like you Doug, I heard it in concert first. I think it was fall of '75, my senior year. A friend of mine, an exchange student from New Zealand and I went to the concert at Colo. State Univ.'s Moby Gym.
It was remarkably built to look like an open whale's mouth and a huge venue when Gord was packing stadiums. I have never seen a concert outside of stadium rock supergroups in the 70's pack a house like that night. It was truly standing room only.
CSU had its roots as an aggie school, and as such had a large amount of earth sciences students, key word *earthy* and a VERY big ratio of Lightfoot fans there. We bought tickets late in the process and that was the farthest away I have ever listened to Gord from. I often wonder, while the money was good, we've all heard GL's preference (and ours) for intimate venues.
TO THE POINT: Gord spoke quite a bit between songs in this concert. He mentioned he wanted to try a song on us and see what we thought. He gave a brief recount of the Fitz story, which although I had grown up on the shores of Lake Erie west of Cleveland proper, I had not heard of the sinking.
He started with "...and it goes alittle something like this..." uh ONE TWO THREE.. and, even more so than the rest of the concert, he owned that whole teeming throng of half-drunk and stoned and otherwise ..students, who quieted to a respectful silence while listening to TWOTEF.
He received a standing ovation, and after the cacaphone quitted, he mentioned it would be on his next album. That song, CRT, IYCRMM, Sundown, Beautiful, et al the hits, and so many rare gems in the concert was one the most invigorating and inspiring events I've ever been to.
History made and further in the making. The fact that electric guitar was as he said "trying a few new instruments" in TWOTEF and of course Sundown did let down the acoustic fans, as the use of the electric guitar worked so well....
Needless to say the song was a huge hit to all that heard it there that night and then on the radio. That was the third year I was into his music, and that night I thought he'd be mobbed when he tried to get off the stage after I believe 3 encores.
When I heard it later on, on the radio (while driving...LOL) it left me dumbstruck again particularly on the "the lake they called gitchee-gumee ( please forgive spelling).
Thats my memory of TWOTEF. Thanks for reading.
geo Steve
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