The Return of a Canadian Legend
Having beaten a near-fatal illness, Gordon Lightfoot is ready to shine at 'the centre of my universe'
'Remind me to get rid of the green spotlights," says Gordon Lightfoot, jokingly referring to the stage lighting at his sound check for tonight's concert at Massey Hall. The last thing Mr. Lightfoot, 66, needs at this point in his career is a greenish tinge.
After a 19-month hiatus resulting from an extended, life-threatening illness, the Canadian music icon has resumed his annual springtime tradition of playing a concert at the grand dame of Toronto concert halls. It is a venue Mr. Lightfoot calls "the centre of my universe as a performer and as a Canadian."
During the sound check, he picked up a guitar, one of the three lined up on stage, and with accompaniment of his long-time band, began to play the The Canadian Railroad Trilogy -- an iconic tune he hasn't attempted since his voice was ravaged by surgery more than two years ago.
A consummate perfectionist, Mr. Lightfoot cringed when he failed to hit the odd high note. ("I'm not even sure if I can sing this one yet," he said backstage just a moment before, looking surprisingly vulnerable). But he needn't have worried.
A softer, mellowed version of the old sound, Mr. Lightfoot's voice is still in a category of its own.
Toronto fans have been denied the annual pleasure of hearing their hero croon folk classics such as If You Could Read My Mind, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Ribbon of Darkness and Early Morning Rain since 2002.
Not surprisingly, all four concerts are sold out. Mr. Lightfoot said it feels good to be back on the road.
"I feel like I can handle it," he said, kicking up his black leather boots in the green room later on. "I had my doubts for a while there. I was out of commission for a long time and barely remember any of it. But what I had was a mechanical failure. I had some great surgeons fix it, and now I'm feeling really good."
Two and a half years ago, while his band warmed up to play a benefit concert in his hometown of Orillia, Ont., Mr. Lightfoot recalls lying down, immobilized, on a piece of foam rubber.
An aneurysm had exploded in his stomach.
He was airlifted to a hospital in Hamilton where emergency surgery was performed on the spot to stanch the bleeding of a main artery between his liver and pancreas.
He lay in a coma, on the brink of death, for six weeks.
But soon after, the folk singer was hard at work. His most recent album, Harmony (released a year ago), was completed during his lengthy recovery in a hospital bed. He would send his band members to fetch the tracks he'd managed to record before his illness and listen to them in the hospital. Despite having a feeding tube down his throat, and a gut tender from muscle graft, he still found the strength to tweak and fiddle with the songs until the album was done.
"All I needed was a CD player and a headset, so I didn't wake up the neighbours," he said of his convalescence. "The work was good for me."
Mr. Lightfoot has remarked that it was Bob Dylan who taught him how to churn out songs even when he didn't feel like it.
Since his recovery, he said, his daily routine has probably become more consistent.
"I get up in the morning and the first thing I think about is business. I work out three times a week because it's good for my breathing and my voice, and most importantly, I try to [take] care of all the responsibilities in my life and look after my family."
Once a prodigious partier, Mr. Lightfoot gave up drinking for good in 1982. The years of hard living have marked him, but he exudes a burning intensity on stage.
A divorced father of five, Mr. Lightfoot has always had a rocky personal life. Since his return from the hospital, he and his wife of 15 years have also gone their separate ways. The split, said Mr. Lightfoot, was in part the result of his all-consuming drive to work, a creative urge that draws him away from everyone and everything but his guitar.
"I still believe marriage to be a sound institution," he said. "Everybody wants to try it. It seems like fate. Unfortunately it's so hard for so many of us. Particularly for people who write songs or plays, so much energy goes into the work, the personal life begins to suffer. We shut ourselves off and it creates a void. This is one of the prices I've paid."
He looked wistful, but added, "Having said that, I don't have any regrets. It's been a good life."
Asked whether his friends and family think he ought to retire for the good of his health, Mr. Lightfoot gave a smoky laugh. "They know I won't quit so they don't even bother asking," he said.
"I'm just like Stompin' Tom [Connors] or Willie [Nelson]. I'm just going to keep on working."
The Massey Hall shows are part of a 33-date swing that began in April in California and continues throughout the summer and fall through Nevada, the U.S. Midwest, northeast and West Coast. The tour ends in December on a local note, with appearances in Stratford, Ont., and, of course, Mr. Lightfoot's hometown of Orillia.
lmclaren@globeandmail.ca