Evening with Gordon Lightfoot

Tonight was my third event at the Wharton Center this week and I got to see Gordon Lightfoot. My friend Daisy had other plans so I enjoyed the concert with Jackie, another quilting friend. We decided that Gordon Lightfoot's voice is certainly past its prime. His lyrics are wonderful but his voice was weak and he seemed to have difficulty breathing. In 2002, he suffered an abdominal aneurysm and spent 6 weeks in a coma. He nearly died. Considering his serious health problem, I feel blessed to have gotten the opportunity to see him one more time. He looked very aged and weak but his music is timeless. He is not the strong robust man I remember seeing several years ago at the Michigan Festival, but he did whisper something about a "toe tapper alert" prior to one song. My friend Phyllis in California is sure to remember the "toe tapper alert" we all chuckled about after the Michigan Festival concert.
He sang many of his big hits and they brought back lots of memories of my younger years in junior high school and high school. They also made me think of Mark. Many of Gordon Lightfoot's songs are sad and lonely and the mind just wanders to that sad place. He even sang a Bob Dylan tune and since Mark was really into Dylan, it just brought tears to my eyes.

He sang all the good ones: If You Could Read My Mind, Beautiful, Early Morning Rain, Edmund Fitzgerald, Sundown, Rainy Day People, Carefree Highway, Old Dan's Records, Summer Side of Life, Bitter Green and more.

I owned his Gord's Gold album when I was younger. I own the CD now and have been playing it lately.
Gordon did make a few jokes about our election and the debates that were coming up. He is Canadian and we can always count on Canadians to see the humor in our messes.