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Old 09-09-2005, 12:23 PM   #1
johnfowles
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Location: New Jersey U.S.A. ex UK and Canada
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OK OK not exactly Lightfoot related but
rather than "bury" this on the small talk forum I decided to post this here for two reasons
1,It was this famous trio who realy got Gord's career going by recording two of his songs. Ok I am well aware that they just happenned to be the same pair that the Tysons had already recorded (and I have never understood why both groups chose the exact same two songs-any ideas anybody??) but P,P and M were very much better known world wide at the time
2.It led to an encounter with a PP&M fan who recounted a great early Lightfoot anecdote see below for the details
Some of you might not be aware that Mary has been undergoing treatment for leukemia
and my wife in googling for news discovered that Pand M were scheduled to take part in a folk concert in the (nearby to us) delightful Jersey Shore town of Ocean Grove at the Grand Auditorium and bought tickets early in August

As you can see this featured:-
Christine Lavin,Tom Paxton,(the reunited) Chad (Mitchell) Trio
and Noel Paul Stookey with the redoubtable Peter Y(arrow)
Christine Lanvin who was known to me previously only from her amusing song
"Good Thing He Con't Read My Mind"
30 second sample on amazon at:-
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music
lyrics at:-
http://www.christinelavin.com/00051501goodthing.html
the inspiration for which takes only a little imagination
but she had many other amusing ditties including a superb
"What Was He Thinking"
ranging from
Dan Rather on Iraq to
Prince Harry dressing up as a Nazi
and (U.S solicitor general) John Ashcroft's boob
you get the drift
and a great guitar epic about the annoying sounds made by Windchimes
then Tom Paxton
again not well known by me except for his signature songs
Last Thing On My Mind
and Bottle Of Wine
what is it with these folksingers overusing the word "Mind"???
I was very pleased to catch the reunited Chad Trio comlete nowadays again with Chad himself (I did buy one of their albums "Chad Mitchell Himself" since you ask in Canada in their 60's heyday
Chad clearly said he came from Spokane (WA) pronounced "Spoke-ann" not "Spoke-ain" as I had insisted to a sceptical Susan and her mother
I was anxious to hear their version of Tyson's Four Strong Winds that when I first heard it last year initially convinced me along with the filesharer and at least one other Lightfoot fan was a hitherto unknown cover by the man himself. Gord certainly had it in his repertoire in 1966 (see the Newport Folk Festival setlist photo on page 23 of the Songbook booklet)but it transpired that I had the mistitled Chad Mitchel Trio version
recorded I believe after Chad had left to be replaced by an upstart guy called John Denver
Ed Mullen then said he thought the singer on that version was the Trio's Mike Kublik who is from BC. Sure enough they performed this song with Mike taking the vocal lead but he sounded nothing like the original nor Gord
then it was P.P.'s turn
"Noel Paul" and Peter
they made a point of saying that they had left the third mike for Mary and announced that her bone marrow transplant was a success so that (I think Peter said)
"Mary now had not one leukemic cell in her body"
I also heard a lady outside on their merchandising stand tell an enquirer that
Mary would be joining a scheduled PP and M concert on December 9th at (New York's) Carnegie Hall!
The duo performed several of their hits and in particular Peter teased the audience into an ever louder appeal to reveal the true story behind the lyrics to "Puff the Magic Dragon" before finally refusing to meaningfully comment
they performed 2 solos
"Lemon Tree" by Peter
and Noel's famous "Wedding Song" sometimes in some sources attributed to Gord
afterwards Mike and Joe from the Trio and Tom attended the merchandise tables but long queues quickly formed so I did not get to ask Mike about any Lightfoot influence
Then on a whim yesterday I checked Google groups to find if there was a Newsgroup which might have more Mary news and sure enough I found a recently formed one at:-
http://groups.google.com/group/Peter-Paul-Mary?lnk=li
I joined as I found it had but two existing members and not a single posting I therefore started the very first thread there at:- http://groups.google.com/group/Peter...772fcde637bf3c
I very quickly got a response from a lawman from Burlington Vermont Mike Berak who revealed that he
had been drinking (in Hull On) "with Gordon Lightfoot at about the time he cut his first album. Ian Tyson was a friend long ago."
I then queried this and he responded with more detail I will be posting again after this corfid posting and see if there is any chance he could attend the next month's Northampton MA concert
John Fowles
I have a delightful video file of PPM singing "Early Morning Rain" in 1966

reminds me that Peter paid tribute to Paul for "leading the way on receding hairlines"!!

[ September 12, 2005, 18:38: Message edited by: johnfowles ]
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