The Whole Enchilada
In my article yesterday, I mentioned that after the husband-wife folksinging duo Ian & Sylvia split up in 1975, they had a big reunion concert on TV in 1986. And among the guests were Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris and Gordon Lightfoot. The special is interspersed with commentary by all the people involved.
I embedded the closing song from the reunion, their signature song, “Four Strong Winds,” but it occurred to me that I should embed the full concert.
The 50-minute broadcast begins with one of their big hits, “You Were On My Mind,” which has been recorded by many artists over the years – as have their other hits. Judy Collins had a hit with their “Someday Soon” (as did Suzy Bogguss, whose version I embedded yesterday) – and she joins Ian and Sylvia for a trio of the song.
It’s also worth noting that they returned the favor by recording one of the biggest hits by their fellow Canadian Gordon Lightfoot, his wonderful “Early Morning Rain” (in fact, it was the title of one of their albums) and the couple perform it on the reunion – and halfway through, to an enthusiastic audience, Lightfoot joins them on stage.
By the way, as I researched videos to post yesterday, most of the User Comments on YouTube referred to Ian & Sylvia as “country music” singers. Though I post a lot on social media, I don’t post comments on YouTube, but I wanted to scream out, “NO, they were NOT country artists, they were renowned folksingers!!! Who came to fame during the folk era!!!”
In fact, I have a wonderful double-album from Vanguard Records, legendary for its folk catalogue, that’s titled Greatest Folksingers of the ‘60s. It includes such people as Bob Dylan, Odetta, Joan Baez, The Weavers, Tom Paxton and many, many more. And not only are Ian & Sylvia included, they have the very first cut, “You Were On My Mind.” (If anyone is interested in buying it – it’s great – the link is here.
As I noted yesterday, I think it’s likely that many people today may not know of Ian & Sylvia, however they’d seen the film, A Mighty Wind, which was an affectionate spoof and homage to a folk music revival concert and TV special, made by the people who did Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. The main storyline focuses on Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as the estranged "Mitch & Mikey" who may or may not reunite for the big reunion concert -- and I have to believe that this had to have been based on Ian & Sylvia. The real-life couple had been married, but broke up the partnership and divorced in 1975. And then in 1986, they had the reunion concert on TV.
So, with all that out of the way, here is that reunion of Ian & Sylvia.
This is a bonus of sorts. As I mentioned above, fellow Canadian Gordon Lightfoot was close with Ian & Sylvia, and joins them onstage halfway through them singing his classic “Early Morning Rain.” I figured that some people might want to see that, but not watch the full special, so I found a standalone clip of that.
There are three nice things to look out for in the clip that I think show how close they all were to each other. I was going to address that in my article yesterday when I referenced him onstage with them for the finale, but I couldn't find a way to do so that wasn't clunky or come across like too much of a digression.
The first of the things to notice is that around the 2:30 mark there is a close-up of Ian playing an instrumental bridge, and when the camera starts to pull out, you can notice Sylvia standing behind him, but oddly isn’t watching him play, nor for that matter even looking at the audience. Instead, she’s already turned completely away from everyone and is staring offstage into the wings – clearly anticipating Gordon Lightfoot who hasn’t appeared yet (we’d have known he had since the audience would have started applauding for him, but she knows he’s coming and is excited for his arrival). Only after about three seconds do we finally hear the audience start applauding when at last they see Lightfoot come on stage
Second is that when Lightfoot reaches them, her face breaks out into a huge smile – and even Ian, who’s pretty stoic the whole concert, cracks a brief smile. The three friends reunited again onstage. And third is that after Lightfoot sings his first line, there’s a very short musical break and if you look closely, you’ll see him quickly turn to the couple, nod to them -- and then wink.
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