Sing Out! Article

[Gitchigumee]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...0/ai_n16519941

In harmony: Gordon Lightfoot looks back
Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, Summer, 2006 by Rob Weir
For a veteran like Gordon Lightfoot, age can be friend or foe. With it comes experience, perspective, and maturity ... but also expectations, responsibilities, other people's memories, and the inevitable ravages of time. The pride of Orillia, Ontario has millions of fans across the globe, many of whom have caught concerts decades apart. So, when I asked Lightfoot what someone who hasn't seen a concert in 20 years should expect, he insisted, "It will be much better. We've been working diligently to get the show as good as we can get it."

So is Nouveau 2005 better than Vintage 1985? Well ... that's asking quite a lot. Joan Baez once astutely observed, "At some point in your life, gravity takes over." Web bloggers consistently agree that Lightfoot's voice is thinner, that he can't reliably hit the sweet tenor tones anymore, and that he no longer holds notes with the theatrical command he once did. There were indeed some creaky moments when he journeyed to Northampton, Massachusetts in October of 2005, and performed at the 1,000-seat Calvin Theater.

Still, for a man who celebrated his 67th birthday on November 17, Lightfoot sounds pretty darn good. And his vocals are nothing short of miraculous considering that, by all rights, he ought not to be alive, let alone touring. On September 7, 2002, Lightfoot was about to take the stage in his hometown of Orillia, when he suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition that's generally fatal. Lightfoot came so close to death that his demise was reported in some media outlets. In all, Lightfoot endured a six-week coma, a tracheotomy, four surgeries, three months in a hospital bed, extensive rehabilitation, and a two-year career hiatus. He also had to learn new singing techniques to compensate for damage done by the tracheotomy and muscle loss in his diaphragm.

A lot of old fans were on hand at the Calvin to see how Lightfoot weathered all of this; and the near sold-out crowd was not disappointed. It may not be quite like the old days, but one can imagine them for an evening. Lightfoot still commands the ability to transform an auditorium into a living room and to stir memories. Part of his repertoire is like a waltz through four decades of folk/ pop history. Much of the audience applauded before he completed a single measure of old favorites and it didn't need to be coaxed into singing along.

Bob Dylan once mused that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever." While not exactly forever, Lightfoot, like Dylan, ought rightly to be credited with stretching chronometric barriers. At a time in which commercial radio wanted songs of fewer than three minutes, Lightfoot penned such classics as "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and "Seven Island Suite," which clocked in at more than six minutes each, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which ran five-and-a-half.

That said, one of the beauties of Lightfoot songs has always been the concision with which they convey an entire drama, love affair, or tragedy. Has anyone ever captured anomie and despair more compactly than he in "Early Morning Rain?" "The Way I Feel" sums up the universality of broken hearts in around three minutes, a near-eternity when compared to the 2:39 of "Ribbon of Darkness." The latter was a breakthrough for Lightfoot, as it caught the attention of Marty Robbins. "Marty picked this one up around 1966," notes Lightfoot, "and that really got the juices going as it hit number one on the country charts. People really started to take notice after that. I'm grateful to Marty ... plus he did a wonderful version of the song."

Like many performers, Lightfoot settled into his career as much by accident as by design. In his case, the man who went on to write classics such as "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Did She Mention My Name" got into folk music after an abortive attempt at jingle writing. Lightfoot moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s to attend Westlake College, and made a few commercials that didn't exactly pay his tuition. He returned to Ontario in 1959, and began playing a repertoire of borrowed and original songs in coffeehouses across eastern Canada, just as the second wave of the folk revival was rising. "Bob Dylan was an early mentor, though he wasn't necessarily aware of that," Lightfoot laughs. "I also learned a lot from listening to people like Pete Seeger and Bob Gibson."

Ian Tyson was an early convert who both spread the word and borrowed from Lightfoot's repertoire. Mainly, though, Lightfoot's reputation grew by word of mouth, and, by 1964, it was hard to get into a Toronto coffeehouse if his name was on the marquee. Lightfoot eventually caught the attention of folk impresario Albert Grossman, who signed him and promoted his 1965 New York City debut. Lightfoot may credit Marty Robbins for creating a buzz, but many of the laurels came because of his own enormous burst of creativity. Lightfoot released his debut album in 1966, and another five before 1970. How many singers hit the ground with a debut (Lightfoot, 1966) that included songs such as "For Lovin' Me," "Early Morning Rain," "Pride of Man," "Ribbon of Darkness," and "Rich Man's Spiritual?" Before 1970 dawned he had also recorded classics such as "Softly," "Canadian Railway Trilogy," "Song for a Winter's Night," "Did She Mention My Name," "Wherefore and Why," "Black Day in July," "Pussywillows, Cat-tails," "Long Way Back Home," "If I Could," "Bitter Green," and "Affair on 8th Avenue."

[imported_Next_Saturday]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...0/ai_n16519941

In harmony: Gordon Lightfoot looks back
Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, Summer, 2006 by Rob Weir
For a veteran like Gordon Lightfoot, age can be friend or foe. With it comes experience, perspective, and maturity ... but also expectations, responsibilities, other people's memories, and the inevitable ravages of time. The pride of Orillia, Ontario has millions of fans across the globe, many of whom have caught concerts decades apart. So, when I asked Lightfoot what someone who hasn't seen a concert in 20 years should expect, he insisted, "It will be much better. We've been working diligently to get the show as good as we can get it."

So is Nouveau 2005 better than Vintage 1985? Well ... that's asking quite a lot. Joan Baez once astutely observed, "At some point in your life, gravity takes over." Web bloggers consistently agree that Lightfoot's voice is thinner, that he can't reliably hit the sweet tenor tones anymore, and that he no longer holds notes with the theatrical command he once did. There were indeed some creaky moments when he journeyed to Northampton, Massachusetts in October of 2005, and performed at the 1,000-seat Calvin Theater.

Still, for a man who celebrated his 67th birthday on November 17, Lightfoot sounds pretty darn good. And his vocals are nothing short of miraculous considering that, by all rights, he ought not to be alive, let alone touring. On September 7, 2002, Lightfoot was about to take the stage in his hometown of Orillia, when he suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, a condition that's generally fatal. Lightfoot came so close to death that his demise was reported in some media outlets. In all, Lightfoot endured a six-week coma, a tracheotomy, four surgeries, three months in a hospital bed, extensive rehabilitation, and a two-year career hiatus. He also had to learn new singing techniques to compensate for damage done by the tracheotomy and muscle loss in his diaphragm.

A lot of old fans were on hand at the Calvin to see how Lightfoot weathered all of this; and the near sold-out crowd was not disappointed. It may not be quite like the old days, but one can imagine them for an evening. Lightfoot still commands the ability to transform an auditorium into a living room and to stir memories. Part of his repertoire is like a waltz through four decades of folk/ pop history. Much of the audience applauded before he completed a single measure of old favorites and it didn't need to be coaxed into singing along.

Bob Dylan once mused that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever." While not exactly forever, Lightfoot, like Dylan, ought rightly to be credited with stretching chronometric barriers. At a time in which commercial radio wanted songs of fewer than three minutes, Lightfoot penned such classics as "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and "Seven Island Suite," which clocked in at more than six minutes each, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which ran five-and-a-half.

That said, one of the beauties of Lightfoot songs has always been the concision with which they convey an entire drama, love affair, or tragedy. Has anyone ever captured anomie and despair more compactly than he in "Early Morning Rain?" "The Way I Feel" sums up the universality of broken hearts in around three minutes, a near-eternity when compared to the 2:39 of "Ribbon of Darkness." The latter was a breakthrough for Lightfoot, as it caught the attention of Marty Robbins. "Marty picked this one up around 1966," notes Lightfoot, "and that really got the juices going as it hit number one on the country charts. People really started to take notice after that. I'm grateful to Marty ... plus he did a wonderful version of the song."

Like many performers, Lightfoot settled into his career as much by accident as by design. In his case, the man who went on to write classics such as "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Did She Mention My Name" got into folk music after an abortive attempt at jingle writing. Lightfoot moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s to attend Westlake College, and made a few commercials that didn't exactly pay his tuition. He returned to Ontario in 1959, and began playing a repertoire of borrowed and original songs in coffeehouses across eastern Canada, just as the second wave of the folk revival was rising. "Bob Dylan was an early mentor, though he wasn't necessarily aware of that," Lightfoot laughs. "I also learned a lot from listening to people like Pete Seeger and Bob Gibson."

Ian Tyson was an early convert who both spread the word and borrowed from Lightfoot's repertoire. Mainly, though, Lightfoot's reputation grew by word of mouth, and, by 1964, it was hard to get into a Toronto coffeehouse if his name was on the marquee. Lightfoot eventually caught the attention of folk impresario Albert Grossman, who signed him and promoted his 1965 New York City debut. Lightfoot may credit Marty Robbins for creating a buzz, but many of the laurels came because of his own enormous burst of creativity. Lightfoot released his debut album in 1966, and another five before 1970. How many singers hit the ground with a debut (Lightfoot, 1966) that included songs such as "For Lovin' Me," "Early Morning Rain," "Pride of Man," "Ribbon of Darkness," and "Rich Man's Spiritual?" Before 1970 dawned he had also recorded classics such as "Softly," "Canadian Railway Trilogy," "Song for a Winter's Night," "Did She Mention My Name," "Wherefore and Why," "Black Day in July," "Pussywillows, Cat-tails," "Long Way Back Home," "If I Could," "Bitter Green," and "Affair on 8th Avenue."

[Borderstone]

He must be that tough! I had a hernia operation and I felt afterwards like someone had turned my lower extremities to stone! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I had never experienced that kind of pain. Most think of that as "simple outpatient procedure"...yeah right!

So,if Gord could wether all that he went trough,he's certainly got an iron will!