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Influences - Gordon LightfootAugust 18, 2007 at 9:11 am · Filed under Music Before the Money
I’ve seen Gordon Lightfoot 4 times, the first in 1971 and the last being two months ago. In my estimation he is the greatest folk artist of all time. You can say that Bob Dylan would wear that crown but Dylan, like the Beatles, is in a class all his own. Dylan influenced other performers and defined a whole generation in both music and culture. Now, like a lot of greats including Elton John, he has become a parody of himself.Lightfoot crossed over into pop a few times but remained the voice of his native country, Canada, and exported its stories across the world. His most amazing song could arguably be The Canadian Railroad Trilogy but most would say The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Lightfoot’s voice was weak, the result of a near-fatal affliction a few years back but no one in the packed audience cared. When his band arrived onstage I was like a little kid. “There’s Terry Clements . . . and Rick Haynes!” The names on the album credits just rolled off my tongue like someone calling out sports’ figures. These two defined Lightfoot’s sound and I used to spend hours trying to copy Clements’ guitar licks. When Lightfoot appeared the place went nuts. The frail singer, now in his late 60’s, thanked the crowd and then went to work.
My choice to buy a beat-up Gibson 12-string guitar and have it rebuilt was because Lightfoot had one. I even had the color changed to a red sun burst. But Lightfoot’s real talent, alongside his writing, was his command of his Martin 6-string. In a concert in 1977 I was up close enough to finally see how he played the syncopated guitar in Don Quixote and grinned widely as I went home and practiced it for hours.
As I explained to my wife and kids I grew up listening to the Beatles and Lightfoot. Knowing he might be type-cast forever as a Canadian folkie he broke with protocol, went down to Nashville and recorded the album Sit Down Young Stranger, featuring a song by a guy who used to clean up in studio named Kris Kristopherson. Before he released Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin had it out and the rest is history. So Lightfoot released another single on the album instead, If You Can Read My Mind, and that put him into the charts.
All through the ’70’s and into the early ’80’s he read the music industry well and remained a staple in the record stores. And although he may never come this way again the few times I saw him, including the first, was like welcoming an old friend into your living room.
blog about Lightfoot concert/influence
