[closetcanadian]

The following was posted on the newsgroup site today. For those of you that haven't seen it, it's well worth the read.


Lightfoot
By John Swartz

On this day one year ago, the Opera House was packed with an
enthusiastic audience to witness a concert by Orillia's favourite son,
Gordon Lightfoot. It was a benefit for Soldiers' Memorial Hospital.
During that memorable concert, Lightfoot, at one point, sprinted off the
stage and hustled down the two flights of stairs to his
dressing room to get a guitar he needed to play a shouted request for
Cotton Jenny. Nothing seemed wrong that night.
A second concert was scheduled for the next evening to benefit the
Sunshine Festival. It never took place.
Lightfoot was taken to Soldiers' Memorial Hospital late that afternoon
by his sister Bev, after collapsing in his dressing room.
"I didn't feel anything until I woke up the next morning," said
Lightfoot in an exclusive interview with The Packet & Times this
week. "My wife tried to get me to cancel and go to Sunnybrook
(hospital), but...I had work to do."
On Saturday afternoon, however, when Lightfoot didn't appear for the
sound check, he was found on his dressing room floor.
"There were two or three occasions when they almost lost me," Lightfoot
said. They, would be the medical team. Lightfoot was
airlifted from Orillia to McMaster University Medical Centre later where
he would remain until December.
"I was out cold for six weeks," he recalled. "The last thing I
remembered was being in the Orillia emergency ward, the next thing I
remembered was Halloween."
Even now, a year later, Lightfoot is still not able to sing and doesn't
know yet when, or if, he will ever perform again.
Lightfoot suffered an aneurysm of an artery in the lower abdomen
situated between his pancreas and liver.
"It broke in a real bad place,' he said. "It took them a while to find it."
He was released from the hospital December 12 only to spend a week at
the St. John's Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. He had
endured a number of surgeries, with more to come.
"I'm in mid stream right now," he said. "I was just back in (hospital)
for two months."
Most of this summer was spent back at McMaster for scheduled corrective
surgery. He was only supposed to be in for a few weeks, but
the recovery took longer than expected. He is now living with an
ileostomy, which is similar to a colostomy, but involves the small
intestine
"I just got out. I'm waiting for the next round of surgery." When that
happens, muscle tissue from his thighs will be used to
reconstruct abdominal muscles.
"My abdomen is decimated, I can't hold a note for more than three
seconds," he said. "It's more than a hernia, if you know what I
mean."
He's hoping to improve after his latest round of surgery.
"If that works, I might be able to sing again." It will still be some
time following the surgery before he'll know if he'll be
performing again.
"It will take another year before I can sing again," said Lightfoot.
"I'll know by next summer." He figures it will be until
sometime in 2005 before he'll be ready to do a concert, but fans will be
able to enjoy a new CD before then.
"I had an interesting way of getting that accomplished," he said. Prior
to falling ill, Lightfoot had recorded some demo tracks. All
he had was his voice and guitar laid down. After the initial period
following his emergence from the coma, and the crush of family
wishing him well, tending to urgent business matters, and the attention
of fans, he had time to think about the future.
"The next thing is - what am I going to do to keep up the momentum?" he
wondered. "Then I remembered those tracks and I thought they
could be orchestrated. I remembered that they didn't sound too bad."
Lightfoot's long time band members: Barry Keane, Mike Heffernan, Terry
Clements and Rick Haynes (who co-produces), along with Red
Shea and Bob Doidge began working on the recording at Doidge's Grant
Avenue Studios in Hamilton during Lightfoot's last
hospitalization at McMaster.
"It made sense to do it this way. They'd bring it over for me to listen
to," while he was recuperating. Lightfoot would make
suggestions and changes, which Rick Haynes would then take back to the
studio to work on.
Rumours were circulating that the album was done before he went back to
the hospital, but Lightfoot has been traveling to Hamilton
as late as this week to work on the final stages. He doesn't expect the
eleven song CD will be finished until late October with the
release next January or February.
"Oh yeah, we're still working on it. It takes my mind off the other - if
you know what I mean."
Fans will be able to hear new versions of Lightfoot's music with the
release of Beautiful; A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot in October.
Produced by Colin Linden, the CD features Blue Rodeo, the Tragically
Hip, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLaughlin, James Keelaghan, the
Cowboy Junkies, Maria Muldaur, Quartette and Ron Sexsmith (among
others), each with their own renditions of
some of Lightfoot's tunes.
"The first time I heard it was last week," Lightfoot said. "I've heard
it three or four times. I made my notes and I had more stars
beside the tracks - I loved it, it really has some stellar performances
on it."
Even with the tribute CD, his own CD, and the Ottawa ceremony as
milestones, the upcoming surgery is the bigger goal. He says he's
being well fed in preparation. Up until last year he ran 14 to 16
kilometers each week (which doctors credit as a factor in his
being alive today), but now he says it's walking that's helping him
build up strength.
He says the doctors want him back in October, but he's quite sure it won't
be until after travel to Ottawa in early November for a ceremony where he'll
be promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada - an event he's looking
forward to.
He suspects it will be after the new year before he's strong enough for
more surgery. That's something he's circumspect, yet
optimistic, about.
"If they don't get it next time, I won't be singing anymore." he said.
"There's a risk."
"Tell them I feel comfortable, I feel pretty normal right now," he says of
his current condition. "You tell them I'm going to fight my way back."