The first time I really heard Gordon Lightfoot’s music I was 15 years old….and had met an “older man”. (He was all of 17!) He lived in a small town on the north shore of Lake Superior, and invited me to a snowmobile party. I drove up with my older brother and a friend of his, and after a cold wintry day outside (the temps were at or below zero) we spent an evening around the woodstove, all talking and laughing and listening to music. As the evening ran down, he put on Gord’s “Sundown” album, and from the first few lines of “Somewhere USA”, I was mesmerized. Seeing the stars in my eyes, he followed that one up with “If You Could Read My Mind”, and it clicked...oh, it’s HIM! I'm still not sure if I was more in love with Gord’s music at that point, or the young man who introduced me to the whole of his work...all I know is that he sent me home with a cassette tape of Gord’s music, and I played it until I literally wore it out. Forever after in my heart, there are some Gord tunes that will always be connected with fine memories of friends, family, and laughter; chilly winter days and warm wood fires; and the kind of love only a young and restless teenager can feel.
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