On Monday evening, Gordon Lightfoot passed away at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. He was 84. He recently had to postpone his scheduled performances because of his emphysema. He passed away naturally and peacefully, according to his family.
The well-known Canadian singer-songwriter told his longtime friend and booking agent Bernie Fiedler, “Bernie, we had a good run,” just before he passed away. ”.
Lightfoot’s character can be summed up by the cliché “a good run.”. I spoke with him in 2019 at his Bridle Path residence in Toronto, and he acknowledged, “I still question my ability”.
“I still do and always have. I don’t think I’m a genius by any means. I find it insulting to be called that. ”.
Maybe that’s just the modesty of a “fair-haired farm boy from Orillia,” as John MacFarlane, an Ontarian from the sleepy Ontario village, put it in his 1966 article for The Globe and Mail. The heading for that profile, “Lyrical loner,” was one of the first notable Lightfoot characteristics to appear in print. ”.
For a perfectionist who frequently encountered writer’s block, writing songs was a difficult and isolating task. Canadian Railroad Trilogy was written in three days by Lightfoot with the help of cigarettes, coffee, and a sizable commission. He once compared songwriting sessions to trips to the dentist, saying that both were unpleasant but necessary and should be finished as soon as possible.
He was therefore his own harshest critic. He was his own biggest fan, though, in my opinion. This only demonstrates his good taste. The song-writer who was being recognized would frequently go to the annual Gordon Lightfoot tribute concerts, which were held at Hugh’s Room in Toronto for 15 years, and would sit in the back to watch his songs performed. While taking in the sounds, he was dozing off.
I spoke with him at Massey Hall in Toronto, where he gave more than 170 performances in 2012. He gave me a tour of the empty space and said, “This is where I tune my guitar,” then he went on stage and performed Knotty Pine and I’ll Tag Along while once more muttering to himself, this time with his eyes closed: “This time tomorrow, we might be all packed and gone; I believe we should carry on”.
He wasn’t doing it for me or anyone else; he was only thinking of himself.
With musicians like Lightfoot in mind, the term “singer-songwriter” was coined. He wrote songs that reflected his own experiences and performed them in addition to attempting to write songs with a broad lyrical appeal and, yes, commercial success. He made his points very clearly and persuasively.
Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Early Morning Rain, Don Quixote, In My Fashion, Beautiful, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Sundown, Carefree Highway, and If You Could Read My Mind are the nine songs that Lightfoot insisted on playing when performing live.
The same as you and I, Lightfoot had his favorites. The best of his music was also the best of the genre; it was full of sentimental, evocative expressions that drew the listener in with gloomy melodies and held them with vivid imagery. He observed daily life through rain-beaded windows. The song Restless’s opening line, “As we gaze off in the distance through the trees in my backyard,” describes him as restless”.
Some people categorize Lightfoot as a folky Canadiana troubadour, but I hear mood music with a poet’s touch. It’s best to keep your eyes closed and your mind open while listening to something like Pussywillows, Cat-tails.
We daydream about cornfields and catbirds together.
When riding alongside the road, the dust gets in your eyes.
Disorganization and revelry are common during the summer nights.
Roses, cattails, swaying willows, and gentle winds.
We never had to read Gordon Lightfoot’s thoughts because we had his songs.
The song was created by singer Lori Cullen for her 2006 album Calling for Rain. She stated to The Globe, “I feel like it is a part of who I am. “The universality of the cinematic descriptions of weather, nature, and connection makes it simple for the listener to associate them with their own experiences or interpretations”.
Cullen first encountered Lightfoot when her teacher performed Pussywillows, Cat-tails for the class at an elementary school in a Toronto suburb. “Even though I didn’t know who he was at the time, the song had a sincere feel to it”.
There have been many excellent performances of Lightfoot’s songs, from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash on down to Cullen, and her version of the song is just one of them. Depeche Mode, a British electro-rock band, performed Sundown for BBC Radio 2 earlier this year.
But it wasn’t a hit with everyone.
According to Nicholas Jennings’ thorough biography of Lightfoot, Frank Sinatra attempted to record If You Could Read My Mind but gave up after getting frustrated and threw the music sheets to the ground.
“Forget about it,” he advised.
“I’m unable to sing that. There are way too many words”.
It makes sense that the crooner who is notorious for singing “New York, New York” twice wouldn’t take to Lightfoot’s intricate lyrics easily. Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen were among a new breed of sophisticated lyricists who began to appreciate the importance of selecting the best words and putting them in the best order in the 1960s.
Lightfoot and I last crossed paths at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, Ontario. He would soon be inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame. As part of the celebration, a memorial service was held in the afternoon on a small stage set up among the trees. Among other Lightfoot interpretations, Cullen sang The Way I Feel and Bitter Green with exquisiteness, and James Keelaghan delivered a memorable version of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Lightfoot was in the audience, as he had been at Hugh’s Room, and was seated in a chair close to the stage. The song If You Could Read My Mind by the folk duo Dala, which is about a divorce, was played for him by a ghost. To be fair to Sinatra, the song’s word count is ideal.
Dala sang the self-referential lyrics melancholy, with the line “You know the ghost is me” standing out in particular. Lightfoot closed his eyes and listened. We had his songs to use as a means of communication, so we didn’t need to read his mind. We continue to do so.
