Gordon Lightfoot
My name is Martin Tielli, and for a long time I was in a group called the Rheostatics. Once, spontaneously, we covered the amazing Gordon Lightfoot song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” We tried to make it wilder – do it in a more modern style, and sonically ruminate more on the story – and we put it on the end of our record Melville. Was it legal? We put out the word and Gordo did not care.
Did he ever listen to it? I don’t know, but if he did, he didn’t like it.
Later, after listening to a current album of his, we sent out the word that we would volunteer our services for his next effort as a backing band.
Nothing. No response.
I wish this would’ve happened. It would have been an amazing collaboration. But I think that part of why I like Gordon Lightfoot is that he would never do anything like that.
Martin Tielli is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Gordon Lightfoot plays Massey Hall November 18 – 21.
