Gifted singer, songwriter and the connective thread that runs through the memories of our lives, Gordon Lightfoot, has died. He was 84.
A gifted Canadian artist from ordinary means, Mr. Lightfoot’s hits include, “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Early Morning Rain,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and “Sundown,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1974.
“Sometimes I wonder why I’m being called an icon, because I really don’t think of myself that way,” Mr. Lightfoot told The Globe and Mail in 2008. “I’m a professional musician, and I work with very professional people. It’s how we get through life.” (NYT)
One of his great song lines, …”the hero would be me, but heroes often fail.” Gordon Lightfoot’s songs are sprinkled throughout multiple links in the chain of our lives. Each song reminding us of our memory attached to the moments of it. This passing hits a little harder.
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cross posted at https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/thread/3349/gordon-lightfoot
I’m 68 and spent much time “in my room” listening to Gordon Lightfoot as a teen, teen girls are very swoony that way. When I read about his passing this morning I actually cried my eyes out as I should have and put on his songs and swooned again.
My recollection of teen girls in the 60’s and 70’s is they were completely friggen nuts.
Awh come on now Mike, we weren’t nuts…..these chicks today are freaking nuts!
Not all of us.
Some of the guys were worse.
Gordon Lightfoot was the personification of what once was Canada. Honest, clear, reasoned, believable.
Strong without belligerence. Different, never insulting.
Canada today? A caricature of herself. Multicultured herself into having no culture of her own. Eagerly clamoring, like an unsure child, to get attention.
Once silent but certain, now just one of an out-of-tune choir.
Thank you Gordon, for your poems of your life.
You summed it up nice. Amen
Mr Lightfoot….Go with God, your tunesmithing was beloved by millions. A storyteller set to music, your gift of which will be always remembered. R.I.P.
I already miss him, and all the other guys who have left us behind. Thank God they had left us with great music, lyrics, and memories. Good times and sad times shared by our generation.
Gordon, thanks for helping me get through my teenage years. This one is for you:
If you find me feeding daisies
Please turn my face up to the sky
And leave me be
Watching the moon roll by
Whatever I was
You know it was all because
I’ve been on the town
Washing the bullsh*t down
[The Watchman’s Gone, Sundown album 1972]
The year I graduated from high school. Memories.
Dust in the wind.
my favorite was “If You Could Read My Mind, Love”,,,it was so sad
Thanks for posting this. I was a big fan. Makes me nostalgic, and of course reminds me of the brevity of our time here.
Better than Edmund Fitzgerald, here is Lightfoot at his story telling best with the Ballad of the Yarmouth Castle, a much greater tragedy with 90 dead and the ship’s captain fleeing in a lifeboat while passengers and crew perished:
a GOOD Portion of THE REASON that i Joined and Then Made a Career out of the US Coast Guard was
Gordon Lightfoot
Mr. Lightfoot’s Baritone Ballads about the Sea and Sailing, along with my Life along the Great Lakes WERE my Beacon for LIFE.
SALUTE SIR. ENJOY The HEAVENS and Reminisce with the FOLKS.
The Captain wasn’t “fleeing”. He was leading the way from the disaster. He was showing the people onboard the way to go.
Sad news indeed; I saw him at Pine Knob (Michigan) in 1970s, he inspired my guitar playing. There were times I only played his music…In the Early Morning Rain, I played it so much my daughter thought it was mine. He will be missed and I’ll continue to playing Gord’s Gold…
I think I read in the comments under the Edmund Fitzgerald video on YT about a young man living in a tenant house and a lonely widow playing the song in the evening over and over (the old record players where you lift the arm and it repeats again and again.) So this young man ended up hating the song after some time, the lady passed away and he heard from neighbors that she had lost her husband on the Fitzgerald.
you just never know……
RIP Mr. Lightfoot
To a person, all the surviving family members liked “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and that’s saying something because Gordon Lightfoot had the song out 9 months after the sinking. Can you imagine the reaction by surviving family members, especially those who identify as surviving family members , in this day and age?
This masterpiece stands up even when played loud on a good sound system. It is more than just a great story told well. Many (Most?) young people have not ever heard this song. It’s a great piece of music and they’re even more stunned to find out it’s a true story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Edmund_Fitzgerald
He brought the dangers of the rough waters in the Great Lakes, to average people. Yes and yes to your comments.
i WAS Blessed the KNOW a Member of the Crew out of Traverse City Michigan Air Station that was the Radar Operator on the HU16 Albatross Sea Plane that Responded to the Incident. Barry Philippy said He was Painting the SHIPS on His RADAR SCOPE Following each Other in the Bay – and THEN ONE WAS GONE.
Til You Experience THAT MOMENT YOURSELF, You Don’t Appreciate the HELPLESSNESS / ACHE that Envelopes the Rescuer.
Great music, great lyrics, great voice. There will never be another like Him. Rest in Peace brother!
I’m sorry to see him pass, but it has been quite obvious for some time that his physical and mental acuity was in sharp decline.
I hope he gets a nice week’s rest, because the Heavenly tour schedule starts on May 15th and there are a lot of clouds to cover.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
Brilliant lyrics and musical composition. A folk rock dirge of exception.
Timeless.
“the main hatchway gave in…”
Rest in Peace.
“Seven Islands Suite” … a magnificent but overlooked Lightfoot song.
In about ten years or so everyone of the people that bought us real music that shaped so many lives will be all gone and the world will be a much sorrier place for the loss.
Not to take away from Gordon Lightfoot, but Roger Whitaker is another great voice (The Last Farewell), he is in his 90’s I think.
Oh, yes.
Love his music also, although I came to know it late in life.
It already is, musically. Consider techno, rap and teen girl pop. Then again, maybe don’t. You may cry yourself to sleep.
Very talented… “Sundown” is on my playlist of favorites.
RIP
Daylight Katy – is the BEST!!!
Also BEAUTIFUL……
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjEooryl9f-AhVKlWoFHZulB_kQyCl6BAgVEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbPMe9dMFHEA&usg=AOvVaw1QtNdCivzLsp0cAhVjcye_
Another great one… “Tatoo”
Speaking of Canadian and I know this isnt Gordon, but I heard this one time on the radio and was blown away.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Langley_Schools_Music_Project
History is someone found the school pressed record in a used record shop. Was a middle school in British Columbia. Huge hits if the 60s and 70s played and sung by middle schoolers. From the history, the likes if David Bowie gave it huge accolades. Very rudimentary, but awesome renditions of big hits. Take a listen to some.
Thanks. I just ordered it.
Lucky to have seen him a few times in the last twenty years. Introduced my wife to him and she really took to his songs even though she didn’t know of him growing up. I of course never forgot him.
Another thread in the fabric of the supporting blanket of memories of times, places and contemporaries of my past has broken and peeled away never to be whole again. But the warmth and security, so appreciated at the time, will live on in my mind. God I feel old.
“If You Could Read My Mind” . . . oh, I played that one over and over (in high school, on the record player in my bedroom) . . . it was addictive to listen to the words and music (now reading about that song, that it was written in the aftermath of his divorce) . . . “like a ghost in a wishing well” was so poetic and it seemed to all ripple like a stream.
The Circle IS SMALL
Beautiful Intro and Lyrics with the EMOTIONS Involved with Continuing to Live in a SMALL CIRCLE and Remembering the PAST Relationship.
I love his music and may he rest in peace. Ironically I heard some of his songs on the radio station I listen to the last several days and was reminded of how inspiring his music was.
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
One of the most heart-wrenching lyrics ever written.
My heart aches…The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is favorite of mine…
A nice entertainer that did not seem to have anything negative connected to him.
Thank you for this remembrance. Fine balladeer. I always found “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” very stirring. Especially the first verse:
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be
chewed when the gales of November came early
The good thing about loosing great talent is you can always bring it back to life and listen.
Western culture is rich, varied and Gods gift to mankind.
There is no equal in the history of the world.
Thank you GL and God speed.
Growing up on the Great Lakes and having many family members and family of friends working the lower lakers, it was many years after The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald came out that I could actually listen to the whole song all the way through.
Not a bash on Mr Lightfoot, this is a compliment on how he found a way to bundle so much emotion into one song.
I’m sure bells will be tolling at every maritime station later today.
A long time favorite of mine, I saw him perform in Charlotte.
I believe his best song was “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” which told the story of the building of the Canadian Trans-Continental Railroad(s). If I remember correctly, its writing was sponsored to commemorate the 100th year of it’s completion.
If you’re not Canadian, eh, for bonus points, define Gaspeé, Navvie, and Moskeg
Maybe Gaspe (peninsula), (don’t have a bilingual keyboard so can’t put in the accent grave) and muskeg (welcome to northern Ontario & west)?
I am Canadian – born & raised in Sarnia, ON – southern tip of Lake Huron. Grew up seeing (& hearing, at night) the ocean going boats….
😉
I am from BC. Vancouver. Born 1954 at St Vincent Hospital on Oak St, and raised on James Street.
Mom, dad, kids, we all spent a lot of time at Kits Beach (Kitsilano Beach), where we watched and heard the large boats from daylight until dark. It was good to be Canadian in th 1950’s until 1980’s. Lots of great Canadian bands and singers in those years.
A favorite.
RIP Gordon.
I was working for Northwestern Mutual Life, the ship’s owner, when the Edmond Fitzgerald went down. It was named after NML’s forner CEO.
Not that that it’s relevant to Gordon Lightfoot, but it was a great company to work for, and their cafeteria, with all you can eat free lunches, was, and still is, called the best restaurant in Milwaukee.
Worst career move in my life was leaving the company after 8 years. (sigh)
Indeed, NWM was one of my clients,.. excellent down to Earth people I delt with, back in the ’80s.
I’m a huge Rick Beatto fan … and in this clip, not only does he pay homage to Gordon Lightfoot … but he also explains WHY I so LOVE music … audio excellence … tubes … British speakers … and esp. vinyl
It’s because of the detail, the musical fills … the richness in a well crafted song. My own personal McIntosh based system pulls out ALL the detail of an lp. Every note and nuance. Rick Beatto pays homage to: “If you could read my mind” as one of the greatest layered pieces of music ever recorded. And boy howdy! It is.
I hope Lightfoot’s record companies think about hiring the TOP vinyl engineers and companies like Analogue Productions in Salina, KS … to reissue the best of Lightfoot’s catalog on 45 rpm lp’s … I’d pay whatever they asked. RIP Gordon … your music touched my soul.
LPs are 33 rpm. Singles were issued on 45s. I have a killer sound system as well. If you’re like me and love scrounging up great components, pay attention to tuners being s-canned. It seems that most people nowadays think a tuner is a radio. They don’t understand that a tuner needs a separate amplifier so when they plug it in and they can’t get music to come out of the speakers they trash it. Same thing probably applies to cassette decks and maybe turntables?
If you have a killer sound system … I’d expect you to know that the VERY BEST sounding vinyl is 45 rpm lp’s … yes … lp’s … because 45 rpm gets more detailed info into the grooves …
https://store.acousticsounds.com/l/507/Analogue_Productions
https://store.acousticsounds.com/c/21/45_RPM_Vinyl_Record
I never heard of an album on a 45 until you mentioned it. I did some research and it seems the 45 RPM format enables a richer recording. I looked at your link and the album, “The Doors”, which had been previously printed on 33 1/3 RPM LPs which contains the whole album on one disc, would require 2 discs in the 45 format.
I got away from LPs and into cassettes and CDs because it was nice to hear an entire album without having to flip the record over. Also, bringing music in a car you’d have to go with tapes, CDs or mp3, unless you owned an old Chrysler I own a lot of 33 1/3 RPM LPs and I treasure them. All my LPs are kept in their sleeves and in their jackets. The obvious solution for me would be to buy albums on 45 and keep them as a master. Then I could record it onto another medium for convenience sake.
Ah, Licorice Pizza.
Thank you for that post.
Recently watched an excellent documentary on him. On Amazon Prime if you care to watch.
Can’t let any November 10th go by without playing GL’s Edmund Fitzgerald. A Michiganian (and older than dirt), I remember exactly where I was when I first heard she’d gone missing. Thank you for the song, Gordon Lightfoot. And, may you rest in peace!
Great voice. Great songs. Job well done Gordon!
My sister and I were big Lightfoot fans, circa 1980. He was appearing at Baltimore’s Pier 6 Pavilion, so I purchased tickets. As we drove into the city on I83, we passed the large Pepsi-Cola sign that flashed the time and temperature; the temp at 5:30pm was 103f.
The sides of the pavilion were opened, and I recall they set up a large fan to move some air around, but it was miserable hot. The temps on that stage under those lights must have approached 120f!
Gord and his men did a fine job for the first set; their big trouble was keeping their guitars in tune. At the end of the set, they all were soaked, as in hosed down. During a fairly long intermission they must have showered and put on dry clothes. The second set was also first rate, and they all must have lost several pounds working in that sauna, with their clothes again soaking wet. Mr. L and his band were pros and demonstrated it that night. We got our money’s worth.
It is very touvhing to read the comments from those who used to watch, or whose families used to watch The Edmund Fitzgerald sail on by up north.
Be it the “Big” lakes or the open ocean…there is something quietly awe inspiring about it all…
I grew up on Long Island’s North Shore in Northport. There was a huge sand mining operation there run by the Steers Company who filled barges with sand and tug boats towed them to cement plants in NYC and all along Long Island Sound. On December 30th, 1962, the 98 foot tugboat with a crew of 9, Gwendoline Steers, left NYC at 11:30 am in 50 degree weather and light winds, heading back to it’s home port of Northport. By late afternoon the temperature was about 0 F with 65 mph winds, gusting to 90 mph.
She sank with all hands lost right outside Huntington Bay and only about a mile from the Eaton’s Neck Coast Guard Station who she’d been in touch with about an hour before. The captain probably realized too late that entering Huntington Bay which is open to the north would have been suicide since north winds were driving the tempest. It would have been night time and his searchlight, radar and radio were encrusted with ice and unusable. He turned 180 degrees and headed north into Long Island Sound probably to ride out the storm. The weight of the ice probably drove the ship under.
The Gwendoline Steers was well known in Northport. My father was fascinated by tug boats and would take me to the Northport Village Dock to see her when she was tied up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Gwendoline_Steers
“He said, fellas it’s been good to know ya”
Back in the late 70s, early 80s I had the great good fortune to see Gordon Lightfoot at the Universal outdoor theater in the LA area. I knew I would hear his wonderful songs but was quite sure he wouldn’t sing my favorite, The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. I was wrong. He sang it! One of my very best memories of a concert.
In the early 80’s when the USG thought we were running out of oil they formed the Synthetic Fuels Corporation. The idea was to develop synfuels to replace oil and gas as it diminished. SFC would provide loan and price guarantees for sanctioned projects. I worked on one of those projects that used the same technology that NAZI Germany used to fuel their war machine. The Dept of Energy and SFC gave grants to to study the technology and develop the conceptual engineering. Our Client was Hampshirite Energy. The initial owners were Northwestern Mutual and Metropolitan insurance companies. Yeah, what do they know about energy development? They saw a buck to be made. Anyway, the Chairman of Northwestern was Edmund Fitzgerald (also owners of the Brewers at the time). He was like the great grandson of the guy that the ship was named after in Lightfoot’s song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald “. Gordon gave the profits from that song to surviving family members. The wreck occurred on Lake Michigan I believe. I know, too much useless information.
No, it’s fine. I appreciate reading the recollections.
Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald is one of my favorite songs of all time. Top 10.
I love Gordon Lightfoot. 😢
Rick Beato …live. Very good Gordo analysis.
https://www.youtube.com/live/4Iw7Jei8XOo?feature=share
If you could read my mind love, what a tale my thoughts would tell you……………
RIP Mr. Lightfoot
There are tears in my late lunch beer this afternoon.
One of my favorites. Still have vinyls. RIP.
My older sister, Linda Post, helped put herself through college by playing, and singing, a lot of his early songs in coffee houses. She, and I, both loved his music!
Such a talented man, and deep thinker about the world. He will be sorely missed!
Brightest of Blessings to him, and his family.