The Legend Lives On

Friday October 31
Three functions were planned for today. None of them required us to perform, unless you consider telling stories and answering questions in front of an audience a performance. 
What the organizers referred to as a “panel” was the five of us in the band and John U. Bacon, the author of the book “The Gales Of November,” sitting on stools with microphones in front of us, discussing Gord’s song “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Next week, on November 10th, will mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. 
There was a panel at 1:00 pm and another at 2:30 pm. To round it off at 7:00 pm, there were performances of Gord’s tunes by different artists and a less formal panel. 
I didn’t play on the original recording of “The Wreck”, as we called it. It would be four more years before I was even in the band. But that didn’t matter. I was primed and ready to bend a few ears. 
During both panels, I told the story of the first ten times I heard the record, which occurred entirely within one twenty-two-hour period. I was driving to Winnipeg with Shirley Eikhard. A good six hours of that trip were spent travelling across the top of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee.  
I did play on the re-recording of the song for Gord’s Gold II. Why did we re-record it? No clue. I mean, it’s not bad, but it was an exercise in futility to try to improve on the original. 
The panels were a success. Barry Keane did a great job in organizing the events. Also, as emcee, he engaged the audience and structured the storytelling. 
John U Bacon certainly stirred up interest in his new book “The Gales Of November”. I haven’t read it yet, but I did read his book, “The Great Halifax Explosion,” recently, and it was absolutely riveting. 

The next day, Jeanette and I left Orillia and headed to Mississauga, where she prepared to fly back to Saskatoon for just two days, and I got ready to travel to the west coast for four days. Such is the nature of our busy lifestyles. We’ll be together for most of December, drinking eggnog (heavy on nog, less on egg) and watching sappy Christmas movies.  

Photos courtesy of Jeanette Lynes