No other songwriter brings out as many emotions and memories for me as does Gord. I'll ask you guys a question after I finish telling one of mine.
I can remember as if it were yesterday when I was in the Navy (1984-86) at the ship's store (back in the waning days of the cassette). I would always ask what new music they had, and would be disappointed to hear stuff like "We got BANANARAMA." <actually, "Cruel Summer" was kind of a cool song, but I digress!>
I can remember the serious trepidation when I saw EAST OF MIDNIGHT-GORDON LIGHTFOOT in the rack. At first, I thought "I bet it's some compliation again, let me check which songs they put on this one." Man, I almost jumped like a kid at Christmas when I saw the new song titles. I almost took the cassette to my rack immediately without paying for it! (A Store Keeper 2nd class who was twice my size "reminded" me to drop the cash before I made my dash!).
Every time to this day when I hear "Stay Loose" I get thrown back on the U.S.S. McCandless as a 21 year old kid on the high seas listening to Gord. I also remember writing a good friend of mine who was ashore, and also loved Lightfoot's writings, and giving him my "reviews" of each track on the album (I have to admit, I panned "A Lesson In Love" pretty heavily...forgive me!).
My friends were all into rap, country or big-hair bands back then, and they would ride me hard (in humor of course) about listening to Lightfoot, but I wore that cassette out and it lasted all through the moves and tranfers during my service.
Can you remember a place you were when you found a new Lightfoot album, and if so, did the moment stand out?