Contrary to some of the posts I've seen here, there was no similarity at all between Maurice Gibb's problem and Lightfoot's, other than to say they were both centered in the abdomen. Lightfoot's leaking blood vessel is a rare occurrence, and one that cannot be predicted or prevented except, perhaps, by one of those full body scans. Even then it might not be detected. Considering the self abuse Gord committed for at least 30 years, it's a near-miracle that his prognosis to recover is so good. Maurice's situation, on the other hand, was probably addressable. He must have had some advance discomfort, which he may have neglected and ignored in hopes it was temporary. His self-abuse, like Gord's, probably helped his situation along. He drank to excess for quite a few years, at one time, in fact, leading to the temporary break up of his famous brothers' band. Gord, too, drank too heavily and ate "road food" for so many years. He was a smoker, even at this (gulp....advanced) age. I hope in his recovery he gives up the butts too, as he has the booze (a few years ago now). I've been a GL fan since 1967. 36 years is quite an investment in one personality. I play a zillion of his tunes on guitar and sing (at) them too. It's a bad habit, which I probably won't get over anytime soon. If you add James Taylor to the mix, it proves I have no mind of my own. In any event, I hope GL adopts James's devotion to good health (don't forget Taylor led a most self-destructive life too, until he took stock in himself. Now he's a health nut who exercises almost as much as I do....speaking of nuts). I have to say, I was surprised to find this site. I had no idea there were as many Gord nuts in the world as there seem to be. I thought I was pretty much alone out here. While I have to admit that I am not all that fond of his latest ventures (I thought Shadows was the last really good album), there are certainly songs on all the newer albums that are good. It's the good to bad ratio that has changed for the worse. Older albums had almost no bad stuff on them, newer ones have more bad than good. But, after a body of work such as he has produced, I'm not complaining. He still leads the pack. Besides, if you follow any artist, you can find his lousy work just as easily if not easier. I love Gordon Lightfoot. As surely as the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel and Motown (in general, but primarily the Temptations and Smokey Robinson)got me through my trials, such as Vietnam, Gord was the background score of the past 36 years of my life, so don't anyone go responding to my negative comments about latter day Lightfoot songs, just permit me my slight fault-finding and understand that no one has more affection for this artist and his work than I do. Glad to be here, with the rest of you whacko fans. -Rick
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Rick
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