Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

re: the Irish connection and The Wreck -
http://www.sungazette.com/page/conte....html?nav=5016
and
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread...t=irish+melody

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I was definitely looking forward to a Lightfoot book but I'm going to pass on this one for sure.

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

the vibe they left you with may have been what they were striving for...
ie. erasing the 'jaunty' treatment that Gord apparently created... DB quote:

“Really drag it through the muck, really get it dirty, spray it with mud and blood and fear and angst. It was essentially our punk rock version of that song, really trying to get it as frightful as possible. I think we all realized we could give a new look to this song, maybe reflect sonically some of the lyrics, more so than Gord’s actual treatment, which was very clean and kind of jaunty, when in fact it’s terrifying as hell, that song.”


ya know, if one takes the wealth of the actual interview clips posted by char and others here, plus Wayne's mountain of firsthand tidbits, you actually get a pretty good little bio-type book in itself, once you eliminate the redundancies and try filter out all the contradictory quotes ;) but ya may not learn as much about love child(s)

...char, you could really put something tasty together and add your own first hand bits and pieces that were not shared with you in confidence...i'd buy it:)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I told Dave B. there would be flak about the book contents and him personally from some fans. He said he understood that could happen. I told him I couldn't deal with that and that's why he's an author and I'm not.
He's a writer of books and music. Like all 'artists' they put their work and themselves out there to the public and take what comes in forms of praise and criticisms.
I think I know that first hand too just from some postings I have made here and then been attacked personally for my thoughts.
While there is a re-hashing of stuff in the other two books that Dave references and might have been overdone/needless to some readers it was required for him to use as jumping off points for his own questions and musings in his 7 letters. In those letters are also words of praise and admiration. I don't thin this book was meant to be the 'be-all/know all' story of Lightfoot. It is Bidini's take on the story of Lightfoot. Of course a book without the main characters input can be nothing but that. One persons personal take on the life and music of an icon. Conjecture drawn from what we all have previously read about him and interspersed with world events in a specific time period made for a unique reading experience. Of course I cringed over some parts just as I do when I read a less than favourable concert or album review. Some things could have been left out but that is not how the author felt his book should read. I have felt that way about many books I have read including some of the classics..We all have our own emotional reaction to what we read,see,hear and it's not always favourable. The book was not all sunshine and roses and la-di-da...it was a tough read at times, challenging me to keep reading at times... Quite a few gasps, wows and what the hell was he thinking happened all thru the book as I read it...just as there were some lovely moments in it as I felt the authors admiration for Lightfoot come through. Perhaps I am not enuf of a cynic to think he took so much of his own time to research so much stuff and write a book while still maintaining his fulltime writing job, his career as a musician and his life as a husband and father just to make a few bucks. I do admire his courage to embark on and complete a book that would certainly cause a few ripples of discontent and some full on personal slaggings.
it's probably not on a XMAS gift list at Gord's house...and I certainly won't be asking him to autograph my copy. I respect that he's pissed and he has every right to be so.
Passing on reading the book is a choice if you wanted anything but what this book is. Regardless of how you might feel about the 'stuff' that's not new and is tough to read at times just dismissing it outright doesn't seem fair. If after a full reading and some reflection you still hate it/the author that seems more fair for it/him and you. Life's fullof surprises....a few hours of reading time is all it takes...so much of the book is very informative about that time in history, regardless of the Lightfoot story/connection. I enjoyed that part immensely. To each his own I guess...

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Well I guess I'll just have to buy a copy and see for myself. Thanks for all the info Char!

Bill :)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Good stuff, char... glad you enjoyed it and any new GL bits/facts in there

thanks for the insights also, i didn't realize Bidini did it as a labour of love

i don't think anyone can't question his dedication to/obsession with Gord as he was the one who initiated a petition to have a National Lightfoot Day:)

DB quote: "One of the reasons I wanted to write about Gord was because I feared his amazing story would not get told, and, as a musician, I wanted to write it, having been to many of the same emotional and spiritual places as he had been.”

if Gord's amazing story has finally been told, that is somewhat relieving...
I don't know what spiritual places Gord has been to... it sounds intriguing

i don't think there's anything more personal that I need to know about Gord and family but one day it would be nice to read more about his songwriting and inspirations, more along the lines of the Songbook liner notes...i'm sure DB and so many others, worldwide, would also really enjoy that

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

the lightfoot website continues to disregard this retaliatory text

but it seems to me that it is quite newsworthy in the world of folk music and it's evolution, even if the story of Mariposa has already been told. Even if there were no new Gord tidbits, perhaps there's new Mariposa fun facts and anecdotes

and I dont want to read anything (speculative or not) about team Canada that might make me look at my old hockey cards any differently. Lol. I didn't really enjoy the made for tv movie. Ditto for Trudeau. btw, Maggy is currently doing some good work...the big prison break actually sounds intriguing. the only thing as panicky as prisoners on the loose, is exotic animals

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

"the lightfoot website continues to disregard this retaliatory text" HUH??

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

excerpt -
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/10...y-dave-bidini/
National Post · Oct. 26, 2011 | Last Updated: Oct. 26, 2011 3:07 AM ET

Hey, Gord. This is the beginning of the letter. I'm not going to begin where normal biographies begin, because, I dunno, all of those books that go on to describe the legend playing with his toys and burning his hand on the stovetop and how his Grade 3 teacher threw a ruler at him and the time he wet his pants coming home from school and what his dog's name was and how he saw his uncle die in a horrible chipper accident and what he did when he got his first report card; I dunno. Me, I always want the writer to get to the reasons why anyone would write a book about that person in the first place. Which, in your case, is the music and the songs. Guitar playing. Words. Concerts. Radio. Canada. Mariposa. Drugs and love and booze. And other stuff.

So I think we should start with me imagining you being a kid like any other pre-teen kid, sitting on the quilt at the edge of your bed dressed in ill-fitting brown cords that your mom bought for you at the Buy Right, playing a guitar that came out of a long cardboard box, trying to find great sweeping chords to match the fullness of the infinite sky, even though the sound that you made was more like sprrrngggtt! because your hands hurt and the tips of your fingers were sore but screw it: your grandparents and their grandparents and their grandparents before them had dug their mitts deep into the hard rich soil to build a life for their sons and daughters, and because they did, you sat there and you kept on playing: an A chord struck with the E string accidentally opened that released a long wide note at the bottom of the neck which made you think of a tern swallowed by the water's horizon as your mom tapped on the door and told you, "Phone call, son. It's Whelan," (I know your friend's name was Whelan because it was written in that other book about you, the one by Maynard Collins called If You Could Read His Mind, which he published 30 years ago).

You spoke to Whelan, then returned to your room where you leaned your guitar on the cowboywallpapered wall and slipped on your boots and walked over to your friend's house ("Bye, Mom"), where you played board games with him at the kitchen table. Whelan said that he liked that new song by that skinny guy with the goatee, Buddy Knox, but you weren't sure. No gulls. No lakes. No silence. You were 12, I think. Life was moving forward, though damned if you knew where.

You liked to sing and you liked to run. I did, too. Don't all 12year-olds? Well, maybe not Glenn Gould, but still. You went to junior choir practice at St. Paul's United Church in Orillia. I imagine the old pastor dressed in dark robes taking you aside and telling you that you sang like an angel, and just hearing him say the word - angel - gave you a funny feeling: a soft word coming from such a severe man, a word he'd let pass through his lips and over his teeth because your voice had somehow found a place between his rib cage and heart and maybe it was then that you understood how music worked and why it had lasted forever, despite the changing world and dinosaurs and history and war and love and God.

I read somewhere that you sang high - way high - filling neighbourhood churches as the congregation swooned to the sound of your voice twirling about the moulding at the top of the church columns the way Aretha Franklin's or Little Richard's or Sam Cooke's did, although you didn't know the names of those people, not yet. Besides, their voices had been boiled in the dirty heat of the American South while yours had been born in the seizing cold, something you didn't know, either, not yet, and maybe you're realizing this for the first time here, but maybe not, because I have no idea whether you're reading this.

During church service, you could see your mom and dad sitting in the pews - Mom looking proud and Dad, well, Dad just being Dad, as all dads just are - as you raised your chin with your hands hanging like scarves at your sides and you felt your diaphragm fill then empty then fill again the way your uncle worked the bellow raising fire from the hearth. At West Ward public school, they played a recording of you singing An Irish Lullaby over the public address system to your friends and classmates and teachers during Parents' Day; pretty much the whole town standing there listening as your soprano rang through the speaker grills at the front of those dry yellow classrooms.

If your school was anything like mine - or my kids', come to think of it - your principal was named either King or Jenkins or Arnold (they were all English back then, the principals), and what you couldn't see was how his mien softened as he spared a moment to listen to the tune you'd learned from the prized Weavers record that you played three times a day and once at bedtime on your family's four-in-one.

And then, a few years later, you were in Massey Hall. I played there, too. Just saying the name makes me shiver and I wonder if it still makes you shiver, having played it so many times over the years. It was the first time you sang in the big city, wasn't it? Shuter Street. Allan Gardens. The subway. Simpson's. Fran's. Le Coq D'Or. City Hall. You were just down the block from Maple Leaf Gardens, where Teeder Kennedy played and where that woman used to clang her bell and yell "Let's go Teeeeeder!" whenever he cupped the puck on his stick and charged up the ice. I know this meant something to you, Gord, because in 1993, they made you a celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and I also know that you used to go to games all the time in the '70s and '80s because Bill's mom saw you there, just hanging out, no big deal, signing autographs and talking trade. Cathy Evelyn Smith - more on her, lots more, later - also wrote that "hockey games at Maple Leaf Gardens became part of the ritual. Hoarse from cheering, we'd trudge home to the apartment through the snow."

I don't know if you know it, Gord, but I love the Leafs, too. Love. I get flak for it - who doesn't? - especially when I'm on the road playing gigs or doing book tours, but I wonder whether anyone makes fun when you're around, being a legend and everything. Once, this dude came up to me after a show and was all gushing about our songs and our albums and our concerts, and then, before he left, he said, "Shame that you're a Leafs fan, though."

I think he was a Habs fan, but I'm not sure. F--kin' Habs. Do you hate them as much as I hate them, Gord? If you're a real Leafs fan - which, again, according to Bill's mom, you are - then you probably hate 'em, too. Oh yeah: even if you don't want to talk to me about music or your life, Gord, I'd be happy to sit around and bash the Habs silly. That way we could avoid talking about anything real, even though talking about hockey is realer than most things, if you know what I mean.

? Excerpt from Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972. Copyright © 2011 by Dave Bidini. Published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd. All rights reserved.

While watching Battle of The Blades http://www.cbc.ca/battle/(competition with hockey players skating with figure skaters) the other night there was Gordon sitting in the audience enjoying the show....he was introduced from the ice, looking pretty smart in all black..

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I haven't seen Blades since it was at the Gardens. But seems like Ron and Browning have their schtick in synch during the openings I've seen, lol. Next year they should have Cherry and O'Leary host or perhaps guest judge, lol

Sorry for confusion, I was watching for Wayne's review under the News section but it just slid into the Books section. Do any have all of these books? Impressive

Wow. I just tried reading all that. Has geoSteve's writing style. Hope he's well:)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

http://www.aux.tv/2011/10/q-a-dave-b...-jay-baruchel/

Dave Bidini is a busy dude. He is the author of ten books, most about music, sports, or some combination of the two. He is a National Post columnist and a founding member of the Rheostatics, a band stitched into the very fabric of Canadian musical identity. He plays regularly with his own Bidiniband, adapts his books into movies and mini series, and kind of seems to be everywhere at once.

His latest book is called Writing Gordon Lightfoot. The title is both a red herring and a tilt of the hand; with the subtitle “The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972,” it would be easy to approach Bidini’s latest as a straight biography of one of Canada’s great songwriters. But Writing is about a lot more than that, a fact that becomes immediately apparent through its unorthodox style, structure, and duel narrative. Bouncing between confessional, personal letters to Lightfoot himself (who refused to be interviewed for the book) and the worldwide events leading up to Mariposa folk festival in 1972, it’s a book about Spassky versus Fischer and the formation of the World Hockey Association, a loveletter to ’70s Canadiana and Rolling Stones tour confessional. It’s a lot of different, fascinating things, making it one of Bidini’s most rewarding works.

It also makes an offhanded mention of AUX favourite, Damian Abraham of Fucked Up. When we get Bidini on the phone to talk about his book and future plans, it’s a pre-interview tweet about this fact that launches us into conversation.

Dave Bidini: It’s funny you mentioned that thing about Damian, because that’s the last thing I changed before it went to print. I think I had Diamond Rings in there or something, and my editor didn’t know who it was. So I said, “Do you know who Damiam Abraham is?” And she said no. But I told her to put him in there instead. I had run into him at a Vietnamese restaurant on Bloor Street and I thought he’d get a kick out of it.

AUX: I’m going to go ahead and ask the questions you will be continued to ask every time you talk about this book.

That’s okay.

Has Gord read it?

We had our launch party last night, and one of his best friends came, and was apparently trying to get him out. But if I was Gord, I wouldn’t have come. I would like him to read it. I would like him to come to my house every Friday for dinner, and we could be buddies and shoot pool together and watch hokey, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care. You can’t worry about the reactions of whoever you put into your book. You do the best you can do. I think at one point in the book I do appeal to him and say, “Hey, man, you’re lucky I’m writing this book, and not some muckraking journalist, being senstive to the life.”’ I hope he feels like he caught a bit of a break.

Was the idea always to tie these different narratives into a story about Gordon Lightfoot?

I found this Mariposa ’72 episode early on, and I thought I could built the book around a reconstruction of the week and that event, with Lightfoot in the centre. I had done all this research and I had all this raw matter, and I thought I would use it, which is how it became this double-header. The way it’s supposed to work is like a hard-soft, light-dark. The letters are very warm and fleshy, and the alternating chapters of the week are very cold.

Was there a point when you were writing it that you realized it had become about more than just providing context? In some way, Gordon Lightfoot starts to feel like a stand-in for Canadian identity and character.

I think all the books, or any kind of art that you create, you always aspire—the subject is the horse you ride in on—but the scope of the book is what you see in front of you. People have said to me, “I don’t really like hockey, but I like Tropic of Hockey.” The baseball book is the same way. Every book I try to do that. The subject of the book is the vessel through which you explore a greater reality and touch on these universal themes. The Lightfoot thing—I think what you say is an interesting observation. I didn’t want this to be a book where all the fetishistic details of a celebrity’s life were explored. You want it to be about something greater beyond that. I think it will disappoint people who pick it up expecting a biography. And you’re right, by the end, it’s a bit of a Frankenstein. You’ve got Lightfoot, you’ve got me, you’ve got Canada and Bobby Hull and the whole Mariposa crew. At the end you have this wide gallery of figures. You hope the reader is able to enjoy the ride, but you really hope that they can look back and see their own lives reflected in it. I think it was a good time to use Lightfoot as a symbol. Canadian life is very different than it was when he started out. I felt the same about On a Cold Road. It seemed important to keep those stories alive. When those people are gone their stories are gone, but those are the stories on which other lives are built.

To totally change tacks, you’ve been tweeting about working on the Baseballissimo movie. What’s the status of that project?

Jay Baruchel and his writing partner Jesse are working the script now. They’ll have the script delivered to us by Christmas. It’s great. We’ve had tons of interest in terms of getting the film made without actually having a working script. So it looks really positive. Those guys did a 10 page treatment of the film and I feel like they really get it. And Geddy [Lee, as in, of Rush, who is connected to the film] has run a band for 25 years, so he’s a natural producer. He’s a great communicator, and he’s great at gathering people together. We’re hoping for TIFF in 2013, which probably means shooting around the end of next fall. When Baseballissimo came out, it wasn’t that well promoted, but the people who liked the book really liked the book. It’s so neat that it’s had this second life 12 years after it came out. It just goes to show that if you have a good story and you believe in a good story, you never know where it’s going to lead.

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Last week I posted my thoughts on the "new" book. Admittedly I still haven't read it, although I do read the excerpts and reviews when Char and others post them. Reading over what I wrote, I really hope I didn't offend anyone- including the author himself by my posting. If I did, I apologize. It's just that I feel kind of protective towards the man. I mean, I feel incredibly fortunate that we still have him with us. Let's face it; we could have easily lost him a number of times over the years. Not just from drinking (thankfully he was able to quit when he did) but from the other things that have transpired. Not only is he still alive, but he's still thriving, still performing! For those reasons and more I'm thankful (and I'm not even Canadian-lol)!

I guess that partly explains my frustration with this book; for what it could have been (or at least what I was hoping it would be). I still don't care for the "tone" of some of what I've read. I also don't understand why he felt the need to make some stuff up, ignore other things and include all those details about news events fom 1972 that, to me, just detracts from what I really want to know about: the life and times of Gordon Lightfoot in the year 1972.

I think the fact that no one has ever written a really good, fair, comprehensive book on the man is a crime! Think of it, Gordon Lightfoot the absolute finest singer songwriter of our time (my humble opinion) and we only have a few meager accounts of his life. I really can't fathom that. Take other artists: Elvis, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, even fellow Canandian Neil Young, and you can find many, many books about, and only about them. How can we explain this? He's certainly worthy. In fact I would put Gordon's body of work between 1966 and 1976 up against anyone's (even Dylan's) in terms of quality and consistancy.

Some will say it's because Gordon is so reclusive, and that's true to a point, but not entirely. He does talk, he does interviews and will from time to time reveal some interesting tid bit about his life. As someone else said in this discussion; if you took all the info from this and Wayne's site, along with interviews both with Gordon and people he's known and put it all together- you'd probably have a pretty decent body of work.

I do think Cathy Smith played an important part in Gordon's life in the early 70's, and at times have wondered how many songs she inspired (I suspect quite a few). I think her later troubles in the 80's (we all know what I'm talking about so I'm not going to mention it) may be part of the reason Gordon is reluctant to talk too much about aspects of his life. Writers always bring it up, but the truth is none of her later difficulties had anything to do with Gordon. They had parted long before then. If anything, I think her problems started more along the time she started hanging out with the Stones (they seem to have that kind of effect on people) than anything else.

Will Gordon ever write a book? From what I've gathered here and elsewhere; the idea doesn't seem to excite him. As someone who (at least partly) made his living by writing, I would think the prospect would be kind of fun. At least the pressure is off now- no recording contracts to meet. I suppose (and I think he has even said) that he's also partly thinking of his family and their feelings. But I would guess that by now, they probably have a pretty good idea that their Dad was a little wild in his younger days (weren't we all). I'll leave my thoughts at that, along with the hope that someday Gordon will actually pen his memoirs (and that he'll ask me to assist him- talk about your dream job).

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

He does not want to write a book and tell things abut his life and name people etc. who were part of the more than 'wonderful' aspects of his career and personal life.
As far as the Bidini book - if you read what the book is about and how it is constructed then you will know it is NOT a biography. Don't expect one and you won't be disappointed. Read it for what it IS. If you can't get past that need to have the grit from the man himself you'll be waiting a long time. As far as people knowing he was wild that's different than it being written down with all the details.
Assuming things about the author and being put off by those assumptions is not the way to go about whether to read a book or not as far as I'm concerned.
Reading this book leads to some interesting details of the times of 1972, the music, the performers etc. It's a good read, some laffs and some new info to ponder on whether you were of age at the time or a kid..I hate this saying but "it is what it is."..
;)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/art...132730893.html

TORONTO - As soon as Dave Bidini put the word out that he was writing a book about Gordon Lightfoot, the stories started to pour in.

Bidini, the former Rheostatics singer, has plenty of friends in rock 'n' roll, and they had plenty of tangled yarns to spin about the 72-year-old Canuck singer for "Writing Gordon Lightfoot."

Some were flattering, but most were definitely not.

"People would be like: 'I have a great Lightfoot story,' and it would inevitably turn out to be a horrible Lightfoot story," Bidini said in an interview this week at a Toronto cafe.

"There's a book that could come out for sure that would just be about that, just be about him being a mean drunk and a bad husband ... But if you put too many episodes in a book like that, that's all people are going to take away from it, and I wanted people to come away with a fuller impression of who the person was, about this life lived in Canadian music."

"And actually one of the things I say in the book is I sort of approach Gord and I say: 'I hope you're grateful that it's me writing the book and not some muck-raking journalist.'"

That Bidini wanted to protect Lightfoot's legacy — or at least his dignity — might imply some sort of friendly relationship between the two Canadian rockers. But in fact, Bidini says that Lightfoot refused to be interviewed for the book despite his persistent requests.

In the text, Bidini offers a couple of theories for Lightfoot's non-participation. Years ago, the Rheostatics covered "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and Bidini and his bandmates thought the Orillia, Ont., country-folk legend might have liked their version.

So they directed it to Lightfoot's manager at the time, Barry Harvey, who has since died. Bidini remembers Harvey telling him that he wouldn't give the song to Lightfoot because it would just annoy the singer. The group was disappointed, and some time later, Bidini slighted Lightfoot in an interview, suggesting that the Canuck icon had swiped the melody for "Fitzgerald" from an old Irish folk tune (Bidini himself heard this rumour at a pub in Cork, Ireland). Harvey asked for a retraction and Bidini agreed, but says that once the comments had hit the Internet, it was too late.

So, the two artists weren't exactly friends. Still, Bidini believes the primary reason Lightfoot didn't want to participate in the book is that the songwriting stalwart simply has no interest in revisiting the still-tender wounds of his past.

And "Writing Gordon Lightfoot" does zero in on a particularly difficult period in his career. The book is structured around the events of one week in July 1972, when some of the biggest names in music — including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and, yes, Lightfoot — descended on tiny Toronto Island to make surprise appearances at the Mariposa Folk Festival.

At the time, the book says, Lightfoot had been forced to curtail his touring schedule due to Bell's palsy, which had temporarily left his face partially paralyzed, his first marriage was crumbling (he would divorce in '73), and he was dating Cathy Smith — the same woman who would later serve time in a California prison for injecting actor John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982.

The tumult that Lightfoot was enduring in his personal life seemed to evaporate for a brief moment at Mariposa, when he showed up unannounced, sat down and quietly strummed an acoustic guitar in the middle of the festival grounds — at a tree stump, or on a rock, or on a picnic table, depending on whose version of events you believe.

"It was this wonderful moment of purity at a time in Gord's life when things were really bad and complicated," said Bidini, 48.

Bidini calls the week of Mariposa the moment that "Canadian culture kind of matured." Yet he admits he was a little bit "neurotic" about writing a book about just one person, so he also found space to venture into other events of the uncommonly momentous week — the selection of Canada's hockey entry to the Summit Series, the Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky chess showdown and the Pioneer 10 becoming the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter's asteroid belt, to name a few.

Bidini's interest in Lightfoot, meanwhile, dates back to the '80s, when the Rheostatics tossed off the "Edmund Fitzgerald" cover at a club in Thunder Bay, Ont., and the crowd went into a frenzy. Still, Bidini didn't want to do a straight biography that focused merely on the mundane details — as he puts it — of Lightfoot's life.

Instead, Bidini blended fact and fiction, occasionally giving the text over to his own ruminations on what a certain scene might have looked like. He also wrote a series of letters addressed directly to Lightfoot, which often only barely conceal Bidini's frustration at the singer's refusal to talk to him.

"I was frustrated for a long time, again until I found out I could use the fictional device to kind of build the story," Bidini said. "And once I decided on that, it was quite liberating."

Given the nature of the project, it's perhaps understandable that Bidini found it difficult to assemble a complete, coherent sketch of Lightfoot's personality.

Different accounts from different sources revealed vastly different perceptions of the iconic singer, with some painting him as an irascible chauvinist, and others as a warm, generous soul.

But Bidini believes that Lightfoot has become more social, and less elusive, over time.

"I think he's less difficult to nail down as a person ... as he's gotten older," said Bidini, who's in the process of wrapping a new Bidiniband album entitled "In the Rock Hall."

"People have said he's become a lot more open and a lot more social, he goes out a lot more, a lot more communicative."

Bidini only actually met Lightfoot once, in an elevator in Quebec City in 1987. (Bidini asked how the previous night's performance went, and Lightfoot responded that "'Early Morning Rain' was a little fast." That was it.)

It's not clear what Lightfoot thinks of Bidini's book. A representative for the singer said Thursday he was unavailable to comment because he's preparing for his next tour.

Bidini says mutual friends have pledged to get a copy of to Lightfoot, though the author isn't concerned about whether he reads it.

"People have asked me, what's he going to think of this? And I don't care. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what he thinks in a way. However, I'd love to talk to the guy. It'd be super fun. He can come over for dinner any time."

And what would Bidini ask him if finally afforded the opportunity?

"I'd like to find out if he liked our version of the song, basically," he laughed.

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2220264/
I’m sorry, and you are?

Dave Bidini was at an authors festival in Banff, Alta. He was chuffed to have been invited, but pretty soon it became clear that none of the other 40 writers there had any idea about his work, which has been mostly in the sports, travel and music milieus.

“They just wouldn’t read a book about Chinese hockey, or baseball in Italy, or music in Africa,” Bidini explained recently, referring to what he calls the greater literati. “It just didn’t seem to penetrate their radar.”

The lead-in to a cover story in this month’s Quill & Quire magazine poses a question: Would Bidini’s 10th and latest book, Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972, “bring him the literary laurels he desires?”

It’s a good question – and one that the article, oddly, doesn’t really address. So, over coffee at Bar Italia on Toronto’s College Street strip, I ask the author-musician about his missing recognition.

“Desire is a little too strong a word,” explains Bidini, a likable fellow with an earthy, hard look somewhere between a fruit vendor and a vintage gumshoe. “Every time I write a book, I think, ‘This is going to be a huge bestseller and it’s going to win all the awards.’ But then, just the achievement of completing it and it being true to the vision with which it started seem to soak up all those aspirations.”

It was Bidini’s need for acknowledgment that inspired the epistolary Writing Gordon Lightfoot. Rebuffed in his efforts to speak to the Canadian folk icon for a planned biography of sorts, Bidini constructed his book uniquely: Each chapter begins as a fan letter from Bidini, who poses questions to his real-life hero, eventually creating a biographical arc.

The book’s first missive addresses the possible reason Lightfoot wasn’t interested in participating in the project: Years ago, after Bidini’s former band, the Rheostatics, recorded a version of Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Bidini was informed by Lightfoot’s manager, the late Barry Harvey, that the Sundown singer wouldn’t be interested in listening to the Rheostatics’ cover. Upset that Lightfoot couldn’t be bothered to hear his band’s homage, Bidini spouted off to a journalist that the song’s melody was lifted from a traditional Irish folk song.

Bidini has ever since been on the outs with the Lightfoot camp.

Writing Gordon Lightfoot’s imaginary letters are intercut with another narrative – one that traces the real but fantastical happenings that took place during the second week of July, 1972: the announcement of the Canada-Soviet Union hockey super series; a major jailbreak at Millhaven prison near Kingston; the beginning of the Boris Spassky-Bobby Fischer chess summit; the final leg of the journey of Pioneer 10 toward Jupiter; a total eclipse of the sun; and a storied edition of the Mariposa Folk Festival, that year attended by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Lightfoot.

Before speaking to Bidini, I had asked Bernie Fiedler, a long-time friend and booker of Lightfoot, if the folk singer would ever look at the new book. “He doesn’t read any of them,” Fiedler replied, referring to the 1984 autobiography of Cathy Smith (Lightfoot’s drug-addled former girlfriend, who was later found responsible for John Belushi’s death) and a panned 1988 biography from Maynard Collins. “He’s not interested.”

Bidini says it ultimately doesn’t matter, but acknowledges that he would rather Lightfoot hate the book than ignore it outright. “Listen, I’d love it if he came for dinner every Friday, but I’m not delusional,” he says. “I would like him to read it, though, because I find it to be a friendly book in a lot of ways. And maybe he should be grateful that it’s written by a fellow musician, one who’s been to a lot of places he’s been to, emotionally and geographically.”

So, another snub from Lightfoot, the musician whom Bidini most admires.

As for the greater literati, there’s not much more Bidini can do to gain their recognition, either. “There’s a critical resistance to my work,” he contends, “not from all corners, but sports and rock ’n’ roll are often viewed downwardly.”

Does he foresee some prizes, at least, this time out? “It doesn’t define who I am, but an award would be nice,” he allows. “That said, that the book exists is enough, and that I can stand behind it and be proud of it.”

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I just finished the book. He references you, Char? Is the Char he talks about you?
Book wasn't so hard on Gord as I was afraid it might be. Just wish Dylan wasn't on the cover. I never could figure out what people saw in him...He is no Gordon Lightfoot!

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

yep - that'd be me! I am not keen on Dylan on the cover either..I offered Dave some pics of Gordon and me but he went with Dylan..sheesh!
lol

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

audio interview--Books On The Radio @ http://booksontheradio.ca/2011/11/06...don-lightfoot/

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Yeah, I woulda bought if it were you two on the cover. And especially if there was a chapter called The Stuff She Didn't Want Me To Talk About

:)

Hey, Gord said there was never a cover he didn't like and also said he might got the Wreck melody from an old Irish folk song SO maybe there are other reasons that Gord doesn't wanna spoon with Bidini...

maybe it will all work out in the end, and there'll be a sequel? :)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

This is INSANELY funny.....

Who writes for you!!!!

"red"

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

been a while, red:) Oh, his name is Herb


David looks like he's finally content, eh

whereas Gord looks like he's calling for a Tums

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

After listening to as much of this tripe as I could, I'm left with one lasting impression...this guy sounds like the psycho, bad guy in the first "Dirty Harry" movie, if he'd decided to be a singer in a band....and it's as scattered and disjointed as the above example of his writing...

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/...514/story.html
Dave Bidini says he hopes he didn’t disappoint anyone with his new book.

They are not the first words you would expect to hear from an author on the publicity rounds for his newest book.

“I hope I didn’t disappoint anybody terribly,” says Dave Bidini, settling in for a chat from his home in Toronto. “I’m sure I did.”

It seems the prolific author and musician realizes there are perils to messing with the accepted hallmarks of the unauthorized biography, particularly when dealing with a beloved and enigmatic Canadian icon. More to the point, he was aware that naming a book, Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music and the World in 1972, might lead a few readers to expect something a little more generic than what they will actually be getting.

Later in the interview, Bidini even points out some less-than-flattering reader reviews found on Amazon.ca, and hostile comments that appeared after his latest column for the National Post.

“ ‘Pure garbage’ I think is the headline of one of my entries,” he says with a laugh. “And the National Post site, after my column this week, there’s a bunch of people saying ‘Well, of course this is a terrible article, I read the Lightfoot book and why am I reading about prison breaks?’

So, yeah, unfortunately there are people who have come to it and have been sort of tricked, I guess.”

“But all you have to do is read the inside flap to really know what the book is about.”

Bidini appears to take some solace when reminded that unimaginative readers, like unimaginative listeners of music or unimaginative watchers of films, tend to base their appraisal of something on how closely it resembles everything else they have read, listened to or watched.

And Writing Gordon Lightfoot is anything but typical as a biography or anything else. Loosely, it fits into the growing field of “literary journalism.” But it fits even more snugly into what has become a pet topic of Bidini’s through a good number of his 10 books. (Incidentally, Bidini’s book On A Cold Road, a 1998 road memoir, made the shortlist for CBC’s 2012 Canada Reads contest Wednesday and will be championed by supermodel Stacy McKenzie.)

Yes, Writing Gordon Lightfoot is about “the world in 1972” but it’s also about Canada in 1972. It’s about how Canada viewed the world, and vice versa. So while ostensibly focused on Lightfoot and the week leading up to the iconic 1972 Mariposa Folk Festival on Toronto Island, Bidini also veers into other stranger-than-fiction, seemingly unrelated happenings that were shaping Canada and beyond for those seven days. That includes everything from a prison break at Millhaven penitentiary, to the beginning of the Canada-Russia hockey series, to the fading of Trudeaumania, and a decidedly debauched Exile on Main Street tour by the Rolling Stones, which happened to roll into Toronto at roughly the same time that Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and others took to the Mariposa stage.

“I think it was a very pivotal week in terms of Canada maturing as a country and us maturing as a people,” says Bidini. “The nature of the country was changing for sure, you know, with the flower of ’67 getting trampled to the ground. Rock ’n’ roll and hard rock was dirtying up the Canadian sound. And I think, the Canada-Russia series, that whole ride, I think we were very different at the end of that summer.”

Writing Gordon Lightfoot shares another common thread with other Bidini books, which is his habit of inserting himself into the action.

There are “fan letters” from Bidini to Lightfoot throughout the book. The first is also perhaps the most revealing, a mea culpa of sorts about an incident more than 20 years earlier that Bidini fears may have scuttled any possible relationship with Lightfoot.

After Bidini’s former band, the Rheostatics, covered The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1989, the young musician was offended when his hero refused to acknowledge the interpretation. So he told a British journalist, perhaps after one too many pints, that the melody of the song was in fact stolen from an old Irish tune. This accusation, which isn’t true, eventually got out to the world and greatly annoyed Lightfoot. Getting it off his chest was cathartic, Bidini says. Still, unlike his younger self, he seems torn as to whether he wants the 73-year-old legend to actually acknowledge his work now. Or, for that matter, whether he wants Lightfoot to even read the book at all.

“While I was writing it, yeah, but not so much now,” Bidini says. “If he did read it, that would be swell, I suppose. But I think it’s a bit of a ‘careful-what-you-wish-for’ scenario. If he doesn’t read it, that’s OK too. Ultimately you have to write for yourself really. He’s a guy I think would be really great to sit down and have a beer with him and get to know him.”

But how many people, particularly journalists and writers, really get to know Lightfoot? Last month, Herald music critic Mike Bell asked the singer about Bidini’s book directly. Lightfoot said he didn’t know anything about it and that Bidini was just one of many people who had asked, and been denied, access to his life.

He also said he was the only one who could really write a proper memoir. But even if he did, he would likely keep a lot of the personal details to himself.

That enigma, of course, is part of the appeal and part of what makes Lightfoot such an intriguing case study for any writer.

“Basically, a biography of Bono would probably be really dull,” says Bidini. “He’d be like ‘I’m Bono!’ It’s the ones whose lives are in the shadows. . . . They’re always the most interesting characters.”

evolmers@calgaryherald.com

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

"tricked", yes, and I'd say that was the publisher's intent

wonder if Mer filed a signed copy in her people's library?


Btw, I sobbed like this when my permit to build a small shed on my very own property was denied. These guys will just have meet at one of the many public branches in the area (but check their bongs at the door...)

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

lolol...
I never felt tricked about what the book was about. He clearly states what it is and what it is not.
Never apply for permits. Never.
lol

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

the talk at the Indigo / Starbucks sitting area (that's where I leafed thru looking for the highly acclaimed photos and anything new at all about Gord's music or life) was how misleading the title was... if you read the articles and fine print then i guess he did give a warning... i think many old timers missed it (and weren't ready for the lack of adverbs and adjectives that didn't begin with "sh" or "fu" ....there should be a contest to count em all... like guessing jelly beans in a jar ...but i dont' mind paying for jelly beans:)

for the average Joe: they see a nice cover pic of Gord and Bob and i mean, what folk or Gord or Bob fan is gonna omit this from their collection?

again, i think it's the tasteless publisher who forced the hand of the author, who is probably likable, ego tone aside ... i hope the author gets a fat recurring cheque for this on-the-side effort but also hope that someone like Kenyon or Wayne is the chosen one to write an authorized bio on the man, including insights into the music and it's influence on them

anyhow, i learned two things this week.... that a distant family member thought they had discovered this book on Gord that I might not be aware of (duh)...and that they were going to surprise me with it as a gift... NOOOO!!! ( i'm obviously on the naughty list, agh )

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

would it kill you to read it?
lolol

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Well I did read the book after borrowing it from the library and have to agree that I don't know what the point of it was. It struck me as a mish-mash of things that didn't have any kind of cohesion. I sure didn't learn a heck of a lot more about Gord than I knew beforehand. I do have to hand it to Bidini, though, he does have flashes of literary brilliance here and there.

This doesn't obviate from the need for a Lightfoot biography. I know Gord doesn't want to air his old dirty laundry and prefers to leave some things buried in the past (who can blame him?) so how about a musical biography? That's mainly why we love him anyway; it's about the music.

I've pitched this idea to another iconic Canadian rock band and they've expressed interest in that approach: a focus on the music. So how about it, Gord? I know you get three or four requests a week at your office to do a biography, so you say, but this one would be different. I'd do a bang-up job for ya.

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Well, I just bought the book - and a new Martin D-18V - thoroughly enjoyed the book. Trudeaumania, Bobby Orr, Kingston Pen escape - I remember some of those things back then.

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

glad you enjoyed those parts...just FYI, that escape was from Millhaven (not Kingston Pen)

one of my fave Tragically Hip tunes is fictional but based on that real life escape

Re: Writing GORDONLIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Yeah that's right re: Millhaven - The point seems to me that the book is really not about Gordon Lightfoot at all in any direct sense. I found it clever and entertaining and an interesting premise to write a story about a specific period in Canada's recent history. Not sure what Lightfoot would be really offended with.....and the D-18 sounds awesome...

Just finished Writing Gordon Lightfoot...
 

I loved the descriptions of the scene. Mariposa.

Although I was too young for that scene I feel drawn to the idea of a scaled down "unplugged" outdoor event/jam session with a folk music theme. I loved the part of Bidini's book where GL wanders off, sits near a tree and just plays...unplugged.

Do you think there's any appetite for this in Toronto?

....
p.s. (I expect GL even more p.o'd at Dave Bidini, especially the way it ended... & probably going to read Cathy's book because he warned GL off it).

Re: Just finished Writing Gordon Lightfoot...
 

appetite for this in Toronto?? not sure what that means/references?..lol

I was told at the book launch that Gordon wouldn't be reading the Bidini book. Don't know if he has ever read Smith's book..if he never did before he probably wouldn't bother now.

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I was too young as well and would have loved to have seen some of the acts back then. It would have been a great spot for Mariposa over on Toronto Island - quite a different skyline of TO than there is now...

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I meant I'M going to read Cathy's book because Bidini warned GL away from it ;)

I was thinking that a scaled down, less formal than Mariposa folk music jam might be fun in the waterfront park near where I live. No paid tickets, just people who want to get together and play their own music. Sweet. Imagine the authorities would stomp all over the idea though. ;(

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I haven't read the book and don't intend to. I don't care for autobiographies unless they are on video. I especially don't like books which are part fiction with fact mixed in. Most of us already know quite a bit about Gordons life, and what is most important about it to me, is his music. In most interviews he does, he talks a bit about his life and his songs. When I have talked with him, I have gained more real facts from him, then I could read anywhere else. I believe what he says, and have deducted my own views on his ways and lifestyles, as they surely have influcenced his music or maybe you could reverse that at times. He is a man of his times and like us all, he has lived his life the way he felt it might be best for the moments. Mistakes, we all make them, it's the waking up and making necessary changes that creates the real character in a person. Gordon has done that more than once and he has come out a sincere and very decent man. I like him, and I don't need some half fiction book to tell me why. If anyone were ever to write a book about Gordon that I might read, it would be his right hand man Rick Haynes. Only because I know Rick would not do anything but tell facts, and he has been there a long time to know Gordon well. As for the Edmond Fitzgerald song by DB when he was a punk rocker, what would you expect? That was the game young punk rockers played, the abstract, and trying to be noticed by getting as much press about their music. He used the various electronic sounds to make it his own, typical and not really done bad in the effects department, if you like electronic music. It fits the era and type of music, his group played. I think they picked the wrong song though. There are plenty of other songs by other writers that would have been better for this treatment, something like; House of the Rising Sun. Gordons way and vision is simply the hauntingly telling of the story, and he does it just fine, as he intended.
Nope, I won't read this book, no big deal.

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Well you will miss out on all kinds of other factoids/info/cultural references/stories about TO/Canada on their own as well as how they relate to Lightfoot...it's not an autobiography. In some ways Lightfoot plays a very minimal part of the book.

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

Ok, seeing you put it that way, if I happen to come across it some day in a cheapo discount bin, I might throw a few bucks into it.

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt
 

I read the book and was amazed by all of the information about Mariposa, which I knew very little about - also about Dylan. In that respect I thought the book was good. I did not care for the jail break incidents coinciding with Mariposa, fact or fiction, nor the very end where he claims he knows Gord's secret. If he is as great a Gord fan as he claims, he wouldn't have revealed it - but was it true? - Kind of gives him great license when he admits from the start that much of the book is fiction. All in all, I'm glad I read it.

Re: Writing GORDON LIGHTFOOT - book excerpt