We Love You Gordie!

   My sweetie took me out last night to the "Grand Old Lady of Shuter Street" (Massey Hall) to see a concert given by Gordon Lightfoot. The original tickets were purchased in 2002, but the concert they were for never happened, because that was the year he suffered a burst artery while playing a concert in his hometown, Orillia. In the hospital, he slipped into a six-week coma, and many were sure his career had suddenly skidded to an end. Gordie is resilient, however, and even though the recovery was long, he is back on stage and pleasing fans again.
   The man is truly a Canadian cultural icon, who has spent decades garnering awards for his work. In 1970, he received the Order of Canada citation in recognition of his contributions to the furthering of Canadian culture, and in 2004 was elevated to the level of Companion of the Order of Canada. During the years in between, he has earned five Grammy award nominations, and 17 Juno Awards. In 1997, he was presented the highest official honour conferred on Canadians, the Governor-General;s Award, for his efforts internationally in spreading Canadian culture. He has now been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, as well. His work has been recorded by many other artists, too, like his early hit, "In the Early Morning Rain", and many others.
   Last night, when the lights went down, the crowd was ready to love everything that man did, starting with his simply walking out onto the stage. His doing that was enough to bring people to their feet for a round of applause that was loud and long. I'm sure the concert was made longer just by the applause alone. Every single song they played was followed by lengthy and enthusiastic demonstrations of the crowd's appreciation for the artists standing there in front of them. Rick Haynes and Red Shea feel just as much like old friends as Gordie himself does, and the fans were exuberant in their response to Lightfoot's official introduction of his band, as they were after every passage made more memorable by Red Shea's unending love affair with his guitar strings.
   The years have not been kind to Lightfoot's voice. Neither has the
self-abuse he indulged in through too many years of looking for the answers to his life's questions at the bottom of booze bottles. None of that mattered last night, though. Even when the great master made a false start on a song, two different times, the crowd waited patiently while he backtracked and found his place. Each time, there were loud calls of "We love you, Gordie" as he looked through his mind for the right words or the right chord. Every single time they began coaxing the first bars of another song from their instruments, there were quick intakes of breath from all sides and the sound of more than one person calling "Alright!" or other soft comments of pleasure, as fans recognized the intro to one of their favourites. Lightfoot could do no wrong, even when he struggled a few times to reach the notes he used to easily claim ownership of, in performances past. Once or twice, his voice simply failed him, and you could hear the end of a line go missing. It mattered not. His being up there, in spite of what he has gone through, and after all the demons he has had to conquer and subdue is one more part of what endears him to his fans. There were some younger faces in the crowd, but the majority of them are aging along with their hero, and seeing the accomplishments he continues to achieve heartens them, I am sure, as they face their own version of his song that reminds them all; "It's cold on the shoulder, when you know that you get a little older, every day."
   I know, for myself, that when the lights went down, there was no-one in there except for me and the man at centre stage. He was singing straight to me, and to my memories of all the younger years, the ones that sped by in a blur of emotions and events. Those years always seemed to be punctuated by a new Lightfoot release that spoke to the experiences we all share, the ones that brought us back finally to Massey Hall last night, to honour the man who said it all so well.