If you listen to the
CBC Music Radio Station you would know that this was deemed "Gordon
Lightfoot Day" and the station was streaming music and interviews to mark the
release of Gordon’s new album “All Live!.”
Iterestingly… last night I was sitting with friends and happened to hit the
Internet and –lo and behold- there was a music clip of Gordon and John Denver
singing “An Irish Lullaby”. A tear came
to my eye….a memory from the past…. but what a great memory.
There on You Tube was the clip of a concert I had attended on
October 17th 1977. Now you might say yes and.. .but it wasn’t
just any concert…it was what I would call my favorite of all time…
I had gone to the Syracuse’s Land Mark Theater after its
restoration to see Harry Chapin in a charity concert and he mentioned that he
was going to Detroit and that he was going to be joined by Gordon Lightfoot, John
Denver & James Taylor in a benefit for his World Hunger cause.
My friend and I went home that night and both of us said…we “gotta”
go to that concert! So we called around
and got tickets and invited 2 of her friends to go...mistake in a way... We set out and made it with a bit of time to
spare…found a cheap motel room for us…and I brought food which they were not
too happy with and we set out for the concert which was being held at the
Olympia Stadium.
We sat for what seemed like an enormous amount of time
before they announced that there had been a huge accident on the main highway
and they were waiting for the rest of the crowd to arrive...sold out to 17,000
people. I received flack from the
friends...but we persisted and what followed was the concert of all times…it
was the men themselves with their guitars and no bands……..What a treat……!!
The stage that rotated in a circle belonged to John Denver
and the event was never to be recreated as each man sang two or three songs and
then it went to the next……
About in the middle, I think - Gordon announced that John
Denver and he had practiced a song as a special tribute to Bing Crosby who had
died that week.. and so they sang “The Irish Lullaby”…with all the old words…to a
rousing standing ovation. I will never
forget it!
The song was written in 1914 by composer James Royce
Shannon and became a major hit only two years before his death in
1944 when Bing Crosby sang it in the movie “Going My Way!" Everyone knows the chorus…Too-ra-loo-ra-lura…
but do you remember the verse????
“Over In Killarney,
Many years ago,
My Mother sang a song to me
In
tones so sweet and low;
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good old Irish
way,
And I'd give the world to hear her sing
That song of hers today.
”
“Oft, in dreams I wander
To that cot again.
I feel her arms a-hugging
me
As when she held me then.
And I hear her voice a humming
To me as in days of
yore,
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door.”
John’s dead, Harry’s dead … and the friends we took to the
concert that night were so thankful they had been at the concert that ended in
a standing ovation and lighters lit for World Hunger…17,000 of them!
Hunger is something we still have today in abundance…and is
growing in our own country among the poor and elderly…as gas prices, medical bills and heat costs go up...there will be many more! We have got to stamp it out!
Well ... we are so lucky
that someone took the time to tape this clip on their cheap tape recorder...and I so lucky to have found it!
So play the clip below…and enjoy ….. a bit of history and
nostalgia from the “back street”…
