Gordon Lightfoot Dies: ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ & ‘Sundown’ Singer-Songwriter Was 84

Erik Pedersen
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UPDATED with Canada Prime Minister statement: Gordon Lightfoot, the honey-voiced Canadian singer-songwriter who had giant U.S. hits with “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” died today at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He was 84.

His longtime publicist Victoria Lord revealed the news to Canadian media outlets including the CBC but did not provide a cause of death. Revered in Canada, the four-time Grammy nominee had been scheduled to play Los Angeles-area clubs several times during the past two years but had postponed the dates at least twice.

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Lightfoot received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Canada’s highest honor in the performing arts, in 1997 and was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003, one of fewer than 500 ever to be so honored. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986. Along with the Grammy noms — including Song of the Year for “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (it lost to “I Write the Songs”) — he earned 13 career Juno Awards in Canada on 29 total nominations.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement late Monday: “We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters. Gordon Lightfoot captured our country’s spirit in his music – and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape. May his music continue to inspire future generations, and may his legacy live on forever.” Read his full remarks below.

A documentary about the singer, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, was scheduled hit theaters in May 2020 via Greenwich Entertainment, but those plans were was scuttled amid the early days of the Covid pandemic. In it, fellow Canadian music legend Geddy Lee of Rush says of Lightfoot, “He is one of greatest examples of timeless singer-songwriter.” Bad Religion;s Greg Graffin added, “He’s a Canadian national hero, but he also speaks to a voice for anyone.” Watch a trailer below.

Born on November 17, 1938, in Orillia, Ontario, Lightfoot went from rural choirboy to part of the Canadian folk scene for several years before he burst onto the international music charts amid the singer-songwriter craze. In late 1970, he scored with “If You Could Read My Mind,” a gorgeous, ethereal track featuring his acoustic guitar and supple but assured vocal. Inspired by his divorce, the song hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, drawn from his Reprise LP Sit Down Young Stranger, which later was retitled as If You Could Read My Mind. It reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200.

‘Sundown,’ 1974
‘Sundown,’ 1974

He released three more Reprise albums — Summer Side of Life (1971), Don Quixote (1972) and Old Dan’s Records (1972), all of which were huge hits in the Great White North — and singles to middling U.S. chart before roaring back with the 1974 LP Sundown. The album spent two weeks at No. 1 here, and its title track became Lightfoot’s lone Hot 100 chart-topper and went gold.

Lightfoot wrote the song about his tumultuous, extramarital and occasionally violent relationship with Cathy Smith, who years later admitted to injecting John Belushi with the heroin and cocaine “speedball” that led to his death at age 33. Its dark lyrics are masked by a lilting, bluesy melody: “Sundown you better take care/If I find you been creepin’ ’round my back stairs.” Lightfoot’s Sundown LP also hit No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada. Smith, who died in 2020, is credited as a backup singer on one track, “High and Dry.”

Sundown, his first of three platinum albums, also spawned the top 10 U.S. hit “Carefree Highway.”

Lightfoot’s 1975 LP Cold on the Shoulder made the U.S. Top 10, and its single “Rainy Day People” reached the Top 30. It would be the last of his four No. 1s on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening chart., and his third in a row after “Sundown” and “Carefree Highway.”

But he had one more stateside smash to deliver.

That would come in the unlikely form of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a six-minute story song/dirge adorned with mournful electric guitar and folksy melody that often crammed several extra syllables into a line. Based on the shipwreck of the titular American ship — “As the big freighters go, she was bigger than most” — on Lake Superior in 1975 that cost 29 sailors’ lives. Reprise trimmed about 30 seconds from the album version, but it still became one of the longest singles to reach the U.S. Top 5, peaking at No. 2 for two weeks behind Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night.”

It came from the album Summertime Dream, which peaked at No. 12 stateside and went platinum.

The album and singles success came after Reprise issued the compilation disc Gord’s Gold, which went double-platinum remains his best-selling set in the U.S.

Lightfoot wouldn’t reach those chart heights in America again, though his 1978 LP Endless Wire went gold. He continued to record and tour into the 2020s. His 2019 North American tour included a stop at the Grove in Anaheim where he played more than two dozen songs over two hours at age 80.

Other lauded Lightfoot songs include “Sit Down Young Stranger,” “The Watchman’s Gone,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” “For Lovin’ Me,” “Daylight Katy,” “Too Late for Prayin'” and “Did She Mention My Name?”

He also dabbled in acting, appearing in a 1988 episode of Hotel among a few other credits, and he was a guest on many talk shows and in documentaries. Lightfoot’s songs are heard in dozens of film and TV shows ranging from McCloud, James at 16 and 54 to Supernatural, The Blacklist, Mr. Robot, Knives Out and Licorice Pizza.

Elvis Presley recorded his song “Early Morning Rain” after the Aloha From Hawaii concert, and the track was included in the film’s 1998 CD reissue.

Bob Dylan once was quoted as saying of Lightfoot, “Every time I hear a song of his, I wish it would last forever.”

Here is Trudeau’s full statement on Lightfoot:

“I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing yesterday of Gordon Lightfoot, one of Canada’s greatest singer-songwriters.

“Mr. Lightfoot gave us so many special moments over the years. With a career that spanned over half a century, Mr. Lightfoot’s music told stories that captured the Canadian spirit, none more so than his iconic Canadian Railroad Trilogy, which will forever be a part of our country’s musical heritage.

“I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lightfoot as a child – he spent the afternoon in the Gatineau Hills with my family, and it is a memory I will always cherish.

“Mr. Lightfoot received many Juno Awards and Grammy nominations, and was honoured as a member of Canada’s Walk of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 1997, and was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I express our deepest sympathies to Gordon’s family, friends, and his many, many fans. His legacy will live on in the dynamic Canadian soundscape he helped to shape.”

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