W5: Gordon Lightfoot's timeless impact on music

welcome back well there are songs that for whatever reason remain timeless and Gordon Lightfoot has provided the world with more than a few of those the heartbreak of if you could read my mind the flirtiness of sundown and of course the heroism of the Edmund Fitzgerald his career has spanned 60 years and in almost 80 he's still touring but in all that time he has rarely agreed to be interviewed in death which is what makes this conversation with Lloyd Robertson for w5 very special [Music] Sunday nights at the port theater in Nanaimo British Columbia a sold-out concert and everyone is waiting eager to see a Canadian legend I heard him on the radio on time and since that I can I just love his music it's home pretty much he's so Canadian I just love Gordon Lightfoot period the love fills the hall as the man makes his entrance it's Gordon Lightfoot a little older but giving his all for two hours of his iconic hits spanning more than 50 years [Music] but always read it just to say that [Music] I really wanted to sound good I do I want to continue it sound better now than it ever has or 79 years old you're still out there on the road what is it that keeps you going I have that idea of moving forward all the time and you still obviously get a lot from touring all the time out there on the road well our output is pretty good right now we're really pouring it on these days and it's a torrid tour schedule taking Leadfoot to 78 halls across North America in 2017 and if that's not enough [Applause] [Music] he still finds time to take in a show in Toronto honoring more than 50 years of his songwriting the good old Canadian - written by a good old Canadian songwriter and when Canada's rockin country free oh the good brothers roll up my foot's Alberta bound crowd gets a rare treat [Music] yes good to me [Music] and for a few years you toured with the good brothers yes they brought them over at the time when we were doing some double shows there were times that we would do two shows a day [Music] Bruce good remembers those tours to allowing us to share his stage for so many shows to me his generosity beyond belief I'm proud to count him as a friend and I know my brothers are too that generosity and talent is something Lightford learned from his parents as a child growing up here in Orillia Ontario what would you say has been the biggest influence your parents had on you my mother knew what what what she saw she saw me your standing up at my grandmother's kitchen table singing for all my aunts what about your dad he was a plant manager he was a hard-working guy and he just what we got to do what we'll do his family knew of their young sons talent in his hometown his singing was celebrated a rare copy of Lightfoot's first recording there it is made 70 years ago by his school principal that was West Ward school no longer playable but a treasured memento old were you ten how did he get you into this did he call you down to his office sure what you heard that I sang it every do it a spot in the talent show and there was it was I'm CFO wire and I've ever stood in this stuff and it was really there was seven eight years old it was you know sound ten by now and you called me in at four o'clock and they played this on the apparently upcoming parents day over the school in a consistent three years later Lightfoot won first prize at the Kiwanis festival in Toronto his first appearance at Toronto's venerable Massey Hall Lightfoot went on to perform at Massey Hall more than 160 times in his hugely successful career in the early sixties lightfoot moved to Toronto and landed a job on the TV show Country hoedown he recorded remember me I'm the one his first Canadian hit making the top 5 in July 1962 remember me I'm the one I was talking about an imaginary situation of the person not treated as spouse properly in the mid 60's Lightfoot's big success was his songwriting a string of singers began recording his work so many singers have recorded your songs 50 versions of early morning rain yeah I you know I never understood the importance of all that until long after it took place [Music] in the buckets full of sand [Music] Elin Silvia we're Canada's top folk group in the 1960s their fourth album was called early morning rain we were the first I think your record and there was no argument about about doing his songs I mean and once we did them everybody started picking up on him [Music] these photographs scored shared with me Nicholas Jennings is one of Canada's leading authorities on Canadian pop music I think it's true that Gordon Lightfoot songs have have come to reflect who we are as Canadians it's not reserved for Canada along because there are people all over the world who have embraced those songs Jennings spent more than three years writing the best-seller Lightfoot its release celebrated at this party in Toronto to Gordon's credit he never made me feel like a weirdo for asking personal questions even when I kept repeating them over and over again until I got the answers he doesn't really care for fame I mean he really doesn't like the celebrity aspect of his line of work he's all about the music and always has been does that have to do with him being a perfectionist he's really a craftsman when it comes to songwriting he works so hard to make these songs as resonant as possible some of the situation's described in the songs are really restricted from the imagination and some of them are real so many of your songs are about personal relationships like that do you really seem to be able to dig into that I sort of started being able to draw on the emotional you know life became like a like a kind of a roller coaster and you would get down in the dip and that's who you would get the inspiration and get the coffee and the cigarettes and get at it in the late sixties and seventies lightfoot solo career took off a string of albums going gold or platinum and a number one hit single around the world sundown you've been creepin around backstage writing and recording 13 albums in 12 years alongside a demanding tour schedule took a toll on Lightfoot you made a couple of interesting comments about the road yourself you said there are a lot of temptations out there alcohol women but it's self-destructive you said I began what they're doing what I felt were irrational things my personal life I won't go into it but III just had to stop and I did it with the help of my sister and a few friends and a doctor and I lost a relationship and a seven month old child at the same time left me out of the house I was on my own for five years you have to treat your talent with respect so how you've come to look at it after all these years well I I realized that but by 1982 if I didn't stop drinking I was gonna I was gonna do myself in did you ever fall off the wagon no no okay I'll be honest with you I had a glass of wine in in in in 2005 but from the time that I stopped till the time that I drank that glass of wine from 1982 to 2005 was 23 years it's completely dry I will now occasionally have a beer or a glass of wine but very very rarely and that's it a haunting ballad was the first time we'd ever play in the song creates a Canadian classic when w5 continues [Music] gordon lightfoot has won every musical honor Canada has to bestow he's in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and winner of the Governor General's Award a string of hit singles along with platinum and gold albums now at 79 Lightfoot is still on the road a sound check before each show for an audience of one his wife of three years Kim and before this sold-out hall Lightfoot confides to the crowd how close he came to dying 15 years ago [Applause] well first artery on September 8 2002 Lightfoot suffered a critical medical emergency hours before another show this one in his hometown original Lightfoot's drummer Barry keen was there at that afternoon getting ready before the concert I got there before sound check and I said to the boys where's Gord well he's in his dressing room so I went to see him he was lying face down in the dressing room Canada's foremost folk singing storyteller Gordon Lightfoot is in hospital in Hamilton after having emergency surgery on his stomach it was a long evening I saw them put the paddles on him twice they lost him up in Orillia so it was quite an ordeal his attack an aortic aneurysm a frequent killer most people would have been gone after that and usually 95% of the time you're dead I remember what it felt like to be dead and it was the most peaceful time that I ever felt in my entire life because as soon as I came to I just got right back into the problems again that's my writing one of the problems was getting back to his first love music all the stuffs all valid those are the courage after all these years Lightfoot is still eager to talk about one of his biggest hit songs a song about a tragedy that went to the top of the charts in 1976 there was a news broadcast on eleven o'clock at CBC the ship is just south of Lake Superior that ship was the Edmund Fitzgerald 29 men were lost on a stormy night in November 1975 the ship's disappearance caught the imagination of this avid sailor how long did it take to write Edmund Fitzgerald then about a week [Music] drummer very keen was in the recording studio the engineer said we have the studio booked like why don't we put it down on tape stay up all night rewriting [Music] after Big Lake Baykal get a goomy I think it is it never gets up a bit [Music] I said to Gordon when would you like me to come in he said I'll give you a nod the boys did their thing around the third verse Gordon gave me a nod I did a drum fill [Music] that's the record not only was it a first take it was the first time we'd ever played the song were you surprised as it became such a big hit no one had a clue in a way you can even you could call it a flip lightfoot success was no fluke from his teens he worked tirelessly to hone his craft he played whenever and wherever he could one of the first promoters to spotlight foot stealth was Bernie Fiedler the owner of the riverboat coffee house on Yorkville in Toronto it was 1966 they know.they village there's something happening they're coming down here after the hours more than 50 years later Fiedler remembers Lightfoot's shows at his small club and I gotta tell you something that guy created an atmosphere I still think about him they have you know chills go down my spine he is innately a storyteller I've seen so many people literally just hanging on his every word in concert Nicholas Jennings is an expert on Canadian pop music history and the author of Lightfoot do you think he's Canada's troubadour would you call him at Gordon Lightfoot is absolutely the quintessential Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot songs have have come to reflect who we are as Canadians and and what it means to to live in this country you've written a lot about Canada sorry a lot about Canada I love living in Canada I just I just love it I don't I don't know what it is I just love living in Canada and the love is returned in his hometown Orillia Ontario in 2015 this sculpture honors his lifelong success [Music] and for the boy with the golden voice there's now a second statute for their hometown icon everything I've learned but life and the music business and everything I learned right here he sings totally from the heart I don't believe there's a phony bounine for an electrodes body and nor is there a phony note in Gordon Lightfoot songs they are absolutely perfect in a sense of a balance of music and lyrics [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1970 if you could read my mind top of the charts in Canada stand was his first hit in the United States it's like his life is a two-way street Canada's situation a story about the end of a marriage yes it is basically the marriage wasn't over yet but it was just two or three years off and I realized that I wrote that song [Music] you know almost 50 years old it was sad I saved that one for near the end of the show if you could read my mind there's still to me it's one of the great songs ever written that I've taken - given Gordon an ovation myself when the song is over because it's lucky me I'm part of greatness let foot's friends all know one thing about this man his absolute generosity and loyalty he's incredibly loyal he's always treated relationships whether it be with his band members his his family his friends he never forgets someone who's done a good turn or a favor he rewards loyalty Bernie Fiedler is just one of the many recipients of Lightfoot's generosity back in the early 1970s his riverboat coffeehouse ran up a big tax bill he just said write the check because that's what he wanted he wanted to support me without question and believe me $90,000 in the 70s was a hell of a lot of money he's not one of those that does things for the publicity in fact he it's just quite the opposite he shied away from the publicity he does it because it's the right thing to do you're a generous guy where does that come from yeah I try to be fair and square you know I like to to make sure that everybody's happy with what their deal whatever it is I think Gordon Lightfoot songs are going to outlive him and I think they're going to be the kind of songs that just become standards in popular music [Music] for 15 years Canadian musicians have gathered in Toronto to sing those classic Lightfoot songs the hall is sold out for the celebration and Lightfoot is there his daughter Meredith is - singing her father's song continuing the family's legacy the concerts final song finds Lightfoot on stage joining in on the very first song from his first help many of the performers not even born but it was released in 1966 his love of performing passing on to a new generation his 11 year old granddaughter Christina bounce out her verse on the nights finale [Music] and Lightfoot's one of Canada's national musical treasures soaks up the love I love the country instills itself in your soul well Gordon Lightfoot will be returning to Massey Hall that's where he first performed as a 13 year old boys soprano as the final performer before that great concert hall closes for a four year renovation we'll be right back

Channel: Official W5

Views: 581,285

Rating: 4.8816185 out of 5

Keywords: W5, Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian music, Folk music, Singer-songwriter, Songwriting

Id: mTzbff0dvFA

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2017