Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s Bard, Dead at 84
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The post Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s Bard, Dead at 84 appeared first on Consequence.
Gordon Lightfoot, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter, has died at the age of 84.
“Gordon Lightfoot passed away this evening in a Toronto hospital at 7:30 p.m.,” a statement on Lightfoot’s Facebook page announced on Monday, May 1st. The statement promised more information “to come.”
Born in Orillia, Ontario in 1938, Lightfoot became known and beloved as Canada’s folk troubadour, an artist who stayed true to his roots despite international success. Songs like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” depicted the culture, landscapes, and history of his Canadian home and grew to become both hits and signature tracks.
In the 2019 documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, Rush’s Geddy Lee called Lightfoot “our poet laureate… our iconic singer-songwriter,” while Tom Cochrane noted, “If there was a Mt. Rushmore in Canada, Gordon would be on it.”
Singing was Lightfoot’s calling from his youth; he was in his church’s choir, performed on local radio, and won singing competitions. At age 17, he penned his first song, “The Hula Hoop Song,” a novelty track celebrating the popular toy of the time. After two years of studying at Los Angeles’ Westlake College of Music, he returned to Toronto and soon embedded himself in the local folk scene. He was a member of the Singing Swinging Eight on the Country Hoedown TV show, and performed with Terry Whelan as a member of the Two-Tones.
As Bob Dylan and the Greenwich Village scene bloomed, Lightfoot was inspired to hone his songwriting craft. In 1965, he made his United States performance debut at the Newport Folk Festival (the same event where Dylan first went electric). Later that year, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and performed at New York’s Town Hall for his first Stateside solo show.
’65 was also the first time Lightfoot made it onto the charts — though not for his own singing. Ian & Sylvia Tyson scored hits with the Lightfoot-penned “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me” (both songs were also covered Peter, Paul and Mary). But when Marty Robbins’ version of “Ribbon of Darkness” topped the country charts, Lightfoot’s career really took off.
He was signed by Albert Grossman, who also managed Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, and released his debut album Lightfoot! in 1966. Featuring his own recordings of “Early Morning Rain,” “For Lovin’ Me,” “Ribbon of Darkness,” and “I’m Not Sayin’,” the album marked the beginning of a long and cherished recording career for Lightfoot. He released three more albums on United Artists Records before signing with Warner Bros.’s Reprise Records for 1970’s Sit Down Young Stranger, which included the hit “If You Could Read My Mind” and led to his international star rising swiftly.
Over the next decade, Lightfoot released seven more albums, including 1974’s Sundown, his only No. 1 album in the US. These records contained some of Lightfoot’s most beloved classics, including the Sundown title track, “Don Quixote,” “Carefree Highway,” “Rainy Day People,” and “Beautiful.” Many of these tracks were written about his divorce from his first wife, Brita Olaisson, and during a time he was involved in a volatile relationship with Cathy Smith; Smith became notorious when she was charged and convicted for injecting John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982.
Lightfoot continued to record throughout the ’80s and ’90s, releasing six more full-lengths. In 2002, he collapsed before taking the stage in his Orillia hometown due to a ruptured aneurysm in his abdominal aorta. Though he nearly died, he fought back and released the album Harmony in 2004. He toured behind the record in 2005 under the “Better Late Than Never Tour” banner. Three weeks before his passing, he canceled a planned 2023 tour due to his failing health.
Over the course of his career, he was nominated for five Grammy Awards and won a staggering 16 Juno Awards. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986, Canada’s Walk of Fame in 1998, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012. Lightfoot was awarded Canada’s highest civilian honor, Companion of the Order of Canada, in 2003. A 13-foot bronze sculpture dubbed Golden Leaves — A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot, featuring Lightfoot playing guitar with an arch of maple leaves overhead, was unveiled in his Orillia hometown in 2015.
Lightfoot is survived by his six children — Fred, Ingrid, Miles, Meredith, Eric, and Galen — and his third wife, Kim Hasse, as well as his older sister, Beverley Eyers.
Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s Bard, Dead at 84
Ben Kaye
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