I'm not like Gordy Lightfoot
I'm trying to make my rent

The story:

I thought she was taking a playful jab at a fellow Canadian song writer who lived in the posh Toronto neighborhood Rosedale - trying to make herself out to be a starving artist by comparison. Decades later, I hear "light cook" instead of "Lightfoot", and look it up. Conclusion: Blame Joni. She's singing about drinking, so she's slurring her words. Yeah. That's it.