Also: If you ever get the chance to see Gordon Lightfoot live at Toronto's Massey Hall (he puts on a show there every year), don't hesitate. The man's got an astounding back catalogue, and he'll casually breeze through about 20 or 25 straight songs that'll just leave you breathless. Then at encore time, things really pick up.

Work that note into seventeen key changes! Do it! Or else be slandered by a snotty Brit!

I worship Aretha's music as much as anyone else, but my experience of her is tainted slightly by the fact that I interviewed Aretha about 12 years ago, and she wasn't very nice about it. (There's a reason you almost never see an interview with Aretha.) I sat with her for about 15 minutes backstage at a concert, with cameras rolling and everything, and all I remember of the conversation is that she complained at least a dozen times about how cold the room was.

That said, I'd rather listen to her music than almost anybody's. And that time she took over for Pavarotti at the Grammys and suddenly was singing an aria as though THAT had been her career the whole time? Goosebumps.

As for Gordon Lightfoot, “Sundown” is just an awesome song–and, based on Py's story, I'm going to be calling my penis my “Edmund Fitzgerald” from now on.

Oh, also, my best friend's twin aunts were backup singers for the Dinck in the '80s. He knows of the legend, but has never gotten up the courage to ask them about it.