drathbun Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I just finishing reading Bob Taylor's terrific book "Guitar Lessons: A Life's Journey Turning Passion into Business". There is a passage in the book where Bob describes when he was just beginning to build guitars in the mid 70's and making his way backstage to see his guitar hero Gordon Lightfoot at a concert. He had one of his 12 strings with him and offered it to the obviously disinterested Lightfoot who strummed it a couple of times and then passed it back with a "Thanks that was nice" and went off to perform. Bob says "I don't know what I thought was going to happen. Did I actually think he'd love this guitar so much that he'd toss out his old Gibson and thank me for changing his life?" Bob took his 12 string in the case and walked out passing a couple of giggly girls who said "Are you with the band?" to which Bob replied "No" but thought "No, I'm just a dork!" I don't think any guitar would change Lightfoot's mind about his Gibsons. He's still playing the same guitars today that he was in the '60's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcnmOneN7cg&feature=player_embedded#at=15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fumblefinger Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Lightfoot was, of course, very meticulous about the tuning of his guitars. I remember going to see him in about March 1968 in Red Deer Alberta. The idiots running the arena decided to save themselves some work so they left the ice in for the hockey game the next night and just covered it with sheets of plywood. You can well imagine what happened to Gord's 12 string when he came out of a warm dressing room to a stage where it was about 5 degrees above freezing. He retuned about 8 or 10 times, often stopping in the middle of a song. As we were driving home after the show Lightfoot called into the local radio station and did he give them an a*s chewing!! He vowed to never, ever return to Red deer and I'm sure he hasn't. lightfoot was very meticulous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Lightfoot is an amazing talent. Saw him approx 4 years ago in Kansas City at an outdoor theater. He was on the mend after his stomach surgery and before the minor stoke he suffered. He tuned 3-4 times during his concert. Getting lots of laughs from the audience as he'd tell a little story or joke while he worked on the guitar. Really a decent guy. After the concert he came down off of the stage and posed for pictures with anyone who wanted to take one or two. Very talkative and friendly. And his guitars do have a few miles on them.....Wow! the stories they could tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I was close enough to the stage a couple of years ago here at the Jack Singer Concert Hall to see both his Gibson B25-12's fairly closely (with my binocs). These are two very old guitars. Whomever works on them has installed a secondary pickguard just below the soundhole towards the lower treble side bout. I'm assuming that's from wearing the wood away in that location after so many years of use and to prevent the "Trigger Effect" Trigger Effect: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 .... There is a passage in the book where Bob describes when he was just beginning to build guitars in the mid 70's and making his way backstage to see his guitar hero Gordon Lightfoot at a concert. .... Great story Drath. I haven't heard that one before. B) Very meticulous. I always appreciated that, as some of his recordings feature lush, layered chord voicings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneS Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Very meticulous. I always appreciated that, as some of his recordings feature lush, layered chord voicings. So funny how things come around-- I have lately added "The House You Live In" to my setlist options. Meticulous songwriter, too: "When you're down in the dumps and not ready to deal, decide what it is that you need; is it money or love, is it learning to live, or is it the mouth you must feed?" Great song AND great sound, imho, but sometimes I think the lushness detracted--at the the time--from the material, in that the production made some of his songs almost too easy to listen to, making them oddly inaccessible and easy somehow to overlook? Well, that might just be me... Still, I think his material is pretty all-around great ("Away you will go sailiing in a race among the ruins; if you plan to face tomorrow, do it soon.") and def worth a revisit, lo, these 35+ years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 So funny how things come around-- I have lately added "The House You Live In" to my setlist options. Meticulous songwriter, too: "When you're down in the dumps and not ready to deal, decide what it is that you need; is it money or love, is it learning to live, or is it the mouth you must feed?" Great song AND great sound, imho, but sometimes I think the lushness detracted--at the the time--from the material, in that the production made some of his songs almost too easy to listen to, making them oddly inaccessible and easy somehow to overlook? Well, that might just be me... Still, I think his material is pretty all-around great ("Away you will go sailiing in a race among the ruins; if you plan to face tomorrow, do it soon.") and def worth a revisit, lo, these 35+ years later. Some excellent insights Anne. I have to agree. Lightfoot is a poet AND a musician and sometimes the music is so wonderful it clouds the message (to paraphrase you). I always get a kick out of playing "If You Could Read My Mind" and watching the female reaction to the song. It is always "Oooo I loooove that song! So romantic!" Obviously they do not listen to the lyrics. The narrator is breaking up with the woman because he has no feeling of love left for her and he feels hopelessly trapped in her vision of him as her Harlequin Romance lover. In fact, Lightfoot is quite the bastard in many of his songs; a fact to which he draws attention when he purposefully contracts two songs into one medley in "I'm Not Saying / Ribbon of Darkness" and "That's What You Get For Lovin' Me / Did She Mention My Name?" ... from "I'm Not Saying": Now I may not be alone each time you see me, Along the street or in a small cafe. Still I won't deny or mistreat you, Baby, if you let me have my way. I'm not sayin' I'll be sorry, For all the things that I might say, To make you cry. I'm not sayin' that I'll do, The things you want me to, I'm not sayin' I'll be true, But I'll try. From "That's What You Get For Lovin' Me" "I'll have a hundred more like you, so don't be blue. That's what you get for lovin' me." And yet, he is capable of sublime imagery in his crafting of evocative words. From "Canadian Railroad Trilogy": Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin' The stars they come stealin' at the close of the day Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping Beyond the dark ocean in a place far away From "Softly": Softly she sighs Sweetly she lies never sleeping Her fragrance all in my keeping Softly she comes in the night Softly she goes Her shining lips in the shadows Whisper goodbye at my window Softly she goes in the dawn As you can tell, I'm a BIG Lightfoot fan! Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I saw Lightfoot at Brown U Spring Weekend in 1969. As I recall, he played the Gibson 12, and a D-28 six. Of course, I may have been a bit bent from accidentally inhaling some of my neighbor's funny-smelling second-hand smoke, so I could be wrong...... Great show. Great singer-songwriter. Those WERE the days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I saw Lightfoot at Brown U Spring Weekend in 1969. As I recall, he played the Gibson 12, and a D-28 six. Of course, I may have been a bit bent from accidentally inhaling some of my neighbor's funny-smelling second-hand smoke, so I could be wrong...... Great show. Great singer-songwriter. Those WERE the days. Yes. His six strings have most always been Martins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Some excellent insights Anne. I have to agree. Lightfoot is a poet AND a musician and sometimes the music is so wonderful it clouds the message (to paraphrase you). I always get a kick out of playing "If You Could Read My Mind" and watching the female reaction to the song. It is always "Oooo I loooove that song! So romantic!" Obviously they do not listen to the lyrics. The narrator is breaking up with the woman because he has no feeling of love left for her and he feels hopelessly trapped in her vision of him as her Harlequin Romance lover. In fact, Lightfoot is quite the bastard in many of his songs; a fact to which he draws attention when he purposefully contracts two songs into one medley in "I'm Not Saying / Ribbon of Darkness" and "That's What You Get For Lovin' Me / Did She Mention My Name?" Doug My first wife actually WAS a Harlequin romance writer. She sometimes confused that dream world with reality, and reality never quite measured up. It did not end well. Love is tricky....but love's confusion (and love lost) makes for the greatest songs. Think "it ain't me, babe", and "Boots of Spanish leather". By our scars shall we be known. With luck, we'll make songs out of 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I have to add this link to a great blog post by the Texas songwriter Tom Russell: Lightfoot's Guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincentw Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Interesting story. The girls giggling "are you with the band" part seems unlikely and part of the whole guitar hero mythology. groupies exist, but they know who they are looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Interesting story. The girls giggling "are you with the band" part seems unlikely and part of the whole guitar hero mythology. groupies exist, but they know who they are looking for. I dunno Vincent. I WAS the 70's afterall! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I dunno Vincent. I WAS the 70's afterall! It was called the trickle-down effect. Mind you, I didn't participate, but it did exist. If you have never seen it, watch the movie "Almost Famous" sometime. There's a lot of truth in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGgypsyboy Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 well , one thing for sure - Guild has always made the best 12 string acoustic guitars available. These b-25-12 tend to self destruct as they are fairly weakly built and lack the projection and robust tone of the Guilds. Particularly the Westerly, Rhode Island Guilds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.