Chords for Gordon Lightfoot interview with Heather Hiscox

_ _ _ _ There's always a buzz to a record release party.
It's the anticipation, [B] the expectation of big sales to come.
[Eb] But at this party the vibe is decidedly [D] different.
Whatever happens with this album, just the fact it [Fm] was made [N] and the man who made it is alive to launch it is [Abm] enough.
I was playing up in Orillia [F] and and the next thing I knew it was Saturday afternoon and I was on the floor.
[Ab] They took me to the emergency in Orillia.
This was on September the 8th, [N] 2002.
_ _ Gordon Lightfoot was in a coma for five weeks and has been in and out of hospital ever since.
Only now is he well enough to sit down and talk about what happened.
Gordon Lightfoot, it's a pleasure to meet you and I'm sure it's a thrill for your fans watching to see you probably for the first
time since you were sick and looking so well.
Well, thank you very much.
Fighting my way back.
As I understand, for [Ab] those who will want reassurance, let me begin with this question.
[Eb] Are you completely out of danger now?
Out of danger, yes.
I don't know if I really ever was after the first day.
But I'm working my way back now.
It's taken a long [N] time, but it's a back into practicing again.
And we've had some rehearsals and looking forward to it.
I mean the challenge would be to try to get back onto the stage again.
The health scare that you had, the ruptured artery in your abdomen, from what I understand, it's usually fatal.
Why do you think you escaped the fate that most people who have that condition?
[Gb] They said it was [Eb] because of conditioning and for about the last 25 years
I felt that I owed this to [N] my fans and I've always tried to stay in good condition and I've
worked out about 150, 120 times a year and
got really quite religious about it there for a while.
What has kept you going through this long fight back?
Well, you know, we won't mince words with you.
We have a new CD
which we've been working on practically the whole time.
[Eb] So working on the post-production of that and the way in which it was done, which is described in the album's liner notes,
with me being in the hospital and how would you make an album and all that kind of stuff.
I had all of the vocal and the guitar parts [Em] were finished before I [N] fell ill.
So again, it's always been about the music.
So that's what we used.
So I started thinking about that like right away within about 10 days from the time I woke up,
which was around Halloween in 2002 and I went down like in the end of the first week of September.
And you were, as you said, able to supervise the production of this disc.
So it took my mind off my condition the whole time, you see.
So I'm a very lucky person because I was so busy thinking about making this record, which I spent about 14, 15 months doing.
_ I really didn't have time to think about my condition.
[D] So I was very [G] lucky.
I don't think it's an understatement to say that [D] every Canadian my age
has a [F] personal connection to your music, has some favorite Gordon Lightfoot song that really carries special meaning.
Of all of your body of work, which are the songs that you hold most dear?
_ _ I think the Canadian Railroad trilogy is a good one.
And [Abm] I really like Early Morning Rain a lot and it's been recorded by lots of other artists [N] too, I might add.
But I like If You Could Read My Mind and _ I really like Beautiful and I like a lot too.
But the record The Edmund Fitzgerald, I think is [Eb] my all-time favorite because I know how it [N] feels to play it _
in a room full of people and they really love it and it's a wonderful song to play.
[Ab] If I turn on the television now, I'm going to hear music from everybody to Led [Bbm] Zeppelin to Queen to Bob Dylan
used on television commercials to sell [N] just about everything.
And yet I don't hear your music.
You hold tight to your music.
Why are you so protective of your music in that way?
Well, _ maybe we don't get the offers that they do.
But we do get some and I usually turn them down because it's really_
it [Ab] doesn't seem significant enough, you [G] know.
Sundown for a beer company in the States.
[Gb] I said, no, I don't think I want to do that.
I don't want the beer commercial to be my [A] epitaph.
We're about [B] two meters away from the stage on which [A] you've given some legendary [E] performances over the years.
Yes, [N] this place I sang here first when I was 13 years old.
And how important is it for you to one day be back on that stage performing?
Very important.
This is where our friends and relatives live.
We have to be right on the ball.
We're like the home team.
You know, be on for the hometown folks.
It's very important.
And when do you think we can look forward to that?
_ I would say probably sometime [Bm] next year.
I know you had a tracheotomy [F] and I know you've had, as you said, your medical procedures
and they have to have done some serious damage [N] to those important singing abdominal muscles.
How is your voice?
The voice, there's nothing wrong with the voice at all.
The voice is fine.
Have you started to sing again?
I've made some attempts with my_
I've been working with a couple of [G] musicians, the bass player and the lead guitar player.
[Gb] We've started having some rehearsals.
The vocal seems to be_
it's still hiding in there, [N] but I know it's going to spring forth one of these days.
_ It almost has.
Most of the problems is below at the abdominal muscles
because I now have a completely different set [Db] of muscles controlling my abdomen.
What happened [N] the very first time you tried to sing after your illness?
I felt pressure down here, but as it heals, _ it's not flat like it used to be,
but I can feel it pushing the voice out, so [Ab] I know it's going to be okay.
We'll be able to do [Gb] something and I'm going to get a chance to prove it too before too much longer.
[Bm] But you're still working at it and the amazing thing is it's hard [N] to wrap your head around
and my head around the idea that Gordon Lightfoot is now a pensioner because you're 65 years old now
and you're still as vital as always.
You have earned the right.
You've won everything there is to win.
You've earned the right to sit back and relax and enjoy your success,
but how much appeal [Eb] does that hold for you now?
_ I want to be like _ _ _ Wilf Carter and Stomp and Tom and Willie Nelson
and just [Ab] do it for as long as humanly possible.
So if that [F] means I'm still [Gb] performing when I'm 70, well that's just fine [Gb] by me.
I'll be quite happy