On The Hour, with George Stroumboulopoulos, he does a great interview with Canada’s greatest singer/song writer ever and does it only the way that he can do it!
He was born in Orillia, Ontario. As a young boy he grew up singing in church choirs. Later on in life the man moved to L.A. in the late 1950’s to seriously study music. It wasn’t until he came back to Canada that his career finally took off! In 1966 he released his first album titled “Lightfoot”.
His commercial success came into the forefront when he started to break into the US market in the 70’s. This was a great thing. Eventually, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and even Elvis started doing re-makes of his songs!
Lightfoot’s got a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, he was one of the first inductees into Canada’s Singer/Songwriters Hall of Fame and has won 15 Junos to boot. Not bad from some guy from Orillia.
As for me, I have a little story to tell you here kidz, so gather around the campfire and let’ go!
Circa: early 1990. Place: Toronto, Ontario Canada
I was working for a delivery company called Mr. Case and I had a drop off in Toronto’s affluent Rosedale area. I had my supplies in my van and I pulled up to the clients driveway and got out. Damn, wrong driveway! So I went back to the van and everyone’s worse nightmare comes to life, I LOCK THE KEYS IN THE VEHICLE!
I don’t want to bother the people in the house, so I look for a coat hanger to break in. Can’t find any. What do I do next! I now notice a car pulling up the driveway in the adjacent house. A man, a women and child exit the vehicle. The women notices me and asks whats wrong and I begin to tell her my story. The man in the background with the child listens and says that he’d be back in a minute. Beautiful! The women stays behind and we spark up a nice conversation. Remember, I’m in a area that the average house is about 2 million dollars.
No the man comes back out of the house with a coat hanger and he is walking down his driveway and heads towards me on his neighbor’s side. As he is doing this, he has pliers in hand is starting to bend the end to the familiar hook. As he reaches me and my van, he automatically goes to the drivers to.
I’m now thinking to myself, what in the hell am I doing letting a millionaire attempt to break into my van! I said thank you for the hanger and I tried to take it from him before he tries to open the truck. He then says “ok, but I’m kinda good at this type of thing”.
As I stumble around trying desperately to open the van and have a conversation with this rich guy, he taps me on the shoulder and says “Can give it a try?”. I then agreed and handed over the tool. After 10 seconds I see the door pin is open and this guy turns to me and says “I told ya I was good at this” and then I realized it was …
Keep on Jammin’
Cool story. Any favorite licks of Mr Lightfoot’s that you’re especially fond of?
>> Canada’s greatest singer/song writer ever
That’s a pretty big statement. I’m not Canadian, but while Gordon had some success and was well-respected, I think Bruce Cockburn is probably a much better singer/songwriter. And in terms of success (albums sold), The Guess Who’s Burton Cummings has to have way outsold Gordon.
It would be interesting to see some figures/polls on this matter.
Hey Mike, thanx for the comment.
My favorite lick of his is simple but very effective. It’s the Edmonds Fitzgerald solo.
If you listen to it, and let it take your mind adrift, I find you get the sensation of floating in a boat during a storm. That’s just me and I’m sure this solo conjures up other feelings or emotions to others.
For years I just played technical songs and never ever gave the simple ones a second thought. Now a days, I include them on my play list.
Keep on Jammin’ Mike
Play kids games, you got me … in some aspects on this one!
I know hands down Bruce is the superior player to Gordon, without a doubt in my mind. I should have used a better way to phrase that one to everyone. Sometimes I’m wish that I was a bit more, how should I say, articulate! Just ask my wife about that one.
Maybe I should have put like “Canada’s best simple man’s guitarists song writer of all time.” and I do not mean to use it in a derogatory way let be be clear on this one!!!
I tend to judge guitarist on their level of playing their instrument. This may sound mean to some music lovers who may not be musicians in their own right, but this is how I grade musicians/writers.
Every player has a distinct sound and technique that only they can reproduce. Take Paul Simon for example. He makes my head spin around from time to time. His approach to playing seems simple until you start trying to figure out all of his playing idiosyncrasies.
Scarborough Fair sounds simple doesn’t it? Now go out and try to take apart the song and play it live in front of people who take listening to players, playing live, very seriously. God speed on that one. It took me around 1 month solid to get everything just right on that song. Years before I thought that it was just this pretty and very simple song, but boy was I wrong on that one!
So I hope to have explained myself a little bit this time around. Sometimes when you write a post on your blog you think it sounds great to you, but get someone else to read it and you may come across as if your speaking Klingon or something like that. It’s like reading some of those crazy manuals that you get when you buy something and have to put it together? I always seem to have a few extra parts left over and my wife looking at me saying in her mind, way to go Einstein!
Keep on Jammin’
I agree that seemingly simple can often be deceptive. Cockburn has a more sophisticated feel to his stuff, in my view. But Lightfoot wins, I think, on general accessibility grounds.
By the way, my favorite guitarists (in no particular order) are Phil Keaggy (stunning melodic creativity), Russ Freeman’s older work with the Rippingtons (speed and amazing creativity) and Larry Carlton (is there a more exquisite practitioner of the electric guitar anywhere??).
Hey play kids games, how about Micheal Hedges? Any thought about him?
I just wish that I had the opportunity to see the legend live!
Keep on Jammin’
Here is some of the post I’ve done about him, enjoy – Michael Hedges!
Keep on Jammin’