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Review: Lightfoot can’t miss with ‘Fitzgerald’
Kevin Pates Duluth News Tribune
Published Monday, September 24, 2007
Gordon Lightfoot has never hidden his reverence for “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the song and its history, especially when performing in Duluth.
Fans wait anxiously for it then sit solemnly for more than six minutes.
Lightfoot’s song, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts in 1976, is the highlight of his Duluth concerts, including Sunday night before a sold-out crowd of about 2,150 at the DECC Auditorium.
“I love doing the Fitzgerald; it is such a powerful song. I’ve tried writing songs like this and messed up. This one I got right,’’ Lightfoot, 68, said before getting to town. “I tried to tell what it must’ve been like out there on that boat.’’
That’s what the Ontario singer-songwriter does best. He conveys a feeling. No, his voice is not as strong as it once was, and he started thinly Sunday with Cotton Jenny. But by the time he reached his 15th song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’’ just before intermission, the feeling was there.
In all he sang 27 songs during a two-hour performance that marked the end of his 2007 tour after 53 dates. It was his first Duluth appearance since 2002, when, later that year, he suffered a near-fatal ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and was in a coma for six months, and didn’t perform again for 28 months.
Some fans attending his concerts during the past two weeks have posted comments on a Lightfoot Web site with concerns about his voice and acumen. Yet, the baritone troubadour was more than OK Sunday. And the Lightfoot Band, together since 1981, was particularly sharp with bass player Rick Haynes, lead guitarist Terry Clements, drummer Barry Keane and keyboardist Mike Heffernan.
Dressed in a white dress shirt, brown vest and black slacks, Lightfoot stood in a solitary spotlight for much of the night, with no backup singers, and sang his songs. His fans were behind him the entire way, with rousing applause after each number. It appeared to be a salute to a man who has been coming here since 1971 and, while he has changed, he’s still on the road and appreciated.
“There is a certain character and feeling to Duluth that I like,’’ Lightfoot said. “It means so much to come to Duluth. It always has.’’
He went into the intermission with a standing ovation, after “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’’ got another after “Early Morning Rain,’’ and a third for his second encore song of “Old Dan’s Records.” He also was solid with “The Watchman’s Gone,” “Ribbon of Darkness,” “Triangle,” “Make Way for the Lady” and “Sit Down Young Stranger,” which was taken by request.
But there was one favorite. The “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’’ about a freighter loaded with taconite pellets that left Superior on Nov. 9, 1975, and never made its destination, losing all 29 men aboard. The ballad spent two weeks at No. 2, 13 weeks in the Top 40 and 21 weeks in all on the charts.
The last three stops of his tour, including Rochester, Minn., on Friday and the State Theater in Minneapolis on Saturday, sold out. He and his band were to return to Toronto by private jet after the concert.
Lightfoot said earlier Sunday that he hopes to keep touring through 2009 and hopes to keep Duluth on the schedule.
DULUTH review-mentions Lightfoot website and fan comments
