One evening in Oct 1966 I paid $1.25 to see pre-Woodstock Richie Havens perform at The Blue Lantern in Montreal. Gary Eisenkraft took over the management of this club during 1966. The Blue Lantern, on Stanley Street, was downstairs from the legendary Potpourri which closed in 1962/63. Dylan played several nights at the Potpourri in the summer of 1962.

Around 8:30pm the emcee announced that Richie had travel problems and wouldn't be able to make it to Montreal. Penny Lang, a local performer, agreed to fill in for Richie. 15 minutes into her first set the emcee whispered to her. She smiled and left the stage saying she would be back later after another performer played. We thought Richie had made it after all.

A few minutes later Gordon Lightfoot came in the front door with two guitar cases. The emcee announced that Gordon had just come from a local radio station where he was promoting his new single Spin Spin. The host of the radio show, Paul Reed, was rumored to consume a bottle of scotch every night on air. Gordon was keen to perform for us and alluded to helping the radio host kill his bottle of scotch.

In spite of the scotch, Gordon performed solo for over an hour and never missed a step. Near the end of his set, he said he wanted to try out a new song he had just written for an upcoming TV special. He apologized in advance for any possible stumbles then proceeded to do a flawless Canadian Railroad Trilogy on his 12-string Gibson.

I have a feeling everyone in the coffee house that October night tuned in on Jan 1,1967 to see Lightfoot debut a full orchestral version of the Trilogy on a CBC TV show celebrating Canada's centennial. The Trilogy finally made it onto an LP in the spring of 1967.