transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 6:
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Speaker 7:
[00:44] Hello and welcome to Trashy Divorces, everybody's favorite good podcast about bad relationships. My name is Stacie and this week, Alicia, we continue our journey with Cathy Smith.

Speaker 6:
[00:55] That we do, I am Alicia. Thanks one and all for joining us today for this trashy segment covering the tumultuous romance and trashy breakup of Cathy Smith and Gordon Lightfoot. They spent three-ish years together and it changes the both of them in many, many ways. Before we get started into this episode today, Stacie, you and I have another round of thanks and huge shout outs to give to our most recent Patreon supporters.

Speaker 7:
[01:24] Huge thanks to Kate, Kristin K, Jessica H, Sonya K, Yule, Kimberly P, Kelly, Yo, Daniel N, Lindsay H, and Sabrina C.

Speaker 6:
[01:36] Huzzah! Thanks one and all. Y'all are the best. Huge, huge love to you new supporters and sustaining supporters. We can't tell you how much we appreciate your support over at patreon.com/trashydivorces. All right, we're back in Canada. Let's time hop back to 1970 to weave in this trashy breakup. Let's go, go, go. Oh, Stacie, I'm loving this week. I'm having such a good time with this particular story. Where were we? Let's go ahead and mark our place in time here. Gordon Lightfoot, we left him in 1969. Oh, just like Brita left Gordon and picked up the kids and all the sticks. Brita, of course, his wife does not like the violence or the drinking or the rampant cheating. And with the fist through the door thing, Brita and her children's safety is compromised. So Brita out.

Speaker 7:
[02:43] What remarkably high standards she has.

Speaker 6:
[02:45] Right.

Speaker 7:
[02:46] Unreasonable.

Speaker 6:
[02:47] Gordon is in his songwriting retreat kind of wanting to work it out with Brita. But we know that's a no go. Maybe because of the new lady Gordon picks up along the way. So maybe picks up isn't quite the right word, as Gordon had already met Cathy back in the day when she was hanging out with the band.

Speaker 7:
[03:08] Sure.

Speaker 6:
[03:09] I want to stress here the gorgeousness of Cathy Smith. She's a smoke show. She's a knockout. There was a 1982 article in Rolling Stone quoting Bernie Fiedler, who's the owner of a folk club called the Riverboat Coffee House. Bernie calls Cathy absolutely beautiful. One of the ladies who had everything a man always wanted, but was afraid to confront. It's quite a quote. Yeah. So what has Cathy been up to? The band baby has been adopted out. The band has gone split to go hang with Bob Dylan in New York. Cathy has married and then split with that whole I'll do ya solid marriage. By May of 1970, Cathy is still chilling in Toronto, working in the data processing department at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. And a chance encounter will bring Gordon and Cathy together again. Remember back a few years ago when they first met? Gordon was not quite the success that he is now. Gordon Lightfoot a few years down the road has become a major artist, not just in Canada, but beyond. And just for me to y'all trash pandas, it might not be so difficult to think that this one was gonna fail from the start, but the lover's ever so hopeful. Gordon heavily on the sauce, prone to violence, no matter what his cool, calm, folk singer persona might otherwise indicate. And Cathy, well, Cathy's feisty. This is a real furious love kind of thing. Amplified emotions, fights, reunions. This is just a completely tumultuous relationship through the roundabout three years this affair goes on. Now, I have the way that they interconnected, reconnected here, saying by the spring of 71, which I think has to be incorrect, because let me tell you about the party they go to at the Trudeau's in 1970. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, one side of the story says, Cathy was 24 when she bumped into Gordon Lightfoot in an elevator in the downtown apartment building where the songwriter, separated from his wife, lived in a funky 28th floor bachelor pad decked out with an aquarium, velvet couches, and deep pile rugs. Oh, the 70s. The two reacquainted quickly and began a mercurial relationship that extended into the mid-1970s. According to Gordon Lightfoot, in the Nicholas Jennings biography, the couple's first date took place at Winston's, a high-end establishment where they toasted the relationship and the recent success of his breakout single in the United States, if you could read my mind. They shared a $300 bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. A lot of times, they're going out dining at Harry's, where the steaks were as rare as the interruptions at the quiet table in the back of the restaurant that was always reserved for them. They'd hang out at Maple Leaf Gardens, cheering on the hometown hockey team. I guess that's just part of the dating de rigueur if you live in Canada, right?

Speaker 7:
[06:44] In Toronto, yeah.

Speaker 6:
[06:45] Sure, you go root for the...

Speaker 7:
[06:46] Go root for the Leafs?

Speaker 6:
[06:48] After a post-game nightcap or five, they'd lurch home. Cathy Smith writes, Drunk and madly in love. So it sounds good. Drunk and madly in love. Things are still in the blissful stage of the relationship here. Here's your fun story. Once when Pierre and Margaret Trudeau were hosting a dinner for Prince Charles.

Speaker 7:
[07:12] This is a wild story. I can tell.

Speaker 6:
[07:14] I think this has to be in 1970. That's when Prince Charles' first visit was to Canada. So it would make sense the PM and his wife would host the Prince for dinner.

Speaker 7:
[07:25] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[07:26] Well, of course the PM and his wife want to show off all the local Canadian wonderful things. So Gordon Lightfoot is invited and he brings along his date, Cathy Smith. This particular evening, Cathy Smith will dance with the Prince of Wales.

Speaker 7:
[07:44] Just bizarre.

Speaker 6:
[07:45] She and Charles ripping it up on the dance floor. What is Cathy Smith remember about it? He just stared at my cleavage. The whole dance. He just kept looking at my boobs.

Speaker 7:
[07:56] Tracks.

Speaker 6:
[08:00] Also, this particular night, Cathy will meet Margaret Trudeau who has a definite opinion. I think about Cathy. Cathy Smith will remember, she inspected me up and down like a piece of meat hanging on a hook. Well, yeah. So that's fun. Dining at the PM's house and getting your cleavage jeweled over by Prince Charles. You definitely want that story in perpetuity about you, Chuckles.

Speaker 7:
[08:29] That's King Chuckles to you now.

Speaker 6:
[08:31] Sorry, King Chuckles, correct. Right here on King Chuckles, I think we're going to go ahead and take a quick break when we come back, when we're getting into the next phase of this relationship.

Speaker 7:
[08:41] We'll see you on the flip.

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Speaker 6:
[11:57] Thanks for coming on back, everybody. Here we have Gordon and Cathy going to hockey games, dining out, chilling with the PM. Oh boy, Cathy's in love, right? It feels like the fates we've reconnected and now you're famous and Cathy doesn't have a kid to worry about. Like Cathy can kind of do it. She pleases. So the first thing she will do is quit her job, right? You're nodding. You know this is going to go down this way. Smith bails on her job. Why not move in with Gordon Lightfoot? Have you seen all that shag carpeting? Cathy begins this period early in their relationship, traveling around with him. She's on the bus. She's in the tour. She's embroidering his jackets. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[12:44] The 70s.

Speaker 6:
[12:45] 70s. Cathy is kind of being the perfect, adoring thing that Gordon so much needed. But Cathy's in her early 20s, right? Maybe growing up a little, feeling like there's a little bit more for her to do. So Gordon Lightfoot will consult with Cathy about his music, and she's really flattered by that. Oh, he needs me. He trusts my opinion. So Cathy starts getting this little penchant for music now. She'll actually end up singing backup vocals, not only for Gordon Lightfoot on a song or two, but also for some other artists. Cathy really eventually does sort of stay home-ish a little bit more. She's thinking about, I swear to God, it's a Madlib, opening up an all-woman limousine service.

Speaker 7:
[13:35] Madlibs.

Speaker 6:
[13:36] Madlibs. I mean, I feel OK with a woman limo driver.

Speaker 7:
[13:41] Sure.

Speaker 6:
[13:41] 100%. But Gordon doesn't want her to do this. Gordon really wants to keep her his, right? He's very jealous, insanely jealous, because remember, she's a smoke show. How do you think Cathy is going to respond to that?

Speaker 7:
[13:59] To being kept?

Speaker 6:
[14:01] Not great.

Speaker 7:
[14:01] Not great.

Speaker 6:
[14:02] Not great. She is good looking. She's described as a chiseled, cheeked brunette, right? Oh boy. She's a smoke show and she's not going to sit around. Cathy will be the dutiful thing. Gordon's kind of missing Brita, right? She's been a wife. She's been keeping the home front. Gordon, I think, on some level, wants Cathy to do the same thing.

Speaker 7:
[14:24] Right, because it worked out so well with Brita. Right.

Speaker 6:
[14:27] In 73, he purchases a mansion in Toronto's Rosedale neighborhood and Cathy's hosting his parties. Bernie Finkelstein will say Cathy was great, but a tough cookie. He, Bernie, was an occasional get-together guest who managed, love this singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. He'll say, Bernie, well, we got along fine, though, and it was always pleasing to me when she had a big smile on her face when I came around because the opposite would be scary. She's feisty, like, I don't think you mess with Cathy Smith. So this relationship between them goes on for a few years. Remember, Gordon is not divorced yet. Cathy will be named in the divorce suit Brita Files.

Speaker 7:
[15:13] Because they're living together.

Speaker 6:
[15:14] Correct. Which, you know, would make your wife, even a estranged wife, perhaps, perhaps just a little testy.

Speaker 7:
[15:21] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[15:22] Now, the big thing that you need to know about in this relationship between the two of them, in this particular case where Gordon was always the one cheating on Brita and Brita remained, like, faithful and wonderful and all that jazz, here in the relationship with Cathy, they're both rampantly cheating on each other. One time, Cathy will step out with Gordon's, one of his besties, Jack Nicholson.

Speaker 7:
[15:48] Oh, wow.

Speaker 6:
[15:49] Yeah, she likes to sleep with his friends, which doesn't make Gordon feel real good. No, no, that Gordon is sort of being handed here, you get what you give, and here he just, he doesn't know what to do with it. Like, wait a minute, I'm the one who cheats. I shouldn't be feeling all of these things that I've made my ex-wife feel like the tables are really turning here. Does Cathy care? No, not particularly. There is one particular night towards the end of this relationship, because we're winding it down now, where Gordon will actually hit Cathy Smith. Wow. Not the door, but her. Again, feisty, don't love it, but Cathy's kind of getting the writing on the wall that maybe this life, this thing, isn't all she wanted it to be. And because of this, let's make it too. Sundown, you better take care. Because Gordon here, this is the songwriting, right? Why do boys write songs?

Speaker 7:
[16:56] To get laid.

Speaker 6:
[16:57] To get laid. This is him really working something else out because he's not getting laid this particular night. Gordon Lightfoot goes to a rented farmhouse north of Toronto because he needs to write. He's got a new record deal. This particular night, Cathy goes out to a concert with her girlfriends. Here Gordon alone, and jealous with a suspicious mind, will write one of his biggest hits, Sundown. Gordon will say about this time, We weren't getting along. Our lives were going in opposite directions. Opposite directions. Also, when Gordon hit her, he broke her cheekbone.

Speaker 7:
[17:40] Oh God.

Speaker 6:
[17:41] Yes. He will say that his rage stems from jealousy of the other men that hit on Cathy Smith. Gordon Lightfoot will even fire two of his band because Gordon thinks they're flirting with Cathy Smith. Like he is just an insane animal of jealousy. Really, again, getting the tables turned on him. You can't look at Cathy. You can't flirt with Cathy. Cathy's mine. Cathy's not living by those rules. And this is how we get sundown. So he's writing, huh, honestly, at Twilight, Cathy's gone out. I've got a few different quotes here from him about this particular song, because Gordon's still in an extra male little affair. Oh, man. Gordon will say about this song, Sundown. All it is is a thought about a situation where someone is wondering what his loved one is doing at the moment. He doesn't quite know where she is. He's not ready to give up on her either. These are quotes Gordon Lightfoot gave to Far Out magazine. I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on Cathy because she was pretty good looking. Okay, Tio, brother, like she's not your property. Yeah. Gordon will conclude. That's how I wrote the song, Sundown. And as a matter of fact, it was written just about Sundown as the sun was setting behind the farm I'd rented to use as a place to write the album. Now, I do have another piece where the plausible story around this explained that Cathy was going to hang out with Johnny Hawkins and his backing band here in the 70s. Gordon Lightfoot away from the city, he's focusing on songwriting and his broken marriage and this tumultuous relationship with Cathy where he writes this song that doesn't just hint at jealousy and paranoia, it is the entire bit about the song. Sundown, you better take care if I find you even creepin around my back stairs. I want to talk about a few Gordon Lightfoot quotes here. He will say, because we don't know that he's writing Sundown about Cathy Smith until 2008. Okay. So right, who is this person it was always guessed about, presumed to be Cathy Smith, but he was Gordon, again, very tight lipped. He's not real forthcoming about his personal info. Before it was revealed it was Cathy Smith. Gordon will say, I had this girlfriend one time and I was working at my desk working on my songwriting, which I'd been doing all week since I was on a role and my girlfriend was somewhere drinking, drinking somewhere. So I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her because she's pretty good looking.

Speaker 7:
[20:38] I mean, it's a straightforward enough fear, right?

Speaker 6:
[20:41] These, I mean, quotes really are fire through the years, Gordon. It was one of those relationships where you get a feeling of danger. Gordon Lightfoot will write Sundown. It will become one of his most famous songs. And that's the end of Cathy. Like really about the time Gordon is finishing his divorce, all the money, blah, blah, blah. Cathy's out. She's done by 74. And the two of them have split permanently. However, Gordon Lightfoot, believe it or not, is going to come back around in this story because he will help Cathy out with money in her future when she takes off for Hollywood. The Hollywood spiderwebs that are coming in the next part of Cathy Smith, as well as the John Belushi part of the story, sure off the charts, you thought Margaret Trudeau and Prince Charles was a good spiderweb. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Cathy's life really does get a little bit more tumultuous from here. Gordon Lightfoot, we're going to come back and wrap him around. He has a few love affairs after Cathy, but still will not get married again for a number of years. This one, the relationship between both of them really did affect them in a lot of ways, a lot of ways. Cathy now knows she wants something more, something better, and she's going to go chase that dream, honestly, through a lot of rock and roll spiderwebs from this point. Gordon is going to stay alcoholic and sad and writing good music, I guess, still searching for love. And I don't know if there's a happy ending. There's not a happy ending in this one, but that's the tumultuous relationship. There's fights, there's violence. It reminds me a little bit of, I don't know, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn embroidering his shirts and, you know, but I'm mad that Gordon sort of sees her as a possession at this point. And I don't think Cathy Smith was ever a woman who was going to be possessed.

Speaker 7:
[22:52] Yeah, it doesn't sound like it.

Speaker 6:
[22:54] 34 years in and out, Prince Chuckles staring at your boobs, you know, the 70s, wild times, wild times. All the trash cans in this one happen at sundown.

Speaker 7:
[23:06] That makes sense.

Speaker 6:
[23:07] Yeah, with her jeans fading fast. I don't know how many trash cans it gets. I mean, because it's sundown, it's too dark to tell.

Speaker 7:
[23:14] Oh, gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. It sounds like it would be a lot, though.

Speaker 6:
[23:19] It's not great. Broken cheekbone. I mean, I'm glad Cathy got a song out of it. That's nice. It's not very complimentary, nor is the weight a very complimentary song to Cathy Smith. We talked about that on Patreon earlier this week. Also, I did a little Patreon thing about the Waldo's and the creation of 420. That was a lot of fun.

Speaker 7:
[23:40] Yes.

Speaker 6:
[23:41] Y'all, we love our Trashy Journey here. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you joining us for this Trashy Journey here on the main feed, as well as over on patreon.com/trashydivorces. Stacie, we are coming back, maybe with another drop in between now and the weekend, but this weekend, we're getting into Cathy Smith, the Hollywood years, oh my god, Rolling Stones, Hoyt Axton, John Belushi, Robin Williams, Holy Cats, the spider webs that are coming off the charts. I can't wait to see you back for that this weekend. In the meantime, if you're looking for something else to listen to this week, may I recommend Trashy Royals. We are in the actual King Chuckles the Second and His Merry Mistresses thread. Last week, we met Nell Gwen, pretty witty Nell Gwen. And this week, we are bringing in Nell Gwen's competition, Louise DeCarriou. Oh boy, it's gonna be fun, fun, fun. That drops on Thursday for you.

Speaker 7:
[24:44] It still amazes me that any governing happened in the Restoration Courts.

Speaker 6:
[24:48] No governing, not by Charles.

Speaker 7:
[24:51] Not by Charles.

Speaker 6:
[24:51] He was too busy being pants-less and chasing around the honeys.

Speaker 7:
[24:56] Yeah, if you think being governed by idiots who are focused on the wrong things is new, it is not.

Speaker 6:
[25:03] Tale as old as time. Y'all, I really do love this trashy, trashy world. Thank you for joining us for it. Until we meet again, when and where we do, y'all.

Speaker 7:
[25:13] Keep those hands clean.

Speaker 6:
[25:13] Oh, keep your hearts trashy. Big love, everybody.

Speaker 7:
[25:16] Bye.

Speaker 9:
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Speaker 7:
[25:48] Trashy Divorces is lovingly created, written, produced, and distributed by Hemlock Creatives. That's us, Alicia and Stacie, your favorite Trashy independent podcasting outfit.

Speaker 6:
[25:58] Find out more about us, the podcast, sources for each episode, and advertising opportunities by visiting trashydivorces.com. Tell us about the trashy things. Direct your emails to trashydivorcesatgmail.com. And if you liked this, you can find more than 2,000 pieces of exclusive content over on patreon.com/trashydivorces with a variety of levels for support.

Speaker 7:
[26:23] Until next time, trash pandas. Keep it Trashy.