For most everyone in this fair land, Gordon Lightfoot was always there.
When I was a boy growing up on Christian Island in Georgian Bay, it was a life of isolation far away from the cities and towns that I would read about in newspapers, magazines, and see on television.
That was a world that I never got to experience because I only went to “town’ if I got sick or needed emergency dental work. I never got to really experience that life. My life was all about the land. Its smells, its sounds, its beauty. I wrote about it in the poetry that I wrote in secret and never let anyone see.
I have this remembrance of my mother excitedly calling me one day to the television to watch this singer from Orillia and, for the first time, I got to hear that unique voice and hear its unique breaks as he soothed us with lyrics about nature and being on the land. I was living the life he was singing about!
It was around about that time that I was inspired by an uncle who, during one of my mom and dad’s famous kitchen parties, belted out Gordon Lightfoot songs while playing a 12-string guitar and flawlessly mimicking that voice in tribute. It was an amazing piece of mimicry and I’ve never heard anyone emulate that unique sound so well since then. I wanted to do that!
My mother, who was my favourite singer, introduced me to the Beatles, and early rock and roll from her era. But she always seemed more excited by Gordon Lightfoot music. Like the time she brought home the Don Quixote album and played “Christian Island” for me. Repeatedly.
Wow! Christian Island? That’s where we lived! And here is this world-famous musician writing a song about us! I taught myself how to play guitar then. I learned to sing like Gordon Lightfoot, matching the inflections in his voice just as my uncle had all those years before. I also began writing songs, in secret.
Then, when I became a teenager, there was this one soft summer day at the Christian Island government dock when a group of my friends and I watched as a large sailboat was heading our way. It was unusual for sail boats to come to our dock.
Hesitantly, the huge skiff made its way quietly on the wind and sailed to the edge of the dock and we all gathered in toward it, curious to see who would be visiting us. Sailboats were always from somewhere else and always owned by non-natives. Native people couldn’t afford one.
I stepped to the dock's edge as a tall, lean figure left the wheel of the craft and deftly threw a rope into my hands and in a quiet voice asked if I wouldn’t mind tying his boat to the dock.
It was Gordon Lightfoot. There was no mistaking that. It was the same guy on the cover of the Don Quixote album!
I walked to the stern of his vessel and read the name. Silver Heels. This was mind blowing, and too literal! The Silver Heels, here, in the lee of Christian Island.
The Silver Heels remained tied there for a few hours and I did not interact with the captain anymore than that brief exchange. I was raised not to intrude, and the man was obviously here just to relax.
Over the years I would encounter Mr. Lightfoot a few more times. Like the time I was a student working at Georgian Bay Islands National Park (Beausoleil Island). We would regularly see Gordon Lightfoot on the waters as we skimmed past in our official government boats as he sat on a lawn chair atop the deck of his new boat, the Golden Goose.
I never bothered him or spoke to him then either. I wondered what inspiration was coming from the imagery he was taking in. The rippling, dark blue waters. The leaning pines, all pointing east in perpetuity, shaped by the prevailing westerlies. The smell of the fresh water and the sounds of summer held aloft in a soothing summer breeze. The answer was the Summertime Dream album. It might not have happened had I pestered him for autographs and stories about his life, so you can thank my parents for raising me properly.
I became a musician later in life after I had achieved other pursuits. I got to hear my songs played on radio and television. So did my mother.
Gordon Lightfoot was always there somewhere. He was at the Juno awards at least one time when I attended. He was surrounded by people at the reception that followed, and I stood and watched from a distance. I wanted to go forward and talk to him. But once more, that boy that he once threw a line to did not want to intrude.
He headlined the Mariposa Folk Festival one of the years that I played there. That’s another story. For another time perhaps.
For most everyone, Gordon Lightfoot was always there and thanks to the music that he gifted us, he will always be there, playing in the background as the soundtrack to our lives living on this land that he so loved.
And as usual, I will listen and watch from a distance, in the lee of Christian Island (Georgian Bay).
Miigwech, Thank You, Gordon Lightfoot.
Jeff Monague is a former Chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, former Treaty Research Director with the Anishnabek (Union of Ontario Indians), and veteran of the Canadian Forces. Monague, who taught the Ojibwe language with the Simcoe County District School Board and Georgian College, is currently the manager of Springwater Provincial Park. His column appears every other week.
