Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Folkfest live 1987 recording?

quote:Originally posted by bjb:
Hi,
What was the set list for this performance? Was anyone from Corfid actually there?
"Curious" http://www.corfid.com/ubb/smile.gif

I was. And, having said so a dozen or so times in the past 7+ years online, on the newsgroup and elsewhere, I think I'm the only one of the "net people" who was there. At least nobody else has said so.

The concert was a mid-day performance at the Penta Hotel in Manhattan. It was part of a folk benefit organized by one of the NYC radio stations. Other artists were part of the "folk fest", but Gord was the only one who performed that day.

The concert was in a hotel ballroom, with a "stage" set up at the front, and rows of chairs (folding chairs, I think) set up in front of the stage. I think there were 100 to 200 people there. Because it was a room, however, it was more intimate than a theater where I had been in row 1 a few times. I was in the first row here too, and in a lighted room where Gord and the band could see us as well as we could see them.

As it turned out, the filming of the Hotel episode had just wrapped up the day before, and Gord had taken the "red eye" from California. He mentioned the fact that he was a bit sleep deprived (I don't remember exactly what he said, but that was the meaning), and he told us about the Hotel episode and approximately when it would air (he said December, and it was in fact on Jan 2, but I dutifully set the VCR so I wouldn't miss it).

I could swear that I took a copy of Salute to have him autograph it, but I have my two copies of the record and there is no autograph. I'll never explain that! Maybe I wanted to, but was too shy to ask.

That concert was the first time I had seen Gord forget the words to a song. Now, years later, we all know that it happens every so often - as it does to other songwriters (more than to people who sing other people's songs). I remember wondering what they would do for the radio broadcast since they could hardly delete Wreck (it was not broadcast live), but then I totally forgot to listen for it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I got to hear that broadcast, and it remains very special to me.

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Valerie Magee

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