Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
i too am most interested in the stuff that's still not in 'the book' ... but some unearthed bits there, and some mix ups, oops... a couple of unseen pics to enjoy
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-p...don-lightfoot/
The poetry and wisdom of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot Two new biographies explore the lives of the Canadian music icons Judith Timson October 5, 2017 http://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/up...BIO_POST01.jpg There’s something incredibly poignant in contemplating our aging musical heroes who have also turned out to be Canadian cultural giants, the ones who sang us to sleep at night when we were twentysomething and lonely, helped to mend our broken hearts, or became our spiritual guides as we figured out who we were. Don’t misunderstand: younger fans have every right to think those songs are meant for them. They’re eternal. Still, we fans of a certain age claim them as our own. How many times did I, and every other woman of my era, play Joni Mitchell’s Blue album in the 1970s and, more than once, get hollowed out by those soul-scraping lyrics from “River”: I’m so hard to handle I’m selfish and I’m sad Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby That I ever had O I wish I had a river I could skate away on How many nights did the loneliness of Gordon Lightfoot’s plaintive ballad “Early Morning Rain” reassure us that others, too, were far from where they wanted to be, “with a dollar in my hand, with an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand.” Well, I don’t remember the sand part. But I was always metaphorically a long way from home. Two readable new books out this fall—Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by American writer David Yaffe, and Lightfoot by former Maclean’s music critic Nicholas Jennings—seem perfectly timed not only to chronicle each artist’s life and creative journey but to help us understand and appreciate how much they gave to their art, and how much that art in turn has fed us. Joni Mitchell, now 73, and one of the great musical geniuses—male or female—of the 20th century, has rarely been seen in public since she suffered brain trauma from an aneurysm in 2015. Gordon Lightfoot, 78, hailed as “Canada’s bard,” defined, through songs like “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” what Canada meant to many of us. He is still performing after recovering from his own medical crisis, an abdominal aortic aneurysm that nearly killed him in 2002. Both artists have been rumoured, at times, to be dying or dead. Lightfoot, driving in his car, once heard his own obituary on the air (he thought it was odd they were playing one of his songs on all-news radio) and called in sensibly to deny his own death. What should we call this period of their spectacularly creative lives? Post-iconic? With most of the tributes and honours already bestowed, each of these musical legends is free to carry on more private lives and intense conversations with their muses as we count our own inevitable changes. Each singer has created memorable anthems, some deeply personal, others that stirred in us a new sense of who we were. As someone I know put it, which would you rather sing: “O Canada” or “A Case of You”? Consider one phrase from Yaffe, describing Joni Mitchell’s “years of bottled-up melancholy.” Of course that description could apply to most artists, including the legendary singer both Mitchell and Lightfoot have considered their pace-setter, Bob Dylan. He in turn has admired each of them, once writing about Lightfoot, “Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would go on forever.” Both artists became rich and famous, Lightfoot by staying home in Canada and Mitchell by flying away. As Chuck Mitchell, Joni’s first husband, points out in Lightfoot, they “came from modest backgrounds in small Canadian towns, and shared this survivalist notion to never go back to the restraints of their childhoods.” Reckless Daughter and Lightfoot do a deep dive into their subjects. Author Jennings spent more than a dozen years interviewing the usually reticent Lightfoot, and thanks him for “entrusting his life story to me.” Although Reckless Daughter is juicier (it’s about Joni after all, who turned confession into an art form), Jennings’ portrait of Lightfoot mirrors the man himself: it’s a slow reveal, and ultimately tells a full, satisfying story about a stubborn, often lonely man of few words who has never enjoyed explaining himself to the public. In Reckless Daughter, Yaffe, a Texas-born critic and professor, is clear about his adoration of Mitchell’s work. The author, who interviewed Mitchell several times, writes of her mercurial temperament and unabashed certainty of her own musical genius—“she’s about as modest as Mussolini,” former lover David Crosby said. There are also Mitchell’s scathing put-downs of her peers.“There’s something la-di-da about her,” she sniffed about Judy Collins, who helped her to stardom by first recording “Both Sides Now.” Roberta Joan Anderson was born in Fort Macleod, Alta., in 1943, the rebellious, artistic only child of straitlaced parents. She started smoking when she was nine. Her mother, Myrtle, once called her “a liar, a quitter and a lesbian.” She got pregnant in art school and gave her baby daughter up for adoption, a deep, bruising loss that sparked at least one song, “Little Green,” and a lifetime of regret. She would eventually reunite with her adult daughter in 1997, and though the relationship became tumultuous, she got to know her grandchildren. Mitchell’s biggest subject would always be love, writes Yaffe, “even in its absence.” “I sing my sorrow and I paint my joy,” Mitchell once said, explaining the impetus behind her music—she started singing seriously in Toronto coffeehouses in the ’60s—and the exquisite paintings she has continued to do all her life. (cont.) |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-p...don-lightfoot/
The poetry and wisdom of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot Two new biographies explore the lives of the Canadian music icons Judith Timson October 5, 2017 Continued: In such seventies hits as “The Circle Game,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Help Me,” and in her innovative albums Blue and Court and Spark, Mitchell provided the soundtrack of our lives, winning eight Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award, in the process. Her male peers thought she was way too personal—“Oh, Joni, save something for yourself,” Kris Kristofferson told her—but she couldn’t be any other way. The result was both transcendent and bracing, or as Rolling Stone once put it, “a whole lot of Woman Truth.” Yaffe depicts Mitchell as “a young woman dodging male authority in a man’s world.” Her male peers—among them Graham Nash and Neil Young—admired the way she tuned her guitar, her intricate melodies and, most of all, the words she wrote. Even the late playwright Sam Shepard, for whom she wrote the song “Coyote” after a brief flirtation, couldn’t get over a lyric like “I’ve got a head full of quandary and a mighty, mighty thirst.” Yaffe offers some memorable scenes, among them Joni and Jimi (Hendrix) in an Ottawa hotel room in March 1967, trading notes on music sitting on the floor with a third musician, “like a campfire,” says Mitchell, before a hotel detective broke it up. Oh, Ottawa. Mitchell has bravely made intense forays into jazz and taken other sophisticated musical detours that her fans and radio stations didn’t always appreciate. Blue, meanwhile, remains her biggest-selling album. Yaffe explains the pull of its soulful songs: “In every decade, in every age, there would be those who are sinking, those who needed to be reminded . . . you can make it through these waves.” On the stage of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in December 1975, amid stars like Joan Baez and Elton John, Lightfoot “looked every inch the handsome hometown hero,” Jennings writes. Not only would he have the crowd cheering as he sang “Sundown,” his “taut tale of sexual jealousy,” but there was a helluva party later that night at Lightfoot’s Beaumont Road mansion in Rosedale, site of many a rock-’n’-roll bacchanal, especially after Lightfoot’s sold-out yearly shows at Massey Hall. Born in Orillia, Ont., in 1938, Gordon Lightfoot developed his love of singing before he was a teen, as a member of a United Church choir. He still sings in a Toronto church, once a year. “Throughout his life Lightfoot faced issues of sin, redemption and repentance and when reflecting upon himself, actually thought in those terms,” writes Jennings. Time magazine once called him a “cosmopolitan hick.” While he played often in the U.S., he didn’t move there because “I was a bit of a homebody.” He made a lot of money here—buying up expensive Toronto real estate more commonly the habitat, says Jennings, of “stockbrokers, mining executives, the Bay St. boys.” At the height of his fame, Lightfoot was drinking so hard it almost destroyed his career. At one point he was up to a bottle of Canadian Club a day. In the summers he would take long canoe trips, which also helped him dry out. He eventually stopped drinking. He’s often been seen as socially brusque to the point of boorishness, and he’s agonized over it: “I’ve asked myself many times if the shyness is really arrogance . . . I’m sorry for every faux pas,” he told one interviewer. Through broken marriages (three wives, six children) and the ups and downs of the music industry Lightfoot has had a “huge work ethic.” For Lightfoot, writes Jennings, “it was always about the song.” Work was his refuge, and it paid off in creating lovely, haunting songs (“If You Could Read My Mind” has been covered more than 300 times) that not only made him famous but were sung by some of the greatest singers of his time, including Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand. Stubbornness has been a mainstay of his career. In 1972, he was nominated for a Grammy for “If You Could Read My Mind,” but he refused to perform the song because the producers wanted its time cut, thereby missing “his chance to shine on music’s biggest night on television.” Still, shine he did. In 2000, the New York Times critic Ann Powers wrote after a concert at New York City’s Town Hall that Lightfoot was “a rugged guy who knows how to melt. The slow thaw defines his music and his enduring charm.” Through health crises, music industry shakeups and periods when they were deeply undervalued or undone by their own demons, Mitchell and Lightfoot each kept doing the thing that sustained them—and us. Perhaps the greatest gift of both Reckless Daughter and Lightfoot is that both books lead you right back to their music. Feels like you never left, only better. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
In addition to the article above, I added part 3 of the audio interview:
part 1 - https://soundcloud.com/fyimusicnews/...rtorial-part-1 part 2 - https://soundcloud.com/fyimusicnews/...part-2-revised part 3 - https://soundcloud.com/fyimusicnews/...part-3-revised |
Gold 2 in Jennings Book
I finished the Jennings book tonight. I've been up late every night unable to put it down. I was most impressed with the straightforward presentation of the material, and he definitely did a great job of making it "neither hagiography nor a hatchet job," as he said he would.
I wanted the book to be at least 50% longer, just because I want to know more. At times I couldn't understand why he'd described this or that concert, which I guess made me assume he must have been there and wanted to talk about it. I wanted a bit more commentary on each album overall, but what surprised me the most was that Gold Vol 2 was completely skipped over, as if it never happened. Gold 2 isn't my favorite, because I think every original album recording is better than the 1988 remake. (Whereas I think he improved most of the songs he re-recorded for Gold, which is saying a lot!) Anyone have any idea why Gold 2 would be completely overlooked? Jennings explains why he did new recordings for Gold. Why for Gold 2? |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Ralph Benmergui interview:
https://soundcloud.com/cbc-fresh-air...raphy-oct-0717 |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
probably old news, but for the troopers who battle rain and cold to mingle, the official book launch is this evening
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
wasn't raining - just a spitter spatter for a few moments.. ! thankfully!
I was invited by the author, Nicholas Jennings, to the book launch of the fabulous new authorized biography, LIGHTFOOT. I attended with my daughter Lisa and it was a fabulous evening in TOronto at The Pilot on Cumberland. It was great to spend a few moments with GOrdon and many others.. It was super exciting for me to meet Sylvia Tyson!! We got lots of signatures in our books! The place was buzzing with Gordon's family (Fred and his wife and daughter, nephew Steven Eyers, daughter Ingrid, daughter Meredith, and wife Kim), band members (RIck and his wife, Carter and his wife and Barry and his wife), musical peers, media folks (Lloyd Robertson, Liz Braun, Bruce Cole) and fans. Jane Harbury, Sylvia Tyson, Liona Boyd, Denise Donlon, Loraine Segato, Mark Jordan, Bernie Fiedler, Al Mair attended as well. Performances/band - The Good Brothers, Jory Nash, David Woodhead, David Matheson, Lori Cullen, Jason Fowler. Thank you to Nicholas for giving me a "shout out" in the book and inviting me to the launch. And most of all thank you for being the wonderful person Gordon trusted enough to allow this book to be published now. I took some video and have a few pics..It was crowded, dark and noisy so they aren't optimal as if at a concert! I have assembled the videos into a playlist at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...cmC7kRYpbjFV_U |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
hey, glad the weather held and that there was a good turnout... it is so great you trek into the heart of the city for so much stuff, and also capture snippets for folks far & wide, via pics, etc... there should be a book about all that alone:) ... i'd good intentions but will apologize to steve this weekend when he's out here. never met fred and liona, very cool:) ... stockfish, shea, harvey, terry, rea, jessie, gord sr. and many other there still is spirit ... looking forward to the autobiography that takes us on a musical ride .... this has raised the bar to where it belongs, congrats to all:clap:
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://nationalpost.com/entertainmen...ngss-biography
The reluctant Gordon Lightfoot is finally chronicled in Nicholas Jennings's biography Gillian Turnbull: Does Lightfoot's relenting to his life immortalized in book form herald the end? BY GILLIAN TURNBULL LIGHTFOOT BY NICHOLAS JENNINGS VIKING 336 PP; $36 I’m a longtime admirer of music journalist Nicholas Jennings. It was therefore no surprise to me that he was the one to finally lock Gordon Lightfoot into the series of interviews that became the singer’s biography. Simply titled Lightfoot, the book takes its place among the current spate of biographies that are the setting sun’s final rays on boomer music. Can we finally acknowledge that the ’60s are over? Does Lightfoot’s relenting to his life immortalized in book form herald the end? After all, his career peak began 50 years ago this year, with his centennial song “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” marking a significantly different nationalist fervour than was felt at this moment of our 150th birthday. Lightfoot arguably comes at a time when old musicians’ legacies are perpetually on our minds. In any given week over the last two years, a rocker’s death has fought for headline space against books and films documenting music by his or her (mostly his) contemporaries. No wonder: the ’60s and ’70s were something of a golden era to be a musician. You could actually make money, or develop your craft through a four-album deal, as Lightfoot did many times over. You didn’t have to fight against the noise of everyone else on Bandcamp or YouTube – or be your own publicist, booking agent and recording engineer in equal measure. Still, it’s difficult to convince anyone under 40 that Lightfoot and his contemporaries have something to offer us now; their gentle ruminations on heartbreak in an empty Canada hardly reflect the desperation most of us feel just to survive contemporary urban life. When I play Lightfoot, Ian Tyson and the other folkies of the period to my undergraduate students, I feel like I’ve accidentally passed them a pillow and a bottle of whiskey and set them in snooze mode. If it isn’t already obvious from this review’s opening, I expected to be bored by this book. I grew up with Lightfoot occasionally on in the house (a famous picture in our family shows my mother dancing with her date to “Beautiful” at her graduation), so I was well aware of his extraordinary songwriting and guitar-playing talent. He’s Canadian through and through, despite his push to subvert industry attempts to elevate Canadian musicians above American exports through the Can Con regulations. Too bad, he said, my music will rise to the top despite, not because, of its Canadianness. Lightfoot nevertheless remained in the country, settling for a somewhat benign existence in comparison to his rock colleagues, focusing more on songwriting and annual canoe trips than partying hard. Or did he? In the tried-and-true formula of the Great Man Rock Biography, Jennings uncovers what we already sort of knew about Lightfoot: he was a drunk prone to fits of anger that sometimes pissed off audiences, demolished his relationships and alienated him from his children. This same aggressive self-determination forged the drive that makes up the other half of the Rock Biography: it’s okay to be a jerk if you’re producing great material. As such, the book follows the familiar trajectory of naked ambition to start, unexpected and overwhelming fame next, followed by descent into substance abuse oblivion, and finally our favourite: redemption. I should clarify, however, that I wasn’t bored. Jennings as always is a master storyteller, and I’ve read few books faster than Lightfoot. His deft manipulation of narrative, told in clear language, draws the reader in immediately – and though he doesn’t hold back in his most negative portrayals of the singer, his voice is present without detracting from the person at the centre of the book. Jennings’s true gift might be his ability to slowly reveal Lightfoot to us – over the course of the book, the complexity of his character emerges, through a peeling away of the many layers the notoriously reticent singer has kept hidden. Ultimately, we discover that Lightfoot’s abrasiveness is contrasted by a deep sensitivity and generosity. I’ve never come close to disliking any of Jennings’s offerings, and he is undoubtedly a chief Canadian music historian. We can also argue Lightfoot is one of our principal talents, his poetic descriptions of nature and elaborate guitar-picking style producing a body of work that in many respects outshines his counterparts. But what role does the music biography serve at this point, when the narrative is so similar that the characters are merely swapped out and all else remains unchanged? Are we merely comforting ourselves about a music industry that once actually rewarded its talent by reading these books? In Jennings’s case, it’s more than that. We are no doubt trying to better know our heroes in a personal way. And perhaps that is the best reward for Lightfoot fans who have waited for so long: Lightfoot is your chance to finally know him deeply. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
getting further updated and kicking myself ... had no idea Wayne Francis (!) was going ... GL web long timers will recall how he (Matt Fifer too?) brought Gord to the word wide web ( 23 year ago?? ) and we all started swapping GL thoughts and stories in that old alt.net newsgroup .... the Lightfoot.ca website was launched and it's still ticking .... i have archived favourite musical banter tidbits from he, Richard Harrison and so many others ... that compilation could be published... although less appealing to the masses... thank you Wayne, char, val, florian (who? wheeeere? lol) and all setlist, review keepers and tidbit contributors from throughout the decades... and also to those who have passed on ... was honoured to meet many.... your legends do live on ....safe travels, Wayne .... next time
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Playlist of videos - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...cmC7kRYpbjFV_U
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Wow! What gorgeous photos & lovely autographs, Char! What an incredible event it was!
Looking forward to watching the videos! Gail |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
I note in the book that "Rainbow Trout" is described as a "Clunker" I think it is a lovely song, I wish I could write one as good. Am I alone?
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Quote:
The book really has very little focus on the music though... |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
It's a biography of the musician..not a music book. lol.. :)
maybe that's next on his 'list of things to do'... write a book about the music.. hmmmm..... I may have to start making that suggestion to him.... |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Does anyone know, when Nicholas Jennings was writing about the song "Sometimes I Don't Mind", did he have a case of misheard lyrics or did Gord change the lyrics when recording? Jennings quotes the line "When I'm thinking of you ballerina alone", which shows up in the album liner notes as "When I'm thinking of you better leave her alone". Obviously a very minor point, just curious if anyone else picked up on it or knows the story.
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Nicholas says (and I also heard "ballerina" in the recorded version ):lyrics here and at gordonlightfoot dot com are wrong..
Char, it's not misheard. If you listen to the recording, Gord sings in the second verse"When I'm thinking of you ballerina alone." It's there in the singing, clear as day, if not in the liner notes. In the book there's info about a ballerina he dated... |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/art...beandmail.com&
OCTOBER 20, 2017 TITLE Lightfoot AUTHOR Nicholas Jennings GENRE Biography PUBLISHER Viking Canada PAGES 315 PRICE $35 Nicholas Jennings introduces his biography of Gordon Lightfoot with a seven-page story about Bob Dylan and his Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which in late November, 1975, rolled into Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The scene was wild and it was mobile. A postconcert party happened at Lightfoot's Rosedale mansion, where a leather jacket was thrown into a fire, filling the house with thick black smoke. "Bobby was a very enthusiastic partier," recalls Ramblin' Jack Elliott, a folk-music legend and raconteur, referring to Dylan. "Dylan was into drinking carrot juice at the time," adds Ronnie Hawkins, a rock-music myth-maker. Partier or carrot-juice enthusiast – who can recall? It was the seventies. Truth and leather jackets, lost in smoke. The story continues. Lightfoot and Dylan, mutual admirers, were alone upstairs trading songs. The conversation between them was not vibrant. A lion meets a tiger. Wariness and confusion. They were "too guarded, or maybe competitive," author Jennings suggests. The reason for the Dylan-Lightfoot stage-setting isn't instantly apparent. Which is okay. What isn't okay is that the reason to link the two great artists never does fully present itself. Although Jennings will thread the theme throughout his book, he never does tie a knot on it. The best he comes up with is "For Lightfoot, as for Dylan, it was about the song." That seems like a cop out – thin soup. Lightfoot is an informative, highly readable book, but it has to be seen as a minor disappointment. In the acknowledgments, Jennings, a long-time music critic for Maclean's and the author of the essential Before the Gold Rush: Flashbacks to the Dawn of the Canadian Sound, writes of his extensive interviews over the course of a dozen years with the musician. The book jacket hails the author's "unprecedented access" to his subject. Yet the access results in not enough revelation. The book was originally intended to be a memoir, as told to an excellent music journalist by an iconic Canadian songwriter. Such was Lightfoot's reticence, however, that a personal story became a well-researched chronicle, with some Lightfoot-told passages but also with plenty of third-party accounts, some facilitated by microfilm diggings. The tone is respectful; the detail is great and never pedantically presented. All sorts of album-and-concert-review quotes. Lightfoot fans should rejoice and accept the fine info on their man. The Rolling Thunder yarn spun, Jennings takes the reader back to Lake Couchiching – the idyllic, edge-of-wilderness spot near Orillia, Ont., where the boy Lightfoot fished for rock bass and searched for wild mushrooms. We get an account from Lightfoot of an incident involving ice fishing and a near drowning with his cousin. "It was such a close call," Lightfoot remembers. "I'm still amazed we survived." To Jennings's mind, young Lightfoot's escape from peril was indicative of "the kind of dogged determination that would carry him out of Orillia and into international stardom, seeing through all the ups and downs of a large, messy, wonderful and sometimes troubled life." With Lightfoot, we get snapshots of mid-century Canadiana. The man who would grow up to tunefully offer history lessons on shipwrecks and railways and who as an adult would sing some of the greatest brooding relationship songs ever poured out of a whisky bottle – "Pickin' up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream" – started out as performer in barbershop quartets as a schoolboy. Apparently a cappella haircutting was all the rage. Fans paid money to see and hear the genre at great venues such as Toronto's Massey Hall. That they did so with no irony whatsoever can perhaps be attributed to a psychic-trauma hangover from the Second World War. Lightfoot moved on from bow-tie balladry to folk music and, eventually, top-10 troubadouring. Jennings offers an invaluable if unexciting portrait of a superstar: Driven, oft-depressed, a one-time alcoholic, a lover and loser of women, a father who missed his children, a rugged outdoorsman, a hit-maker and Massey Hall filler, a man of great loyalty, a do-the-right-thing dude, a perfectionist, a performer who lives for the stage and a survivor (of a near fatal ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2002 and otherwise). I've met Lightfoot. I like him. Jennings does, too, and so will the reader (if the reader is any right kind of human – and the fact they are reading this particular newspaper is a persuasive argument that they are). At one point, a snippet of an interview with Lightfoot in 1991 by CBC Radio's Peter Gzowski illustrates the frustrating reticence of the former. "The world is clamouring to rap with you, and you insist you don't have anything to say," Gzowski said. "That is precisely correct," the shy Sundown singer answered. And, so, Lightfoot, who owes us nothing but words, voice and melody, frustrates us (and probably Jennings, too). Read between the lines – that's the great songwriter's answer and our recourse. Dylan offered us a deal: "I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours." It was no bargain. But he offered. Lightfoot? Not so much. If we could read his mind, we wouldn't need a contextual memoir. One that, despite Jennings's great effort, we still need. Brad Wheeler is an arts reporter with The Globe and Mail. |
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
I have just finished 'Lightfoot' and it's been strange reading about GL's life and songs. Not an easy read with all the revelations about his failed relationships. Also, the book puts some of his songs in a different place for me. When I hear them now they have a different 'slant' than previously.
I am seeing/hearing many of them with a new perspective. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
VIDEO interview; http://www.chch.com/lightfoot/
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...=.1607f87b4ba6
If you could read Gordon Lightfoot’s mind, this is the tale his thoughts could tell By Don McLeese If you could read his mind, what a tale his thoughts could tell. So claimed Gordon Lightfoot in his 1970 breakout hit, the song that would launch his career as one of the most consistently satisfying singer-songwriters of the decade and would subsequently be recorded by some 300 other artists. (Viking) There was a lot of musical confession in those days, with James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and so many others wearing their hearts on their lyric sleeves. Yet Lightfoot generally kept his mind to himself. A reserved Canadian, he played his emotional cards comparatively close to his vest, rarely granting interviews and rarely saying much when he did. Even in live performance, he came across as a tight-lipped stoic, the troubadour as rugged northwoodsman. So, it’s a revelation here to find Lightfoot opening up at all. Not surprisingly, the biographer to whom he has confided is a fellow Canadian, veteran music journalist Nicholas Jennings, who enjoyed his subject’s full cooperation. Not that this is a kiss-and-tell book. But, regrets, he has a few, and Lightfoot airs them. He has paid a price for keeping his feelings to himself, for letting his career consume his private life, for drinking himself numb. It took him three marriages and assorted relationships (at least one of them borderline toxic) to give him a sense of how to be a husband and a father. We learn that the smooth surface of his signature sound belies the turbulence that has inspired some of his most memorable material, such as the enigmatic “Sundown” (an obsessive jealousy corrodes the soul) and even “If You Could Read My Mind” (a beguiling melody that finds a marriage on the rocks). In Lightfoot’s songcraft, still waters run deep, or at least deeper than you’d expect for someone who became branded an easy-listening artist. He first showed promise was as a schoolboy soloist in the church choir and then as a harmonizer in barbershop quartets. He served an apprenticeship on a corny TV show called “Country Hoedown,” where he became nicknamed “Gord Leadfoot” for his inability to master the choreography. His first songwriting effort was “The Hula Hoop Song” (1957). Inauspicious beginnings, but Lightfoot was determined to make music his career. He studied theory and notation and became more interested in jazz than rock. He moved to Toronto, where he found a burgeoning folk scene. Ian & Sylvia were the leading lights, and their blend of folk and Canadian country showed Lightfoot a path forwardHe also found his manager through the duo, the notorious Albert Grossman, whose top clients were Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, all of whom would record Lightfoot material. He found success as a songwriter through early efforts such as “Early Morning Rain,” but it took much longer for him to establish himself as a recording artist, particularly in the United States. As Jennings points out, Lightfoot’s breakthrough was something of a fluke. He had signed with a new label to release his fifth album, initially titled “Sit Down Young Stranger.” Despite his reputation as a songwriter, the first single from the album was the only song he didn’t write, an early cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee.” On the flip side was “If You Could Read My Mind,” a track that Reprise Records hadn’t considered very commercial. “It’s a highly sophisticated, beautiful song, but it didn’t have a conventional structure, so I assumed radio wasn’t going to accept it,” the label’s Lenny Waronker told the author. But one DJ played the flip side, and then everyone did. The album was reissued with the hit as its title, and radio subsequently accepted pretty much everything Lightfoot released through the ’70s, including “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” an even less likely popular favorite. Lightfoot wasn’t an artist who followed formulas or trends; he was a significant artist with a singular sound. He was also an increasingly troubled man, very conflicted, not comfortable with the glare of the spotlight in a hype-riddled industry. He had trouble with women — not attracting them, but sustaining a fulfilling relationship. And it’s a weakness of the book that we never hear from any of these women — the wives, the girlfriends. This is very much Gord’s story, his version. The more successful he became, the harder he worked, the more he drank, the less he stayed home, the more vicious the circle became. Inevitably, the hits stopped coming, the marriages and relationships fell apart, and his voice, his health and his performances all suffered. But there’s a happy ending of sorts, because he sobered up, married happily and survived a couple of serious hospitalizations. He has channeled his obsessiveness into exercise and performing, transforming himself from has-been into something of a mythic icon, certainly in Canada. How great is he, or was he? Not as great as Dylan, the biography suggests, but the two are mutual admirers who understand each other better than most. “They’re both reclusive and eccentric, so to some degree they’re kindred spirits,” says singer-songwriter Murray McLauchlan, who knows them both. “Except Gord’s life is not a fabrication. He is who he is. Bob Dylan is a complete myth.” Don McLeese is a journalism professor at the University of Iowa and a veteran critic of music, books and popular culture. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://www.nicholasjennings.com/1968...s-breakthrough
1968: The year of Lightfoot’s U.S. breakthrough Featured Monday, 13 November 2017 PHOTOS AT LINK: Gordon Lightfoot became a star at home during Canada’s centennial year. South of the border, he was still mostly known as the composer of hits for others, including Marty Robbins and Peter, Paul and Mary. All that changed in 1968. Why it didn’t happen earlier had a lot to do with the delayed release of the Canadian artist’s debut album, Lightfoot! Although recorded late in 1964, it didn’t appear until over a year later, by which time the folk boom had largely gone bust, thanks to the twin forces of the Beatles and an electrified Bob Dylan. Lightfoot was working hard at playing catch up, releasing The Way I Feel and touring relentlessly throughout ’67. By early the following year, the tide was beginning to turn. Armed with his third album, Did She Mention My Name, Lightfoot found himself getting booked into bigger and better venues with the help of Albert Grossman, the powerful manager he shared with Dylan. The first prime gig came in early April, when Lightfoot appeared at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Owner Doug Weston opened the 350-seat Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood in 1961 and the club quickly became the premier music showcase on the West Coast, a place often packed with agents, managers and record company people. Along with blues artists and standup comedians, it served as the launching pad for folk, rock and country acts ranging from Judy Collins, Tim Buckley and Tom Rush to Nina Simone, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. Linda Ronstadt made her debut there with the Stone Poneys and went on to become one of the Troubadour’s most popular solo acts. When Lightfoot made his debut at the Troubadour on April 2, 1968, accompanied by guitarist Red Shea and bassist John Stockfish, Chuck Mitchell was there to see it. The American folksinger and ex-husband of Joni Mitchell knew Lightfoot from their days together in Detroit. Backstage at the Troubadour, Mitchell witnessed his friend’s nerves up close. “Like all of us, Gordon had genuine self-doubt and wasn’t totally secure,” says Mitchell. “And the Troubadour could be an imposing room. But when Gordon walked out on that stage, he saw that the place was packed. He sang his set and the people knew his songs. In the end, he got several encores, and when he came offstage, he virtually broke down. It was very emotional.” While in Los Angeles, Lightfoot appeared on The Skip Weshner Show on KRHM-FM, performing songs and discussing them with Weshner. Like the Troubadour, Weshner’s radio program was an important West Coast showcase. Having turned heads at the Troubadour, Lightfoot stayed in California to appear at the 7th annual Folk Music Festival. Held on the campus of San Francisco State College, the festival featured a mixed bag of performers, from country legend Merle Travis and singer-songwriter Dino Valenti, of “Let’s Get Together” fame, to blues-rock-soul group the Electric Flag and folk-swing/gypsy-jazz adventurists Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks. Also on the bill was Gale Garnett, a Canadian singer-actress who’d moved to LA after winning a Grammy for her album We’ll Sing in the Sunshine, beating out Dylan’s The Times They Are A-changin’. At the time, Garnett was fronting a psychedelic folk group called the Gentle Reign. Backed by Shea and Stockfish, Lightfoot performed at the festival’s two evening concerts, and took part in a songwriter’s workshop with Garnett and Travis. In keeping with the free-love atmosphere of the times, Lightfoot and the vivacious Garnett wound up sleeping together. As Garnett later recalled: “Gord was a very straight Scottish Presbyterian guy. It was very sweet, very innocent.” Lightfoot’s appearance at the festival focused attention on his Did She Mention My Name album, which began attracting rave reviews. “A work of rare beauty and sensitivity,” commented one California newspaper. “His voice is wonderfully expressive, and whether a song is light or serious, he is able to sing it with honesty,” it continued, adding “Lightfoot can communicate his emotions with eloquence.” Later that spring, Lightfoot was in Washington, DC, to perform for a week at the prestigious Cellar Door club. It was an intense time to be in the States, with frequent race riots and Vietnam protests. Lightfoot, Shea and Stockfish arrived as a transit strike coincided with the Poor People’s March, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. Despite gridlock, the club was filled every night. Grossman continued getting Lightfoot prime bookings, including a spot at the Hollywood Bowl opening for Peter, Paul & Mary, a night at New York’s Bitter End and a return LATimes 1engagement at the Cellar Door. He even booked Lightfoot into the Fillmore West, San Francisco’s hippie auditorium. Rather incongruously, Lightfoot would share the bill with two rock bands, Cold Blood and Canned Heat, and his name was woven into the psychedelic design of the poster advertising the show. Nonetheless, Lightfoot delivered a confident 17-song set that included selections from his second album released that year, Back Here on Earth, and he was called back for an encore, performing “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” to an enthusiastic (and likely very stoned) audience. But none of those gigs compared to Lightfoot’s second appearance at the Troubadour. His first time there was his introduction to American audiences; his return felt like something of a coronation. Word had spread about this singer-songwriter from Canada who sang poetic lyrics without a trace of artifice. Doug Weston’s club on Santa Monica Boulevard was packed with actors, agents, record executives and beautiful women. Also in the audience that week were DJ Skip Weshner, who had Lightfoot on his radio show for a second time, and Robert Hilburn, the influential music critic from the Los Angeles Times. Lightfoot impressed Hilburn enough for him to write a lengthy “star is born” profile headlined “Lightfoot Arrives.” Before the year was out, Hilburn’s east coast counterpart, Robert Shelton of The New York Times, had followed suit, hailing Lightfoot as a bright new talent. There was even a Time magazine profile praising Lightfoot as “that rarity in the folk field: a well-schooled singer.” From then on, Lightfoot could do no wrong in America. All he needed now was a hit song. Adapted from Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings. Copyright © 2017 Nicholas Jennings. Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Photographs used are courtesy of Gordon Lightfoot unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://www.nicholasjennings.com/what...hts-could-tell
One of Gordon Lightfoot’s best-known songs was born out of a dying marriage. With its visions of wishing-well ghosts, movie queens and paperback novels, “If You Could Read My Mind” contains some of Lightfoot’s most vivid imagery. Emotionally, the lyrics stand out for their startling honesty. The words had poured out of him one afternoon in 1969, while sitting alone in an empty house. Baring his soul like never before, he’d written lines like “I don’t know where we went wrong, but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.” There was little doubt it was about his broken marriage. The words “heroes often fail” suggest he blamed himself for its demise, but the phrase “chains upon my feet” indicates he also felt imprisoned by it. Lightfoot had met Brita Olaisson in 1962, just as he was trying to get his solo career off the ground. Newly arrived from Sweden, Brita was a smart, attractive blonde who lived in the same rooming house as Lightfoot in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood. They hit it off and married a year later in Brita’s hometown of Stockholm. After spending their first summer together in London, England, where Lightfoot appeared on a BBC TV series, the couple holidayed in Ireland and then returned to Toronto. Brita was already pregnant with their first child. Meanwhile, Lightfoot’s ambition to succeed with his music kept him away from home much of the time. And the second child that quickly followed only caused him to tour even more to support his growing family. Honeymoon copy 1Brita had been hugely supportive of Lightfoot’s career. With her level head and mathematical skills, she’d been a willing sounding board and shrewd financial advisor. But Lightfoot’s frequent absences and his affairs with other women in towns and cities where he performed had put a strain on their marriage. There was jealous, mistrust and a growing distance between them—and no apparent way to bridge the gap. In 1969, during one of their frequent fights, Lightfoot had lost his temper with Brita and put his fist through a door. His broken hand became an ugly metaphor for the dissolution of their marriage. That same year, Lightfoot signed a recording deal with Warner/Reprise. His first order of business was to write new songs for a new album. In July, while his wife Brita and their children, Fred and Ingrid, were still in the family home, Lightfoot moved into a large new house he’d purchased at 222 Blythwood Road in Toronto, in a quiet neighborhood just off Mount Pleasant. With just a wicker chair and his beloved Quebec table for furnishings, it became Lightfoot’s songwriting retreat. It was there he composed “If You Could Read My Mind.” Lightfoot’s new album, Sit Down Young Stranger, came out in May 1970. Warner decided that Lightfoot’s first single should be his cover of Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”—the only song on it he didn’t write. If Lightfoot was ticked, he didn’t let on. He was pleased that the album was receiving strong reviews, including one from Rolling Stone, which called it “some of the nicest folk music on record anywhere.” Also heartening: Dylan had just released a version of “Early Morning Rain” on his Self Portrait album. But then a strange thing happened: Emperor Smith, a disc jockey at Seattle’s highly influential KJR radio station, discovered “If You Could Read My Mind” on Sit Down Young Stranger and started playing it instead of “Me and Bobby McGee.” Soon, other radio stations jumped on board, and Lightfoot’s song started getting airplay across the country. Prompted by the strong listener response, Warner/Reprise released “If You Could Read My Mind” as the follow-up single. “It’s a highly sophisticated, beautiful song, but it didn’t have a conventional structure, so I assumed radio wasn’t going to accept it,” says Warner producer Lenny Waronker. “But it became our unexpected hit, and a very pleasant surprise.” Almost immediately, the song reached Billboard’s Top 40. In February 1971, thanks to snowballing radio play, “If You Could Read My Mind” hit number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 1 on the magazine’s Easy Listening chart. It was so successful that Warner/Reprise renamed Lightfoot’s album. Up to that point, Sit Down Young Stranger had sold about 80,000 copies. The title was changed to If You Could Read My Mind and within six weeks it had sold 650,000 copies. And it kept on selling. Lightfoot finally had his long-awaited US hit. “If You Could Read My Mind” has become Lightfoot’s most covered song, with over 300 recorded versions by everyone from Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand and Neil Young to Holly Cole, Glen Campbell and Olivia Newton-John. There are two disco hit versions, one by Viola Wills and another by Stars on 54. Diana Krall and Sarah McLachlan recorded a duet of it on Krall’s 2015 album Wallflower. Speaking of duets, “If You Could Read My Mind” remains one of the few songs of his that Lightfoot has ever sung with another artist. In 1984, Lightfoot sang it on TV’s Solid Gold with Marilyn McCoo, formerly of the Fifth Dimension. Watch Lightfoot duet with Marilyn McCoo One final footnote: Lightfoot’s daughter Ingrid had once challenged him on the sentiment expressed in the lyrics. Recalled Lightfoot: “She said, ‘Daddy, it’s not “the feelings that you lack,” it’s “the feelings that we lack.’ She was clear that I was pointing at her mum. She said, ‘Wasn’t it a two-way street, Daddy?’ And I said, ‘You know, you’re right.’” From that point on, Lightfoot has always sung his famous song with the words “the feelings that we lack.” Adapted from Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings. Copyright © 2017 Nicholas Jennings. Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Photographs used are courtesy of Gordon Lightfoot unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. https://i.imgur.com/Gpu28V4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/T7H3UmQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1xghYlz.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4DCzU1I.jpg https://i.imgur.com/RslntTQ.jpg |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
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Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
http://heritagetoronto.org/programs/...book-nominees/
2018 Historical Writing: Book Nominees This category recognizes English language non-fiction books or e-books. LIGHTFOOT Author: Nicholas Jennings Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada Lightfoot Lightfoot chronicles the life and career of Gordon Lightfoot, unquestionably one of Canada’s greatest songwriters. No matter how much his fame grew abroad, Lightfoot has always come home to Toronto. In this book, celebrated music journalist Nicholas Jennings captures how he has influenced the city’s culture and the musicians who followed him – from his first performance at Massey Hall to the Rosedale mansion that hosted his legendary after-parties. The 2018 nominees are: Author: Bruce Newton Publisher: Bruce Newton, Toronto Paramedic Services Accidents, Illness and Sirens: The History of Toronto’s Ambulance Service Accidents, Illness and Sirens is the first book written detailing the history of Toronto’s ambulance service. It describes 184 years of history of the service by describing the issues surrounding the paramedic and medical services. It offers information on teams, support units, major incidents, and important milestones that have shaped the service. As well, it focuses on the cultural importance of disease and the impact of the ambulance service on people living in Toronto. Editors: John Lorinc, Jane Farrow, Stephanie Chambers, Maureen Fitzgerald, Ed Jackson, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Rahim Thawer, Tatum Taylor Publisher: Coach House Books Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer Any Other Way is a richly woven history that reveals how individuals and queer community networks transformed Toronto from a place of churches, into a city consistently leading the way in queer activism internationally. From the earliest pioneers to politics of the contemporary era, the book explores how queer Toronto has shaped one of the world’s most diverse cities. Author: Tim Morawetz Publisher: Glue Inc. Art Deco Architecture across Canada: Stories of the Country’s Buildings between the Two World Wars Art Deco Architecture across Canada is a portrait of architecture in Canada between the late 1920s and the early 1950s. Of the 150 structures featured in the book, 30 are located in Toronto. These buildings are brought to life through more than 400 contemporary colour photographs and rare archival images. The book showcases Toronto’s landmark buildings that remain intact, celebrates those that have been successfully repurposed, and mourns those that have been lost. Author: Scott Kennedy Publisher: Dundurn Press Don Mills: From Forests and Farms to Forces of Change Don Mills remembers the agricultural areas that pre-existed Canada’s first subdivisions surrounding Toronto’s downtown core. This book honours the rich history of the region to make sure that the original farms and farmers of Toronto are not forgotten. Population growth has resulted in pressure to develop Don Mills, which has caused the landscape of the area to be irreparably altered. Today, the farms have been replaced by industries, homes, and shops. Author: Shawn Micallef Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Signal Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness Frontier City is a view of the Toronto of today and an inspiring vision of the Toronto of the near future. This book is a collection of conversations with political candidates from across Toronto, observing how they energize their communities and addressed local issues of poverty, violence, racism, and drugs. It is an introduction to those fighting for a more inclusive Toronto, and reveals the potential for a city long suffering through a severe identity crisis. Author: Peter Goddard Publisher: Dundurn Press The Great Gould The Great Gould, with the support of the Glenn Gould Estate, draws on interviews with Glenn Gould to present a freshly revealing portrait of the musician’s unsettled life, his radical decision to stop playing concerts, his career as a radio innovator, and his deep response to the Canadian environment. Sci-fi and hi-fi, hockey and Petula Clark, Elvis, jazz, chess, the Beatles, and sex—all these inform this exploration of the pianist’s far-reaching imagination. Author: David McPherson Publisher: Dundurn Press The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern captures the story of the tavern founded by Jack Starr in 1947 as a country music club on the site of a former blacksmith shop. From country and rockabilly to rock ‘n’ roll, punk, and more, the live music venue has evolved with the times and trends—always keeping pace with the music. This book celebrates the legacy of the Horseshoe Tavern, and its importance to Toronto music culture today. Author: Robert C. VipondPublisher: University of Toronto Press Making a Global City Making a Global City critically examines diversity in Toronto’s Clinton Street Public School between 1920 and 1990. The book eloquently highlights the challenges posed by multicultural citizenship in a city that was once dominated by Anglo-Protestants and the gradual globalization of the community starting in the 1970s. This book celebrates diversity as Toronto’s strength while highlighting the vital role that public schools play in integrating immigrants into liberal democracies. |
Re: LIGHTFOOT by Nicholas Jennings - Sept.2017
Author:
Roberto Perin Publisher: University of Toronto Press The Many Rooms of This House: Diversity in Toronto’s Places of Worship Since 1840 The Many Rooms of this House recounts the rise and decline of religion in Toronto over the past 170 years. This book is a nuanced analysis of how the growing wealth of Toronto over time stimulated religious congregations to compete over the size, style, materials, and decoration of their places of worship. It provides a lens to understand how this once overwhelmingly Protestant city became a symbol of religious and cultural diversity. Author: Phillip Gordon Mackintosh Publisher: University of Toronto Press Newspaper City: Toronto’s Street Surfaces and the Liberal Press, 1860-1935 Newspaper City tells the story of how the Toronto Globe and Toronto Daily Star campaigned for surface infrastructure improvements as liberal editors saw this as the leading expression of modern urbanity. This book traces the opinions expressed in news articles over 75 years to understand the conflict between newspaper editors and property owners who resisted paying for infrastructure improvements. Author: Karolyn Smardz Frost Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Steal Away Home Steal Away Home captures the story of fifteen year old Cecelia Reynolds’ escape from slavery in Kentucky and her new life as an immigrant in Toronto’s vibrant African-American community. Created out of in-depth research on the Civil War, this book traces the history behind one woman’s escape from slavery and delves into her risky return back to the United States to be reunited with her mother. It provides a larger narrative on the struggle for freedom that supported the growth of diversity in Toronto. Author: Lance Hornby Publisher: ECW Press Toronto and the Maple Leafs: A City and Its Team Toronto and the Maple Leaves explores the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 100 years as Toronto’s team, and the city’s relationship with the beloved sports team. This book gives a thorough analysis of how Toronto and the Leafs have become one through two world wars, the depression, and many years of dysfunctional hockey operations. This book not only is about a hockey team, but it creates a larger picture of the people who live in Toronto and their connection to the city. Author: Adam Bunch Publisher: Dundurn Press The Toronto Book of the Dead The Toronto Book of the Dead delves into the history of the ever-changing city of Toronto through the lives and deaths of those who made it their final resting place. From morbid tales of war and plague, to duels and executions, Toronto’s past is filled with stories whose endings were anything but peaceful. This book uses these stories of death to expose how Toronto has gone from being a muddy frontier town to a booming metropolis of concrete and glass. Author: Timothy J. Stewart Publisher: WLU Press Toronto’s Fighting 75th in the Great War 1915–1919: A Prehistory of the Toronto Scottish Regiment (Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s Own) Toronto’s Fighting 75th evokes the spirit and consequences of Toronto at war. It tells the story of urban professionals, university graduates, labourers and the unemployed who fought alongside the British in 1915 to 1921. This book was created out of exhaustive research, drawn from archival sources, diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, and interviews, and has created a lasting record of the sacrifice of Toronto’s Fighting 75th in the Great War. Author: Pedro Mendes Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing Walter Beauchamp: A Tailored History of Toronto Walter Beauchamp is a lively tale of how the renowned company survived the effects of World Wars, the Great Depression, and the wrecking ball, as well as the fickle face of fashion retail with grace, elegance, and always discretion. This book reveals an intriguing history of Toronto from the perspective of a custom tailor and the vantage point of the Beauchamp shop windows, including the stories of soldiers, prime ministers, mayors, artists, and more. Author: Trevor Cole Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. The Whisky King The Whisky King tells a rich and fascinating history of Canada’s first celebrity mobster, Rocco Perri—King of the Bootleggers—and the Mountie who pursued him. With in-depth research and masterful storytelling, this book details the fascinating rise to power of a notorious Prohibition-era Canadian crime figure twinned with the life of Frank Zaneth, Canada’s first undercover Mountie who pursued him. Author: Gare Joyce Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada Young Leafs Young Leafs tells the story of Auston Matthews, who made history in 2016 by becoming the first player in the modern National Hockey League to score four goals in his debut. It was a momentous occasion for the talented young All-Star, but it was equally important for his newly adopted city and its century-old team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. This book follows Matthews and his team through the 2016 season, tracing the divergent journeys of each player leading up to the teams complete rebuild. |
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