and then I read an article about it in Newsweek magazine. ... `The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead,' was right in there. ... I went back and got the old newspaper articles ... in order to piece it together.''
The line where the old cook comes on deck is the only conjecture in the lyrics.
``It's written in chronological order. That's one of the things that makes it work because it tells the story from start to finish,'' Lightfoot said.
``The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'' reached No. 2 on U.S. music charts and No. 1 in Canada, and still today is recognized as one of Lightfoot's signature compositions.
``The aftermath has been an experience that has stayed with me throughout my life,'' he said. ``I got to know all those people and participated in many of their events.''
He still supports a scholarship at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, Mich.
Lightfoot, 69, has written 220 songs in a career that spans four decades. Several of them - ``If You Could Read My Mind,'' ``Sundown'' and ``Carefree Highway'' - climbed high on American music charts and are sure to be on the play list Tuesday when he performs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Lightfoot helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and '70s, garnered 16 Juno Awards (presented annually to Canadian musical artists to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements) and was nominated for five Grammy Awards.
In 1980, he was named Canadian male recording artist of the decade for his work in the 1970s.
``When I was writing songs in high school I wasn't capable of writing the music down,'' he said. ``I wanted to know how to write music and to study musical theory. ... So I went to a jazz school in Los Angeles ... and everyone in my little hometown thought I was nuts at that point. But I took a theory course, and it was very helpful.''
As a teenager he was influenced by 19th century American songwriter Stephen Foster.
``The beautiful simplicity of his balance'' was what Lightfoot admired most about Foster's compositions.
There is no particular time of day, no particular place where he finds inspiration when writing.
``You work in different places,'' he said. ``Sometimes I would fly away somewhere. One time I went to England for a week and came back with six or seven new tunes. ... Then you get ideas when you're out on the road and you write them down and develop them later on in the workplace'' - a little study in his home or his nearby office. ``Sometimes you get three or four going at the same time. That's when it gets really confusing. I've got to make sure that everything's different from everything else.''
Lightfoot credits his boyhood choirmaster, Ray Williams, with teaching him how to sing with emotion and to have confidence in his voice.
``We did a lot of competitive work when I was a soprano ... when I was 11, 12 13 years old,'' Lightfoot said. ``By the time he got me through the competitions ... he had me doing stuff out of Handel's ``Messiah.'' ... Some of the stuff in there was just serious enough that I started feeling the emotional side of my vocalizing. ... I really don't have that great a voice. He taught me how to use the voice, to do the best with what I have.''
The list of other performers who have recorded Lightfoot's compositions is long: Harry Belefonte, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Anne Murray and others. But Lightfoot can't pick one that is his favorite.
``I never heard a cover recording that I didn't like. ... I was deeply honored,'' he said.
One that comes close to being his favorite is Ian and Sylvia's original version of ``Early Morning Rain.''
``There's a nice one by Elvis, too, and Peter, Paul and Mary,'' he said.
Lightfoot prefers to get away from music while he's driving or relaxing at home.
``I spend more time, actually, listening to the talk radio,'' he said.
In 2002, a burst artery and an abdominal hemorrhage interrupted Lightfoot's writing and performing.
``The first time I went into the hospital I was in for 3�½ months, and for the first six weeks of that time I was unconscious,'' he said. ``I was in three times altogether. ... The whole thing lasted for 19 months. I would have to come out and heal and go back in again. The first thing I thought about was, `How am I going to pay my staff?' As it turned out I did not work for 28 months. ... I fought my way back and did a lot of exercises and I'm back up to doing 60 shows a year.''
The live performances remain the most enjoyable part of his art.
``Well, that's what I always did, right from the very beginning, from the time I was about 19, 20 years of age, when I got involved in the folk revival, between 1960 and 1963,'' he said. ``That's what I did for so many years before the recording even began. I'm right back into what I love most and am best at doing. And in the meantime I've made 20 albums. ... I've completed my entire contract with Warner Bros. ... And right now I'm just relaxing and doing great shows.''
Lightfoot said his performance at IUP Tuesday will last a little more than two hours with an intermission.
``It goes by very quickly. ... There's no time wasted,'' he said. ``We'll give them what they expect and we will spice it up with a few of the things we want to add.''