More from Gord???

[johnfowles]

I can't speak for everybody but recent interviews in which Gord has declared that his song writing days are over are truly depressing.
I have a few ideas and was however delighted to see that he is at long last adding a few old songs to his "rotation"
I have just read with interest an article at:-

http://www.herald-review.com/article...in/1030093.txt
in which an artist Jill Sobule is:-
"asking fans ("and family members," she quickly points out) to contribute to the budget for her next album"
it adds
"One colleague interviewed legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot and reported the label-less Lightfoot hinted he couldn't afford to give up lucrative touring income to spend time and money in a recording studio.
Perhaps with Sobule's model, he could."

Whilst this appears to be a considerable misreporting of the situation
and acknowledging Gord's apparent reluctance to try to get more money from his fans.
(it would help everyone from himself to his fans if some effort at marketing could be applied to pre concert sales of at least CDs)
certainly the time he does not wish to spend writing more songs is worrying
and we do have already a most wonderful and varied collection of compositions so are we only being greedy to ask for more?
I have been thinking about Gord's no new songs declaration and have three main suggestions for him

1. review a number of great songs he has already written but never officially recorded
   Amongst which are Nighttime, Face Of A Thousand People, Rock My World To Sleep, The Doomsday Song
2. review a heap of great performances from the past by other writers
   Amongst which are
   Farewell To Nova Scotia (which I believe the orchestra were practicing as recently as 2000),
   Four Strong Winds, Partners, Pleasures Of The Night
3. his favourites by other writers
   Including Elton's Your Song and Take Me To The Pilot
   Rod's Maggie May (a la Burton Cummings of course)
   At least one Christmas song Good King Wenceslas perhaps??
4. songs by his fans,
   There are some great and suitable songs out there by Derek Kidd,Ed Mullen, Matt Carl, Bill Hall, Wayne Francis, and our own Fezo (Steve Lasala)
   for starters

what think you???
I will try to suggest this to Gord if I get the chance soon
and see if he is really aware of the potential use of Meredith's website

[charlene]

I too found that to be a 'mis-reporting' of what had been discussed in a previous interview..
He's states that he is done with the writing/recording/time involved.
He's loving the touring and performing. He's joyful and healthy. That's good enough for me until such a time as he puts out a LIVE disc..

[RM]

I thought RJ's post on this subject was eloquently expressed and I find myself in complete agreement. He wrote :

"re: I think I’ve said everything I had to say. I think that will probably be about it for me..

That makes me sad, and happy at the same time..
Y'know?..
Sad for me, happy for him..
We should all be so fortunate..
to live long enough, and do a good enough job here..
to reach that place where the race is run..
and the game is done..
when and where we can be truly satisfied, with our life's work..
and stop all this climbing..
and then?.. just go out and play..
until the end game..

2008 here we come..
See you on the road friends.."

[Auburn Annie]

Given his close encounter with his own mortality in 2002, I suspect he is unwilling (and who could blame him?) to set aside large chunks of precious time away from the family and friends to plunk himself down to write new songs. However he has not ruled out a new album of live peformances, whether of recent vintage or perhaps even some squirreled away from many years past that could be cleaned up with new technology. I agree, it would be great to have releases of previously written original songs and covers. But golly, folks, I'm glad he's still here and happy and performing.

[Paul Farnham]

His declarations of being done with writing and recording aren't the best news I've heard. However, being a glass-half-full guy, I'll take that over continuing to write and record, but quitting the live shows.

[fezo]

I was particularly fond of Sir John's #4 idea. (Man, wouldn't THAT be something!?)

I am sure that indeed the brush with mortality has changed his priorities and he's concentrating on what gives him the most pleasure. Who can blame him? He may be the happiest he's been in his life at this point.

That said, I always though that A Painter Passing Through was such a good piece of work - a sign that he was back closer to what I consider the best of his work and a shame that we'll not see the real follow up to that.

(please note - this isn't dissing Harmony. It's just that the recording of that work was under unusual circumstances to say the least and it doesn't hang together as well as APPT does. Which albums hang together best as a cohesive piece of work is for another day.....)

[TheWatchman]

I heard him say in an interview when he stated that he was done with the songwriting and was content just touring, that they were looking into releasing a CD of live performances from Massey Hall that would span throughout his career.

Personally, I would much prefer pre1990 recordings and leave out the more recent ones.

[Gord H]

Who knows for sure what is up Gord's sleeve.. I remember during the East of Midnight sessions he was on record as saying that was it for him back then as well. Gord himself said he had written over 30 songs for the Harmony session, so anything is possible.

But I agree with the others I can't blame him at this stage of the game for wanting to spend time with his family and I'm sure the sudden loss of Barry H plays on his mind as well.

[BILLW]

This thread is bringing together some old names, LOL. Anyway I think the ideas are great but being practical I think the most likely to happen would be some LIVE discs. Lots of folks have had great success with this approach. There has to be a ton of stuff available - enough to break it down into eras, or decades. And maybe include one new recording on each one - a neat marketing ploy that lots have employed also. But you have to consider the numbers too - how many copies has Harmony sold so far ? Or APPT ?

Let's send him a petition !

Bill

[Jesse Joe]

Whatever his decision is I will accept, but Gordon Lightfoot Live from Massey Hall would give us the fans some pretty good and Im sure very enjoyable CD's...

[Jesse Joe]

Originally Posted by johnfowles

I can't speak for everybody but recent interviews in which Gord has declared that his song writing days are over are truly depressing.
I have a few ideas and was however delighted to see that he is at long last adding a few old songs to his "rotation"
I have just read with interest an article at:-

http://www.herald-review.com/article...in/1030093.txt
in which an artist Jill Sobule is:-
"asking fans ("and family members," she quickly points out) to contribute to the budget for her next album"
it adds
"One colleague interviewed legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot and reported the label-less Lightfoot hinted he couldn't afford to give up lucrative touring income to spend time and money in a recording studio.
Perhaps with Sobule's model, he could."

Whilst this appears to be a considerable misreporting of the situation
and acknowledging Gord's apparent reluctance to try to get more money from his fans.
(it would help everyone from himself to his fans if some effort at marketing could be applied to pre concert sales of at least CDs)
certainly the time he does not wish to spend writing more songs is worrying
and we do have already a most wonderful and varied collection of compositions so are we only being greedy to ask for more?
I have been thinking about Gord's no new songs declaration and have three main suggestions for him

1. review a number of great songs he has already written but never officially recorded
   Amongst which are Nighttime, Face Of A Thousand People, Rock My World To Sleep, The Doomsday Song
2. review a heap of great performances from the past by other writers
   Amongst which are
   Farewell To Nova Scotia (which I believe the orchestra were practicing as recently as 2000),
   Four Strong Winds, Partners, Pleasures Of The Night
3. his favourites by other writers
   Including Elton's Your Song and Take Me To The Pilot
   Rod's Maggie May (a la Burton Cummings of course)
   At least one Christmas song Good King Wenceslas perhaps??
4. songs by his fans,
   There are some great and suitable songs out there by Derek Kidd,Ed Mullen, Matt Carl, Bill Hall, Wayne Francis, and our own Fezo (Steve Lasala)
   for starters

what think you???
I will try to suggest this to Gord if I get the chance soon
and see if he is really aware of the potential use of Meredith's website

Great choice Sir J.

I've highlighted the ones I have on CD, or wouldn't mind having like Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds."

"Maggie May" would be funny I think ?

May I add one that I have which is from the repetoire of Ramblin Jack Elliott... "Diamond Joe", Lightfoot does a great job with this one. You would think that he actually wrote it.

[Borderstone]

I'll simply say "Never say Never". Once a songwriter...always a songwriter.

[brink-]

Originally Posted by TheWatchman

I heard him say in an interview when he stated that he was done with the songwriting and was content just touring, that they were looking into releasing a CD of live performances from Massey Hall that would span throughout his career.

Personally, I would much prefer pre1990 recordings and leave out the more recent ones.

Was that the interview that Char did with him or did he say that in another interview?
I don't care what years the CD covers, I would buy it I don't care what he sounds like, it is still Gordon Lightfoot.

[talbot10]

Originally Posted by TheWatchman

I heard him say in an interview when he stated that he was done with the songwriting and was content just touring, that they were looking into releasing a CD of live performances from Massey Hall that would span throughout his career.

Personally, I would much prefer pre1990 recordings and leave out the more recent ones.

Hi Al!
good to hear from you! I hope all is well!
Billl

[Rob1956]

Label-less? Isn't Gord with Linus?

[imported_Next_Saturday]

Originally Posted by Rob1956

Label-less? Isn't Gord with Linus?

I think at the time of Harmony's release it was mentioned that the album was a "one-off". I think the question is whether any of the aforementioned Live from Massey releases will be through Linus or another label....

I hear you Sir John about no more original albums, but Terry Clements hinted at the fact of plenty'o'stuff that could fill the pipeline.

If Gord's happy just enjoying himself performing, I'm ok with that.

[charlene]

a bit about writing/touring/LIVE recordings from March 2007:

CHAR: I talked to you at Niagara Falls about a LIVE recording.

G.L.: Yep.

CHAR: You mentioned the old recordings are no longer in existence? From Massey and places like that?

G.L.: I think I said that we had some stuff that went way back in the catalogue that we got rid of in the last couple of months but I will eventually have something from Massey Hall of course, there’s everything we’ve done in the last seven years. When that’s going to take place I can’t tell you because I don’t know when I’m going to bring that out. It can come out now or it can come out later.

CHAR: Well now would be good, now would be good! We would be ready for that.

G.L. We have it.

CHAR: You’ve got it….okay. (laughing)

G.L. We’ve got them.

CHAR: Alrighty. And you’re not writing anything right now?

G.L.: For right now it would be a total exercise in ah……what is the word?

CHAR: Futility?

G.L.: Yes! It would. My contract with Reprise was finished, I finished that entire contract. I did 14 albums for Reprise records and I have no further obligations and I made one quick afterthought as you know, the Harmony album just cuz the material was there, the vocal and guitar pieces. So I thought I may as well do something with this stuff and put it out and it gave me something to think about while I was recuperating. And other than that there doesn’t seem to be a need for it but it would really be a waste of time at this point. I’m 68 years old and I’m not ready for the kind of isolation that that causes. That’s been one of the main drawbacks of songwriting over the years. It’s ruined a couple of relationships, it’s caused a lot of problems and so I would not want to get into that kind of isolation again so probably I’m gonna leave it alone. There’s lots and lots of things to do.

CHAR: You seem like you’re awfully busy and you deserve the time to do what you want to do.

G.L.: I just want to get out there and play the music. That’s the biggest privilege of all.

CHAR: Do you find the travel hard?

G.L.: Traveling is not the issue. The traveling gets done.

CHAR: Well you might have Eric to fly you around!

G.L.: I don’t know if I’ll still be in the business by then! (laughing)

[BILLW]

[QUOTE=charlene;134671]
CHAR: You mentioned the old recordings are no longer in existence? From Massey and places like that?

G.L.: I think I said that we had some stuff that went way back in the catalogue that we got rid of in the last couple of months but I will eventually have something from Massey Hall of course, there’s everything we’ve done in the last seven years. When that’s going to take place I can’t tell you because I don’t know when I’m going to bring that out. It can come out now or it can come out later.[QUOTE]

Char,

Do you know what he meant by "that we got rid of in the last couple of months" ? Is that got rid of as in "destroyed". Well if they did that we can forget about any older Live stuff. What's that all about anyway ?

Bill

[charlene]

I'm not sure what he meant.. and he really didn't clarify it..
I know when he told me that in Niagara Falls I actually felt ill and a cold chill went right thru me thinking that ANY recordings would be lost forever..
I can only hope like most of you that he didn't mean they no longer exist in any form..
I gotta get a sweater on..

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

I wish I could hear those live recordings between Char and Gord.

[joveski]

there still are bootlegs going back to the 70s of his Massey shows to listen to. the quality isnt the best, but they're out there

[brink-]

Originally Posted by joveski

there still are bootlegs going back to the 70s of his Massey shows to listen to. the quality isnt the best, but they're out there

Bootlegs? What are bootlegs?

[joveski]

Originally Posted by brink-

Bootlegs? What are bootlegs?

some sort of cds that have old massey shows on them

[brink-]

hmm, interesting concept.

[Shutup and Deal, I'm Losin']

I thought a 'bootleg' (fake) meant an imitation of a GL album.