4 TOGETHER Concert-Lightfoot-Chapin-Peterborough article-7-2013

[imported_Next_Saturday]

Holy crap!!

YouTube - Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver...

[jj]

cool, even though bootleg (some are probably well acquainted with that girl in the crowd doing commentary, singing, etc by the mic...for 3 hours, lol) that's the best audio i've heard

maybe they can upload the GL songs performed:

The Wreck (acoustic version)
If Children Had Wings
Don Quixote
Partners
If You Could Read My Mind
Songs The Minstrel Sang
I'm Not Supposed To Care

impressive, Terry doing acoustic lead for all (note: James Taylor also there)

[charlene]

lovely!!
I hope they load up the rest of the concert!

[johnfowles]

A few years ago the one of the original Bit torrent listing or "tracker" websites was
http://www.easytree.org which has long since closed down and morphed into http://www.dimeadozen.org
In its heyday easytree maintained a section for bootleg album artwork now apparently discontinued and I had saved what was there.
It included some most unimpressive jewel cse inserts for the Skip Weshner radio show discs
plus the Taylor/Denver/Lightfoot/Chapin benefit concert
I had long wondered what that sounded like so it was great to hear these two samples and yes it would be very nice if whoever uploaded those two tracks or any one of us who had the complete three disc set could find a way of making the entire concert available
(mp3s on rapidshare perhaps???)
Irish Lullaby was track1 on CD2 and Taxi track 5 on CD3





those are resized versions of the very much larger originals if anybody needs them

[charlene]

http://backstreetmary.blogspot.ca/20...is-gordon.html

They sing a tribute to Bing Crosby:IRISH LULLABY

Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver & Harry Chapin...

[charlene]

Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, 15th October 1977 (CONCERT)

Length: Approx. 175 Minutes
Sound Quality: 8.5
Background Noise: 4.5
Crowd Noise: 6.5
Recording Level: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Part 1

01 - Take Me Home Country Roads (John)
02 - Back Home Again (John)
03 - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon)
04 - If Children Had Wings (Gordon)
05 - You've Got A Friend (James)
06 - Something In The Way She Moves (James)
07 - Cat's In The Cradle (Harry)
08 - I Wonder What Would Happen To Him (Harry)
09 - Saturday Night In Toledo, Ohio (John)
10 - Sunshine On My Shoulders (John)
11 - Don Quixote (Gordon)
12 - Irish Lullabye (Gordon & John)
13 - Partners (?)
14 - Carolina In My Mind (James)
15 - Fire And Rain (James)
16 - Gorilla (James)

Part 2

17 - Mr. Tanner (Harry)
18 - W.O.L.D. (Harry)
19 - Boy From The Country (John)
20 - Grandma's Feather Bed (John)
21 - Annie's Song (John)
22 - If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon)
23 - Songs The Minstrel Sang (Gordon)
24 - Secret O' Life (James)
25 - Sweet Baby James (James)
26 - Mexico (James)
27 - Taxi (Harry & John)
28 - 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas (Harry)
29 - I'm Not Supposed To Care (Gordon)
30 - Happy Birthday (?)
31 - Rocky Mountain High (John)

*Organized by Harry Chapin.
**Known as the "Four Together World Hunger Concert".
***Broadcast once on radio, but the radio recording isn't revealed up to now.

John Denver - Guitar, Vocal, Chorus
Harry Chapin - Guitar, Vocal, Chorus
James Taylor - Guitar, Vocal, Chorus
Gordon Lightfoot - Guitar, Vocal, Chorus

[banjobench12]

Terry played lead guitar for all four performers at that show.

[jj]

my ratings:

Sound Quality: 5.5
Background Noise: 7.5
Crowd Noise: 9.5
Recording Level: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆


with that said, ICHW + INSTC just wonderful

[charlene]

and Ed (PeeWee) was there too- apparently Chapin forgot his guitar and he borrowed Terry's or Gord's..

[banjobench12]

If Peewee was there he didn't play. There were just the 5 of them on stage. I heard the story about Harry forgetting his guitar but thought it was when he played the second Olympic Benefit for Gord, the one at the CNE.

[charlene]

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.c...shared-a-stage

Hanging on a wall in the Ol’ Miners’ Diner at The Ovens Natural Park in Nova Scotia there is a picture that has fascinated me for years. On the left is an ebullient Harry Chapin in high-collared open-necked white shirt and loose black vest. Beside him is a shorter, slightly heavier and mustachioed fellow, cigarette dangling from his mouth. The arms of both men reach down, hands turned outward as if to acknowledge a round of applause.

To my surprise that second performer turns out to be Gordon Lightfoot. He wears a tight-fitting tee-shirt with only the letters “Maw[…]” visible because of his twisted torso. I had always imagined that the second figure was Harry’s bass guitarist and back-up singer, “Big” John Wallace, who still plays in a number of Chapin concerts each year, including the annual mid-August celebration of the Chapin Family and Harry’s music at The Ovens.

There is a fascinating back-story to the occasion that brought Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot together. It was a benefit concert held to raise funds for World Hunger Year (now WhyHunger), the charity that Harry Chapin had co-founded in 1975. The date of the concert was 17 October 1977 and “Gordie,” as Harry’s brother Steve, who owns The Ovens, still fondly calls him, had hastened to Detroit to participate in Harry’s special charitable concert. A decade earlier Lightfoot’s memorable song, Black Day in July had commemorated the “Motor City madness” of that ugly summer when racial unrest spiraled out of control in the city streets, leading to over 40 deaths and the torching of many buildings in the downtown core. In its disturbing wake, Martin Luther King was assassinated the following spring.

The surprise of seeing Chapin and Lightfoot so comfortably together in that photo has stuck in my imagination. In 1977 they were both in their prime and were on their respective ways to becoming musical legends in their own countries. Lightfoot’s album, Summertime Dream had appeared a year earlier (it included The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald) while, in 1977, Harry’s double album, Dance Band on the Titanic was released. In the midst of heavy performance schedules, they were continuing to write the songs that would help to define their generation.

Four years later, at the age of 39, Harry would be dead, the victim of a truck that rear-ended his Volkswagen on the Long Island Expressway. Gordon Lightfoot would continue on with his impressive career until, in 2002, a life-threatening stomach ailment grounded him for over a year and left him a weaker though still-game performer. Some of you will remember that his first public appearance after his illness was in the fall of 2004 with Ronnie Hawkins in aid of the Peterborough flood victims. Now in his 75th year, he has solidified his reputation as one of Canada’s greatest songwriters.

Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot have much in common. Born within four years of each other (Lightfoot is the older), they were guitarists and songwriters in the folk, folk-rock and country traditions. Inspired by Pete Seeger and groups like The Weavers, they wrote out of a deep desire to create personalized narratives rooted in their own national experiences. And while they became major figures in the music scene of their own country, each of them developed an appreciative audience across the border—Harry in Canada and “Gord” in the U.S.A.

That Detroit concert must have been an amazing experience; it can be seen now as a moment that played a part in defining a whole generation. Advertised as “Four Together,” its lead participants were all on the way to becoming musical legends as singer-songwriters – John Denver and James Taylor joined Chapin and Lightfoot that night to raise funds for World Hunger Year. Though each sang independently from his personal songbook, they had a wee bit of time that afternoon to work up a couple of collaborations for the audience.

On YouTube I was able to find both the evening’s impressive set list and two bootleg audio numbers from the concert itself. The first has Gordon Lightfoot singing An Irish Lullaby with backup from John Denver (sung in honour of Bing Crosby, the venerable crooner who had died a few days before); the second is Harry Chapin’s very popular Taxi with John Denver singing the falsetto part usually performed by “Big” John Wallace. As was his wont, Chapin encouraged lively audience participation as the verses of Taxi unfolded. As far as I can figure, other than being photographed together, Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot did not collaborate on that rare occasion. Still, they were keen admirers of each other’s work. In that same spirit, Bob Dylan deeply respected the songs of both men.

To think of Harry Chapin and Gordon Lightfoot together is to invite comparisons across the f49th parallel. How do they stack up with audiences now? Who is the better narrative singer and who is the better balladeer? How can you measure the worth of Cat in the Cradle and Mr. Tanner against Early Morning Rain or The Canadian Railroad Trilogy?

Better to remember them both for what they have given us and to keep their respective achievements alive. That photo at The Ovens has allowed me to treasure them together and to wish I had been there to see and hear them in Detroit in October 1977.

Michael Peterrman is professor emeritus of English literature at Trent University

[Seven_Islands]

Wow, now I have the answer to the age-old question of 'When would you go if you had a time machine?'! My two favourite singer-songwriters on a bill with two others not far down the list, and only one of whom I have (or am ever likely to) seen live (JT). The mere thought of it is making my brain melt!

[banjobench12]

It remains my all time favourite concert. sad there is no video and only marginal audio. all four were at the top of their game, with terry playing lead for all of them.

The Lightfoot Denver duet of Irish Lullabye I can still recall
And they nailed it.

[charlene]

http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=22506

[banjobench12]

Thanks Char. That's what I meant by dreadful audio, but you know what, better than nothing at all. Wish those folks near the mike had just listened!

The amazing thing is that if that concert happened today there would be passable quality YouTube videos for all of,us to enjoy. Sadly two of them are gone.

Happily, Gord soldiers on.

[jj]

yeah, well that gal certainly brought some enthusiasm to the bootleg, lol

if children had wings + i'm not supposed to care were captivating… i'm surprised out of all the Lightheads, no one attended and gave us a first hand account

[johnfowles]

Finally a torrent distibution of flac format files of the complete 4Together 1977 Hunger charity concert in Detroyit featuring Gord John Denver James Taylor and Harry Chapin has surfaced on dimeadozen complete with the following artwork as alternatives to the previous pair I displayed
(Gord's 7 numbers are shown in a gold coloured font on this version of the CD rear insert)

[johnfowles]

Also an alternative idea for the front jewel case insert
(I think I prefer the earlier one displayed above)


And rear insert inside artwork

[charlene]

https://ia601609.us.archive.org/17/i...itMI.mp3?cnt=0