OK, here goes. As you surmise, Thane surfed the web and found the web sites (Matt's and maybe mine). I started mine in the spring of '98, and this occurred during that spring and summer. Wayne's site wasn't built yet, but he was credited for the FAQs at Matt's - much of the voluminous historical detail that is today on Wayne's own site. At the time my site had current stuff only and was a small subset of what I have today.
You have Wayne's own comment on his contribution - his details on the unreleased material. You might say that it helped Thane know what recordings to ask for! So Matt's site provided Thane with a lead to a wonderful source of information, Wayne. And Matt's site was at that time (summer '98) still the major GL site around (and the trailblazer).
The story of how I came into the picture is rather amusing. At least I always smile at it. A pretty pivotal "meeting" about the project occurred backstage after the Humphrey's show that summer. Thane met with Gordon and Barry, and another newsgrouper, Doug Kirk just happened to overhear what they were talking about (good thing newsgroupers have good hearing). So after the meeting broke up, our man Doug went up to Thane, introduced himself, and asked ... Thane, being the smart marketeer that he is, didn't brush him off. He confirmed that he was indeed talking to Gord about a boxed set and he exchanged e-mail addresses with Doug. He told Doug that it would be premature to say anything at that point, and asked him to keep it to himself. Doug (and Matt and Wayne) did that (as far as I know). Then, a month or two later, Doug e-mailed Thane and asked how things were going, and Thane replied that things were going well and that Doug could let the Internet folks know about the project.
So I learned about it from Doug's post at the newsgroup. Now at that time I was still expanding my web site and one of my goals with the site was to do some laid back marketing. So of course I wanted to somehow get in the loop on this new boxed set so that I could have first hand authoritative information about it.
I mulled over how to contact the source of information. When Doug sent around the information he included the text of his e-mail asking, and the response, but not the e-mail address. So there was a "Dear Thane". Well, I'm not someone who likes to do detective work via a phone call, so I didn't do anything. Then, one day not long after, I was bidding on an LP at Ebay (a sealed copy of IYCRMM, the "variation" with IYCRMM on the front and SDYS on the back), and I am outbid. So I look to see who is bidding against me and the e-mail address is thane.tierney at rhino.com! So now I know his last name and e-mail address (surely it must be the same person), and I also know that he is a real Lightfoot fan too. Why else would he be bidding on something like this? (PS: I eventually outbid him and won the LP).
Anyhow, I wrote to him, told him who I was (and that I had a web site) and that I'd like to help with the marketing of the new boxed set when the time came. This was in the fall of '98. Since then, I have worked with him before every new release from Rhino, providing information and clips at the appropriate time. So the thanks to me are for the help with Internet marketing, something that has brought me tremendous pleasure.
Over the years, he has kept in touch, and on several occasions he has sent me momentos, usually as a total surprise. I have galley sheets of the Songbook booklet; that's where I first saw my name but he had already read the acknowledgment to me over the phone. Mind you, he just said, let me read this to you. Needless-to-say, I almost dropped the phone when I heard what was written.
This last time, with Complete Greatest Hits, I did my usual marketing (and now I had a large mailing list to tell, something I didn't have at the beginning). CGH was very well received, and spent a number of weeks in the top 200 (peaked at 128). In late September, Thane called me to tell me that it had gone gold in Canada just that day. Then, in late October, I get a package delivered to my door. The return address is Warner Canada! And, knowing Thane, I "knew" what it was. A "gold record", with my name. So Thane had acknowledged me again for my marketing contribution, in a very special way.
And Thane is a genuine Lightfoot fan, just like all of us. He told me soon after Songbook was released that this boxed set was the highlight of his career. And I know that he meant that.
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Valerie Magee
Visit my GL web site at
gordonlightfoot.com and Cathy Cowette's site at
cathycowette.com
