Dear Gordon: Thanks for so many wonderful songs. I remember "If you could read my mind" the best. I loved it when I first heard it, I sang it in small shows and college concerts in New England and other locales over the years, always feeling the intensity of the emotion in that song. When I was getting divorced five years ago, (that is when the news first hit me), I took my kids to a playground to play, and I also brought my guitar. I played that song again, this time with a feeling that can only come from living an experience similar to what the song tells. It was such a comfort to be able to express my loss by singing your song. Over the last thity years that I've been playing guitar and writing songs, you have always been an inspiration. I first saw you at the Academy of Music in Pennsylvania, around the time of the "Sundown" LP. Great, incredible music. My girlfriend at that time, who was familiar with your music, said, "Wow, I remember when Gordon Lightfoot was only solo or with just a bass player". I was in the U.S. Coast Guard at the time, and I was desparately trying to get better on the guitar, (having played for only about two years or so then), and she took me to a little music store to by the songbook for "Sundown". I still have it. In fact I was playing "somewhere U.S.A. last night, figuring out the lead patterns, and also playing the melody to my six year old son as he was trying to fall asleep. My middle son says I should go back to singing and I'd be a much happier man, and I believe he is right! My daugher, who is the oldest, and who is into the music of her generation, also says to me she loves "Ghosts of Cape Horn", "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "If You Could Read My Mind", and so many other songs. She's been to your concerts a couple of times. I'd like to take the boys sometime God willing. The other most unique story I have about your music is that while I was playing in a lounge in the former Holiday Inn in Springfield, MA (it used to have a restaurant at the top which rotated 360 degrees while people ate, drank and listened to music); I was singing the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, (which though it belongs to you has in the past made me pretty well known in the region), and then this salesman, who I guess traveled the country at the time and didn't listen to the radio much, came up to me and told me that the song really struck him in an emotional way because though he had never heard your song until he heard me sing it that night; he had been on the shore of the great lake where the tragedy occurred, in a camper, listening to the weather and news reports, and had contemporaneously perceived the tragedy by listening to it on the radio that night...that was really incredible to me. I wonder how long it would have been before he actually heard you sing it. Probably not too long. I've also always loved singing "Song For A Winter's Night", "Circle of Steel" "Fine as Fine Can Be", "Pussywillows-Cattails", "Affair On Eighth Avenue", "Early Mornin' Rain", "I'm Not Supposed To Care", "Carefree Highway", "Sundown", "14-Karat Gold"(you must have written that song for guys like me who need to try to sell their songs a little bit harder!
"Now and Then" "Canadian Railway Trilogy" "All The Lovely Ladies", etc., etc., etc. I can truly say that your songwriting style is absolutely incredible, though I enjoy many types of music and am inspired by many artists; if you were to sit and listen to me play the songs which I write, you would see echoes of your style...you have been the best music teacher, (and coach, I still get a grin on when I read the notes at the bottom of one of your songs where you instruct the novice player in how to get the effect, saying you can finger pick, and if you can't do that you can use a flat pick, and if you can't do that...get a job!" You can't believe how much your talent and blessings of your music have meant to me and my children all these years. I have not echoed you in one way though, and that is that I've never really tried to sell my songs yet, I guess I was lacking confidence or got distracted by my marriage, or by my now chosen profession (God gives us one face...and we make for ourselves another), and so they sit in the safe except when I do a local show or something for the kids. Because your music has been such an influence, I hope to record and sell my tunes, and that some day you can hear, on the radio, the influence you have had on me. It would be great to have the chance to have you hear it, not for any help, or assistance, or critique or anything self-serving, but just so you could see the quality of your inspiration. You are a man who is many times blessed, deservedly so, and God Bless you forever sir. It was quite a beautiful experience to access this website and see the many fans who have written to you for your birthday. Add me to the list Gordon. I pray and wish for you on your birthday and for every day that you will always have the best of everything, the blessings of God, the love of your family, fans, health and happiness all the days of your life. Though it's just a fan's, and a songwriter's wish, to meet you sometime, and of course to get a chance to hear you sing again many more times. You've still got it in a big way Mr. Lightfoot, and you always will. You know, I sing "Home from the forest" some times and it makes me think about my grandfather, my dad and my children and how life is so uncertain as to how we all end up. I have a hard time getting through that song these days because it is so emotional to sing it. When I was a younger man with no children of my own, I understood some of your songs, but I was unable to really feel the emotion until years later, with experiences of life to add to the singing! What I can't get over is the fact that as a songwriter you had so much depth to your music and lyrics at such a young age. It had taken my about 25 years to even come close in most respects, never mind actually understanding the feelings behind the words. Anyone can read a great poem or song lyric, and feel some of what the writer is writing. You however created such incredible lines, at such a young age that it is truly phenomenal. I don't think you need to hear anymore of such praise, as you probably hear it all the time to the point that you are tired of it. But I am thankful for this forum to express these thought to you, especially on the occasion of your updoming birthday. This is because I have not had luck in getting to say these things in person before, (since when I sent you a letter and some unsolicited tapes by mail, and also through your road manager at a local concert; I realized that you must be bombarded with this stuff by the thousands). So I just gave up trying to contact you. I still hope someday to meet you, preferrably with my three children at a concert sometime so that they can say that they too met you. Though it is still only a dream to me, I hope that you will be able to hear some of my better songs, like I said earlier, so that you can see the effect of your inspiration, your teaching of me without even trying. This would not be to solicit your comments, or critique, or your help, but just so you can see once again, how incredibly you have affected this "North American's Life". Well, I guess I've told it pretty much like it is, and I wish you the very best, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! : ) PS -By the way, your birthday and my dad's are only a couple of days apart, as is my parent's wedding aniversary. I wrote a song about them partly inspired by your style called "And their Golden Wedding Rings". They've been married about 59 years now, and I wrote it on the occasion of the 50th annivarsary. Anyway, God Bless, and remember to "Go first in the world...and pity the stranger who stands at your door." And though I've had to "trade off my (his) Martins" over the years to keep the rent paid, it's been a "carefree Highway", long and happy for the most part, thanks in part to your music. I do have one thing to ask of you though and that is, if you can, and only if you remember the thoughts I've written here today, that the next time you take the stage, or even pick-up a guitar at home or in the dressing room to sing a song for a minute, please be sure to play at least one song especially for me and my children sometime Gordon. The request is "Home From The Forest", for Tom, Caitlynn, James and Joseph. You will always be truly remembered well and dearly loved for you musical gifts to us all. If I ever make it to the "big time" (I've only been a big fish in a small pond in 'Show-Biz'), I'll be sure to tell it like it is as to your influence and inspiration, not for what it may get me, but for what it says about you. Sincerely, Tom Abdow - Just another Songwriter.