Legendary songwriter opens up about his craft
Gordon Lightfoot is one of the greatest songwriters of the last 60 years.
Yes, that’s my opinion. But it’s also the opinion of someone who knows a whole lot more about songwriting than me — or you.
“Lightfoot has been a mentor for a long time,” the legendary Bob Dylan has said. “I think he probably still is to this day. Every time I hear a song of his, I wish it would last forever.”
Recently, I had the chance to talk with the 79-year-old Canadian music legend, who got his start in the music business in the late ‘50s. The man behind such folk-rock classics as “Carefree Highway,” “If You Could Read My Mind” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” spoke at length of his upcoming West Coast tour, which includes three local dates.
Lightfoot performs Monday at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento (8 p.m.; $39-$69, www.ticketfly.com), Tuesday at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey (8 p.m.; $40$75, www.goldenstatetheatre.com), and Wednesday at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco (8 p.m.; $49-$99, www. eventbrite.com).
Q Hello, Gordon. It’s an honor to talk with you again. And it’s especially good to hear you’re heading back to California. Tell me a little bit about the current tour.
A We have what we think is really a grand little band. We have a fivepiece band and we play all my tunes — that are the most popular and have the momentum and the people really want to hear. There are probably about 1415 standards in there — I mean, hit singles and really standout material from albums. We combine that all together and it varies from night to night, though we never miss any of the standards.
Q But are there any standards that you’d like to miss? Get real with me, Gordon. Do you ever get tired of playing some song for, like, the 748,000th time?
A I’ve had material like that, where I didn’t feel that the songs have the momentum — I use that word a lot — that is required. I’ve actually got it boiled down these days, having been in the business so long, that I really know which ones work best onstage in front of a crowd. Fortunately, most of them are standards.
Q Well, you certainly never come across like you’re just going through the motions in concert, even on a song as familiar as “If You Could Read My Mind.”
A “If You Could Read My Mind” is a different experience every time I sing it. It’s just that kind of a song. And I’ve got lots of songs like that, where you really enjoy the way the song runs through and the way it feels.
We quite often get standing ovations on songs like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” or “Sundown,” or a little tune that I have to do every show called “Beautiful.” Then there’s “Don Quixote” — that’s another one. We are dealing with a repertoire of really about 40 songs. But we’d never do 40 songs in a show. So, we sort of have a rotational system going on there, too.
Q Two of my favorites of yours are “Cotton Jenny” and “Old Dan’s Records.” Any chance they’ll make the set list?
A No, they won’t. They have probably seen their last days in the set. I sang “Cotton Jenny” for 20 years. And “Old Dan’s Records” — we just have a much more powerful ending to our show (now). And it does create some tuning problems, too.
Q You’ve just got too many good songs — it would probably take you three days to play them all.
A With the material that we’ve got readily available, I could probably play for three hours. But, you see, I like to be polite to my audience. I like to take them into consideration. We don’t like to drag it on too long. (The show) is slightly over two hours and that includes a 20-minute intermission as well. We start the first set right — bang — on time. I like to really take care of my crowd out there. I like to be courteous.
Q Let’s talk studio recordings. I’m just in awe of how great some of those early hits — especially “If You Could Read My Mind” — still sound today. Do you ever go back and just listen to your old records?
A Yes, I do. One of my kids just got a great sound system and we, over the last three or four months, ran through the entire catalog from back to front. That song (“If You Could Read My Mind”) came on a very good album. That was my first record on Warner-Reprise. It was quite well made. Nobody had any idea that “If You Could Read My Mind” would become a hit single.
Q One of the best songs of the entire ’70s.
A It’s much better now. You can always do it better. Every night that I do it, I can always pour a little bit more into it. It relates to a period way back in my life, when my first marriage was falling part. It doesn’t bother me to think of it. My youngest kids are in their 50s now.
Q Another one that never gets old for fans is “Sundown.”
A They love that one. And we have that one in our show. And we have it in a really good spot, too. We sort of catch them by surprise with that one. We love playing it. The guys love doing the harmony parts.
Q I’ve always wondered what, specifically, led you to write that one.
A I was alone and my girlfriend was out at a bar downtown with her girlfriends. And heaven knows what they were doing down there on that particular night. So, I was writing songs for an album and, suddenly, it just feel into place.
I imagined, “Well, what if somebody starts hitting on her.” It just came to me. It became a song. I had rented a farmhouse to go write an album. And every night we had these beautiful sunsets. That sort of inspired the tune. I wrote that song very quickly.
Q Have you ever had the opposite experience — a song that just took you forever to finish?
A I wrote one called “The No Hotel.” I got inspired in 1989, while I was on a trip down to Brazil, and I didn’t finish it until eight years later. … It was always hovering, always there. I wanted to get it finished, because I didn’t want to be outwitted. I didn’t want it to outwit me.