Recorded Covers of Lightfoot Songs

[GeronimoDon]

Greetings Lightfoot Fans:

I am a Community Radio host in Saskatoon and I am currently running a four part feature on Gordon Lightfoot using "Songbook" as the basis.

I would like to add an additional show at the end that would feature recordings of Lightfoot songs by other artists. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(example: Rheostatics -- "The Wreck..." -- Whale Music)

thanks
dac

[Wes Steele]

I've always wanted to go to Saskatoon. Isn't it great how the web has brought far away places so close.

"Ribbon Of Darkness" was a tremendous hit for country music great Marty Robbins who had a number one hit with it for many, many weeks in the sixties. It was also recorded by country music singer Connie Smith.

Their are many others and I am sure this site will fill up with them. Glen Campbell had a hit with "Wherefore & Why" in the sixties also.

Of course, "Early Morning Rain" by Peter Paul & Mary.

Many more still to come I am sure,

Wes....

[Rob Wells]

Wes you've made mention of a big cover that most people have forgetten. PP&M had a big hit for Gord before "Early Mornin Rain" It was "That's what You Get For Lovin' Me." 1965. It was the first cover to become a U.S. national hit and it put Gord on the map, so to speak. ( By-the-way, how's the weather in Ohio these days buddy?)

To continue, the reason is something that most people don't know. It was a guy named Albert Grossman. At the Time he was everybodys' agent and manager, gord's, PP&M's, Bob Dylan, Bob Gibson, just to name a few. He kept a closely knit family between his artists and had them swapping songs back and forth all the time. Smart guy! I know this is a side track in history but, Hamilton Camp was once know as Bob Camp. Bob Gibson and he were a duo. Grossman suggested to them they should get a girl to round out the sound. They truned him down.... flat. Grossman found what he was looking for later in NYC. But this is how Gord wound up doing "The Pride of Man", a Camp song and PP&M did Camps "Well,Well,Well." Grossman used PP&M to get Dylan rolling by having them do "Blowin in The Wind" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." Also a point of interest, the first time PP&M step on the stage together, the first thing Paul said was, "We come for to sing for you." A now famous Gibson quote and the title of is biography.

Sorry to ramble on so.

[This message has been edited by Rob Wells (edited March 20, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Rob Wells (edited March 20, 2000).]

[Janice]

More recently, Nanci Griffith recorded "10 Degrees & Getting Colder"...and you can't forget Johnny Cash's version of "For Lovin' Me". Also, Anne Murray's cover of "Cotton Jenny"...

Janice
PS: Rob, thanks for the history lesson...I never realized the connection before!

[Lightfoot678]

The LA Punk Band Clawhammer did a cover of "Sundown" in 1990. Also Sarah Mclachlan covered "Song For A Winters Night". Pearl Jam and Jewel have covered "If You Could Read My Mind" in concert. There have been more covers of "Early Morning Rain" than I can count.

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Look into his shining eyes and if you see a ghost don't be surprised......Listen to the strings. That jangle and dangle while the old guitar sings.

The lake it is said never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early.

[Frank v]

Hello Geronimo Don.
Probably the two most celebrated artists to cover GL songs are Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan.They both recorded 'Early Morning Rain'.


Very informative Rob, that was great info!
If there was ever an autobiography on 'Grossman' it would be an interesting read.

As a fellow Canadian it would seem possible that Anne Murray maybe covered a few more, Janice.I don't know.

A punk version of 'Sundown' now that is interesting, Lightfoot678.

[Pirate Queen]

For the Anne Murray question, I think that there is some sort of an album where half is Gord singing his songs and the other half is her singing his songs. I believe I saw this somewhere, but am not really too sure of its existence...

As for the punk band thing, being in a punk band, I would actually LOVE to hear how they do Sundown....is this a CD that is readily available or is it only a local thing?

And also so that everyone knows, my nice, fast, happy laptop has modem problems and is being sent to Compaq to be fixed, this is the reason I have not been adding in my two sense lately, I am on a much slower computer and it is frustrating to have to wait for pages to load forever.

[Rob Wells]

Believe it or not, I searched the entire internet and couldn't a thing of value about Grossman. He did build the famous Bearsville Recording Studio and he is buried there in a memorial behind the studio. There was a little blurp to say that he had passed away on a flight between New York and London, but no mention of the date. He also managed Richie Havens, Odetta, John Denver, Chad Mitchel, Janis Joplin and the list goes on forever. For someone who wielded that much power in the world and used it to shape the our lives as much as he did, there is sadly very little to remember him by. Not even one biography.

[Wes Steele]

Hey Rob, that was interesting stuff on Grossman. He must have been a really interesting character to have dealt with all that talent. I bet you he had some stories to tell.

Anne Murray had a pretty big hit with "Cotton Jenny" in the country music circle in the early 70's. More than a few times at a GL concert, GL refused to do the request for that song because he said, "She does the song so much better than me". Personally, I disagree but I am biased.

Rob, the weather here in Ohio is just the way I like my beer, "COLD & WET!". It has been in the 40's. Thursday sunny and high in the 60's. So much for the weather channel.

The weather just got better for me Rob, because I found out from one of Chris's post that The Man is coming to Erie, PA on May 11. Erie is only 90 miles from here and I will be buying the tickets when they come available.

You have great posts Rob, keep 'em coming.

Wes......

"here among my thoughts of you I find a gentle longing to be free....."

[Rob Wells]

Wes,
Thanks for the kind words and the weather report. Sounds like Erie is going to be great.

Well, here's some more useless information about Grossman's family. I can't be sure but he may have had Belafonte signed up as well. His first hit was "Day-O" or "The Banana Boat Song" written by, of all people, Bob Gibson, the man who inspired Gord to take up the twelve string after a concert in Toronto. (He inspired me to take-up the twelve string even before I knew who Gord was, myself.) The more I route around, the more I find out about this interesting little machine of Grossman's. In an interview Gord said that Gibson had inspired him as much as Dylan had.

As far as covers of Lightfoot songs, the two strangest ones I own are Telly Savalas singing "The Last Time I Saw Her", and Bobby Sherman singing "Wherefor and Why". I will go out on a limb and say that Telly seems to do a decent job with the song. He must have removed the lollypop from his mouth before recording!


"Yesterday's a memory, today is just a friend"

[Florian]

quote:Originally posted by Pirate Queen:
For the Anne Murray question, I think that there is some sort of an album where half is Gord singing his songs and the other half is her singing his songs. I believe I saw this somewhere, but am not really too sure of its existence...


Hi Pirate Queen,

It does exist. It's a blue box with eight LPs and came out in 1982 by 'Capitol Records-EMI Of Canada Ltd'. It says on the cover: 'The Best of Anne Murray & Gordon Lightfoot', Reader's Digest.

On each LP, one side features hits of Anne Murray, the other side features hits of Gordon Lightfoot.

There are no cover-versions, e.g. one singing the other's song.

quote:Originally posted by Pirate Queen:
As for the punk band thing, being in a punk band, I would actually LOVE to hear how they do Sundown....is this a CD that is readily available or is it only a local thing?

I did a short search at amazon.com. They have two CD's from this punk band, but they don't list Sundown. Anybody have any hints?

[Rob Wells]

GeronimoDan: Funny nobody has mentioned Tony Rice yet. He has done two albums with Lightfoot covers, Cold on the Shoulder and Tony Rice Sings Gordon Lightfoot. The later is totally dedicated to Gords music

[Florian]

quote:Originally posted by GeronimoDon:
Greetings Lightfoot Fans:
(example: Rheostatics -- "The Wreck..." -- Whale Music)
thanks
dac

I am not so sure about the Rheostatics in relation to Gordon Lightfoot.
Supposedly, they spread(ed?) the rumor that the melody to the "Wreck" has not been written by Gordon Lightfoot. They still have this information on their homepage, which is untrue, of course.

This subject has already been discussed here, you can find it at:

Melody for "Wreck"

Maybe you want to add the cover-version that Elvis Presley did on "Early Morning Rain". The song is on his LP "Elvis-Now", 1972.

Another one you should consider is "If You Could Read My Mind", by Stars on 54. It's a pop version, but IMHO it has it's moments.

And, as Rob has mentioned - you shouldn't leave out Tony Rice.

[Christian Kuschel]

Hi -

there is a good rendition of "Ribbon of Darkness" by POCO on their otherwise obscure 1982 album "Cowboys & Englishmen" (MCA). POCO´s senior member Rusty Young does a great job both on lead vocals and guitar...

Cheers, Canada -

Christian (Germany)

[Rob Wells]

GREAT NEWS TO ALL!!!!

I couldn't leave this Albert Grossman thing lie, so I E-mailed Noel Paul Stookey and he has agreed to help me put together a site for Albert's memory. We'll be getting interviews and pictures from everybody. I'm jumping out of my underwear right now!!! This means I get to do an interview with Gord about it when he gets to this neck of the woods.

Thanks to GeronimoDon for starting this whole thing. It's like I said over in the new live album posts, ideas start small and who knows where they can go.

[This message has been edited by Rob Wells (edited March 22, 2000).]

[vlmagee]

GeronimoDon: Another key cover you should seriously consider is Barbra Streisand's recording of IYCRMM (one of the few covers that Gord mentions in concert, along with the recent Stars On 54 version, occasionally Viola Wills' earlier disco verson, and Elvis' EMR). I think that Streisand's cover - generally well liked by her fans, although it gets mixed reviews from Lightfoot fans - is definitely historically significant, Also, among early covers, there are a number by George Hamilton IV that are well worth considering.

And, you absolutely must include one of Ian and Sylvia's covers. They recorded both EMR and For Lovin' Me on their album Early Morning Rain. They were the first to record the songs and their versions are exquisite. PP&M made the charts in the US, while I&S were primarily known only in Canada, but their music is top quality and their role in Lightfoot's career is significant. They too were in Grossman's "stable" and it was Ian Tyson who introduced Lightfoot to Grossman.

I have the album names for most if not all of these covers (actually, I have the actual albums for many of them!), so if you are seeking out anything in particular just ask. There are well over 100 covers of IYCRMM, by many other famous singers including Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Rogers, Petula Clark, Don Maclean, and Gene Clark, among others. I have an ugly txt file that includes the song, artist and album name for many of the covers (an ongoing project that will probably never be complete!). E-mail me if you need any information.

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Valerie Magee

[Chris in Virginia]

Some comments from the Bluegrass World.

As mentioned above, Tony Rice has been recording Gordon Lightfoot's music for the past 25 years. It started in 1975 when JD Crowe and the New South, on their landmark debut album (Rounder 0044)recorded Ten Degrees and Getting Colder. That Band consisted of Tony Rice, JD Crowe, Ricky Scaggs, Jerry Douglas, and Bobby Sloan. Over the years, Rice has recorded 2, if not more, GL songs on many of his solo projects.
They include Cold on the Shoulder, Bittergreen, Song for a Winters Night, Go My Way, Edmund Fitzgerald, Shadows, Changes (written by Phil Ochs), Home From The Forest,
Fine As Fine Can Be, Early Morning Rain, and a number of others I cannot recall. He compiled many of these recordings for his "Tony Rice Sings GL" CD. Tony Rice is a legendary acoustic guitar player and possibly one of the greatest to ever hold the instrument. It would be well worth it for any GL fan to experience Rice's take on GL tunes.
The Country Gentleman also have recorded a number of GL songs. Don Quixote and Sit Down Young Stranger come to mind. Claire Lynch and the Front Porch String Band did a wonderful version of Go My Way. Many of GL's songs lend themselves nicely to the style of Bluegrass. Check them out if you have a chance.

[Florian]

Hi GeronimoDon,

Will you let us know which songs you used?

[fezo]

Love to see people recognizing Tony Rice. If you don't have "Tony Rice Sings GL" you owe it to yourself to get it. Not a bad cut on the album - particualy like the fact that he brings out the old chestnut "Walls" and just nails it!

[Simone]

Another cover: Michael Martin Murphy did "The Pony Man" on his collection of songs about horses. I have it at home, but can't remember the exact title of the recording. Not a hit or anything, probably little known. The neat thing is that even with another artist doing this song, it is so easily identifiable as a Gordon Lightfoot song.

[Rob Wells]

I have another cover that somehow, surprising, got missed. Bob Camp and Bob Gibson and did a cover of "For Lovin' Me" on the historic "Gibson and Camp" album back in '64. It was a live album, recorded at the famous Club 47 in Chicago, which incidently was owned by Albert Grossman. They covered it again 18 years later on their "Gibson and Camp Revisited" album. Both albums are considered to be landmark works. Many artists attribute the first album to their folk careers. John Denver to name just one. You can check-out a couple of sound bites from the second album on Amazon.com.

[This message has been edited by Rob Wells (edited April 15, 2000).]

yes as far as gord's cover versions go, i own "cotton jenny" its on anne murray's "talk it over in the morning" album, which is not available on cd, also early morning rain i have a version by chad and jeremy on the "distant shores" album, and another cover on a we five album, which ian and sylvia did early in the 60's

Interesting subject. A number of years ago I started collecting cover versions of Gord's songs. I don't have a count at my finger tips but I must have about 70 covers more or less. Some of it is the most God awful, horrible junk ever recorded. Not even Gordon can save it. A good example is an entire LP devoted to steel guitar covers of Lightfoot songs titled "Nashville Sundown." On the other hand a number of covers a solid gold: Mary O'Hara playing the Celtic Harp (of all things) & singing Song for a Winter's Night. Wonderful. Also "Arranmore" singing It's Worth Believin'
Top quality. My wife thinks I am insane, but this hobby appears to be a good use of time. Happy to pass on the info e-mail me at w.l.julian@worldnet.att.net

[GeronimoDon]

Well, I finally assembled enough material to fill the show, so last Monday evening I went to air! Thanks to all for your help and advice. I also found a net resource at allmusic.com which had a listing of covers that some of you may find of interest.

Here is a listing of the songs that I played:

Early Morning Rain / Peter, Paul & Mary / See What Tomorrow Brings
Early Morning Rain / Elvis / A Canadian Tribute
Early Morning Rain / The Travellers / This Land
Early Morning Rain / Ian & Sylvia / Early Morning Rain
Early Morning Rain / Jerusalem Ridge / Looking Back
Ten Degrees & Getting Colder / Nancy Griffith / Other Voices, Other Rooms
For Lovin' Me / Elvis / A Canadian Tribute
For Lovin' Me / Peter, Paul & Mary / A Song Will Rise
For Lovin' Me / Ian & Sylvia / Early Morning Rain
Ribbon of Darkness / The Pozo Seco Singers / I Can Make It With You
The Wreck... / Rheostatics / Melville
The Wreck... / The Shuffle Demons / Extra Crispy
Song for a Winters Night / Sarah McLachlan / Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff

The biggest challenge in searching for material was the lack of vinyl recordings. The collection at the radio station starts in the late 70's but is not extensive. The public library here disposed of most of its vinyl about 7 years ago. But I was able to find some collectors amoungst my fellow volunteer radio hosts that had large collections and were willing to search through them for me.

Unfortunately, our myCaster site is not in place yet, so I couldn't give you the option of hearing these for yourselves.

It has been fun. Thanks again for your help.

Geronimo Don