[Andy T.]

13 years ago I transcribed all the interview bits and posted them on the GL newsgroup. A quick search found it, here it is - I didn't include very may of the "uhhhhs" though.

-Andy

GORDON LIGHTFOOT TALKS SHADOWS

on the 1982 Tour : ….. As soon as the record comes out, of course, we're not
gonna hit the road and start plugging it - because, we've already, in a sense,
done that - because we've been doing a lot of this material on stage, already,
and checking the audience's response on it. What we will do is, when we tour
we'll do it in a piecemeal type of way we've done it in the past - we go out
and do three or four dates at a time, and fly back and home and wait five or
six days and go out again, that type of deal. We're playin' western Canada
sometime in the spring, I believe it's in April, and our American tour, which
is quite large, takes up a lot more of our time - and we'll probably start that
in .. uhhh the end of July, and that'll take us right through to the end of
1982.

The Audience : ….. I always see couples, always. I see couples, and they're
holding hands, and , I don't know, our particular audience is a very very nice
kind of people - we don't have any 'ya-hoos' hanging around.

Living in Canada:……… When I originally began to make it in the music
business, which was many many years ago, some of the most important contacts I
established were American managers. And as a result of this, they were
establishing American deals. So I was able to work there under an H-1 visa -
which is what you have to have - you have to show some reason for being there.
You still have to pay, like, your income taxes - we pay taxes to the American
government, as well the Canadian government. And you had to show some reason
for usurping someone's job. So it was not necessary for me to move down to the
United States at that point. The other reason, is that, uhh, this is gonna
sound kinda phony, but I really like Toronto, a lot. I've been living here for
22 years. I like my city, a lot. And I like one of my hobbies, a lot, and
that's canoeing. And I like to go canoeing up in the far north, and that sort
of thing. And that's probably the main reason I stay here, is that I like my
city and I like going canoeing.

Going Canoeing: Yeah, this summer, we're doing the Cazaan(sp) river, from the
Snowbird lake. About 200 miles north of Flin Flon Manitoba, to Baker Lake.
It's a good trip…. I wouldn't advise it though, it's a (chuckles), it's a
trip for experts. We plan to start that about July the 1st and we hope that we
don't run into ice, because it's been a cold winter. What you have to do is
just simply carry everything around the ice if you ever encounter ice. Its
usually drift ice that's drifting out of lakes and into the rivers. In some of
these lakes that are long and narrow, the ice will collect, as in a funnel. The
lake becomes a funnel and the ice will collect. But you take the number of
days in consideration. The rule-of-thumb is you should go about 20 miles a
day. Irregardless of what kind of obstructions you might run up against. Which
could be rapids, or any number of things- wind ….. So it's an interesting
thing - it's really good for your health, and now I've done about 3500 miles of
it, but I'm pushing for the 4000 mile mark this summer on the Cazaan which is
about a 500 mile trip….. If you have anything like, go wrong, that's very
serious, we carry an emergency locator. Which we would use only in certain
instances - like you wouldn't use it if a guy had a toothache, you'd give him a
"222" or something.

Audio/visual (music videos) . We're going to make an audio-visual
presentation which could like become an item for a cable TV slot, in the United
States, or it could be used as a promotional device, it could be played as a
mini-concert on PBS, which would be received here in Canada, there are many
outlets. They are expensive to make. But we're going to make one. And its
all in the framework of the new audio-visual disc business, which is beginning
to develop. I was approached/asked if I wanted to get involved in this,
several months ago, and I decided to do it, so we're going to make one of
those. Its going to cost us probably about 85,000 to make one, it's very
expensive. There are three or four different avenues it could be used in. As
a matter of fact, I'm making it a policy to make of those with each album that
I make from now on. 'Cause you want to get in to that, If you want to take the
effort, make the effort, get involved in it, you'll have a much better chance
of succeeding with your record, because one helps the other. And I'm just a
very conscientious guy, and we like, run a big business here, a big company, a
lot of people work in this company. There's all the guys in the band, the
sound people, everybody and uh, we try to do what we can to keep things rolling
along. I've been doing it so long that - probably 22 ..23 years now, it's
just like keeping it rolling along, keeping things the momentum up and looking
after things. And playing good music and making people happy, and that sort of
thing, that's what it's all about.

Production of records…. You can't think about being the producer when
you're cutting your basic tracks. And everything that's ever going to be
there is going to be in the basic track. And you don't put your producer's hat
on until it comes time to do the post production. Well… you start before
that, of course, but you don't really get seriously into it until the post
production - the mix, the overdubs, and all that sort of thing. We use all of
our basic musicians on our basic tracks, which is just where we sit
down………. like I don't go and put my whole vocal on a record - like when I
sing that thing when I sing it. Unless I might mess up a line or two, I might
go back and correct that. But I sing that vocal the first time I ever walk on
the studio floor. I don't come in like three months later and stand in a
booth, and sing it. (talks about "wreck" - see my post from a few weeks ago)

On Promotion ….. If I have something I really believe in that I've done, such
as I've done with this record, and the amount of effort and work that has gone
into this record - The only reason I'm doing a promotional tour is that I want
to make sure that people aware of it. I could go and comparing it to other
things - I wouldn't compare it to other people, but I could compare it to my
own work, and I could say that it's as good as anything I've done since
SUNDOWN, for instance.

On Songwriting….. Songwriting is a complicated process. It takes a lot of
time. It's done gradually. It's done by bits of information, bits of strings
of ideas which I presently would be feeling. I keep track of these things on
scraps of paper, and that sort of thing, and when it comes time to "do the
job", you figure, well, let's take three or four months and let's write some
songs. And then you go and take a look in your wallet, your briefcase, and
find these little bits of ideas you've written down. I always carry a few
sheets of manuscript with me, I might write like one line, and leave it there.
Terry and I might come up with something while we are getting in tune for a
show. And I just save these little pieces of information up and when it comes
time to go, you just take the tiny string of material and develop it. I also
sometimes, like to tape little bits of information, but that is usually done
out of my home, or in my office, or something like that, because I don't go
running all over the place with a tape recorder on me, you know. If I get an
idea, I'll write it down, usually.

On the LP cover art….. The cover of the album, is a uhh….. I have a
friend in Los Angeles, who's done a lot of photographic work on me, Tom Burt,
and he wanted to do something that would sort of illustrate this "shadows"
idea. So this is a very special process, that he uses here. Since we are
talking about album jackets, album jackets are important! He's a very bright
guy, he does a lot of photography, he's a professional, very professional
photographer, and he wanted to get something that would create this idea of
'shadows' so that's where this picture comes from.

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