I'm Not Sayin' it's the Gordon Lightfoot listening thread (but it is)...new album every Thursday

Canadian national treasure, folk rock legend, etc. etc.

This is the thread for listening thru Gord's discography, I'll post a new album every Thursday.

To start...

Lightfoot! - 1966

"Rich Man's Spiritual" – 2:44
"Long River" – 2:46
"The Way I Feel" – 3:43
"For Lovin' Me" – 2:25
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" – 3:10 (Ewan MacColl)
"Changes" – 2:30 (Phil Ochs)
"Early Morning Rain" – 3:04
"Steel Rail Blues" – 2:48
"Sixteen Miles (To Seven Lakes)" – 2:05
"I'm Not Sayin'" – 2:28
"Pride of Man" – 2:41 (Hamilton Camp)
"Ribbon of Darkness" – 2:39
"Oh, Linda" – 3:09
"Peaceful Waters" – 2:01

fuck yeah

Invariably I end up talking more about Gord's voice and lyrics than the music. But I really love the guitar intro in The Way I Feel. It separates it as a real step up from the first two songs I think, and it's where the record takes off. Long River feels oddly lyrically plain for one of his songs to me, if he had written it a couple years later I think it could have been a better song.

I was just reading about this album on Allmusic as I listened to it and found out that apparently Spike Lee's dad played bass on this record. If that's true his work on The Way I Feel is perfect.

Rich Man's Spiritual is a fun listen but I often skip the first two songs. I'll give it more time this week.

love this cover version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHbN8Qd0XPo

"Steel Rail Blues" makes me want to go on a proper ramble every time I hear it

^ yes, Steel Rail Blues is my favourite song on this record, and maybe my favourite of his songs, either that or Christian Island.

Hellz yes.

Just looking over the track listing, this album is packed with classics. The only 2 I can’t immediately call to mind are “16 miles” and “peaceful waters.” Will give a listen this weekend & brain-barf about it. I have both the mono and stereo versions, might try a Steve Hoffman Forum style sound comparison too.

Generally: Gord’s voice is just a treasure. The ease with which he sings is almost unparalleled — except maybe by Lyle Lovett? — he virtually floats his melodies on top of his nimble guitar paying. Regardless of his occasional lapses in taste, his talent just carries him along like a riverboat.

I was planning to listen to the discography in order anyway — I already have the records pulled off the shelf and sitting by the turntable — so, good timing!

There's a documentary about him at Toronto's Hot Docs this year.

http://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=89970~6052eab3-8904-4c72-8914-433e6b8b62f1&epguid=2157979d-886e-46a2-ace8-e46670981e8a&

Well, apparently I don’t have both versions anymore, just the stereo one — and apparently I need to look out for a copy in better condition, since mine has “the warm crackle of vinyl” all the heck over it.

Still a crazy classic debut. Part of me wants to pick it apart — some of the songs are overwrought, the covers more than the originals IMO — and there’s a little too much “I’m a rambling troubadour, babe” about it... and “peaceful waters” is hardly there at all. But still, it’s packed with classics. Some of the guitar-and-bass work is beautifully hypnotic. I could listen to instrumental loops of “the way I feel” forever.

This is exciting! I'm curious but a bit trepidatious about venturing post-Endless Dream. I've never knowingly heard any 80s adult contemporary David Foster-era Gord!

hell yes

yeeeee-haw

that Fotheringay cover of The Way I Feel is ace. It has a sinister, witchy undercurrent to it. Those drums.

Hell yes I've waited fifteen years for this thread.

I'm wondering if he might be the second-most-covered Canadian behind Young.

Even just Early Morning Rain covers. I unabashedly love the Peter, Paul and Mary cover of that...which made him famous initially, I think?

Internationally famous, not just Canadian famous, obv.

I’m super interested in the reactions of folks who’re coming to this thread from a casual knowledge of Lightfoot’s music. For me it’s so bound up in personal history that I can’t really trust my own responses.

The United Artists albums, especially, just get me in a way that I suspect they don’t quite merit. I hear him overreaching and overwriting in a similar way to Paul Simon during the same period. The casual sexism rankles a bit. But I can’t bring myself to fault the records for it.

That Fotheringay cover, Good god!

Very glad to see this thread. I've been into Gord since...geez, 15. Half my life!

It's all because of that hidden camera show "Trigger Happy TV" - they do this sketch about a depressed painter in the park, and I always thought the background music was absolutely gorgeous. I looked up what it was; "If You Could Read My Mind", so next time I was at the shop I decided to put down the $11.99 for "Complete Greatest Hits", only to find that the American version of the show used soundalikes. Didn't matter, I loved the CD anyway. I thought it was cool to dig something so far away from what I normally listened to (if you know my posting here, my tastes haven't really changed much), plus I'd wondered for years about "Sundown" and "Edmund Fitzgerald", both songs I liked but never know who sang 'em.

At the time myself and another dude were the weekend closers at Burger King and we used to play this CD in the kitchen at closing all the time. Really annoyed some of the managers, but we were the ones doing the real work. That was nice because we usually got done around the time "Edmund Fitzgerald" came on so I never had to hear the uh..."less good" later stuff. In college I bought a ton of Lightfoot LPs for a buck or two each - every shop had like 5 copies of Endless Wire and Summertime Dream but if you dug around you could get the earlier stuff. On Amazon you could get "The United Artists Collection" for $9.99, a double disc with his first four albums on it...such insane value for the money.

Anyway...looking forward to Gording out with y'all

I also spun “Early Lightfoot” this weekend, since I don’t think we’ll be covering it in this thread. 10 sides he cut in, I think, ‘62? The debut record is such a huge leap forward, it’s amazing to think it was recorded just over a year later. Intriguing to hear how he just shamelessly ripped off “Remember Me, I’m the One Who Loves You” (same as he did with The First/Last Time I Saw Her/Your Face”). Jim Reeves vibes all over the place. And you can hear echoes of “Negotiations” in “Rich Man’s Spiritual” although he’s synthesized multiple influences there. Definitely not essential listening, but instructive for the hardcore fan.

Some brief but interesting notes on some of the songs incl a couple of the early ones here: https://www.lightfoot.ca/songnote.htm

This guy is probably my favourite songwriter tbh!

Ever since I got Tidal I play his stuff fairly regularly, wonderful morning music.

I've never listened to "Early Lightfoot" I'll give it a spin for sure. My parents got me into Gord when I was a kid, after my sisters and I graduated from listening to kids music in the car, especially on long drives we crossed the mountains from Central Alberta to get to my grandparents in Vancouver and then up to Quadra Island ever summer, Gord was what my parents played. And it was pretty much all they played all the time. My parents were really religious (that didn't stick with me but Gord did) and for some reason his music was okay for us to listen to but say Fleetwood Mac was not. Which really made no sense to me as I got older and figured out what the hell he was singing about. I must have listened to Gord's Gold I & II a thousand times.

Like I said earlier Steel Rail Blues is my favourite off this record though. When I lived in Toronto I met my wife and she lived up in North Bay. We did the trip via train (back when the Northlander still ran) a few times and I've spent a lot of time learning about the history of the trains in Northern Ontario since I've moved up here so the fact the song came to him during his trip via train from Toronto to Moosonee has really stuck with me over the years.

I like his take on Changes too, but pretty hard to fuck that song up, the McColl cover I'm not a fan of.

I like it! Gord's voice is so pure at this point. "Changes" is a better cover, but still.

Lightfoot was 28 when this was released...kind of surprising, 28 is pretty late for a debut album (especially in the 60s!) but at the same time, he sounds like he's been singing for decades

I grew up hearing the "Gord's Gold" versions of the United Artists songs, and still have a soft spot for them. I'm not sure if it's true that Lightfoot really didn't like his older recordings, or whether he only wanted to update and re-release them for Warners. I can understand why people would prefer the re-recordings (better recording quality, strings) but the UA material is perfect as it is. His voice improved in the 70's -- it became richer and more throaty -- but otherwise I wouldn't change a thing about this album.

yeah the version of "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" on the next album is absolutely perfect, the Gord's Gold version unnecessarily fucks with it

^ yeah totally, CRT didn't need changing at all.

Also I like this Marty Robbins Ribbon of Darkness cover...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZifcpG5cl0

I've listened to Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs a lot lately, was psyched to find out that he covered a Lightfoot song. It's not the greatest thing ever but I like it as a country song.

CRT is especially an achievement (in my mind anyway) as it’s “social commentary” aged far better (as did Gord’s other political songs) than did many of his other contemporaries or say Randy Newman

*its

Newman actually did some arrangements on Lightfoot albums, iirc?

Ya, he made an album with Ry Cooder Van Dyke and Randy, "Sit Down Young Stranger" I think? Great album

Weird note: I was in a band with Gord's son for a couple years when I was 21/22. He's a monster drummer

Never realised "The Way I Feel" was a Lightfoot song tbh! At least i get why Trevor sings it now.

Ya, he made an album with Ry Cooder Van Dyke and Randy, "Sit Down Young Stranger" I think? Great album

― flamboyant goon tie included, Tuesday, April 2, 2019 10:39 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That makes total sense. Sit Down Young Stranger definitely feels different than the first 3 UA albums and I always wondered why.

It's Thursday! lets do this again...

The Way I Feel - 1967

"Walls" – 2:53
"If You Got It" – 2:31
"Softly" – 3:26
"Crossroads" – 2:58
"A Minor Ballad" – 3:15
"Go-Go Round" – 2:40
"Rosanna" – 2:42
"Home from the Forest" – 3:04
"I'll Be Alright" – 2:27
"Song for a Winter's Night" – 3:01
"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" – 6:22
"The Way I Feel" – 3:02

This album starts slow but ends really hot for me. I have a soft spot for Go-Go Round too, in my teenage days I scrawled some of the lyrics of it on the inside of one of my dresser drawers in one of the weaker acts of parental disobedience I took part in. I still remember my mother seeing it one day and just asking what song it was from then never mentioning it again. Teenage me was really let down.

Haven't listened yet, but discovered Beautiful---A Tribute To Gordon Lightfoot while cruising for outlier Maria Muldaur tracks on Spotify---other than MM and the Cowboy Junkies, got enough Canadian Content for the CBC, I should think! (Even if you don't count my favorite draft dodger, Jesse Winchester RIP.)
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Beautiful-A-Tribute-To-Gordon-Lightfoot/release/2361090

this one is more hit & miss than the first album but I think it's a better album because the high points are so freakin' good. I'll have a listen tonight with a pint of Labatt.

xp Cowboy Junkies are from Toronto, and Maria Muldaur records for a Canadian label (Stony Plain). Jesse Winchester did become a Canadian citizen.

There's a great cover of Rosanna by The Unintended, which was a short-lived(?) Toronto-based supergroup made up of The Sadies, Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, and Rick Wright from Eric's Trip/Elevator, etc. It's on this great split EP with the Constantines from 2006. The Unintended do Lightfoot songs, and the Constantines do Neil Young. All the Gord covers are awesome, imo. This particular one made me really pay attention to a song I never paid much attention to before. White on lead vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP_WBSJaHSk

argh, Rick *White

That split is one of the most expensive albums I own! I adore Rick White

"Softly"'s popularity mystifies me, but yes the end of the record is so so strong. "Trilogy" is one of my favourite songs of all time.. this fucking lyric:

For there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

Holy shit! I mean , it makes sense that it would be pricey given it was a limited pressing, but still. That record is awesome, though, and it should be more widely heard. Re: CRT - That lyric just stills me and makes me pay attention.

slight aside, but my lord I loved the Constantines. I think one of the best shows I ever saw had them headlining a bill w/ Jim Guthrie (ft. a wonderful string accompanist...), Gentlemen Reg, and the Sea Snakes at a teensy Mtl venue that no longer exists. that was a formative gig for me, not to mention a wondersul little assemblage of Canadiana in a small space. (It was the fall "Funeral" was released and it was played between sets over the PA to an adoring, singalong audience.)

^ Now I gotta go back and listen to the Constantines all day, been too long!

Also, and its for corny Canadiana reasons, but I love that they named an album Tournament of Hearts.

I saw the Constantines quite a bit during their active period, and man did they cook - *especially* in a teensy venue. When they were in the zone, I found they really had complete command of the language of that communal small venue show experience, if that makes any sense. <3 the canadian trivia easter egg of the tournament of hearts line. that's some corn I can get behind!

That "Rosanna" cover is great. The Sadies must have one hell of a Rolodex by now.

To complete the circle back to Gord: Travis and Dallas Good of the Sadies are the sons of Bruce Good of the Good Brothers (1970s country/bluegrass outfit) who played on Old Dan's Records (and maybe other stuff?). Could that mean that Gordon Lightfoot himself is on the Sadies' Rolodex?

It's possible! I'll ask them next time I see them. Constantines were the best band, really, around album #3 they kind of started taking more cues from The Band than Fugazi and I liked them less but still loved them. Their reunion shows have been off-the-hook good

loved the first Bry Webb record, too. actually not a million miles from Gord.

Ok boomer moment?

"Return Into Dust" was on my Release Radar this week. Sounded good and spooky...I'll have to check out the rest.

I've read the Robbie Fulks article on Lightfoot a couple of times now. It's very well-written, contains a lot of insights and obviously was a lot of work, but I still take exception to how he characterizes Lightfoot's later work as an example of the perils of the artist in decline.
First, he's "debunking" a bunch of records that have been heard by nobody except the people on this thread and a subset of Lightfoot fans; his new albums stopped getting airplay even on Canadian MOR radio by the time of Salute. It's not like he's John Prine, whose voice and skills arguably suffered an even steeper decline, but continued to receive critical plaudits and ever-increasing sales. I mean, if Prine had written the verse that Fulks quotes from "Wild Strawberries", it would have been cited as an example of his warm, self-deprecating humour. It's true that Lightfoot is not Paul Simon in terms of striving for originality and innovation, but in 1986 they both made records that stretched the boundaries of their music in new ways, and at least East of Midnight doesn't have that horrible booming snare sound from Graceland.
I do feel sorry for Fulks, force-feeding himself these albums over the course of a month or two in order to write his article; Lightfoot is not really noted for the diversity of his songs, and cramming dozens of them in short order is certainly not the best method of appreciation (it's taken me more than thirty years to get around to them all). I would agree that the records post-Sundown and pre-sobriety (1975-1982) are a drop-off (despite some great songs), but Salute and the following albums are, to me, good examples of late-career work from an artist who does not necessarily want to push for innovation. David Bowie, for example, sweated and slaved over 1. Outside, but it doesn't even have as many good songs as Waiting for You, and Bowie's strain looks effortful compared to Lightfoot's ease and modesty (and I'm a Bowie fan). Lightfoot's voice has declined over the period (not as much as Elton John's, I'd say), and he certainly should not be doing shows like the one linked in the article, but I think he has adapted to his limitations on record and still conveys a lot of feeling and nuance.
I still haven't heard Solo, but will do in a week or two, and, since no-one else seems to be doing it, I'll be back to provide a conclusion to this thread (unless Gord releases a final, final album of originals in 2036) and hopefully won't be taking back all my effusions above.

I don't know enough about Lightfoot to make a comparison, but I disagree about Prine having a steep decline. I actually think he's a rare example of a songwriter who made it to old age without a really noticeable decline; his great songs came less often after the eighties but they continued to come. It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think that verse he quotes would have impressed me in a John Prine song. It feels forced, and Prine's humor has always felt very natural and unforced to me, like it's just a natural result of seeing the world at an odd angle most of the time.

OK, I was mostly trying to say that the latter-day Lightfoot records don't have any particular acclaim for Fulks to deflate. Lightfoot has put out seven albums in the last forty years, mostly unheard, so Fulks accusing him of "watering down his legacy" makes little sense (meanwhile, Neil Young has released about thirty over the same period, many of which are disliked even by his fans). Has anyone (other than, maybe, Robbie Fulks) had their enjoyment of "Sundown" ruined by "Ringneck Loon" or "Shellfish"?
I find Prine gets corny post-Common Sense, I find Lightfoot open and thoughtful by contrast. I know a lot of people would reverse those judgments.

hey somehow i missed the new album coming out last year!

I just listened to it last night for the first time and I don't know if I liked it as much as Harmony, it was strong in the Return Into Dust thru Just a Little Bit section especially I think. His voice is real thin at this point of course, which is a shame 'cause I felt like I couldn't always hear the lines he was delivering, but the quiet man & guitar production definitely was the right choice considering.

I think I liked it better than A Painter Passing Though, though I will admit I haven't gone back to that one at all since we listened to it in this thread so maybe i should give it a re-listen.

As to your point Halfway. I will admit I have hardly listened to John Prine (though much like Tom Waits I assume I will like him when I finally get around to it), but I agree that I don't think Gord's really hurt his legacy. Also, I will ride pretty hard for East of Midnight at this point, I still go back to it a lot since we listened to it on this thread, A Passing Ship is one of my favourite of Gord's songs now.

I didn't mean to turn this into a referendum on poor John Prine, just that he was, by contrast, an older artist whose acclaim and sales climbed even as his voice withered.

It was East of Midnight that inspired my revival of this thread, it was the last of the older Lightfoot records I hadn't heard. There was an interview where he suggested that it was an underrated album that he would like more people to listen to. "Anything for Love" is probably his worst, but there is some unusual stuff like "You Just Gotta Be", with syncopated drum machines and a bewildering array of chord changes. It also has his classic folk style on "Let It Ride" and "I'll Tag Along", and some of the AOR of Salute on the title track and "Ecstasy Made Easy".

Gord doesn't really have a high-profile commercial failure - Endless Wire is the one post-"Edmund Fitzgerald" album that a lot of people bought and apparently only listened to once or twice (you can find pristine copies of it everywhere for two bucks), the other ones you almost never see which suggests that no one really bought them. Unlike Bowie I don't think anyone really expected much out of him after the 70's, and obviously you know he's not going to start delving into industrial technopop or anything. Even the people I know who are really into him don't listen to those albums. If not for this thread I never would have either.

Did you got anything out of the later records, or do you feel they were justly ignored?

not much, if I never heard them again I wouldn't mind. but I thought Dream Street Rose was at least pretty fun and gladly paid $2.99 for it - it was actually the only time I've seen a post-Endless Wire LP in a shop. and "Restless" is a fitting, would-be beautiful swansong. it's just kind of hard to stomach his voice at a certain point - not because of how great it once was, but because his delivery is straight up bad sometimes. he flails around and hits bum notes and on the last few albums it's hard to even make out what he's singing.

I guess the other good thing about East of Midnight is it's the last record before his singing really does start to suffer.

fwiw Shadows, Salute and East of Midnight have all been on my mental "give this another shot" list, though they've been sitting there for a couple years now :/

"Shadows" the song is in my top 10, maybe top 5 Gord.

picked up a "very best of" comp for three bucks, since it has a bunch of early material I don't have on vinyl. very odd cover design, isn't it?

https://dalescollectibles.com/products/gordon-lightfoot-the-very-best-of-gordon-lightfoot

forgot how much of his first album was "sorry babe, big Gord's gotta fuck"

He hates "For Lovin' Me" now, associates it with the end of his first marriage. I like the way he undercuts it on Gord's Gold, by performing it as a medley with "Did She Mention My Name".

"Can't Depend on Love" has been on repeat a lot for me lately. his lyrics are easy to relate to because the specifics of the scenario have pretty much all been stripped out, but there's something in his delivery that gestures at some kind of meaning, and so even little nonsense filler phrases like "I'm right or wrong" seem to have some kind of import. In other words, he's an ideal artist for people who project their emotions and experiences onto the music they listen to (and I'm one of those people).

Love "Saturday Clothes", just scratching the surface with this guy.

Whew, glad it’s not a mortality revive.

It's got such a nice mood, discretely sad or something

its that autoharp

Whew, glad it’s not a mortality revive.

Gord's used to those kind of rumours; he heard a Toronto radio station announce that he had died while he was in the chair at the dentist. He called them up and went on the air to prove he wasn't.

It's partly about the lyrics because it sounds to me like someone who is admitting to being a little sad but there's much more disappointment and sadness than he's willing to admit. Maybe putting a brave face on.

It's true; he has lots of melancholy songs and lots of "quotidian" songs, but they're usually not one and the same.

Here's a deep track that I've been listening to a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FihE2nwkLVw

I was also thinking that his career ending with Solo is like a long highway travelling through cities, towns, and countryside that eventually ends in a muddy one-lane track leading to a broken-down abandoned shack. It's like a gesture of humility on his part.

Sadly, now passed on after some recent health issues

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/gordon-lightfoot-dead-1.6828991

Wow. So much will be written in the next few days, especially up here. Bob Dylan seemed to revere him.

RIP

I'd have to check, but I think I had this on my music-video list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PINZNB6knaA

yeah, when I saw his shows had been postponed I kinda had a feeling that would be it. gonna miss ya Gord, glad you loved Wisconsin enough to hit it multiple times on each tour

A terrible day. Rest in peace Gord.

RIP

Big part of my childhood years. He meant a lot to my mother, who I can remember being very excited when she told me that she finally got to see him live for the first time. "Go My Way" holds a special place for her and me.

Unrelated, but I spent a portion of my youth years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Goes without saying we did the uper trip to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and get a layout of where all the famous shipwrecks are in Lake Superior. Jump to not long after and a little league teammate's dad invites my younger brother and I to a ride back from our baseball game in Escanaba. Only we're taking his private plane.

So my teammate's dad is flying us back and as we get towards the airfield, he offers to take us over Lake Superior so we can see nearby shipwrecks visible at the bottom of the lake. To this day, it was amazing how clear the water was and how much detail you could see of the boat wreckage up in the sky. It was right then my brother asked "Does this plane go any faster?" The dad joyfully said, "It sure does!," and immediately took the plane into a nose-dive, towards the oncoming Superior ship wreckage.

Whew, glad it’s not a mortality revive.

― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 2 April 2023 22:22 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

:(

Very sad. He was the best.

my story is kind of odd, but bear with me

when I was a teenager there was this hidden camera show called Trigger Happy TV, which obviously originated in the UK, as the dude was clearly British. anyway I thought it was pretty funny but what I really liked was the soundtrack. in particular there was this really pretty song that played when he was doing these pranks as a suicidal artist in the park.

I looked up what it was and it was "If You Could Read My Mind". the next time I went to the record store I looked him up and there was a CD called Complete Greatest Hits for $11.99. I figured what the hell and bought it.

Skipped right to Track 7 and guess what...the song actually was NOT "If You Could Read My Mind"! It was one of those soundalikes they do for US TV in order to get around having to pay royalties. So that was disappointing, but it was made up for - I was working at Burger King at the time, and there was this one country/folk song they played over the PA I really liked, but I never heard enough of the lyrics to figure out what it was. I thought it was something from the 90's...turns out it was "Sundown"

as part of the BK closing crew I brought this CD in a lot. there were a couple guys who really dug it. everyone else thought it was lame as shit, but when you're 17 that's also funny in its own way. I grew to really love it and when I started getting into vinyl I bought a ton of his records because they were all so cheap. lo and behold most of them were really good! there's treasure on all those albums. at least to a certain point. actually I think Gord is what made me really get into vinyl, I kinda loved how you were rescuing these beat up things that were clearly once important to someone, at least judging by how the covers would be written on or certain bits of the lyric sheet clipped out. felt like time travelling a bit.

I got to see him 3 times. obviously it was in his later years, but he really loved touring the Midwest and actually hit Manitowoc twice. one time he was playing literally down the street from me, which was cool. yeah his voice wasn't there but the shows were fun. he had a pretty good attitude and told some funny stories. and the band sounded nice. I wanna say it's tragic he's gone, but in reality the dude lived a lot longer than anyone would've thought. I felt bad since in those later years it was clear he was just touring to pay the medical bills. oh well. you're free to haunt the old shipyards now, bud.

guess what...the song actually was NOT "If You Could Read My Mind"! It was one of those soundalikes they do for US TV in order to get around having to pay royalties.

I'll use that as a cue to post this; I'm sure, as your post indicates, he had a great sense of humour, so I bet he loved this (favourites: "Dueling Banjos," "Theme from Mannix," and "White Rabbit").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZpk0A4hZes

I'm in a really good grade 1 class today, so I've been playing Lightfoot all morning as they work.

is that Rick Moranis singing?? he sounds almost exactly like him!

Could be--never really thought about who's doing the singing. Something tells me Moranis joined a season or two later than the others, and I think this is early, so not sure.

oh, I mean to say the singer sounds like Lightfoot, at one point I actually wondered if it WAS Gord

drove from north bay down to toronto today and listened to gord along the way in homage, passing orillia and hearing the watchman's gone choked me up tbh. he had a superb talent for taking a thing like RFK's funeral train and merging it with his own ruminations on death, throw in train & sea references and you have maybe his most perfect *gordon lightfoot* song.

also the orchestral build and transition from part 2 to part 3 of CRT is a thing of beauty. the second half of cabaret is a simple, lovely tune to listen to while coming down highway 11.

in those later years it was clear he was just touring to pay the medical bills

With the Canadian health system, this isn't really a factor.

it is moranis who was singing in the sctv lightfoot thing, i think i have posted a link to that at least 3-4 times over the years here, how he finds the mellow gordo groove in every song is remarkable

Coverage up here was as extensive as I'd hoped. Huge front page stories on the Star and the Sun (bought my Star out of town--the variety store here has stopped carrying newspapers!), lots on the radio and CBC. One station yesterday interviewed a Timmins MPP or MP who grew up with Lightfoot. And everyone you knew seemed to post on FB.

Globe and Mail, too. He got the Canadian Newspaper Trilogy treatment.

the variety store here has stopped carrying newspapers!

dang. There's a song in there

My version of that SCTV sketch consists of fingerpicking Gmaj7 and Cmaj7 chords and singing the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" à la Gord .

Here's another parody/tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rh5slFWPlY

Contacted a friend in Toronto about going up to Orillia on Sunday, but getting this friend to do just about anything is an ordeal, so that's not going to happen.

https://www.orilliamatters.com/local-news/huge-event-orillia-prepares-to-say-goodbye-to-gordon-lightfoot-6954286

Some consolation: the rep theatre in London is screening the documentary from a few years ago tomorrow. Haven't seen it, so I'll go see that instead.

Forgot all about this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOaFHmMYikc

Gordon lightfoot is a blind spot for me but I picked up his first two lps for cheap the other day and they're real nice. In places his voice reminds me of Robbie basho, when he sang on some of his albums. Wouldn't be surprised if Robbie was influenced by him a bit.

If you find me feedin' daisies/Please turn my face up to the sky

If I wait for the right moment
You can bet I'll climb aboard unseen
I've done it before, I know I can do it in my sleep