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DEAN LISK
The Daily News
Without singing a single note, Gordon Lightfoot received a standing ovation. He got it for his music, for his talent, for being a Canadian legend. It was for coming back to Halifax.
"I was not sure I would make it down here again," he told the crowd of roughly 4,000 at the Metro Centre last night. "I am a little bit late from my last engagement."
His last appearance in the city was nearly 17 years ago, said the singer-songwriter. He was supposed to return before now, but a near-fatal abdominal hemorrhage, which left him in a coma in 2002, cancelled those plans.
"I get kind of excited when I'm in front of a crowd this big," he said. "Let's get the mojo working here."
His voice was weak, but the 68-year-old's tone still resonated with the crowd.
The audience greeted the opening chords of classics like Rainy Day People, Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and If You Could Read My Mind with enthusiastic applause before dropping to a pin-falling silence to listen to each nuance in Lightfoot's voice.
"We love you Gordon," an audience member yelled.
"It's nice to hear that once in a while," Lightfoot mused.
Between songs, the icon shared stories: his old gigs at The Privateer in Halifax, how a pair of expectant geese have taken over his backyard pool, and how Elvis Presley famously changed the lyrics of Lightfoot's song, Early Mornin' Rain.
It was just one word. A non-drinker, The King transformed the Canadian singer's "As cold and drunk as I can be" to "As cold and drunk as I might be." Lightfoot sang it the Presley way.
"Listen for it in the fourth verse," Lightfoot advised his audience. "I thank Elvis for that."
