I went to see Gordon Lightfoot last night at Toronto's Massey Hall. Lightfoot plays Massey Hall every spring and he's played there now over 150 times. Lightfoot is 72 now, gaunt and thin and from where I was sitting, resembles Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture show - although not as bad I assure you. His voice is weak now and has lost its elasticity. But by the second set he was warmed up and in much better shape.
Among his new songs that I dubbed Robert Bateman songs - with lyrics that paid tribute to the loon on his lake, a clutch of brown snails etc - were some of Lightfoot's greatest numbers; Beautiful, Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Canadian Train Trilogy, Rainy Day People and Cotton Jenny. I didn't mean to cry during If You Could Read My Mind...
photo: The Globe and Mail
