[charlene]

part 2
Gordon Lightfoot: Yeah, that’s it. So that’s what you’re always looking for. And the vocal, of course, it has to carry the melody. I learned early on from some publishing people I met when I had gotten out of high school that the lyric should marry with the melody. There should be a marriage between the melody and the lyric.

Rock Cellar: When you had that long string of hits there in the late sixties and seventies, there was a lot of competition. There were a lot of people doing what you were doing. Did that inspire you? Did that friendly rivalry inspire what you were doing?

Gordon Lightfoot: But most of the writers were writing about unrequited love. I don’t do very much. “For Lovin’ Me,” the one that Johnny Cash and I did the duet on for his television show — the one that so darn chauvinistic I stopped doing it — made me actually make a deal with myself that I wouldn’t write anything that brutal ever again, and so, I never did. But I’ve got my own unrequited love songs. But with an un-chauvinistic sort of an approach.

Rock Cellar: But you were writing songs that were very different from everybody else. Did what Joni Mitchell was doing, or Neil Young or Bob Dylan or any of these people inspire you?

Gordon Lightfoot: Oh, yeah. I knew them all, too. They’re all great people. I still talk to Joni. So sure, sure it did. And who we listened to, too. I remember several people like Ramblin’ Jack Elliot would inspire me to go on and write a song. Bobby Neuwirth, Bob Dylan’s old road manager, inspired me go and do a song. Just from listening to what they were doing. Jerry Jeff Walker, who just passed away recently. I know I was influenced by him, from “Mr. Bojangles,” really.

I told him about that one time. He also let me use his jacket once for an album jacket shoot, by the way. That’s Jerry Jeff Walker’s jacket on the cover of Gord’s Gold. But I had Randy Newman write some of the arrangements for my albums, Nick DeCaro, too. I was lucky. I got involved with some really good musicians when I was recording out in L.A. That was all done through the record company and the producers, because they knew who the people were to get, but they all wanted to work with me, which was great.

Rock Cellar: But that’s a little bit humble. You were Gordon Lightfoot and at that time, I’m sure these guys wanted to work with you too.

Gordon Lightfoot: Oh, they had the songs. The songs were good. So they had something to work with, anyhow.

Rock Cellar: And how do you approach things differently when you’re doing someone else’s song? Do you approach it the same as when you’re doing one of your own in the studio, or do you have a different way of approaching it to get inside it?

Gordon Lightfoot: I approach them probably with a little more vigor. Like with “Me and Bobby McGee” or the one that I do by Ian Tyson, “Red Velvet,” that’s a real good one that works really well on stage.

t’s about a cowboy having to give up his sweetheart, because she wants to move back into town since winter’s approaching. But the one I really liked doing and still love is a Vince Matthews song called “Susan’s Floor.” If I’m going to mention Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, I’ll do his tune “Diamond Joe!” But the one I really loved is by Bob Dylan, “Ring Them Bells.” I so a faithful version of “Ring Them Bells” by Bob Dylan and it’s one of the best tunes in my repertoire.

Whenever I want to mention Bob, I always do that song, from Oh Mercy. That was when he went through his enlightenment experience. I knew him. We had the same manager for a bit.

Rock Cellar: Yeah, talk about Albert Grossman a bit. I’m interested that you had a period with Albert Grossman managing you. How was that?

Gordon Lightfoot: Well, he was the grand poohbah of managers during the folk revival. And the folk revival was a short thing, because it only lasted probably for three or four years, though it carried right through the sixties and a lot of people had hit records, which I did. So I was into it by 1961, listening to all the music, because it started for me with the Kingston Trio. They were the first ones to do a really great version of “Early Morning Rain,” one of my tunes. Even before Peter, Paul and Mary, who Albert also managed, and eventually, Elvis Presley did it.

Rock Cellar: Talk a little bit about Elvis covering a song you’ve written. What does that feel like as a songwriter? You had to be a fan of Elvis. What was it like when that guy was interpreting your words?

Gordon Lightfoot: Well, I’ll never forget that moment. I was driving down from my hometown to Toronto, and all of a sudden, there was Elvis Presley playing “Early Morning Rain” out of the car radio. I really appreciated that a great deal, and I was supposed to meet him in Buffalo, but I just missed him. They had to get out of there. I was supposed to meet him after the show, but they had to leave. My timing was off.

But as for hearing that song for the first time, I’ve never forgot even what mileage I was at on the highway when I first heard it! And I liked it. I loved it. They were doing such a great job of it. It was just such a super thrill to get something done by him, because he was like, one of the big guys the 20th century in popular music, closely followed by the Beatles and then Bob Dylan third.

Rock Cellar: Well, Bob would take issue with that but, yeah. And what about when you’re driving in your car and you hear an artist covering one of your songs and you don’t like it?

Gordon Lightfoot: I never criticize anyone covering one of my songs. It’s not my business to criticize.

Rock Cellar: So you just appreciate them covering your work.

Gordon Lightfoot: Absolutely. Really. Totally. Totally honored.

Rock Cellar: You said you’re waiting for the lockdown to lift, essentially. What do you have planned? Do you think you’re going to record more or are you going to go back out on the road?

Gordon Lightfoot: I had an album, a solo album, that came out in March. I liked it a lot. So we are waiting right now for things to open somewhere. In the meantime, we’re rehearsing in a recording studio here in Toronto by the name of Canterbury Studio, and in that recording studio we can distance ourselves — and bring our face masks, and our disinfectants — and we just were in there for two days just this past week. We ran through 35 tunes.

We’re going to do a stream on the 18th of December. We’re going to do an 85-minute show from the El Mocambo in Toronto, which is pretty legendary and also a newly reconditioned place, with great lights and a great sound system. I checked it out. And so we’ll have a wonderful show there for the fans. I’m going to do my best stuff.