[charlene]

part 2

And what does his life show for younger artists today?

“He was a professional songwriter first. He was a great showman, his shows were fantastic. Even last year in November three nights sold out at Massey Hall was unbelievable. The fact that he closed the hall when they renovated it and he came back and finished it off when they opened the hall again. I think that meant a lot to him and to a lot of us. And a tribute today, they’ve got the hall open and they have the stage (on it) with a book for people to sign. That to me was very appropriate.”

“Gord was a workaholic,” said Haynes. “Gord was the hardest working entertainer, musician, songwriter that I have ever worked with in my life that I have ever seen.”

Last year they did almost 60 shows.

“He really worked hard. He had the best work ethic. You asked about young people and what they can take away from Gord, it’s his work ethic first. You can’t buy talent. But you can work hard on work ethic.

A regular in recent years again at the Mariposa Folk Festival, he ensured its return to Orillia was a success in 200o by agreeing to headline.

Haynes said “he was always available. One thing that stands out about Gordon is his loyalty. He was always extremely loyal to the community, Canada, the people who worked with him.

Haynes said in his early years he could be perceived as honest, but he really wasn’t.

“He was really humble and he really enjoyed playing. When we were making records, he was under contract, he had to produce records, write songs every year. When the contracts was fulfilled, he said ‘that’s great, now we can just do shows.’”

Lightfoot was also “an adventurer” who years ago took up the CBC’s offer to play in Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit where “the whole town came out,” they were billeted and he played with just one light bulb that was like a spotlight for him.

“He loved it.”

“You all know how he went down the Rain Forest of Brazil. He was an adventurer in a lot of ways. And all about his canoe trips.”

While Lightfoot told me years ago after a Massey show that the Wreck made his career in the U.S., Haynes said “Sundown” was “his most successful on the charts.”

Fiedler said “Early Morning Rain” was his favourite song “he told me.”

“‘If You Could Read My Mind’ definitely has the most staying power,” added Haynes, who said he was told an L.A. call-in radio station this week had people calling in asking ‘Please play Gordon.’ They didn’t care which song.”

Fiedler concluded the outpouring today and all week “has been fantastic. I can only thank everybody for this.”

He said he will miss his “humour. He was just so personable. Just unbelievable.”

Fiedler noted a pool party years ago with musicians where a little baby fell in the pool “and everybody was like ‘Oh!’”

And Gord Lightfoot jumped in and pulled the baby out of the water.

“It was so cool, he was really just down to earth.”

Haynes wrapped up by expressing what Canada meant to Lightfoot.

“It meant everything. He loved Canada. He didn’t think there was a reason ever to leave the country.”

And Orillia, “it meant everything to him. That’s why we’re here.”

Rev. Ted Reeve paid tribute to Lightfoot earlier in the morning beforehand during St. Paul’s church service. A few still in the congregation remembered hearing the young protoge sing in the church.

An hour after visiting began, church bells at St. Pauls and St. James Anglican Church next door on Coldwater Street rang out 30 times — once each the mariners number for each of the 29 sailors who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which Lightfoot immortalized in his legendary “Wreck” Great Lakes anthem.

And and one for Lightfoot’s passing.

A private family service will take place at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s followed by an interment at the family plot where his parents Gordon Sr. and Jessie and their daughter Beverly are buried.