Koss Totem Mani-2 User Manual download pdf (Page 65)

Feedback

Software

e are in Peterborough, in

the Province of Ontario,

Canada. This evening

there is a beneﬁt concert

for the victims of severe ﬂooding, and the

local hockey arena has been turned into a

concert hall.

The mood is feverish, for tonight marks

the return of a hero. For the ﬁrst time since

his grave illness, save for a brief appearance

in Orillia, Gordon Lightfoot will sing for his

fans. He is accompanied by his best friend,

his acoustic guitar. An ovation greets him as

he steps onto the stage.

Then all is quiet. In the audience are

staff members of the McMaster University

Medical Centre. One of those members is

Dr. Michael Marcaccio, who operated on

Lightfoot several times over a 13-week period

in the Fall of 2002.

Thinner now, with a voice no less

pleasant for its weariness, Lightfoot seems

surprisingly at ease. He sings ﬁve of his hits,

including the legendary If You Could Read

My Mind and his most recent, Inspiration

Lady.

Emotion can be read on the faces of the

audience members. He is back, ﬁnally, this

native son.

The vagabond poet

A proliﬁc composer and lyricist, an

unparalleled performer, a guitarist, an

environmentalist, the poet of love and

tragedy, a pioneer of Canadian music,

the darling of Canadians for decades…

such is my subject. How many frontiers

has he crossed, guitar slung over his

shoulder, how many halls has he occu-

pied, how many dreams has he launched?

How many has he helped, motivated or

even saved, among the lonely, the love-

lorn, the discouraged, or those down on

their luck, with a few simple words, with

an enchanting melody?

It is a mark of the love so many have

for him that their hearts skipped a beat

when came the agonizing news of his

hospitalization, for surgery from which

he might not awaken. It was in 2002.

His fans could and can be found

everywhere, in all walks of life, in all age

groups, for our romantic troubadour is

back on the road. He travels his beloved

land that is bounded by three seas. And

he is every bit as welcome in Europe, in

Australia, in the United States, where

he takes his songs and wins over the

crowds.

Hints of things to come

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot is born

on November 1938 in Orillia, Ontario.

The small port town near the pictur-

esque junction of lakes Simcoe and

Couchiching, not far from Georgian

Bay, is known for its pleasant countryside

and its wide open spaces.

Gordon Meredith Sr., his father, is a

descendant of the Lightfoots of Scotland

and Ireland, and his mother Jessica traces

her roots back to the ﬁrst white settlers

in Orillia, which had until then been

entirely a Native area.

Gordon is still a young boy when

his parents split up. His gift of a ﬁne

soprano voice opens the doors of St.

Paul’s United Church choir, with which

he sings I’m a Little Teapot at the age of

ﬁve. The choir conductor, Ray Williams,

is mightily impressed and endeavors to

teach him to put expression into his

songs. His mother, whose love of music

he seems to have inherited, encourages

him, naturally, to become a singer. It is

the right choice. When he is 10, accom-

panied at the piano by his sister Beverly,

he makes his ﬁrst recording. His parents

are his biggest fans. His mother clears

the way for him to sing at such halls as

the Kiwanis, and his father is always

ready to drive him where he needs to go

for a rehearsal or a concert.

In 1950 he takes classical piano and

singing lessons, still with Ray Williams,

and his performance of Bless This House at

an amateur contest at the Orillia Opera

Station earns him second prize. It is only

the beginning, for the following year he

records a 78 of The Lord’s Prayer.

The next two years are a turning

point for the young Gordon. At a com-

petition of singers younger than 13 at

the Toronto Kiwanis annual festival,

he comes ﬁrst. He wins again a year

later, this time in the category of sing-

ers whose voices have not yet changed.

The prize includes the chance to sing

by Reine Lessard

Gordon Lightfoot,

and how he changed

a whole corner of

music

ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 63

1 2 ... 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 ... 83 84

Comments to this Manuals

No comments

Koss Totem Mani-2 User Manual Page 65

Comments to this Manuals