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Old 12-01-2007, 04:52 PM   #1
charlene
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Default top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

I LOVE this book! Great pics and stories about the albums..an early XMAS gift to me..from me!


The top 100 CANADIAN albums – Bob Mersereau – 2007 – Goose Lane Editions
http://www.gooselane.com/gooselaneeditions/?page_id=39

#23 – Gord’s Gold – Reprise 1975

“I was listening to Gordie’s Gold in a bar in New York with my headphones on. It just sang so deeply to me. I remember deciding that I wanted to move back to Canada.” – Greg Keelor, Blue Rodeo. http://www.bluerodeo.com

May 11, 2007, and Gordon Lightfoot walks on stage at the Moncton Coliseum: “Sorry, I’m four and half years late.” Lightfoot had cancelled this show because he was in hospital for internal bleeding. He nearly died. “We felt sorry when we missed those dates back in 2002,” he tells the crowd. “It does my heart good, I’m really glad we came.” Lightfoot plays a full two-hour show, many of the songs from Gord’s Gold.

This collection is far from the usual Greatest Hits. Lightfoot was as he recalls, “having a bit of a dry spell,” and hit on the idea of re-recording some of his early songs from the sixties. His current label didn’t own rights to the old songs, so re-recording them would be a way to get versions for it to sell. These aren’t simply copycats, though. Lightfoot adds an orchestra and does medleys he’d been doing in concert – not the cherished originals, nut a new appreciation of the songs. Lightfoot can’t even pick a favourite version, and has no problems today with the re-recordings: “It wouldn’t matter – no, I like the orchestra.”

The second album in this two-LP set contains regular versions of all the hits from the early seventies. This is Lightfoot at his peak of popularity. But something was wrong, and he knew it. He says he had a serious illness back then, too: “I probably could’ve achieved more had it not been for alcohol. But at the same time, alcohol was the fuel that was driving my engine. I (quit the drinking) in 1982, at the same time as a relationship came apart. It was being on my own and being alone that allowed me to do it. With some professional help I’m actually quite lucky that I’m sitting here talking to you right now. I probably could have put myself away right there. It took a toll.”

Gordon Lightfoot doesn’t make any secret of his drinking problem, just as everyone knows about his 2002 illness. He felt lucky to be in Moncton that night, having battled through two life – and career-threatening illnesses. The audience felt lucky to have been there, too.


#69 – Sit Down Young Stranger/If You Could Read My Mind – Reprise 1970

“When I saw him live at Massey Hall, it clarified what I wanted to do. Here was a guy on stage singing these great songs, not making a big deal about it. He looms so large in my career.” – Ron Sexsmith

A new decade means a fresh start to Gordon Lightfoot’s recording career. He signed with Reprise, a strong US company, with the hope of hits, and delivered an album with a title track that meant a lot to him: “That was put out during the Viet Nam war. That song was supposed to be my contribution to a cause of sorts to try to end the situation over there. I loved the song, and I loved what it said, and that’s why I called the album Sit Down Young Stranger. It sold 80,000 copies and it stopped.

“They (Reprise) called and said that they’d got a nibble on a single on the album. By this time, it was seven or eight months alter. In Seattle, a station was going to program ‘If You Could Read My Mind’.”

Reprise thought they might be able to capitalize on it: “They said, ‘will you change the album title?’ And I said no. So they flew me out to California. I said, why do you want to do it, what difference will make? And one of the guys said, it’s the different between X and 7X. So what he did was, he explained it to me algebraically. I knew he was right; he was telling me we’d probably sell about seven times as many albums. But it took an airplane trip to California and back for a meeting for me to make the decision, that’s the really crazy, ridiculous part about it.”

By early 1971, the album had a new name and Lightfoot had his first real hit in the US: “The funny thing was, I didn’t sing it at all until it got singled off that album. I didn’t see the strength in it. I was playing ‘Sit Down Young Stranger’.”


#74 – Sundown – Reprise 1973

“The album contains ten of the most gritty, yet beautiful original Lightfoot songs to be found. And unlike many artistic triumphs, this album resonated with the public worldwide.” – Wayne Francis, www.lightfoot.ca (Wayne was a Juror)

Gordon Lightfoot hadn’t hit the Top Forty since “If You Could Read My Mind” in 1970. For this album, a change was in the works. Lightfoot got to reunite his core sixties’ players – musicians he trusted and with whom he loved playing: “I got my old bass player (John Stockfish) back for that, and I got Red Shea (on guitar) back, too.”

With his other guitar player, Terry Clements, there as well, the basic tracks for the album were recorded in Toronto. Producer Lenny Waronker had a few tricks to add, though: string parts, some keyboards, and drums, something Lightfoot still didn’t use in concert.

The album was just that little bit more modern, a little more produced. Lightfoot says the hit “Sundown” put his career back on track: “We really needed (a hit), and that was the perfect place to get one. It set me up to continue on for another five or six years after that.”

“Carefree Highway” came next. Lightfoot attributes his affinity for songs about traveling to an early favourite singer: “Hank Snow: I’ve been everywhere, man. Definitely the country music influence. I wrote that in Arizona, I was driving one night from Flagstaff to Phoenix, and I saw a road sign that said ‘Carefree Highway,’ and I said, here’s a song. Just very perfunctorily I had the whole thing done in fifteen minutes in my head.”

Travelling is a good metaphor for Gordon Lightfoot’s career. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. “When it’s done, it’s done, you might as well keep moving,” he says. Apart from illness, he’s never stopped touring or recording. Or, as Hank Snow put it, “I’m Movin’ On”.

#91 – Lightfoot! – United Artists, 1966

Gordon Lightfoot started out in folks music during the revival of the early 1960s. At first, he played the usual covers, but by 1964, new singers were being encouraged to write their own songs. “By that point, I was hearing Ian & Sylvia and Bob Dylan and people like that. Around about the time I wrote “Early Morning Rain.”

Lightfoot added another element, some Hank Snow-inspired country, to give his act a bit more edge for the types of places he was playing: “I had one place where I used to have to work in around the hockey game. It was Steele’s Tavern, Saturday night. I would always let the hockey game go because I knew people wanted to see it.”

At least in 1964 the Leafs were winning, and Toronto was a happening music town: “I had a good place in the pecking order there. I had a bit of a reputation as a songwriter, which was what drew Ian & Sylvia ion to see me at Steel’s Tavern. Which is how the song (‘For Lovin’ Me’) got from Ian & Sylvia to Peter, Paul and Mary. One thing just led to another.”

Lightfoot had those country chops, too: “Marty Robbins took that song ‘Ribbon Of Darkness’ and turned it into a hit. Before we knew it, we had a whole list of cover recordings. Of course, the importance of all that sunk in later. Through that I got a good contract with United Artists, so I had pretty good distribution with that “Lightfoot! Album. When it sold a hundred thousand copies, I was actually quite shocked, I never believed that would be possible.”

Having been influenced and supported by the leading folks and country performers of the day, Lightfoot was now writing hit songs and selling albums just like them: “I did feel that I had gotten into that particular club, yes.”

#98 – The Way I Feel – United Artists 1967

“Go-Go Round” – I’ll tell you who did that one great. Blue Rodeo did a wonderful job on that tribute album. They sang the balls off it, I’ll tell ya, it was great. – Gordon Lightfoot

When the time came to release his second album, Gordon Lightfoot had already had a hit from it, at least in Canada. “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” had captured the nation’s spirit of patriotism in its Centennial year, on TV: “Bob Jarvis called me up from CBC one day and said they were doing a New Year’s Day special. There’s a railroad segment, could you write a song for it? And I said, about how long? As long as you want to make it. I said it should be fairly long. Then he sent me to read a book about Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, who was in charge of the railway. And I took it from there. Three days later I had the song and I was singing it to him at his desk.”

One song directly inspired Lightfoot’s Toronto folksinger days was “Go-Go Round”: You know how I got the idea for that song? I got it from Ronnie Hawkins. And I don’t really think I have to say anything more. It was just from that atmosphere of watching Ronnie on the strip, and they would, in turn, come up and see me up in (Yorkville) Village. It was really quite an interesting time. Our families interacted, and it was quite fun there for a number of years.”

There were many triumphs in 1967, including a month-long stay at the Riverboat, the first of the now-traditional yearly sold-out shows at Massey Hall, a week outdoors at Expo ’67, and this landmark album. It was also the year of “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”, the best six minutes and ten seconds of history class Canadian kids have spent ever since.

more in next post...
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Old 12-01-2007, 04:53 PM   #2
charlene
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

part 2:

Other notables:

#63 – Ron Sexsmith – Ron Sexsmith - 1995

“I know him, he’s a friend. He’s a fine writer.” Gordon Lightfoot

#38 – Melville – Rheostatics – 1991 – (Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics was a Juror - http://www.davebidini.ca )

There’s a cover song from that prototypical Canadian songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot. Here’s what they did to “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”: “Really drag it through the muck, really get it dirty, spray it with mud and blood and fear and angst. It was essentially our punk rock version of that song, really trying to get it as frightful as possible. I think we all realized we could give a new look to this song, maybe reflect sonically some of the lyrics, more so than Gord’s actual treatment, which was very clean and kind of jaunty, when in fact it’s terrifying as hell, that song.”

Other Jurors –
Colin Linden (member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) – producer of the tribute album – “Beautiful” - www.colinlinden.com
Ron Sexsmith - www.ronsexsmith.com
Ron Hynes (musician – friend of Ron Jones) www.hynesite.org
Jowi Taylor – maker of the 6 Strings Nation Guitar, radio host. www.sixstringnation.com/en/contact_us
Michael Wrycraft – (posters, albums art design, - he did “Beautiful” – A tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. http://pages.interlog.com/~wrycraft/...ecentwork.html and one of Jory Nash’s cd’s..)
Gord James –CHUM radio – he and Gord go way back.. - www.1050chum.com
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Old 12-01-2007, 05:28 PM   #3
RM
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

Thanks for sharing this. Most interesting. The part about being convinced to release IYCRMM as a single ( "I didn't see the strength in it") cracks me up.
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Old 12-01-2007, 05:41 PM   #4
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

Quote:
Originally Posted by charlene View Post
part 2:

Michael Wrycraft – (posters, albums art design, - he did “Beautiful” – A tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. http://pages.interlog.com/~wrycraft/...ecentwork.html and one of Jory Nash’s cd’s..)
He did the cover of Harmony too, unless my memory is playing tricks on me. The CD is hiding somewhere, so I can't double check.
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Old 12-01-2007, 05:55 PM   #5
charlene
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

yep, he did Val - mine is hiding too..lol

He's quite a talent!
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Old 12-01-2007, 06:22 PM   #6
RM
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

Well, for the disorganized......the credits read as follow :

"Art Direction, design and layout by A Man Called Wrycraft, Toronto"

What I had failed to notice was:

"Photography by Rick Haynes (booklet front & back)"
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Old 12-02-2007, 03:39 PM   #7
gwen snyder
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

Wow, Rick Haynes as a photographer.
I can see it.
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Old 12-16-2007, 11:00 PM   #8
charlene
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Default Re: top 100 Canadian Albums - "Lightfoot" excerpts from book

http://www.buffalonews.com/entertain...ry/230344.html

Choosing the best music of Canada: The sound of a nation
By Jeff Miers
Updated: 12/16/07 9:47 AM

Jeff Miers picks Joni Mitchell's "Mingus" for his No. 2 Canadian album, right after The Band's "Music From Big Pink." More Photos

Related Stories
Northern lights

Bob Mersereau says his native Canada is “a nation of doubters; We doubt the quality of our own music, probably because we feel like we live in the shadow of the States.”

Mersereau conceived “The Top 100 Canadian Albums” partly as a means of overturning this self-doubt, but mainly, he wanted to celebrate the rich history of Canadian recordings, and place those recordings in the broader context of the world.

Context is a key concept here, for Mersereau penned thorough histories for each album on the list, his principal aim being to reveal how “all of these albums belong in any serious disc collection, whether you happen to be Canadian or otherwise.”

With the help of an all-star panel of Canadian musicians and industry-types, as well as a handful of high-profile contributing writers – among them Neil Peart of Rush, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Win Butler of Arcade Fire and Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip – Mersereau has compiled a tome that handily achieves this aim.

A chat with him this week revealed much about the Canadian sense of self, as revealed by its finest recorded music.

The first thing one notices when scanning this list is the diversity of the talent represented. It’s startling, actually.

That’s true. It’s one of the reasons for doing the book, in fact – trying to represent that diversity, which is part of what makes Canadian music such a force.

Bearing that in mind, what’s the connective tissue? What makes an album distinctly Canadian?

That’s the big question. I think the answer has to be, our music is linked by the same thing that links us geographically: nature.

When young bands or artists start out in Canada, they have to tour. And when they do, they get a sense of the expanse of the country, as they travel from one side of it to the other.

Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo told me, ‘Canadians never tire of a singer/songwriter,’ and that’s true. The reason for that is, we have our own tradition of folk music here, based on the fact that people have always been making music with whatever was at hand. When you’re isolated in some fishing camp or logging and lumber camp in the north, you make music with your voice and probably an acoustic guitar.

I think that’s burned into our DNA now. That’s a big part of who we are, and I think it connects our music.

It’s no surprise to see Neil Young in the top slot – and seven other slots besides! Obviously, Joni Mitchell and the Band are gonna be in there. Did anything surprise you when the panel returned the results?

The most pleasant surprise was the fact that younger people voted for older artists, and older people voted for younger artists. That’s telling, because I believe we know our history in Canada, and we’re proud of it. There’s less of the whole, ‘Oh, they’re an old band that my dad listened to, so forget them,’ sort of thing. There’s a sense of knowing where we come from, musically, and using that knowledge to get where we might be going. I was thrilled by that.

I’m not the first person to say this, but if there was a Canadian Mount Rushmore it certainly wouldn’t have politicians on it – it would have been Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot on it! We’re aware here that these are the great reference points, and we’re not afraid to look back.

Let’s get your thoughts on a few of the artists who placed more than one record in the top 100. The Band?

They made folk music come alive again, at a time when no one was really doing that. Most of them were rural Canadian guys who heard a wide array of music – not just American music from the south, although that was clearly a big part of it. And they fell in love with the idea of creating interesting sounds and arrangements in service of incredible songs. The music is timeless.

Also, it’s reflective of the rough and tumble R&B scene in Toronto in the ’60s. That scene, which stretched from Toronto to Hamilton and back, was the equal of the scene anywhere in the world. The Band, when they were still the Hawks, came out of that scene.

The Tragically Hip.

They remain our biggest rock band, because they refuse to do it any other way than their own. They could’ve gone another route, they could’ve been made into something they’re not and had much more commercial success – the offers were there. But instead, they steadfastly wrote about what they knew, which meant they were unafraid to learn Canadian history and reference it, or to put the names of obscure hockey players or strange Canadian towns into their songs. That makes it folk music, and it’s our folk music.

Also, the band found a way to appeal to both the jock crowd and the serious music-lover crowd. That’s a pretty big deal. In Canada, we feel like we own them!

Rush.

Certainly an institution. The band has a huge following that has been with it forever.

In Canada, we feel like Rush is our progressive rock. The band is made up of survivors, of serious musicians who have both a sense of humor about it all, and a high-minded approach to what they do. In Neil Peart, you’ve got such an extremely literary, agile mind. It doesn’t hurt, either, that Rush steadfastly avoided the pitfalls all bands face, and many succumb to. They’re the real deal.

and

http://www.buffalonews.com/entertain...ry/230349.html

Northern lights
AS A NEW BOOK CELEBRATES THE FINEST CANADIAN ALBUMS, WE CONSIDER OUR MUSICAL CONNECTION TO THE COUNTRY
By Jeff Miers / NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
Updated: 12/16/07 8:30 AM


Well, we got more than hockey from them, didn’t we? We Americans like to think we invented most things, and we certainly can lay claim to some worthwhile cultural exports – the blues, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop.

In Buffalo, however, we are unique. We remain a suburb of Toronto in many ways.

We still get skipped over on many highprofile concert tours. We still lack both the growing, bustling population and the vibrant club scene that comes along with it. But we have a real fascination with Canadian music on this side of the Peace Bridge.

In a sense, the regional music of the Toronto area is our regional music, as well. We’re separated by some readily apparent cultural differences – a body of water, a bridge and a border. But Toronto is only 100 miles from here.

In fact, there are Canadian groups – the Tea Party, Tragically Hip and Sloan, for example – who are huge in Canada, massive in Buffalo, but have trouble getting arrested anywhere south of here. They sell out large venues in Buffalo and play small-to-medium- sized clubs in the rest of the country.

So when Bob Mersereau’s impressive tome, “The Top 100 Canadian Albums,” was released recently, we were seriously intrigued.

Mersereau compiled an authoritative panel of Canadian musicians and music industry folks to vote in this definitive sweepstakes. On the one hand, some of the results were expected: Neil Young not only claimed the No. 1 spot, he managed to place no less than 8 albums in the top 100. On the other hand, there were a few surprises: Canadian punkers Teenage Head placed two records in the list.

The book is a reminder of just how much we in Western New York share with our Canadian neighbors, musically speaking. We also feel lucky – a lot of the artists on the list at one time or another played in our city, or we were able to take a ride up the QEW to hear them. Take that, Charlotte and Tampa.

This book speaks to us, or at least we are intrigued by the talent, and the fact that someone actually took the time to compile the list.

The popular conception is that Canadians are a tolerant lot, except when it comes to hockey and cross-border shopping sprees. Mersereau’s book speaks to their diversity of opinion as well. How else to explain a list that places jazz giant Oscar Peterson smack up against alt-rockers the Joel Plaskett Emergency? The Band. Neil Young. Joni Mitchell. Rush.

These are some of the biggest names in popular music history. Yet, they have become so much a part of our culture that it’s easy to forget they are all Canadian artists, despite the fact that all of them celebrate their heritage in one fashion or another.

The Band reflected the wide-open spaces and sense of possibility of the Canadian landscape in their music. Young has never shied away from representing in song the sense of wind-blown wistfulness he experienced as a kid growing up amidst the valleys and plains of Manitoba. Mitchell has written extensively about Canada, perhaps most movingly in her evergreen piece, “A Case of You.”

Rush celebrated the open-minded playlist policies of Toronto’s CFNY FM during its late ’70s/’80s heyday with their song “The Spirit of Radio.” The Tragically Hip, a massive draw in Buffalo, have quite possibly penned more Canada-specific tunes than any other artist.

Still, it’s hard to whittle any of this down to a sound that is distinctly Canadian, just as there is no one American sound. It’s a testament to the depth of a culture that so much music of widely divergent stylings can fit neatly beneath a nationalistic umbrella.

So hats off to our northern neighbors. They’ve given us some timeless music.
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