Two moments come to mind. The late 60's, camping with my folks at what I recall was Fairbanks provincial park in northern Ontario. The sun had finally won a day long battle with the rain clouds and poked through to light up the evening sky. That golden glow, the freshness in the air that a rain shower brings, the leaves sparkling with raindrops and the roadway dotted with puddles all set the stage in my mind. Then the music started. Wafting in from some distant campsite came the strains of;
pussywillows, cat-tails, soft winds and roses,
rain pools in the woodland, water to my knees,
shivering, quivering, the warm breath of spring,
pussywillows, cat-tails, soft winds and roses
That clinched it! A memory locked away for eternity...
Here I was listening to Led Zeppelin's debut album, Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,, Jimi Hendrix' Axis Bold as love and Deep Purple's Book of Taliesyn, yet Gordon Lightfoot managed to elbow his way through those rockers. I picked up his compilation 'The Best Of Gordon Lightfoot' which I believe was released in 1970. Unbeknownst to my hard rockin' friends, I had become a closet 'Lighthead'.
I guess I came out of the musical closet rather late – in 1976. I was visiting a friend who had an apartment in downtown Toronto. Doing the town on a Friday night, we were checking out the vinyl at 'Sam The Music Man' on Yonge Street when a familiar voice filled the store . 'Summertime Dream' had just been released and 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' was sailing out of the speakers. Heard a few more from Gord before heading back to the apartment with bundle of heavy metal under my arm. But in my mind, the 'Wreck' continued to surface all evening. Next morning, before anyone else had awoken, I boarded the subway and found myself back at 'Sam's' waiting for the doors to open. Picked up TWOTEF that morning and I found myself hooked - a lifelong quest to pick up everything else he ever released– past present and future.