Ontario - Folk, Adult Contemporary
Gordon Lightfoot
Mariposa is thrilled to present the legendary Gordon Lightfoot, back home in Orillia where this singer and songwriter was born and raised. He will perform on the Sunday evening main stage along with fellow Canadian folk icons, Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, Murray McLauchlan and special guests.
At the very first Mariposa Folk Festival in 1961, Gordon Lightfoot was deemed to be “not of high enough caliber” to perform. He and then partner, Terry Whelan, were told that they sounded “too much like the Everly Brothers”. In 1962, Gordon along with Terry, then billed as The Tu-Tones, made his very first Mariposa appearance.
Lightfoot is the quintessential international star. His recordings are well known around the world and, 50 years after his debut as a folk artist, he continues to receive heavy airplay. Many of his beautifully crafted songs have been recorded by some of the world's greatest stars including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay), Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan and John Mellencamp.
We are privileged indeed to have Gordon Lightfoot grace the stage at the 50th Anniversary Mariposa Folk Festival.
Lightfoot came to prominence in the 1960s, and entered the international music charts in the 1970s with songs such as If You Could Read My Mind (1970), Sundown (1974), Carefree Highway (1974), Rainy Day People (1975), and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1976).
His songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned recording artists, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay), Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan and John Mellencamp.
As a youth, Lightfoot sang under the direction of choirmaster Ray Williams in the choir of Orillia's St. Paul's United Church. As a boy soprano, Lightfoot appeared periodically on local radio in the Orillia area, performed in local operettas and oratorios, and gained exposure through various Kiwanis music festivals. He was twelve when he made his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto, after winning a competition for boys whose voices had not yet changed. As a teenager, Lightfoot learned piano and taught himself to play drums and percussion. In high school, Lightfoot performed extensively and eventually became largely self-taught in playing folk guitar. He was also an accomplished high school athlete and set school records in track and field for shot put and pole vault.
Lightfoot moved to California in 1958 where he studied jazz composition and orchestration at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music. To support himself, he sang on demonstration records and wrote, arranged, and produced commercial jingles.
He was influenced by the folk music of Pete Seeger, Bob Gibson, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, and The Weavers and, upon returning to Canada in 1960, he performed with The Swinging Eight, a group featured on CBC TV's Country Hoedown, and with the Gino Silvi Singers. In 1962, Lightfoot released two singles that were local hits in Toronto and received some airplay elsewhere in Canada as well. (Remember Me) I'm the One reached #3 on CHUM radio in Toronto in July 1962 and was also a top 20 hit on Montreal's CKGM, then a very influential Canadian Top 40 radio station. The follow-up single, Negotiations/It's Too Late, He Wins, reached #27 on CHUM in December. He also sang with Terry Whelan in a duo called the Two-Tones. They recorded a live album that was released in 1962 called Two-Tones at the Village Corner (1962, Chateau CLP-1012).
In 1963, Lightfoot traveled to Europe. In the United Kingdom he hosted, for one year, BBC TV's Country and Western Show. In 1964 Lightfoot returned to Canada where he appeared at Mariposa Folk Festival (he had previously appeared at Mariposa with the Tu-Tones in 1962). During this time he began to develop a reputation as a songwriter. Ian and Sylvia Tyson recorded Early Mornin' Rain and For Lovin' Me, and a year later both songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. Other performers recording one or both songs included Elvis Presley, Chad and Jeremy, George Hamilton IV, and the Johnny Mann Singers. Established recording artists achieved chart success with Gordon Lightfoot's material including Marty Robbins (Ribbon of Darkness), Leroy Van Dyke (I'm Not Saying), Judy Collins (Early Morning Rain), Richie Havens (I Can't Make It Anymore), and The Kingston Trio (Early Morning Rain)
In 1965, Lightfoot signed a management contract with Albert Grossman, who also represented Bob Dylan. That same year, he signed a recording contract with United Artists and released his own version of I'm Not Saying as a single. Appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, the Tonight Show, and New York's Town Hall increased his following and his reputation. In 1966, he released his debut album Lightfoot!, which brought him increased recognition as both a singer and a songwriter. It featured many now-famous songs, including For Lovin' Me, Early Mornin' Rain, Steel Rail Blues, and Ribbon of Darkness. On the strength of the Lightfoot! album, which mixed Canadian and universal themes, Lightfoot became one of the first Canadian singers to achieve real stardom in his own country without having to move to the United States.
Between 1966 and 1969, Lightfoot recorded four additional albums for United Artists: The Way I Feel (1967), Did She Mention My Name? (1968), Back Here on Earth (1968), and the live recording Sunday Concert (1969). During those years, he consistently placed singles in the Canadian top 40, including Go-Go Round, Spin, Spin, and The Way I Feel. His biggest hit of the era was a rendition of Bob Dylan's Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, which peaked at #3 on the Canadian charts in December 1965. Internationally, Lightfoot's albums from this time were well-received, but did not produce any hit singles. Outside of Canada, he remained better known as a songwriter than as a performer.
Lightfoot's success as a live performer continued to grow throughout the late 1960s. He embarked on his first Canadian national tour in 1967, and also performed in New York City. Between 1967 and 1974 Lightfoot toured Europe and was well-received on two tours of Australia.
Lightfoot was signed to Warner Bros./Reprise in 1970 and had a major hit in the United States with his recording of If You Could Read My Mind. The song was originally featured on his 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger, which did not sell well. After the success of the song, the album was re-released under the new title If You Could Read My Mind. It reached #5 nationally and the success of the song represented a major turning point in Gordon Lightfoot's career. It also had only the second recorded version of Me and Bobby McGee as well as The Pony Man, Your Love's Return and The Minstrel of The Dawn.
Over the next seven years, he recorded a series of successful albums that established him as a singer-songwriter including Summer Side of Life (1971) with songs Ten Degrees and Getting Colder, Miguel, Cabaret, Nous Vivons Ensemble and Summer Side of Life; Don Quixote (1972), with Beautiful, Looking At The Rain, Christian Island (Georgian Bay) and Don Quixote which is a concert favorite; Old Dan's Records (1972) with the two-sided track That Same Old Obsession/You Are What I Am and the songs It's Worth Believin' and Can't Depend On Love and Old Dan’s Records; Sundown (1974), that includes Carefree Highway, Seven Island Suite, The Watchman's Gone, High and Dry, Circle Of Steel, Too Late for Prayin' and Sundown; Cold on the Shoulder (1975) which includes Bend In The Water, The Soul Is The Rock, Rainbow Trout, All The Lovely Ladies, Rainy Day People and Cold on the Shoulder; the double compilation LP Gord's Gold (in 1975) containing nine rerecorded versions of his most popular songs from the United Artists era; Summertime Dream (1976) which included The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Race Among The Ruins, Spanish Moss, Never Too Close and Summertime Dream; Endless Wire (1978) with Daylight Katy, If Children Had Wings, Sweet Guenevire, The Circle Is Small, and Endless Wire.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Lightfoot recorded six more original albums and a compilation for Warner Bros./Reprise: Dream Street Rose (1980), Shadows (1982), Salute (1983), East of Midnight (1986), another compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2 (1988), Waiting for You (1993), and A Painter Passing Through (1998).
The album Dream Street Rose has the folk-pop sound that Lightfoot established during the previous decade.In addition to the title song, it produced songs such as Ghosts Of Cape Horn and On The High Seas. He also included the Leroy Van Dyke's 1950s composition The Auctioneer, a bluegrass-like number that for Lightfoot was a concert staple from the mid 60s to the 80s.
The album Shadows represented a departure from the acoustic sound of the 1970s and introduces an adult-contemporary sound. Songs like Shadows and Thank You for the Promises contain an underlying sadness and resignation. East Of Midnight (1986) had several Adult Contemporary songs like A Passing Ship, Morning Glory and I'll Tag Along. A single from East of Midnight, Anything For Love made the Billboard Country & Western chart.
Lightfoot rounded out the decade with his follow-up compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2, in late 1988, which again contained re-recorded versions of his most popular songs, including a re-make of the 1970 song, The Pony Man. The original had been brisk in pace, acoustic and only about three minutes long. This new version was slower, clocking in at around four minutes plus.
During the 90s Lightfoot returned to his acoustic roots and recorded two albums. Waiting for You (1993) includes songs like Restless, Wild Strawberries and Bob Dylan's, Ring Them Bells. 1998's A Painter Passing Through reintroduced a sound more reminiscent of his early recordings, with songs like Much To My Surprise, Red Velvet, Drifters, and I Used To be a Country Singer. In 1999, Rhino Records released Songbook, a four CD boxed set of Lightfoot recordings with rare and unreleased tracks from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s plus a small hardback booklet for his fans that described how he created his songs.
In April 2000, Lightfoot taped a live concert in Reno, Nevada — a one hour show that was broadcast by CBC in October, and as a PBS special across the United States. PBS stations offered a videotape of the concert as a pledge gift, and a tape and DVD were released in 2001 in Europe and North America. This was the first Lightfoot concert video ever released. In April 2001, Lightfoot performed at the Tin Pan South Legends concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, closing the show. In May, he performed Ring Them Bells at Massey Hall in honour of Bob Dylan's sixtieth birthday.
By January 2002, Lightfoot had written 30 new songs for his next studio album. He recorded guitar and vocal demos of some of these new songs but, in September, before the second concert of a two-night stand in Orillia, Lightfoot suffered severe a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, resulting in a six-week coma and several surgical operations. More than three months after being admitted to the hospital, Lightfoot was released to continue his recovery at home. In 2003, Lightfoot underwent follow-up surgery to continue the treatment of his abdominal condition. In November, he signed a new recording contract with Linus Entertainment and began rehearsing with his band for the first time since his illness.
In January 2004, Lightfoot completed work on his album Harmony, which he mostly recorded prior to his illness. The album was released on his new home label of Linus Records on May of that year. It was his 20th original album. It included a single and new video for Inspiration Lady. Other songs were Clouds Of Loneliness, Sometimes I Wish, Flyin' Blind, No Mistake About It and Couchiching about the lake in Orillia where he grew up. The album also contained the upbeat yet reflective Marshall Tucker(Band)/Allman Brothers Band sounding track called End Of All Time, which was unlike what most people perceive as a Gordon Lightfoot song.
In July 2004, he made a surprise comeback performance at Mariposa Folk Festival in in Orillia, performing I'll Tag Along"solo. In August, he performed a five-song solo set in Peterborough, Ontario, at a flood relief benefit. In November, he made his long-awaited return to the concert stage with two sold-out benefit shows in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 2005 Lightfoot made an appearance on Canadian Idol, where the six top contestants each performed a song of his, culminating in a group performance - on their own instruments - of his Canadian Railroad Trilogy. In 2005, he made a low-key tour called the Better Late Than Never Tour.
Gordon Lightfoot's music career has spanned more than 40 years, producing more than 200 recordings. He helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s, influencing major recording artists, such as Bob Dylan, Gene Clark, Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffett, and Jim Croce. Bob Dylan called Lightfoot one of his favourite songwriters. In an often-quoted tribute to his fellow songwriter, Dylan once observed that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he wished it would last forever.
The signature Lightfoot sound, both in the studio and on tour, centres around Lightfoot's distinct baritone voice and folk-based acoustic guitar. Over the years, a handful of key musicians contributed significantly to that sound.
In 1969, bassist Rick Haynes joined the band, and lead guitarist Terry Clements joined the following year. Haynes and Clements have remained with Lightfoot for the rest of his career and compose the core of Gordon Lightfoot's band.
As an individual, apart from various awards associated with his albums and singles, Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards and has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998. In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. Lightfoot is also a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the Province of Ontario.