Lightfoot has been a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day. I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever.
--Bob Dylan
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| 1938-2023 |
Lightfoot has been a mentor for a long time. I think he probably still is to this day. I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever.
--Bob Dylan
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| 1938-2023 |
Such a distinctive voice... in many ways.
ReplyDeleteWell put, Mitchell.
DeleteHi, Kirk!
ReplyDeleteThe Reaper's on a roll, taking more than his fair share of boomer icons, good buddy. As is usually the case, I didn't know about the death of folk-pop pioneer Gordon Lightfoot until I read it here first. Thanks for breaking the news to me.
My favorite Gordon Lightfoot songs are "Read My Mind," "Sundown" and "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." Mrs. Shady has learned most of the latter's extensive lyrics and has been known to sing the song in the car on long distance trips. In 2014, on our road trip to California, she sang "Carefree Highway" when we spotted the sign for that stretch of road near Phoenix, Arizona.
84 isn't what I call a ripe old age, and therefore I'm calling bullcrap and declaring that Gordon Lightfoot left us too soon. He was truly one of the great 20th century singers and songwriters.
Final Thought: "Till next time, take care of yourselves and each other." (R.I.P. Jerry Springer.)
Enjoy the rest of your week, good buddy Kirk.
Shady, when I was growing up, an 84-year-old person was someone whose first car was very likely a Model T Ford. I don't know what Lightfoot's first car was, but doing the math, I wouldn't be surprised if it had tailfins.
DeleteMusically, when I was growing up, an 84-year-old person is someone who as a teenager would have listened to Scott Joplin and George M Cohan--their compositions, anyway. However, Gordon Lightfoot would have come of age during the era of Elvis and Chuck Berry--though his bio suggests he was more influenced by Pete Seeger (whose birthday was May 3, incidentally.)
Times change.
Love that quotation by Bob Dylan.
ReplyDeleteI was a HUGE Gordon Lightfoot fan when I was young and had most of his records. I saw him perform live in concert in Winnipeg in the 80s. Certainly one of the best singer-songwriters Canada has ever produced.
I remember the very first time I ever heard him singing on the radio. I was maybe 9 or 10 and the song was "Bitter Green." His beautiful rich voice and vibrato made me an immediate fan.
RIP and thanks for all the music.
That's right, Debra, Gordon Lightfoot was from your neck of the woods. And he stayed in your neck of the woods, rather than decamping to LA or Manhattan, as others who have attained his level of success might have done.
ReplyDeleteYou know what other singer-songriter Bob Dylan has praised? Alice Cooper! Obviously, Dylan's musical tastes are decidedly diverse.
I love the song "If You Could Read My Mind". It's one of my favorite break-up songs. I recently read that his daughter got him to change the lyrics to the line "the feelings that you lack" to "the feelings that we lack"...for a later version/performance. The song was about the divorce from her Mom (his first wife).
ReplyDeleteI did not know that, JM. Thanks for the info!
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