I think that's a really good Kurt Swinghammer quote found in the many links char provided for us in Tribute post but it goes on to become an accurate Lightfoot 'blog' which is much more than about the Tribute night...very well put, imo
after meeting many heros in my teens I also adopted the "some hereos are best left unmet" motto however in Lightfoot's case, I echo the "but":
from Kurt's site(i just thought it deserved it's own thread, since many folks probably couldn't get through the multitude of images and info in char's wonderful review
:
The Songs Of Gordon Lightfoot
Last week I performed a tune at Jory Nash's annual Gordon Lightfoot Tribute night at a sold-out Hugh's Room here in Toronto. Unknown to the audience, the bard actually showed up for the Friday show. Cruel fate, I was part of Saturday's line-up. Some heroes are best left unmet, but I would have loved to tell him how important his music has been to me.
One of the first albums I ever bought was Summer Side Of Life, and luckily I got the music book to go with it. Along with Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Led Zeppelin, these chord charts were how I learned how to play my Spanish guitar in Grade 9. The double album gatefold sleeved majesty of Gord's Gold followed soon after and his portrait from McLean's Magazine adorned my bedroom wall. Over the years I'd see several live gigs, cover a song or two, ignore him, and then through uber-fan Ron Sexsmith discover his first four albums and fall in love all over again.
These are the titles I'd recommend – Lightfoot!, The Way I Feel, Did She Mention My Name and Back Here On Earth. All were recorded for United Artists in a prolific two year period from 1966- 68. These albums apparently made a critical splash at the time in England, and my hunch is that Nick Drake got turned on to them. There are certain dark chord sequences and string arrangements that if not a direct inspiration, certainly foreshadow Drake's orchestrated masterpieces.
He changed labels afterwards, and his voice started losing it's formal, romantic richness. While he continued to come up with memorable individual songs, his early period is consistent with a timeless quality.
If you're from Canada, it's impossible NOT to know his songs. They are at the very core of our culture and he is truly iconic. Anywhere else in the world, he is a cult figure at best. Modest mainstream success in the States thirty years ago, and a handful of charting covers by an assortment of well known names guarantee his profile exists, but elsewhere he is overshadowed by a dozen other dudes from the golden era of the singer/songwriter.
The fact that Mojo Magazine hasn't done a feature retrospective on Lightfoot is the only reason why he isn't treated with more respect and interest from the hard core music fanatics. When that inevitably happens, there will be a major surge of interest in his extensive catalog. He didn't have the charisma of some of his more celebrated peers, and his work never had an "edge". He was far too tame for the counter-culture, but when the decades roll on you're left with the songs. Lightfoot wrote dozens of great ones, all in a style uniquely his own.
