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Location: Upstate New York
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Saginaw article
Gordon Lightfoot: 'I'm still here' - and headed to Saginaw
Posted by Sue White | The Saginaw News March 12, 2009 10:11AM
Gordon Lightfoot has a favorite.
It is "If You Could Read My Mind," says the Canadian balladeer, remembering the song he released in 1970 as his first marriage came to a close.
"There's an emotional tenacity to it; it is grounded in emotional trauma," he said, calling from his home in Toronto. "I like the cinematic references, too. I still remember the afternoon I sat down and wrote it; I knew right away it was pretty good. 'In a castle dark,' 'a ghost from a wishing well,' (lyrics) all of that."
Fans will hear those phrases and many more familiar tunes - "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "Sundown" and "Early Morning Rain" to name a few - when Lightfoot comes Sunday to Saginaw's Temple Theatre.
"But they're also going to hear a more disciplined band, with instruments in good tune and musicians in good sobriety," said Lightfoot, who has been clean since 1981. "We actually do a lot better now, and you'll notice the difference. We take it very seriously; we work as a team."
And it builds Lightfoot up, along with regular visits to the gym, for his true passion, performing live.
"I've always toured - it's a state of mind - and this time, I'm back in the states, doing 10 shows in 11 days," he said. "I'd work 24/7 if I didn't have a whole different world, looking after my kids.
"Not to be melodramatic, but it's also the way to hang on to my position in the pecking order."
He also has found that 50 concerts a year takes care of his annual expenses. It buys him the free time to watch with amusement what's keeping Americans in an uproar.
Far more emotionally absorbing, he admitted, are the politics of his personal family, a separation, the responsibilities that come with six children, and the joy of the four grandchildren. This past year has brought a few sad developments in his professional family, too, with the deaths of guitarist Red Shea and road manager Barry Harvey.
"Barry was an excellent manager," Lightfoot said. "And Red still worked with us on occasion. It looks like I'm the only ship that's going to finish."
That's saying something.
Born in 1938, Lightfoot was always into music, beginning as a boy soprano in local ensembles. He moved to California in the late 1950s, and as a songwriter saw his music recorded by the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary; Chad and Jeremy; Judy Collins and the Kingston Trio.
By the mid-1960s, he was a recording artist in his own right, though everyone from Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan continued recording his songs as well.
"Elvis and Bob Dylan, two of the greatest performers of our time, with The Beatles running a close third," Lightfoot said, laughing. "I met Bob a few times, and had chances to play with him, but our styles of playing guitar don't work together."
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," released in 1976, opened another chapter in Lightfoot's life.
Of the relationship it forged between the songwriter and the sailors' families, Lightfoot says "we connected, and through the years, I've met them all. I started a scholarship at the Maritime Academy in Traverse City, too.
"I had to do something; it didn't seem right that I had this hit song and I was nominated for a Grammy Award and they weren't getting anything."
Then came the day in 2002 when an abdominal aortic aneurysm put him in a coma, fighting for survival.
"I got sick while I was playing and I was out of it for two years; it's that simple," he said. "Then I started going to the gym, and when I was strong enough, I made it back to the concert stage.
"And I'm still here."
© 2009 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.
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FOUR grandchildren?? I knew about 2. Hmmmm.
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