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Old 09-08-2011, 07:42 PM   #1
charlene
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Default Springfield IL. interview

http://www.sj-r.com/mysource/enterta...und-Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot discusses music, life and the 'Edmund Fitzgerald'.Zoom Photos. submitted photo.Gordon Lightfoot

By Brian Mackey (brian.mackey@sj-r.com)
GateHouse News Service
Posted Sep 08, 2011 @ 11:37 AM

Years ago, Gordon Lightfoot would write music nearly every day.

“I would think about it while I was sleeping,” Lightfoot said in a telephone interview. “It was just to get the job done. There were albums to be made and contracts to be fulfilled.”

With his recording days mostly behind him, today Lightfoot focuses most of his energy on touring. He’s giving more than 40 performances this fall.

Even when he was writing all the time, songs could take years to finish, or never get finished at all.

“I had a song that I started writing in 1989 and didn’t finish until 10 years later,” Lightfoot said, referring to “No Hotel.”

“I just couldn’t make it connect. I couldn’t get enough visual stuff happening,” Lightfoot said. “So I came around to, ‘See the little critters fly / Above the bed sheets telling lies / You’ve checked into the no hotel.’ ”

In just a few words — “telling lies” — the lyric ceases to be about the literal (bed bugs) and instead becomes about the metaphorical (bed hoppers).

That kind of movement — Lightfoot called it “the smooth flow of lyric” — is something he’s always aiming for.

It doesn’t always take a decade. One of his best-known songs, “Early Morning Rain,” was written in a matter of hours.

Lightfoot started most of his songs on guitar. You have to have a basic chord progression, he said, which in turn suggests a melody.

And for Lightfoot, it also started with his list of song titles.

“I used to pick them out of newspapers, magazines ... paint samples,” he said. From lemon lily to teal-colored tile, he credits a paint store for inspiring three songs.

‘I wanted to sing again’

Lightfoot had two serious health scares in the past decade. In 2002, he suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm that required four surgeries and more than two years of recovery time.

He continued work on “Harmony,” which would become his 20th album when it was released in 2004.

He also suffered a minor stroke in 2006. It affected his right hand, but he eventually regained his strength and ability to play guitar.

Through it all, Lightfoot said he did not want to give up touring.

“I wanted to recover, I wanted to sing again. I wasn’t sure — they had to take a lot of muscles out of my stomach and I wasn’t sure if I would have the kind of breathing control that I would need,” Lightfoot said. “But gradually it worked back and I started practicing.”

Today he can perform more live dates than he used to because he does not have the pressure of a recording contract. Last year that meant 81 shows, which Lightfoot’s publicist says is an all-time high for the singer.

The show lasts about two hours, with a 20-minute intermission and no opening act. Lightfoot is touring a five-piece orchestra.

Most of the set list comes from the songs for which Lightfoot is best known.

“We have to believe in the material, but the bulk of it comes from all those various albums that we have made through the years,” he said. “We have two shows, and a rotation takes place, but we don’t miss any of the standards.”

Among those standards is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Lightfoot said it’s a personal favorite.

‘I changed the line’

“Edmund Fitzgerald” explores story of a cargo ship that sank in a storm on Lake Superior with the loss of all hands.

Lightfoot has performed the song numerous times in front of relatives of the deceased sailors. He said it always makes him uncomfortable.

For years there had been different theories about the cause of the wreck. One had water flowing in through unsealed hatches, swamping the ship. Another had water suddenly collapsing a hatch.

This theory was reflected in the song, in which the cook bids farewell to his mates: “At 7 p.m. a main hatchway caved in; he said / ’Fellas, it’s been good to know you.’ ”

This troubled some of the relatives, Lightfoot said: “They were concerned because they thought that their guys — that I was pointing the finger at them for not looking after the hatch covers.”

Surveys of the wreckage — most recently for a History Channel special, Lightfoot said — have proven the ship split in two on the surface before sinking. This could have been caused by a rogue wave or series of waves.

“I changed the line to the song every time I play it on stage,” Lightfoot said.

So instead of mentioning that reference to the main hatchways caving in, it now reads: “At 7 p.m. it grew dark, it was then he said / ’Fellas it’s been good to know you.’ ”

Originally recorded shortly after the wreck happened in 1975 and released the next year, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is not one of those songs that took Lightfoot a decade to perfect.

But when the subjects are lost husbands, fathers and brothers, perhaps a song can never be complete.

Brian Mackey can be reached at 217-747-9587.

Copyright 2011 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved
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Old 09-08-2011, 08:12 PM   #2
GJA
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Default Re: Springfield IL. interview

I'll see him next Wednesday! I can hardly wait!!
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Old 09-08-2011, 10:28 PM   #3
David
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Default Re: Springfield IL. interview

Another great interview. Thank you!
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Old 09-10-2011, 09:23 PM   #4
Tim
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I'll be there next Wednesday. Have seen Gordon many, many times and every time I feel like a kid building up to Christmas Eve. This time is no exception.
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Old 09-11-2011, 10:11 AM   #5
redhead
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Quote:
— “telling lies” — the lyric ceases to be about the literal (bed bugs) and instead becomes about the metaphorical (bed hoppers).
Quote:
“I used to pick them out of newspapers, magazines ... paint samples,” he said. From lemon lily to teal-colored tile, he credits a paint store for inspiring three songs.
This is the kind of thing I can't get enough of. Thank you Char, for yet another post that provides a bit more insight into the MAN.
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