unusual autograph at E-Town Boulder '98 Radio Taping

[Steve Dunbar]

I just found this site. Great ! I usually frequent Wayne Francis' site,
and Matt Pfifer's (sp?) as well. I am usually one to spin a long story, but
its late, I am tired, but I wanted to thank you folks for making another
fine homage to my favorite singer/songwriter GL. A quick story of an
unusual item to autograph I got him to do , but perhaps it held some
symbolism of some kind. On my 40th birthday, in July of '98, in Boulder,
Colorado, my wife took me to the E-Town radio taping of Gord and a band
called "Phreakwater". Gord was gracious and not indignant to work with a
band unknown to my age group (I think), but I have to tell you that group
versus Gord was a study in contrasts, maybe even antithesis to one another.
They were sort of OK, well....... let's just say they were not on par with
good ole Gord. Then there is Gord, IMHO simply the most inspiring song
crafter and painter of words I have ever heard. A typical Lighthead, I have
EVERY album (yes all that were LP's ) that were cut, including the missing
4 (da** those bast**** at Warner Bros. for not burning the CD's of the 4...)
and had a hard time driving home clutching Songbook to my side as I drove,
lest it fall into the crevasse between driver's seat and console....... .
Anyway, my wife and I prepared for this show that was taped for radio play,
which unfortunately i never caught the broadcast. Anyone got it dig'd ? I
knew from reading that Gord was an avid canoer,and his famous stories of
500-800 mile sub-arctic waters sea-kayaking and canoeing expeditions in the
Northwest Territories when he needed to purge the pi** and vinegar after
love gone sour, i.e Sundown, IYCRMM, etc.. I also canoe, and like Gord,
like Old Town Canoes e.g. (Little Yellow Canoe !) on Songbook. Well, I
bought a brand spanking new varnished ash Old Town paddle for the show,
sanded the spar varnish off of a patch one inch by a foot, and lightly
penciled a line for prospective autograph. Perhaps my song that night
should have been "A Lesson In Autographing" , indeed my walk down shrink
alley, so to speak. Never tell an artist to stay in the lines, I learned,
but gracious he was. Less so were the staff security at the Boulder
theater, a beautiful but distressed landmark. My wife and I got in about 2
minutes after the show, and thus were unable to follow S.O.P. for
autographs: leave the item on the stage before the show....... . Well....
after Gord's set of 5 or so songs ( in great voice he was, and performed a
few std's, one Cervantes would like, one ghostly well song we all love,
Drifters and APPT in astounding form right off of APPT album. The house MC
said Gord would be available for questions from the audience afterwards as
a function of the radio show taping. While Gord is gregarious during a
show, this however sounded a little atypical. Sure enough, after his last
song of a short set to fit in the show with the budding Phreakwater band,
actually grew on me a little they did, mind you...... sort of
bluegrass/swamprock/stomp/Riverdance/grunge something, but a charming lead
singer lady....... well Gord was ushered off the stage by the "director" I
assume of the E-Town show. I panicked about my quickly growing superfluous
paddle, and walked briskly but respectfully down to the side of the stage
taping had stopped), carefully holding the t-handle paddle vertically ,
with two fingers out in front of, so as to make it obviously not to look
like a brandished medieval weapon, but the green-shirts security quickly
descended on me, and one foolish young man jammed his thumb in my chest up
to about the first knuckle, and , glancing off of my sternum, probably
rendered an angioplasty unnecessary in later years. Instinctively, with
indisguisable Steven Seagal cat-like lightning reflexes, and in severe and
quite unnecessary pain, I wrapped my hand around his offending thumb,
squeezed to prevent thrombosis or something in my chest rapidly welling, and
was trying to think of what Clint Eastwood would say, when a remarkable and
charming lady came up. grabbed his and my hand together, and calmly said
something like "this is not necessary at all, I think this nice man just
wants an autograph on the paddle, as Gordon canoes , you see..." .
Green-shirt reluctantly let go, and she said elegantly " I'll take him over
to OUR (Gord's, I assume) security , and see if he can sign this paddle,
please, follow me sir..." I gave a "neener-neener" victorious look at
green-shirt, and momentarily considered deflty tossing an action-hero quip
to him, the bad guy, like " if the nice lady hadn't of come along pilgrim,
that thumb would be......" you get the idea, but I did not say it,
mostly cause my chest was killing me, and I am a geek computer mapping nerd,
too.......... Long story short, the nice lady (from pictures, it might
have even been his sis, Beverly, but the lighting was poor) took the canoe
paddle backstage along with a t-shirt my wife painted for him of a canoe
being paddled with wording of our love for his music through 19 years of
marriage (yes, we too wanted "Beautiful" played at our wedding) written
underneath. About ten minutes later, and after talking to two very
hospitable gentlemen that I believe were Gord's security or road crew, she
emerged, Gord accepted the t-shirt I assume, and to my delight, "Gordon
Lightfoot, July 20, 1998" was written in large, sweeping, diagonally words
across the whole paddle blade. Completely outside of the sanded down and
pencil-lined "spot" I thought would help, because I did not think a pen
would write on the spar varnish. Well, permanent marker does, and I learned
that an artist teaches you to "go outside the lines", quite literally. One
cannot box in Gord, and that wonderful paddle is gracing my den wall at home
proudly now, right by the snowshoes (thought they'd draw the line at those)
that the song from Salute LP "Whispers of the North" always make me think
of, crisscrossed on the wall. I almost lost my leg to gangrene in a
Snowshoeing/mountaineering accident, and I to this day maintain that during
5 months of leg operation and ensuing gangrene debridement in home
health-care was successful not only due to my lovely wife, but the inspiring
music of Gord's I listened to through those long months of agony. And
truly, when I listen to "Whispers of the North" , I am WANT to go right back
out and snowshoe and climb again, despite hanging, impaled ankle to knee,
upside down at 11,000 feet in the Rockies. THAT is how powerful Gord's
"medicine" is to me. I can smell the winter air amidst the pines, hear the
freezing rifle-shot tree-sap at 30 below, and see that pristine wilderness
when I listen to Gord's more outdooorsy songs. Well Gord, hears to you,
canoeing, the love of a kind and beautiful wife and children, your epic and
awe-inspiring , sometimes haunting (Always on the Bright Side , on Songbook,
incredible song, can;t get it out of my head.....), and teaching me to "go
outside the lines a little" as you did artistically when you signed my
paddle. I know why you love that old Boathouse, got to get me one of
them..... but I 'spect working for the government as a mapper won't quite
buy me THAT many canoes ; > .. Thanks Gord, to the nice lady that saved
the day from greenshirt, and to my lovely wife Merry who has shared my love
of your music for over 20 years. Hats off, pardner, and don't let that cold
get on the shoulder too much in the winter....... best,
Steve Dunbar