[Same Old Loverman]

Last week I posted my thoughts on the "new" book. Admittedly I still haven't read it, although I do read the excerpts and reviews when Char and others post them. Reading over what I wrote, I really hope I didn't offend anyone- including the author himself by my posting. If I did, I apologize. It's just that I feel kind of protective towards the man. I mean, I feel incredibly fortunate that we still have him with us. Let's face it; we could have easily lost him a number of times over the years. Not just from drinking (thankfully he was able to quit when he did) but from the other things that have transpired. Not only is he still alive, but he's still thriving, still performing! For those reasons and more I'm thankful (and I'm not even Canadian-lol)!

I guess that partly explains my frustration with this book; for what it could have been (or at least what I was hoping it would be). I still don't care for the "tone" of some of what I've read. I also don't understand why he felt the need to make some stuff up, ignore other things and include all those details about news events fom 1972 that, to me, just detracts from what I really want to know about: the life and times of Gordon Lightfoot in the year 1972.

I think the fact that no one has ever written a really good, fair, comprehensive book on the man is a crime! Think of it, Gordon Lightfoot the absolute finest singer songwriter of our time (my humble opinion) and we only have a few meager accounts of his life. I really can't fathom that. Take other artists: Elvis, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, even fellow Canandian Neil Young, and you can find many, many books about, and only about them. How can we explain this? He's certainly worthy. In fact I would put Gordon's body of work between 1966 and 1976 up against anyone's (even Dylan's) in terms of quality and consistancy.

Some will say it's because Gordon is so reclusive, and that's true to a point, but not entirely. He does talk, he does interviews and will from time to time reveal some interesting tid bit about his life. As someone else said in this discussion; if you took all the info from this and Wayne's site, along with interviews both with Gordon and people he's known and put it all together- you'd probably have a pretty decent body of work.

I do think Cathy Smith played an important part in Gordon's life in the early 70's, and at times have wondered how many songs she inspired (I suspect quite a few). I think her later troubles in the 80's (we all know what I'm talking about so I'm not going to mention it) may be part of the reason Gordon is reluctant to talk too much about aspects of his life. Writers always bring it up, but the truth is none of her later difficulties had anything to do with Gordon. They had parted long before then. If anything, I think her problems started more along the time she started hanging out with the Stones (they seem to have that kind of effect on people) than anything else.

Will Gordon ever write a book? From what I've gathered here and elsewhere; the idea doesn't seem to excite him. As someone who (at least partly) made his living by writing, I would think the prospect would be kind of fun. At least the pressure is off now- no recording contracts to meet. I suppose (and I think he has even said) that he's also partly thinking of his family and their feelings. But I would guess that by now, they probably have a pretty good idea that their Dad was a little wild in his younger days (weren't we all). I'll leave my thoughts at that, along with the hope that someday Gordon will actually pen his memoirs (and that he'll ask me to assist him- talk about your dream job).