RIP Gordon Lightfoot

[duke74]

RIP to my favorite artist and a Canadian treasure, Gordon Lightfoot. His music affected millions.

First discovered him my senior year at Duke and have loved his work ever since.

[dudog84]

"If You Could Read My Mind" is one of the all-time great songs.

R.I.P.

Edit to add:

[rsvman]

RIP. As a kid I loved The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

[ClemmonsDevil]

RIP Gordon. Big fan.

[OldPhiKap]

If you get lonely, all you really need is that rainy day love
Rainy day people all know there's no sorrow they can't rise above
Rainy day lovers don't love any others, that would not be kind
Rainy day people all know how it hangs on a piece of mind

[Phredd3]

Not an uplifting song, but this is among my favorite songs of all time.



He will be missed.

[budwom]

So...after graduating from Duke in 1971 (where Duke 74 and I were dorm mates) I took a job at a summer resort in Minnesota (Brainerd, home to Jerry Lundegaard and Fargo among other things)...bartending was one of my duties, and for a 10 day period early in that summer Gordon spent much of the afternoon getting drunk in the bar...very personable guy, somewhat troubled by the fact his marriage was falling apart (he was there with his fetching girlfriend from The Cities) but his level of drinking was just highly unfortunate...his girlfriend and I tried to restrain him, but he was just an amiable mess.

At that time, ( he was only in his very early 30s) I neve would have guessed he recover and go on to have another 50+ years of life...glad that he did.

[aimo]

I worked summers and Christmas breaks at the Duke textbook store for most of my high school and college years. A LOT of Lightfoot played on the Muzak system there.

[HoKogan]

RIP. As a kid I loved The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

At a previous job I had, they constantly played 70s AM gold hits and this song must have been a favorite. Not Sundown, or Every Highway, its the good ol Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It got to the point where my coworkers and I came up with our own lyrics.

Is this song on repeat
Our nerves are all beat
see the eyes of every Tom, Dick and Harold

I long for the day
where they won't play
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

I like the song, its just, its a long song to hear on such a frequency.

[camion]

Several Gordon Lightfoot songs were a part of my playlist in during my youth. Songs like If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown, Rainy Day People and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald were in my ear frequently.

The first Gordon Lightfoot song I that hooked me was Early Morning Rain. Gordon has called it his first really good song. I first heard the Peter Paul and Mary version.

Here's the Gordon Lightfoot version of Early Morning Rain.

[HoKogan]

Had a brainfart, its Carefree Highway...anyway, they would seldom play that one or any of Gordon Lightfoot's other songs.

[brevity]

Gordon Lightfoot was a little bit before my time, but "Sundown" was a jam.



I went to Songfacts and planned to enter a search query for "Sundown", but lo and behold, it was already the #1 searched song in their Top 10 today. The song's page says "Lightfoot most likely wrote this about the stormy relationship with his one time girlfriend Cathy Smith, who was later sentenced for delivering a lethal dose of heroin to John Belushi."

I was going to say that it was a great failure of the hip-hop industry that it never repurposed or sampled this song, but then I found this cover by Elwood, around the year 2000. I guess it's hip-hop, but it's a little too Crazy Town/Sugar Ray for my taste.

Then I found this video entitled "Hip Hop Dj reacts to Gordon Lightfoot. 'Sundown'" where the guy listens to the whole track and comments on it. His first reaction was "There was nothing 'light' about this. That bass line? Delicious."

[BlueTeuf]

A momentous passing. Will be missed but never forgotten.

Was intrigued to hear from Jimmy Buffett that Gordon Lightfoot was one of his most significant influences.

Also, I live up near the Canadian border - GL's status as a national icon is resplendent on today's airwaves.

[tommy]

"If You Could Read My Mind" is one of the all-time great songs.

R.I.P.

Edit to add:

Fabulous. What a talent.

[howardlander]

Fabulous. What a talent.

There is great album called "Tony Rice sings Gordon Lightfoot". Bet you can guess what it is! Well worth a listen for fans of either or both.

[Steven43]

So...after graduating from Duke in 1971 (where Duke 74 and I were dorm mates) I took a job at a summer resort in Minnesota (Brainerd, home to Jerry Lundegaard and Fargo among other things)...bartending was one of my duties, and for a 10 day period early in that summer Gordon spent much of the afternoon getting drunk in the bar...very personable guy, somewhat troubled by the fact his marriage was falling apart (he was there with his fetching girlfriend from The Cities) but his level of drinking was just highly unfortunate...his girlfriend and I tried to restrain him, but he was just an amiable mess.

At that time, ( he was only in his very early 30s) I neve would have guessed he recover and go on to have another 50+ years of life...glad that he did.

I wonder if he ever figured out that his fetching girlfriend was very likely part of the reason his marriage was falling apart.

[duke74]

There is great album called "Tony Rice sings Gordon Lightfoot". Bet you can guess what it is! Well worth a listen for fans of either or both.

I have posted about the album. Tony’s version of “Shadows” and his duet of it with Alison Krauss is sensational.

[Steven43]

"If You Could Read My Mind" is one of the all-time great songs.

Absolutely beautiful song. It still gets to me even to this day.

[duke74]

Absolutely beautiful song. It still gets to me even to this day.

Even sadder that it is about a love gone bad.

Our world is a bit darker with Gord's passing.

[Jeffrey]

So...after graduating from Duke in 1971 (where Duke 74 and I were dorm mates).

Thanks for sharing the connection… That’s cool!