Lightfoot Photos

[Yuri]

Okay, here’s the story. In our pre-Corfid days I found myself corresponding with a fellow from California by the name of Tom Rowley. Over several years he and I exchanged photos, clippings and music pertaining to Lightfoot but others as well. I was delighted to have an opportunity to personally meet Tom while I was visiting Orange County a number of years ago. When parting he presented me with a couple of black & white photos of Gord.

The story as I recall was that a good friend of Tom’s had taken these photos of Gord some years before while he was performing at some outdoor California venue. Sadly, his friend developed a brain tumour/cancer/ailment which eventually took his life.

Although I’ve shared these photos with a select few, I haven’t passed them onto the group earlier as I kind of felt that they weren’t mine to share. Regretfully, I’ve lost touch with Tom and have never seen him post on Corfid, so I’ve not been able to obtain his permission to share with others.

Perhaps Gord’s 70th is the time to pass these along for all to enjoy. If anyone knows of Tom’s whereabouts, I would love to say hello once again. If I’ve overstepped myself by sharing these with Corfid, I hope he can forgive me. They’re just too nice to keep to myself. Enjoy!

Happy 70th Gord!

Yuri

[jj]

superb...i think you've made a wonderful gesture, Yuri, in sharing these and choosing the timing and forum where they will be eternally and truly appreciated

thank you Yuri, Tom and Tom's friend...may he rest in peace

it'd be great to eventually credit a name, year to these gems

[vlmagee]

75?

[jj]

can anyone find a pic or video clip where he is wearing that shirt, pendant, bracelet, watch and/or that pair of jeans? the hair and face do look mid-70s don't they, Val

[RM]

Originally Posted by jj

can anyone find a pic or video clip where he is wearing that shirt,

I remember that shirt from a picture in one of his songbooks. My mind says "Cold On The Shoulder", but then it says "you're usually wrong". Mid 70's sound right to me. I wonder if the outdoor venue in California was the Universal Amphitheater.

[Jesse Joe]

Great photos Yuri, I may have seen some like these before... What a great head of hair he had in those pics. Thanks for sharing man !

[Jesse Joe]

His this not the same shirt from Yuri's photo's ?

[vlmagee]

Yes, that's the photo. It was used on a calendar - a 1976 calendar, if I remember correctly, which is why I said the photo was from 1975. Thanks for digging up the photo. I have the calendar ... somewhere ... but couldn't find the photo on my PC.

[Jesse Joe]

Your more than welcome.

[mandoann]

Originally Posted by vlmagee

Yes, that's the photo. It was used on a calendar - a 1976 calendar, if I remember correctly, which is why I said the photo was from 1975. Thanks for digging up the photo. I have the calendar ... somewhere ... but couldn't find the photo on my PC.

I was wondering about the calendars. I have one from 1979 but it's the only one I've ever seen. Is it a GL calendar?

[vlmagee]

Is this photo in your calendar? In that case, I might be wrong. I thought it was 1976, but I haven't looked at it (or for it) for years. There goes my weekend ...

My calendar has just the one GL photo.

[charlene]

was it from this 1976 calendar won in the Treasure Hunt in 2001 and prizes were awarded at my place?

Glad you shared Yuri.. LOVE those pics..

[vlmagee]

Mine IS that calendar. So my memory serves and it WAS 1976, making the photo probably 1975.

[Jenney]

Gordon told us in Cambridge, that he still has that lace shirt!
Jenney

[vlmagee]

Jenney,

You know, as soon as somebody said to date the photo based on what Gord was wearing, the thought went through my mind that that was not necessarily conclusive with Gord because we all know that he has a tendancy to keep his clothes a long, long (did I say long?), time!

PS: I will probably be down in your neck of the woods next weekend for a concert ... no, not Gord of course, but I might get one Lightfoot song out of it ...

[Peter Bro10]

Yuri,
First off, I don't believe you are overstepping any bounds here. Sadly there is no reasoable way for us to "find out" who the photographer was. And since no one is seeking monetary gain... It's all a moot point.
As a photographer myself, I would like photo credit to be attached to images whenever possible, but frequently it is not possible. Oh well.

As to the issue of the shirt... I found the same era garb/lace shirt in the photo gallery:
http://www.corfid.com/gl/picture_gallery03.htm

[jj]

Originally Posted by jj

can anyone find a pic or video clip where he is wearing that shirt, pendant, bracelet, watch and/or that pair of jeans?

those funky jeans don't seem to be the same flower power ones sported in the latter Soundstage video ...i think the longest enduring piece of clothing i've noticed is his burgundy, velvety sportjacket...seen at the Gemini's when he performed My Love for You and then decades later on Canadian Idol and last tour...it's seen a few trips to the tailors

i imagine he has a pair of cowboy boots that've stood the test of time

[Yuri]

If this rapidly aging mind recalls correctly, Tom's friend was either a professional photographer or a serious amateur. My intention was to mat and frame the two photographs for display and towards that end I asked Tom for the name of his friend so that I could credit his work. As I excel in the art of procrastination, the project was filed away, never to acted upon. Buried somewhere in the deep and dark recesses of my desk, in the bowels of my office, I have an note baring his identity. Someday.....maybe....

[formerlylavender]

Thanks, Yuri, for sharing these photos. I agree with jj - your timing is perfect.

[Borderstone]

Very excellent photos! Very cool threads as well!

Thanks for those.

[geodeticman.5]

Yuri

Before checking Peter Bro 10's link to the shirt era et all, I an puttin my money - out of range with all current estimates, it seems, as I read an article/interview with Gord, back a little further is all to '73 - '74, where that unmistakeable shirt stood out in the crisp photo, I can date this off the cuff within 1 yr, because I had visited my fiend who's now a monk, and an old story in here, in the summer between my sophomore year and junior year of High School in Cleveland. That, academically, places it the summer of '74 - and I recall Father Sergius at that time had clipped it out the previous spring to my arrival by bus.


The article was a pre-cursor timed a litle too ealry to coincide with Gordon's pending concert at Purdue Campus Sports Arena complex, for which we gladly made the -many time- walk down the R.R. tracks (jumpin on if we could) leading from Lafayette to near Purdue, where we'd walked over a mild c 2-3 mile hike, The concert was excellent, standing room only, much the same as 2 years later at Colo State Sports Arena @ Moby Gym, (eg the whale architectire was amazing, and standing room only again) - and I saw that shirt at both concerts. By my reckoning, he may have had that shirt since '73, No matter, but interesting....

Most importantly - Yuri thanks for posting these photos, and my condolances for the passing of the friend of Tom's, that took the photos.

[Auburn Annie]

"I had visited my fiend who's now a monk" - LOL - great typo. Talk about doing a 180!

[geodeticman.5]

Originally Posted by Auburn Annie

"I had visited my fiend who's now a monk" - LOL - great typo. Talk about doing a 180!

loll A AHAHAHAHAHA;;LP;;;;;;;LOLOLOL.... YOU CAUGHT A GOOD ONE.......
IT WAS OF COURSE MEANT TO READ: 'my fRiend who's now a monk'. ..lol...

HOWEVER - THAT could have been Freudian - because, as I have told the story so many times of a transformation of a friend of mie, with the album SQ as a backdrop soundtrack that seemed to spark him into thinking of his lurking Arthurian -side of himself; he otherwise was the biggest Don Juan I have ever known....prior to Monkhood....and the calling, schooling in Theology...I've written of that story maybe 3 times over 3 years in context here and there.

Bottom line - there was something apparently magnetic about him - what with my own machinations of staring at the pretty girls myself I guess I never really could see what it was......but he......wasin demand...on the Purdue campus while in High School..... we'd walk that train tracks route and hike over to Purdue from Hemlock Hills, where he said he'd like to introduce me to a lady-friend of his....., he'd do that , then said ..he and she would be awhile upstairs, and I speant many a summer evening on campus staring at the starts, smelling the agricultiral surroudings wafting thru during those days...
while he'd been 'called in by Betty' - so to speak..., clip 4 paragraphs out of the story, SQ and all, and then out of nowhere , a woman breaks his heart he wantsto Marry when he is in College, and -BAM! SOMETHING SWITCHES IN HIM FROM 'PURT NEAR GIGOLO (though I do not know what that means on the 'streets, now') to a 'calling to the cloth' - he quit Clevelabd STATE - and entered a Schooll of Theology, and enered as an apprentice at a soouther3n Ohio Monastery, something a bit odd about it...thats in the longer version...then hooks up with A Russian Orthodox Monastery in Brookline Massachuserts, Holy Transfiguration....something. AN they changed his name from 'Doug' as he got his darker colored rope belts....j/k....to 'Father Sergius' and he was a changed man. I asked hin since if he mised the 'wine, woman, and song' so to speak of out hedonistic days....and he said 'yes'. He said ' I'd like nothing better than to have a wife, sitting by the fireplace - listening to Gordon Lightfoot music', but the calling in him was so strong he called it akin to being struck by lightning..... and he had founf a contentment and purpose...is the iconagrapher for the whole Church - send them worldwide...an also from his former education - makes silver lost-wax method crosses and rings- of which he gane my wife and I several of, and had them blessed in the caves of KIEV......while on a trip to Russia with his Bishop for other reasons.

You COULD say lol.... he went from a sex-fiend to a monk-friend......lol...

maybe it ess that one song 'Lord Forgive Me)for I have sinned' 300 times. lol.....thanks for catching my embarrassment....Aubrun...

[SilverHeels]

Originally Posted by vlmagee

Yes, that's the photo. It was used on a calendar - a 1976 calendar, if I remember correctly, which is why I said the photo was from 1975. Thanks for digging up the photo. I have the calendar ... somewhere ... but couldn't find the photo on my PC.

I have this photo, framed, on my office wall.

[Yuri]

Hi Pam,
Hope your dig went well!
Funny, I've had those photos for a number of years and I think the last thing I noticed was the type of shirt Gord was wearing. I should have known that nothing would get by the resident CSI's. (Corfid Shirt Investigators)

Yuri