What Should Gordon Lightfoot Be Writing About Today?

I think Gordon would do a great job on the topic of rich old men sending poor young men off to fight and die for oil.

Possible title ?

"Rich man's war...poor man's battle."

Happy Birthday Gordon!!
I would love to hear him do another ballad such as Winter's Night because I'm occasionally very homesick for Canada over here in Switzerland. I miss the St. Lawrence and the Gatineau hills even if there are alps here. Canada will always be home and Lightfoot's music is always entwined with it. Is it true that the Railroad Trilogy was going to be considered as he National Anthem at one time? I'm sure I heard that.
MJ in Suisse

hi tom of the morning of snow! just heard your instructions, so i re-post here. this comment is on the main radio2 blog.

to our cherished mr lightfoot,

democracy availing itself in the united states of america with president
-elect barack obama. through hope, love, faith, laughter and confidence. for these are our infinite ways of questing. the human souls desire knows no boundaries of flesh colours.

with warmth of spirit,
cynthia and family

17.11.08

nb he does have a darn cute, endearing smile that is contagious. ... sing of smiles ! contagious ones. yes. smiles that are contagious. now, that's pretty perfect. -c

nbb happy birthday gordon, onward and upward !

Things 70 year old Gordon Lightfoot should write about:

1. Liver spots, wrinkled skin and hair loss.
2. Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, over and over.
3. Cataracts and macular degeneration.
4. Loss of hearing.
5. Clinging to your driver's license when you're long past being able to drive well.
6. Kids today have no respect.
7. Dementia and Alzheimer's.
8. Falling and breaking a hip
9. Bathtubs with a door on the side.
10. I've fallen and I can't get up.
11. What was number 1 again?

Sorry I am so late with this post. Out here in the country, the wireless doesn't always work!

Anyway, years ago Lightfoot wrote "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy", which I think is very appropriate today, with its subtle inferences about the impact of our clearing the land etc. It's always been one of my favourites. If you can't play it today, perhaps tomorrow. Lightfoot's Environmental Commentary.

Thanks,

Margaret Blank

I'd love to see Gordon hammer out another Canadian tale, something of the epic proportion and feeling of the Railway Trilogy. Something to give us back a sense of ourselves, of who we are struggling to be, and can still be as a nation.

Stan is gone. His "Rise Again" is a song for these times, certainly one Americans need to hear. Gord speaks of Canada mostly in poetic terms, but in the Edmund Fitzgerald and Black Day in July, he turned his thoughts to powerful human struggles.

He can do it again.

Few of us have gone through the wide swings of personal health that Gordon has. Avid outdoors men, sailor,canoeist, smoker, drinker, near death expereince, re-built health and longevity. Perhaps he could write about the trials and tribulations and how it shaped his world view, his enthusiasm for life. I observed his life through all of the above, through his songs and performances. I believe he has some powerful insight into our health and our lives that would come out wonderfully in song.

for Joe Hewitt,

What you write of is the same as I, in my earlier comment for Mr Lightfoot.
In 1981 a friend with cancer traveled to be part of a workshop with Norman Cousins author, editor of Saturday Review. [and much more]
"Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient" a book I have referred to for decades now. as recently as november 2007, I traveled to UCLA Brain Institute on the campus of UCLA to learn more, more and more, to bring forward longevity for a musician stricken with cancer. This is the foundation to this day of Norman Cousins Center: "purpose, determination, love, hope, faith, will to live and festivity. Mr Hewitt, your choice of words touched me deeply for the word "longevity" was in daily use as the musician navigated the mountains, swamps and quicksand of devious cancer. For myself, I am an avid "ocean sailor, re-built my health from a near- death" experience in 1993. i echo your desire and request of Gordon to have lyrics to such a song of "longevity"... I do not know it it is "blog" "comment" "post" correctness with CBC radio2, perhaps we could write lyrics, tossling through on this comment post ... ... an idea. No I do not, have not, ever written music, nor am i a musician. I placed this forward for "democracy" after imperialist rule by W. and Cheney. and you are absolutely correct; Gordon,
writing of such "would come out wonderfully in song".

thank you,
Cynthia

n.b. this is from the UCLA site:

"The Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology is dedicated to carrying on in the tradition of its founder, Norman Cousins (1915-1990). Norman Cousins came to UCLA in 1978 at the invitation of UCLA School of Medicine’s Dean Sherman Mellinkoff to join the faculty as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities."

'What brought him to UCLA was the quest for proof that a patient’s psychological approach to illness could have an effect on biological states and health. He was particularly interested in the impact of positive emotions and attitudes, such as purpose, determination, love, hope, faith, will to live and festivity.

If the brain played an active role in the healing process, might it be consciously directed for that purpose? What would the implications of such findings be on the treatment of serious illness? Cousins came to believe that a good vehicle for making such discoveries was the emerging field of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI).'

What should Gordon Lightfoot be writing about today?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

This man's work is done and he's paid his dues.
The days for him going back and chaining himself to a desk are in the past. He's talked about this in public, about how it's taken it's toll on his personal life and presently he's enjoying himself touring, greeting his fans and spending time with his family.

There's still a hope of course from many os us long term fans that some of the material he wrote that never made onto a recording might find it's way in there, especially with the advanced technology we have these days.

Ih his song "A Painter Passing Through," the last verse opens up with the opening line:
"Now that I am old, let me rest a spell,"
Then it ends with:
"If you want to my secret don't come runnin' after me,
For I am just a painter passing through in history.

Happy Birthday Gordon.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot with my husband so many years ago. My husband and I were dating and Gordon was just starting out. We saw him in a small town on a small stage and we had the incredible good fortune to talk with him afterwards. We have followed his career and attended many concerts at Massey Hall. We always take his cd's on a road trip, because Gordon Lightfoot is the one artist we both can agree on.
What to write about in all that is going on in this world today? Love! Peace!

Happy Birthday, Gordon. How about another song similar to Leonard's line: "democracy is coming to the USA". Are we now able to have some hope for the world?

Gordon,

Happy birthday. The chords and lyrics of your music continue to ring in my head every day and I have been listening to your music for over 35 years.

Since we live more and more in our heads (or cyber space), I would hope you would continue to write about our connection to nature and the land. Our biggest challenges and for our children will be to learn to live in balance with what nature can sustain. Thank you for your gift and craft of music. Happy Birthday.

Gordon Lightfoot should be writing and singing today about inner peace and fulfillment. It took a lifetime to find it in his life as well as in most of ours. His music is the finest of poetry. He is one of the greatest artists of all time. I love you Gordon and have a very happy birthday!

What books do you and your girlfriend agree on?
She liked Vampire Romance, I read quantum Theory but
Farley Mowat was the author my sweetheart and I had in common.
I heard him interviewed on radio 1;
and he's still such a hoot.
Gordon should write 2 songs about him, a song for his cause and a comical song.
But he would have to have Tanya Tagaq at his side.
Names of the songs:
The Seige of the Farley Mowat,
The Man Who wouldn't Be.

Gord's music is entwined in our National Heritage. He has nothing more to prove. His talent and longevity is a true gift to all Canadians. He should write whenever and whatever he feels like and we would be blessed with whatever music and lyrics that he feels inspired to create. I just hope that his health remains as good as possible and that I can be fortunate enough to see him and his incredible live performance at least one more time. I have seen him at the National Arts Centre here in the Nations Capital on 5 or 6 occasions and every time his performance was wonderful. You do whatever pleases you Gord.

I think Gordon can write on any topic brilliantly, but I would like to hear his take on the apology given to our Aboriginal Peoples by the Canadian Government and what that might mean as a way of moving the country forward by all involved.

Given the state of the economy today, how about asking Mr. Lightfoot to sing 'The Wreck of the Cantor Fitzgerald'?

Happy B'day Mr. Lightfoot!

"The Wreck of the Stephane Dion"?

At 70, Lightfoot should be writing about death, as Strauss did in "Tod und Verklärung" and as Mahler did in "Kindertotenlieder."

I think our troubadour on matters of true blue north historic and folkloric import, Mr. Lightfoot should address the 'Three Star Canadian Mystery Selection' in a Trilogy of song.

(i) The theft of the apostrophe from Tim Hortons

(ii) The loss of the hockey 'sweater' to 'jersey'

(iii) Louis Riel: Hero? Traitor? Poet? Patriot? Heretic? Menace? Martyr? Madman? Renaissance Man Rebel? (Eat your heart out Rasputin)

Keep settin'em up and knockin'em down, Gordo.

Grant Boyd, Jr.

el Rancho Untaméd
Val-des-Monts, QC

Whatever he wants. He need not prove anything, as some have written, but my guess is that the composer's home fires are still burning. Things affect him. There will always be a songwriter, not just a song inside, whether or not he decides to go public with his recent perceptions and let them echo in wood and steel. I'm glad he is enjoying his tours still. So are we. My 84 year-old Dad called excitedly last week offering an early birthday present to me. Lightfoot tickets for one of his two concerts in Vancouver this coming April. He has always resonated with topics and the natural surroundings that interest and inspire him. But this is a great birthday question, and he is generous enough to have a laugh, or let the twinkle in his eye warm a heart that is ever yearning and observant, then put it into song. What will happen? Let's just listen and nod. Thank you, Gord. Thank you, Tom.

Thank you to Lightfoot for helping Canadians from across this great country to relate to each other through song and story. Appreciating our history and making our own culture. We as Canadians know we are different from our American neighbors, and not just because we are so polite as our European visitors have remarked. In these times of national concerns with our involvement in Afghanistan affairs. I believe it is an important time in both Canadian history and an opportunity to further identify who we are as Canadians. Canadian soldiers have been respected peace keepers in other countries for many decades. It is important that everyone understand why we would want our troops to be involved in a conflict. Our involvement is because we respect the rights and freedoms of every Canadian and extend the defense of these rights to every human being in the world. The Canadian approach to defending rights and freedom is also very different than the force used by other nations. We are respected around the world for our respectful generosity, giving of ourselves to help others. This is part of our identity and Canadian heritage that gets little attention within our own country. I feel this would be an outstanding subject for Mr. Lightfoot to help further define our culture.

Attached is an article from an Australian who eloquently defines a Canadian.
"An Australian Definition of a Canadian

In case anyone asks you who a Canadian is . . .

You probably missed it in the local news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had advertised in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed a Canadian - any Canadian.

An Australian dentist wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is, so they would know one when they found one.

A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani, or Afghan.

A Canadian may also be a Cree, Métis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians. A Canadian's religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which recognize the right of each person to life, liberty and security.
Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression,
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services, and the best minds.

But they also welcome the least - the oppressed, the outcast, and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada. You can try to kill a Canadian if you must as other bloodthirsty tyrants in the world have tried but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbour. This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian."

I listened to your broadcast this morning while I was driving my kids to school and heard your entreaty to send in song ideas for the Gordster when my son piped up from the back.

"Maybe that guy should write about The Highway of Heroes." We had just spent the better part of the evening before working on project on the self-same subject for
school and I couldn't help but think that that was just a fine idea. Gord has some experience weaving footnotes of our history into some fairly compelling songs, non? We could use a song that takes an unflinching look at the war of Afghanistan in all of its moral complexities. From the mouths of babes.....

I think Gordon should, in his way, reflect on the lost of small-town hometowns to the monotonous box store sprawl. Gordan should have a particular sore from this devastation because his hometown, Orillia, is currently turning farm fields and forest and wetland to scraped earth and tarmac. But then... once again Gordon observed this decades before it was part of our mainstream consciousness. He depicts the dingy, isolating cold of the city in 'Home from the Forest'.

I'll be 60 in December, so I remember Gordon Lightfoot as being really big. I think that he might consider writing about why people talk about him more than they play his music.

I listen to the show every morning from Detroit(yes, that Detroit), and like it a lot,but it seems to me that a number of songs or artists get played fairly regularly. Are you planning to expand your playlist?
Well, best of luck. Great hat in your picture. I LOVE Molly Johnson's voice.

George Killoran

Tom
Here's what I think about what Mr. Lightfoot should be writing/singing about:
It is the task of a child to trip through life in oblivion and wide eyed wonder.
An adolescent's job is to begin the journey of learning.
A teenagers unfortunate role is to be angry .. and sad.
A young adult should be the one to sound the alarms and keep us on track.
A mature adult's role is sadly cynicism and reality.
Midle age is for longing looks back to younger days.
But it's the elder statesman's job to always bring us hope and optimism - to say "I have witnessed much and still have look forward with that same wide eyed wonder I began with ...
And we all must continue to sing about love!

terry, i have tender tears rolling down my chapped wind burnt cheeks from your eloquent thoughts. i have not read and been touched as i just have by your voice and the dentist's voice, these past weeks.

"This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian."

terry, i finally have the words of what touched my spirit in 1996 when i first [ i hail from new mexico ] came to reside in alberta, then british columbia. your sharing the words of the australian dentist are my experience.

i am immensely grateful to your comment and insights and would take columns of this post to respond, but alas not a possibility. i am intrigued though [why and how i came back to the post just now, to comment]
that the question posed for joni mitchell's birthday; the response was more fluid in volume. gordon lightfoot's is of a lesser, although the question asked may not be within the humbleness and nobleness of canadian spirit and community to suggest what another, human should consider to actively participate in.

terry you are a gift this day. and it is my truth of my life lived in the great country called canada. for when i resided in the usa, my birth place, i was never considered accomplished, enough. even though i employed 60 fantastic people, bequeathed to my state for children in dire need long term, voluntarily put forward a co-op for struggling artists to live and work. just getting the zoning in place was near a nightmare level, plus the ability of patience of the slow process. luckily i had both.
i am not going to continue the list, for it is not my purpose, but what i want each and every one of you canadians to know with CONVICTION, is that as i have been a part of your community i was honoured to the highest for being a full time mum. and no; canadians NEVER asked "what i did?". that coup de grace all american question.

and if you are just not quite there yet with conviction, i tell you i have resided in western europe, scandinavia and central america. canada is of nurturing spirit like no where else on this planet. please know you are blessed by your birthright.

best and gentlest,
cynthia

Tom, I'm thrilled that you have chosen this incredibly important Canadian icon as a subject for your blog! Gordon Lightfoot was a comforting sound of Canada as I grew up in NZ; whenever I was homesick I would pull out "Gord's Gold" for a quick fix!
Last month my wonderful boyfriend took me to the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA, to see Gord for my birthday. I only cried 3 times! Gord, if you're reading this, I am NOT the woman who shouted "You're awesome and I love you!", but I AM the one who shouted "Come to Vancouver!!!"; and you listened! We'll be in the 12th row when you play here in April!
Gord, the songs that I love most are those that represent Canada, and those that touch my heart as they tell tales of lost love or homesickness. These are themes that almost anyone can relate to!
In this day and age so many people are dislocated from their loved ones, whether by travel or family reconfigurations; I would love it if you wrote about the struggles and successes of split families or blended families. At the Canyon Club when you mentioned your "first old lady" and your "second old lady" it really brought home the fact that we all have a past, and even if our initial attempts at happiness didn't succeed, they helped to make us who we are! And I'm happy with my life (especially since you're coming to town! You're AWESOME and I love you!!)!
Thanks for listening! Shan

Hi Mr.Tom, Last night I had a thought about a great artist for parents & kids to agree on: Buck 65! I can't vouch for this, except to say that "the kids these days" are naturally inclined towards hip hop. It is the pop music of today, and so they are very capable of listening to it. This his much more difficult for most parents, though, not least of all because the subject matter is often not of interest. Buck 65, however, should inspire interest in any intelligent soul who enjoys good stories and impressive word-play! So..what do you think? Maybe you should play some Buck 65 on your show, and see what people think!

Happy Birthday Gordon Lightfoot! In my opinion Gordon has well earned the right to compose whatever he pleases! I have especially enjoyed Gordon’s description of the Canadian landscape. If I were to suggest a theme for a song it would be the tumultuous times we live in; the great economical and political changes we are experiencing in North America contrasted to the unwavering beautiful terrain of Canada.
I had the opportunity of meeting you Gordon some thirty years ago. You were playing in Vancouver and I called The Okanogan Valley my home. A mutual friend, a canoe buddy of yours, introduced a small group of his friends to you back stage. Time flies by in a blink of an eye. I look back at the Canadian Pacific North West as a place where my soul was at home. Thank you Gordon for entertaining us all with your lyrics that have dipped into your soulful heart and the landscape of Canada, from the skyline of Toronto, with the chinook wind blowing us through to the wild majestic mountains that stood alone against the sun. Do what gives you happiness.

All the best,
Nancy Cullen

Gordon Lightfoot has not only framed the Canadian experience in his lyrics, but I think he has been a significant influence in defining what it means to be Canadian and has succeeded in getting that message out as he performed his wonderful music around the world. If however, there is yet a stone unturned, it may to get the rest of the world to accept once and for all, the name of that hat is toque.
Thank you Gordon, and happy birthday.

Gordon Lightfoot should, if he is so inclined, write about the natural beauty of Canada, possibly the National Parks, closer to home, Killarney Provincial Park where the Group of Seven painted in the last century.
Happy Birthday, Gordon Lightfoot

John Davies,

Steve Earle already wrote that song. It's called "Rich Man's War".

Mr. Lightfoot can write about whatever he wants IF he wants. He has already given so much to Canada.
And no, to the guy who wrote he should be writing about death. Long may you live Gordon Lightfoot. Thank you for your brilliance, your great musicians and for not moving south like so many others.

Gordon Lightfoot's music always stirs a certain melancholy in my heart and a longing for my youth when things somehow seemed easier and life had a slower pace. I would love to hear a song or songs about retaining the experiences of life, but growing older and facing the future with hope, fascination and dignity.

Thank-you and Happy Birthday Mr. Lightfoot you've provided this fellow with some wonderful memories and many of your songs leave me with a lump in my throat.

Gordon has been bard and scribe to all. His writing and long years touring has made him a legend, his talent has made him a mirror of us all.

Best to you Gord, for giving me 38 years of concerts.