He's been called Canada's greatest songwriter, had his work recorded by music royalty, from Elvis to Johnny Cash to Barbra Streisand, and created numerous classic songs on his own. He's the one and only Gordon Lightfoot. He joined CBC Music to talk about his craft and his perspective, 50 years after his music first hit Canada's charts.
To bring the artist closer to his audience, each question came from his fans. CBC Music put out a call for questions, and the responses came pouring in from people eager to pick Lightfoot's brain about his tastes, opinions and experiences.
Here is the interview, featuring two exclusive tracks from his upcoming album, All Live.
Jeff Courtice (@Foofer22) wanted to know, "which one of your songs has the deepest personal impact on you? Is hearing it therapeutic?"
Lightfoot says he can't single out a song from his body of work that is more personal than the others.
"I really don’t have a song in my repertoire that I really do not believe in or enjoy performing, so it’s sort of a difficult answer," he says.
He also says he's thinking much more about the listener's experience than his own when it comes to his music.
Listen to Lightfoot's "Carefree Highway," a song about heartbreak and the open road from his upcoming release, All Live.
"Therapeutic is sort of funny for me. I’m thinking more about getting the sound out and thinking about the crowd. About my health, I sort of worry about that between shows."
As far as if there are any strong feelings stirred up when listening to his own music he says, "Yes. I wanted to do a retake. You’re never fully satisfied with the results."
Dave Chow posted this question to Facebook: What has been the best thing to happen to music in your lifetime? And the most detrimental?
Lightfoot started listing off the amazing kinds of music that are available -- jazz, classical, "the recent stuff" -- including it all in what's best about music: so much great music that we can all easily access. He added that he's struck by how music keeps getting better.
"The quality of the recording and the tempos and the tuning and the talent is unbelievable now," he says. "And of course, there’s an upswing. The talent gets better all the time. Musicians are like athletes, they get better all the time. And they do. And I enjoy watching that."
As far as anything that's set music back, Lightfoot has no bones to pick.
"I can’t think of a thing," he says. "I just go with the flow."
James Houston (@jimmy2bills) sent a tweet asking for stories from back in the day: Toronto's Yorkville had a great folk scene in the 1960s. What is your favourite memory from that time and place?
"What I remember most about the Riverboat was keeping my guitar in tune," Lightfoot says of the club at the epicentre of Toronto's Yorkville folk scene. "All of my concentration was spent in making sure I was ready to on for the next show. So I used to spend my time actually tuning my instruments the whole time I was there and I hardly saw anything. I used to sit in a parking lot in the back."
"I picked up on the vibes of the place," he says, "but back in those days nobody took it as seriously as they do now as part of our history. At that time it was charming, and it was great to be a part of and we had lots of fun. I’ll never forget it. It’s indelibly etched in my mind, the performances we did there. The first time I got any notice from the media or got reviewed, or read about my show in the newspaper."
Listen to "Sundown," live from Massey Hall from All Live.
So those are Lightfoot's thoughts and memories. What about you? If you have a Gordon Lightfoot memory or experience you'd like to share, let us know in the comment section.
Related:
Gordon Lightfoot: Your questions for the Canadian icon
Gordon Lightfoot's CBC Music artist page
Special stream: Gordon Lightfoot