Surely, I say, one thing can feed off the other. You must have written new songs for your young grandchildren. “No, no,” he chuckles, “I think there are enough songs of mine out there for them to relate to.”
Maybe coming to England would inspire new songs: you see, I don’t give up. Had he written while he was here in earlier years? “Oh, yes. I wrote in Britain for my fourth album, I stayed at the Stratford Court Hotel in London and wrote about eight songs. When I got on the plane in Toronto I was working on some poems but I am not a poet. I tried that first. Then after three hours it was time for the sun to come up from the east and I put away the poetry and started thinking about songs. I got the idea for Bitter Green, but what does that mean, I don’t know. I got through Customs and into a taxicab and I was thinking about the first verse. I wrote that song in a taxicab from Heathrow into town. I also got a train from London to Edinburgh and I was working on a sailing tune called Marie Christine. It was about a big boat, a racing boat.”
Was it difficult to write in public as surely you were being pestered for autographs? “Aw heck, nobody knew who I was then. I didn’t have hits – I was on United Artists! I didn’t have a hit single until I moved to Warners and that was with my sixth album. But they really knew how to push my songs around. I had over 100 cover records while I was with United Artists.”
Did Gordon take an interest in the cover recordings? “Well, I’ve never heard a cover recording that I didn’t like. I know they might change a chord or a chord progression, but I still like them. (Laughs). I played that bluegrass album by Mac Wiseman and Tony Rice the other night and really liked it. There is another bluegrass one by J P Carmier too. He has some really great musicians on that, so I’d recommend those two.”
Surely Gordon doesn’t like everything. What about the recent Neil Young album, A Letter Home, on which he recorded Early Morning Rain and If You Could Read My Mind as though they were recorded in a 35 cents Record Your Own Voice booth, and if I ever get to interview Neil Young, I shall ask for my money back. “Well, let me say that Neil Young is someone who has really influenced me. I liked the kind of songs that he wrote and appreciated his work ethic. He knew that I was a real fan of his. I go back to Buffalo Springfield and I respect the fact that he could write his autobiography. I am deeply honoured that he would do my songs. Did I love the performance? Yes, I did. I don’t know why he did them. Maybe he wanted to give me a shot in the arm.”
In 2007 Gordon Lightfoot was on a Canadian postage stamp. “That was great. My secretary called out, ‘They want to put your picture on a stamp!’, and I said, ‘Tell them to go ahead!’ It was a very nice stamp too – they had Paul Anka, Anne Murray and Joni Mitchell in the same series. They have put Stompin’ Tom Connors on a postage stamp and I love that. He was something else, a performer who was totally unique. He always had a great band”