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'Sundown'

The title track of Lightfoot's 1974 album was another of his biggest hits, and he wrote it about his girlfriend at the time, Cathy Smith. While wondering what Smith was doing while out at a bar with her friends, Lightfoot started crafting the song at home. He explained to American Songwriter that he thought the track resonated with fans because it had "a good beat," "interesting harmonic passages" as well as "a great arrangement and not too bad of a vocal."

Lightfoot's relationship with Smith was reportedly sometimes violent, and the lyrics illustrate the dark nature between the pair: "She's a hard-loving woman, got me feeling mean."

"Sundown" has been covered by musicians including Toby Keith and Depeche Mode.

'Carefree Highway'

Another of Lightfoot's chart-toppers from his 1974 album was "Carefree Highway." He composed the song while driving in a rental car through Arizona with his bassist, as he told Mass Live about the inspiration: "All of a sudden, this sign went flashing by. It said, 'Carefree Highway.' And I looked at the bass player and he looked at me, and I said, 'That must be, like, a title of a song.'" Lightfoot wrote the words down on a page of the rental contract and tucked it away in his wallet. After finding the scrap of paper two weeks later, he wrote "Carefree Highway," which he turned into a song about a failed romance with a woman named Ann — although he said it was written while wondering if his relationship with his girlfriend at the time would last.


'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'

Lightfoot's sombre hit "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was inspired by the sinking of the bulk carrier S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975, a tragedy that killed all 29 crew members. Lightfoot learned about the incident from a Newsweek article and wrote the song, which was released in 1976.

"It's just one of those songs that just stands the test of time and it's about something that, of course, would be forgotten very shortly thereafter, which is one of the reasons I wrote the song in the first place. I didn't want it to be forgotten," Lightfoot told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about immortalizing the wreck in song.

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" hit No.1 on the Canadian charts, was nominated for two Grammy Awards and was covered by artists including the Dandy Warhols, Tony Rice and more.

'If It Should Please You'

Lightfoot's 1988 album, Gord's Gold, Vol. 2, was a compilation that included re-recordings of hits such as "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." The first track on the album, though, was a new one called "If It Should Please you," and the country-tinged song was one that Lightfoot often performed live but had not been previously recorded. With a catchy, dulcet melody, the track demonstrated what audiences could expect from Lightfoot in concert: "So I'm itching to please you, with a topical song/ and a few golden oldies and a little hoedown." With all the classics in his catalogue, Lightfoot showcased the true breadth of music in his arsenal with the recording of "If It Should Please You."

'Why not Give It a Try'

Lightfoot was still churning out new music in his 80s, and in 2020 released his first-ever solo recordings. "I actually tried for several months to orchestrate these tracks and I even tried rewriting five or six of the songs," he told the Absolute Sound about the aptly titled album, Solo. "Finally, I decided these tracks were fine, since they were recorded before any of my health issues. We listened to them again as solos and decided we couldn't make them sound any better."

Solo was Lightfoot's first album in 16 years, and "Why not Give It a Try" the closing track. It was the final bow on his 21st album; a simple ode to experimenting with new things, whether it be dancing, travel or staying true to oneself. "Would you like to go dreaming, would you like to go free?" he sings, stripped-back and simple with just voice and guitar.

"This one is special; it's a really good one, but it's as different as it's ever going to get," he told the Toronto Star.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.cbc.ca/music/in-gordon-l...yone-1.6827145

In Gordon Lightfoot's songbook, art is for everyone
How the songwriter’s utilitarian approach to inspiration proved beauty belongs to all of us

Andrea Warner · CBC Music · Posted: May 02, 2023 1:14 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 15

For Gordon Lightfoot, there was never a right or wrong way to draw inspiration. He was a prolific, award-winning songwriter who made meaning out of the mundane and observed the macro and micro of everyday in his lyrics and lines. He turned a commission into a Canadian classic, a breaking news story into the "best song" he ever wrote, and a stolen glance at an Arizona road sign into a hit song.

"You can start with a title if you want, or go fishing for words in a magazine, like People magazine or something, you'll see an ad with some fancy language to it," Lightfoot told CBC Music in 2013. "I've done that, honestly, I've even gone into a paint store and picked up the titles of paint samples."

Lightfoot was not an overly precious writer, a cultured aesthete wrenching words and phrases from a head stuffed full of canonical greats. Instead, Lightfoot's omnivorous approach to creation made him an accidental disrupter of the highbrow, a brilliant songwriter subverting the vaunted purity of divine artistic genius.

"I'm a fairly normal sort of person," he said in a 1975 interview. "I'm not particularly smart and I'm not particularly stupid. Maybe it's the general normality of it, with a touch of art."

Lightfoot may not have set out to democratize the playing field with his unpretentious approach to music, but the staying power of his songs acts as radical permission for other aspiring writers and artists. The source of the inspiration doesn't matter; it's what you do with it that counts.

Lightfoot died on May 1, 2023. This year also marks the 65th anniversary of Lightfoot's foray from Orillia, Ont., to Los Angeles to study music composition and the beginning of his "official" music career (even though he'd been singing and performing since his youth). Lightfoot wrote his first song in 1955 but it would be a full decade of playing and performing before he shifted to sets comprising mostly his own tunes. "I didn't have to rely on my own material at the beginning," Lightfoot told American Songwriter in 2008. "There were so many good songs around that I kept learning them."
Rain, planes and trains

But in 1965, that all changed. Lightfoot began performing his own songs, and other bands began recording them. By the time he released his debut album, Lightfoot!, in 1966, the record's biggest success, "Early Morning Rain," had already been a hit for Ian & Sylvia and Peter, Paul and Mary. Lightfoot once called it "the most important song I've ever written," and estimated that it was nine years in the making. The inspiration came years earlier during his time in Los Angeles when, in a fit of homesickness, he went to the airport to watch the planes come and go. It was in the morning, and, yes, it was raining.

In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand
With an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand
I'm a long way from home and I miss my loved ones so
In the early morning rain with no place to go

Lightfoot abided by a key rule of good writing: "Show, don't tell." He didn't specifically say he was broke and lonely in L.A., but the "dollar in his hand" and "pockets full of sand" and "no place to go" conveyed his situation perfectly.

On his second record, 1967's The Way I Feel, Lightfoot showcased his ability to thrive creatively under commission. CBC tasked Lightfoot with writing a song that would celebrate the history of the country for the Canadian Centennial, which would kick off with a televised event on New Year's Day, 1967. According to scholar Chris Hemer, since Lightfoot had already written a couple songs about trains at that point, CBC suggested something on the Canadian Pacific Railway and recommended a book from the CBC library on William Cornelius Van Horne, who designed Canada's first transcontinental railway. Lightfoot wrote "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" in just three days, and it quickly became one of the country's most celebrated folk songs, though its legacy has been recontextualized over the years.

Given the source material and the purpose of the commission, it's not surprising that "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" embraces a certain kind of nationalism. Lightfoot does reference the lives lost in the building of the CPR, but the lack of specifics contribute to Canadian myth-making. There's no mention of the settler-colonial violence inflicted on Indigenous people who were displaced and whose lands were stolen, nor the more than 15,000 exploited Chinese migrants who helped build the railroad — and an estimated 600 of whom were killed on the job. In a video essay about the song, journalist Nick Lefevre acknowledges the CPR was "a feat in engineering and it did change the country, but from a humanitarian perspective, it was a tragedy and a crime."
Love undone

Lightfoot also mined his own relationships and love affairs for inspiration and catharsis.

"In some cases the songs are autobiographical; some events and traumas that have to get handled, one way or another, go into the tunes," Lightfoot said in a 1998 interview. "And it's easier and cheaper than going to a shrink."

"If You Could Read My Mind" is one of those songs, written in the midst of the breakup of his first marriage. He had a new home on a small farm in the country, a new record label, and he was drinking "quite a bit." (He quit in 1982.) The song is a series of devastating lines that capture the haunted longing and bittersweet aftertaste of a breakup.

If I could read your mind love, what a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel, the kind the drugstores sell
When you reach the part where the heartache come
The hero would be me, but heroes often fail
And you won't read that book again because the ending's just too hard to take

It's a song written from the perspective of a narrator not quite ready to contend with their own accountability, who masks his willful ignorance in a performance of vulnerability. But Lightfoot's own child called him on this early on. "There's a line in the song that goes, 'If you read between the lines, you'll know that I'm just trying to understand, the feeling that you lack.' My daughter, who was just a girl at the time, heard the song and asked me, 'Don't you lack any feelings, daddy?' She got me to change the line to 'the feelings that we lack.' She said I was putting the whole onus of the divorce on her mother."

The title track of his 1974 album, Sundown, is another song inspired by Lightfoot's volatile love life. The music has a darkly rhythmic groove, irresistible and insistent, and the words convey an urgency and tension that skew toward the sinister.

I can see her looking fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard loving woman, got me feeling mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feeling better when I'm feeling no pain
Sundown you better take care
If I find you been creeping 'round my back stairs

The "muse" behind "Sundown" was Lightfoot's then-girlfriend Cathy Smith. According to Lightfoot, one night Smith went out partying with her friends, leaving him home alone, restless, jealous and watching the sunset. He channelled his frustration into writing "Sundown." But according to several publications, including the Globe and Mail, Lightfoot's jealousy turned to violence at least once when he allegedly broke Smith's cheekbone during a fight.
Breaking news

Within the first decade of his solo career, Lightfoot released 10 studio albums. During this time, his record labels also released six compilations of his greatest hits and best songs. The most successful, by far, was 1975's Gord's Gold, a sprawling double vinyl featuring 22 of his most popular tracks. Many of these songs are considered foundational to the Canadian music canon. But one of the biggest and most surprising hits of Lightfoot's career was still to come.

Lightfoot released "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976, a re-telling of the tragic real-life sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior, Nov. 10, 1975, which claimed the lives of all 29 people on board. "I saw the story on TV, about five hours after it happened, so I collected every newspaper for the next couple of weeks and the song came out," said Lightfoot, who wrote and recorded the song in a rare one-week burst. "It's basically a straightforward account of how the events actually unfolded."

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck saying
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya
At seven PM a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good to know ya
The captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Writing: a life's work

Most of Lightfoot's songs were written over months, sometimes years, and he devoted decades of his life to the practice. In a 2010 interview, Lightfoot assigned a numerical value to his songwriting process, telling the Montrealer that it was "15 per cent inspiration and 85 per cent perspiration. I will stand by that — it's hard work. Writing is a solitary process, and it can be exciting and draining at the same time. I wrote songs under contract for 33 years, and now I can relax a little and focus on our performances."

In another 2010 interview, Lightfoot described recording 20 albums under contract as "pretty rough work… That caused a lot of the bumpiness too, because it caused me to be isolated and cut myself off from my people and my kids, so I could work on the songs. I wanted to do it because by that time I was supporting a band, was supporting a crew, and had acquired two or three children. But I don't regret any of it."

Lightfoot was under contract and writing was his job. I have always appreciated his matter-of-fact honesty about spending 33 years and 20 albums doing that work and the effort that he put into it, that it was thrilling, isolating and exhausting. It was also labour. He couldn't afford to be too high-and-mighty to turn up his nose at People magazine or to make a trip to the paint store to find what he was looking for in "Bitter Green" (just a guess on my part).

But in that work, in these songs, we see how beauty — or the illusion of it — can be coaxed from violence and tragedy, the mundane, the everyday and the unexpected. For 65 years, he showed us how beauty belongs to all of us, not just the classically educated or the affluent and cultured. Art is for everybody in the landscape of Gordon Lightfoot's greatest hits.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://muskokatoday.com/2023/05/lig...4tuxbXtoWdhCmk

Muskoka Today - Mark Clairmont

May 7, 2023
LIGHTFOOT COMES ‘HOME’ TO REST IN ORILLIA AS CELEBRATION OF LIFE FULL OF MUSIC AND MEMORIES HE COULD HAVE WRITTEN HIT SONG ABOUT

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

ORILLIA — “I can say I shared a stage with Gordon Lightfoot.”

Dan Moses was among 2,000 fans and friends from Kingston to Kentucky who lined up this afternoon and evening to pay their respects to Lightfoot “came home” to rest in his hometown.

The music teacher at Base Borden was among the first two dozen people two hours before visitation began at St. Paul’s United Church.

A French horn player in the Victoria Symphony, he’d never heard his favourite folk singer live, but was “lucky” to now be teaching a four-month music course to reservists like himself and couldn’t miss the opportunity to pay his respects.

Like some 700 others in the first hour, he began by listening to Lightfoot songs on his phone before turning to those close to him and sharing favourite stories about Mariposa’s most famous musician and son.

Sylvia Rogan and her partner Sharon Korpan came up from Toronto. They arrived shortly after 10:30 a.m. Korpan, a former geography teacher said she spoke about Lightfoot in her classroom, calling him “Canadian royalty.”

Ed Zeally was another Torontonian in line early on with a handful of in bloom roses he waited to leave.

Ray Rama and his wife, Wendy, “had to be here,” because as an immigrant “he taught me Canadian culture.” As with many the Richmond Hill couple often saw the teacher at Massey Hall and Ray called Lightfoot’s passing “one of the saddest days of my time since becoming a Canadian.”

His favourite song is “Song for A Winter’s Night,” which he plays every Christmas.

Rick Melson got up at 4:30 a.m. driving from Kingston. He was listening to “Pussy Willows, Cattails” — but admitted Seven Island Suite was his favourite song due to the “beauty of the places he wrote about.”

Ron Jones knew his old “friend” from his days in Toronto at the Steeles Tavern in the 1960s after arriving from Newfoundland where Lightfoot “is very big.” The singers and composers were closer then occasionally sharing a billing. The 82-year-old is font of information when it comes to Lightfoot, his life and lyrics, which he was without a loss at finishing when asked to finish a melodic opening line.

He, too, loves “Winter’s Night,” saying Lightfoot “made me cry” the first time he heard it — and adding that when the Scarborough resident plays it some people also shed a tear.

Jones, who’s seen every Lightfoot Massey concert since 1967, came to town Saturday to visit at the City Grill Lightfoot’s nephew Steven Eyers — one half of ‘Even Steven’ with Steven Owens.

Another Lightfoot inspired singer Don James and his wife, Sandy, came down from Nobel. They lived in the Sunshine City for 20 years and he still performs Lightfoot shows, including one at July 7 at the Stockey Centre in Parry Sound that he booked two months ago.

It was a public celebration of life that Lightfoot could have written and made a hit song about.

For the homecoming was at the same church where he emerged from choir as a boy and went on to international fame. Many in the lineup knew him growing up and were happy to say goodbye to a friend they knew more as a neighbour than a star.

Lightfoot had been very ill for in recent months said Rick Haynes, his bassist for 55 years, and who was with him at the end last Monday at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto when his close friend died.

He said Sunday’s visitation wasn’t at all bitter-sweet when asked.

“No — it’s just difficult,” he told MuskokaTODAY.com.

Haynes said in a media scrum in the church “he meant a lot to me personally. I’m the guy who started with Gord 55 years ago and stuck with him in the times when he maybe wasn’t in the high points of his career, because I thought he deserved more recognition that he was getting by in large most of the time.

“I think Gordon was the best. There’s a lot of great songwriters out there. I don’t think there’s any are better than Gordon.”

Is there was a lyric or line that sticks out as he watched the procession going around the coffin his music playing and photos on a screen above?

“There are so many — “If you could read my mind? ‘The legend lives on’ and that’s one I’m thinkin’ about today.”

Asked what he thought Lightfoot would feel about the outpouring from the community and country, Haynes said “I think he would be humbled by it and he’d like it. Because he loved his community and his fans.”

And “the last months were rough. But Gordon was resolved and he was at peace. One of the things he said to me very recently was ‘my life’s work is done and I’m ready.”

Haynes said Lightfoot repeated that a few times. But their last conversation was hard as Lightfoot had “some difficulty speaking. His breath was going away.”

A sad ending for an artist whose life was singing and with his words painting pictures of what he saw.

Haynes said Lightfoot was not averse to church. His funeral was preplanned years ago said Minister Karen Hilfman-Millson who will lead Monday’s private family service.

Fellow friend and promoter Bernie Fiedler said his last words to him were: “Bern, I’m tired and ready to go. I think he really felt it that he was ready to go.”

Fiedler, who had worked with Lightfoot for 60 years and was the founder of the famed Riverboat Cafe music venue in Toronto’s Yorkville, where Lightfoot became a ’60s legend along with the likes of fellow Canadian folk and rock icons Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, and Americans James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel, said: “To my mind, one of the saddest things for me was to see him lying in bed. He had really suffered and I think this was a real good thing actually. It turned out that way. I think he’s at peace now. I think he wanted it that way.”

Haynes said: “He told me a few times ‘I’m not afraid to die. I’m ready.’ And I can say he really wasn’t in a lot of pain towards the end. People have tried to do something with that. But he wasn’t. He was at peace in a lot of ways.”

Fielder said: “I don’t know anybody who will ever forget his music.”

He said down the road they’re going to try and do a musical tribute, including with his original band. He already has Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane, Tom Rush and Murray McLaughlan. A lot of them have already agreed they’ll come and do a song at Massey Hall.

Haynes said Lightfoot’s passing has already “gone way beyond our borders,” noting that Billy Joel “gave a shout-out to Gordon on Friday night I think” and did “Sundown” as part of medley on stage live. Billy was a fan of Gord and we were supposed to meet together if we got to go to Florida in March. There’s a lot of huge fans of Gordon in the music business and some of them were present at the American Song Writers Awards in New York City when Gord was on the red carpet and Gord was the recipient of the American Song Writers Award, which was a huge deal to Gordon.”

Fiedler added: “What I loved about Gordon most was he was so proud to have come from Orillia. He never looked toward living in the United States as is, I think, common knowledge, because he mentioned it many times. That and besides he was so kind to numerous people, especially to myself when I got in to trouble with the tax department. I mean he just bailed me out so big. Huge, huge guy. He didn’t care for himself on anything. He was happy. He gave everything to everybody. He was just in to song writing. He loved his life that way and couldn’t care less about what would happen to him. He was just a happy guy.”

remainder in next post

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

part 2

And what does his life show for younger artists today?

“He was a professional songwriter first. He was a great showman, his shows were fantastic. Even last year in November three nights sold out at Massey Hall was unbelievable. The fact that he closed the hall when they renovated it and he came back and finished it off when they opened the hall again. I think that meant a lot to him and to a lot of us. And a tribute today, they’ve got the hall open and they have the stage (on it) with a book for people to sign. That to me was very appropriate.”

“Gord was a workaholic,” said Haynes. “Gord was the hardest working entertainer, musician, songwriter that I have ever worked with in my life that I have ever seen.”

Last year they did almost 60 shows.

“He really worked hard. He had the best work ethic. You asked about young people and what they can take away from Gord, it’s his work ethic first. You can’t buy talent. But you can work hard on work ethic.

A regular in recent years again at the Mariposa Folk Festival, he ensured its return to Orillia was a success in 200o by agreeing to headline.

Haynes said “he was always available. One thing that stands out about Gordon is his loyalty. He was always extremely loyal to the community, Canada, the people who worked with him.

Haynes said in his early years he could be perceived as honest, but he really wasn’t.

“He was really humble and he really enjoyed playing. When we were making records, he was under contract, he had to produce records, write songs every year. When the contracts was fulfilled, he said ‘that’s great, now we can just do shows.’”

Lightfoot was also “an adventurer” who years ago took up the CBC’s offer to play in Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit where “the whole town came out,” they were billeted and he played with just one light bulb that was like a spotlight for him.

“He loved it.”

“You all know how he went down the Rain Forest of Brazil. He was an adventurer in a lot of ways. And all about his canoe trips.”

While Lightfoot told me years ago after a Massey show that the Wreck made his career in the U.S., Haynes said “Sundown” was “his most successful on the charts.”

Fiedler said “Early Morning Rain” was his favourite song “he told me.”

“‘If You Could Read My Mind’ definitely has the most staying power,” added Haynes, who said he was told an L.A. call-in radio station this week had people calling in asking ‘Please play Gordon.’ They didn’t care which song.”

Fiedler concluded the outpouring today and all week “has been fantastic. I can only thank everybody for this.”

He said he will miss his “humour. He was just so personable. Just unbelievable.”

Fiedler noted a pool party years ago with musicians where a little baby fell in the pool “and everybody was like ‘Oh!’”

And Gord Lightfoot jumped in and pulled the baby out of the water.

“It was so cool, he was really just down to earth.”

Haynes wrapped up by expressing what Canada meant to Lightfoot.

“It meant everything. He loved Canada. He didn’t think there was a reason ever to leave the country.”

And Orillia, “it meant everything to him. That’s why we’re here.”

Rev. Ted Reeve paid tribute to Lightfoot earlier in the morning beforehand during St. Paul’s church service. A few still in the congregation remembered hearing the young protoge sing in the church.

An hour after visiting began, church bells at St. Pauls and St. James Anglican Church next door on Coldwater Street rang out 30 times — once each the mariners number for each of the 29 sailors who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which Lightfoot immortalized in his legendary “Wreck” Great Lakes anthem.

And and one for Lightfoot’s passing.

A private family service will take place at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s followed by an interment at the family plot where his parents Gordon Sr. and Jessie and their daughter Beverly are buried.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://muskokatoday.com/2023/05/leg...t-family-home/

May 8, 2023
LEGENDARY SON TO BE BURIED OVERLOOKING LIGHTFOOT FAMILY HOME

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

ORILLIA — Following his funeral today, some time at a later date Gordon Lightfoot will be buried in his family’s plot with his parents and sister.

St. Andrew’s and St. James’ Cemetery overlooks his childhood home, in the northwest end of Orillia, where he grew up and lived until about 1959-60.

And where he sang his way to elementary school on nearby Westmount Street, before running down to St. Paul’s to sing in the choir and eventually go on to international fame.

Harvey Street, a mix of small, older homes, was where Lightfoot developed his small town sensibilities and sensitivities.

Paul Hill bought the family stead from Lightfoot and his mother’s estate in 1998 after Jessie died at 88. Her year-younger husband, Gord Sr., predeceased her in 1974 after a life as a Wagg’s laundry and dry-cleaning owner where his son was humbled by the tumble.

Hill told me he was enticed from Toronto with prospect of purchasing a “century home.”

At first he wasn’t clear on the seller after an original sale fell through.

It wasn’t until two weeks later — when the real estate asked if he knew his new digs were owned by Lightfoot — that he realized it was a famously local musical landmark.


Hill said at first he was unaware of its local significance and that the singer was from Orillia.

But when he began teaching at all the public high schools in the small Ontario city he quickly became aware of the troubadour’s community prominence and Canadian presence.

About six months after the sale Lightfoot and sister Beverly Eyers arrived for a look when he “heard I was renovating and wanted to see what I had done.”

He joked that if Hill kept the renos going “I may have to buy it back.”

Lightfoot ended up living in Toronto’s Bridle Path, with Drake as a neighbour, and came one other time for a visit and something to do with a documentary. “Lightheaded” is about Gordon’s fans and is soon due out on Amazon.

Hill says there is nothing left in his home of the family or Lightfoot. No music or pictures.

While the Canadian icon was being memorialized by the public five minutes away, Hill was busy lamenting with his neighbours the prospect of an eight-storey condo project towering over their mostly not famous homes.

When Lightfoot is finally laid to rest up the hill, Hill hopes that’s the only towering presence he can withstand.
More stories …

Fred Schulz has seen, heard and photographed dozens of Lightfoot concerts, thanks to his mutual friend Bernie Fiedler, Lightfoot’s promoter for 60 years.

Schulz, who says he retired last fall after booking shows at the Barge for some five decades and is now working part-time doing the same at Gravenhurst Opera House, has many stories about driving to Massey Hall and Mariposa with his Muskoka friends the Marians and others as well as times with Lightfoot’s good friends the Good Brothers on the Barge in Gravenhurst.

After one of the Lightfoot’s shows last year, when he knew concert appearances were becoming fewer and further between, he detained the singer from his adoring fans long enough to “get everything I owned signed by him.”

Sing in choir and solo …

Former St. Paul’s minister Rev. Karen Hilfman-Millson, who presided over this morning’s private funeral, got to know Lightfoot well over the past 20 years or more.

She said he had come back a few times over the years to sing and perform and for filming of a documentary.

In 2006 she invited him to come back for the St. Paul’s 175th anniversary, when she and archivist Robert Chapman interviewed him for the church’s history project.

Notably the next year he came back and sang in the choir.

“We did a worship service and he told two things that he wanted to do. He said: ‘The first thing I want to do is come out of the choir and sing my solo like I did when I was kid.’ So we put him in the choir and he came out sang his solo ‘Sit Down Young Stranger.’

“And then he wanted to have tea with the ladies after church. So we had tea.”

He returned in 2011, 2013 and in 2017 for his documentary “If you could read my mind,” when he talked about growing up in Orillia and singing in the church and Kiwanis Festival that always had its contest tests at St. Paul’s.

The retired reverend, who still lives in Orillia, said “I have scads of memories.”

Hilfman-Millson added “I had a very continuous flow of tears” last Monday when she heard he had died.

“I actually got a lot of condolences from people, which is very nice.”

She has also read a lot on Facebook the past week and wrote an article for the Broadview Magazine, the United Church magazine, which is online.

Rev. Ted Reeve, who co-officiated at the funeral, said he had “a few encounters with him over the last few years at Mariposa Folk Festival and university events. And I always found him quite a gracious guy to hang out with. And I appreciated his sensibilities about St. Paul’s and his family’s connections here.”

Reeve said “of course” he mentioned him at Sunday morning’s service before the public wake.

“I had a prayer for him when I ended my sermon by talking about him.”

Music still fresh in mind …

Bassist Rick Haynes, 78, and his son, Jeremiah, who were two of the pallbearers along — with four of Lightfoot’s children Mary, Galen, Eric and Fred — said they haven’t listened to any of Gord’s music this week even though it was hard to miss it on radio, TV and online.

“It’s still too fresh,” said Rick. “We know it so well.”

Jeremiah, who told his dad about the Bill Joel “shout-out” Friday, said they’ll soon get back to enjoying it a different way now.

Lightfoot Fan Club …

“Char” Westbrook, of Whitby, represented Lightfoot’s Fan Club, which started in 2000 as a FB discussion forum and memorabilia exchange. Lightfoot appeared on it a five or six times for chats and he told she could ‘put it out there.’ That’s the way he referred to the internet.”

Westbrook was “very grateful that I had his music in my life. And it the later years come to know him and the families. This is beautiful. It’s lovely and very understated, not an over the top Massey Hall event or the Gardens.

“This is Gordon Lightfoot. His church. His home. He is home here. It never left him. The small town boy never, ever left home and he’s just back where he should be.”

Sharing the stage …

Preeti Nichol, of Bracebridge, too was “emotional, but glad to be here.”

Friend Neil Hutchinson left a guitar pick on his coffin saying he should used one he played with a day before at ‘Lunches with Lightfoot’ at Fyne Thymes Bistro and Bakery in his hometown.

“Huge fan” Ray Rama, of Richmond Hill, was also moved. “It’s been really sad,” he said, adding what he said as he paused beside the singer who helped the immigrant understand Canada. “I said my thanks. Keep the memories.”

Jim Shepherd, who was walking by the church, stopped at the light and said he grew up with Lightfoot and went to the same two-room classroom on Westmount Road. The 84-year-old said he wasn’t as big a fan, though “there were a couple of songs” that weren’t too bad.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Photos were included online with the articles.. (NOT taken by me!) A single potted rose was among well more than a dozen floral tributes on the stage from family, friends and fans who either came or sent them.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8242018d_o.jpgIMG_3379 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Steve Lippert gets ready to pull the bell chain as organist and choir director Blair Bailey co-ordinates with St. James Anglican church bellringers for a salute of 30 bell tolls at 2 p.m.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2c30e363_o.jpgIMG_3429 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Lightfoot fan club member Charlene Westbrook, of Whitby, signs one of several books of condolence on her way out. ( I signed: Miss you. Love you. Thank you Gordon. I'll Tag Along.. Char & Lisa Westbrook )
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8ed88580_o.jpgIMG_3428 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

A 1947 quilt with the names of Lightfoot and fellow Cub members is embroidered twice with his name top and centre.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f3700e6c_o.jpgIMG_3421 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Then there’s a photo of him, front row left, on the Orillia District Vocational Institute high school track team 1956-57; and a second ‘Woman’s Association’ record of him singing two much-appreciated numbers.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cf2c9663_o.jpgIMG_3415 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Another piece of church history notes Lightfoot stepping forward to entertain with “two amusing solos” by Lightoot.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...19d53d96_o.jpgIMG_3416 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

This roll call shows Lightoot as singing in the bass section in the mid- to late 1950s.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...11290161_o.jpgIMG_3419 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Church archivist Robert Chapman dug up old letters and notes in which Lightfoot was regularly remembered as far back as the shortly after the second world war.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a2a294ba_o.jpgIMG_3420 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

A number of enlightening historical photos and memorabilia about Lightfoot were on display as mourners left the church.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5a1802b2_o.jpgIMG_3375 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

A good-old “Kentuckian” got a warm welcome from a church volunteer after he came up to join fellow fans from Canada.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cea5baa9_o.jpgIMG_3281 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Don and Sandy James wore their Orillia Lightfoot Days t-shirts when they came down from Nobel.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...434c6363_o.jpgIMG_3274 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Ron Jones met up with Lightfoot at the Steele Tavern in Toronto. They kept in touch over the years and Jones has an encyclopediac knowledge of his old friend.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a444d106_o.jpgIMG_3272 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Family and friends brought lots of flowers and a few signs remembering their hometown hero. Each had a personal message.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7eafe6fa_o.jpgIMG_3261 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Inside the church many lingered to take in the moment, hugging and crying, listening to his songs and watching a slide show of Lighfoot from his start to finish.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6e6322ce_o.jpgIMG_3401 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Family, friends and fans said goodbye as Lightfoot can be poignantly seen stage left packing off with his guitar, leaving the room this afternoon amid tears.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7ec6542d_o.jpgIMG_3414 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

The lineup lasted all day from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a light rain from 1 p.m. till visitation ended.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ac539477_o.jpgIMG_3335-1 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Rick Haynes, Lightfoot’s bassist of 55 years, and Bernie Fielder his promoter for 60 years spoke to the media as hundreds of fans filed past his coffin Sunday. Hayne said it was a “difficult” day and Fielder said the Canadian folk legend told him he was “ready to go.”
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bea950cf_o.jpgIMG_3363 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

‘Lunch with Lighfoot’ singer Neil Hutchinson, of Bracebridge, left one his guitar picks on the coffin as he paid his respects with Preeti Nichol Sunday afternoon.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...02f8ba58_o.jpgIMG_3387-2 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Sylvia Rogan gets a hug from fellow fan Ed Zeally. The two met and exchanged stories while waiting in line this morning.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f3973fc1_o.jpgIMG_3264 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Gordon Lightfoot came home to rest in the church where he emerged from the choir and went on to Canadian and international singing fame. His wife Kim, centre left, followed his coffin into St. Paul’s United Church this morning with Lightfoots daughter Meredith, sons Galen, Eric, Fred and band member Rick Haynes and his son Jeremiah acting as pallbearers. The visitation went on till 8 p.m. with more than 2,000 fans, friends and his family celebrating his life. He was 84.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bb09c0b7_o.jpgIMG_3311 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fa3a6c35_o.jpgIMG_3315-1-480x280 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Owner Paul Hill said Lightfoot visited his family stead a couple of times and once joked with retired high school teacher that he’d have to buy it back with all the renovations.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5a9a4e65_o.jpgIMG_3436 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

The Lghtfoot family home where he grew up is a nice unassuming local Orillia landmark not far from where the singing sensation will eventually find his final resting place.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...100a134f_o.jpgIMG_3434 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Rev. Karen Hilfman-Millson asks mourners to pause for a moment as church bells rang out Sunday at 2 p.m. The 30 bell peals included 29 for the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and finally once for Lightfoot.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3ee3f0d2_o.jpgIMG_3425 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

“Char’ Westbrook, who had Lightfoot chat with her five or six times “out there on the internet,” said he was finally “home.”
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...200639e4_o.jpgIMG_3391 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Pallbearer Jeremiah Haynes takes a moment outside the church after helping carry in the coffin yesterday morning.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c031154d_o.jpgIMG_3336 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Schulz made sure to get everything he owned signed by his friend in one of their final times together, including this ‘Songbook’ box set of CDs addressed to him.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dda3f6bc_o.jpgIMG_3176 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Schulz captured this lovely photo of Lightfoot at the unveiling of a bust at the Orillia Opera House where today flowers are all around it.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8b55cce7_o.jpgfred-statue-480x280 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Fred Sculz caught up with Gord again in recent times after one of his last Massey concerts. Photos Fred Schulz
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...492353c5_o.jpgfred-gordie by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

A proud moment was when Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell honoured the singer-songwriter who made good.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...59f97e6f_o.jpgfred-award by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.orilliamatters.com/local...et-you-6978662

'Rest easy, Mr. Lightfoot. We will never forget you'

After an emotional week of tributes and rites, Orillia shifts gears, moves back into a 'whirlwind of arts and culture events,' says columnist
Anna Proctor
May 10, 2023 6:15 PM

Well, it’s certainly been quite the week here in Orillia. Our hometown hero, Gordon Lightfoot, put us on the international stage this past week, no doubt about it. And Orillia, and St. Paul’s United Church in particular, did him very proud.

All of the arrangements were handled perfectly, and I have heard from more than one source, everyone was so very kind, respectful, and welcoming.

Lightfoot planned this 10 years ago, and he knew what he was doing. He knew Orillia and St. Paul’s was where he wanted to be, and where he wanted his loved ones to be taken care of with love and respect. Hats off to you, Orillia. You did good. Rest easy, Mr. Lightfoot. We will never forget you.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/r...3og6dRa72ht0NQ

It would only take a small penthouse to accommodate the amount of music artists who if you disappeared their legacies in their entirety, it would irreparable and forever change the very fabric of music as we know it today. In a world teeming with interpreters, reenactors, imitators, and outright frauds, only a few select songsmiths truly touched music in foundational manners integral to audio expression, and irrespective of genre. Start and end that list with whomever you wish. But damn well make sure you include Gordon Lightfoot within that small and exclusive company.

Gordon Lightfoot was a Canadian, not a Statesman. He was only country in spurts, or by accident. But even the shit kickers and the honky-tonkers out there will conclude that Gordon Lightfoot was undeniably essential, at least the ones who know their stuff, are worth their salt, and honest. And the others? Well screw them. It’s their loss if they don’t know the gold they’re missing in a catalog rendered timeless and awesome through tales of the land and the people upon it, and how those people love, and live, and eventually, and tragically, die.

No matter who you were, or where you were from, Gordon Lightfoot told your story. And he did it in a way that pulsated with the magic and mystery in life that only life itself could match in emotion, memory, and ferocity. Folk traditions were the underlying foundation that Gordon Lightfoot utilized to express his inspirations, always putting the words before the music, and the message ahead of the melody. But if electric or eclectic instruments expressed the sentiment more accurately, Lightfoot accommodated. The muse was always in charge. Lightfoot was only the vessel.

So much of music colors our lives, works like timelines in our relationships and life’s other landmarks. But Gordon Lightfoot’s music went so much deeper. It wasn’t ephemeral. It was monumental. We made life-altering decisions based on the wisdom we once gleaned from a Lightfoot lyric. We remember a place, or a moment in history and tie it to a Lightfoot song not just in the way it serenaded us in the moment, but in the way it influenced its outcome.

Yes, Gordon Lightfoot left behind ample songs you can conclusively label as “country.” There’s his early song “Cotton Jenny.” There’s the entirely of his 1974 masterpiece Sundown that’s more important than entire eras of other artists in the strokes of influential mastery it captured. But let’s not diminish Lightfoot’s legacy in conversations of genre. Not in this moment. His work stands irrespective of any limitation. It was epic in its ability to stoke the imagination. We all lived heroically and died tragically on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we have Gordon Lightfoot to thank for it.

May Day is what they call it in many parts of the world—a day when we commemorate the laborers who built our modern society and the infrastructure we all enjoy, including many who died in that service, just like the 29 men who perished in the icy waters of Lake Superior, yet still live in the minds of all of us to this day due to Lightfoot. They died, but he allowed them to live again. And now Gordon Lightfoot is dead, but he’s still very much alive in our hearts, and minds, and souls. Because his music outlives him, and will outlive us all.
© 2023 Saving Country Music

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.carpentertheologian.com/...DWwDWvnVDronFU

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Home BLOG What I Learned from Gordon Lightfoot, 1 of 3
What I Learned from Gordon Lightfoot

n honor of Gordon Lightfoot’s passing on Monday night at 84 (a year older than my dad), I’m reposting this first part of a three-part series I wrote in 2020. My deepest sympathies to his family, fans, and friends. And I’m so grateful my son Tim and I got to see him live last year on April 5th in Phoenixville, PA.

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
If You Could Read My Mind, ©1969 by Gordon Lightfoot

I know it had little to do with the fact that “his debut album… came out on United Artists in January 1966,” the same month and year I was born.[1] Still, there are few artists I’ve enjoyed, resonated with, and been influenced by more than Gordon Lightfoot. Among other things, I share a connection with Presbyterianism, small-town roots, a commitment to authenticity, and a delight in the wildness of nature.

I was introduced to Lightfoot’s music at seventeen by a friend, mentor, and another excellent singer-songwriter and guitarist, Richard Fuller. And for those who don’t know, Gordon Lightfoot was one of the brightest stars of the folk music genre, famous especially for his strong use of emotion, the consistently “high quality of his compositions,” and a band that featured Terry Clements’ amazing guitar work. A rugged Canadian with a huge talent, drive, and work ethic, I’ve identified with Lightfoot’s exquisite songs about “nature and love and the refined natural beauty of living.”

For good and, at times, for ill (more on that next week), Lightfoot’s songs were a balm to my repressive upbringing, inhibited soul, and the depression—anger turned inward—and cynicism I carried with me for a good part of my life. I found an honesty, humanness, and celebration of the goodness of creation (Gen. 1:31) in his expressions that I rarely experienced in the church.

In his very accessible biography (my favorite read from 2018), Nicholas Jennings notes that:

“Lightfoot did have a strong Presbyterian, almost Calvinist streak, in him. He professed not to be religious, but having grown up in a small Ontario town where churches and Protestant thinking dominated, he always held himself to a strict moral code. Throughout his life, Lightfoot faced issues of sin, redemption and repentance—and when reflecting on himself actually thought in those biblical terms. Guilt, a somewhat strange concept in the decadent world of rock and roll, would weigh heavily on him throughout his life as he judged whether he was a good husband, father or son.”[2]

Gordon and his fellow singer-songwriter and friend Joni Mitchell shared this “survivalist notion” to never go back to the “restraints” and “narrow-minded disapproval” of their childhood. Joni’s ex-husband, Chuck Mitchell, observed that this “was one of Joni’s main drives and I think Gordon’s too.”[3]

Yet his career took off in large part because he retained the genuineness of those small-town roots: “In an age of the ‘super cool,’ he digs deep into the warmth of the heart to relate some basic feelings about human longing and desire.’ Once embarrassed about his unpolished small-town ways, Lightfoot was finding that his lack of artifice had become an asset.”[4]

Lightfoot also gave me a love for history and place. Songs like Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Don Quixote, and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald still bring legends to life. Many of his songs champion the beauty of the wilderness, the sea, or majestic creatures like the Blue whale. Some celebrate simple things like listening to music, a winter’s night, hard work and courage, or Rainy Day People. Others tell tales of regret, love—including illicit affairs, addiction to alcohol, and life on the road.

Throughout his prime, Lightfoot relied on rigorous “marathon outings to work off what he called his ‘spare tire’ from heavy drinking.” One example is when he took “a physically challenging 673-mile canoe trip on the Back River of Canada’s Northwest Territories… the country’s twentieth longest river and the most demanding of the eleven wilderness trips that he did.” This trip was especially “grueling because of the large portages” he and his five partners had to make with their two canoes.

Here’s Lightfoot’s personal account of this trip—one of my favorites from Jenning’s biography:

“We were icebound on the Back River, at a place called Beechey Lake. We weren’t able to travel through certain lakes because they’d be plugged with ice. We carried the canoes ten miles one day, after which there was another three-mile portage. So we ended up portaging thirteen miles—the longest I ever did. We figured we’d stop at the ten-mile point, camp and continue in the morning. But we got such a head of steam that we did the whole thing. It only got dark about one hour each night, so we kept going. It was really, really hard work. Some of the portages on that trip were filled with mud and mire and mush and we had to lift the canoes sideways in order to get through some of that stuff. We got involved in some stretches of river where we traveled eight miles but only wound up going one mile. It’s called a serpentine. We had two tents for camping, and we’d cook with small mountaineering gas stoves. There wasn’t much firewood up in the tundra. We did some fishing, but mostly we took all our own food in with us. Saw all kinds of wildlife, including a grizzly bear with her cubs. I enjoyed watching the muskox. They loved to play on the sides of the slopes, run back and forth in groups. They’re huge animals. I stood about twenty feet away from one; he looked at me, I looked at him and he just ambled off. I got inspired to write some songs on those trips, which are some of the most glorious experiences I ever had.”

https://www.carpentertheologian.com/...t-part-2-of-3/

I ain’t the kind to hang around

With any new love that I’ve found

Since movin is my stock ‘n trade,

I’m moving on I won’t think of you when I’m gone…

I’ve got a hundred more like you, so don’t be blue

I’ll have a thousand ‘fore I’m through
For Lovin’ Me/Did She Mention My Name, ©1966, 1968, 1975 by Gordon Lightfoot

The cold, detached state-of-mind reflected in the lyrics above may have been part of what made Lightfoot famous; however, his actions consistent with this authentic expression of his soul took a devastating toll on his family. In the real world, cheating spouses and dead-beat dads don’t make us laugh like the character Reese Bobby, Ricky’s Bobby’s father, in Talladega Nights. They bring pain and hurt of the worst kind.

We can learn a lot from Lightfoot about “how not to be”—especially toward our wives and children. On his third marriage, he has six children that we know of. “…(In the Seventies, he was also briefly in a relationship with Cathy Smith, who was with John Belushi on the night he overdosed.) You wonder if all those relationships come rushing back when he sings songs he wrote about those situations — ‘If You Could Read My Mind,’ for instance, is about the collapse of his first marriage in the late Sixties.”[1]

Happiest on the road, Lightfoot’s “long absences… not to mention his infidelities—had ruined his [first] marriage and put distance between him and his kids.” On this Lightfoot reflects, “Have you ever had your son look at you with an accusation that you walked out on him?’” Jennings, his biographer, concludes: “Thrilling through it was, being in constant motion took a toll that Lightfoot would have to live with all his life.”[2]

Regret is a common theme in his music. For example, in his song “Second Cup of Coffee,” he confesses to sleep that is “filled with dreaming of the wrongs that I have done/ And the gentle sweet reminder of a daughter and a son.”

The daughter referenced is Ingrid, his oldest from his first marriage. She finally asked him to stop singing “For Lovin’ Me:” “I didn’t want him to sing it, because it made me angry… I knew it was about my mom. It‘s pretty self-explanatory. ‘I’m not the kind to hang around’ and ‘the new love that I’ve found.’ My dad was going through a lot of women. My mom didn’t need to be reminded of that.”[3]

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Reflecting back, Lightfoot admits:

“In my first family, I’m afraid, at that particular time I guess I wasn’t around long enough to be of service to them, and I do regret that a great deal to this day,” he said. “[I] keep the lines of communication open at all times and see them regularly and the two grandchildren as well… My new family is growing and needs more attention. Since I won’t be following the route I did in my first marriage, I will be dealing with it practically. I hope I can handle it.”

At Care Net, the Christian ministry I work for, we focus on the private, hidden issue of abortion—often the collateral damage resulting from a promiscuous lifestyle like Lightfoot’s. In offering compassion, hope, and help to men and women facing pregnancy decisions, we’ll gently remind them that children—whether born or pre-born—are not lives worth sacrificing but lives worth sacrificing for. Lightfoot’s had to learn this the hard way.

Thankfully, “making amends for past mistakes… [has] become a priority. Responsibilities to… children…[are] now paramount.” Jennings notes: “If he’s sinned in the past, Lightfoot’s future was going to be all about redemption.”[4] Indeed, aging, a near-death experience in 2002, and the pain of regret have given him a different perspective than he had throughout his prime. Here’s evidence of that from his children:

“He’s definitely changed after the aneurysm,” adds Ingrid, “paying more attention to all of us and calling more.”[5]
Says Fred, his oldest son: “In my younger years I didn’t see much of Dad, but he’s been very supportive of my kids, especially Ben, who’s extremely autistic, and comes to visit a lot.”[6]
Meredith, one of his children from a later marriage observes: “One of the things that I admire about him is that he realizes he has room to grow… He’s still learning things about himself.”

https://www.carpentertheologian.com/...t-part-3-of-3/

“Writing songs is about finding the time, because it’s an isolated thing. You need to lock yourself in a room to do it, in one shape or another, whether it’s an empty house or hotel room.”
Gordon Lightfoot in Nicholas Jennings, Lightfoot (Viking, 2017), 88.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

I mentioned in Part 1 that, among other things, Lightfoot and I share a connection with Presbyterianism, small-town roots, a disciplined work ethic, a commitment to authenticity, and a delight in the wildness of nature. We also share a similar approach to the creative process, a wandering heart, and a profound need for Christ’s atonement.

And what’s more, even today—especially when I’m doing finish carpentry, Lightfoot’s music is still a favorite. It’s beauty, earthiness, familiarity, detailed lyrics and finger-picking have always helped me relax, focus, and do my best creative work.

But in certain past melancholy or dark moods, although Lightfoot’s music soothed my soul, it wasn’t the remedy I needed. Sometimes his songs exacerbated my depression when I needed to choose joy. Or sometimes they kept me marinating in loneliness when I needed community. By way of examples, sometimes his music kept me from prayer, a much-needed conversation with Pam, or was a pre-cursor to destructive habits like overeating, eating poorly, or viewing porn. Lightfoot had his own vices—in fact, his journey toward addiction began with using alcohol to deal with the stress in his first marriage: “When things got complicated with Brita, alcohol gave him an easy way to forget his problems—if only for a while. ‘It made me feel better,’ he says, ‘and if I felt better, I could work better.’

A lot has changed since that marriage ended in 1973. Aging, a near-fatal brain aneurism in 2004, and a third marriage to actress Kim Hasse (see above) have given Lightfoot a softer heart and a wiser perspective: “It’s funny—as you get older, you complain less because you get mellower, and with that mellowness comes a bit of humor.”[1]

Last week, we saw proof of Lightfoot’s change-of-heart in the testimonies of his children. And here’s some further evidence from his own words and those of his biographer:

“I’ve made a few mistakes in my career, I’ll admit them. For the last many years, I’ve been in a process of atonement. Honestly, I try really hard to please, particularly when it comes to my family. I feel a really strong responsibility to them.”[2]
It’s hard to imagine a more humble and self-effacing superstar. Ever since he’d quit drinking, making amends preoccupied Lightfoot. Sometimes he called it a process of atonement. Later, he took to saying he was in a state of repentance. Either way, the duty weighed heavily on him.”
“He’d always professed not to be especially religious, but guilt, remorse, redemption remained powerful forces for the man who once sang ‘Forgive me Lord for I have sinned.’ Lightfoot’s ‘sins’ were a heavy burden on him… and he wanted desperately to atone. He was doing a pretty good job.”[3]

Notice how I italicized statements that reflect Lightfoot’s concept of atonement above. It is clear he knows something of repentance—that is, he has changed his mind and done an about-face regarding some of his “sins.” I want to take issue, however, with his idea of atonement and suggest that, as many have learned from him, he has yet something critically important to learn from others. Lightfoot views atonement as something he is capable of doing for himself and, to be fair, it’s a view held by even many religious people. Indeed, in most religions, the message is focused on what we need to DO to save or atone for ourselves. In Christianity, the message is focused, rather, on the atonement of Christ—what he has DONE on the cross:

“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2, NIV)
“Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins.” (Hebrews 7:27, NLT)

And here’s the truth and good news for Gordon Lightfoot or any of us: None of us can atone for our sins, and salvation is a gift found only in dependence upon the finished sacrifice of Christ.

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12, NIV)
“But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5, NRSV)

Gordon Lightfoot is—by this world’s standards—a legend. He’s scored timeless hits, befriended Bob Dylan, and has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. And he’s still got it: At 80, he has a new album and 40 tour dates in Canada and the U.S. this year! Still inspiring others, I hope Lightfoot comes to accept and root his acts of repentance in the love of the Ultimate Father who has already—amazingly—provided atonement for his sins by his Son.

In conclusion, may I suggest that a little-known band from the 90’s—that, unlike Lightfoot, was literally a “Legend” in name only—might still be helpful in getting this vital issue of atonement right. Below are the relevant lyrics and you can listen to their full song here.

All alone,

You were all that I could depend on,

The failure of my life has been atoned,

And you’ve been right beside me all along…

Carry me,

You always carry me,

Carry me,

You breathe new life in me,

The love of the Father is always guaranteed,

The hands of the Father will always carry me.
“Carry Me” by Legend (Legend Seven) | from the album Legend

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/r...3og6dRa72ht0NQ

It would only take a small penthouse to accommodate the amount of music artists who if you disappeared their legacies in their entirety, it would irreparable and forever change the very fabric of music as we know it today. In a world teeming with interpreters, reenactors, imitators, and outright frauds, only a few select songsmiths truly touched music in foundational manners integral to audio expression, and irrespective of genre. Start and end that list with whomever you wish. But damn well make sure you include Gordon Lightfoot within that small and exclusive company.

Gordon Lightfoot was a Canadian, not a Statesman. He was only country in spurts, or by accident. But even the shit kickers and the honky-tonkers out there will conclude that Gordon Lightfoot was undeniably essential, at least the ones who know their stuff, are worth their salt, and honest. And the others? Well screw them. It’s their loss if they don’t know the gold they’re missing in a catalog rendered timeless and awesome through tales of the land and the people upon it, and how those people love, and live, and eventually, and tragically, die.

No matter who you were, or where you were from, Gordon Lightfoot told your story. And he did it in a way that pulsated with the magic and mystery in life that only life itself could match in emotion, memory, and ferocity. Folk traditions were the underlying foundation that Gordon Lightfoot utilized to express his inspirations, always putting the words before the music, and the message ahead of the melody. But if electric or eclectic instruments expressed the sentiment more accurately, Lightfoot accommodated. The muse was always in charge. Lightfoot was only the vessel.

So much of music colors our lives, works like timelines in our relationships and life’s other landmarks. But Gordon Lightfoot’s music went so much deeper. It wasn’t ephemeral. It was monumental. We made life-altering decisions based on the wisdom we once gleaned from a Lightfoot lyric. We remember a place, or a moment in history and tie it to a Lightfoot song not just in the way it serenaded us in the moment, but in the way it influenced its outcome.

Yes, Gordon Lightfoot left behind ample songs you can conclusively label as “country.” There’s his early song “Cotton Jenny.” There’s the entirely of his 1974 masterpiece Sundown that’s more important than entire eras of other artists in the strokes of influential mastery it captured. But let’s not diminish Lightfoot’s legacy in conversations of genre. Not in this moment. His work stands irrespective of any limitation. It was epic in its ability to stoke the imagination. We all lived heroically and died tragically on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we have Gordon Lightfoot to thank for it.

May Day is what they call it in many parts of the world—a day when we commemorate the laborers who built our modern society and the infrastructure we all enjoy, including many who died in that service, just like the 29 men who perished in the icy waters of Lake Superior, yet still live in the minds of all of us to this day due to Lightfoot. They died, but he allowed them to live again. And now Gordon Lightfoot is dead, but he’s still very much alive in our hearts, and minds, and souls. Because his music outlives him, and will outlive us all.
© 2023 Saving Country Music

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Thanks Charlene, excellent post, glad you found it.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://wng.org/articles/the-passing...ian-1686017678

The passing of a dedicated folk musician
MUSIC | Gordon Lightfoot was a meticulous craftsman
by Arsenio Orteza
Post Date:
June 8, 2023 Issue Date:
June 24, 2023
Steve Snowden/Getty Images

Long after Peter, Paul & Mary had faded into sepia and Bob Dylan had gone electric, Gordon Lightfoot kept the spirit of folk music alive on pop radio, scoring the last of his six U.S. Top 40 hits during the same year that Saturday Night Fever established the dominance of disco.

Lightfoot died on May 1. He was 84. When his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, honored him with a statue in 2015, he’d been a Canadian legend for the better part of 50 years, inspiring national pride with songs that bore witness to his native land’s history, spirit, and terrain.

A meticulous craftsman, he learned early to write his own lead sheets and developed a songwriterly diligence that earned him the respect of his peers. More than any other factor, it was this ability to block out the world and focus on matching melodies and words that saw him through the chaos that he brought upon himself by womanizing and drinking his way through the 1970s.

The first of his three marriages ended in divorce (its dissolution inspired his U.S. breakthrough, “If You Could Read My Mind”), and his relentless touring made him an absentee father more often than not. His drinking, meanwhile, lowered his resistance to groupies in general and to the opportunistic rock-scenester Cathy Evelyn Smith in particular. Seven years after their volatile affair, Smith was charged with involuntary manslaughter for her role in the overdose death of the comedian John Belushi.

Lightfoot, it seemed, had dodged a bullet.

In the meantime, he scored his second-*biggest and most unlikely hit with “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” an elegiac, six-minute folk ballad that, were it not for the stranglehold that Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night” had on the position, would’ve gone to No. 1.

He sobered up in 1982 and became as much of a gym rat as his schedule would allow. But by that point pop music had undergone an MTV-spearheaded revolution that kicked sensitive neo-folkies in their 40s to the curb. Lightfoot kept writing and recording, but his hit-making days were over.

Not so his days as a concert draw. He averaged more than 70 shows a year from 2010 to 2016. He also made a *priority of repairing the family ties that he’d let fray.

He did not, however, seem inclined to revisit the mainline Protestant faith of his upbringing. His unironic 1980 outtake “Forgive Me Lord” was sandwiched, chronologically speaking, by the songs “Heaven Don’t Deserve Me” and “Return Into Dust,” both of which viewed eternal verities through an emphatically agnostic squint. Whether one of those three—and, if so, which one—played in his head as his end drew nigh, only those who could read his mind can say.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0990d37c_o.pngScreenshot 2023-06-28 at 20-26-16 The passing of a dedicated folk musician by char Westbrook, on Flickr

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

VIDEO:

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/video?clip...06&jwsource=em

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...lieve-hes-gone

WARMINGTON:
Gordon Lightfoot cheated death so often, hard to believe he's gone

Joe Warmington
Published May 02, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot wore cheating death like a badge of honour and with a sense of humour.

Lightfoot planned to do it again when he confronted serious medical issues last month which forced him to postpone tour dates. But even this cool cat only had so many lives.

The world tried to kill Lightfoot off so many times that when word spread of the legend’s death at 84 Monday night, it was difficult to believe.

Even a couple of weeks ago, he told me he was holding out hope his latest health setback was temporary and he’d be able to get back up stage.

“We don’t know what is going to happen, but I am doing my best,” he said.

Lightfoot always did his best, no matter the odds.

In 2002, they wrote him off after a near-fatal aneurysm, but he not only came back, he toured for 20 more years.

“I just keep going,” he joked.

The best story came in 2010 with a simple tweet that he had died.

“I heard it on the radio when I was in the dental chair,” he told me.

He called into AM640’s Charles Adler to say reports of his death were premature. I caught up with him that day; he got such a kick out of that, hamming it up by placing his thumb to his wrist to check to see if he had a pulse.

“I looked in the mirror and said, ‘I don’t look dead.’”

Lightfoot’s legacy will never die. And, his songs are a big reason for that.

Whether it’s Rainy Day People, Early Morning Rain, Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, or The Canadian Railroad Trilogy, the catalogue is not just his but ours. He is a generational Canadian storyteller and always will be.

“Musically and lyrically, there is no one else like him,” said musician and historian Tony Gosgnach, who was the first to suggest a state funeral.

This is not only appropriate but a necessary sendoff for this humble but brilliant icon. For me, Lightfoot will live on for the kind of man he was away from stardom. His legacy will be his passion for Canada and his love for Canadians.

Lightfoot was born in Orillia, but all of Canada was his hometown

“He was a very special person who made everybody feel special themselves,” said George Bigliardi, from the famed Bigliardi Steak House where Gordon was a regular. “I met him in 1967, the same year the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup and we were friends ever since.”

Thanks to George, his wife, Carol, and their daughter, Victoria, I got to know Gordon as a friend, as well.

They invited me to many birthday parties and celebrations and often I would be sitting next to Gordon and his wife, Kim, listening to amazing stories about his times hanging with everybody from John Lennon to Bob Dylan.

But what I found fascinating was the way in which Gordon was toward taxi drivers, waiters, photographers, autograph hounds and even Occupy Toronto protesters.

In 2011, in St. James Park, he just showed up in the middle of the tent city to check on his then teen-daughter, Meredith, who was camping there. He didn’t say anything political, other than to remind everyone there are many perspectives, and people on all sides need to talk to each other peacefully. He believed and embodied that.

Lightfoot was interested in people. He cared about them.

When I was in his dressing room in Oshawa with photographer Veronica Henri, I saw how he tuned his guitars for hours, looking for perfection. In his music room at his Toronto home with photographer Craig Robertson, we saw his work ethic and how he would rehearse to keep his skills honed.

None of his greatness was by accident.

There’s no question there should be a state funeral because for Canadians, his death is like losing a family member. He touched the whole country deeply for many decades.

And not always on stage.

In 2008, on a cold winter evening, he came out for the repatriation of a fallen Canadian soldier whose body was being sent downtown to the coroner’s office behind Toronto Police headquarters. There was a delay, but he would not leave.

“I want to pay my condolences to the family,” he said.

It didn’t surprise me since two years earlier at the Red Rally for the troops I helped organize with Louise Gray, of the Toronto Police Association, and Justin Van Dette, Lightfoot not the only showed up but stayed for hours to talk with the families of serving soldiers.

While they say he’s now gone, in Canadian’s hearts, Gordon Lightfoot never will be. The legend will live on!

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

VIDEO AT LINK:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...GfpE-1Mb7nUKx0
Honorary 'C': Gordon Lightfoot once served as honorary Maple Leafs captain

TORONTO -- When Maple Leafs brass held a meeting ahead of the NHL's 75th anniversary season, several big names -- John Candy, Anne Murray and Mike Myers to name a few -- were considered for the honour of serving as Toronto's honorary captain for the 1991-92 campaign.

``A lot of the U.S. (teams) went for comedians or people who were super-involved (with the team) or whatever,'' former Leafs public relations director Bob Stellick said Tuesday. ``We thought there really was nobody more iconic than Gordon Lightfoot.''

Lightfoot, a legendary singer-songwriter who died Monday at 84, was presented with a Maple Leafs jersey -- complete with a 'C' -- by former captain Darryl Sittler in a 1991 pre-game ceremony at Maple Leaf Gardens.

``I dropped the puck for Wendel (Clark) and for Steve Yzerman,'' Lightfoot recalled in a 2012 interview with CBC's ``Hockey Night in Canada.'' ``I remember it very well.

``I was so awestruck by the whole scene that I just dropped that puck and got the heck out of there.''

The Toronto resident wore a black tuxedo for the occasion. Stellick, who helped co-ordinate plans with Lightfoot's agent, recalled the singer-songwriter was shy and rather quiet.

``These people that are backslappers or jock-sniffers or whatever they are, he was the absolute opposite of that,'' Stellick said. ``He came in and was low maintenance and did his thing.''

At the time, the Maple Leafs were coming off a last-place finish in the Norris Division.

Optimism was higher for the regular-season opener and Lightfoot helped make it a special night. The Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings 8-5.

``We thought, 'We're an iconic franchise,' and we were looking for someone who was an iconic Ontarian,'' Stellick said. ``We certainly didn't want to do politicians or anything like that or someone who just happened to be hot that year.

``The 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' and 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,' these are (songs) that resonated with Canadians and we thought it would be fun and relevant for the 75th anniversary.''

Lightfoot told the CBC that he was a Maple Leafs fan and that he and his bandmates would follow the team's results when they were out on tour.

Lightfoot met with the team's directors before the pre-game ceremony, Stellick said, and got an ``extraordinarily warm welcome'' when he walked out on the ice.

``I didn't like the idea of being made an honorary captain, the jersey would have been just fine,'' Lightfoot told the CBC. ``But they gave me the sweater and I kept that and I treasure that.''

The Maple Leafs were scheduled to kick off their second-round NHL playoff series against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.glenngould.ca/2023/05/02...RMvDTdZ6v3kUmA

May 2, 2023
A Personal Appreciation

Peter O’Brien

Canada doesn’t have too many icons, and the few it does have tend to be begotten, not made. It seems now that Gordon Lightfoot, who died yesterday, May 1, 2023, had always been with us and would always be with us.

From a youthful choirboy singing at St. Paul’s United Church in Orillia, to the hard-living troubadour singing about vanishing love and about nature that is both beautiful and terrifying, Gord was always an intimate part of our lives. He sang about us, but he also sang to us and with us.

I met Gord about 15 years ago and was fortunate enough to spend a bit of time with him. We talked about various things: the deep creases that the guitar strings etched permanently into his fingertips; about Taylor Mitchell, a young singer-songwriter I knew, who had great potential but who died tragically while still in her teens – “She would have had a real future in music,” said Gord; about the importance of physical exercise to keep the body and soul moving forward; and about romance and related quotidian joys.

In our last conversation – which was over dinner at Scaramouche Restaurant in Toronto, with owner Mordy Yolles, Gord’s wife Kim, and Mordy’s son Dylan – Gord mentioned that he had recently donated his piano to a local school.

We talked about Glenn Gould, and I referenced some stories about Gould and his singular habits and passions. I mentioned how Gould, who often wore hats, gloves, and winter coats in the heat of the summer, was arrested in Sarasota, Florida, under the suspicion of being a homeless drifter (he was later released after it was revealed he was a famous concert pianist). He would sometimes play random TV shows in the background, or asked his cleaning woman to run the vacuum cleaner when he was learning a new piece of music. Gould sometimes needed those extraneous and disruptive sounds in order to concentrate on the ethereal matter at hand.

I asked Gord if he wanted wine with his meal. He responded, with definition, “I’m an alcoholic,” and then proceeded to talk about his years drinking a bottle of whiskey a day, and then quitting. I was worried that if he had a glass of wine that might start him drinking again. “No, it’s okay now,” he said. So we drank wine with the meal.

Mordy circled back to talk about Bach and Gould. Mordy likes to say that Gould talked like he played Bach, and we nodded.

I asked Gord about the sorry state of his hands. He had two bandages – on the index finger and the ring-finger of his left hand. Kim noted that his wedding ring had fallen off three times during his recent tour in the US. He started to wear a band-aid around his left-hand ring-finger so the ring didn’t fall off.

Gord led an adventurous life, and we talked about the various kinds of mistakes that people make. I quoted Joyce: “A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” It seemed to me that there were opportunities for various portals of discovery around the table.

In a photo taken that evening, Gord is holding a book I made about Mordy. It’s called I Know the Answers But I Don’t Know the Questions. I had brought a copy of the book for Mordy to sign for Gord. It is full of funny and witty “Mordyisms,” and we had lots of laughs over the course of the evening reciting some of them. Mordy signed his name in the book, and then wrote “not funny” under his name, which we all laughed at.

Gord’s voice was weak, and even though I was sitting beside him, I had to lean in to capture all his words. But he definitely wanted to talk, and laugh.

I know that producing music and words that can live on takes significant effort, inspiration, and hard work, but sometimes the results seem as though they just tumbled out, fully and spontaneously and elegantly formed.

Listening to Gould play Bach, and to Gord singing about the early morning rain encourages me to appreciate talents that seem as thought they were effortlessly gathered from the air – as though they were begotten, not made. And that leads me to eternal thanks.

__

Peter O’Brien works for The Glenn Gould Foundation

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://www.thespec.com/entertainmen...56cd59f11.html

A reflection on the death of Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot
jeff-mahoney
By Jeff Mahoney Spectator Reporter
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

If we could read his mind? We most surely could, even in the castle dark of Canada’s foreshortened winter days.

He shone the light, often a hard one, and held the page down for us.

And what a tale ... Gordon Lightfoot’s music was the large print in which that tale became legible, the window through which that mind appeared, and the music’s texture was the braille we ran our searching Canadian fingers over.

Read his mind? He helped us read our own, helped us, as great songwriters and their songs do, to find and feel something that inheres in us, deeply, something more essential to us than we ourselves really even know is there.

He took us to those places, to those feelings and blind corners of our being, on everything from trains in trilogies to a sinking laker getting swallowed up, along with the souls of the sailors, into the last infinity and stillness of Superior’s vast depths.

Lightfoot. Even the name. The bright airy trochaic lift of that first beat, the gently touching-down groundedness of the second. And Gordon? The name, as he wore it, was like something carved out of the rock in the Canadian Shield.

Yes, the legend — who died Monday at 84 — lives on, from the Arctic on down ... all over Canada, but with a special relevance for Hamilton.

Did I call him a great songwriter in that fourth paragraph? Let Bob Doidge qualify. “He was the greatest songwriter,” says the celebrated and sought after producer and co-owner (until recently) of Hamilton’s legendary Grant Avenue Studio, where Lightfoot recorded many albums.

“Oh, you might put McCartney in there or Paul Simon,” adds Doidge. But Doidge didn’t spend 25 years producing their music as he did with Gordon Lightfoot.

Doidge is just one of many connections between Lightfoot and Hamilton, a city he loved, perhaps the most dramatic being the life-saving surgery he received here after being rushed to McMaster hospital by air ambulance for stomach surgery in 2002. He later did a benefit concert for the hospital as a gesture of gratitude.

Doidge’s relationship with Lightfoot started — and Hamilton’s was accordingly intensified — with a phone call in 1997. Lightfoot was looking for a new sound, a new producer and studio. Barry Keane, his drummer and recording expert, told him, “Your number 1 fan (that would be Bob Doidge) owns a studio and would kill to work with you.”

Doidge got a call from Barry, saying that in 10 minutes Gordon Lightfoot would be calling him. And he did.

“I just sat down, smoking every cigarette I could find (he has since quit) and drinking coffee after coffee, trying to sound rational and coherent.”

He was that dumbstruck because it didn’t really start with the phone call in 1997. It started when Doidge was in his teens and got taken along to a Gordon Lightfoot concert. “I was into The Beatles and psychedelia at that time.” That concert turned him right around. He knew right from that moment.

“I wanted to play the bass guitar and I wanted to play for Gordon Lightfoot.” Very handy even then, he made his own bass guitar.

After that ’97 phone call, Doidge ended up producing Lightfoot’s 1998 released album “A Painter Passing Through.”

He went on to produce “Harmony” and numerous other records including a live one from Reno and the Royal Albert Hall.

“Doing ‘Harmony,’ one of the albums I made with him, he was in hospital (after the aforementioned surgery) and was working on it from his hospital bed,” Doidge recalls. “I’d add in instruments (in the studio) and take it to him. He was fresh out of a coma. It was crazy.”

But that was Lightfoot, Doidge says, the most meticulous, giving, ever musical man he’d ever met. His teenage boyhood hero made flesh as a hero in real life.

Doidge wasn’t the only Hamiltonian to experience Lightfoot’s power to reach into one’s hunger for what it is — whatever mysterious unknown — that the soul is hungry for, at a young age.

Says renowned singer-songwriter/author/playwright Tom Wilson: “She (Tom’s mother) came through the door one day with a copy of a record ... Dropping the needle on that record changed my life immediately. It was responsible for igniting the devil in me and stirring the sludge up at the bottom of my lake. Everything was so real like the guy was standing right there beside me.”

That guy? You know who.

Thus was born a fan who, over the next decades, like Doidge, enjoyed several fan fantasies being lived out in real life — for instance, in Wilson’s case, inducting Gordon Lightfoot into the Mariposa Folk Festival Hall of Fame in 2022.

At the time Wilson said of Lightfoot, “He lives in our blood.”

Someone else, earlier, in 1986, inducted Lightfoot into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. You might have heard of him. Bob Dylan, who considered Lightfoot a songwriting mentor of sorts.

“All these people, all these artists,” says Doidge, “like the (late) Dan Fogelberg who says so right on his album” that Lightfoot is a chief songwriting influence. “Every single artist in the big leagues looks at him as the ultimate songwriter.”

Doidge recalls travelling with Lightfoot to Nashville to do some recording. “He said to me, ‘You wanna meet Joan?’ And there was Joan Baez and she throws her arms around Gordon and says, ‘It’s been too long.’”

It’s not just that he was such an influence; he was genuinely beloved.

“Straight up,” says Wilson. Lightfoot was just as naturally gracious and amiable as he seemed.

“He’s a hero. And I got to work with him. To work withe a hero, that’s something.” Lightfoot sang backup on the Wilson recording “Summer Side of Life.” “You can’t that buy kind of ...”

Says Doidge, “It’s hard to digest sometimes. I have so many instances when I’d come home the phone rings and Gordon Lightfoot is on the other end saying, ‘I’m just checking in.’ For 25 years I worked with him. I’m going to miss working with him, with a raw Gordon Lightfoot and guitar. Mostly, I’m going to miss him.”

His voice on the phone. His generosity.

But the legend lives on, and Bob knows it better than most. He still has raw material from Lightfoot that has never been heard before — songs, outtakes, demos. Right here in Hamilton. We’ll see what the future brings.

Gordon Lightfoot at Waterdown ArtsFest in 2017.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Bob Doidge at Grant Avenue Studios, the legendary Hamilton music studios started by Daniel and Bob Lanois.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Gordon Lightfoot on Sept. 6, 2009, singing "If You Could Read My Mind."
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Canadian icon Gordon Lightfoot was just one of many music legends to record at Grant Avenue Studios.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Lincoln Alexander and Gordon Lightfoot on Sept. 6, 2009, talk about old times.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Gordon Lightfoot on stage with Brian Good at Waterdown ArtsFest in 2017.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Canadian musical icon Gordon Lightfoot performed at FirstOntario Concert Hall on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2018.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Gordon Lightfoot on Sept. 6, 2009, admiring the bust of him made by local sculptor Gino Cavicchioli.
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://mountainstage.org/larry-groc...KAqrlfxKzuDWA4

Larry Groce Remembers Gordon Lightfoot

I bought Gordon Lightfoot’s first album in 1966 at my local record shop. I was already familiar with some of his songs from Peter, Paul, and Mary and especially Ian and Sylvia versions. I loved the recording.

He visited Mountain Stage in 1993 and 1998. Both visits thrilled me because I admired his songs and singing so much, but at the first one something very special happened.

In those days, Mountain Stage was live on West Virginia Public Radio. We would record the show and send it, unedited, to NPR for distribution via their satellite the next week. Our format was slightly different then. We would have three or four guests, not five like today, and most guests would do two sets, one during each hour. The guest we considered lead act would open and close the show.

Gordon, his band, and his manager arrived early on show day in a private plane that Gordon himself flew. During a pre-show discussion, his manager told our producer, Andy Ridenour, that Gordon would never do a finale song and he did not stay around to meet and greet or sign autographs after his shows. They would finish their set and immediately proceed to the airport to fly out. That was all fine with us. Our finale is never mandatory for anyone.

As expected, the first set went great and Gordon and his band, dressed in their dark, long-sleeved shirts, headed back to their dressing room. They didn’t mix with us or the other guests. Once again, hanging out with us is not required. Some folks do, others prefer their privacy. It’s their business.

All the other acts performed, including a beautiful set by David Lindley (with Hani Nassar) on his first visit, and then it was time for Gordon to finish the show. When he and his band came out of the dressing room, he had changed into a t-shirt and seemed a bit looser. Once again, the set was a triumph and received an immediate, spontaneous standing ovation. There were many lifelong Lightfoot fans in the full house.

We took a dive into our archives and found this live performance of ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ by Gordon Lightfoot from his May 9, 1993 appearance on Mountain Stage in Charleston, WV. see link below:

As I waited in the wings with the other artists to go out for the finale, Gordon came off, saw us and suddenly asked me if he could sing on the finale. I told him of course he could and asked if he wanted to take a verse. He said no, he’d just join the chorus. Then we all headed onto the stage.

I don’t remember what we were singing, but if I had known he was going to join in, I would have asked to do one of his many classic songs.

In any case, the finale was finished to another standing ovation, and everyone left the stage. As the audience filed out, a few folks rushed down to the front of the stage in hopes of getting Gordon’s attention. They succeeded and he sat on the stage and started signing autographs. Many had brought his albums and cassettes in anticipation of this moment.

Our crew proceeded to start taking down the equipment and I began to pack up my things. Andy was on stage watching to make sure everything was OK. In a few minutes, Gordon’s manager came up the stairs and asked where Gordon was. Andy pointed out the signing party down front.

The manager looked puzzled and concerned so Andy walked over to the gathering and told the folks that Mr. Lightfoot needed to get to the airport and the session would have to wrap up. Gordon smiled up at Andy and said that it was OK, it was his airplane.

Andy turned away and looked at the manager who just shrugged and said he’d never seen Gordon do this before. The last time I looked, there was a line of fans up the aisle all the way to the back of the hall. Gordon had gotten down off the stage and was signing albums and shaking hands with every one of them.

I thought to myself, I guess the manager has never been with him in West Virginia before. Our people just wanted to thank him for what he had given them. Gordon must have felt that.

audio: May 9, 1993 appearance on Mountain Stage in Charleston, WV.

https://mountainstage.org/larry-groc...KAqrlfxKzuDWA4

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Wow, great story, and yes that's the way Gordon was. He loved his fans and showed it. Thank you for the post.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

https://muskokatoday.com/2023/05/gor...ets-be-honest/

May 2, 2023
GORDON LIGHTFOOT WAS ‘LIVING LEGEND, LET’S BE HONEST’

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — I sat on my front step today listening to Gordon Lightfoot songs and reading about his passing.

And recalling a 1984 visit to my home where Canada’s folk laureate sat on the same stoop for a family photo we’re tracking down today.

He had called my dad, Hugh Clairmont, and said he was dropping by for a visit one August day, recalled my sister, Chris Jones, who was there with her family.

It wasn’t unusual for famous musicians my dad knew or worked with to drop by the Clairmont home — many en route to Dunn’s Pavilion in Bala.

They chatted about their mutual music careers and reminiscing about playing together in Charlie Andrews’s band in Orillia — my dad on trumpet and Lightfoot singing and playing drum licks my dad taught him.

My mother had to race to bake butter tarts she said he loved, which to my sister meant he had been to our home before.
Mark Clairmont sits with today’s home delivery copy of the Toronto Star and it’s great headline about Gordon Lightfoot’s passing. It’s the same spot Lightfoot stood in 1984 during a visit to his friend and colleague Hugh Clairmont.

Over the years my dad and he and I occasionally got together like when he played his annual Massey Hall gigs.

I recall after one show us going back to his apartment next to Maple Leaf Gardens for a post party.

Another time I ran into him was again at Massey, thanks to his manager Bernie Fiedler, when Lightfoot told me “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” really put him on the map in the U.S.

In recent years at Mariposa Folk Festivals in Orillia we connected back stage as Lightfoot recalled playing the Barge in Gravenhurst — after first being refused after an audition.

Similar stories are being told today across Canada and in parts of the world after Lightfoot’s passing Monday, May 1, at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto at age 84.

His passing, ironically, came yesterday the same day as the Orillia Kiwanis Music Festival held a Festival Encore presentation of winners at the Orillia Opera House.

For it was the Kiwanis that early on helped set his path to stardom as a young singer in his hometown.

And so this Saturday the Orillia Opera House is certain to be sold out for “Early Morning Rain – Legend of Gordon Lightfoot.”

It’s billed as: “Spend the evening with the incredible music of a Canadian legend, and sing along to Sundown, For Loving Me, Early Morning Rain, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Did She Mention My Name, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Black Day in July, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, Rainy Day People, Song For a Winter’s Night, Ribbon of Darkness, Alberta Bound, I’m Not Sayin’, Bitter Green, Cotton Jenny, Pussy Willows Cat-Tails and more!”
Gordon Lightfoot looked and sounded good last year at Casino Rama in his finaly local performance.

One person certain to be there is Lynne Westerby.

The former Bethune House employee, who just retired as manager of the Mariposa Pharmacy in Orillia, is a huge fan of Lightfoot.

“It’s a sad day. It hurts a lot,” she said this afternoon from the pharmacy where she still does deliveries.

She was listening to one of his songs on the radio as she left of her home for her run.

Last summer she met with Lightfoot at Mariposa and sat down for a lovely chat while they listened to Serena Ryder perform and he signed a sketch of himself, which by chance she bought at the souvenir booth.

“Even for the amount of time I got to spend with him he made me feel like an old friend. You know he was very warm and welcoming and kind. You know he took the time to sign a sketch for me. I just still to this day still feel very kind of surprised and honoured I got that opportunity with him. Yeah that was very special.

“I’ve got that wonderful sketch hanging in my home with a rose on it. It’s just beautiful. It’s all framed nicely and hanging in the most prominent space in my combination living room, dining room and kitchen. He’s got the best wall in the house now.”
Lynne Westerby shows her autographed sketch of Gordon Lightfoot she has in a “prominent” place in her home in Orillia.

Westerby is also saddened that Lightfoot won’t make his annual formal or informal appearance at Mariposa this July.

“I was just so hoping upon hope to see him there again. Even if he’s not scheduled, sometimes he just still goes. And I just felt like I was going to see him. You know I just did.

“As soon as I heard all those cancellations (last month), and the way he was talking to me last year about how he was loving it so much. And he’s got 13 people that love it and go everywhere with him, I just knew it was something big for him to cancel like he did.”

Westerby said that “way back months ago, I happened to buy tickets” for this weekend’s tribute performance “because there are performers doing Gordon Lightfoot music there.

“I was already going to that and to lose him in less than away week before that event …. It’s going to be beautiful to sit through that; but it’s going to be somewhat heartbreaking to sit through it as well. Some of both.”

Thelma Marin, of Bracebridge, was another devoted fan who “loved” and “admired him.”
She and husband Jim had seen him perform about a dozen times, including a contest win and when he closed and opened Massey Hall last year after recent renovations with friend and “chauffer” Fred Schulz.

After hearing of his passing on the late news Monday, “I read all the coverage, too.”

“I loved the front page (of the Toronto Star” ‘Sundown.’

“Yeah, you know, I guess the final moment is always the toughest. We should have been prepared, I guess, because they cancelled that tour.”

Lightfoot, she agreed, seemed almost invincible the way he kept bouncing back from illnesses.

“It’s too bad he put on all those hard miles back in the ’70s. That’s what really got him, I think. But you can’t reverse that damage. The damage is done.

“Oh dear, it’s very sad. But yeah, he’s 84. It’s pretty good. We’re only promised three score and 10 according to the Bible.”

“It’s surprising,” said Marin, “we’ve had several emails of condolence from people who know how much we loved him.”

She said in recent years Lightfoot’s “range, his physical range was down and his stamina was down a bit. He said as long as he could stand and sing he would do it.

“One of our daughters said ‘Why do you go and listen to that old man?’

“And I said, listen, as long as he stands up and sings for us, we will go and listen.

“Because I admired him, I really did. He didn’t look good, but he still sounded fine.

“We will miss him. End of an era. He really was a legend. Let’s be honest. No question.”

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Here are a few other good MuskokaTODAY.com stories and videos about Lightfoot.

LIGHTFOOT HUMBLED TO RECEIVE BELATED MARIPOSA HALL OF FAME AWARD https://muskokatoday.com/2022/07/lig...of-fame-award/

LIGHTFOOT, WHO LOVES ‘THE BARGE,’ PLAYED HERE ONCE — AND IS INVITED BACK BY GOOD BROTHERS FOR THEIR 30TH SHOW https://muskokatoday.com/2022/07/lig...eir-30th-show/

MARIPOSA WAS ABOUT LEGENDS FROM LIGHTFOOT TO MURRAY TO MAVIS https://muskokatoday.com/2022/07/mar...rray-to-mavis/

LIGHTFOOT: THE LEGEND LIVES ON IN SONG … WITH LASTING — IF DIMINISHED VOICE https://muskokatoday.com/2022/06/lig...inished-voice/

LIGHTFOOT RETURNS TO MASSEY, SCHULZ RETURNS TO OPERA HOUSE https://muskokatoday.com/2021/11/lig...o-opera-house/

Lightfoot honours Dobson with award at Mariposa https://muskokatoday.com/2018/07/lig...d-at-mariposa/

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Updated headstone:
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Just curious, is Bev buried elsewhere?

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Yes, but at the same cemetery..

One Year Today
 

Gone one year today

Re: One Year Today
 

Yeah, today has to be pretty hard on Kim and the family. Rick Haynes' comments on Gord's last days and how he was ready to pass on to the next adventure really made me feel better about Gord being gone. Still trying to find video from Gord's appearance on WTTW Channel 11's "Made in Chicago". Not from 1979 (Soundstage) but from 1972 before the name change. I've heard the audio, but the performance was great. I remember watching it when it premiered.

Re: R.I.P Gord
 

Just merging today's posts with the original from May 1 2023.

I am so happy to be able to attend the Lightfoot Band shows - 5 so far - time spent with them and their families has helped so much over the last year...

I am ever thankful for the music and the kindness Gordon showed me over the years.. Always and forever remembered and missed...