Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Nov.2009-Globe and Mail interview

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1364520/

BRAD WHEELER

From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 12:00AM EST Last updated on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 3:06AM EST

On Wednesday evening, Sundown singer Gordon Lightfoot will creep down the backstairs of Toronto's Massey Hall, hitting the stage for another show in a long-standing annual series that began with a concert on March 31, 1967. About a month after that, a few blocks away, the Toronto Maple Leafs sipped bubbly from a tiered silver chalice. That tradition never really caught on in Toronto, but Lightfoot's ritual is an almost never-fail deal. "It's really amazing to me that I've been able to maintain this career for this length of time," says the great Orillian troubadour, calling from his Toronto abode. "We're enjoying it while it lasts."

If you were to meet someone who didn't know you from Adam, and they asked you what it is that you do, what would you tell them?

I would tell them that I'm a guitar player.

Not a songwriter?

Yeah, I might put that in too.

I think you should.

I met Prince Charles once. He said, "You're some kind of singer, aren't you?" So, at least he heard of me.

A lot of people have heard of you. You and your band have been going at this for decades, and you're almost 71 years old. How long do you plan to keep this thing running?

Well, we're going to enjoy it while we may. It's wonderful knowing I can still do this.

It seems your audience feels the same way.

Everyone's coming out to the shows. We're doing fine at the door. There really is no reason not to be doing it. We're in demand. We have offers.

Sundown, you better take care, if I find you've been creeping 'round my backstairs....

That's an old love ballad.

But I was thinking of that line in particular, as a metaphor for somebody resisting their sunset.

No, I'm not going to think of it that way. We're working on borrowed time, as far as the age goes. But since everybody is so very enthusiastic about it, including myself and my musicians and my entire troupe, which includes 12 people, nobody wants it to stop.

You're not making records much any more. Why not?

I was always a performer, long before I was recording artist. I love to perform. For me, going into the recording studio was almost akin to going to see the dentist. Particularly when I went in to record If You Could Read My Mind. I had a terrible hangover. Fortunately I gave [drinking] up in 1982.

I think I wish you hadn't told me about the hangover. If You Could Read My Mind is one of the most stunning, evocative songs ever made.

Well, it certainly is. And it's a great one to play on stage. That's one of the ones you save for about two-thirds of the way through the show.

Must be hard to follow

Oh, I can follow it okay - I can, honestly. I'll follow it with Baby Step Back or Restless or Canadian Railway Trilogy or Song for a Winter's Night. Or all of those.

Some of your songs are in the folk and storytelling tradition, while others are more the singer-songwriter type. Which style will be your legacy?

There's about 218 songs in the catalogue. So whatever anybody wishes to do with that, I'm sure they will. That will be my legacy, those 218 songs.

Gordon Lightfoot plays Massey Hall, Wednesday to Saturday (http://www.masseyhall.com or 416-872-4255).