I am pretty sure that my four French lovers — Alexandre Lagoya, Claude Emanuelli, Yves Chatelain, and Pierre Trudeau — must have listened to Daniel’s voice back then. But all have vanished from my life, two even from this earth. One had read me Le Petit Prince by candlelight, one had sung me Charles Trenet’s “La mer” while driving me in his “Deux Chevaux” through Provence, one had recited the poetry of Teilhard de Chardin and Baudelaire, and that first rogue had seduced me into losing my virginity at twenty-two by recounting his guitar career adventures in accented French tinged with Egyptian and Greek. Being the romantic that I am, I’m not sure which language I love more, Spanish or French, but to me there is nothing more seductive than one of those languages whispered sotto voce, and although I have never experienced it, in spite of seven trips to Venice, I’m pretty sure that for me Italian would be just as enticing, given the right setting!
Alors, merci, Daniel, for adding your singing and spoken voice to my two songs, and for making women swoon when you sing your French love songs that all of us can now see in videos thanks to the internet.
• • •
Another distinct region of Canada for which I have always had a strong nostalgic connection, even though I have never lived there, is the Maritimes and Newfoundland. From hiking the Cabot Trail to touring the provinces and staying in quaint bed and breakfasts in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, to playing in fishing villages such as Grand Bank and even visiting the French island colonies of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, I have a special cache of memories associated with this beautiful part of Canada. For my tribute, I wrote an intro using a folky guitar pattern followed by a Celtic-flavoured original theme that led into a three-verse, spoken poetic section, beginning, “Barnacled boats rocking side by side, kissed by the mists and the briny tide, show me the way to return once more to that wind swept Maritime shore.” I called it “Maritimes Remembered,” and knew I would love performing this piece live in concert.
• • •
In addition to the music I was composing for my Canadiana album, I wrote a catchy chorus to a song my friend Lili Fournier had suggested be called “We Are the Women of the World.” I had never co-written a song before, but I decided to ask Joanne Perica if she would like to contribute since we had often talked about collaborating. Joanne came up with a lovely verse melody and the lyrics to verse one; I wrote the words for verse two and for a bridge melody she composed. Lili was delighted with the resulting song, an anthem for women’s rights that I hope will one day be used to inspire women around the world.
• • •
In March of 2012, after a couple of much-appreciated months back in sunny Palm Beach, Michael and I headed west for a concert tour of Alberta and British Columbia. It was a particular thrill for me when the legendary country singer Ian Tyson came to sit amid the audience in Turner Valley. I fondly remembered the songs he had recorded with his lovely wife, Sylvia, when they were a duo and famous for such country-folk classics as “Four Strong Winds.”
Michael and I continued our tour, playing a handful of dates in British Columbia, and on the return flight home I composed a song in waltz time called “Living My Life Alone.” It became one of our favourites and, as with my “Waltz Nostalgique,” listeners can probably detect the influence of Leonard Cohen’s “Take This Waltz” in the orchestration.
When my label first heard my lyrics, they were surprised that I had chosen to write so revealingly about my life, but I believe that as a songwriter honesty always produces the best lyrics.
When singing this song live, I often dedicate it to all the single people in the audience. After all, so many of us never expect to be living alone … not me, not my mother, nor my many divorced or widowed girlfriends, nor the single men I know who have also experienced deaths, separations, and losses as the years creep on.
So who would have thought that by this time
I’d still have no place to call home
Who would have thought that by this time
I’d be living my life alone
After all the romances and courtships and dances
I’d still have no love of my own
No it’s not what it seemed, not the way I had dreamed
To be living my life alone
• • •
Finding the right partner presents a challenge at any age. My feeling is that often a partner works well for a certain chapter in one’s life, but not for another. Of course, those who find their soulmates early on and are able to maintain love through all the family years until their senior days … well, in some ways they are indeed fortunate. But on the other hand, they might look with envy upon a life such as mine, with its change and variety, and its lack of responsibility. For somebody such as myself, who has had such an intense career and many men who have loved me over the years, it has not been easy to find a partner who did not eventually become resentful of my career. I think that it is much less challenging for a male performer to find a supportive wife than it is for a successful woman to find a supportive husband.
I look at Sarah Brightman, Joan Baez, Carly Simon, and so many other female artists who have entered their sixties alone. In a life dominated by a career, it is not always that simple to find that last great love — unless you happen to be Barbra Streisand, who somehow seems to have defied the odds! Although I have been without a loving husband, I did have a wonderful musical soul mate in Peter Bond and a guitar partner in Michael Savona, who each made recording and touring so enjoyable.
More concerts in Canada were booked and promoted by my sister’s good friend and former partner, Jimmy Prevost, whom we consider to be part of our extended Boyd family. Playing once again in the familiar Ontario towns made me feel as if I were in a time warp; although, of course, the different nature of the concerts that I was now giving made everything seem fresh. Happily, our new repertoire of songs seemed to strike a chord with my audiences, many of whom I’m sure were surprised to see me singing as well as playing my guitar. I invited Michael to contribute a couple of solos, and we added my spoken poem “Oh Guitar” while he accompanied me with Albeniz’s “Zambra Granadina.”
In June of 2012, through my friend Shaun Pilot, Michael and I were booked a concert in Anaheim, California, which provided me a great excuse to visit my former home again, have drinks with Jack and Maggy, see my beloved cat, Muffin, and catch up with several of my L.A. girlfriends. We stayed a couple of nights at the art-filled Hollywood home of my generous actress friend Mara New, where her husband serenaded us with Beethoven and Schumann on his grand piano, and then took us to hear a recital by a Russian virtuoso pianist he had discovered.
I did a test run of “We Are the Women of the World” while we were out in California and accompanied the colourful Agape church choir on my guitar. Rickie, the wife of charismatic New Age minister Dr. Michael Beckwith, was the soloist. What a thrill to hear everyone singing the words and melodies that Joanne and I had written two years previously.
That same month I flew down to Palm Beach to record with my girlfriend Olivia Newton-John, who had offered to sing harmony with me on “Canadian Summer Dreams.” This song would never have been written had not my sister, Vivien, expressed concern that so much of my new Canadian repertoire seemed to have been inspired by images of winter … from “Song of the Arctic” to “Aurora Borealis” to “Little Towns.”
“How about a summery cottage song to balance it out?” she had suggested.
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