1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,560 Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Thing from My Heart Radio. We're nearing the end of 3 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: our summer Staff Picks series. Over the last few weeks, 4 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: you've heard from the staff as they showcase their favorite 5 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,080 Speaker 1: episodes from our archives. Now it's time to hear mine. 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:21,880 Speaker 1: I wanted to share with you an episode from one 7 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: of the kindest people I've met in the making of 8 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: this podcast, musician Gordon Lightfoot. My conversation with the Canadian 9 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: singer songwriter of the nineteen seventies hits If You Could 10 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: Read My Mind, Beautiful Sundown, and The Wreck of the 11 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: Edmund Fitzgerald covers his beginnings in the industry, what changed 12 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: in importance to him over time, and his battle with 13 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: some serious health issues. Here's my two thousand sixteen conversation 14 00:00:51,800 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: with Gordon Lightfoot. At times, I just don't know how 15 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: you could feel anything but beautiful. Over the course of 16 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: a career that has lasted more than fifty years, Canadian 17 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: singer songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has achieved a global stardom and 18 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: exceptional influence. Bob Dylan's a fan. About Lightfoot's songs, Dylan said, 19 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: I can't think of any I don't like. These songs, 20 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: which include Beautiful, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, If 21 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: You Could Read My Mind, and many others, have been 22 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 1: treasured by generations of popular musicians and listeners around the world. 23 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: Many people know about the folk music revival that brought 24 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 1: Bob Dylan to New York in the early nineteen sixties, 25 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: but north of the border there was an equivalent explosion 26 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: of talent at that time, and Lightfoot, who got his 27 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: start singing in boys choirs, found himself heading to Canada's 28 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 1: cultural capital to try his luck. Beautiful Well, I was 29 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: down in the in Toronto here looking for work, and 30 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: I got a job as a coral performer and in 31 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: a television series that was on every week. And at 32 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: the same time I branched out and began working in 33 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: the folk uh oriented places, because the the folk revival 34 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: had occurred around about nineteen sixty and I would have 35 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,239 Speaker 1: been maybe twenty twenty years old there about one and 36 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: uh so I'd be working on the TV show in 37 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: the daytime and going and working at the coffee houses 38 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: at night. You know, you had a period we wrote 39 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: jingles for commercials. Correct I tried, they locked me in 40 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: a room. One time, a manager in a place on 41 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: Madison Avenue just left me there all afternoon. That go well, 42 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: I wrote the commercial, but they didn't like it. They 43 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: didn't play your version of the commercial. But you didn't, 44 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: didn't You weren't in New York for a long time? Correct? Well, 45 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: I would go back and forth in New York all 46 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: the time. My management company was in New York. I 47 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:20,920 Speaker 1: was one of the fortunate ones who was able to 48 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: acquire a management situation south of the border, so to speak, 49 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: down in the States, and that was in New York, 50 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: and it was a great manager. He recognized my songwriting 51 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: ability immediately, and uh, I got a couple of tunes 52 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and one of them 53 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 1: went up to number five on the Which on Board 54 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: chart for for loving me. That's what you get full 55 00:03:49,240 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: loving me, that's what you get everything as you see, 56 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: that's well you get me. And so I was introduced 57 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: to the industry in the States really as a songwriter 58 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: before they even knew that I sang, you know it was. 59 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,680 Speaker 1: It sort of happened on its own. Do you think 60 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: it would have been Do you think you would have 61 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 1: been happy to just stay in that place and just 62 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,800 Speaker 1: produce records and write music and was performing the goal 63 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:32,040 Speaker 1: all along? Did you want were you aching to do that? Oh? Yeah, yeah, 64 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: I wanted to even as a child, you know, I 65 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:40,040 Speaker 1: didn't mind singing in my grandmother's house and the Sunday 66 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:42,479 Speaker 1: get together, you know that they would single me out 67 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: and I would solo. I enjoyed the feel of the 68 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: communication that I and I can feel it then, and uh, 69 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: that's what I feel now. I feel I feel a 70 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,359 Speaker 1: communication when I haven't wonder if a band and we 71 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 1: have a great repertoire and we we just lay the 72 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: stuff right out there for them, just pure joy. Yeah, 73 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:07,800 Speaker 1: joy doing that. But when when you were take care 74 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: of if it pays the bills, that's a that's a 75 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: desirable silver lining there benefit. Yeah, all that hard work, well, 76 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: but when you were writing, when you turn that corner 77 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: and singing takes over. You know, I was doing that 78 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:25,599 Speaker 1: like like small time stuff, and all of a sudden 79 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 1: I was asked to come to New York and open 80 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: for Paul Butterfield concert sixty six thereabouts. I suppose you 81 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: won the radio then recording. No, we didn't actually get 82 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: on the radio until about seventy one and what was 83 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: the first song that? I mean, I have a list here, 84 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: but what was it? If you could read my mind? 85 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:51,400 Speaker 1: If you could read my mind, you know that Google 86 00:05:51,640 --> 00:06:02,040 Speaker 1: was just beating I be as long as you can't see. 87 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: The record was out. It was my first album on 88 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: Warner Brothers. And uh it was out for eight months 89 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: and there was no single, and all of a sudden, 90 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:17,159 Speaker 1: rather promotion, guys said to his girlfriend, we listen to 91 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,040 Speaker 1: this and come back and give me an opinion. On 92 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:23,200 Speaker 1: Monday morning, his girlfriend she likes, if you could read 93 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:27,720 Speaker 1: my mind, where are the heart? He's gone? The hero 94 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:37,840 Speaker 1: would be baby hero. Often you won't read that book 95 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: because the just if you could read my mind hits 96 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: the charts, so to speak, It becomes a big hit 97 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: for you. What changes for you? Like did you just 98 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,360 Speaker 1: have to sit there and say, oh, I people are 99 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: telling you to do things differently and now you're gonna 100 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: be a success and they want you to we get 101 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,839 Speaker 1: so basically we got to hire an aircraft. Literally, that's 102 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: what happened. We had to hire an aircraft. Everyone wants 103 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: to book the same give in the same place, two 104 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:11,680 Speaker 1: different places in one day. So and when you reached 105 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: that point of the and then that turning point is 106 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 1: the is the next imperative. You've gotta start coming up 107 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: with more songs and writing more songs. Oh yeah, record, Yeah. 108 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: We made three more albums and nothing happened, but we 109 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: but I kept doing one a year and and something 110 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 1: had to give eventually, and then, Uh, one summer I 111 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: wrote that song Sundown. I knew that it was it 112 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 1: was going to happen, that it was, it was the 113 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: right thing, and it did. When we're up to number one. 114 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: That was our second one. Then it was almost seven 115 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 1: two albums later that we had the wreck of the 116 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: Evan and Fitzgerald. And that happened all by itself too 117 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: that that became a responsibility. It did very large responsibility. 118 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 1: The song became a responsible Fitzgerald. But but tell me 119 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: in your own words. Many bowl go on about that, 120 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,720 Speaker 1: about the tragedy and the history, and it's a very 121 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: important song to people, you know, Canadian history. People talk 122 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: about it very reverentially. Why was it important to you? 123 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:17,960 Speaker 1: Because it was only one verse, uh, contained any conjecture 124 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: of any kind, and the rest of it was taken 125 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: from directly from newspaper articles and the aftermath, which only 126 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: lasted for about three days. If I had not wrote 127 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: that song, everybody would have forgotten about it a week 128 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: after it happened. Uh, I said, people are all around 129 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:40,959 Speaker 1: the Great Lakes area are going to wonder if this 130 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: song is appropriate. And some did wonder about it, whether 131 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:47,760 Speaker 1: it was appropriate for me to have written a song 132 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: that kind. But I had gone, uh, pretty much with 133 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: the newspaper articles that I scraped up. We had no 134 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,679 Speaker 1: CPS in those days, and you went back that, you 135 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: went to the publisher and got the back copies of 136 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: the newspapers. And uh, so it's it's accurate. It's it's 137 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:12,720 Speaker 1: it's accurate in the way the story unfolds. I remember 138 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: the night I wrote it. I was working in a 139 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: deserted house and there was there was a heck of 140 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: a windstorm going on right in Toronto that night, and 141 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: I remember myself wondering, G, I wonder what it's like 142 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: up on the on the Great Lakes right now, because 143 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: I sailed up there myself. I had a couple of 144 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: two different sailboats up there, and wondered always, I wonder 145 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: what the Great Lakes are like tonight? Because you're always 146 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,280 Speaker 1: hearing but what things happening up in the Great Lakes, 147 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: And eleven o'clock in the evening, there was a report 148 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,599 Speaker 1: of a ship sinking three hours earlier in Lake Superior. 149 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:51,360 Speaker 1: And they're out looking for the people and they never 150 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: found any of them, and uh, twenty nine people gone. 151 00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: And I had a melody and I had some cords 152 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: that I was knocking around in this deserted house with 153 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: the wind howling outside my Really, it was kind of 154 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: kind of a classic sitting to to write a song 155 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,240 Speaker 1: like that. So I began writing the song and finished 156 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: writing like two or three weeks later. We were right 157 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: in the middle of a recording, a series of recording 158 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:24,840 Speaker 1: sessions at the times that we put it in and 159 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: didn't work the first day, we put it in the 160 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:33,080 Speaker 1: second day, and uh, did you ever stomp? And Tom Connors? No, 161 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: I will. Now I'm gonna run down and get all 162 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: of stomping Tom Connor he was recording. He was one 163 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:43,680 Speaker 1: of very, very famous Canadian folk artists. Stomping Tom Connor's 164 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:47,800 Speaker 1: Poaches hit and so that sounds like a hit. He 165 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,839 Speaker 1: just heard the the melody going like, he didn't heard 166 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:54,760 Speaker 1: the lyrics or anything. So that the appeal of the 167 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:57,199 Speaker 1: song is definitely in the melody and the chord changes, 168 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,679 Speaker 1: and then the story of the actually vent itself. I 169 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 1: got as accurately as I could by pursuing old news articles. 170 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 1: The wind and the wires made the tattle tale sound, 171 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:18,680 Speaker 1: and the wave rope over the really and every man you, 172 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: as the captain did to was the witch should love 173 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 1: and stealing the don came late in the breakfast, had 174 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: the week when the girls in November, came slashing in afternoon, 175 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:39,559 Speaker 1: came at the squeezing rain in the face of a 176 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:51,920 Speaker 1: hurricane west wind. We'll have more with Gordon Lightfoot after 177 00:11:51,960 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: the break I'm a mic Baldwin and this is here's 178 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:06,199 Speaker 1: the thing. I spoke with musician Gordon Lightfoot in two 179 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: thousand sixteen. I was curious how his musicianship had changed 180 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 1: over time and what it was like for him recording 181 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:18,400 Speaker 1: and performing in the early days. The first time I 182 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: started doing it, I felt and like, not confident in 183 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:26,320 Speaker 1: what I was doing. What I was hearing, I didn't. 184 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: I didn't like what I was hearing of your own stuff. Yeah, 185 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,840 Speaker 1: I like the sound of the sound of my voice 186 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:37,320 Speaker 1: bothered me. And and you know I I started working 187 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,280 Speaker 1: on that stuff and I and I've been working on 188 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: it ever since on my vocal and I have worked 189 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:47,240 Speaker 1: on my my antonation on my instruments. Someone told me 190 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: that that when you land, because you perform in so 191 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,680 Speaker 1: many different areas, you really dwell on tuning your instruments 192 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: a lot. Correct. Yeah, sometimes I changed it around too, 193 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:59,680 Speaker 1: but but but I've learned through the years that there 194 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,080 Speaker 1: is a method that you can get me into into 195 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,040 Speaker 1: Scarborough fair Country, you know, like the like the sound 196 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:09,360 Speaker 1: that Simon and Garfunkel used to get on there acoustic 197 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: orchestral ranges that they put together for their songs, and 198 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,080 Speaker 1: actually only came it came real for me maybe six 199 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: or seven years ago after I was recovering from a 200 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: mini stroke that I had and I had to practice 201 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 1: a lot more all of a sudden. So it really 202 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: got me zero in on it. And it it all 203 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: comes down to the fifth and the octaves. You know, 204 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: just leave it at that. I'm just a handmaid in 205 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,400 Speaker 1: here for all you guitar people out there. That's Gordon 206 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:44,959 Speaker 1: Lightfoot's gift to you and his present to you. That's 207 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,079 Speaker 1: the fifth and the octaves. And I don't have one, damn. 208 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:51,120 Speaker 1: The fifth and the I don't know what the hell 209 00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:54,319 Speaker 1: he's talking about, but there it is. There's his message 210 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 1: to you today. Open McCartney told me when I spoke 211 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,560 Speaker 1: to him once. Paul told me that he said, in 212 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:03,599 Speaker 1: the beginning they would go into a recording studio of 213 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: the Beatles, and he said, you know, it was really 214 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: these weren't his words, but the message was kind of 215 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 1: like time is money. He said, these guys were luck. 216 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,480 Speaker 1: You know, we want two songs in the morning, and 217 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:14,959 Speaker 1: then you go have a lunch break and get down 218 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: to the pub and you have a cigarette, you have 219 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:18,199 Speaker 1: a pufficient chips or wherever you come back. They want 220 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: two songs. And later they really moved along at a 221 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: clip when they were doing the first albums for Parlophone 222 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: or whoever it was, or E. M. I. And then 223 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:29,520 Speaker 1: when they became, you know, the success they obviously became, 224 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 1: then they would take a year, you know, all musicians, 225 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: and then they would take a year to do their 226 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: next album. You know, they would do Sergeant Pepper's or whatever. 227 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: One really really luxuriate and getting every time. They gave 228 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,120 Speaker 1: them more time because it was worth it was worth 229 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:45,440 Speaker 1: that investment for them. Was the same true with you 230 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,600 Speaker 1: do you find that the more successful you became, the 231 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:50,640 Speaker 1: more time you wanted to make music. Perhaps later on, 232 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: but I I pretty much stuck to the to the 233 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 1: schedule as much as I could. We made like eight 234 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:01,760 Speaker 1: or nine albums and ten years there, so you didn't 235 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: feel rushed by them. No, we were getting more time. 236 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: But but I was also also improving because what I 237 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: didn't like hearing I was I was changing all the time, 238 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:16,240 Speaker 1: and it was always an improvement venture. Like a guy 239 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: building himself up and for play on an important sports team, 240 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,800 Speaker 1: you know they got it. This just not just the game, 241 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:27,280 Speaker 1: it's the preparation. Say you haven't played for for a 242 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: month and all of a sudden you've got to get 243 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: back up on stage. You should be able to crank 244 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:33,360 Speaker 1: it or just like it was just you did a 245 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: show last night. But you liked rehearsing. Yeah, well you 246 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: believe in rehearsing. Are you're learning new material or you're 247 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: going back into the the old catalog, which we do 248 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:48,240 Speaker 1: because I have a rotational situation going on, the biggest 249 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: problem my whole life been too many tunes, too many 250 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: women for my listeners. Right now, Gordon Lightfoot is turning 251 00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: sheepishly towards his wife with a sheepish quin on his face, 252 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:03,040 Speaker 1: and she just patted his shoulder to say, it's okay, Gordon, Well, 253 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 1: I can't step under your toes. Yeah, you can't do that. 254 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,320 Speaker 1: But but I remember reading I remember listening to an article. 255 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: I remember reading an article that the Rolling Stones did 256 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: years ago, and I was taken by how, you know, 257 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: in terms of musicianship, Jagger and Keith, for two, were very, 258 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 1: very married to rehearsal. And for you to say that 259 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: as a great meaning to me. For you, someone who 260 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: as great an artist as you are, that the preparation 261 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:28,320 Speaker 1: and the preparation beforehand so that when you when the 262 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 1: audience is there, bloom, you strum that guitar and you're 263 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: you're ready. You're ready. Yeah. And we we have the 264 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:41,520 Speaker 1: the orchestra itself. I have four really challenged guys and 265 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,080 Speaker 1: very loyal people. I read about that your band is 266 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 1: very loyal to you. Well, I mean it's there's no 267 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: reason why they should be. You know, we're all we're 268 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: all the same path. I mean, we we just want 269 00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,520 Speaker 1: to do a great job and you gotta like make 270 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: almost make a science out of it. I don't know 271 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: my guys are all professionals. I mean they're they're serious musicians. 272 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,160 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and they do other things. I just got 273 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:16,360 Speaker 1: to let them know what's coming up. You know, what 274 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:18,400 Speaker 1: were you listening to back then in the sixties when 275 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:20,880 Speaker 1: you were coming up, Who did you listen to? Well, 276 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:24,439 Speaker 1: I was sing country music, you know, hack snow and 277 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:28,120 Speaker 1: then folks. It was Pete Seeger and it was Bob Gibson. 278 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: It was Bob Dylan and and Simon and Garfuncle and 279 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,240 Speaker 1: you know, Peter Paula Mary and and Ian and Sylvia. 280 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: They were a duet and they were it was a 281 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:44,240 Speaker 1: beautiful act that they had. Eventually met these people, well 282 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 1: I met, but you became one of them my management 283 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: company because they were the first ever to do one 284 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: do any of my songs. It was Ian and Sylphia, 285 00:17:54,040 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: which one for Loving Me and Early Morning Rain. I 286 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,119 Speaker 1: found an opening with the Folk Revival, you know, so 287 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,600 Speaker 1: I was lucky to be a part of that, to 288 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: ride that one through and survive. Uh, there's there's nothing 289 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: much out there these days, you know, they're they're they're busking. 290 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,439 Speaker 1: We We've got a whole bunch of people here in 291 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: Toronto who are harvering around all the time that the 292 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:27,800 Speaker 1: folk oriented artists who are songwriters and you know, trying 293 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:33,479 Speaker 1: to get somewhere, and some of some of them are 294 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: succeeding in summer or not. I get to hear a 295 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,399 Speaker 1: lot of this stuff because it comes across my desk 296 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,720 Speaker 1: and I get to hear it, and you wish, you 297 00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: know that something grand could happen for these people, but 298 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:49,919 Speaker 1: you don't know what to do. All you're gonna do 299 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:55,000 Speaker 1: is respond encourage. Yeah, where do you think people learn 300 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 1: to hone their craft as a musician in in in 301 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,720 Speaker 1: clubs and performing live? Well, I was as well as 302 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: I was working in bars to you know, like bars 303 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: and lounges as well as the coffeehouses, and so I 304 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: had a the kind of a repertoire that was acceptable 305 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,480 Speaker 1: to play bars. So I got him following in a 306 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: couple of these bars. Then then I've sort of moved 307 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:27,639 Speaker 1: uptown into the the village area Yorkville which was just 308 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: coming into bloom here in town, and get into places 309 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,080 Speaker 1: like like the Purple Onion and then the Riverboat, which 310 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: was really the plumb of the whole lot was the 311 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:43,440 Speaker 1: Riverboat because Bernie Feeder brought every person into that place 312 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 1: you could fastly imagine played there from James Taylor to 313 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell to to Neil Young right on down the line. 314 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:56,280 Speaker 1: Is he is he a friend of yours? Yes? He is? Yeah. 315 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 1: Your songs and you're singing of your song, you're performing 316 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,440 Speaker 1: of your songs is so vulnerable and so emotional. What 317 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: was the most difficult song for you to write or 318 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,480 Speaker 1: among the most difficult songs for you to write? I'll 319 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 1: tell you that a lot of times you don't know 320 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,879 Speaker 1: what you're doing it. If you you you're drawing the 321 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,800 Speaker 1: material from your subconscious you don't you don't actually know 322 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:23,320 Speaker 1: what you're doing. You're you know, you're drawing it from somewhere, 323 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,760 Speaker 1: and then later down the line, three or four weeks later, 324 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:31,720 Speaker 1: you're gonna sign it back to uh, the actual event 325 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: that product on. I mean, that's like if you could 326 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: read my mind. Just it's about actually that the crumbling 327 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:44,679 Speaker 1: of a relation was that painful for you to write. No, 328 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 1: because I didn't know what I was doing when I 329 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:49,680 Speaker 1: wrote it. It just I didn't tell me that all 330 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: these beautiful folks songs that people weep when they listen to, 331 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: you're just like tossing it off, like I don't really 332 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,480 Speaker 1: know what this is. Let's take a song for example. 333 00:20:57,560 --> 00:20:59,440 Speaker 1: Let me let me pick one song and one of 334 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:01,199 Speaker 1: my favorite songs of yours. I mean a song that 335 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 1: I just kills me. It is beautiful. Describe to me 336 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: recording the song beautiful? I mean, do you go out 337 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: with your friends and you get ship faced drunk and 338 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,359 Speaker 1: you come in with a hangover and just lay this 339 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,600 Speaker 1: thing down and you play poke ro all night? Or 340 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 1: do you enter a state? First? I get a card progression, 341 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:25,200 Speaker 1: then I get a melody. It's fifth syn octaves. People, 342 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,440 Speaker 1: it's fifth syn octaves that I get the lyric, You 343 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: got the melody, You got the cards, but you don't know. 344 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:36,160 Speaker 1: So you you draw. You find an idea that that 345 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:40,399 Speaker 1: that fits the fits the melody. That's Gordon Lightfoot, this songwriter, 346 00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:45,159 Speaker 1: Gordon Lightfoot, the singer, the performer. Do you enter a state? 347 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: Do you take yourself to a place when you perform 348 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: your recorded music? Or you don't? Well, I can, I 349 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: can use my imagination. I actually saw it as as 350 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: a seer love turned to a guy for his wife 351 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:08,119 Speaker 1: or his his girlfriend. It reminds me when when I 352 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 1: was I learned how to sing with the emotion when 353 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,480 Speaker 1: I was about twelve, when I was doing handling material 354 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:20,800 Speaker 1: from Handles Messiah over the voice of Him who Criss 355 00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,840 Speaker 1: and the wilderness and all that sort of thing. And 356 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:29,159 Speaker 1: I learned what emotion meant when when I were saying 357 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:35,680 Speaker 1: handle Handles Messiah at age twelve, I sent in a competition, 358 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 1: uh so so I could apply. It was easier for 359 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:46,240 Speaker 1: me to apply to summon up that emotional uh something 360 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,320 Speaker 1: or whatever it is when it came time to put 361 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: that song down. But I didn't have to the point 362 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,119 Speaker 1: at the beginning that I wanted to have it. And 363 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,879 Speaker 1: that's how I've been working on all my life is 364 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:03,560 Speaker 1: getting controlling that Inhal approached her man, make any it 365 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,399 Speaker 1: work for me. You don't want to overdo it, you know, 366 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: you don't. You know that's what's beautiful about your music 367 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,159 Speaker 1: as you go right up to a point. But you 368 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,160 Speaker 1: don't do a lot of handholding. You let the audience 369 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:15,680 Speaker 1: do the crying for you. You know what I mean, 370 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,280 Speaker 1: you're your We we balance it off with a lot 371 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:26,200 Speaker 1: of toech happers got lots of For a prime example 372 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:29,680 Speaker 1: of the delivery, Gordon Lightfoot does so well. You don't 373 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: have to look beyond this song sundown, I can see 374 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 1: you learned back seven Christ where you do what you 375 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: don't confess your better ticket coming up. Lightfoot talks about 376 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: some of his musical inspirations that explains why he and 377 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:03,399 Speaker 1: Bob Dylan can't get along right away. Explore the Here's 378 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,560 Speaker 1: the Thing Archives. I talked with a very different kind 379 00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: of songwriter, Tom York from the British rock band Radiohead. 380 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,240 Speaker 1: He tells me how his producer gave him the confidence 381 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:19,199 Speaker 1: to explore wild new electronics sounds. I mean I was like, um, 382 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: a kid being given a hammer. I was just hamming 383 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:22,840 Speaker 1: rely on stuff. I didn't really know what I was doing, 384 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:24,919 Speaker 1: but he was kind of fascinated about that, you know, 385 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: and he'd come and literally tidy up the mess on 386 00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: the computer. Take a listen at Here's the Thing, dot Org. 387 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:45,199 Speaker 1: I you that you beautiful. This is Alec Baldwin and 388 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: you were listening to Here's the Thing. Gordon Lightfoot has 389 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,200 Speaker 1: straddled the worlds of pop and folk music for decades, 390 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: but his confessional songwriting appealed to country music performers like 391 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,120 Speaker 1: Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr. And Glen Campbell as well. 392 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,280 Speaker 1: They all covered his songs, and there's a good reason. 393 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,400 Speaker 1: That's what Lightfoot was listening to when he started thinking 394 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: about what kind of musician he wanted to be. It 395 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,399 Speaker 1: was probably a country music I made the crossover in 396 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:19,359 Speaker 1: adult contemporary music, you know, uh, fairly soon. And and 397 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:21,399 Speaker 1: there was a lot of good writing going on in 398 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,679 Speaker 1: the folk revival too, and I got I was influenced 399 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,760 Speaker 1: by that. So you didn't come into the music business 400 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 1: and say I want to be Sinatra, I want to 401 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: be Elvis, I want to be Dylan. I think you 402 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,280 Speaker 1: want to find your own voice. Yeah, I didn't. I 403 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:42,159 Speaker 1: certainly did not take ide of the fact that I 404 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:48,080 Speaker 1: was really influenced by Bob Dylan because of the not 405 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,520 Speaker 1: only the quality of the work, but the the output 406 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:56,080 Speaker 1: that they achieved. He was prolific. Yeah, that was the 407 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: amazing part. But it said, well it can be that 408 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: easy for him, I must surely be be easier for me. 409 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,520 Speaker 1: I mean, if he can do this much work, surely 410 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: I can can do this much work. While appreciating the 411 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,200 Speaker 1: music that he was producing at the time. When did 412 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 1: you first meet him, uh, nineteen in Woodstock, Well, it 413 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: was a it was an interesting time. I we actually 414 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,040 Speaker 1: didn't didn't get along when we when we first now 415 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: he criticized my my my rules at playing Manhattan on 416 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:42,720 Speaker 1: his pool table in Woodstock, and I got a little 417 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,440 Speaker 1: got a little sarcastic about it, and we were all 418 00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: he was very sarcastic, and I started seeing this coming 419 00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:54,119 Speaker 1: on to me and I left. I left their their house, 420 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: I went back down the hill to Albert's house. Albert's 421 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,160 Speaker 1: Albert Grossman, who he was the manager. I had sure 422 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,960 Speaker 1: part of that stable, that stable, yea. So it was 423 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: to say, since I knew him for so many years 424 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,119 Speaker 1: after that, because we're all working in the same place, 425 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,399 Speaker 1: I became sort of party party central for them when 426 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,399 Speaker 1: they when they came to Toronto, which was often, and 427 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 1: with the band and everybody, and we had a great time, 428 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: and I, you know, it was good to have known 429 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 1: have known Bob. Um. Is it safe to say, because 430 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: I've read this in different articles and so forth, when 431 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,119 Speaker 1: I was reading up about you. Um, then when you 432 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,080 Speaker 1: say you got together and had a good time, was 433 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: there a period of your life where you had too 434 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: much of a good time? Well, I mean there was 435 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: lots of drinking went on, you know, there was a 436 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:50,119 Speaker 1: little bit of everything. It just depended upon how severely 437 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:54,119 Speaker 1: were affected by it and what kind of a constitution 438 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,959 Speaker 1: that you possessed I did. I drank heavily right up 439 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,719 Speaker 1: until and then all of a sudden I stopped. And 440 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,320 Speaker 1: I asked how I stopped for twenty three years because 441 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 1: it was gonna was gonna ruin my career, and I 442 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:14,240 Speaker 1: was making rrational, irrational decisions. And one night I tried 443 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,879 Speaker 1: to climb from from one balcony to the next in 444 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,439 Speaker 1: an apartment building on the tenth floor. Ye, sure, as 445 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:25,399 Speaker 1: a party going on? What you want from I love that? 446 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,920 Speaker 1: What was a better party in that other wing over there? 447 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,959 Speaker 1: Saying there was two folks, there was room for me 448 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,679 Speaker 1: to jump from the one balcony to the next. Did 449 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: you make it? Yes? Well I've said it. I've just 450 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,200 Speaker 1: here talking. Do you want the phone and broken new 451 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 1: leg or something? Who I was on the tenth floor, 452 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,200 Speaker 1: I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here. Things like that, 453 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,920 Speaker 1: you know. The other things that I did, they were 454 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 1: bad judgments, you know, and you know, with people, and 455 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,600 Speaker 1: I felt that I was offending people sometimes, and I 456 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: did the last thing I wanted to offend anyone, you know, 457 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 1: And uh, That's what I felt. When I wrote to Fitzgerald, 458 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:05,440 Speaker 1: I said, I hope I'm not going to offend any 459 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:09,120 Speaker 1: of the relatives of these men. You know, was it 460 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: never communicated to you that you had Did anybody suggest that? No? No, 461 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 1: it never appreciated what you did, honored we We just 462 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,200 Speaker 1: went to the fortieth anniversary ourselves, just this last novembery week. 463 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 1: Where was it? Health Lake Superior. I've been fifteen miles 464 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: thirty miles northwest of sou Sain Marie at the white 465 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:33,440 Speaker 1: Fish Point. Wow. Um, you know you have had some 466 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,320 Speaker 1: very impactful health issues. You had a stroke and then 467 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,000 Speaker 1: you had Bell's palsy and you couldn't have What's it 468 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:41,800 Speaker 1: like to lose feeling in your fingers and you were 469 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,360 Speaker 1: a guitar player? Well asked me what it was like 470 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:49,080 Speaker 1: when I had the ortal aneurysm okay, what was it 471 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,120 Speaker 1: like when you had the a ortal any ofism? Well, 472 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: putting me out out of business for two years didn't really? 473 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: Ye put me out of business for two What do 474 00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,240 Speaker 1: you was that two thousand and two? What were the 475 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: symptoms of that? You pass out and you don't wake up. 476 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 1: The annuals and burst for six weeks. Yeah, what were 477 00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:09,720 Speaker 1: you feeling in the weeks prior? I would have bouts 478 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: of stomach ache and I'd have to lay out of 479 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 1: my belly on the bed for a while. Yeah, then 480 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: I would subside. And that went on over a period 481 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:24,640 Speaker 1: of several years, and it started about ten years before 482 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: the actually event occurred. So there is a warning, there 483 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,680 Speaker 1: is there's third warning signals it's a paint pretty bad 484 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:41,040 Speaker 1: stomach ache. And yeah, that was years ago. That was young, Yeah, 485 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,040 Speaker 1: seventy two, I think they're about. Yeah. I had to 486 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,360 Speaker 1: stop performing for three months and then I got enough 487 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,960 Speaker 1: of a where stopped puffing enough that I was able 488 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,040 Speaker 1: to go back to work again. So I just I 489 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:59,239 Speaker 1: just bolted boulder through so so to speak. And then 490 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: you had a stroke at so he came back that 491 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: that was a mini strokes that affected my right hand, 492 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: which was very disturbing. That wasn't two two thousand and six. 493 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: That was when I really started practicing, and that's when 494 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:14,760 Speaker 1: I really improved learned how to really get my instruments 495 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: in tune at the same time, So I derived a 496 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:23,720 Speaker 1: benefit from from that. How do American radio interview hosts 497 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: differ from Canadian radio interview hosts. No difference that I 498 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 1: can see people. Folks are folks. I the cousins all 499 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:41,720 Speaker 1: cousins here in North America political. That's why I never 500 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,440 Speaker 1: moved down there. I've I've got, I've I've follow I'm 501 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 1: I'm I'm a political fan. I'm a fan of of 502 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,520 Speaker 1: watching the political process. Observer. Well, you you had the 503 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,360 Speaker 1: situation with the song in Detroit Black Day in July. Yeah, 504 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: been from the Detroit Riots, and you wrote a song 505 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: about that and and cause you a little bit of 506 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,680 Speaker 1: a grief in the record we released a single. Did 507 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:05,240 Speaker 1: you and did you feel that that was something that 508 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: you resented or like, how did you feel when you 509 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,480 Speaker 1: got I kind of shouldn't have done that. It was 510 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:15,040 Speaker 1: almost like like the reck well like like it was, uh, well, 511 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,040 Speaker 1: I should have. I was working in the city a 512 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:20,520 Speaker 1: lot in the truck always circuit there. There was something 513 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: about it. I kept saying, maybe I shouldn't have written 514 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 1: a song like this. You know, it was written as 515 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 1: a folk song for an album. The record the Fitzgerald 516 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,760 Speaker 1: was written as a folk song for an album and 517 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,600 Speaker 1: to political purposes, as signed by other people. You didn't 518 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: have a political purpose when you wrote the song interesting, 519 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: just a story and the soul of motor City. It's 520 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:50,800 Speaker 1: fared across the land, is taken in the heads of 521 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:57,520 Speaker 1: the son of the fathers who came into this did 522 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: b and when when the record company took the song 523 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: off the air? So it didn't piss you off. The 524 00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:11,080 Speaker 1: record companies never pissed you off. No, never, when they 525 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: told you what songs to put on the album, what 526 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: songs not to put on the album, never bothered you. Well, 527 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: we sat we always worked that out together. You did. Yeah, uh. 528 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,840 Speaker 1: With with the exceptions that's necessary. Early in the career too, 529 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:27,120 Speaker 1: before I had the level of authority that I that 530 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,720 Speaker 1: I needed to establish, I was in, I was produced 531 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:35,960 Speaker 1: and and I uh, I used to be able to 532 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:42,280 Speaker 1: discuss the custom discuss things with them there and very 533 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,920 Speaker 1: fortunately fortunately to be able to do that. What song 534 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: that when you sing it, you could sit there and go, man, 535 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 1: I really really nailed that. That's a good song. There's 536 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:52,720 Speaker 1: a lot of them, But what's one that just comes 537 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,120 Speaker 1: out of east of midnight, East of midnight, East of midnight. 538 00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:01,720 Speaker 1: That's that's one of my very best ones. But somewhere 539 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:19,359 Speaker 1: is the midnight west of anywhere us around I don't 540 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,560 Speaker 1: do that. I usually do it. No, don't you know 541 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,439 Speaker 1: why I don't do it? Though you're such an East 542 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,440 Speaker 1: at midnight's my best song, man, I don't do that 543 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:38,360 Speaker 1: if I did it for years. This is my last 544 00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,200 Speaker 1: four or five albums are probably the five best polbums 545 00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:45,879 Speaker 1: I made. But unfortunately my my momentum had run out 546 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 1: with the record company at that point. But I still 547 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,399 Speaker 1: kept producing because it isn't that interesting. You just said 548 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:56,280 Speaker 1: my last four or five albums with the best albums 549 00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:00,319 Speaker 1: I've ever do really believe that? Sure you do? Yeah, 550 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,120 Speaker 1: you've been one of those albums between what period of 551 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:10,440 Speaker 1: time nineteen nine two and in two thousand and six? 552 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,680 Speaker 1: Do you recorded in an album in two thousand six? 553 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:18,239 Speaker 1: Right before you got sick? Nineteen years I made five 554 00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:20,759 Speaker 1: of the best albums I've finished an album while I 555 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:24,080 Speaker 1: was when I was down with the aneurism, I finished 556 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:28,280 Speaker 1: an album there. I took my mind off my condition entirely. 557 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,640 Speaker 1: So it was very fortutors that I had a whole 558 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: bunch of stuff City and the UH in the can 559 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,040 Speaker 1: at the time, as they used to say. And the 560 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,720 Speaker 1: best one of the whole lot is is Easter Midnight? 561 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:45,600 Speaker 1: Do you write songs, now, I could. I always have 562 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,120 Speaker 1: four or five tunes on the on the back. Your 563 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: wife is practically groaning behind your nodding head, like, yes, 564 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:55,680 Speaker 1: of course, there's always tunes in the back burner. What 565 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,960 Speaker 1: beautiful songs? What do you when you write songs? Now? 566 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,560 Speaker 1: What do you write about? I just ming from one 567 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 1: to the other. I want to kill you. I just 568 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:10,360 Speaker 1: right about whimsy. I try. I try to sound sound intelligent. Yeah, 569 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,120 Speaker 1: what's on your mind? Though? Well? I was thinking about 570 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,080 Speaker 1: the but the one that has the turtle in it, 571 00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:18,759 Speaker 1: I like that. I think she likes the fact that 572 00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 1: I introduced the turtle into this song. Is that the 573 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,040 Speaker 1: part you like about it? Darling? You know you know 574 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 1: what I'm saying here. It's amazing. It's it's amazing. Your 575 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:32,839 Speaker 1: wife is this gorgeous young woman. And I realized the 576 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:35,800 Speaker 1: glue of this marriage is you write songs about turtles 577 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:40,720 Speaker 1: for your wife's that I don't. That's just what one scene. 578 00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:43,760 Speaker 1: I've got a bullshit my wife every day and convinced 579 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: her into staying with me, and you just sit there 580 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,160 Speaker 1: and go, I wrote this song for your baby, a 581 00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:53,359 Speaker 1: song about a turtle. I know, I know it's it's like, 582 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:58,720 Speaker 1: come if you will. Well, the earth is still fertile. Lady, 583 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,800 Speaker 1: I see so Edi through the eyes of a turtle. 584 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:07,440 Speaker 1: Turtles are soft and they they've got feelings too. Maybe 585 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: they think too quicktly for me or for you, And 586 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:16,839 Speaker 1: it really doesn't matter. We gotta end there, maybe well 587 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:19,279 Speaker 1: maybe not, maybe not, just to show you the kind 588 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:23,239 Speaker 1: of a stuff and okay, into the microphonety well, back 589 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: to the stable, Lady, I see Marilyn Monroe and their stands. 590 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,520 Speaker 1: Clark Gable held me off the cow. She'll stop the show. 591 00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,760 Speaker 1: There's many a good hand felt a chilly wind blow, 592 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: and it doesn't really matter. Don't ask you. You don't 593 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:45,319 Speaker 1: why I write that stuff, asking about oh yeah, well, 594 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,719 Speaker 1: we'll see I I sang it for twenty five years. 595 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 1: But it's really vicious. It's very it's just a very vicious. 596 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:56,680 Speaker 1: The song of un quite a love song, and it 597 00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: was it was written during the time when I was 598 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,360 Speaker 1: I was, I was still married, and I wondered, my goodness, 599 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: what what does my It was like almost like a 600 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,839 Speaker 1: world Chamberlain. I've had a hundred more like you. I'll 601 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:11,440 Speaker 1: have a thousand four him through. It was one of 602 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,680 Speaker 1: the lines in it, and I was married to someone 603 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,480 Speaker 1: and I've you know, I hated singing the song, and 604 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:22,080 Speaker 1: finally I stopped singing it the same way as I 605 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:25,960 Speaker 1: stopped drinking in But even that only lasted for twenty 606 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,839 Speaker 1: three years. Been saying it again. No, you don't sing 607 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,200 Speaker 1: the song. You won't think a lot of people do. 608 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:37,239 Speaker 1: But other people recorded singing Elvis Elvis press for me. 609 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:41,600 Speaker 1: That's what you get for loving me. I gotta say, 610 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,000 Speaker 1: I look at these album covers you are. You're one 611 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:44,840 Speaker 1: of the best using guys I've ever seen in my life. 612 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,279 Speaker 1: I mean, was that tough for you? Let tough part 613 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:53,160 Speaker 1: of your career? Well, I think it helped you. Probably, 614 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,160 Speaker 1: I'm sure. I'm sure it did, but I'm sure sure 615 00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: best have what's next? When are you going on the 616 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 1: road again? Friday morning? I feel a little blue. I 617 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:13,680 Speaker 1: can't there's still a lot of things and I should 618 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:21,800 Speaker 1: know anyone could get I don't know how to brand 619 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:28,680 Speaker 1: my Saturday. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing that's brought 620 00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:33,959 Speaker 1: to you by my Heart Radio. I feel a little 621 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:42,680 Speaker 1: saying to watch them leave the cool because I don't 622 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:50,040 Speaker 1: feel the happy times. Agoe. I can still