Ghosts of Cape Horn
David K. Sims
I might have dreamed it, but I think I heard onetime that Gord's "Ghosts of
Cape Horn" was used in either a movie or play or documentary film. Does anyone
know if this is true or not. That song has always been one of my favorites, a
fun one to play on the old hand made Alvarez for me. (I never could afford a
Martin).
****
Dave
Telekidd
In article <4qiioo$s...@alpha.sky.net>, ds...@sky.net (David K. Sims)
writes:
My understanding (from the Soundstage special) was that GL was asked to
write a song to be used as a theme for a documentary film on the tall
sailing ships from days gone by, and their passage through Cape Horn.
Derek
Ralph Peter
As far as I know it was for a documentary on ships. So you are correct
Ralph
Dan Davis
It is my recollectin that the song Ghosts of Cape Horn was a song which
was commissioned for a documentary.
It is also one of my favourites.
Wayne Francis
>of
>>anyone
>>know if this is true or not.
Yes, Lightfoot was commissioned to write a song for a documentary film of
the same name that was made in the late 70's. It was produced by Jim
Donaldson with the help of Peter Throckmorton of the National Maritime
Historical Society.
Filming began in March of 1978, based out of the Falkland Islands, which is
where ships would often come for repairs in the days of sail, after a
treacherous trip around Cape Horn.
I've only seen brief excerpts of the film from Lightfoot's Soundstage
appearance, but it looks like a very interesting and well done project. And
Lightfoot's song is a perfect theme. I can't imagine anyone with the
qualifications who could have possibly been considered to write such a song,
besides Lightfoot.
By the way, the Lightfoot performance of Ghosts Of Cape Horn on the 1979
Soundstage special, was his first public performance of the song.
Wayne
MSamp16453
I've heard him do it a couple of times in concert. Each time, he said the
film was sponsored by Dow-Corning, and he joked that the whole band got a
set of Corning Wear.
Dan Davis
One thought came to me after I posted my last note on this subject.
I remember from a Lightfoot concert that I attended, that Gord talked
about part of his payment for the Song Ghosts of Cape Horn being a
"scrimshaw". He was talking about this when introducing the song
"Restless". In the second verse of Restless there are lines: " Do you get
that restless feeling when you think about yer dad, And the scrimshaw
that he had, Of an old schooner rovin' neath a sky that's ironclad. Gord
described a scrimshaw as a bone or tooth that had a carving in it.
A silly bit of trivia that I thought that I would share.
Kevin O'brien
Ghosts Of Cape Horn Is indeed a Documentary, here in Philadelphia it is a
staple of pledge breaks shown every six months or so. The sone runs off
and on throughout. (Love the doc hate the begging I gotta put up with).
KO
Landon Johnson
played GOCH second, introducing it by saying that he was getting a
reputation for writying songs about ships and that he'd been commisioned
to write this for a documentary.
Contrary to other posts I've read, he did a real good job of whistling
that afternoon.
lili....@gmail.com
> I might have dreamed it, but I think I heard onetime that Gord's "Ghosts of
> Cape Horn" was used in either a movie or play or documentary film. Does anyone
> fun one to play on the old hand made Alvarez for me. (I never could afford a
> Martin).
> Dave
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.music.lightfoot/ex1pMO-mNPw And the film is also available....
https://archive.org/details/ghostsofcapehorn