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johnfowles · 11-15-2007, 09:00 PM

That's a tough question.I really cannot recall the verey first, but of more recent times I'll go along with realising that he is nowhere
near as tall as he appears on stage. Beyond that I offer this:-
I found out a couple of years ago that Gord has a selective and possibly imperfect memory when it comes to remembering the inspiration of some of his songs.I had fondly imagined that he would recall exactly why a song got written. especially if he were given a strong hint of the answer. But one such enquiry a couple of years ago produced what I thought disappointedly was a fudged reply
I had heard the recording of the 1969 Charttlotetown Festival CBC broadcast, in which Gord very clearly introduced a song as
"This one is about the heroine of Pig's Eye Minnesota", but beyond finding out by googling that that was the name by which the future capital of that state was known, in honour of Pig's Eye Landing established by a (blind in one eye) French Canadan Fur trapper and whiskey trader who went by the name of Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant.
Gord then sang the relatively new song Bitter Green.
in the songbook book Gord only said
"Written in a noisy diesel taxicab on the way in [to London] from Heathrow. My wife adopted that as her song after our divorce. I went over to London to write the album, to jog my mind into a writing space."
The next time I met Gord after hearing about the heroine, I quoted back to him his 1969 intro but he would only repeat the fact
that his wife adopted it as her own song.
I may try again if the occasion seems promising!!
a google for "pig's eye heroine" produces an impressive number of results
searching within those for "gordon Lightfoot" as expected brought up these two corfid threads
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=15378
in which I said more or less the same as above and
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=99550
which elicited a useful reference to a possible heroine
unearthed by CHarlene
"posted on the J.P.Cormier message board:
RE: Bitter Green (my first Lightfoot 45...) The heroine of the story is supposed to be the mother of Gabriel Dumont, Louis Riel's military leader. As I recall from his live intro to the tune when he was recording the Sunday Concert album, she had a tragic life, and Dumont came to be known as "The Bastard Son of the Whore of Pig's Eye".
"

11-15-2007, 09:00 PM	#5
johnfowles Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: New Jersey U.S.A. ex UK and Canada Posts: 4,846	Re: The Immaculate Misconception That's a tough question.I really cannot recall the verey first, but of more recent times I'll go along with realising that he is nowhere near as tall as he appears on stage. Beyond that I offer this:- I found out a couple of years ago that Gord has a selective and possibly imperfect memory when it comes to remembering the inspiration of some of his songs.I had fondly imagined that he would recall exactly why a song got written. especially if he were given a strong hint of the answer. But one such enquiry a couple of years ago produced what I thought disappointedly was a fudged reply I had heard the recording of the 1969 Charttlotetown Festival CBC broadcast, in which Gord very clearly introduced a song as "This one is about the heroine of Pig's Eye Minnesota", but beyond finding out by googling that that was the name by which the future capital of that state was known, in honour of Pig's Eye Landing established by a (blind in one eye) French Canadan Fur trapper and whiskey trader who went by the name of Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant. Gord then sang the relatively new song Bitter Green. in the songbook book Gord only said "Written in a noisy diesel taxicab on the way in [to London] from Heathrow. My wife adopted that as her song after our divorce. I went over to London to write the album, to jog my mind into a writing space." The next time I met Gord after hearing about the heroine, I quoted back to him his 1969 intro but he would only repeat the fact that his wife adopted it as her own song. I may try again if the occasion seems promising!! a google for "pig's eye heroine" produces an impressive number of results searching within those for "gordon Lightfoot" as expected brought up these two corfid threads http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=15378 in which I said more or less the same as above and http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=99550 which elicited a useful reference to a possible heroine unearthed by CHarlene "posted on the J.P.Cormier message board: RE: Bitter Green (my first Lightfoot 45...) The heroine of the story is supposed to be the mother of Gabriel Dumont, Louis Riel's military leader. As I recall from his live intro to the tune when he was recording the Sunday Concert album, she had a tragic life, and Dumont came to be known as "The Bastard Son of the Whore of Pig's Eye". "