Without Canadian country-folk icon Ian Tyson, there may never have been Gordon Lightfoot as we know him.
So said the Sundown singer-songwriter, 84, from his Toronto home following the news of Tyson’s death on Thursday at the age of 89 at his ranch near Longview, Alta.
“He was five years my senior,” Lightfoot, a native of Orillia, Ont., said Friday.
“I can honestly say without Ian, there probably wouldn’t be … (his voice trails off). He was the first person to record a Gordon Lightfoot song and that was Early Mornin’ Rain. The next thing I knew I was getting launched into the music business. I’ve always been eternally grateful to (then folk duo) Ian & Sylvia for getting me started in this business. I’ve got a heck of a lot of respect for the guy and I loved him dearly. He was almost like an older brother. He was one of the most remarkable human beings that I ever met.”
Lightfoot first saw Tyson, the composer of the Canadian folk classic Four Strong Winds, performing with Don Francks at a coffee house in Toronto’s then-vibrant Yorkville folk scene in the early 60s.
“I enjoyed his playing style and I enjoyed the songs,” said Lightfoot, who’s himself responsible for such Canadian folk classics as The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
“They had a real good act going but later on he and Sylvia got teamed up. I just watched him perform and eventually our paths crossed because we were both in same business by then. We actually became friends at one point and we became friends all our lives.”
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Ian & Sylvia covered Early Mornin’ Rain, also the title of their 1965 album, which led to Lightfoot getting signed by A-list manager Albert Grossman, whose stable of talent included Bob Dylan.
“Ian decided to do that,” said Lightfoot. “He liked the song.”
Lightfoot said they were friendly competitors as his star rose.
“It was always competitive,” he said. “There were lots of other artists coming out with records at that time during the folk revival. Only a few of us were able to have success and continue on. I saw Ian five years ago (at Hugh’s Room in Toronto) and he sounded as good as he did 50 years ago.”
Tyson, who was born in Victoria, B.C., to British parents, went to boarding school and learned to play polo, later sang about the Canadian western cowboy lifestyle that went along with him buying his Alberta ranch.
“He was a very funny guy, very gracious too, and gregarious and outgoing,” said Lightfoot. “Great with horses, my God, I used to watch him ride, and my goodness, he was really good with horses.”
Lightfoot has long covered Tyson’s song Red Velvet and said he may do so again when he hits the road in March with nine dates in Florida.
“I’d probably do Red Velvet — that was about a guy trying to find his way back to his girl,” said Lightfoot. “Four Strong Winds, that’s the same as Red Velvet. They’re love songs.”
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